No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
‘What a troubled world it still is’: The Foreign Office after Locarno, January 1927 – June 1929
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
Extract
Success at Locarno massively enhanced Chamberlain's authority in the management of foreign affairs to the extent that it appeared he would remain unshakeably in control for the duration of Baldwin's second administration. Yet perhaps the greatest tragedy of this period in Chamberlain's career was that his most glorious triumph should have come near the beginning of his term in office rather than as a natural culmination and fitting climax at its end. Although Chamberlain had always acknowledged that Locarno was but a beginning and ‘there are still difficulties to be faced and still a long road to travel’. critics have argued that after the plaudits and glories of Locarno Chamberlain demonstrated too little appetite for the wider issues of collective security and arms limitation. Under the spell of his personal triumph perhaps he too easily allowed a note of complacency to creep into the conduct of foreign affairs. Apparently not sure what to do next, he is thus often depicted as ‘a spent force after his efforts at Locarno … satisfied with his semi-detached relationship with Europe, qualified only by a tendency to lean towards France and to grumble over German ingratitude and demands for further revision of the Versailles treaty’. Yet, while some of this criticism may be valid, it also needs to be seen in its proper context. Certainly, as Chamberlain later described it himself, Britain came to occupy a ‘semi-detached position’ in relation to Europe after Locarno. Yet even before it, he had always contended that the security of the eastern European states was not only a problem for the future, but also one that it was not for Britain to solve. While his apparent indifference to events east of the Rhine may have been demoralising in central Europe, therefore, British reluctance to take a lead in extending the Locarno system outside the sphere of vital national interest was the almost inevitable corollary of Chamberlain's policy motivation for pursuing a Rhineland Pact in the first place. The ‘spirit of Locarno’ was not to be a model for future British action but rather a beacon to guide others in assuming the initiative elsewhere.
Information
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1995
References
1 Chamberlain, A. to Oliver, F.S., 3 11 1925, AC37/323Google Scholar.
2 See Gilbert, M., The Roots of Appeasement (1966), 117–25Google Scholar; Petrie, C., Life and Letters, II, 294Google Scholar; Northedge, F.S., The Troubled Giant, 270–1Google Scholar; Gibbs, , Grand Strategy, I, 44Google Scholar; Johnson, , ‘The Locarno Treaties’, 120Google Scholar; Connell, J., The ‘Office’, 87.Google Scholar
3 Bartlett, C.J., British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century (1989), 37.Google Scholar
4 Chamberlain, A., ‘Great Britain as a European Power’, International Affairs, 9, (1930), 188Google Scholar in Jacobson, , Locarno Diplomacy, 378.Google Scholar
5 Professor Zimmern to Jones, 3 February 1928, Whitehall Diary, II, 129.Google Scholar
6 Craig, G. and Gilbert, F., The Diplomats, 43Google Scholar. For favourable comments about the spirit at Geneva see A. Chamberlain to F.S. Oliver, 17 January 1927, AC54/408.
7 Cecil to Irwin, 29 September 1927, Cecil MSS 51084/58–9.
8 Bridgeman Diary, November 1929, Bridgeman MSS II fol. 189.
9 Steed, W., The Real Stanley Baldwin, (1930), 129.Google Scholar
10 Dutton, D., Austen Chamberlain, 270.Google Scholar
11 Cecil, , All the Way, 190Google Scholar. Also Hilda Memoir, BC5/10/1.
12 For a contemporary defence of these methods by the head of the F.O. Press Department see SirWillert, Arthur, Aspects of British Foreign Polity, (1928), 55.Google Scholar
13 See Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 14 03 and 15 10 1927Google Scholar, AC5/1/412, 434 and to Ida 22 January, 3 April and 12 December 1927, AC5/1/406, 414, 440.
14 Mansfield, P., The British in Egypt, (1971), 251–2Google Scholar.
15 Vatikiotis, P.J., The History of Modern Egypt: From Muhammed Ali to Mubarak (1991), 283.Google Scholar
16 For Allenby's role and reactions see Gardner, B., Allenby, 1st Viscount 1861–1931, (1965), 239passim.Google Scholar
17 Compton Mackenzie's remark quoted in Adams, C. Forbes, Life of Lord Lloyd, (1948), 94.Google Scholar
18 Lloyd, Lord, Egypt Since Cromer (1934) vol II, 143.Google Scholar
19 Adams, C.F., Life of Lord Lloyd, 197–9Google Scholar.
20 Lloyd, Lord, Egypt Since Cromer, II, 143Google Scholar; Adams, C.F., Life of Lord Lloyd, 196.Google Scholar
21 Amery Diary, 16 July 1927, Leo Amery Diaries, 516Google Scholar. For the Army crisis see Mansfield, , The British in Egypt, 255–6Google Scholar and Lloyd, , Egypt Since Cromer, II Chapter XII–XIIIGoogle Scholar.
22 Amery Diary 16 July 1927; Neville Chamberlain Diary 15, 21 July 1927; Lloyd to Baldwin, 10 November 1927, Whitehall Diary, II, 114.Google Scholar
23 A. Chamberlain to Salisbury, 1 November 1927, AC54/444.
24 Tyrrell to A. Chamberlain, 13 September 1927, Baldwin MSS 129/22–3 cited in Dutton, D., Austen Chamberlain, 245Google Scholar. For Foreign Office dislike see Vansittart, Lord, The Mist Procession, 372Google Scholar. For criticism of Lloyd's methods and style from the First Secretary in Cairo see Peterson, M., Both Sides of the Curtain: An Autobiography, (1950), 66–7Google Scholar.
25 Tyrrell, to Chamberlain, A., 15 06 1927Google Scholar, AC54/476; Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 22 10 1927Google Scholar, AC5/1/435. For these problems see Petrie, , Life and Letters, II, 351–60Google Scholar.
26 Beloff, M., Dream of Commonwealth 1921–42, Vol 2 of Imperial Sunset, (1989), 44–5Google Scholar; Charmley, J., Lord Lloyd and the Decline of the British Empire, (1987), 141–149Google Scholar. See also Jones Diary, 11 November 1927, Whitehall Diary, II, 114–15Google Scholar.
27 Chamberlain, A. to Ida, , 12 11 1927Google Scholar, AC5/1/437.
28 See Terry, J.J., The Wafd, 1919–52, (1988)Google Scholar, Chapter 8.
29 In July 1928 Chamberlain again raised the issue of a military agreement in Cabinet, Amery Diary, 11 July 1928, Leo Amay Diaries, 555–6Google Scholar. See also Marlowe, J., Anglo-Egyptian Relations 1800–1953 (1954), 280–4Google Scholar.
30 Northedge, F.S., The Troubled Giant, 287–8, 292–3Google Scholar; Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 18 07 and 16 08 1925Google Scholar, AC5/1/359, 362.
31 Northedge, F.S., The Troubled Giant, 297–8Google Scholar.
32 See Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 18 07 1925Google Scholar and to Ida, 2 December 1926, AC5/1/359, 402. In fairness, the proposal for a bolder policy of treaty revision enshrined in the December memorandum had emanated in August 1926 from Sir Victor Wellesley, head of the Far East Department of the F.O., Louis, W.R., British Strategy in the Far East, (Oxford, 1970, 152–3Google Scholar.
33 Northedge, F.S., The Troubled Giant, 294.Google Scholar
34 Amery Diary, 26 January 1927, Leo Amery Diaries, 494.Google Scholar
35 See Chamberlain, A. to Ida, , 22 01 1927Google Scholar, AC5/1/406.
36 Amery Diary, 4 February 1927, Leo Amery Diaries, 495Google Scholar. Cf. Petrie's misleading claim that there were ‘no differences among his colleagues in the Cabinet with regard either to the despatch of the troops or of the conciliatory attitude to be adopted towards the Chinese if they refrained from violence’, Life and Letters, II, 366–7Google Scholar.
37 Chamberlain, A. at Birmingham, , The Times, 30 01 1927.Google Scholar
38 Reynolds, P.A., British Foreign Policy in the Inter-War Years, (Westport 1954), 75.Google Scholar
39 See Amery Diary, 1, 4 and 7 February 1927, Leo Amery Diaries, 494–6Google Scholar.
40 Amery Diary, 28 March 1927, Leo Amery Diaries, 502.Google Scholar
41 Amery Diary, 2 May 1927, Leo Amery Diaries, 505.Google Scholar
42 Northedge, F.S., The Troubled Giant, 292Google Scholar; Reynolds, P.A., British Foreign Policy in the Inter-War Tears, 74Google Scholar; Lowe, P., Britain in the Far East: A Survey from 1819 to the Present, (1981), 132.Google Scholar
43 See Amery Diary, 28 March 1927 for criticism and ridicule of Chamberlain's ‘triumphs’. Also Chamberlain, N. to Hilda, , 5 02 1927Google Scholar, NC18/1/561.
44 See Chamberlain, A. to Ida, , 11 07 1925Google Scholar and 19 June 1926; to Hilda 27 June 1926; Northedge, F.S. and Wells, A., Britain and Soviet Communism : The Impact of a Revolution (1982), 43.Google Scholar
45 Amery Diary 16 and 18 February, 16 March 1927, Leo Amery Diaries, 496–7, 500.Google Scholar
46 CAB 3(27) 18 February 1927, CAB 23/54.
47 Andrew, C., Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community (1987), 469–471.Google Scholar
48 Chamberlain, A. to Baldwin, , 12 09 1927Google Scholar, Baldwin MSS 129/13–16. For the Conference see Carlton, D., ‘Great Britain and the Coolidge Naval Disarmament Conference of 1927’, Political Science Quarterly, LXXXIII (1968), 573–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Richardson, D., The Evolution of British Disarmament Policy in the 1920sGoogle Scholar, Chapter 9.
49 Cecil, to Irwin, , 7 06 1927Google Scholar, Cecil MSS 51084/43–5.
50 Davidson, to Baldwin, , 27 07 1927Google Scholar, Baldwin MSS. For the background see Memorandum, Hankey, 30 08 1927Google Scholar, Hankey MSS 8/5/1–11; Cecil, , A Great Experiment: An Autobiography, (1941), 358–63Google Scholar.
51 Chamberlain, A. to Carnegie, Mary, 2 09 1927Google Scholar, AC4/1/1282. For early displays of contempt see Jones Diary, 13 April 1921, Whitehall Diaries, I, 148Google Scholar; Chamberlain, A. to Ida, , 22 09 1923Google Scholar, AC5/1/1923; to Ivy, 5 November 1924, AC6/1/592.
52 For Chamberlain's efforts see Chamberlain, A. to Cecil, , 8 and 14 08 1927Google Scholar, Cecil MSS 51079/165–6, 169–172.
53 Cecil did outline a catalogue of earlier differences with the Government in Parliament, House of Lords Debates, LXIX, col 84–94, 16 11 1927Google Scholar. See also Cecil, to Irwin, , 29 09 1927Google Scholar, Cecil MSS 51086/54–9.
54 Barnett, C., The Collapse of British Power, 261–2Google Scholar.
55 McKercher, B.J.C., The Second Baldwin Government and the United States, 29–32Google Scholar. See also by the same author, Esmé Howard: A Diplomatic Biography, (Cambridge, 1989)Google Scholar
56 The F.O. shared Chamberlain's dislike, calling him ‘Nervous Nellie’, Vansittart, The Mist Procession, 344.Google Scholar
57 Jones Diary, 14 May 1928, Whitehall Diary, II, 136–7Google Scholar, reporting the US Ambassador.
58 House of Commons Debates, 5 Series, 220 col 1837, 30 07 1928Google Scholar. For the compromise see Carlton, D., ‘The Anglo-French Compromise on Arms Limitation, 1928’; Journal of British Studies, VIII (1968–1969).Google Scholar
59 This is the view of McKercher, The Second Baldwin Government, 1Google Scholar. For a contrary view that the lowest point was in 1915–16 see Watt, D.C., ‘America and the British Foreign Policy-Making Elite, from Joseph Chamberlain to Anthony Eden, 1895–1956’, in D.C. Watt, Personalities and Policies, Studies in the Formulation of British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century, (1965), 30–36.Google Scholar
60 Even Petrie echoes this view, Life and Letters, II, 324–5Google Scholar. Also Carlton, D., ‘The Anglo French Compromise’, 151Google Scholar; Dutton, D., Austen Chamberlain, 280.Google Scholar
61 Rector of Glasgow University, 1925–8.
62 (James) Eric Drummond (1876–1951). British diplomat. Private Secretary to Asquith, Grey and Balfour, 1913–19; First Secretary-General League of Nations 1919–33; British Ambassador to Italy 1933–9. Succeeded as 16th Earl of Perth 1937.
63 Chamberlain's stiff note warning the Russians to mend their ways or risk a rupture in relations was delivered on 23 February. CP25(27) CAB 24/184.
64 Henry Herbert Stevens (1873–1973) Canadian accountant, broker and politician. Conservative MP 1911–34 and then for Reconstruction Party 1934–40. Minister of Customs & Excise 1926; Minister of Trade & Commerce 1921 and 1930–31. First leader of Reconstruction Party 1934–38.
65 Vittorio Scialoja (1856–1933). Italian lawyer and politician. Senator 1904; Minister of Justice 1909–10; Foreign Minister 1919–20; delegate at Peace Conference 1919 and to League of Nations 1921–32.
66 Emile Vandervelde (1866–1938) Professor, University of Brussels. Belgian Social Democrat MP. Minister of Justice 1918–21; Minister Foreign Affairs 1925–27; Minister without Portfolio 1935–36; Minister Public Health 1936–37.
67 Viscount Kikujiro Ishii (1866–?) Japanese diplomat. Attache, Paris 1890–96; Consul in Korea 1896–1900; Ambassador to France 1912–15, 1920–27; Foreign Minister 1915–16. Negotiated Lansing-Ishii agreement, November 1917 recognising that Japan had a special interest in China. President of the Council and Assembly of League of Nations. 1923, 1926. Retired 1927. Created Viscount 1916.
68 Frank Billings Kellogg (1856–1937). US Senator 1917–23; US Ambassador in London 1924–25; US Secretary of State 1925–29. Awarded Nobel Peace Prize 1929 for his part in the Briand-Kellogg Pact 1928.
69 (Borlase Edward) Wyndham Childs (1876–1946) Entered Army 1900; War Office 1910–14; Ass. Adjutant-Gen GHQ France 1914–16 and then War Office 1916; Director, Personal Services War Office 1916–19; Ass. Commissioner Metropolitan Police and head of Special Branch from 1921–28. Knighted 1919.
70 Abd al Khalek Sarwat Pasha (1873–1928) Govenor Assiat Province 1907; Minister of Justice 1915; Minister of Interior 1921; Foreign Minister 1922, 1926–27; Prime Minister of Egypt 1922, 1927–8. Resigned after failure to negotiate Anglo-Egyptian Treaty.
71 Sa'ad Zaghlul (1860–1927). Egyptian politician and leader of nationalist Wafd party. Deported 1919, returned 1921, deported again 1921–3. Prime Minister 1924 but forced to resign after murder of Lee Stack. President Chamber of Deputies 1925–27.
72 Arthur Augustus William Harry Ponsonby (1871–1946). Liberal MP for Stirling Burghs 1908–18; Labour MP Sheffield Brightside 1922–30. Private Secretary to Prime Minister 1905–8; Under-Sec Foreign Office 1924; Under-Sec Dominions 1929; Parliamentary Secretary Transport 1929–31; Chancellor Duchy of Lancaster 1931; Labour Leader in the Lords 1931–35. A founder of Union of Democratic Control. Created Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede 1930.
73 Charles Philips Trevelyan (1870–1958). Liberal MP Elland 1899–1918; Labour MP Newcastle Central 1922–31; Parliamentary Secretary, Education 1908–14; President Board of Education 1924, 1929–31. Succeeded as 3rd Bart. 1928.
74 Adly Pasha Yeghen. Egyptian Liberal statesman.
75 Jozef Pilsudski (1867–1935). Polish soldier and nationalist politician. Founded Polish Socialist Party 1892. Head of State and C-in-C of Army with dictatorial powers 1919–22. Refused presidency 1922 but resumed power in coup d'sêtat 1926 and, as head of government and War Minister, was effective head of state until his death.
76 Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneia (1870–1930). Spanish dictator from military coup in 1923 until 1930 when retired to Paris. Spain rejoined the League in 1928.
77 Viscount Hailsham had succeeded Cave as Lord Chancellor on 28 March 1928.
78 Mustafa Nahas Pasha (1876–1965). Egyptian lawyer and politician. Succeeded Zaghlul as leader of Wafd in 1927. Many times Prime Minister of Egypt; led delegation which negotiated treaty of perpetual alliance with Britain in 1936. Dismissed by Farouk December 1936 but recalled at British insistence 1942–1944. Recalled to power 1950 but displaced by Neguib 1952.
79 King Alfonso XIII (1886–1941). King of Spain from birth until deposed with fall of Primo de Rivera in 1930.
80 Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 8 04 1928Google Scholar, AC5/1/450.
81 Chamberlain, A. to Ida, , 18 04 and 30 05 1928Google Scholar. AC5/1/451,455.
82 Chamberlain, N. to Hilda, , 5 08 1928Google Scholar, NC18/1/622.
83 Neville Chamberlain Diary 1 July 1927 says Cushenden was ‘a broken man’ and Locker Lampson ‘too much of an invalid to get more responsibility’.
84 For Chamberlain's contempt at Curzon's position under Lloyd George see Derby Diary, 15 March and 23 November 1922.
85 Chamberlain, to Cecil, , 11 11 1924Google Scholar, Cecil MSS 51078/25; to Salisbury, 2 January 1925, AC52/704; to Baldwin 9 November 1924, Baldwin MSS 42/270–1. For similar complaints of exclusion from the policy process by Godfrey Locker-Lampson (Under-Secretary at F.O.) see Amery Diary, 18 February 1927, Leo Amery Diaries, 497–8Google Scholar.
86 Vt Cecil, All the Way, 166, 185Google Scholar. For satisfaction at the consistent voice see A. Chamberlain to Hilda, 20 December 1926, AC5/1/403.
87 Craig, G. and Gilbert, F., The Diplomats, 44Google Scholar. For such criticisms from his Permanent Under-Secretary see Crawford Diary, July 1928, 3 January and 13 April 1929, Vincent, J. (ed) The Crawford Papers, 522.Google Scholar
88 Vt Cecil, A Great Experiment, 194Google Scholar concedes this point.
89 See Amery Diary, 27 March 1929, noting ‘I left Austen almost in tears’, Leo Amery Diaries, 593.Google Scholar
90 For Baldwin's uncertainty on whether Austen would ‘crack up’ see Jones Diary, 24 October 1928 and 25 February 1929, Whitehall Diary, I, 154, 172Google Scholar. For doubts on his judgement see Hankey to Balfour, 18 December 1928, Roskill, S., Hankey, II, 454Google Scholar; Bridgeman Diary, July 1929 Bridgeman MSS II fol. 173; Bridgeman to Baldwin, 29 August 1928, Baldwin MSS 175/42–5.
91 Crawford Diary, 3 January 1929, Vincent, J. (ed) The Crawford Papers, 522.Google Scholar
92 See Jacobson, J., ‘Locarno Diplomacy’, 232–5, 277Google Scholar; Johnson, , ‘The Locarno Treaties’, 118–9Google Scholar.
93 Robbins, K., Sir Edward Grey: A Biography of Lord Grey of Falloden, (1971), 360.Google Scholar
94 Jones Diary, 5 March 1929, Whitehall Diary, II, 174Google Scholar. Also Baldwin at Great Yarmouth, The Times, 28 09 1928.Google Scholar
95 Lugano Conference, 9–14 December 1928.
96 Carl von Schubert (1882–1947). German diplomat. Counsellor in London before Great War and then head of British section at Wilhelmstrasse; Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs 1925–30; Ambassador to Italy 1930–32.