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There is a long list of individuals who were porominent appeasers. Of course the list vartied over time as the true character of Hitler and the NAZIs became apparent and the military danger grew. Prime-Ministers Stanley Baldwin and Nevile Chamberlain were the principal movers, but support for the effort was widespread, including much of the British public. They were a mixed bag of British civil servants, industrialists, journalists, officials, pacifists, politicians, social do gooders, socialists, trade unionists, and other who in various ways played a role in: 1) allowing Germany to rearm and 2) preventing Britain from matching that rearmament. Some were principled men like Prime-Minister Chamberlain who saw his primary task as preventing another war. The horror of World War was a raw, dominant force affecting the public psyche throughout the 1920s and 30s. There were others who opposed defense spending because of pacifist beliefs or a desire to increase social welfare spending. The list includes anti-Semites of various hues who admired Hitler and Fascist ideology. Among them are men who were openly Fascist and pro-NAZI. Others saw the Soviets as the primary danger and Hitler as a necessary, if unsavory bulwark against Communism. This is why there are so many aristocrats on this list. It should be mention that while it was well known that Hitler was a brutal dictator, he was not yet a mass murderer. There were few Communists of any stature, but Marxist ideology influenced many in the Labour Party. Many of these men shared a mix of the various orientations and political hues. Quite a number at various times would reverse themselves and become anti-appeasers. Labour politicians in particular who opposed defense spending began to reverse themselves before most Conservatives who staunchly supported Baldwin and then Chamberlain. Motivations varied. Important in assessing these individuals is not only their support for appeasement, but in addition their position on rearamament and the inclination to hide the extent of German rearmament from the British public.
A Labour MP a few days after the Dunkirk evacuation suggested in the House of Commons that Prime-Minister Churchill should instigate an inquiry into the 'Appeasement party' with the ntentiom to prosecuting its members (June 8, 1940). Churchill replied this would be foolish because 'there are too many in it'. And this was true of both parties. Important elements of the Labour party notbonly anted to appease Hitler, but favored unilateral disarmament. This and public resistance to arms spending was one reason that Prime-Mimister Baldwin and Chamberlain adopted the Appeasement Policy. Labour MP Hugh Dalton who opposed disarmament and shaped Labour foreign policy poicies during the 1930s became an implacable foe of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Steadily with the massive military spending and aggressive policies of the dictators, the Labour Party began to rethink their policy on military spending and rearmament (1937). Dalton became a key member of Churchill's wartime coalition government as Minister of Economic Warfare, wrote in his diary that the 'appeasement party' was so powerful within the Conservative Party that Churchill faced the possibility of being removed as prime minister. He avoided mentioning the extent of Labour support for Appeasement.
Max Aitken better known as Lord Beaverbrook was a Canadian newspaper publisher who moved to Britain seeing greater financial opportunities. Given his newspapers he entered politics and won a seat in the House of Commons (1900). During World War I he had a t=tole in removing Prime-Minister Asquith and became associated with Prime-Ministers Lloyd George and Bonar Law. He briefly served as Minister of Information. This left him deeply embedded in British politics. And he succeeded in making the Daily Express a huge success. His major concern was tariff reform. He wanted the British Empire to become a free trade bloc. He describe Robert Cecil's Peace Ballot, the Ballot of Blood because the League might drag Britain into a war. He supported the Appeasement policies of Prime-Ministers Baldwin and Chamberlain. He is probably better described as an isolationist. He even opposed the League of Nations. He supported the Appeasement policies of Prime-Ministers Baldwin and Chamberlain. He is, however, probably better described as an isolationist. He even opposed the League of Nations. While supporting Appeasement, he was also a personal friend of Winston Churchill. With the outbreak of the War and the vital importance of air power, Churchill convinced him to serve as his Minister of Aircraft Production (May 1940). He has been widely praised for his effort to increase aircraft production at a critical point of the War. He was forced to resign because of his health (1941), but continued in some less demanding roles. He wrote some well received histories which did not address Appeasement..
Reginald Clifford Allen, 1st Baron Allen of Hurtwood (1889 – 1939) was a British politician, actually more of a morale crusader. He had a middle-class back ground, but attended Cambridge. He entered a conservative, but was attracted by socialism. He became the Chair of the Fabian Society. He is one of the pacifists among the appeasers. Unlike most of them, he put his life and well-being on the line for his principles. Soon after the World War I broke out, he published an article, 'Is Germany right and Britain wrong?" He worked in journalism. When World War I broke out, he became a conscientious objector and was imprisoned three times under harsh conditions. He entered politics after the War and got involved in the Independent Labour Party (ILP), an off shoot of the Liberal Party.He was one of Britain's most prominent pacifists. He supported Prime-Minister Ramsey McDonald in the formation of the National Government. He was rewarded with a peerage -- Baron Allen of Hurtwood (1932). MacDonald was intent on increasing Labour representation in the House of Lords. An unsympathetic observer suggested a more appropriate title was Lord Conchie of Maidstone. This is a prison where he was incarcerated during the War. He saw the Versailles Treaty as evil and France more a threat to peace than the NAZIs. He was horrified at NAZI anti-Semetic policies, but saw the maintenance of peace as the overriding priority. He helped organize the Anglo-German Group (1933). He traveled to Germany to meet leading NAZI officials (1935). The NAZIs were interested in making inroads in the British Labor Movement. As a result he was able to arrange an appointment with Hitler. He described the meeting, "What a contrast he is to the picture British people have formed of him.' Hitler was apparently on his best behavior, no demagogic rants, no shrill mono logs. Allen described him as 'quiet, restrained, but nonetheless ruthless.' He compared him to Oliver Cromwell. This is one of the more insightful assessments of Hitler, but Allen (like others of the tea with Hitler set) came away convinced that be was not intent on war. Here a Non-Aggression Treaty with Poland and the acceptance of Alsace-Loraine as French provinces impressed him. Hitler was good at that, meaningless gestures to deflect from his moves toward war.
Consevative MP, Col. Wilfrid William Ashley, better known as Lord Mount Temple, was Minister of Transport (1924-29). He was elevated to the House of Lords and was an early and vocal supporter for appeaseing NAZI Germany. He admired Adolf Hitler, primarily for his anti-communism. He also nelieved that the Treaty of Versailles had been unjust and should be revised wahtever the German Government was [McDonough, Neville Chamberlain, pp. 96-97.] He was selected to chair the Anglo-German Fellowship--AGF (1935). Baldwin chose him for the job, primarily because of his know pro-German views wehich at the time meant pro-NAZI. He was not, however, ideologically alined with the NAZIs, unlike many in the AGF. Here his economic views (free market capitalism) and the fact his wife was Jewish were factors. Of course no one argues that improved understanding between countries is not important, but the AGF only acted to improve the NAZI image in Britain, doing nothing to improve Britain's image in Germany or any effort to moderate NAZI brutality. He attended the annual NAZI rally that followed the Olympic Games (1936). He visited Germany again and was rewarded with a meeting with Hitker (mid-1937). He praised Chamberlain and the Munich Agreement, signing an infamous Times letter to the editor (October 1938). There were 26 other prominent signatories. [Feuchtwanger] The Kristalnacht pogrom caused him to resign as chairman of the AGF, but not to resign his membership. (November 1938). He died the following year before the impact of his work became apparent--World War II.
Nancy Astor commonly referred to as Lady Astor was the first woman to sit in Parliament. She was anti-French, anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and anti-Communist. She entertained many of the appeasers at her country home Cliveden. It became a center of appeasement, although she had relatively little influence. Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, CH (May 1879 - 1964) was an American-born British politician and the first female Member of Parliament (MP) Astor was an American citizen Langhorne House in Danville, Virginia after the Civil War (1879). Her family was reduced to poverty by the War, but gradually recovered. She moved to England at age 26 and married Waldorf Astor, her second husband. He was a scion of the wealthy Astor family. After the marriage, the Astor couple moved into Cliveden, a lavish estate in Buckinghamshire on the River Thames that was a wedding gift from Astor's father. Nancy Astor developed as a prominent hostess for the British social elite. Astor was an American-born English politician and newspaper proprietor who succeeded to the peerage and entered the House of Lords. Lady Astor then entered politics and won his former seat in Plymouth (1919), becoming the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. Astor's Parliamentary career was the most public phase of her life. She gained attention as a woman and as someone who did not follow the rules which was commonly blamed on her American upbringing. Astor like other English politicians was challenged by the rise of NAZIs in Germany. She was no NAZI flunky. She criticized them for their attitude toward women. She was like most appeasers, however, determined to avoid another World War. Her prejudice toward Jews and Catholics and fear of the Soviet Communists led her to see Hitler as the lesser of the evils. In fairness to her, this was before the War and the killing phase of the Holocaust. Several of her friends and associates, especially Lord Lothian, became deeply committed to Balwin's and Chamberlains policy of appeasement the NAZIs. This group became known as the 'Cliveden set'". [Wilson] Cliveden was the country estate of Viscount Astors. And Lady Astor commonly entertained prominent aristocratic appeasers and pro-Fascists there. [Fort] British politicians arguing for a more robust response to the NAZIs and expanded defense spending saw the Cliveden Set as arch appeasers. Astor and the Clivden Set believed that the NAZIs would solve the problems associated with Communism and the Jews
Labour Prime-Minister Ramsay MacDonald as a result of the Depression formed a coalition Nationasl Government with the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party (1931). Unexpectedly, the Labour Party suffered what has been described as an an electoral massacre. Only the 52 of the most solidly working-class constituencies voted Labour. Atlee in his Limehouse costiuency was one of the few Labour survivors. Attlee as a result repudiated MacDonald and refused, like most other Labour ministers, to serve in MacDonald’s National Government (1931–35). Attlee became deputy party leader under George Lansbury. The Lsbour Party was a socialist party with substantial support for Meexist ideas. And one of those prinbciples was tghzat it was capitalism thst was responsible for war, including the tragedy of World War I. Lansbury in particulr was a was a staunch pscifist who gavored unilaterall dusarmament. Wwith the rise of Hitler and the NAZIs this was a hard idea to seel even within tghe Labour Party. Lansbury was forced to resign (1935). Attlee succeeded to the leadership. A by-election and the subsequent general election returned several figures to the House of Commons—including Arthur Greenwood and Herbert Morrison—who probably would have been preferred to Attlee had they been members of the previous Parliament. They did not, however, succeed in replacing him as leader. The Conservative Party won a landslide majority in the General Election (1935). Baldwin sensing the national mood ran a campsaign of opposing military spending and accomdation with NAZI Germany. The focus wa on zavoilding another war. The Labour Party opposed the NAZI and Fascist dictators on principle, but until the late-1930s also opposed military spending as an even greater greater threat. The Party even after replacing Lansbury, still had had a significant pacifist wing. Atlee like most of the Party, advocated pacifism and opposed re-armament, but not disarmament. His speeches sounded more like a sermon on these issues. He was among the MPs who took Churchill to task when he began warming about NAZI rearmament. He said in the House, "The Right Hon. Gentleman is one of those brilliant and erratic gentlemen who, when he sees clearly sees very, very clearly; and sometimes he does not." [Attlee, 1934] Gradually as the threat became greater, Attlee changed as he began to understand the dangers of Baldwin's and Chamberlain's appeasement policy. This did not begin to change until Labour's pacifist leader George Lansbury resigned (1935). The issue was a party resolution in favor of sanctions against Italy, condemning the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Lansbury was afraid sanctions would lead to war. Lansbury was replaced by Clement Attlee, who like most of the Labour Party at first opposed rearmament, advocating the abolition of national militaries and a world peace-keeping force under the direction of the League of Nations. [Vickers, p. 92.] German rearmament was, however, proceeding at a apace that could not be ignored. The increasing threat from the NAZIs and the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations in opposing the NAZI, Italian, and Japanese aggression caused Attlee and Labour to reassess their views on rearmament. After the German invasion of Poland (1939), Attlee supported the British declaration of war on Germany. He was, however, unwilling to join a coalition government with Conservative Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Attlee’s refusal was decisive in forcing Chamberlain’s resugnation and replacement by Winston Churchill (1940). He served in Britain's wartime coalition government first as Lord Privy Seal and then as Deputy Prime Minister.
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (1867-1947) was a British Conservative statesman who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the two world wars. He served as Prime Minister three times and actually dominated the National Government of Labour leader Ramsey McDonald. Nevile Chamberlain is commonly seen as the arch appeaser, but it is Baldwin that was the architect of appeasement. Stanley was born to a prosperous Worcestershire family involved in the iron and steel industry. He attended Hawtreys, Harrow, and Trinity College, Cambridge. After school he joined the family business. He then entered politics and was elected to the House of Commons as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bewdley (1908). He replaced his father Alfred. Baldwin rose to prominence after World War I (1914-18). He served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1917-21) and President of the Board of Trade (1921-22) in the coalition government of David Lloyd George. He rose rapidly in the Conservative hierarchy after the War. Baldwin was one of the primary figures in undermining Conservative support from Lloyd George. He became Chancellor of the Exchequer in Bonar Law's Conservative Government. (In British politics, that position was commonly seen as the stepping stone to the premiership.) When Law resigned as a result of declining health, Baldwin became Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party (May 1923) . He called an election soon after (December 1923). The major issue was tariffs. He lost the Conservatives' parliamentary majority in a close election. Ramsay MacDonald was able to form a short-lived minority Labour government. After winning the 1924 general election, Baldwin formed his second government. Important figures included Austen Chamberlain (Foreign Secretary), Winston Churchill (at the Exchequer) and Neville Chamberlain (Health). The Conservatives broadened Conservative appeal by reforms drawing support from the Liberal Party essentially ending the Party' role as one of the two major parties. Labour emerged as the primary opposition to the Conservatives in Britain's two party system. Baldwin and the Conservatives survived Labour's General Strike (1926). The Conservatives narrowly lost the 1929 general election. His leadership of the Party was questioned. Ramsey MacDonald formed his second Labour Government. The stock market crash in America had world-wide implications (1929). Britain was mired in to depression. Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government with the Conservatives, most of whose ministers were Conservatives. The National Government won an enormous majority in the 1931 general election. Baldwin as Lord President of the Council, and one of four Conservatives among the small ten-member Cabinet, took over many of the Prime Minister's duties due to MacDonald's declining health.The National Government implemented important innovations. It is at this time also primarily as a result of the Depression, The NAZIs rose in Germany and NAZI leader Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor (January 1933). And Hitler immediately ordered a massive rearmament program. Even before Hitler, the Germans had been secretly evading the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Peace Treaty. Britain and France on the other hand, and cut back military spending to the bone. This was the result of a mix of post World War Idemobilization, economizing, , growing pacifism, and the desire for expanded social spending, especially after the on set of the Depression. Baldwin officially replaced MacDonald as Prime Minister of the National Government (1935) and began preparing for a general election. Baldwin was not a pacifist, but he had a fear of another war and a conviction shared by many that large armed forces actually led to war. He was particularly terrified of possible aerial bombardment. [Bouverie] Before the general election, results at two by elections, showed that candidates espousing rearmament and tough stance toward the Germans were going to lose. Thus the Conservatives adopted appeasement and arms limitation as their party stance. We know now where this would lead. But at the time many Labour leaders were espousing unilateral disarmament and the dissolution of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Baldwin's Conservatives won the 1935 general election with a huge majority. He began a modest rearmament program, in no way comparable to NAZI rearmament. He also oversaw the abdication crisis of King Edward VIII. Baldwin's third government saw a number of crises in foreign affairs, primarily connected with the rise of Fascism, especially NAZI Germany. They included NAZI rearmament, the Hoare-Laval Pact, NAZI re militarization of the Rhineland, the Ethiopian crisis and development, the Anglo-German Naval Treaty, German resumption of conscription, announcement of the Luftwaffe, and the Spanish Civil War. Baldwin finally retired (1937). He was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain who had played a major role as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Chamberlain and Baldwin believed that it was not necessary to match German military spending, seeing it as ruinous. At the time of his retirement he was popular and highly regarded and seen as a successful Prime Minister. This began to change as Hitler moved toward aggression and war. He came to be seen as one of the 'Guilty Men' who had appeased Hitler and left Britain vulnerable with a seriously inadequate military. [Cato]
Charles Vernon Oldfield Bartlett (1894-1983) was an journalist, politician and author. He served as a MP beginning in 1938 when the Munich crisis an appeasement crisis broke (1938) but as a journalist wrote extensively about the Germans during the 1930s. He was a liberal and committed pacifist. He advocated progressive ideas during his Parliamentary career that extended into the post-War era, beginning as an independent and winding up with Labour after the War. He purchased a collapsible canoe and paddled down the Rhine and smaller German rivers. Based on his observations, he published NAZI Germany Explained (1933). He understood the NAZI race mania, but dismissed Mein Kampf and was convinced that Hitler would not launch another war. He wrote, "If I have properly understood the National Socialist idea, the conquest of territory has ceased to be important." [Barlett, p. 199.] One might wonder how someone who wrote that could be elected to Parliament in 1938 and remain there until 1950.
Ernest Bevin (1881-1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as general secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union (1922-40). Ernest was born in the village of Winsford in Somerset, England. His mother was Diana Bevin who since 1877 described herself as a widow. His father is unrecorded. His mother died (1889). Ernest was only about 8 years old. He lived with his half-sister's family, moving to Copplestone in Devon. He had very limited formal education. He briefly attended two village schools and then Hayward's School, Crediton (1890-92). This was more than most working-class adults at the time. He remembers being asked as a boy to read the newspaper aloud for the benefit of adults in his family who were all illiterate. The family was Baptist and he gave some thoughts to becoming a lay preacher. He decided against it, but his church experiences developed oratorical skills. He went to work as a laborer when he was about 11 years old--as a lorry driver in Bristol (1891). Today lorry means truck, but at the time it meant a four-wheeled low flatbed horse-drawn goods vehicle. He joined the Bristol Socialist Society. He became secretary (leader) of the Bristol branch of the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Laborers' Union (1910). He became a national organizer for the union (1914).Bevin like other Labour activists took an anti-capitalist, pacifist view after World War I. Bevin and his fellow Labour Party leaders opposed military spending. Only gradually did this change after the rise of Hitler and the NAZIs.Steadily with the massive military spending and aggressive policies of the dictators, the Labour Party began to rethink their policy on military spending and rearmament (1937). The key players here were Ernest Bevin and Hugh Dalton. They persuaded the Party to support rearmament and oppose appeasement.As Minister of Labour in Churchill's war-time coalition government, Bevin succeeded in maximizing the British labor supply, for both the armed services and domestic industrial production. There were a minimum of strikes and disruption. His most important role, however, came as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour government {1945-51). Here Labour's socialist policies were the primary reason that Britain, unlike, other European countries did not experience an economic miracle.
Vera Mary Brittain was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, writer, feminist, socialist, and pacifist. Her best-selling 1933 memoir Testament of Youth recounted her experiences during World War I and the beginning of her journey towards pacifism. Most appeasers, including Prime-Minister Chamberlain were not pacifists. Brittain because of her World War I experiences was moving in that direction, but at first believed thst the League of Nations guaranteed the peace. She became a fervent speaker on behalf of the League of Nations Union (1920s-early 30s). The Union promoted the League as the gusarantor of peace and British national security. Afer 1935, it was, however, clear that the League was not an effective guarantor of either peace or securirty. Brittain response was to turn to pure pacifism such was her passionte desire to avoid another war. It is true that at the time that the genocidal nature of the NAZIs was not clear, but the evil chracter of the regime was known. Something thst vshe and other ocifists simply ignored. She spoak at a peace rally in Dorchester, where she shared a platform with leading pacifists Dick Sheppard, George Lansbury, Laurence Housman, and Donald Soper (June 1936). Sheppard incuraged her to join the Peace Pledge Union. She decided to do so (January 1937). She also joined the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship. She would continue to argue for pacifism during World War II, when she began the series of 'Letters to Peacelovers'. She parucipated in the war effort working as a fire warden and by travelling around the country raising funds for the Peace Pledge Union's food relief campaign. She dharply ctiticised the strategic bombing campsign, decrying the Allied air campsign, publishing a book 'Massacre by bombing'. Like other pacifists, she offered no effective alternative. Brittain was a regular contributor to the pacifist magazine Peace News. She never addressed the factv thst pacifist opposition to defense spebding before the War was an importbt fsctor in Hitlerr's early bsyccesses. At the end of the War, details on SS plans for the occupation of Britain came out. She was anong the 3,000 people lited in the SS Black Book to be immedistrely arrested. [Berry and Bostridge]
Alfred Ernest Brown (1881-1962) had a political career associated with the declining Liberal Party and the splinter Liberal Nationals. Alfred was born in Torquay, Devon. His father was a fisherman and prominent Baptist. He followed his father and became a gifted public speaker. He became involved in Liberal politics was a popular speaker at local political meetings. He served in World War I and was awarded the military cross. He won and loss parliamentary seats in the 1920s. He was associated with Sir John Simon who led broke off from the Liberal Party led by David Lord George and formed the Liberal Nationals. In the 1930s he was appointed Minister of Mines and then Labour. In those positions he achieved important reforms for British workers. Brown was one of the men listed in Guilty Men , we believe primarily because of his close association with John Simon and as result support for the Government.
Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, 8th Duke of Buccleuch and 10th Duke of Queensberry (1894 - 1973) was a Scottish peer and Conservative politician and among the most ardent and committed appeasers. A good example of the many British aristocrats willing to deal with the NAZIs. He was the son of John Montagu Douglas Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch and Lady Margaret Alice 'Molly' Bridgeman. His sister, Alice, married Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester' one of the paternal uncles of Queen Elizabeth II (1935), thus becoming a member of the British Royal Family. He attended Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. He had a World War I military career commanding the 4th KOSBs. He was also Captain-General of the ceremonial Royal Company of Archers. As Earl of Dalkeith, Scott was Scottish Unionist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire (1923-35) at which time succeeded as Duke of Buccleuch and Duke of Queensberry. He was succeeded as MP for the constituency by his brother, Lord William Scott. With the rise of the NAZIs (1933) he became at ardent supporter of Baldwin and Chamberlain's efforts to appease Hitler. He socialized with German Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop in London. He continued to support appeasement even after almost all other British people came to understand the nature and evil character of Hitler and the NAZIs. His motivation appears to have been a mix of racism, anti-Communism, wish to avoid war, and admiration for the NAZIs. Because of his pro-NAZI views, King George VI during the War demanded that he 'resign' as Lord Steward. He had attended Hitler's 50th birthday celebration just before the outbreakmof ar (April 1939). He contunued to opposed war with Germany. Once war broke out, he campaigned for a truce which allowed Hitler to keep all his conquered territory. [Callan] He initiated a racist campaign against workers in the British Honduran Forestry Unit who had come to Scotland to help in the war effort. He complained that not only were the workers lazy but was also concerned that some had married local women.
Edward Leslie Burgin (1887-1945) was a British Liberal politician who joined the Liberal Nationals in the 1930s. His father Edward Lambert Burgin was a solicitor. Burgin studied law at the University of London, graduating with a LL.D. (1913). Burgin as a solicitor specialized in international law. He served as principal and director of legal studies to the Law Society. He was interested in politics and contested Hornsey four times and East Ham North once, failing each time. Success finally came with election as a Liberal MP for Luton ((1929). Issues with Liberal leader Lloyd George caused him and several other Liberal MPs to move to the Liberal Nationals (1931). He was made a Charity Commissioner (1931) and then the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (1932). He was appointed to the Privy Council as part of the Coronation Honours (1937). Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appointed Burgin as Minister of Transport (1937), basically a reward for supporting the Government in the increasingly divisive appeasement controversy. Then in a surprise move Chamberlain appointed Burgin as the first Minister of Supply (April 1939). This was only a few days after Hitler showed his true colors by braking the Munich agreement and invading Czechoslovakia. This basically showed Chamberlain's appeasement effort to have been a failure. But there was also criticism about the Government's move to rearm and the Supply Ministry which Chamberlain has resisted was to be a cornerstone of speeding up the rearmament effort. Chamberlain chose Burgin to strengthen his standing with Liberals, but was immediately criticized for the appointment. Burgin had no real qualifications for the job. A.J.P. Taylor described Burgin as being 'another horse from Caligula's well-stocked stables'. (This was in reference to earlier comments about the appointment of Sir Thomas Inskip as Minister for Coordination of Defense). When Chamberlain was replaced by Winston Churchill, Burgin was not included in the new wartime ministry. Burgin was another appeaser listed in Guilty Men. Churchill when he became prime minister did not give him a ministerial post.
E.H. Carr began his career as a diplomat and was on the British delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. By the 1930s he has come to see the Versailles Treaty as a huge mistake and the cause of German radicalism. Many in Britain agreed and the NAZIs made much of this excuse both domestically and in international affairs. Carr was a strong supporter of appeasement, changing is mind only just before the War, He became an important British historian. Usually historians write about the past and this have the advantage of time to avoid major mistakes. Carr wrote about the present and without the perspective of time proved to be among the least perceptive historians in the history of the craft -- dating back to Herodotus. Notably absent in his works is a moral dimension. He seem unbothered b=by NAZI anS Soviet attrocities. Granted that the full dimensions of NAZI and Soviet barbarity was not yet known, but enough was known before the War to realize that very serious vilations of himan rights were being perpetrated in both countries. Not only was he wrong about the NAZIs, he also wrote about the Communists and the Soviet Union, writing a massive multi-volume work on the Soviets. He took increasingly pro-Soviet views at the very time that Stalin launced the Ukranian Genocide. At the same time he was critival of the United States, escpecially American tgrade policy. (Here he was in part actually correct. The Wall Street Crash and Smoot-Hawlry Tariff impacted Germany hard leading to unemployment. This of course does not explain the virulence of the NAZIs.) Now some historians were wrong about the NAZIS and many more about the Soviets. Very few were wrong about both. During the War, he took an increasing turn toward Marxism, impressed with the role of the Soviet Union in defeating the NAZIs. He worked at The Times as assistant editor and wrote editorials urging socialism on Britain. He wrote a massive 14 volume history of the Soviet Union. Few historians have written so extensively about a subject and been so wrong about it. His thesis was that the rise of the Soviet Union was the central event of the 20th century. He argued for a Anglo-Soviet alliance as a basis for a post-World War II world order. Now this is understandable in a totalitarian society, but it took real effort to reach that conclusioin in Britain.
Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil known as Lord Robert Cecil was a British lawyer, Conservative politician and diplomat. He was the third son of 19th century prime-minister Lord Salisbury. He became a crusader even before leaving school. He tried to prevent the older boys from over working their fags. He was a High Anglican not particularly concerned with creature comforts. He had an impressive legal career. He won a parliamentary seat (1906). His primary interest was free trade. He was too mold for military service in World War I, He worked for the Red Cross. He was appointed Vicar-General to the Archbishop of York because of his strongly felt religious convictions and commitment to pacifism. He advanced in government, reaching the Privy Council. His most notable work was serving as Minister of Blockade (1916-18). His remit was to generate economic and commercial pressure on Germany, forcing them to choose between feeding their army or their civilian population. It was this experience that got him involved in creating a League of nations. Cecil became one of the most important architects of the League of Nations and an ardent defender of it. He proselytized the League as a guarantor of peace and security. As the head of the League of Nations Union (LNU). Actually the LNU was founded in Britain before the League itself (1918). Cecil turned it into a potent political force building on the idea that it could prevent another terrible tragedy like World War I. The British people in large measure because of Cecil's work came to see the League as the cornerstone of British security. Cecil conducted a national public opinion campaign. This was not done by a public opinion survey company which did not yet exist. LNU took on the task itself. Some 0.5 million LNU volunteers, including many women, fanned out all over Britain (1934). This cam to be called the Peace Ballot. Beacerbrook called it the Ballot of Blood. They obtained 11.6 million responses--over 30 percent of the population. There was huge support for both the League and collective security. This of course affected popular support for military spending. Many believed it was unnecessary or wasteful because of the League. , he helped sell that idea to the British people, even receiving the Nobel Peace Prize (1937). That was the year before Hitler began his move toward war. Hitler seized Austria and the Czech Sudetenland (1938) and than launched World War II (1939). Many who put their faith in the League and Chamberlain's Appeasement policy were astonished when Britain was left unprepared for war.
Neville Chamberlain grew up in an important British political family. Both is father and older brother were important political figures. As a boy, Chamberlain grew up without his mother. His father who lost two wives in childbirth raised his boys to distrust emotion and to depend on cool rationality. Chamberlain in essence was a decent man who after World war I was determined to avoid another war. He is perhaps the best example in history that decent people, including them who oppose war, can do terrible damage. John Lennon asks us in his beautiful masterpiece asks us to 'Give peace a chance'. If ever a leader of a great nation gave peace a chance, it was Neville Chamberlain. He may also well be the greatest failure as a prime minister in British history. Not because he was dishonest or venal, but because he was unwilling to use force to confront evil. He was convinced that he was the one man man uniquely capable of preventing war. Up through Munich most most British people agreed with this approach, the result was catastrophe in Europe and almost the end of Britain as an independent country. His name will be for ever associated with his failed policy of appeasement and the Munich Conference where he abandoned the Czech nation to the tender mercies of Hitler and the NAZIs.
Philip Conwell-Evans was a pro-NAZI Welsh historian who was teaching German history at Königsberg University. We doubt if he was making any critical comments about Hitler and the NAZIs. Like many other Appeasers he simply ignored NAZI barbarity. This is perhaps understandable perhaps among aristocrats and businessmen interested in doing business in Germanyh, it seems particular inexcusable for an historian. He became one of the founding members of Anglo-German Fellowship (AGF). While there is a good bit of information available on the AGF. We have neen able to fimd very little about Conwell-Evans. We know that he was a friend of Ribbentrop. He believed that the Germans had a strong case on the Versailles Treaty and tried to set himself up as a go between between the NAZIs and British officials. One percetive historian describes him as 'a travel agent for the regime'. [Bouverie, p. 113.] Connwell-Evans was with Lloyd George when he met with Hitler at Berchesgarden (September 1936). [Gibert, p. 209.] He was one of the most useful apologists for the NAZI using the AGF to prosletize his message. After Munich, rather too later, he changed his mind and became a vocal anti-appeaser. Even warning the Foreign Office that Hitler was about to seize the rest of Czechslovakia (February 1938). [Vansittart to Halifax, February 20, 1939, FO 371/22965/199.]
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (1889 – 1952) was a British Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. Cripps was a pacifist and during the First World War served with the Red Cross in France. He is not a your typical appeaser, but strongly opposed military spending as well as the very idea of rearmament--until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. He was a wealthy lawyer. He entered Parliament in a by-election (1931). He was a rare Labour frontbenchers to retain his seat in the general election held later in the year. He became a leading spokesman for the Labour left-wing and the Socialist League, although he rejected Marxist opposition to Christianity. He argued that on taking power the Labour Party should immediately enact an Emergency Powers Act, allowing it to rule by decree and thus 'forestall any sabotage by financial interests'. He also wanted to abolish the House of Lords. He was strongly opposed to rearmament. "Money cannot make armaments. Armaments can only be made by the skill of the British working class, and it is the British working class who would be called upon to use them. To-day you have the most glorious opportunity that the workers have ever had if you will only use the necessity of capitalism in order to get power yourselves. The capitalists are in your hands. Refuse to make munitions, refuse to make armaments, and they are helpless. They would have to hand the control of the country over to you". [Cripps] He was unlike many appeasers, not an apologist for Hitler, but he did say, that he did not "believe it would be a bad thing for the British working class if Germany defeated us (1936)" [Cowling, p. 215.] Labour's National Executive Committee dissociated itself from the speech. At this time Labour was shifting from a policy of opposing rearmament as they were increasing understanding the NAZI threat. Cripps favored co-operation in a Popular Front with Communists. So his Marxism drive him to resist Hitler along with the Soviet Union. As with others with similar ideas, their pacifism conflicted with their growing opposition to Hitler. Cripps was expelled again from the Labour Party (1939). Churchill turned to Cripps to try to wean Stalin away from Hitler (1940). Churchill thought because of his Marxist beliefs that he could influence Stalin. Of course he failed because Stalin was quite happy to cooperate with Hitler. When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union (1941), he began advocating for the Soviets. And Soviet successes resulted in Cripps becoming a popular figure. Cripps began to rival Churchill who had to endure huge military failures in 1942 (Singapore, Dieppe, and Tobruk). Cripps began to challenge Churchill's war leadership. How any one could thin that a pacifist who opposed rearmament could run the war better than Churchill is mystifying, but Cripps was popular for a while. The British victory at El Alamein (October 1942) ended that matter. Cripps also failed in a mission to India. He spent the rest of the War as Minister of Aircraft Production, doing a creditable job. Given his aversion to rearmament and how British aircraft were used, it seems a strange post for him. He probably understood how important it was for the Soviet war effort.
Maud Cunard (1872-1948) known as Emerald among London society. She was a prominent London society hostess know for her lavish events. She might be as close as the British came to the American literary figure Aunty Mame. She was an American brought up in New York and became a devote to arts. She loved both Wagner and French literature. Prince André Poniatowski, grandson of the last King of Poland, but he jilted here. Instead she married Sir Bache Cunard, 3rd Baronet, grandson of the wealthy founder of the Cunard shipping line. He was much older and they had nothing in common. After they had a daughter, who both largely ignored, they lived apart. But Emerald now had real money and became a lavish society hostess. She had no real political view and would invite anyone and everyone she found 'interesting'. She was fascinated by the NAZI pageantry she saw in newsreels. Her love of Wagner may have been a factor. She proclaimed herself 'pro-Hitler'. She traveled to Munich to see the New Germany (August 1933). Among the many guests at her events were the Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson who also expressed favorable views toward the NAZIs. She became an ardent supporter of the Walesses during the abdication crisis, probably hoping to get access to Edward's future court (1936). Her social events ended with the outbreak of the War.
Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton (1887-1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who would serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer after World War II (1945-47). Hugh Dalton was born in Neath, Wales. His father, John Neale Dalton, was a Church of England clergyman who became chaplain to Queen Victoria, tutor to the princes George (later King George V) and Albert Victor (George VI), and a canon of Windsor. Hugh attended Summer Fields School and then Eton College. He then entered King's College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he became active in student politic. By this time he was a committed socialist which was still a minority, but a growing one among undergraduates. Even more radical politics could be found--the Cambridge Five. His strongly expressed socialist views resulted in his nickname 'Comrade Hugh'. While at Cambridge he was President of the Cambridge University Fabian Society, but failed in his attempts to win election as President of the Cambridge Union Society. He proceeded to study at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Middle Temple. He was called up when World War I broke out he was called up and assigned to the Army Service Corps, later transferring to the Royal Artillery. He was a lieutenant on the French and Italian fronts, where he was decorated by the Italians, sighting his 'contempt for danger' during the retreat from the disaster at Caporetto. He wrote a memoir of the war -- With British Guns in Italy. With demobilization, he returned to the LSE and the University of London as a lecturer. He was awarded a DSc for his thesis on the principles of public finance (1920). He entered politics and rose in Labour Party ranks. He gained ministerial and foreign policy experience as Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office in Ramsay MacDonald's second government (1929-31). He left government in opposition MacDonald's National Government. Dalton helped shape Labour Party foreign policy (1930s). Labour during the 1920s and early- 30s opposed military spending with strong pacifist elements. Dalton turned his attention to the developing European crisis. Dalton became the Labour Party's spokesman on foreign policy in Parliament. Pacifism had been a strong element in Labour Party thinking, but the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) changed the thinking of Dalton and other Labour MPs. Labour began to support providing arms to the Republican ('Loyalist') cause. Assisted by union votes, Dalton helped move the Party from near pacifism to a policy of armed deterrence and questioning the appeasement policies of Baldwin and Chamberlain. Dalton became an implacable foe of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Steadily with the massive military spending and aggressive policies of the dictators, the Labour Party began to rethink their policy on military spending and rearmament (1937). The key players here were Ernest Bevin and Hugh Dalton. They persuaded the Party to support rearmament and oppose appeasement. They opposed pacifism and promoted rearmament against the German threat, and strongly opposed the appeasement policy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1938). Dalton served in Winston Churchill's wartime coalition cabinet; after the Dunkirk evacuation he was Minister of Economic Warfare, and established the Special Operations Executive.
George Geoffrey Dawson (1874 - 1944) was the most important journalist in Britain during World War I and the run up to World War II. He was the editor of The TimesTimes editor. John Jacob Astor V obtained control over the Henri Wilhelm August Deterding was born in the Netherlamds (1866). This was before oil had become an important commodity. He was an early and most important executives of Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, a Britih-Dutch joint vernture. He was the general manager for 36 years (1900-36). He was also chairman of the combined Royal Dutch/Shell oil company. He succeeded the founder of Royal Dutch, Jean Baptiste August Kessler, when he died, and made Royal Dutch Shell a competitor to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil and one of the world's largest petroleum companies. He became known as 'the Napoleon of Oil'. Deterding was largely responsible for developing the tanker fleet that enabled Royal Dutch to compete with the Shell company of Marcus Samuel and eventually take it ovrr. He also was involved in acquisitions, including the purchase of Azerbaijan oil fields from the Rothschild family (1911). An uncistarikly unwise purchase as time would tell. Deterding was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to Anglo-Dutch relations and for his work in supplying the Allies with petroleum during the First World War (1920). .Deterding was a string anti-Communist and became bitter enemy of the Soviet Union when it was founded aftervthe War. He assisted thousands of White Russian exiles. He entered the appeasement debate at en end of his life. He became an admirer of the NAZI Party. He discussed he sale of a year's oil reserves on credit to tghe NAZIs (1936). We are not sure just what his attractiion to the NAZIs was, but suspect that anti-Communism was astriong part of it. He was then forced to resign from the position of general manager (1937), but remained a member of the company's board. He nought a country home in Germany, but died in Switzerland (1939). This was a year before the NAZIs invaded his birth country. Reginald Hugh Dorman-Smith (1899-1977) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat, soldier and politician of the British Empire. Reginald attended Harrow School and then went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. After Army service, he began a political career with a focus on agriculture, becoming president of the National Farmers Union (the NFU) at the age of 32, and then later Minister of Agriculture. He was first elected as a MP for Petersfield in the 1935 general election as one of a handful of MPs sponsored by the NFU and served as the Union's president for the next few years. He generally allied with the Conservative Party and supported Baldwin and Chamberlain in their efforts to appease the dictators. The British Government's agricultural policy came in for heavy criticism from the NFU in both Parliament and the press (late-1930s). Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain took the bold step of appointing Dorman-Smith as Minister of Agriculture (January 1939). Dorman-Smith instigated the Government's Dig for Victory campaign, aimed at increasing food production from home efforts in allotments. Churchill did not include Dorman-Smith in the government (June 1940). Dorman-Smith was listed in the book Guilty Men (1940). He was not involved in formulating appeasement policies but did support Chamberlain's appeasement policies and the failure to aggressively rearm. Major Francis Fetherston-Godley, chairman of the Royal British Legion was one of the tea with Hitler crowd. The British Legion The Royal British Legion (RBL) often referred to as just the British Legion is a respected British charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, including their families and dependents. Fetherston-Godley and a group of Legionairestraveled to Germany in a visit arranged by Joachim von Ribbentrop the NAZI ambassador-at-large. The propaganda astute NAZIs turned the visit into a press extravaganza (July 1935). They not only met with Hitler but also other top NAZIs including Luftwaffe chief , Hermann Göring. Fetherston-Godley is pictured shaking hands with Deputy Führer's Rudolf Hess. The newsreels showed German World War I veterans giving Nazi salutes as Fetherston-Godley and his delegation parade past with the Union Jack. Some of the delegation also had dinner with SS chief Heinrich Himmler.The RBL at the time had a foreign policy arm and had regular meetings with the Prime Minister. The Legion's patron, the Prince of Wales – who was crowned King Edward VIII the following year – gave a speech to the Legion's annual conference in which he supported the trip. The 1935 timing of the visit is significant. This was the year that the NAZIs publicly announced the existence of the Luftwaffe and resumed military conscription-both Versailles Treaty violations. It was also the year that elections in Britain made it clear that the British public opposed military spending and any politician like Churchill who advocated rearmament to match the Germans. The Conservatives read the tea leaves and saw that they would be booted out unless they adopted a policy of appeasement. The RBL visit was just one of the many examples of the temper of the times. James Louis Garvin (1868-1947) was a British journalist, editor, and author. Garvin agreed to take over the editorship of the Sunday newspaper The Observer, on the basis of revolutionizing Sunday journalism and restoring the paper, which was on the verge of bankrupt, to profitability. it was during the 1930s as the appeasement debate played out and the paper became an important journalistic voice. He greatly admired Mussolini. Eventually he became alarmed by Adolf Hitler's rearmament and bellicose temperament. Garvin began pushing for a program of rearmament, but was an advocate of appeasement to buy needed time for rearmament. Like most Labour MPs, Grrenwood was very critical of defense spending, wanting more to be spent on social welfare. During the General Election campaign, Greenwood attacked Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain for spending money on the military (1935). Even though Hitler and the NAZIs had a vast rearmament program, Greenwood charged that British defense spending was 'the merest scaremongering; disgraceful in a statesman of Mr Chamberlain's responsible position, to suggest that more millions of money needed to be spent on armaments.' [Dutton, p. 40.] This was the view of much of the British electorate and one reason that the Conservative Party pursued appeasement with Hitler. Greenwood became Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under Clement Attlee. Greenwood was, however, among the first Labour leaders to recognize the danger posed by Hitler and began to join Churchill in opposing Chamberlain's appeasement policy. When Chamberlain returned from Munich with personal assurances from Hitler, he was cheered by the public and press. Greenwood joined Churchill in criticizing the agreement (1938). When Prime-Minister Chamberlain failed to ask for a declaration of war after Germany invaded Poland (September 1. 1939). When Chamberlain gave a non committal speech in Parliament, Greenwood was cheered not only by the Labor MPs, but the Tory back-benchers. "Speak for England!" shouted former Colonial Secretary Leo Amery. Margaret (Maggie) Greville became one of London's leading socialites. She did not have very glamorous origins. She was born Margaret Helen Anderson, the daughter of William McEwan (1827–1913) and his mistress. With her father's money she not only entered British high society, but became a close friend of Queen Mary. She is described as a philanthropist, but we do not have details on her charities. She married Ronald Greville (1891). He died only 2 years later and she did not remarry. Her primary avocatiom was that of a society hostess and had the money to do so. She attended the 1934 NAZI Nuremberg Rally and returned home gushing with enthusiasm for Hitler. . Air Commodore Douglas Douglas-Hamilton was the 14th Duke of Hamilton and 11th Duke of Brandon (1903-73) was a Scottish nobleman and noted aviator. Douglas was born in Pimlico, London (1903). He was the son of Alfred, 13th Duke of Hamilton and his wife Nina (née Poore). He attended Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. He won a Blue in boxing and subsequently winning the Scottish Amateur Middleweight title. He also was on the university rowing team. He was involved in politics, a prominent Unionist MP for East Renfrewshire from 1930 until he succeeded to his titles (1940). (The Unionists at the time were allied with the English Conservative Party.) He wanted to understand the life of the employees in his family's mines. He joined a Trades Union and worked for a time at the coal face, as plain 'Mr. Hamilton'. He became interested in aviation as a boy and served in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF). He was awarded a commission in the 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron as a pilot officer (1927). The Marquess became the youngest squadron leader at the time, commanding the squadron from 1931 to 1936. He was involved in the Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition (1933). As a pioneering aviator he has the same kind of heroic status that the first astronauts would later have. was regarded in much the same heroic way as the astronauts a generation later. Hamilton attended the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. An avid and rich sportsman, the Duke had flown his personal aircraft to Germany. He was a member of a multi-party parliamentary group which had been invited to Berlin by the NAZIs to observe the games. While in Berlin, the Duke attended numerous functions, including a grand dinner for the British contingent. Ambassador Joachim von Ribbentrop, future foreign minister, hosted the event. The Duke was introduced to leading NAZI luminaries. The Duke was acquainted with Ribbentrop having already met him in London. The Duke, because of his aviation exploits, was invited by Luftwaffe Chief Hermann Göring to inspect the newly reinstated Luftwaffe. The Germans were no longer hiding their new air force, but rather were beginning to use it to threaten. The Duke either out of personal interest or may have had instructions to conduct some minor espionage while in Germany. We will never know for sure. He claimed not to have met the Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess while in Germany, although did attend a dinner party in Berlin also attended by the Deputy Führer. As both were highly competent pilots with an avid interest in aviation, this is open to some serious doubt. The Duke while in Germany did meet geo-politician Albrecht Haushofer, son of the important geo-political academic Karl Haushofer who had influenced Hess as a student at Munich University. As the NAZI Party began to rise in prominence, Haushofer became his advisor on foreign affairs. Some see his influence in Main Kampf . As Hitler was dictating to Hess in prison, there surely must have been some discussion of the ideas involved. There is some speculation that Hess may have communicated with the Duke via Haushofer even after the outbreak of the War, but no actual evidence. The Duke succeeded to the Dukedom upon the death of his father. At the time he was a serving RAF officer, responsible for the aerial defense of his sector of Southern Scotland and Northern England. he was mentioned in dispatches for his war service. he also took command of the Air Training Corps. He was promoted to temporary group captain (June 1, 1941) Shortly before Hess parachuted into Scotland (May 10). He was aware of Hitler's plan to invade the Soviet Union and wanted to arrange peace in the West to avoid a two front war. After parachuting into Britain, he asked to see the Duke. Just why he thought the Duke would be amenable, we do not know. As we can see here, some British aristocrats were amenable. We have not found evidence that the Duke was one of these individuals. David Lloyd George was known as the Welsh Wizard. He was the World War I prime-minister who delivered victory and the Versailles Peace Treaty. He began to have second thoughts about the harsh treatment of Germany even in the early-20s. [Morgan] He became a pro-German voice in Britain, consistently pro-German during the 20s and 30s. He agreed with German demands for concessions, including territory. He wanted to recognize Germany's great power status. He gave little serious attention to the security concerns of the countries bordering Germany (Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, and Poland). [Rudman] He down played the danger of Germany's ability to wage another war. After Austria turned to Fascism (August 1934), he assured nervous Europeans that Germany could not wage another war. He insisted in press interviews that there was no risk of war for at least 10 years. [Eerste] He traveled to NAZI Germany as a private citizen to meet Hitler (September 1936). Hitler turned on a charm offensive. Hitler told him that he was pleased to meet 'the man who won the war'. An aging Lloyd George was impressed. He described Hitler as 'the greatest living German'". [Jones, Lloyd George, p. 247.] While in Germany his NAZI handlers showed him NAZI public works programs. He is often credited with being the father of the British welfare system and thus was especially interested. The NAZI welfare programs impressed him. When he returned to Britain he published a fawning article praising Hitler without a mention of concentration camps, political murders, or the persecution of minorities. He tells the British public, "Whatever one nay ghink of his methods and they are certainly not thise of a parlimentary country, there can be no doubt that he has achieved a marvelkous transformation in the spirit of the poeople in their attitude tiward each other and in their social and economic outlook." He pointedly assured his readers, "The Germans have definitely made up their minds never to quarrel with us again." [Jones, Lloyd George, p. 248.] He referred to Hitler as 'the George Washington of Germany'. How anything can think that defies the immagination. His assessment or NAZI rearmament was that Hitler was rearming Germany for defense and not for any offensive war. He saw no danger of war with Germany for at least 10 years. He complained that while Hitler admired the British and wanted their friendship, there was no British leadership to exploit this. [Jones, Lloyd George, p. 248.] He put the blame on the British and insisted that Hitler could be reasoned with and brought into the family of nations. His greatest fear was that Germany would be made a 'pariah'. He had no concept that NAZI Germany was a pariah. He eventually disavowed Chamberlain's appeasement policies. [Rudman, pp. 233-35.] This appears to have been more out of his dislike for Chamberlain than Hitler!. He helped bring down Prime-Minister Chamberlain. He did not think much of Churchill either although he did not intensely dislike him as he did Chamberlain. He continued to pontificate after Hitler and Stalin launched the War. After repeatedly down playing NAZI military power, once the War began, he changed his mind. He thought Britain was going to lose the War and advocated negotiating a peace with Germany. He did not explain why he thought that Hitler would suddenly begin keeping his word.All of this is a mere footnote to hidstory. Lloyd George was no longer a very important figure. What seems to have been important was the impression Lloyd George had on Hitler's thinking, a largely unintended impact. Göring was not present but reported on Hitler's account of the meeting. Of course this means we have Hitler's take away and not precisely what Lloyd George said. Hitler told Göring that Lloyd Geiorge told him that if Germany had just held out a little longer in 1918 that, Britain would have collapsed. And that supplying the Americans in France was so diffiucult, that Britain was about to recommend that they be shipped back home. [Poole. p.132.] We suspect that Lloyd George made some comments to politely lessen the enormity of the Allied victory, but what Göring explains is what Hitler took away. At it may in part explain Hitler's attitude toward the Western allies. Edward Frederick Lindley Wood (1881-59) was better known during the the 1930s and World War II era as Lord Halifax. He was one of the most senior British Conservative politicians during the 1930s and could have replaced Chamberlain instead of Churchill. He held several senior ministerial posts during this time, most importantly Viceroy of India (1925-31) and Foreign Secretary (1938-40). He was one of the principal architects of the appeasement policy developed after the rise of Hitler to avoid another war with Germany. He worked closely with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and supported the Munich Agreement (September 1938). Only 6 months later, Hitler in total violation of the Munich agreement, invaded Czechoslovakia (March 1939). A shocked Halifax changed his attitude toward Hitler and Germany. He argued for a new policy of attempting to deter further German aggression by standing up to Hitler. This meant forming an alliance with Poland. This led to war when Hitler invaded Poland (September 1939). When after Chamberlain resigned (May 1940). Halifax could have been prime-minister. He had more support than Churchill in the Conservative Party and was preferred by King George VI and virtually all of the Conservative Party except the now growing minority of anti-Appeasers. It is well documented that Halifax did not want the job, at least in 1939-40. Conservative MPs like Victor Cazalet who had spoken to Halifax reported, that he 'absolutely refuses to contemplate the idea of being PM.' [Cazalet, Victor Cazalet Papers, Cazalet to Tweedsmuir, May 9, 1939.] We know that Halifax declined the position, but less clear is why. Historians still debate why. At the time his explanation was that he was not a member of the Commons. It is generally believed that he felt that Winston Churchill would be a more effective war leader which of course was absolutely correct. It could have been that he thought Churchill would fail and this would be a more opportune time to become prime-minister, but the actual reason will never be known. We suspect he did not want to be a prime-minister that would have to surrender to the Germans. A historian we follow closely writes, " Halifax simply didn't have the stomach for the top job. He spent most of 9th May feeling sick with anxiety; I suspect that in his heart of hearts he knew he wasn't the right man. All the stuff on Halifax is in my book, The Battle of Britain, should you be interested." [Holland] On the day that Churchill became prime-minister, the Germans launched Case Yellow, their long-awaited Western offensive (May 10). In the resulting military catastrophe, the German Panzers drove to the Channel, the Belgians surrendered, and the British and French fell back to Dunkirk. As a member if the War Cabinet, Halifax lost his nerve, he favored approaching Mussolini who had not yet entered the War to see if Hitler would offer negotiable peace terms. Churchill was adamantly opposed and after heated followed. Halifax threatened to resign which would have could have ended Churchill's premiership. Churchill talked him out if it. Lost to history is the crucial conversation between the two. At the time the Dunkirk evacuation had just begun and the prospect of saving much of the BEF was very much in doubt. The critical decision was reached to fight (May 28). Churchill prevailed in what is arguably the most important decision ever made by a British cabinet. And then The Royal Navy pulled of the crucial Dunkirk evacuation. May 26-June 4). Churchill after the Battle of Britain got Halifax out of the way by appointing him British Ambassador to the United States (1941-46). Maurice Pascal Alers Hankey 1st Baron Hankey (1877-1963) was a British civil servant who made the rare transition to ministerial office. His major contribution was as the superbly efficient top aide to Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the War Cabinet that oversaw Britain's World War I victory. He according to his biographer was a man who grew up with the certainties of the Victorian era and British Empire, but never adjusted to the post World War I shifts of the 20th century. [Naylor] He served under all prime-ministers from Lloyd-George through Chamberlain. He completely failed to understand 'the virulence of fascism' and was only concerned with the military threat to Britain. He was, like Churchill a late Victorian imperialist. His basic mindset was to maintain British imperial position overseas and to avoid as British entanglement in Europe. His recognition of historical change proved lacking. Churchill might also be criticized here, however, according to his biographer, Hankey unlike Churchill did not grasp or care about the the 'virulence of fascism'. [Naylor] After listing his short comings, his biographer adds, "In these shortcomings Hankey was typical of his generation and background; that his responsibility was greater lay in the fact that he was better informed than nearly any of his contemporaries." [Naylor] Another historian agrees that Hankey was a talented administrator which is why so many prime-ministers except finally Churchill relied on him as Cabinet Secretary. "An exceptionally hard-working and talented administrator, Hankey was not known for his imagination." [Bouverie, p. 20.] After Hitler was appointed Chancellor he decided to instigate. He traveled to Germany soon after Hitler seized power and like many other Brits, found much to admire ( August 1933). He was impressed with the disappearance of beggars and other 'down and outs', which were such a 'disagreeable' feature of many British streets. [Hankey to Phipps, September 3, 1933.] He went through the Black Forest (which still existed at the time). And he watched a NAZI torch light parade. He was impressed with the fierce conviction of the NAZIs. He did perceptively note the commitment and discipline of the Hitler Youth Movement. He wrote in a report to the cabinet, "If Germany seeks to rearm she could not make a more effective first step." [Hankey] He was concerned about the threat to Britain, but not the malevolent character of the regime. There was a difference with others who had tea with Hitler. Hankey was extremely well informed. Hankey Basil Henry Liddell Hart was a British soldier, military historian and military theorist. In the 1920s and later he wrote a series of military histories. They proved influential among officials, including Prime-minister Chamberlain. Chamberlain was strongly influenced by him. Both were strongly influenced by World War I. His central idea was that Britain should never again commit a land army to the Continent. It helped Chamberlain's justify his appeasement policy and his failure to prepare Britain to confront the Germans on the Continent. In Hart's defense, he gave a high priority to air power, but Chamberlain also failed to match German spending on the air force.He was not an appeaser per se, but abandoning Continental allies is certainly a form of appeasement. And giving Germany a free hand in Europe can hardly be seen as intelligent strategy. For centuries it had been British policy to avoid any major power to dominate the Low Countries--for very real reasons. Any list of the arch appeasers has to include Nevile Henderson, the man Chamberlain chose as the British ambassador to NAZI Germany. Henderson met Chamberlain just before he replaced Baldwin for a briefing about his assignment in Berlin. Historians are not entirely sure about Chamberlain's instructions. Henderson in his book wrote that Chamberlain "outlined to me his views on the general policy towards Germany and I think I may honestly say to the last and bitter end I followed the general line which he set me, all the easily and faithfully since it corresponded so closely with my own private conception of the service I could best render in Germany to my own country". [Henderson] Henderson claimed that Chamberlain had authorized him to commit 'calculated indiscretions' in the pursuit of peace. One German-born American historian can find no evidence to support this. [Ascher, p.66.]A pro-NAZI British historian in Germany at the time in Germany and teaching German history at Königsberg University later wrote that Henderson told him that Chamberlain had made him his personal envoy to Germany and he was to by-pass by taking orders directly from the Prime Minister's office. [N. Henderson, p. 15.] These allegations are not definitive, but clearly Henderson behaved as if he was the Prime Minister's personal representative and was a firm believer in appeasement. He also clearly simply ignored Vansittart in the Foreign Office on multiple occasions. [N. Henderson, p. 21.] Henderson like Chamberlain agreed that Hitler could be manipulated and directed toward peace and coexistence with the Democracies. Many in Britain at the time were convinced that World War I had been a terrible mistake and that the Treaty of Versailles was much too harsh on Germany. And that Hitler was a reasonable leader and that all Britain had to do was to revise the terms of the Treaty. Many modern historians object to calling Henderson pro-NAZI. This is probably a fair comment, but is also true that Henderson, Chamberlain, and other appeasers were well aware of the barbarity of the NAZI regime. Most continued to see the NAZIs as necessary block to Soviet Communism. Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood, (1880-1959), usually referred to as Sir Samuel Hoare, was a senior British Conservative politician. Hoare was very important in the Conservative Party and might have replaced Baldwin. Appeasement dominated the 30s and was very popular. Politicians who wanted to win elections and aspired to higher office adopted it. Hoare was one of the most important appeasers. Appeasers like Hoare fervently believed in the need to prevent another war and appeasement was their answer. Hoare was a leading proponent of appeasement and supporter of Baldwin and Chamberlain during the 1930s. He served in various important cabinet posts in the Conservative and National governments of the 1920s and 30s. Most important as part of any study of World War II and appeasement was that he served as Secretary of State for Air (much of the 1920s). He was involved in both military and civilian affairs. He fought to maintain the Royal Air Force a separate service and worked on efforts to train RAF officers. He also was instrumental in forming Imperial Airways, modern British Airways. He then was assigned to deal with the difficult problem of India as Secretary of State for India (early-1930s). It was Hoare who authored the Government of India Act which Churchill objected to nearly as much as Appeasement (1935). This granted provincial-level self government to India which has to be recognized as an important milestone in the development of Indian democracy. Hoare particularly resented Churchill, both for his stance on India and public revealing derails on Germany rearmament. One author maintains that Hoare saw Churchill's efforts as 'self-interested attempts to resurrect a flagging political career'. [Bouveriem p. 38.] He and Chamberlain believed that Hitler could be reasoned with and critical reports released to the public just made it more difficult to deal with the Germans. As Foreign Secretary he authored the Hoare-Laval Pact with French Prime Minister Pierre Laval (1935). It was part of an effort to appease Mussolini by partially recognized the Italian conquest of Ethiopia. The adverse public reaction forced him to resign. Appeasing Mussolini cost him his job. Much more was involved in the Hoare-Laval Pact. It affected British and French prestige and credibility. It also damaged British-French relations. And if that was not bad enough, it exposed the League which so many had placed their faith. Much of the British public had vote in the Peace Ballot to support the League (1934). Now it was clear that the League was a powerless, hollow hope. One historian writes, "The wound to the League of Nations was mortal. Created to forestall international crises, the supreme, idealistic invention of the post-war settlement had been undermined by the two great European democracies." [Bouverie, p. 81.] This in itself exposed the crumbling facade on which Appeasement was based 3 years before Munich. Hoare after engineering this disaster was not out of Government for long. Hoare was actually rewarded by returning to the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty for a brief time without notable achievements (1936). He served as Home Secretary (1937-39). As Home Secretary, Hoare helped obtain approval for the British rescue effort to bring Jewish children in the Reich to Britain--the Kindertransport. Along with Halifax and Simon, he was part of an informal cabinet group that Chamberlain relied on in dealing with Hitler, especially during the Munich Crisis. He was again Secretary of State for Air (1940). His status as a prominent 'Appeaser' forced him to resign again just before the Germans launched their Western Offensive (May 1940). Sir John Simon and Prime-Minister Neville Chamberlain also had to go. Labour made it a condition of forming a unity government. Winston Churchill became prime-minister. Hoare was shuttled off to Spain to serve as ambassador where he played a useful role to help keep Spain out of the war and not interfere with Torch. (1940-44). Thomas Walker Hobart Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote (1876-1947) was a British politician who served in many legal posts, culminating as Lord Chancellor (1939-40). Despite all the many prestigious posts he served during his long career, it is his service as Minister for Coordination of Defense for which he is most remembered (1936-39). This is unfortunate because it was post foe which he was least qualified. And of course this was 4 years before the War and this post was vital in preparing for the War. The British failed to launch a massive rearmament program to catch up to the Germans. Much of the failure was due to Baldwin and Chamberlain who were concerned about the fiscal consequences and did not think Britain needed to match German spending. Inskip's appointment was a shock to the anti-appeasers. He was not only aging, but had a career of legal posts leaving him unprepared for defense issues. At a critical point in dealing with Hitler's challenge a basically non-entity was given this critical role. This was the post Churchill had long campaigned to be created and which when its creation was announced, he wanted to be appointed. When Inskip received the appointment, one shocked anti-appeaser remarked, "This is the most cynical appointment since Caligula made his horse a consul". One wag charged that Prime Minister Baldwin wanted someone 'even less brilliant than himself'. [Gunther, p. 348.] The appointment has come to be seen as reflecting Baldwin's desire to keep Churchill out of government, especially such a critical post. It would have given him a platform for publicizing Germany's' growing arms lead. In addition, Baldwin was worried how Hitler would perceive the appointment of Churchill or other anti-appeaser. There is no doubt that Baldwin and Chamberlain were confronted with difficult challenges. Some of what the did can be justified. Lying about German armaments seems difficult to explain. Thomas Jones (1870 – 1955) as his name implies was Welsh, sometimes called the Welsh King given that he grew up in a Welsh-speaking family and rose to such an influential position in Government circles. He was well educated and a eloquent voice for reason and moderation. Unfortunately for Britain, moderation was no longer and actually irresponsible in the 1930s. He was Britain's leading civil servant. He was Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet under four Prime Ministers: David Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Stanley Baldwin and Ramsay MacDonald. No other individual has mastered that record. He was described as 'one of the six most important men in Europe'. Jones' writing are a prime source of background on British politics during the inter-war era. Baldwin in particular appreciated Jones' advise and counsel. They would remain friends in and out of office for more than 20 years. It was Jones who advised him to avoid taking revenge after the General Strike. After the NAZIs reoccupied the Rhineland, Jones like other Britons passionately seeking to avoid another war, was influenced by Hitler's bogus peace initiatives designed to misdirect responses. Baldwin instinctively phoned Jones. His advise was all reason and moderation. "Treat this as relatively de minims and not to be taken tragically in view of the peace proposals that accompanied it .... Accept Hitler's declaration as made in good faith and put his A.L. Kennedy joined The Times (l9l0). He began keeping a diary after returning fro World War I. His diary he kept was political, not personal. It is thus a valuable source in the origins of World War II from one of the most influential journalists at the time. Kennedy with his pro-German views disliked the way in which The Times was reporting the new and was interested in how public opinion could be manipulated. The diary provides valuable insights into many of the major figures of the day. Kennedy's central view was that the World War I Versailles Treaties needed to be revised. He thus agreed with Chamberlain's appeasement policies. The Times was the most influential newspaper in Britain. Thus its relationship with the Government is an important matter in the inter-War era. Historians today see a tight, if not incestuous, relationship between the Chamberlain Government and The Times newspaper along with the Foreign Office, especially on foreign policy issues already connected with an increasingly aggressive Germany after Hitler and the NAZIs seized power. The person most involved here was A.L. Kennedy who wrote most of the editorials during the 1930s. Kennedy traveled to Germany and Austria providing first-hand reporting on Hitler and his followers. We see a steady procession of optimistic editorials in the Times promoting the idea that peace with Hitler and the NAZIs was possible. A Tines leader after the NAZI reoccupation of the Rhineland, for example, was titled 'A chance to rebuild". In addition to the Times editorials, Kennedy kept a detailed journal of his meetings with Mussolini, Hitler, and others. [Martel] His journal provides insight into the substantial support for Chamberlain's Appeasement policy and the resulting origins of the World War II. The Appeasers like Kennedy are often unfairly criticized because it was not only the NAZIs Britain had to contend with, but the Soviet Union. But what is crystal clear is that they were blissfully ignorant of the monstrous evil of NAZI Germany. One insightful incident was an exchange between Kennedy and German chargé d'Affaires, Prince Otto von Bismarck. The Prince asked Kennedy what the English felt about the Germans. Kennedy's response was that most English people thought that the Germans were, 'not quite civilized and not quite normal'. The Prince responded, 'Not quite normal? Is that all?" Kennedy's response was, "Well, all that 'Heil Hitler' struck us as quite eccentric." [Martel, p. 146.] Joseph P. Kennedy was a prominent Catholic businessman. He had supported Roosevelt in his presidential campaign (1932). The President appointed him to head the new Security and Exchange Commission. It was said like hiring the fox to guard the hen house. Kennedy who had political ambitions was disappointed with what he saw was a low-level appointment. The President selected Kennedy to be the United States Ambassador to Britain (1938). Given that Kennedy was an Irish Catholic, it was an unusual appointment. It probably reflected Chamberlain's stand-offish attitude toward the United States and the President's efforts to assist with the Germans. As it turned out, Kennedy got on very well with Chamberlain and supported his appeasement policies. Kennedy was pleased to have such an important post and his reception by London high society, which also strongly supported appeasement. (In both Boston and and Washington he was an outsider. His eldest daughter Kathleen would marry an aristocrat during the War.) Kennedy was critical of Winston Churchill who opposed any compromise with the NAZIs. He was unphased with NAZI persecution of the Jews, even when Kristalnacht exposed the depths of NAZI brutality. Like the rest of the tea with Hitler crowd, he tried to arrange a meeting with Hitler, believing he could be reasoned with. [Hersh. p. 63.] (It was unheard of for an ambassador to a country about to go war to meet with the head of state of the country of the other power. That of course was the job of the American ambassador in Berlin. When war broke out, he sent his younger children (Edward aged 7, Jeanne age 10, and Robert aged 13 years) home to the States (September 19). Jack was at school in Harvard. When the German bombing began, he retreated to the countryside. The British Royal Family, Prime Minister Churchill, government ministers, and other ambassadors remained in London. Randolph Churchill remarked, "I thought my daffodils were yellow until I met Joe Kennedy." Just before the Blitz, Kennedy again tried to arrange a meeting with Hitler, without the approval of the State Department, still convinced he could be reasoned with. He said that he wanted to 'bring about a better understanding between the United States and Germany'. In addition to appeasing Hitler, Kennedy strongly advised the President and State Department against military and economic aid to Britain---believing the country was lost cause and would be defeated by the Germans. In addition he began to make extensive defeatist statements to the press. This was in sharp contrast to President Roosevelt's policy of aiding Britain. He even told a British reporter that Roosevelt would 'fall' in 1940. [Renehan] The President was disturbed by Kennedy's statements to the press and defeatist cables. Kennedy returned to the States. Roosevelt did not, however, want an open break with Kennedy. He wanted the support of Irish Catholics. He even invited him to spend the night at the White House. Kennedy apparently hopeful of another appointment, committed to make a nationwide radio speech to push Roosevelt to run for a third term. " After Roosevelt was reelected, Kennedy resigned as ambassador. [Nasaw, pp 492-96.] The President wanted nothing more to do with him. Prince George like his brothers King Edward VIII and King George VI shared each others views about appeasement. Prince George who became the Duke of Kent was an important figure in the Anglo-German peace group. The Duke met Rudolf Hess and Alfred Rosenberg (1930s). Rosenberg wrote a report of the meeting for Adolf Hitler stating that the Duke of Kent was working behind the scenes "in strengthening the pressure for a reconstruction of the Cabinet and mainly towards beginning the movement in the direction of Germany" (October 1935). The Duke of Kent had met the Duke of Windsor in Austria (February 1937). A Foreign Office document described the Duke of Kent developing a close relationship with Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador in London. British intelligence was monitoring the activities Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, classified as a NAZI spy who was known to consort with the Duke. One report indicated, "She is frequently summoned by the Führer who appreciates her intelligence and good advice. She is perhaps the only woman who can exercise any influence on him." They also reported that she seemed to be "actively recruiting these British aristocrats in order to promote Nazi sympathies." [PROKV2/1696.]The Duke participated in secret talks with his cousin Prince Philip of Hesse (early 1939). Their interest was to avoid another war between Britain and Germany. The Duke of Kent is believed to have informed the King of a plan to negotiate directly with Hitler. The King who was desperate to prevent anther war spoke to Chamberlain and Lord Halifax about the plan.After War erupted, the Duke and his family moved to Scotland. They tool up residence in Pitliver House, near Rosyth, in Fife. He returned to as a Rear Admiral, but then returned to the RAF (April 1940). After the fall of France, the Duke of Kent traveled to Lisbon to meet Portuguese dictator, Antonio Salazar. The Duke of Windsor was in Madrid at the time, was planning ed to meet his brother in Lisbon. British officials were ordered to prevent the meeting.Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess flew a Me 110 to Scotland (May 19, 1941). He wanted to meet with the Duke of Hamilton and to arrange a meeting with the King. [Picknett, Prince, and Prior] The Duke was killed in an airplane crash off Scotland (1942). Conspiracy authors connect it with the Hess affair. Thus seems to us unlikely, but it is worth mentioning. John Maynard Keynes was on the British delegation at the Paris Peace Conference (1919). Many came to see the resulting Versailles Peace Treaty as a mistake and overly punitive. Keynes argued that from the bedimming, writing, a few months after the Treaty was signed "The treaty includes no provisions for the economic rehabilitation of Europe, – nothing to make the defeated central empires into good neighbors, nothing to stabilize the new states of Europe, nothing to reclaim Russia; nor does it promote a compact of economic solidarity among the allies themselves". [Keynes] Keynes of course emerged as a major economics theorist, both during the Depression and World War II. We are not sure yet just to what extent he participated in the appeasement debates. We do know, that Keynes was criticized for providing the economic excuse for appeasement --the legend of the Versailles Diktat. Bob Boothby charged that Keynes book was the Bible of the NAZI movement. Sir Oswald Mosley was an early Keynesian adherent as was Adolf Hitler. Keynes himself was passionate about eugenics. Keynes began a series of meetings with Oswald Mosley (late-1930). [Mosley, My Life, p. 238.] Mosley had issued his Mosley Manifesto. [See Mosley below] Keynes' assessment was that it was a 'a very able document and illuminating'. He added, "I do not see what practical socialism can mean for our generation in England, unless it makes much of [Oswald Mosley’s] manifesto its own—this peculiar British socialism." [H. Henderson] Mosley of course founded a socialist political party called the New Party which became the British Union of Fascists. The opposition Labour Party opposed the the NAZIs and Fascist dictators on principle, but until the late 1930s also opposed military spending and even greater greater threat. The Party had a significant pacifist wing. And it was not just youthful idealistic back benchers. The Labour Party Leaser, Christian socialist George Lansbury advocated disbanding the Army and Royal Air Force and dare the world to 'Do your worst.' And of course that is precised what Hitler and the NAZIs would try to do. The NAZIs failed, but only by the slimest of margins because the RAF was not disbanded. Labour did not begin to change until Lansbury was forced to resign (1935). The issue was a party resolution in favor of sanctions against Italy, condemning the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Lansbury was afraid sanctions would lead to war. He was replaced by Clement Attlee, who at first also opposed rearmament, advocating the abolition of national armaments and a world peace-keeping force under the direction of the League of Nations. Walter Thomas Layton, 1st Baron Layton was a British economist, editor, newspaper proprietor and Liberal Party politician. Layton began his a career in economics lecturing at Trinity College, Cambridge (1908). He worked for the Ministry of Munitions during World War I. After the War he was appointed editor of The Economist, a post he held except for the World War II period until 1963. He was also editorial director of the News Chronicle. He was active in the Liberal Party, working on 'Britain's Industrial Future', more commonly known as the 'Liberal Yellow Book'. He stood as a Liberal Parliamentary candidate, but never won a seat. That probably has more to do with the decline of the Party than his capabilities. We know he was an early supporter of Appeasement, but was also critical of NAZI Germany. He was susceptible, however, to Government pressure. A poll taken after Munich found that 86 percent of Britons, unlike Chamberlain, did not believe that Hitler had no further territorial ambitions in Europe. The Government convinced him not to publish that fact because it would exacerbate tensions with Germany. [Cockett, p. 101.] Layton again worked for the government during World War II. He worked in the Ministry of Supply and the Ministry of Production. He headed the Joint War Production Staff. After the War he served as Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (1949-57). Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart (1878-1949) was the 7th Marquess of Londonderry, usually referred to as Lord Londonderry during the World War II era. He was a British peer and politician. His major contribution was as Secretary of State for Air (1931-35). He first championed the RAF because of aggressive steps taken by the Japanese including the seizure of Manchuria. He opposed any moves that would risk the deterrent value of the Royal Air Force. As a result, he was thus attacked by Clement Attlee and other Labour leaders who even after Hitler seized power advocated huge cuts in national defense to finance social welfare spending. He was seen as having a keen 'understanding' of NAZI Germany and the new Luftwaffe. Here he was wrong, but he definitely made some real contributions in the Air Ministry. He managed to preserve the core of the RAF at a time that the Treasury was demanding budget cuts. He pushed development of the two mono-wing fighters -- the Hurricane and Spitfire. He also gave the Chain Home radar program priority. His estimation of German air strength, however, were badly off (1934-35). [Jackson] He asserted that Germany could not be prevented from developing its military so the logical step was to cancel the armaments clauses of the Versailles Treaty to bring Germany back to the League of Nations. [Bouvarie, p. 41.] He was removed from the Air Ministry just as the Germans admitted the Luftwaffe existed. He was, however, retained in the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords. Londonderry like many appeasers believed that Hitler could be reasoned with. More than that, he admired Hitler and was openly anti-Semetic. He was part of the tea with Hitler club, making many trips to Germany, meeting with top NAZIs. He met with Hitler and was impressed by him (February 1936] Upon his return he issued a press statement say that Hither wanted nothing but friendship with Britain and France. He then described Hitler as a 'kindly man with a receding chin and an impressive face'. He then insisted that Hitler was building a string Germany as a bulwark against Communism. [Kershaw, p. 130.] He was a leading member of the Anglo-German Fellowship. He acquired the popular nickname of 'Londonderry Herr'. [Pugh, p.270.] Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian (1882-1940) was a British politician, diplomat and newspaper editor. He was private secretary to Prime Minister David Lloyd George during and after World War I (1916-22). He succeeding a cousin as 11th Marquess of Lothian (1930). He held minor office (1931-32) in the National Government led by Ramsay MacDonald. With the rise of Hitler and the NAZIs, Lord Lothian became a leading voice for Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. He bought the basic appeasement narrative--the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh and that Soviet Communism was an existential threat. He was one of the many Brits that made trek to Germany to have tea with Hitler. And like most of them, Lord Lothian was duly impressed. For 2 hours, Hitler lectured him on the dangers of Bolshevism, French intransigence, and importance of Anglo-German frienship. Lothian like many others was impressed with the Führer. He was convinced Hitler was sincere, even referring to him as a 'prophet'. He sent a transcript of of the meeting to Baldwin, Simon, and McDonald and insisted that there was a basis for a political settlement. He then in a Times< article assured Brutish readers that the central fact in European affairs was that 'Germany does not want war and is prepared to renounce it absolutely as a method of settling her disputes with her neighbors, providing she is given real equality." [Lothian ] Despite being so wring about Hitler, Lothian did make a valuable contribution to the war effort. By the time that that it was clear that appeasing Hitler had failed (1939), Prime-Minister Chamberlain appointed Lothian ambassador to the United States. Unlike Chamberlain, Lothian saw the critical necessity to forge an alliance with the Americans. He proved effective in working with the Roosevelt Administration to first help save Britain and then forge the most important military alliance in history to defeat NAZI Germany and their Axis partners. He played a major role in convincing President Roosevelt of the need for immediate aid. This led to Lend Lease which passed Congress after his death (December 1940). Henry David Reginald Margesson, 1st Viscount Margesson (1890-1965) was a British Conservative politician during the inter-war era. He played an important behind the scenes role in the appeasement struggle as the Government Chief Whip (1930s). As such he as to be classified as on of the arch appeasers. Baldwin and Chamberlain have a reputation for softness and unwillingness to take a hard stance. That was with Hitler. With fellow MPs it was a different matter. Their enforcer was Margesson. His reputation was of a stern disciplinarian who was one of the harshest and most effective whips in British parliamentary history. He is said have has a keen sense of the popular mood. He was quick to sacrifice unpopular ministers. He was a major factor in delivering strong support for appeasement for Baldwin and Chamberlain. There were rebellions but never a threat to the government as rebels risked losing certification to run as Conservative MPs. He even tried to have Churchill decertified. Once firmly in control, Churchill removed him as whip (December 1940). British attitudes toward Germany had changed significantly in the 1920s. There was widespread belief that Germany had been mistreated and the Treaty of Versailles had been unfair. There was also widespread sentiment for reducing arm spending. Prime-Minister Ramsey Mac Donald reflected all these attitudes. He even stated that France was 'the peace problem of Europe' (September 1930). These were the attitudes that prevailed in Westminster when Hitler seized power in Germany (January 1933). The Prime-Minister issued a plan to standardize continental armies, thus ending the enforced inferiority of the German Army. The Germans would be allowed to double the size of their army and the French would have to cut the size of their army. The MacDonald Plan got nowhere. Hitler was interested in much more than doubling the size of the army. And at any rate, the Reichwehr had been secretly evading the Versailles Treaty limitations and was already well above the 0.2 million man limit. The French understandably had reservations and wanted controls and inspections. Hitler used that as an excuse to withdraw from not only the Disarmament Conference, but also the League of Nations (October 14, 1933). MacDonald and the Foreign Office were stunned, but there was no change in foreign policy. Diana Mitford, was one of the Mitford sisters. She was the fourth child and third daughter of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale (1878–1958). A strikingly beautiful woman, she first married Bryan Walter Guinness, heir to the barony of Moyne. They were involved with the London Bright Young Things social group of Bohemian young aristocrats and socialites (1920s). Her marriage ended in divorce after she began a relationship with British Fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists. She secretly married Mosley in Berlin. She didn't want the British press to learn of it. Hitler promised to ensure that the Registrar did not publicize the event. They exchanged rings and wedding vows at the Berlin home of Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels, who was a close personal friend to both Dianna and her sister Unity. Hitler was a guest of honor. Oswald and Diana had two children Alexander and Max. Diana and her husband were arresred, but detained in comfortable circumstances (1940). After the War, she was unrepentant about her previous political associations. [Lyall] There is no doubt that the NAZI pageantry had a certain brutal glamor. This appealed to some frivolous members of British society like the modern Hollywood crowd. The best known was socialite Unity Valkyrie Mitford (1914–48), Lord Redesdale's fourth daughter. The venerable Mitford family traced its roots in Northumberland back to the Norman settlement (11th century). Unity shared a bedroom with her younger sister Jessica who declared herself a Communist. [Yeoman, Fran (13 December 2007). "Did Unity Mitford have Adolf Hitler's love child?". The Times. London. Retrieved 18 May 2008.] They drew a chalk line down the middle to divide the room. Jessica's put up a hammer and sickle and pictures of Vladimir Lenin. Unity decorated her side with swastikas and pictures of Adolf Hitler. Their older sister Diana married Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists. Unity developed a personal relationship with Adolf Hitler. While still in Britain before the war, she became a vocal proponent of the NAZIs, Fascism, and anti-Semitism. She would go around in public greeting people with the Heil Hitler salute. She became part of Hitler's inner social circle. The Mitford sisters were admittedly beautiful. Hitler described her and Diana as 'the perfect specimens of Aryan womanhood'. This pleased both sisters. When Britain declared war in Germany, Unity was in Munich. She reacted by shooting herself in her English garden. Her attempted suicide failed and on Hitler's personal orders was invalided back to Britain. Thomas Moore was a very conservative Conservative MP. Like Chamberlain, who for much of the 1930s was more concerned with the Soviet Union and Bolshevism than the rise of Hitler and the NAZIs. Moore was one of many Conservative MPs dazzled by the NAZIs. Incredibly he assured the Commons that 'peace and justice' were the primary principles of the Führrer's policies. He reached this conclusion after one of the many tea with Hitler meetings. Now of course it is easy to criticize with the perspective of nearly a century of history. And he was not wrong about Stalin and the Soviets. But it is incomprehensible how the adjectives peace and justice can be associated with Hitler. A great deal was know about Hitler very early on. He did attempt to hide his war plans, although Mein Kampf and his rearmament plans made clear his intentions. Hitler made no effort to hide his attitude toward justice. William was born in Torinturk, Scotland (1893). His parents were Marion (née McVicar) and John Morrison. His father was a farmer who had worked South Africa's diamond industry. William attended George Watson's College and the University of Edinburgh. He joined the British Army as an officer during World War I and served with an artillery regiment in France, where he was awarded the Military Cross. He rose to the rank of captain. He married Katharine Swan (1924). They had four sons. Morrison worked as private secretary to Thomas Inskip. After failed attempts, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Conservative MP for Cirencester and Tewkesbury (1929) He became known as 'Shakes' because he so commonly quoted Shakespeare. He thus was in Parliament during the appeasement and World War II era. As a party loyalist, he had a long ministerial career under four Prime Ministers (Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill). He was: Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General (1931-35), Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1935-36), Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (1936-39), Minister of Food (1939-40), Postmaster-General (1940-43), and Minister for Town and Country Planning (1943-45).Morrison was listed in Guilty Men by Michael Foot, Frank Owen and Peter Howard under the pseudonym 'Cato' (1940). He as not a major appeaser, but did support Baldwin and Chamberlain. His relationship to Inskip was another factor. Sir Oswald Ernald Ernal Mosley, 6th Baronet was born in London into an aristocratic family ((1896). He could have easily qualified for the title of the most hated man in Britain during World War II. He did not begin this way. Mosley was a graduate of Sandhurst, the British military academy. He served in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and was a decorated World War I veteran. He cut quite a fashionable figure after the War. He succeeded to the Baronetcy of Ancoats (1928). He married the daughter of an earl--Lady Cynthia "Cimmie" Curzon, second daughter of the 1st Earl Curzon (1920). He was invited to high-society parties. He knew Churchill and the major politicians. Mossley was a known womaniser, having many high-society affaits. He was strikingly tall for the time. he was a champion fencer who was elected Conservative MP for Harrow at the age of only 21. Mosley served in the House of Commons (1918-31). He served as a Conservative, independent, and Labour MP. After the Wall Stree Crash (1929), Mosley became a government minister. He sought to develop a solution to the unemployment problem. They were expressed in his Mosley Manifesto. It was basically a socialist proposal advicating 'industrial reorganisation in the form of the big merger involving standardisation and the pooling of resources." [Mosley, "Unemployment ..." p. 11.] His proposals were rejected. Mosley was an egostical man and saw this as a personal affront. He left the Labour Party (1931). [Dorril] He proceeded to found the New Party based on European Fascism. After touring Fascist Italy, he founded the British Union of Fascists (BUF)--sometimes styled the black shirts (1932-40). He even had 'biff boys' fashioned like the NAZI bully-boy stormtroopers. He blending his economic program with NAZI-style anti-Semitism.The Battke of Cable Street (1936) let to small memmbership increases, but public opinion turned against him. The Bristish people did not take to politicians marching arojnd in uniforms. [Dorril] Parliament passed the Public Order Act, banning political uniforms. His first wife died (1933). He secretly married his mistriss, Diana Mitford, in Berlin (1936). Hitler attended the wedding which was held at Goebbels's home. As NAZI Germany rearmed and began its aggressive policy, his theme became 'Mind Britain's business'. Special Branch wa worried abour Mosleyand the BUF. He was an excellent orator. His Britain First rally at the Earls Court Exhibition Hall was the largest indoor political rally in British history -- some 30,000 attendees (July 1939). He continued to be officially tolerated until the disaster in France (May 1940). Mosley at the time was concentrating pleading with the Gobernment to accept Hitler's 'generous'peace offer of March 1940. Authorities detained him (May 23). He was interrogated for 16 hours by Lord Birkett, but not formally charged. He and his wife weres held in comfortable ciumstances (into 1945). Mosley was arrested and not released until after the War in 1945. Considering that they were interned during World War II, it was probably for their own good. After the War it was found that Mosley had received money from the Italians to help build a Fascist movement in Britain. After Workd War II he returned to politics. He founded headed the Union Movement (UM) (1948). The UM vwas also known for virulent anti-Semitic policies. It was onev thing to do this before the War and the killing phase of the Holocaust, quite a different matter after the War. He continued his anti-Semetic rants with a new campaign against immigrants. There are charges that Montagu Norman, Governor of the Bank of England was a NAZI sympathizer. Norman has been described as Britain's first modern central banker and Governor for an unprecedented 24 years until 1944. We know that Norman was close personal friend of German Central Bank President Hjalmar Schacht, who was a supporter of Adolf Hitler and the NAZI Party, although this was before the NAZIs instituted genocidal killings. Schacht was a German nationalist and like many Germans objected to the World War I Versailles Peace Treaty. The Schacht-Norman relationship was forged during the Weimar period as important central bankers. After Hitler seized power, he appointed Schacht as his Economic Minister and in this post and President of the Reichbank, Schacht was the central figure in financing German rearmament. His financial wizardry enabled the NAZIs to pursue massive without destabilizing the economy and currency. It is unclear to what extent if any Norman cooperated with Schacht in financing German rearmament. We have not seen an assessment of this. Both Norman and Schacht were on the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). We know of no Bank of England support for NAZI finances or any evidence that Norman used his influence with commercial banking to assist NAZI finances. His relationship with Schacht and work on the BIS would seem to suggest that Norman was aware to some extent of the dimensions of German deficit spending. Schacht spoke favorably of the BIS so it clearly was not used by Britain to restrain German rearmament. This would have been in keeping with the British Government's policy of appeasement. To what extent it actually aided Schacht and his rearmament financing we do not know. The one action that has surfaced is the disgraceful turnover of Czech gold to the NAZIs after in violation of the Munich Accords, after Hitler invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia (March 1939). [Aldrik] Norman played a key role. We note that Gilbert and Gott do not list Norman as an appeaser, but do mention the gold deal. As far as we can tell, Norman was acting less as a NAZI sympathizer and more as an old-line banker, determined to maintaining the letter of the law in bank dealings. The request was made by Czech authorities although thy were under NAZI control. [Gilbert and Gott, pp. 199, 210.] What became known as the King and Country Debate was a debate at the venerated Oxford Union Society (February 9, 1933 ). Notice this was only says after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor in Germany. The motion presented to the Society for consideration was, "This House will under no circumstances fight for its King and country'. It passed in the affirmative, 275 votes for the motion and 153 against it. The motion would later be referred to as the 'Oxford Oath'" or the 'Oxford Pledge. The vote may not have represented the true feelings of the members. A guest speaker, philosopher C.E.M. Joad was a particular persuasive speaker. The debate proved to be with the outbreak of the War, the most controversial debates ever held by the Society. It apparently revealed a rift between older and younger generations about patriotism and pacifism. After war broke out with Germany, inevitably it was increasingly seen that pacifism and disarmament actually made war more likely by emboldening the aggressors. Winston Churchill wrote that the Oxford Oath had an impact on Hitler's actions leading up tp the War. Both Hitler and Mussolini and presumably the Japanese knew about the debate. What affect it actually had is difficult to ascertain, but Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese were decadent and would not fight or fight effectively. One author describes comments by MP Robert Bernays whom after a trip to Germany was asked that about the vote and told 'you English are soft,' by a NAZI youth leader who Bernays reported a as having an 'ugly gleam' in his eye The future travel author Patrick Fermor after being bounced out of Cambridge hiked from the Netherlands to Constantinople (1933-34). A good bit of the journey was through Germany. He also noticed a predatory interest. [Bouverie, pp.24-25.] Fermor would fight with the Cretan resistance and actually capture the German commander. Sir Eric Phipps was a career British diplomat who was appointed to be the British Ambassador arriving shortly after Hitler was appointed Chancellor (1933). Historians argue as to how to classify him as either an appeaser or anti-appeaser. This was basically because he understood the character of the NAZIs, unlike many of the appeasers. One historian described him as 'perceptive and quick-witted'. He only vet with Hitler four times during his 4 years in Berlin (1933-37), but he met with many of the NAZI hierarchy. Herman Göring at a dinner shortly after the Night of the Long Knives (!934) arrived late, explaining he had been shooting. Göring was a known hunting enthusiast. Phipps response was, "Animals I hope." [Bouverie, p. 19.] Phipps had a pronounced distaste for the NAZIs, but believed there was no alternative but to work with Hitler and bring him to the negotiating table. He had read Mein Kampf and understood Hitler's orientation, but wrote, that there was no alternative to not seeing him in terms of just what he wrote soon after arriving in Berlin. "for in such a case we would logically be bound to adopt the policy of a 'preventive' war nor can we afford to ignore him. Would it not therefor be available soon to try to bind that damnably dynamic man." [Phipps, pp. 41-42.] One of the Ambassador's problems was a stream of MPs and other British personages that beat a path to Hitler's door for countless 'tea with Hitler' meetings and came away convinced he was a man of peace. They not only supported the appeasement effort, but helped to convince Hitler that Britain would never fight. This is one reason that he assured his generals before invading Poland that there would be no war with Britain and France. Phillips complained to the Foreign Office, "British missionaries of peace of varying shades of political thought seem to come here in growing numbers, ans, after conversations with various personages, return to England with some plan of their own whereby peace is to be ensured for a given number of years." [Johnson, p. 85.] Press baron Lord Rothermere (1868-1940) was one of the richest men in Britain. His proper name was Harold Sidney Harmsworth. He was a major British newspaper owner, part of Associated Newspapers Ltd. He and his brother Alfred Harmsworth, Viscount Northcliffe, developed their flagship papers the Daily Mail (1903). Other papers acquired included the Daily Mirror, Glasgow Record and Mail, and the Sunday Pictorial. Between the two they essentially created popular journalism in Britain. They were strong British patriots. Harmsworth briefly served as First Air Minister during World War I. He was rocked by the tragic loss of two of his three sons in World War I and thus had more of a motive than most to prevent another war which primarily meant reaching an understanding with Germany. He thus strongly supported Prime-Minister Chamberlain's appeasement policy. And through his papers he had a powerful voice in the ensuing debate. Rothermere unlike other appeasers was not a blind follower of Chamberlain. He unlike Chamberlain believed in a strong military and did not think that military preparedness would make it difficult to negotiate with Hitler if he was really interested in peace. He thus gave Churchill's revelations considerable play in his papers. In is undeniable that he like other important appeasers was charmed by Hitler. `He understood Rothermere's importance in molding British public opinion. As the appeasement debate began, Rothermere and his papers were on the right, perhaps better described as the far right of British politics. He saw the British position in India in danger and the rise of Communism in Russia. He was impressed with what he saw of Fascism in first Italy and then Germany while British democracy was struggling with the Great Depression, University debating societies rejected King and Country. St. Andrews University even approved of the NAZI Party. It was thus the Soviets that he was most concerned with. He moved some of the family fortune to Hungary out of fear of Communism in Britain. He supported first Mussolini, followed by Mosley, and finally Hitler. He had to stop supporting Mosley in his papers because Jewish advertiserers thtratened tompull heir ads. An editorial in the Daily Mail he nust have written read, "I urge all British young men and women to study closely the progress of the NAZI regime in Germany." He insisted that The press had greatly exaggerated the atrocities which consisted of only a few isolated incidents, while ignoring the achievements of the Nazi revolution , which included an expansion of national spirit 'like that which took place in England under Queen Elizabeth" [Rothermere, (July 19, 1933.] Given the extent of his news empire, he must have known that NAZI attacks on Jews were far from isolated. It is more blikely that bhe ad no problen wwith bsuch attacks. It is strange that a newsoaperbaron woiolukd have nonproblem with NAZI supressiin of press freedom. Another editorial got down to his concern with the Communists, telling his readers that the 'sturdy young Nazis' were 'Europe's guardians against the Communist danger'. [Rothermere, November 28, 1933.] Rothermere first visited the Führer with his surviving son, Ramond. The enigmatic Austrian Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, a known German agent, helped arrange the meeting--the only Jewish woman Hitler is known to have associated with after World War I. Hitler went all out, throwing him a dinner party, the first one for a foreign dinner party. He understood Rothermere 's ability to influence public opinion, Rothermere returned the honor with a big to do at the Adlon Hotel. Princess Stephanie served as the translator. The NAZI hierarchy attended both. Ribbentrop hosted a lunch for Rothermere who dutifully attacked the Versailles Treaty and vowed to return Germany's lost colonies. Goebbels thanked him. Ambassador Phillips was beside himself as he struggled to correct the misapprehensions on both sides. Goebbels claimed the Ambassador almost fainted. [Urbach, p. 246.] Rothermere in his meetings with Hitler complained about Jewish advertisers forcung him to stop dsupporting Mosley. After Workld War II broke out, he feared arrest and moved to Bermuda. Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel (1870–1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the Party leader (1931-35) by which time the Party was no longer a major factor in British politics. He was the first practicing Jew to serve as a British Cabinet minister and also the first to become the leader of a major political party. Samuel was the last member of the Liberal Party to hold one of the four Great Offices of State. He served as Home Secretary (1931–32) in the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald). He also served as a diplomat. Samuel helped to draft and present social reform legislation while he was serving as a Liberal cabinet member. His major appointment was a High Commissioner in Palestine after World War I. He attempted to reconcile Arab and Jewish interests. He offered the Arabs majority home rule, but they refused because of minority rights guarantees. Back in England during the early parliamentary debates over Hitler's rearmament of Germany, he criticized Churchill for his shocking releases on German rearmament, apparently thinking that they made the NAZIs more difficult to deal with. He lost his seat in the Commons just as Hitler and Göring were coming into the open on armaments (1935). He was granted the title Viscount Samuel. Samuel even though he was Jewish supported Chamberlain's appeasement policy. Chamberlain never engaged Hitler on anti-Semitism. He focused on the effort to prevent another War. He urged the Government to clear Germany of the War Guilt clause and recommended the return of German colonies. Like Chamberlain, he failed to understand Hitler's character. He supported the Kindertransport movement for refugee Jewish children and worked to find homes for them. John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon (1873-1954), was a British Liberal politician who gradually moved toward the Conservatives. He held senior cabinet posts from the beginning of World War I to the end of World War II. He is a rare parliamentarian to serve in all three major cabinet posts (Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer). He also served as Lord Chancellor, the most senior position in the British legal system. He began his parliamentarian career as a Liberal, specifically s left-wing liberal gradually moving to the right. He joined the National Government (1931, spiting the Liberal Party by helping found the Liberal National Party. Simon was Chancellor of the Exchequer before World War II (1937-40). That was a position that commonly led to the premiership. He was a strong supporter of Chamberlain and appeasement, including Munich. After Hitler in violation of the Munich Agreement invaded Czechoslovakia(March 1939), he finally recognized the terrible error that had been made and opposed any second Munich. Churchill saw Simon as one of the most important appeasers and moved him out of the cabinet quickly after becoming prime minister. James Richard Stanhope, 13th Earl of Chesterfield and 7th Earl Stanhope, (1880-1967) was a senior British Conservative politician. He was the eldest son of Arthur Stanhope, 6th Earl Stanhope, and Evelyn Henrietta (née Pennefather), daughter of Richard Pennefather of Knockeevan, County Tipperary and Lady Emily Butler. Lord Mahon was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards (1901). He and his battalion served in South Africa during the Second Boer War. Stanhope never ran for Parliament. He entered the House of Lords on the death of his father and the inheritance of the family earldom (1905). He made his maiden speech (1909). He held his first government office as Parliamentary Secretary to the War Office under David Lloyd George between at the end of World War I (1918-19). He was appointed Civil Lord of the Admiralty under Stanley Baldwin (1924). He held that post until the Conservatives lost power (1929). During this period he became a member of the Privy Council. With the formation of the National Government (1931) he served under Ramsay MacDonald as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty. He also served as Under-Secretary of State for War (1931-34) and as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. These were very important posts and Stanhope was in a position to understand the status of the military inherited by Baldwin and Chamberlain in the early-1930s and the dangers of German rearmament. His subsequent offices took him out of the military sphere, but he continued to strongly support the Government. He was brought into the Cabinet (June 1936). Baldwin appointed him First Commissioner of Works. Later Chamberlain made him President of the Board of Education (May 1937). It is not clear why Stanhope was shifted from military to civilian posts. He succeeded E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax as Leader of the House of Lords (February 1938). Then Chamberlain after the Munich crisis gave him a military post. Chamberlain appointed Stanhope First Lord of the Admiralty (October 1938). He continued as Leader of the House of Lords. After Hitler invaded Poland and Britain declared war (September 1939) Chamberlain replaced Stanhope at the Admiralty with Winston Churchill. the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, he was succeeded as First Lord of the Admiralty by Winston Churchill. He did not serve in the Churchill coalition government and never returned to ministerial office. Stanhope was some of the men listed in Guilty Men (July 1940). In Stanhope's case, the responsibility seems larger than most because of his knowledge of military matters. Ernest William Dalrymple Tennant (1887-1962) was the son of William Augustus Tennant and Agnes Gairdner. He grew up in Oxford House, a country house that was already in his family. He was a cousin of Margot Asquith, the socialite wife of the prime-minister. Tennant was a noted English merchant banker and industrialist. Tennant served in the Intelligence Corps during World War I. He rose to the rank of Captain. He was a merchant banker and after the War was highly successful in developing extensive business interests in Germany. He was associated with several financial institutions, including the Anglo-Palestine Bank which was Jewish-owned institution. We are unsure to what extent this affected his attitude toward Jews. We do know that he initially admired Hitler and the NAZIs and became a strong advocate of closer links between Britain and Germany. He thus became a strong supporter of Baldwin and Chamberlain's appeasement policy. Even after Hitler's character and goals were evident, he was working tirelessly to prevent war. He was a founding member of AGF. Arnold J. Toynbee worked in the intelligence department of the British Foreign Office during World War I. He serving as a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference (1919). He became one of the most respected historians and historical philosophers in the inter-War and post-War era. His best work is his 12-volume A Study of History (1934–1961). He was seen as a leading expert on international affairs. But has since fallen into disfavor among modern historians. A concise modern view of Toynbee is, "To many world historians today, Arnold J. Toynbee is regarded like an embarrassing uncle at a house party. He gets a requisite introduction by virtue of his place on the family tree, but he is quickly passed over for other friends and relatives." [Lang] Historians can debate his significance. For us we note his one real opportunity to make a real contribution--his meeting with Hitler and NAZI jurists. Toynbee was invited to speak he Nazi Law Society in Berlin (1936). By the German judiciary had been thoroughly NAZIfied--something that should have been no secret to Toynbee. Hitler invited him for a private meeting before delivering his lecture. Hitler gave him his standard spiel. He assured him that his limited expansionist goal of building a unified greater German nation. He emphasized his desire for peace and understanding with Britain. He suggested Germany could be an ally to Britain in the Asia-Pacific if Britain would return Germany's colonies. [Pemberton, p. 34.] Toynbee bought Hitler's pitch. He saw him as sincere and reported Hitler's offer positively in a confidential memorandum to Prime-Minister Baldwin and Foreign Secretary Eden. [McNeill, Chapter 8.] Toynbee's lecture was well-received by the assembled NAZI lawyers, appreciating its conciliatory tone. Back in Britain, some of Toynbee's colleagues were dismayed by his positive depiction of Hitler. [Pemberton, p. 34.] Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster (1879 – 1953) was a British landowner and one of the wealthiest men mot only in Britain, but the world. The Duke is one of the many appeasers among the aristocracy. He was one of the more distasteful appeasers. He was one of the aristocrats that were pro-NAZI, not just pro-German, but pro-NAZI. He took the NAZI line that war was all a plot of the Jews--expressing himself in vile anti-Semetic terms. [Bouverie, p. 1.] He was, however, no coward. He volunteered for front-line combat during World War I and served with distinction in Egypt. He demonstrated initiative in battle and technical skill with armored cars because of his interest in motor-cars before the War. In the inter-War era he was introduced to Gabrielle ("Coco") Chanel after a party in Monte Carlo and famously pursued her with his money (1925). The Duke was interested in politics and more than willing to use what we today call 'dirty tricks'. The Duke like most aristocrats were Conservatives. He outed his brother-in-law, William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp (1872–1938), as a homosexual to the King George V and Queen Nary (1931). He was trying harm the Liberal Party through Beauchamp. The King was appalled, reportedly remarking, "I thought men like that shot themselves." He was also a crude anti-Semite and supported right-wing groups, including the Right Club. One of Coco Chanel's biographers reports, "His anti-Semitic rants were notorious." [Vaughan, p. 101.] Westminster not only supported appeasement to prevent another war, he actually favored the NAZIs. For many aristocratic this was because they imposed order and were anti-Communist. A kind of 'polite' anti-Semitism was also involved. For Westminster it was very important. There was a famous account of the day Hitler with Stalin's help launched World War II. Lady Diana Cooper and her husband, prominent anti-appeaser Duff Cooper, were lunching at London's Savoy Grill with the Duke. She reports, "... when he [the Duke of Westminster] added that Hitler knew after all that we [Britain] were his best friends, he set off the powder-magazine. 'I hope,' Duff spat, 'that by tomorrow he will know that we are his most implacable and remorseless enemies'. Next day 'Bendor' [the Duke's nickname] , telephoning to a friend, said that if there was a war it would be entirely due to the Jews and Duff Cooper." [Cooper] The Duke's final war-time involvement was with Coco Chanel, his former love interest who remained in France during the occupation and hob-bobbed with NAZIs. Chanel was involved with Baron Hans Gunther von Dinklage - an Abwehr agent who had SS friends. The Duke and Dinklage wanted Chanel to use her connections with Churchill to broker a bilateral peace between the British and the NAZIs (around January 1944). [Vaughn, p. 161.] Chanel was used because of her pre-War connections with Churchill. Of course it is nonsense to think that Churchill would have any interest in a separate peace, but some Germans were beginning to get nervous by this time. Sir Arnold Wilson (1884 – 1940) was the British civil commissioner in Baghdad in the aftermath of World War I (1918–20). He worked under Percy Cox, the colonial administrator of Mesopotamia (Mandatory Iraq). He was present during the Iraqi revolt (1920). He was a Conservative MP who strongly supported Chamberlain's appeasement policy. Like Chamberlain, he considered the Soviet Union and Bolshevism the greatest threat. His assessment was that Hitler was the best of the socialists, conservative at heart. He believed that Hitler was seeking to preserve what was best in the German culture. [Griffiths, p. 157.] This of course was another massive miscalculation. In fact Hitler was a committed and radical revolutionary, intent on remaking Germany from the round up. One matter that impressed many of the tea with Hitler crows was the apparent success in dealing with unemployment. Wilson who criticized his Government's seeming indifference to Depression Era unemployed. marveled at Hitler's success. He wanted some of the same interventionist policies which had put people back to work amid generated such enthusiast among young people.At a public appearance in Hamburg, "There are things in the New Germany which we should do well to study, adapt and adopt (May 1934). [ Horace John Wilson was the son of furniture dealer Henry Wilson and Elizabeth Ann Smith. He was born in Bournemouth (1882). He attended Kurnella School in the town before graduating to the London School of Economics. He was a senior civil servant, not a parliamentarian. After considerable successes in various civil service posts, he was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (1921). He developed a reputation for resolving industrial disputes. He succeeded in handling the cotton crisis (1929). He managed to maintain a measure of impartiality, major achievement in industrial disputes. As a result, Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald appointed him Chief Industrial Advisor to the Government (1930). The developing Depression made this a challenging post. Wilson proved skillful on the international stage at the Imperial Economic Conference in Ottawa, Canada. Like many who were impressed with the New Germany, he noted Hitler's apparent success in putting Germans back to work. During the Premiership of Stanley Baldwin, in 1935, Wilson was afforded a secondment described as 'for service with the Prime Minister' (1935). This continued when Neville Chamberlain replaced Baldwin (1937). Chamberlain's biographer Robert Self writes that the two developed 'the sort of unparalleled intimacy only possible among truly kindred spirits.' [Penden] Wilson became Chamberlain's most important adviser, but he was much more than an adviser. He controlled the Prime Minister's schedule. And he was involved in negotiations of his own. For example, Wilson meet with Theodor Kordt, the counselor at Germany's London Embassy. Wilson told him that he was pleased to hear that Hitler had referred to England and Germany as 'two pillars upon which the European social order could rest'. Wilson expanded the metaphor by expressing his wish 'that an arch of co-operation should be erected on these two pillars'. He also expressed his hope that Germany would succeed in fulfilling her goals regarding Austria and Czechoslovakia 'as much as possible without the use of force' (March 10,1938). [Penden] Wilson in short while a non-elected official was the second most powerful individual in the British Government. A great deal is known about Edward and Hitler and none of it reflects very well on either David (his family name) or his wide, Mrs. Simpson. It needs to be stressed that there is no sign he approved of what Hitler ultimately did, but even before the Warm there was plenty of information for a reasonable person to be disgusted with him. We know that David before the death of his father to have been very critical of Britain, This seems to have been primarily the restrictions placed on him personally and the disapproval of his father because of his licentious life style, namely affairs with married women and his refusal to settle down and marry. With the onset of the Depression, he was impressed with Hitler and his seeming ability to restore German national life. We see no disapproval of the end of democracy, murder of opponents, suppression of Jews, and the end of the rule of law. Even arch appeasers were disturbed by some or all of these aspects of the NAZI regime--not David. Now we do not know why. Perhaps he as draw toward Fascism ideologically. Or perhaps he was just poorly informed and did not bother to inform himself about current affairs, preferring the ladies, fashion, and smart dinner parties to reading and political discussions. Neither of course are very attractive characteristics in a future monarch. Then of course in short succession his father died, he became Edward VIII, and the Government refused to allow him to marry Mrs. Simpson (1936). David abdicated and went into exile in France. The Royal family essentially abandoned him and refused virtually any contact with Mrs. Simpson or royal status for her. This infuriated David. His brother's wife, Queen Elizabeth was particularly vengeful. Hitler was watching all of this and believed and believed that war could be avoided and an alliance with Britain was possible with David on the throne. David for hid part says that his primary goal was to avoid another War which of course was the motivation of most of the appeasers. The Duke showed his lack of appreciation for Hitler's character when he sent the Führer a telegram, urging him to 'do his best for peace.' (September 1939). [Bouverie, p. 2.] Howard Kingsley Wood (1881 - 1943) was an important English Conservative politician. His father was a Wesleyan Methodist minister. He qualified as a solicitor and specialized in industrial insurance. He entered politics by becoming a member of the London County Council and then a MP. He served under four prime ministers, but was closely associated with Neville Chamberlain. His first governmental post was a junior minister to Neville Chamberlain at the Ministry of Health. They establishing a close personal and political relationship. His first cabinet post was Postmaster General, in which he left his mark, transforming the British Post Office from a lethargic bureaucracy to an actual business. He was strong supporter of Chamberlain's appeasement policy, reflecting in part his religious upbringing. Anthony Eden resigned from Chamberlain's Government over differences with Chamberlain's appeasement policies (March 1938). In the ensuing reshuffle, Wood was moved to be Secretary of State for Air. It proved to be the most important appointment Chamberlain made during the appeasement effort. We are not sure why Chamberlain chose Wood for the air ministry. We assume it was because of his administrative effectiveness at the Post Office and the Ministry of Health. The air ministry was having trouble increasing production. Wood cut through the red tape and oversaw a massive increase in the production of aircraft, including bringing the new Supermarine Spitfire on line. As a result, by the time war broke out, Britain had reached parity with Germany and by the time of the Battle of Britain was out producing Germany. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister (June 1940), he moved Wood to Chancellor of the Exchequer, primarily because of his work at the air ministry had affected his health. Churchill of course is the best known anti-appeaser, but he was hardly the only voice criticising appeasement. Important anti-appeasers included: Austin Chamberlain, Duff Cooper, Anthony Eden, Harold Rumbold, Brig. A.C. Temperly, Robert Vansittart, Ralph Wigram, and others. This is a lttle complicated because people changed their opinions over time. And the question becomes just when did an individual have to part company from the Goverment to be regarded as a legitimate anti-appeasers? Do those who only shifted after Munich (September 1939) qualify as anti-appeasers. Labour Party policies are a special case. From an early point they distrusted Hitler and the NAZIs. At the same time, they also opposed themilitary spending needed to deter Hitler. In fact, imprtant factions of the party was pacifist, arguing for disarament at the same time that Hitler was conducting a massive rearmament effort. Labour leaders for some time were opposimg the Government's very limited military spending. Aldrik, Philip. "Was Montagu Norman a Nazi sympathiser?" The Telegraph (July 31, 2013). Ascher, Abraham. Was Hitler a Riddle?: Western Democracies and National Socialism (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2012). Atlee, Clement, House of Commons,March 8. 1934. Baldwin, Stanley in Hansard, House of Common Debates (Novenber 12,1936), Vol. 317, Col 1144. Bartlett, Vernon. NAZI Germany Explained (London: 1933). Bouverie, Tim. 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(Cambridge University Press: 2005). Cripps, Stanford. The Times (March 15, 1937), p. 21. Dorril, Stephen. Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism (2006). Dutton (2001). Feuchtwanger, E. "Ashley, Wilfrid William, Baron Mount Temple (1867–1939), politician," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (January 3, 2008). Foreign Office (FO). Documents on British Foreign Policy. Fort, Adrian. Nancy: The Story of Lady Astor (St. Martins: 2013).
George, LLoyd. Daily Express (1936). Gilbert, Martin. The Roots of Appeasement (London, 1966). Gilbert, Martin. Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (London: Minerva, 1990).
Gilbert, Martin and Richad Gott, The Appeasers (Phoenix Oress: London, 2000), 444p. Griffiths, Richard. Fellow Travellers of the Right: British Enthusiasts for NAZI Germany, 1933-39<. (Oxford Paoerbacks: 1983), 410p. Gunther, John. Inside Europe (Harper & Brothers: 1940). Hankey, Maurice. Hankey to Phipps (September 1933). Phipps Papers.
Henderson, Nevile. Failure of a Mission, 1937-39 (1940). Henderson, Hubert. "Hubert Henderson to John Maynard Keynes, 22 January." The John Maynard Keynes Papers M/2/84. (Cambridge: King’s College: 1930). Henderson, Nevile. Failure of a Mission, 1937-39 (1940). Hersh, Seymour. The Dark Side of Camelot (Back Bay Books: 1998). Holland, James. Persinal coomunications (December 28, 2020). Jackson, Alvin. ‘Stewart, Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-, seventh marquess of Londonderry (1878–1949)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). Johnson, Gaynor. Ed. our Man in Berlin: The Diary of Sir Eric Phillios, 1933-37 (Bassingstoke: 2007). Jones, Thomas. A Diary with Letters, 1931-1950 (London: 1934). Jones has been described as one of the six most influential men in Europe. He was also described as the keeper of a thouand secrets. This book is a good example, but of course they were no longer secrets. Jones, Thomas. Lloyd George (Harvard University Press: 1951). Kershaw, Ian. Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry and Britain's Road to War (London: 2004). Keyes, John Maynatd. The ecomomic Consequenhces of the Peace (1919). Lang, Michel. "Globalization and global history in Toynbee." Journal of World Histor Vol. 22, No. 4, (2011), pp. 747–83. (Lord) Lothian, The Times (February 1, 1935). Lyall, Sarah. "Lady Diana Mosley, Fascist Who Dazzled, Is Dead at 93". The New York Times World (August 14, 2003). McDonough, Frank. Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement, and the British Road to War (Manchester University Press: 1998). McDonough, Frank. "The Times, Norman Ebbut and the Nazis, 1927-37," Journal of Contemporary History Vol. 27, No. 3 (1992), pp. 407-24. McNeill, William H. Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life (New York: Oxford University Press: 1989). Martel, Gordon. Ed. The Times and Appeasement: The Journals of A L Kennedy, 1932-1939 (Camden Fifth Series, Series Number 16: 2009) Morgan, Kenneth O. "Lloyd George and Germany." Historical Journal Vol. 39, No. 3 (1996), pp. 755-66. Mosley, Oswald E. "Unemployment Policy. Records of the Cabinet Office, CAB 24/209/30. (London: National Archives, 1930). Nasaw, David. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy (2012). Naylor, John F. "Hankey, Maurice Pascal Alers, first Baron Hankey (1877-1963)," The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). Neville, Peter. Appeasing Hitler: The Diplomacy of Sir Nevile Henderson, 1937-39 (London: Macmillan, 1999). The pro-NAZI British historiam was T. Philip Conwell-Evans. Pemberton, Jo-Anne (2020). The Story of International Relations, Part Three: Cold-Blooded Idealists. (Springer Nature: 2020).. Penden, George C.. "Sir Horace Wilson and appeasement," Historical Journal Cambridge University Press. Vol. 53, No. 4, (December 2010), pp. 983-1014. Phipps, Eric. Johnson, Gaynor, ed. Our Man in Berlin: The Diary of Eric Phipps, 1933-1937 (Basingstoke: 2007). Picknett. Lynn, Clive Prince, and Stephen Prior. Double Standards: The Rudolf Hess Cover-Up (2002). Poole, DeWitt C. "Light on Nazi foreign policy," Foreign Affairs Vol 25, No. 1 (October 1946), pp. 130-54. Pugh, Martin. Hurrah For the Blackshirts!" Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the War (Pimlico: 2006). Renehan, Edward, Jr. "Joseph Kennedy and the Jews," History News Network. (Lord) Rothermere, Daily Msil (July 10, 1933). (Lord) Rothermere, Daily Msil (Nivember 28, 1933). Rudman, Stella (2011), Lloyd George and the Appeasement of Germany, 1919-1945 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 2011). Rhiannon Vickers (2013). The Labour Party and the World Volume 1: The Evolution of Labour's Foreign Policy, 1900–51 (Manchester University Press: 2013). Samuel, Herbert in Hansard, House of Common Devates (Juky 13n 1934, Vol. 292, Col. 675. Samuel was Jewish and served as High Commisioner in Palestine, trying to to get Arab assent for home rule. He was the LiberalmParty leader (1931-35). Urbach, Karina. Go Betweens for Hitler (Oxford: 2015). Vaughan, Hal. Sleeping With the Enemy, Coco Chanel's Secret War (Alfred A. Knopf, 2011). Wilson, Bee. "Musical Chairs with Ribbentrop," London Review of Books (December 20, 2012). Yeoman, Fran. "Did Unity Mitford have Adolf Hitler's love child?" The Times (December 13, 2007). "A chance to rebuild" The Times (March 9, 1936). The editors like many were taken in by Hitler's peace gestures following the troop movement into the Rhineland. . Daily Mirror (October 25, 1935), p. 6. The interruptions were not mentioned in the official record. , 'Eerste tien jaar geen oorlog," Verklaringen van Lloyd George. Alkmaarsche Courant (August 9, 1934), p.6. Manchester Guardian, various issues.
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Figure 2.--this is is Oswald Mosley with some of his British Union of Fascists followers, probably about 1935. Parliament banned politucal uniforms, but as the NAZIs rearmed and became increasingky threatening, his slogan begame 'Mind Britain's budiness'. Oswald Mosley (1896-1980)
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