England’s Second Foreign Office

Northern Advocate, 16 April 1938, Page 12

England’s Second Foreign Office

;; TTv RIME Minister Chamberlain % LJ pays a week-end visit to * ' Cliveden, Thames Valley coun--try home of American-born Lady . Astor. . . . Observers of the 5 diplomatic scene wonder what is the significance of the visit. . . .

* For Lady Astor, energetic, intelli-

11 gent and keenly political, is the centre tof the “Cliveden Set,” an influential A group of Englishmen with strong pro- ? German sympathies.

Lady Astor—she was Nancy Langhome, of Virginia, before she married ;] Viscount Astoi;—has gathered around t’her some of the most important men in England.

% Frequent guests at her picturesque 11 country home include Lord Halifax, who succeeded Mr Eden a's Foreign •*Secretary; Lord Londonderry, chief of Athe Conservative Party; Sir Neville Henderson, British Ambassador to Berlin: Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare; and Chancellor of the Ex- • chequer Sir John Simon, Add to this list her brother-in-law, Major Astor, principal owner of “The Times,” its editor, Geoffrey Dawson, and Lord Lothian, and remember that Lord Astor owns the Sunday newspaper, “Observer.” and you can understand vthe political importance of the “Cliveden Set.”. . . $ You can understand, too. why opponents of this group sometimes refer ;to it as “Britain’s Second Foreign Of%flee.” /; What is the policy of the Cliveden Set—“ The Shiver Sisters”—as cartoonist Low calls them? English; journalist Claud Cockburn analyses it. in a recent number oi “Current History.” £ Cockburn, who was formerly ace correspondent of the “London Times,” knows the inside workings of British politics first hand, v He sums it up thus: — Dislike of France. ■3 . • \ ']■ “Active dislike of the French, fear and hatred of all ‘popular’ movements, a consequent admiration for the ‘defensive’ possibilities of Hitlerism, mix,:.ied with a fear amounting to panic of ,a possible German attack upon Britain, and an unchangeable hostility to the Soviet Union.” They regard Hitler, says Cockburn. the bulwark, against Bolshevism in Europe. % w “But in London, as in Berlin, ‘Bulwark against Bolshevism’ has come and is increasingly coming to mean what Hitler and Dr. Goebbels, obeying the. necessities of German imperialism,'; choose that it shall mean.

“It means bulwark against the antifeudat Republicanism of the Spanish Government (called ‘Red’ in the Lon-

don ‘Observer’ . . .); bulwark against the ‘Red’ peril supposedly implicit in the strength of the Liberal Government of Czechoslovakia; bulwark against the dangerously Bolshevik tendencies of Comrades Roosevelt and Hull.” It may seem absurd, says Cockburn, that Goebbels’s clumsy anti-Red propaganda. his trick of labelling everything in the way of Germany’s aggressive foreign policy as Bolshevist, should have succeeded so well in England. 0 But that it has succeeded is apparent, Cockburn argues. “It is true, for instance,” he writes, “that there are German guns at Tarifa . . . dominating not only the Straits of Gibraltar but the harbour of Gibraltar itself. . . . The Alternative. “But. reply the British Conservatives, who have drunk so deeply of the subtly mixed potions produced by Dr. Goebbels, what is the alternative? The alternative is to support the (Spanish Government and help turn the Germans out of Tarifa as quickly as possible. But the Spanish Government is ‘Red’ (Dr. Goebbels and hi:; British friends have told us so).

“So we will let the German guns slay at Tarifa and we will let the German mine-owners divert all the iron ore of Bilbao to the factories of Kriipp instead of to the factories of Vickers.”

The English Conservative attitude towards Japanese aggression in China, or towards Italian piracy in the Mediterranean. is conditioned by. similar fears, says Cockburn.

Japan is saving China from Bolshevism, as Mussolini is saving Italy from Bolshevism, and Hitler, Germany.

True Background

“That is the true background ot Angle -German relations.” says Cockburn. “That is the final key to the paradox of Anglo-German affairs.”

Thus Britain is frightened by Ger-

man rearmament

Yet she has greatly assisted it by

generous loans

The Anglo-German issue, of vital importance to European peace, is Cliveden’s principal topic, says Cockburn. He claims that it was here that the visit of Lord Halifax to Germany last December was decided on. despite the opposition of Mr Eden. Lord Londonderry and Lord Lothian, regular visitors at Cliveden, Hew to and fro between London and Berlin arranging the trip with General Goering. Mr Eden, according to Cockburn. was furious at the proposal, and resigned, but withdrew his resignation

to repeat it a few months later, when the Anglo-Italian talks began.

Supporting Eden. Supporting Eden in his stand against the Cliveden policy of appeasing Hitler was Sir Robert Vansittart, head of the permanent staff of the Foreign Office. “It is no secret,” says Cockburn. “that Sir Robert Vansittart detests Cliveden and all that it represents with an active pei’sonal loathing. "He is also afraid of the Cliveden Set, believing that in the end their money and their newspaper power and their social influence in the West End and the country houses will enable them to achieve what Herr von Ribbentrop pursued so strenuously by similar methods in the brief reign of the present Duke of Windsor.” .Vansittart’s attitude, says Cockburn, is typical of the opposition to the Cliveden policy as it exists in the ranks of the Government and Conservative Party. Paradoxical Position. He argues that the position which Vansittart’s group represents is paradoxical. •“They regard, correctly. Germany as the greatest potential menace to Britain. They acknowledge, theoretically. that the means to neutralise that menace are ready to hand in the shape of a closer alliance and cooperation between Britain. France, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.”

But between theory and practice? yawns a great gulf. And British Conservative opinion is unable to bridge it. For. says Codiburn. Vansiitart and his followers, though they differ sharply from the Cliveden group, are no less dyed-in-the-wool Tories. “They are in the awkward position of feeling bound to reject for the most part the very defences which offer themselves, since they cannot bear the notion cf an association with the Soviet Union, or a strengthening of the alliances and pacts of the Soviet Union in central and western Europe.' So the Vansfttart group falls back on the doubtful policy of trying to enfeeble Germany by detaching Italy from her Hope to Conciliate Dace. They hope to conciliate Mussolini by offering him certain concessions. But, says Cockburn. every new concession that England makes raises Mussolini’s value in Berlin, and only strengthens the Rome-Berlfri axis.

"The tension grows monthly worse." wrote Cockburn in February, before the Austrian coup, before the collapse of the Spanish loyalist forces. . . and the ugly dilemma of British conservatism—the dilemma of a right-wing Government which must either surrender British interests to foreign imperialist demands, or join hands with hated left-wing Governments—remains unsolved.” One belief. Cockburn adds, "soothes the nightmares of the political clubmen.” It is the hope that If a crisis can be averted for another sixteen or eighteen months. Britain will be so effectively rearmed that she will be able to assert herself once more, without pandering to the arrogant demands of the dictators. But he adds a disquieting comment: Unfortunately—- “ Unfortunately for Britain, while the rearmament programme proceeds . . . strategic power positions worth millions of pounds of armament have had to be abandoned to the potential enemy: one needs only to think of the Straits of Gibraltar, the Balearic Isles, the Azores, and the Basque country ”

Meanwhile, Lady Astor, Britain’s Political Hostess No. 1, invites Cabinet Ministers to house parties where

political careers are made or marred

The Sabbath Hour