RUMOURS. DENIED BY LORD ASTOR

Southland Times, Issue 23512, 19 May 1938, Page 9

RUMOURS. DENIED BY LORD ASTOR

| “CLIVEDEN SET” AND BRITISH CABINET WEEK-END MEETINGS OF LEADING STATESMEN LONDON, May 8. Denials of statements in circulation that the so-called “Cliveden House” set has been influencing or controlling British foreign policy are contained in a letter Viscount Astor, owner of The Observer, has written to The Times. Cliveden House, Taplow, Buckinghamshire, is the home of Lord Astor and his wife, Countess Nancy Astor, ; Conservative M.P. Mr and Mrs Cham- • berlain and the Foreign Secretary (Lord ’ Halifax) have often been there at weekends. j The fact that Mr Chamberlain spent ’ a week-end there just before the last ' visit to London of Herr Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister, and the German coup nr Austria, has been mentioned recently in debates in the House of Commons. j Lord Astor in his letter, asserts that j the linking of the Cliveden House week-ends with any particular clique is as absurd as the allegation that those j desiring better relations with Italy and c Germany are pro-Nazis and pro-Fas-cists. . “The Countess and I are no more fascists now than we were communists a few years ago when we supported the Soviet trade agreement. We entertain at Cliveden members of all parties, including communists.” Referring to the report that Lord Halifax’s visit to Berlin was planned at Cliveden on October 23 and 24 last year, driving Mr Eden to threaten to resign from the Cabinet, Lord Astor states: “Mr Eden stayed at Cliveden ■ that week-end. I learned subsequently s that Lord Halifax’s visit had been . r settled by the Government before the 1 week-end. The whole conception of the Cliveden set is a myth from beginning ? to_„ J ” * end. s Lady Astor has written a similar denial to The Daily Herald. 1 The Observer has been a consistent j supporter of the policy of an approach £ to the dictatorships to seek agreements 0 with Britain and has supported General Franco in Spain. c It is nearly 20 years ago since Lady Astor, a brilliant and vivacious girl s from Virginia, captured the Plymouth t seat, and she has retained it ever since 3 She has had a full and romantic life. 3 She divorced her first husband in 1903, c

and married the wealthy William Astor three years later. She was the first woman to enter the House of Commons. She is a Christian Scientist and temperance advocate; ’ her husband owns The Observer, and his brother is chairman of The Times. The mansion in St. James's Square, and the country seat at Cliveden, on the most beautiful reach of the Thames, are the two most distinguished places of entertainment left in Britain today.