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SIR HORACE WILSON AND APPEASEMENT*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2010

G. C. PEDEN
G. C. PEDEN*
Affiliation:
University of Stirling
*
Ardvurich, Leny Feus, Callander, FK17 8ASgeorge.peden@stir.ac.uk
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Abstract

Sir Horace Wilson was Neville Chamberlain's confidential adviser while the latter was prime minister. The article addresses three questions. First, what was Wilson's role in Whitehall in connection with rearmament and foreign policy? Second, did he diminish the influence of the Foreign Office? Third, what contribution does his defence of appeasement make to understanding of a subject that continues to divide historians? The article concludes that Wilson played an important role in enabling Chamberlain to pursue his foreign policy goals. However, when there was outright disagreement between Wilson and the Foreign Office, it was the Foreign Office view that prevailed. Finally, the evidence of Wilson's words and actions, both in 1937–9 and later, broadly supports R. A. C. Parker's post-revisionist interpretation of appeasement, particularly as regards Munich, but Wilson was a good deal firmer in 1939 about Britain's will to fight, if necessary, than his critics then or later allowed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , December 2010 , pp. 983 - 1014
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Peter Bell, Gill Bennett, David Dilks, Adrian Phillips, and Zara Steiner for comments on an earlier draft; to Paul Addison for giving me a copy of his notes of a talk with Sir Horace Wilson; and to the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and the University of Stirling for funding the research.

References

1 Gilbert, M., ‘Horace Wilson: man of Munich?’ History Today, 32/10 (1982), pp. 3–9Google Scholar.

2 Lowe, R. and Roberts, R., ‘Sir Horace Wilson, 1900–1935: the making of a mandarin’, Historical Journal, 30, (1987), pp. 641–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 W. J. Brown, So far … (London, 1943), p. 220.

4 R. A. Butler papers, RAB F80, fo. 102, Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge.

5 Kingsley Wood to Churchill, 27 July 1941, Sir Winston Churchill papers, CHAR 20/20, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge. Wilson believed that he was unpopular with Labour on account of the role he had played in defeating the General Strike in 1926, his opposition to the repeal of the subsequent Trades Disputes Act, and his friendship with the industrialist Lord Weir who advised the government on rearmament – ‘Talk with Horace Wilson’, 16 July 1942, Thomas Jones CH class P papers, vol. 3, fo. 68, National Library of Wales.

6 ‘Cato’ [Michael Foot, Peter Howard, and Frank Owen], Guilty men (London, 1940), pp. 86, 89.

7 Memoirs of Lord Gladwyn (London, 1972), p. 76. As Gladwyn Jebb he was private secretary to Sir Alexander Cadogan, the permanent under-secretary.

8 R. Self, Neville Chamberlain, a biography (Aldershot, 2006), p. 446.

9 D. Dutton, Neville Chamberlain (London, 2001), p. 203; D. Reynolds, Summits: six meetings that shaped the twentieth century (London, 2007), p. 417.

10 R. A. C. Parker, Chamberlain and appeasement (Basingstoke, 1993), p. 258.

11 Gladwyn, Memoirs, p. 76. Historians using the same term include R. Caputi, Neville Chamberlain and appeasement (London, 2000), p. 81; Self, Neville Chamberlain, p. 292, and D. R. Thorpe, Eden (London, 2004), p. 186.

12 Prime Minister's Office papers (PREM), series 1, The National Archives of the United Kingdom (TNA).

13 Lord Bridges's papers contain some of Wilson's papers which were presumably inherited by Bridges when he became permanent secretary of the Treasury and head of the Civil Service in 1945 – see Treasury papers (T), series 273, TNA.

14 Gilbert, ‘Horace Wilson’, p. 4. Ian Colvin, Vansittart in office (London, 1965), p. 137, also locates Wilson in the Treasury before 1939. J. Charmley, Chamberlain and the lost peace (London, 1989), p. 85, gives Wilson's position in 1938 prematurely as ‘Head of the Civil Service’.

15 Addison's notes of talk with Wilson, 4 Apr. 1967.

16 Reynolds, Summits, p. 46; E. O'Halpin, Head of the Civil Service (London, 1989), pp. 63–4, 219–21.

17 J. Colville, The fringes of power: Downing Street diary, 1939–1955 (London, 1985), p. 36; Lord Woolton, Memoirs (London, 1959), p. 140; notes on conversation with Hilda Chamberlain, 29 Nov. 1951, Viscount Templewood papers, part xix, file 5, Cambridge University Library.

18 Addison's notes of talk with Wilson, 4 Apr. 1967.

19 K. Harris, Attlee (London, 1982), p. 180.

20 Notes of talk with Wilson, 4 Apr. 1967.

21 R. Shay, British rearmament in the thirties (Princeton, NJ, 1977), pp. 95–7.

22 Committee of Imperial Defence (CID) minutes, 5 July 1937, Cabinet Office papers (CAB) 2/6, TNA.

23 Minutes of meeting of 12 Nov. 1937, CAB 64/30.

24 ‘Defence expenditure in future years: interim report’, 15 Dec. 1937, CAB 24/273, and ‘Further report’, 8 Feb. 1938, CAB 24/274.

25 Memorandum by J. P. L. Thomas (Viscount Cilcennin), n.d. but prepared for Eden while latter was writing his memoirs, Avon papers, AP 7/24/81, Special Collections, University of Birmingham.

26 Note by Wilson, 11 Feb. 1938, PREM 1/238, fos. 133–4.

27 Cabinet conclusions (CC) 12 (38) and 13 (38), 12 and 14 Mar., 1938, CAB 23/92.

28 PREM 1/251, fos. 20–5, 51–7, 88–9, 91–4, 101–6.

29 Wilson to prime minister, 15 Mar. 1938, and note by Wilson for prime minister, n.d. but c. 22 Apr. 1938, PREM 1/236, fos. 211–12 and 126–9.

30 G. C. Peden, British Rearmament and the Treasury, 1932–1939 (Edinburgh, 1979), pp. 156–8.

31 Wilson to J. H. E. Woods, principal private secretary to the chancellor of the exchequer, 1 Nov. 1938, PREM 1/236, fos. 72–74.

32 CC 51 (38) and 53 (38), 31 Oct. and 7 Nov. 1938, CAB 23/96.

33 Memorandum by Wilson, 29 Mar. 1939, PREM 1/296, fos. 32–7; R. J. Minney, The private papers of Hore-Belisha (London, 1960), pp. 186–8.

34 Memorandum by J. A. N. Barlow, 28 Mar. 1939, T 175/104 (part 2); CC 15 (39), 29 Mar. 1939, CAB 23/98.

35 Wilson to Sir James Grigg, 31 Jan. 1938, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, PJGG 2/23/2(a).

36 Shay, British rearmament, pp. 247–8.

37 Chamberlain to Hilda, 15 Apr. 1939, in R. Self, ed., The Neville Chamberlain diary letters, iv (Aldershot, 2005), p. 407.

38 R. Cockett, Twilight of truth: Chamberlain, appeasement and the manipulation of the press (London, 1989), pp. 15, 110, and 119.

39 Earl of Avon, The Eden memoirs: facing the dictators (London, 1962), pp. 447–8.

40 Lord Vansittart, The mist procession (London, 1958), pp. 442–3.

41 D. Dilks, ed., Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 1938–1945 (London, 1971), 5 and 10 Jan. and 3 Mar. 1938, pp. 32, 34, and 57.

42 I. Macleod, Neville Chamberlain (London, 1961), pp. 216–17, 218–19; note of conversation with Sir Joseph Ball, 26 Jan. 1949, Templewood papers, xix, file 5.

43 Documents on German foreign policy 1918–1945, series D, vol. 4 (DGFP D/4), doc. 251; Cadogan diary, 1 Dec. 1938, ACAD 1/7, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.

44 J. Harvey, ed., Diplomatic diaries of Oliver Harvey, 1937–1940 (London, 1970), 10 and 13 Mar. 1939, pp. 260–1.

45 Earl of Birkenhead, Halifax (London, 1965), pp. 424–5.

46 Cadogan to Halifax, 28 Nov. 1938, Foreign Office papers, series 800, vol. 396 (FO 800/396), TNA.

47 Cadogan diaries, 29 June 1939, p. 190.

48 Cadogan to Martin Gilbert, 4 Feb. 1962, ACAD 4/5.

49 Wilson, ‘Munich 1938’, CAB 127/158, p. 16.

50 Gladwyn, Memoirs, p. 76.

51 Earl of Halifax, Fulness of days (London, 1957), p. 231.

52 Viscount Templewood, Nine troubled years (London, 1954), p. 301.

53 Cadogan to the earl of Birkenhead, 20 Jan. 1965, Cadogan papers, ACAD 4/4.

54 Note of conversation with Cadogan, 14 Nov. 1951, Templewood papers, xix, file 5; Cadogan diaries, p. 53.

55 Avon papers, AP 7/24/81.

56 Wilson to prime minister, 26 July 1937, PREM 1/276, fo. 346.

57 Avon papers, AP 7/24/81. Chamberlain's letter is reprinted in Documents on British foreign policy, 2nd series, vol. 19 (DBFP 2/19), doc. 65.

58 D. Carlton, Anthony Eden (London, 1981), pp. 107–8.

59 Tyrell to Wilson, 28 Oct. 1937, with enclosure dated 27 Oct., T 273/410. Tyrell was permanent under-secretary, 1925–8, and ambassador in Paris, 1928–34.

60 Harvey diaries, 7 Nov. 1937, p. 57. Sargent was the assistant under-secretary of state who supervised the work of the Foreign Office's department dealing with Gemany.

61 Cadogan diaries, 12 and 13 Jan. 1938, p. 36; DBFP 2/19, doc. 430. For context and consequences of this aspect of differences between Chamberlain and Eden see Bennett, G., ‘The Roosevelt peace plan of January 1938’, FCO Historical Branch Occasional Papers, no. 1 (Nov. 1987), pp. 27–38Google Scholar.

62 Avon, Facing the dictators, pp. 553–6.

63 Avon papers, AP 7/24/81; Harvey diaries, 20 Jan. 1938, p. 75.

64 DBFP 2/19, doc. 455.

65 Memoirs of Cordell Hull (London, 1948), i, p. 547.

66 Wilson, ‘Munich 1938’, CAB 127/158; Wilson to Anne Chamberlain, 5 Apr. 1944, Neville Chamberlain papers, NC 11/1/616, Special Collections, University of Birmingham.

67 DGFP D/1, doc. 148.

68 Foreign Policy Committee minutes, FP (36) 26, 18 Mar. 1938, CAB 27/623.

69 DGFP D/2, doc. 279.

70 Ibid., doc. 382.

71 Churchill to Halifax and Wilson to prime minister, both 31 Aug. 1938, PREM 1/265, fos. 117–22.

72 Wilson to prime minister, 12 July 1938, PREM 1/330, fo. 63.

73 Wilson to prime minister, 1 Sept. 1938, and MSS message for Sir H. Wilson, PREM 1/265, fos. 89–94; meeting of ministers, 30 Aug. 1938, CAB 23/94.

74 Cadogan diaries, 6 and 7 Sept. 1936, pp. 94–5; P. Hoffmann, The history of the German resistance, 1933–1945 (London, 1977), pp. 66–7.

75 Wilson to Chamberlain, 5 Sept. 1938, PREM 1/265, fos. 61–6.

76 Note by Wilson, 30 Aug. 1938, PREM 1/266A, fo. 363; Chamberlain to Ida, 3 Sept. 1938, Chamberlain diary letters, p. 342.

77 Cadogan diaries, 8 Sept. 1938, pp. 95–6.

78 DBFP 3/2, doc. 815, and appendix i, pp. 649–50; note of meeting, 10 Sept. 1938, PREM 1/266A, fos. 339–40; Cadogan diaries, 10 Sept. 1938, p. 96.

79 PREM 1/266A, fos. 344–8.

80 DGFP D/2, doc. 487; CC 39(38), 17 Sept. 1938, CAB 23/95.

81 ‘The prime minister's visit to Germany’, notes by Wilson, 16 Sept. 1938, Neville Chamberlain papers NC 8/26/2; Chamberlain diary letters, 19 Sept. 1938, p. 348.

82 I. Kirkpatrick, The inner circle (London, 1959), pp. 121–2.

83 CC 39 (38), 17 Sept. 1938, CAB 23/95.

84 Fisher to Wilson, 17 Sept. 1938, LSE\Coll Misc 461, British Library of Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics; Wilson to prime minister, 17 Sept. 1938, and Wilson to Fisher (not sent), 18 Sept. 1938, T 273/405. For Fisher's attitude to Germany see Peden, G. C., ‘Sir Warren Fisher and British rearmament against Germany’, English Historical Review, 94, (1979), pp. 29–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 DBFP 3/2, doc. 928, p. 381, and doc. 937, p. 405; Wilson to prime minister, 18 Sept. 1938, PREM 1/266A, fo. 272.

86 DBFP 3/2, docs. 1033, 1068, and 1073.

87 CC 42 (38), 24 Sept. 1938, CAB 23/95.

88 ‘What should we do’, 18 Sept. 1938, FO 371/21659; Cadogan diaries, 25 Sept. 1938, p. 105; CC 43(38), CAB 23/95.

89 CC 44 (38), CAB 23/95.

90 DGFP, D/2, doc. 610.

91 Parker, Chamberlain and appeasement, p. 174.

92 DBFP 3/2, p. 550n.

93 Ibid., docs. 1097, 1118.

94 Ibid., doc. 1116.

95 Message from Wilson, 26 Sept. 1938, PREM 1/266A, fos. 76–7; DBFP 3/2, doc. 1121.

96 DGFP, D/2, doc. 634. According to Martin Gilbert and Richard Gott, The appeasers (London, 1963), p. 167, Wilson said the word he used was Tschechen, the German for Czechs.

97 CC 46 (38), 27 Sept. 1938; Cadogan diaries, 27 Sept. 1938, p. 107.

98 Duff Cooper, Old men forget (London, 1954), p. 239; Reynolds, Summits, p. 78; K. Robbins, Munich 1938 (London, 1968), p. 301; N. Ferguson, The war of the world (London, 2006), pp. 358–9.

99 Lord Strang, Home and abroad (London, 1956), pp. 126–7.

100 S. Newton, Profits of peace (Oxford, 1996), p. 85.

101 DBFP 3/2, doc. 1144; Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945: nemesis (London, 2000), p. 118.

102 DGFP, D/2, doc. 657.

103 Strang, Home and abroad, p. 148. For differences between Godesberg memorandum and Munich agreement see Chamberlain's speech on 3 Oct. 1938, 339 Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 5th ser., 1937–8, cols. 42–45.

104 Notes signed and amended by Wilson, n.d., T 273/407.

105 The relevant passage of Simon's speech is at 339 HC Deb, 5th ser, cols. 347–8.

106 C. Andrew, The defence of the realm: the authorized history of MI5 (London, 2009), pp. 203–6.

107 Chamberlain wondered whether Hitler's New Year speech containing these words was such a sign, but was advised by Cadogan that it was not – note by Strang, 5 Jan. 1939, FO 371/22988, fo. 39.

108 PREM 1/247, fos. 2–7.

109 FP (36) 35, 23 Jan. 1939, CAB 27/624.

110 Sir Eric Phipps papers, PHPP 3/5, fo. 47, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.

111 Cadogan to Wilson, 19 Mar. 1939, and Wilson to prime minister, PREM 1/327, fos. 30–8; Cadogan diaries, 20 Mar. 1939, p. 162.

112 M. Muggeridge, ed., Ciano's diary, 1939–1943 (London, 1947), p. 54.

113 CC 12 (39), CAB 23/98.

114 Chamberlain diary letters, 19 and 26 Mar. 1939, pp. 394 and 396.

115 Colvin, Vansittart, pp. 303–10.

116 FP (36) 39, 30 Mar. 1939, CAB 27/624.

117 Chamberlain diary letters, n.d., p. 401; Wilson to Henderson, 12 May 1939, PREM 1/331A, fo. 75; Gilbert, ‘Horace Wilson’, pp. 8–9.

118 Chamberlain diary letters, 28 May 1939, p. 418.

119 D. C. Watt, How war came (London, 1989), p. 247.

120 DBFP 3/5, docs. 665, 670.

121 Cadogan diaries, p. 186.

122 See K. Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia and the collapse of the Versailles order, 1919–1939 (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 278–9, 282–3, 284–5, 315–16.

123 Parker, Chamberlain and appeasement, pp. 263–5; Watt, How war came, pp. 406–7.

124 Harvey diaries, 23 July 1939, p. 303; Gladwyn, Memoirs, p. 93.

125 Watt, How war came, p. 406.

126 Ibid., pp. 395–400, 402–3.

127 DGFP, D/6, doc. 716; DBFP 3/6, doc. 354.

128 Chamberlain diary letters, 23 July 1939, p. 430–1; DGFP, D/6, doc. 716, p. 982; Harvey diaries, 23 July 1939, p. 303.

129 DBFP 3/6, doc. 533, and Wilson's note, 4 Aug. 1939, PREM 1/330, fo. 1.

130 Note by Wilson, 20 Aug. 1939, PREM 1/331A, fos. 152–9.

131 CC 43(39), 26 Aug. 1939, CAB 23/100. The drafting by Wilson and Butler is in PREM 1/331A, fos. 449–67. Cadogan's draft is in DBFP, 3/7, doc. 426.

132 Harvey diaries, 27 Aug. 1939, p. 307.

133 See Cadogan diaries, 24 and 28 Aug. 1939, pp. 200 and 203.

134 Hoare's MSS notes on crisis, 28 and 29 Aug. 1939, Templewood papers, x, file 5.

135 Watt, How war came, pp. 525–6.

136 Note by Wilson, 2 Sept. 1939, DBFP, 3/9, appendix iv, p. 539. Chamberlain's statement is at 351 HC Deb, 5th ser., 2 Sept. 1939, cols. 280–2.

137 CAB 127/158.

138 Wilson to Anne Chamberlain, 21 May, 11 June, and 27 July 1941, NC 11/15/124–6.

139 K. Feiling, The life of Neville Chamberlain (London, 1946), p. 327; G. M. Young, Stanley Baldwin (London, 1952).

140 Wilson to Anne Chamberlain, 22 Mar. 1944, NC 11/1/615.

141 Winston S. Churchill: The Second World War, i (London, 1948), pp. 205–7, 262–6, 293, 325–8.

142 Wilson to Hoare, 26 Sept. 1948, Templewood papers, xvii, file 1. Hoare's review is in the Listener, vol. 40, 7 Oct. 1948, p. 533.

143 Wilson to Hoare, 13 Oct. 1946, Templewood papers xvii, file 8a; notes from conversation with Wilson, 27 May 1948, ibid., xix, file 5.

144 Wilson to Sir Evelyn Wrench, 10 June 1953, Geoffrey Dawson papers, vol. 93, fos. 197–8, Bodleian Library, Oxford; Colvin, Vansittart, p. 7.

145 For shift in academic opinion about this time see Watt, D. C., ‘Appeasement: the rise of a revisionist school?’, Political Quarterly, 36, (1965), pp. 191–213CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

146 Parker, Chamberlain and appeasement. The clearest statement of the revisionist case is Dilks, D., ‘“We must hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” The prime minister, the cabinet and Hitler's Germany, 1937–1939’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 73, (1987), pp. 309–52Google Scholar.

147 What follows is based mainly on Wilson's memorandum ‘Munich 1938’, Oct. 1941, CAB 127/158, and Hoare's notes from conversations with Wilson, 5 Mar. 1947 and 27 May 1948, Templewood papers, xix, file 5, and correspondence with Wilson, March–July 1952, ibid., xix, file 12.

148 Phillips to Wilson, 20 June 1940, T 177/56.

149 Parker, R. A. C., ‘British rearmament, 1936–1939: Treasury, trade unions and skilled labour’, English Historical Review, 96, (1981), pp. 306–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

150 Wilson appeared to be referring to the views expressed by Vansittart, in ‘The world situation and British rearmament’, Dec. 1936, DBFP 2/17, appendix ii.

151 Ripsman, N. M. and Levy, J. S., ‘Wishful thinking or buying time? The logic of British appeasement in the 1930s’, International Security, 33, (2008), pp. 148–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

152 Gilbert, ‘Horace Wilson’, p. 6.

153 Conversation with Sir Thomas and Lady Padmore, 15 Mar. 1975. My notes have been deposited in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

154 Gladwyn, Memoirs, p. 76; Strang, Home and abroad, pp. 126–7.

155 D. N. Dilks, ‘The British Foreign Office between the wars’, in Opinion publique et politique extérieure, 1915–1940, Collection de l'École Française de Rome, 54/2 (Rome, 1984), pp. 165–86, at p. 183.