In the midst of events: The foreign office diaries and papers of Kenneth Younger, February 1950-October 1951

In the Midst of Events: The Foreign Office diaries and Papers of Kenneth Younger, February 1950-October 1951

Volumn , Issue , 2005, Pages 1-128

  Warner, Geoffrey ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84908981805     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.4324/9780203314630     Document Type: Book

References (168)

1. Nuffield Transcript, pp. 4-5, Younger Papers and Nuffield College Library.
2. Younger modestly attributed his appointment to the fact that Noel-Baker's personal secretary had worked with him in the early years of the war and was thus able to recognise a familiar face among the hordes of newcomers to the back benches. See Nuffield Transcript, p. 7, Younger Papers and Nuffield College Library, Oxford.
3. Kenneth O.Morgan, Labour in Power 1945-1951 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), p. 406.
4. Younger Diary, 27 February 1950.
5. D.O.(46) 40, 13 March 1946, in Ronald Hyam (ed.), The Labour Government and the End of Empire 1945-1951, Part III, Strategy, Politics and Constitutional Change (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1992), pp. 216-17.
6. The Times, 5 January 1948.
7. See my essay on Bevin's foreign policy in Gordon A.Craig and Francis L. Loewenheim (eds), The Diplomats 1939-1979 (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 1994, pp. 103-34, especially pp. 108-17.
8. Thus Britain's GDP per head (in 1990 US dollars) was $6,546 in 1940 compared to $7,018 for the United States. In 1950 it was $6,847 compared to $9,573 (Angus Maddison, Monitoring the World Economy 1820-1992 (Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1995), p. 197).
9. Younger Diary, 4 December 1950. See below, p. 46.
10. The Diary of Hugh Gaitskell, p. 568, entry of 2/3 August 1956. See also Younger Diary, 30 December 1956.
11. Younger Diary, 13 December 1958.
12. Younger Diary, 31 December 1964.
13. The speeches were on 26 November and 16 December 1958 respectively. See H.C.Deb., Vol. 596, cols 489-501; Vol. 597, cols 1041-4.
14. Personal communication from Gordon Marsh, 29 October 2003.
15. Clement Attlee, Prime Minister, 1945-51.
16. James Chuter Ede, Home Secretary, 1945-51.
17. Foreign Secretary, 1945-March 1951, and one of the giants of the post-war Labour government.
18. Vincent Auriol, President of the French Fourth Republic, 1947-54. He paid a state visit to London from 7-11 March 1950.
19. Dr Philip Jessup, an international lawyer, was ambassador-at-large in the US State Department, 1949-53. In July 1949 Fosdick and Case were appointed as consultants to assist him in a re-examination of American policy in the Far East in the light of the imminent collapse of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government in China and its replacement by a communist regime under Mao Zedong.
20. Sir William Strang, Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, 1949-53.
21. For the text of Churchill's speech, see H.C.Deb., Vol. 473, cols 189-202.
22. Anthony Eden, the Conservative front-bench spokesman on foreign affairs, 1945-51.
23. For the text of Bevin's speech, see H.C.Deb., Vol. 474, cols 318-30.
24. Dean Acheson, US Secretary of State, 1949-53.
25. Robert Schuman, French foreign minister, 1948-53.
26. Sir Hartley Shawcross, Attorney-General, 1945-51.
27. Emmanuel Shinwell, Minister of Defence, 1950-1\.
28. Hugh Gaitskell, Minister for Economic Affairs, February-October 1950.
29. Dirk Stikker, Dutch Foreign Minister, 1948-52.
30. Paul van Zeeland, Belgian Foreign Minister, 1949-54.
31. Albert Devèze, Belgian Minister of Defence, 1949-50.
32. For the text of Younger's statement, see H.C.Deb., Vol. 474, cols 1137-41.
33. Sir Roger Makins, Deputy Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, 1948-52.
34. John J.McCloy, US High Commissioner in Germany, 1949-52.
35. General Sir Brian Robertson, British High Commissioner in Germany, 1949-50.
36. In his interview with Richard Rose in 1961, Younger said that he had discussed this matter with Ernest Davies, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. It was presumably Davies, therefore, who dissuaded him. See Nuffield Transcript, p. 23, Younger Papers and Nuffield College Library, Oxford. There is no mention of this incident in Davies' own memoirs. See Ernest Davies, Random Recollections of a Journalist and Politician (privately printed, 1987).
37. DBPO, Series II, Vol.II, pp. 267-74, 276-81, 284-94; FRUS, 1950, Vol. III, pp. 1018-33.
38. Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation (New York: Norton, 1969), p. 384.
39. Younger minute, 11 May 1950, Younger Papers. This document is also printed in DBPO, Series II, Vol. II, pp. 320-1.
40. This was not so. Acheson was told of the plan in the strictest confidence by Schuman in Paris on 7 May 1950. When the British government were informed two days later, Bevin accused the US Secretary of State of cooking up the whole idea with the French and deliberately keeping him in the dark. See Acheson, Present at the Creation, pp. 382-5.
41. Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the German Federal Republic, 1949-63.
42. According to his memoirs, Adenauer knew nothing of the Schuman Plan until a few hours before it was publicly unveiled. See Konrad Adenauer, Erinnerungen 1949-1953 (Frankfurt-am-Main/Hamburg: Fischer Bücherei, 1967), pp. 314-15.
43. See Jean Monnet, Memoirs (London: Collins, 1978), pp. 288-303, and his memorandum of 4 May 1950, printed in Richard Vaughan (ed.), Post-War Integration in Europe (London: Edward Arnold, 1976), pp. 51-6.
44. Sir Stafford Cripps, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1947-October 1950.
45. Lord President of the Council, 1945-March 1951. Along with Bevin (who disliked him intensely) Morrison was the most senior member of the post-war Labour government under Attlee.
46. Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, 1945-56.
47. Sir Edwin Plowden, Chairman of the Economic Planning Board, 1947-53.
48. Harvey telegrams, 1 June 1950, DBPO, Series II, Vol. 1, pp. 129-31.
49. Bernard Donoughue and G.W.Jones, Herbert Morrison: Portrait of a Politician (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson), 1973, pp. 481, 639.
50. Leslie Hunter, The Road to Brighton Pier (London: Arthur Barker, 1959), p. 13.
51. Nuffield Transcript, p. 35, Younger Papers and Nuffield College Library, Oxford.
52. Paul Reynaud, French member of parliament. He was Prime Minister at the time of the French collapse in 1940.
53. Frank Buchman, an American who founded the Moral Rearmament movement in 1938. A right-wing Christian and anti-communist movement, Moral Rearmament was regarded with considerable suspicion on the left of politics.
54. Strachey was Secretary of State for War, 1950-1. For his speech at Colchester on 2 July 1950, see Hugh Thomas, John Strachey (London: Eyre Methuen, 1973), pp. 262-3.
55. Passed by the Security Council on 27 June 1950, the resolution recommended 'that the members of the United Nations furnish such assistance to the Republic of [South] Korea as may be necessary to repel the armed attack and to restore international peace and security in the area.' See FRUS, 1950, Vol. VII, p. 211.
56. In a statement of 27 June 1950 condemning the invasion of South Korea, President Truman also announced that he had ordered the US 7th Fleet to prevent both a Chinese communist attack on Formosa and a Chinese Nationalist attack on the mainland. The former was of course much more likely than the latter. See FRUS 1950, Vol. VII, pp. 202-3.
57. Nuffield Transcript, p. 37, Younger Papers and Nuffield College Library, Oxford.
58. It should be remembered that the French Communist Party was supported by a fifth of the electorate at this time and the Italian Communist Party by a quarter. In addition the largest trade union movements in each country (the CGT and the CGIL) were communist-controlled. On 30 September 1948 the Political Bureau of the French Communist Party had declared that 'the French people will not, will never wage war upon the Soviet Union'. See Stéphane Courtois and Marc Lazar, Histoire du Parti communiste français (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995), p. 277.
59. Younger minute, 6 July 1950, Younger Papers.
60. Acheson circular telegram, 22 July 1950, FRUS, 1950, Vol. III, p. 138.
61. Cripps memorandum, 31 July 1950, C.P. (50) 81, CAB 129/41, PRO; C.M. (50), 52nd Meeting, CAB 128/18, PRO. Later in August a pay increase for the armed services increased the total cost of the rearmament programme to £3,600 million.
62. The American military position in Korea in July 1950 was so bad that the use of atomic weapons to stem the communist advance was considered, even though it was not pursued. See Callum A.MacDonald, Korea: the War before Vietnam (London: Macmillan, 1986), p. 39.
63. President of the Board of Trade, 1947-April 1951.
64. Secretary of State for Scotland, 1950-1.
65. Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, 1950-1.
66. See Bevin telegram to Attlee, 13 September 1950, DBPO, Series II, Vol. III, pp. 43-4.
67. Hector McNeill, Younger's predecessor as Minister of State.
68. Andrei Vyshinsky, Russian foreign minister, 1949-53.
69. Except, interestingly, by the British Chiefs-of-Staff, who did not want to run any risk of a conflict with the Chinese. See Anthony Farrarar-Hockley, The British Part in the Korean War, Vol. I, A Distant Obligation (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1990), Chapter 10, pp. 203-33.
70. Solicitor-General, 1945-April 1951.
71. Pakistan's minister for foreign affairs and Commonwealth relations, 1947-54.
72. Christopher Mayhew, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1945-50. He had lost his parliamentary seat in the 1950 election.
73. Gerrit Jan van Hoeven Goedhardt, Vice-Chairman of the Dutch delegation to the United Nations, 1949-December 1950.
74. Nasrollah Entezam, Iranian ambassador to the United States and head of the Iranian delegation to the United Nations.
75. Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1946-52.
76. Warren R.Austin, head of the US delegation to the United Nations, 1946-53.
77. John Hutchinson, British chargé d'affaires in China, 1950-1.
78. Chinese foreign minister, 1949-58.
79. MacArthur telegram, 28 November 1950, FRUS 1950, Vol. VII, p. 1237.
80. Sir Gladwyn Jebb, permanent UK representative at the United Nations, 1950-4.
81. Ernest A.Gross, deputy head of the US delegation to the United Nations.
82. John C.Ross, the third-ranking member of the US delegation to the United Nations after Warren Austin and Ernest Gross.
83. General Wu Xiu-chuan, director of the USSR and East European affairs department of the Chinese foreign ministry, 1949-52.
84. Sir Oliver Franks, British ambassador in Washington, 1948-52.
85. Sir Benegal Rau, head of the Indian delegation to the United Nations.
86. Lester Pearson, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, 1948-57.
87. Chao Guan-hua, Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
88. In a message to Attlee on 9 January 1951, President Truman denied any intention of practising subversion. See Truman telegram, 9 January 1951, FRUS 1951, Vol. VII, pp. 39-40.
89. The new commander of the US ground forces in Korea, General Matthew B.Ridgeway, admitted to serious problems of troop morale in his memoirs. See Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B.Ridgeway as told to Harold H.Martin (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956), pp. 204-7.
90. See Younger's minute to Bevin, 5 January 1951, FO 371/92768/FK1071/97, NA.
91. See Younger's minutes to Bevin, 1 and 2 January 1951, FO 371/92756/ FK1022/6/ G, NA; and DBPO. Series II, Vol. IV, pp. 281-2.
92. See Bevin telegram, 3 January 1951, DBPO, Series II, Vol. IV, pp. 284-6.
93. Minister of Supply, 1947-51.
94. This document is available on the website of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The reference is: www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB14/doc4.htm
95. Karel Kaplan, Dans les Archives du Comité Central: Trente Ans de Secrets du Bloc Soviétique (Paris: Albin Michel, 1978), pp. 165-6.
96. See Margaret Gowing, Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy, Vol. I, Policy Making (London: Macmillan, 1974), pp. 310-16;
97. Robert S.Norris, William M.Arkin and William Burr, 'Where They Were', The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, November/December 1999, pp. 26-35;
98. Timothy J.Botti, The Long Wait: The Forging of the Anglo-American Nuclear Alliance, 1945-1958 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1987), pp. 66, 79-95;
99. S.J.Ball, The Bomber in British Strategy: Doctrine, Strategy, and Britain's World Role, 1945-1960 (Oxford: Westview Press, 1995), pp. 62-6, 152-62.
100. This information comes from the excellent, but alas unpublished, doctoral thesis of Christian P.Alcock, Britain and the Korean War, 1950-1953, University of Manchester PhD, 1986, pp. 204-6.
101. Robert Scott, assistant under-secretary of state at the Foreign Office, 1950-1.
102. See The Times, 13 January 1951.
103. On 17 January 1951. For the text, see FRUS 1951, Vol. I, pp. 91-2.
104. For the text of the US draft resolution, see FRUS 1951, Vol. VII, pp. 115-16.
105. Lord Chancellor, 1945-51.
106. Viscount Addison, Lord Privy Seal, 1947-March 1951; Lord President of the Council, March-October 1951.
107. Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1950-1.
108. Minister of Education, 1947-51.
109. Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, 1945-51.
110. See Lester Pearson, Memoirs, Vol. II, 1948-1957:
111. The International Years (London: Gollancz, 1973), pp. 306-7.
112. The British government expressed its concern to the Americans about General MacArthur's statement. See Merchant memorandum, 30 January 1951, FRUS 1951, Vol. VII, p. 146.
113. Philip M.Williams (ed.), The Diary of Hugh Gaitskell 1945-1956 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1983), pp. 230-2.
114. See Ben Pimlott (ed.), The Political Diary of Hugh Dalton 1918-1940, 1945-60 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1986), p. 501.
115. They did however provide such assistance. See Xiaoming Zhang, Red Wings over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2002).
116. 'Hatred and revenge are bad counsellors' was probably the phrase Younger had in mind. See Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, The Inner Circle (London: Macmillan, 1959), p. 251.
117. For the text of Bevan's speech, see H.C.Deb., Vol. 484, cols 728-39.
118. Jenny Lee, Bevan's wife and Labour MP for Cannock, 1945-70.
119. Henry John Temple, later Lord Palmerston, was Foreign Secretary, 1830-41, 1846-51;
120. Prime Minister, 1855-8, 1859-65.
121. Rightly or wrongly his name is synonymous with an assertive foreign policy and 'gunboat diplomacy'. In his interview with Richard Rose in 1961, Younger said that one of the first things Morrison did after his appointment as Foreign Secretary was to send for a copy of a life of Palmerston from the Foreign Office library. See Nuffield transcript, p. 71, Younger Papers and Nuffield College Library, Oxford.
122. See Pimlott (ed.), The Political Diary of Hugh Dalton, pp. 501-2, 505-6.
123. Nuffield Transcript, pp. 68-9, Younger Papers and Nuffield College Library, Oxford.
124. Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Supply, 1947-April 1951.
125. For the text, see H.C.Deb., Vol. 487, cols 34-43.
126. Sir Henry Legge-Bourke, Conservative MP for the Isle of Ely, 1945-73.
127. For the text of Morrison's speech see H.C.Deb., Vol. 489, cols 822-33.
128. On 18 June 1951, for example. See H.C.Deb., Vol. 489, cols 30-3.
129. Andrew Boyle, The Climate of Treason, revised edition (London: Coronet Books, 1980), pp. 390, 392.
130. Charles Johnston, Counsellor at the Foreign Office, 1951-5.
131. Yakov Malik, permanent Soviet representative at the United Nations, 1948-52. A report of his broadcast, which was actually made on 23 June, may be found in The Times, 25 June 1951.
132. Special Assistant to President Truman, 1950-1.
133. Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation, pp. 506-8. Harriman arrived in Teheran on 15 July 1951. For American documentation on his mission, see FRUS 1952-1954, Vol. X, pp. 92-148.
134. See H.C.Deb., Vol. 491, cols 465-586. Younger's winding-up speech may be found in cols 573-85.
135. Draft Peace Treaty with Japan (Cmd. 8300), London, HMSO, July 1951.
136. Richard Stokes, Lord Privy Seal, April-October 1951. A businessman whose firm had important connections in the Middle East, Stokes went to Iran on 4 August 1951 in an attempt to break the deadlock in the negotiations with the Iranian government. He returned on 23 August 1951 without having succeeded. Averell Harriman (see above, p. 79) left Iran two days later.
137. Mohammad Musaddiq, Prime Minister of Iran, 1951-3.
138. Mohammad Reza Shah, Iranian emperor, 1941-79.
139. Younger minute, 3 July 1951, Younger Papers.
140. The proceedings of the conference were published. See US Department of State, Conference for the Conclusion and Signature of the Treaty of Peace with Japan (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1951).
141. Andrei Gromyko, Russian deputy foreign minister, 1948-52.
142. Stefan Wierblowski, under-secretary of state in the Polish foreign ministry.
143. Gertrude Sekaninova, deputy foreign minister of Czechoslovakia.
144. For Acheson's account of this episode, see Acheson, Present at the Creation, pp. 545-6.
145. For the text of Younger's speech, see Conference for the Conclusion and Signature of the Treaty of Peace with Japan, pp. 88-97.
146. For the text of Yoshida's speech, see Conference for the Conclusion and Signature of the Treaty of Peace with Japan, pp. 276-81
147. Acheson described it as 'simple, honest and brief (Acheson, Present at the Creation, p. 547).
148. For the text of Younger's speech, see Conference for the Conclusion and Signature of the Treaty of Peace with Japan, pp. 296-9.
149. For Acheson's account of this episode, see Acheson, Present at the Creation, p. 547.
150. For the text of Acheson's concluding speech, see Conference for the Conclusion and Signature of the Treaty of Peace with Japan, pp. 307-9.
151. Lord Alexander, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1950-1.
152. Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Fourth Sea Lord, 1950-2.
153. General Ali Rasmara, Prime Minister of Iran from June 1950 until 7 March 1951, when he was assassinated by extremists.
154. For details of Mountbatten's intervention, see Philip Ziegler, Mozmtbatten (London: Collins, 1985), pp. 499-501. According to this account, Mountbatten saw Morrison on 4 April 1951.
155. Anthony Sampson, The Seven Sisters (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975), p. 120.
156. Labour MP for Blackburn (East), 1950-5.
157. Labour MP for Maldon, 1945-55.
158. In his interview with Richard Rose in 1961, Younger described Makins as 'the most powerful policy-making official'. See Nuffield transcript, p. 65, Younger Papers and Nuffield College Library, Oxford.
159. See H.C.Deb., Vol. 493, col. 80. The date of the speech was 6 November 1951.
160. For a report of the speech, which took place on 9 November 1951, see The Times, 10 November 1951.
161. Younger letter, 11 November 1951, Younger Papers.
162. See above, p. 89. The conversation to which Younger refers took place on 7 June 1950. See Younger telegram, 7 June 1950, FO 371/82374/EP1531/20, NA.
163. The American historian, William Roger Louis, has written of the Aramco Agreement, which was concluded between the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) and the Saudi Arabian government in December 1950 and which provided for a fifty-fifty division of profits as opposed to the payment of royalties, that it 'signified as great a revolution in the economic affairs of the Middle East...as the political transfer of power in India in 1947'. William Roger Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East 1945-1951 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), p. 595.
164. Sayed Zia ad-Din Tabatabai, a pro-British Iranian politician.
165. Lancelot Pyman. 'Oriental Counsellors', unlike most Foreign Office officials, were not generalists, but specialists who were proficient in oriental languages.
166. Husayn Ala, Iranian Prime Minister, March-April 1951.
167. See 'Nigel West' (Rupert Allason), The Friends: Britain's Post-War Secret Intelligence Operations (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988), Chapter 8;
168. Stephen Dorrill, MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations (London: Fourth Estate, 2000), Chapter 28.