BACKBENCH DEBATE WITHIN THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY, 1948-57

Backbench Debate within the Conservative Party and its Influence on British Foreign Policy, 1948-57

Sue Onslow

flfl First published in Great Britain 1997 by « MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0-333-65637-7

First published in the United States of America 1997 by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., m Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 0-312-16471-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Onslow, Sue, 1958- Backbench debate within the Conservative Party and its influence on British foreign policy, 1948-57 / Sue Onslow. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-312-16471-8 (cloth) 1. Great Britain—Foreign relations— 1945- 2. Conservatism—Great Britain—History—20th century. 3. Conservative Party (Great Britain) 4. World politics—1945-1955. I. Title. DA589.8.057 1996 327.41 '009'045—dc20 96-28389 CIP ©Sue Onslow 1997 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

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Acknowledgements vi Abbreviations ix Key Dates x 1 Introduction: Conservative backbenchers and political influence 1 2 Conservative attitudes to European integration 12 3 The Conservative Party and Europe: in opposition 1948-50 33 4 The waiting room of power: 1950-51 55 5 The Conservatives and Europe: the pragmatism of power 1951-57 78 6 The genesis of the Suez Group and the Anti-Suez Group 107 7 The Conservative Party and the Middle East: 1948-51 128 8 The Conservatives in power: Egypt and the Sudan 1951-53 151 9 Negotiating the withdrawal from the Suez Canal Zone base: 1953-54 166 10 The Conservative Party and the Middle East: 1955-57 188 11 Conclusion 222 Notes 236 Appendices 291 Bibliography 299 Index 309

v Acknowledgements

In preparing this book I owe a great debt of thanks to the late Dr Roger Bullen of the London School of Economics, whose encouragement to continue my PhD thesis research through the vicissitudes of moving and early motherhood was invalu• able. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Professor Donald Watt, for his considerable insight and gentle guidance; John Barnes, for his untiring support and advice, and Dr Rob• ert Boyce at the London School of Economics; also Dr John Ramsden of Queen Mary's College, London. My special thanks go to Dr David Butler, a fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. I am indebted to the efficiency and courtesy of the staff at the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics; the London Library; the British Library; Dr Martin Moore and his colleagues at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the House of Lords' archives; the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge, the Staff at the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and the Archivist at the Library of the University of Birmingham, the Public Records Office in Kew and the Newspaper Library in Colindale. I would like to thank Curtis Brown Group Ltd on behalf of the estate of the late Sir Winston S. Churchill for permission to quote from Sir Winston's papers, held at the Churchill Archive Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge (copyright © Winston S. Churchill). I am most grateful for Lady Avon's permission to consult and quote from the Avon papers, which are kept at the library of the University of Birmingham. I am also grateful for the permission of Sir Nicholas Hed- worth Williamson and the Keeper of Archives at the Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge to consult Lord Hailes' papers; Julian Sandys for his agreement to consult and quote extracts from his father's papers held in the Churchill Archives Centre; the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge for permission to use extracts from Lord Layton's papers; and the Director of Conservative Policy Centre for per• mission to use material from the Conservative Party Archive at the Bodleian. I would like to thank Mrs Chowdrahay-Best for her permission

VI A cknowledgements vn to consult Lady Juliet Rhys-Williams' papers, held at the Brit• ish Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics; the Earl of Woolton for his kind permis• sion to use quotations from his father's papers, the first Earl of Woolton, at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and Miss Lisl Biggs-Davison for letting me look at her father's papers at the House of Lords' archive. I am also grateful to the family of the late Lord Gridley for their permission to quote from Sir Arnold Gridley's letter to Duncan Sandys of October 1949. Lady Legge-Bourke kindly let me consult her husband, Sir Harry Legge-Bourke's press cuttings and his private papers (held at the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds) and her warm support was most welcome. I am also grateful to her son Captain William Legge-Bourke for his friendly toler• ance when I arrived to look at his father's newspaper clippings at what must have seemed like an ungodly hour on New Year's morning. I would like particularly to thank Nigel Nicolson for his good-humoured interest and shrewd comments, on top of the loan of private correspondence relating to the Suez crisis; Lord and Lady Sandwich for allowing me to look through Viscount Hinchingbrooke's papers and press lettings at Mapperton, for their hospitality and not least for their suggestion which al• lowed me a blissfully solitary walk on a frosty January evening through their sunken garden; Major Hugo Waterhouse for his kindness and hospitality; and Paul Williams who tolerated endless questions and lent me his private Suez papers twice. I had the great advantage of warm support from a consid• erable number of former parliamentarians, journalists and Con• servative party officials, who were all generous with their time. My particular thanks go to Lord Amery, Lord Aldington, Sir John Astor, John Baldock, Sir Reginald Bennett, Sir Richard Body, Lord Boyd-Carpenter, Sir Bernard Braine, Sir Paul Bryan, Lord Carr, Sir Robin Chichester-Clark, Sir Frederick Corfield, Sir Geoffrey Cox, Sir Douglas Dodds-Parker, Sir , Lord Deedes, Lord Eccles, Lord Healey, Sir , Aubrey Jones, Sir Anthony Kershaw, Lord Lauderdale, Sir Gilbert Longden, Sir Anthony Nutting, Lord Orr-Ewing, Enoch Powell, Sir David Price, Sir Robert Rhodes James, Sir Julian Ridsdale, Lord Rippon, Wilfred Sendall, Lord Thomas and Sir Richard Thompson. I was also fortunate to receive the Vlll A cknowledgements

generous cooperation of Miss Ursula Branston, Arthur Gavshon, Lord Glendevon, Lord Colyton, Somerset de Chair, Lord Fraser of Kilmorack, Lord Margadale, Sir Charles Mott-Radclyffe, Sir Godfrey Nicholson and his daughter, Mrs Luce, Lord Nugent, Lord Thorneycroft and Lord Watkinson. Dr Stuart Ball of the University of Leicester was also very helpful in letting me look at his transcript of Sir Cuthbert Headlam's diary. Dr Anthony Seldon, Director of St Dunstan's College, allowed me to make use of the transcripts of inter• views he conducted with Sir Hugh Lucas-Tooth, Sir Kenneth Thompson, Lord Garner, Sir John Arbuthnot, Sir John Ward, Sir Ashley Clarke, Sir Frank Roberts, Lord Strang, Lord Butler, Lord Clitheroe, Sir William Hayter, Lord Sherfield, Sir Christo• pher Soames, John Foster, Lord Tranmire, Lord Thorneycroft, Sir Eric Bertoud, Lord Rhyl, Lord Duncan-Sandys, Lord Gladwyn, Sir Hubert Ashton, Sir John Coulson, and Allan Noble which form part of an oral history archive at present in the keeping of John Barnes; and the transcripts of his interviews with Lord Boyle, Viscount Muirshiel and Lord Carr in the Brit• ish Oral Archive of Political History at the London School of Economics. I was also fortunate to attend a fascinating series of lectures given by Professor Wm Roger Louis of the Austin University, Texas, on Eden and the Suez crisis at the London School of Economics in 1992. Finally, I need to thank my father, Sir Cranley Onslow, for his inspiration, humour and political acumen; and my mother, Lady June Onslow, along with Mrs Dorothy Grey and Mrs Susanna Bevan without whose help I could not have perse• vered. But my greatest debt is to my long-suffering husband, Bart and our small children, Claerwen and Kit who rapidly learnt when they could and could not touch the precious computer. Abbreviations

ANZUS Australia/New Zealand/United States BOAPAH British Oral Archive of Political and Administrative History C&L Conservative and Liberal ECSC European Coal and Steel Community EDC European Defence Community EEC European Economic Community EFTA European Free Trade Area ELEC European League for Economic Cooperation EPC European Political Community EPU European Payments Union EURATOM European Atomic Energy Ageney FAC Foreign Affairs Committee HC Deb Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Fifth Series. House of Commons Official Report HL Deb Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Fifth Series. House of Lords Official Report LSE London School of Economics MES-C Middle East Sub-committee NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NL&C National Liberal and Conservative OEEC Organization for European Economic Cooperation PPS Parliamentary Private Secretary UEM United Europe Movement UNO United Nations Organization WEU West European Union

ix Key Dates

19 September 1946 Churchill's speech 'Let Europe Unite', University of Zurich 3 December 1946 United Europe Committee formed 14 May 1947 Inaugural meeting of the United Europe Movement at the Royal Albert Hall 5 June 1947 Secretary of State Marshall's Harvard speech 21 February 1948 Communist coup in Prague 15 March 1948 Treaty of Brussels 7-10 May 1948 Congress at the Hague 15 May 1948 Palestine mandate surrendered 24 June 1948 Berlin blockade begins 4 April 1949 North Atlantic Treaty signed 19-20 April 1949 ELEC Westminster Economic Conference 5 May 1949 Statute of Westminster creating the Consultative Assembly and the Committee of Ministers 10 August 1949 Inaugural meeting of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg Churchill calls for German admission 23 February 1950 British General Election: Labour Government majority reduced to 6 30 March 1950 formally invited to join Council of Europe 9 May 1950 Schuman Plan proposed 25 June 1950 North Korean invasion of South Korea 14 August 1950 Churchill calls for a European Army in the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe 15 August 1950 Macmillan-Eccles Plan proposed in the Consultative Assembly 12 September 1950 NAT meeting in New York: American pressure for West German rearmament

x Key Dates XI

24 October 1950 Pleven Plan unveiled 1 October 1951 Decision to evacuate British personnel from Abadan 8 October 1951 Egyptian unilateral abrogation of 1936 Anglo-Egyptian treaty, and 1899 treaty for the condominium of the Sudan 25 October 1951 British General Election: Conservative Government's majority 17 28 November 1951 Maxwell Fyfe speech in Strasbourg vs Eden at NAT meeting in Rome 20 March 1952 Eden Plan 23 July 1952 Coup d'etat against King Farouk of Egypt 25 July 1952 ECSC ratification complete 12 February 1953 Anglo-Egyptian agreement on the future independence of the Sudan 5 March 1953 Death of Stalin April-October 1953 Eden absent through illness 23 June 1953 Churchill's stroke 2 December 1953 Bermuda conference 11 December 1953 British association with European Coal and Steel Community 27 July 1954 Heads of Agreement on Suez Canal Base agreement initialled European Defence Community 30 August 1954 defeated on a procedural vote in the French National Assembly Agreement on West German 3 October 1954 rearmament within NATO via the enlargement of WEU Anglo-Egyptian treaty on the Suez 19 October 1954 Canal Base signed 4 April 1955 Britain joins Baghdad Pact (already signed by Iraq and Turkey) 5 April 1955 Churchill resigns as Prime Minister 26 May 1955 British General Election: Conservative Government's majority 60 5 June 1955 27 September 1955 Czech-Egyptian arms deal XII Key Dates

11 November 1955 British decision to withdraw from the deliberations 1 March 1956 General Sir John Glubb dismissed as commander of the Arab Legion 9 March 1956 Archbishop Makarios deported to the Seychelles 25 May 1956 : Spaak Committee report by the Six 13 July 1956 Last British troops withdrawn from Suez Canal Zone 17 July 1956 British Cabinet decision not to finance Aswan Dam 19 July 1956 Eisenhower Administration withdrawal of offer of finance for Aswan Dam 26 July 1956 Nasser announces nationalization of Suez Canal Company 2 August 1956 British Government recalls reservists 14 August 1956 18-Power London Conference convened to discuss internationalisation of Suez Canal 4 September 1956 Dulles' Suez Canal Users Association proposed (endorsed by British Cabinet 11 September 1956) 19 September 1956 Suez Canal Users' Conference convened in London 2 October 1956 Selwyn Lloyd arrives in New York for negotiations on the Suez Canal at the UNO 12-13 October 1956 Conservative party conference at Llandudno. Free trade area plan outlined by Macmillan 14 October 1956 General Challe's and Gazier's meeting with Eden 29 October 1956 Israeli attack on Egypt 30 October 1956 Anglo-French ultimatum to Egypt and Israel 31 October 1956 British bombing of Egyptian airfields 4 November 1956 Russian troops invade Hungary 5 November 1956 Anglo-French assault on Port Said 6 November 1956 Ceasefire announced Key Dates xiii

8 November 1956 Critical vote of confidence in the House of Commons 23 November 1956 Eden leaves for Jamaica 26 November 1956 Macmillan announces intention to seek a free trade area within OEEC 3 December 1956 British withdrawal from Port Said announced 14 December 1956 Eden returns to Britain 10 January 1957 Eden's resignation. Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister 25 March 1957 signed 29 March 1957 Archbishop Makarios released. Lord Salisbury resigns. 9 April 1957 Suez Canal reopens to shipping 13 May 1957 Macmillan announces British vessels may use Suez Canal 15 May 1957 First British H-bomb exploded 1 January 1958 European Economic Community formally created without Britain 8 October 1959 British General Election: Conservative Government's majority 100 21 November 1959 EFTA of the Seven signed.