British War Cabinet Dear Delegates to the British War Cabinet, Welcome to the British War Cabinet (BWC) and University of Michigan Model United Nations Conference (UMMUN). I would like to extend a special welcome to those of you new to UMMUN. This committee will hopefully prove to be very exciting because of the dynamics and, of course, you, the delegates. This year, we have decided to create a new committee to fit the growing needs of delegates. You will be asked to tackle difficult situations quickly and keep your wits about you. Also, with no set topic, I expect each delegate to be well-versed in the person he or she represents as well as his or her powers and areas expertise. I do not expect you to become experts, but I do expect you to know what information you should know so that it may be called upon, if needed. This is a small committee, and as such, I will expect you all to be very active during the conference. I have a great staff this year. Dana Chidiac is my Assitant Director. She is a second year student concentrating in English. My name is Nicole Mazur. I am a fourth year student at UM, double concentrating in Political Science and Communications. My model UN career began when I got to college and have since been to conferences at University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, University of Chicago, McGill University, and Georgetown University. Last year for UMMUN, I was the Director of the United States National Security Council. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. I will get back to you as soon as possible. I look forward to meeting you all in January. Best wishes, Nicole Mazur [email protected] British War Cabinet 2 DAIS STAFF Director - Nicole Mazur Assistant Director - Dana Chidiac COMMITTEE MISSION The Cabinet is set to begin in the summer of 1940, prior to the entrance of the Soviets in cooperation with the Great Britain and the entrance of the United States. Therefore, one of the goals of the delegates will be to discern ways of getting these nations as well as others into the war. The students should be well versed in the chronology and events of World War II up to the start date of the Cabinet. After that, the students should remember that events may not follow the exact chronology of the war as we know. This is a chance to change history. TOPIC OVERVIEW The British War Cabinet, the center of the government, was announced on May 11, 1940. At that time it only consisted of five men: Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, Clement Attlee, Lord Halifax, and Arthur Greenwood. The membership of the War Cabinet revealed that the principle of choice had been primarily politics. To call it a strong Cabinet would be difficult, but to say it was merely the rubber stamp of Churchill himself is not fair. Certainly in the early days Churchill powered and even sustained his colleagues. It appears that even the topic of negotiations with Hitler was raised briefly by Halifax eon May 27, 1940. Churchill believed that members of the War Cabinet should combine overseeing the whole war effort with responsibility for certain executive departments. In a political sense he hoped that this would keep his most able colleagues fully occupied, but sound administrative reasons also existed. British War Cabinet 3 British War Cabinet 4 HISTORY OF THE BRITISH WAR CABINET The British War Cabinet, the center of the British government during WWII, was announced on May 11, 1940. At that time it only consisted of five men: Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, Clement Attlee, Lord Halifax, and Arthur Greenwood. The membership of the War Cabinet revealed that the principle of choice in selecting the cabinet had been primarily politics. To call it a “strong” Cabinet would be difficult, but to say it was merely Churchill’s rubber stamp is not fair. In its early days, Churchill powered and even sustained his colleagues. It appears that the topic of negotiations with Hitler was raised briefly by Halifax on May 27, 1940. Churchill believed that members of the War Cabinet should combine overseeing the whole war effort with responsibility for certain executive departments. In a political sense, he hoped that this would keep his most able colleagues fully occupied, but sound administrative reasons also existed. GOALS OF THE WAR CABINET The Cabinet is set to begin in the summer of 1940, prior to the entrance of the Soviets into the war in cooperation with the Great Britain and the entrance of the United States. One of the goals of the delegates, therefore, will be to discern ways of getting these nations as well as others into the war. The students should be well versed in the chronology and events of World War II up to the start date of the Cabinet. After that, the students should remember that events may not follow the exact chronology of the war as we know. This is a chance to change history. British War Cabinet 5 MEMBERS OF THE WAR CABINET Winston Churchill Winston Churchill was born to Lord Randolph and Jennie Churchill in 1974. He served in the British army in India in the 1890s. In 1899, while he was working as a war correspondent for the London Morning Post in South Africa, he was captured and placed in a prison camp; his escape from this camp made him famous. Churchill became a Conservative member of Parliament in 1901 and held various government offices over the next 30 years. From 1929 to 1939, Churchill was not active in the government, but remained in the public eye. When World War II began, he was appointed First Lord of the Admirality. He gained the post of Prime Minister in 1940. His powerful speeches demonstrated his determination not to settle for an imperfect peace with Hitler. Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin was born in Somerset in 1881 and was orphaned at an early age. He quit school to work as a farm laborer until he moved to Bristol to take a job as a van driver at age 18. He was a religious nonconformist and spent a short time as a Baptist lay preacher. He joined the Dockers’ Union and the Labor Party. In 1921, he became General Secretary of the newly-formed Transport and General Workers’ Union, and remained in that position until 1940. Bevin was seen by his colleagues as a “moderate trade unionist.” In 1936, he supported the Popular Front government in Spain and the “heroic struggle carried on by the workers of Spain to save their democratic regime.” In May 1940, Churchill appointed him Minister of Labor, and in June he joined the House of Commons. British War Cabinet 6 Sir Kingsley Wood Sir Kingsley Wood was born to a clergyman in Hull in 1891. He was a solicitor in London until beginning his political career at the London City Council in 1911 as a member of the Conservative party. Wood joined the House of Commons in 1919. He was appointed Postmaster General in 1931 and worked to modernize the Post Office. From 1935 until 1938, he was Minister of Health. In 1938, Wood was appointed Secretary of State for Air by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. In that position, he established the Empire Air Training Plan and doubled the strength of the Royal Air Force. In May 1940, Churchill appointed Wood Chancellor of the Exchequer. Wood did not have as much power in that position as he would have had in peacetime because it is difficult to control public spending during wartime. Clement Attlee Clement Attlee was born in Putney in 1883. He became a lawyer in 1906 when he earned a degree from University College-Oxford. His volunteer work with a boys club sparked his interest in social problems, and he became a member of the Socialist party. In 1913, Attlee became a tutor at the London School of Economics. He left London to serve in the British Army in 1914. After being badly wounded in Mesopotamia, he returned to England to recover until he went to work for the army again in France in 1918. By the end of World War I, Attlee had ascended to the rank of Major. After the war, he returned to teaching. In 1919, Attlee entered politics as a member of the Labor Party as a mayor of Stepney. He held various positions in politics and became deputy leader of the Labor Party in 1931, then head of the British War Cabinet 7 Labor Party in 1935. In May 1940, Attlee joined Churchill’s government as the official Lord Privy Seal and the unofficial deputy Prime Minister. In that position he toned down some of Churchill’s more radical plans and paid attention to the interests of the working class. Arthur Greenwood Arthur Greenwood was born in Leeds in 1880. He worked as a lecturer in economics at Leeds University. From 1920-1922, he was Secretary of the Research and Information Department of the Labor Party. In 1922, he was elected to the House of Commons, and in 1929, he was appointed Minister of Health. Beginning in 1935, Greenwood worked as deputy leader of the Labor Party under Attlee. In the late 1930’s, Greenwood was a vocal critic of Neville Chamberlain and his foreign policy of appeasement. In May 1940, he joined the War Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio, meaning he did not have any defined duties. Greenwood was Churchill’s biggest supporter in the 1940 Cabinet debates over whether to accept a peace offer from Germany.