Lord Vansittart and the German problem-the war years, 1939-1945 Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Christensen, Donald Robert, 1937- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 07:52:58 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/317998 &0B2! f'AlSIffABf AID 'EM eilHAI PROSLEH— THE VAR YEARS 1939=19^5 by Donald Robert Christensen A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the BEBARTM11T OF HISTORX In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE DllfllSlTX OF ABISOIA, 1 9 6 7 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfill­ ment of requirements for an advanced degree at The Univer­ sity of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED s APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: Date TABLE ©F GilTEMTS Page 1 .0- ¥AMS1TTART AMI THE AMTZ-GBBlAftf TRABlTIQSo . 1 II. VANSITTART All THE ©0111© ©F THE WAR.o... o 39 III. VAMEITTART All TEE WILL T© VICTORY....... 86 IT. TAMSITTART A1B A LASTING PEACE........... .145 ill ABSTSACT The pmrpose @f this., thesis is t© examine the aetlv- 1ties and attitmdes @f Sir lebert (later Lord) Tansittart between January 1938» whem he ©eased, being Permanent Smderseeretary'©f State at the Fereigm ©fflse, and the end ©f the Seeemd World War* The research has been based primarily ©m M s ©wn e©mteiip©rahe©ms writings and speeches, as. well as these ©f his supporters and opponents = T© assess his part' In,..the mobilization 'an& direction ©f pnblle ©pinion in Britain and Germanyt, extensive use has been made ©f the .Monitoring Heberts of the BoBoGo and the Ministry ©f Imfermatlem^s overseas bulletin. Talking Pointso ■ The first twenty two months -of the war were, partie= ularly frustrating for Vansittarto He contimmed to function .in the anomalous post of ”Chief-Slplomati© Advisor to the Prime-- Minister, “ . but. M s advice was rarely sought or heeded« After becoming Prime Minister, finston Churchill, whose own prescient disclosures about Mazl Germany were greatly assisted by advice and Information seat .him.by Tansittart, made no more use ©f his ©©llaberator than Heville Chamber^ lain had dene» Vanslttart's only solaoe eame in December i - ' ' W « , - when, at the ropiest of the Minister ef Information* he delivered the sharply-worded."Blaek Heoord8 broadcasts iv ©fer the EUBoGo The e@ntr©versies thms set S,m m@tl©B led t©’his retirement from the Givil. Serriee im Jmly 19^1° ‘ ' . .Baring, the next f©mr years, Wamsittart mere than . made mg fer the frastrati@n amd inactivity he had expezd” emeeds As a member ©f the House ©f Lords 9 as a speaker" at mmmerems pmbli© gatherings 1m England, as a prelifi© anther amd as. the president @f two pepmlar mevememts,' he aeMeyed a ;-©ensiderahle fame im. several ©#mmtrle.s amd attraeted themsamds,®f persons* many frem the working ©lasses* t@ his views^ Simmltameemsly he beeame the f©©ms■©f an exeeptien- ally hitter eeatreversy* His ©ppememts* mainly British and ! 1 * ■ « ' Emr©pean leftists amd Lemdem^hased German exiles who disliked M s s trie tares ©n the 8,Seraaa [email protected] @hara©ter*s tried t© dis@redit M s views with personal attaeks* and had seme smeeesso Thns the expressions 88¥amsittart81 amd 6$¥anslttart=- ismH ■ were fretmemtly e%mated with ^reaetiomismg68 tyindletive-, hess* ^raeism* $8i amd siimhalai!,©ew> ■? - s - Pessihly the fairest test ®f this e%matl©m is fmrmished by ¥amsittart 8s pea©® program fer Germany^ The resmlts ©f t M s - stmdy: imdleate that while, the intensity - amd t©me ©f M s ■argimemts sometimes invited hemest ©riflelsm* the extremer ae.emsati©ms against him were mnwarramted© Indeed 9 a eensider-' dhle • portion of the ©rifcieism voioed. daring- the war was gremmded in ideology' amd took little aeooant ©f the moderate, eonstraotive. pease he aetmally adveeatedo. • VANSITTABT AND THE ANTI^GBBMAH TRADITION CHAPTEB I As Permanent Undersecretary of State at the British Foreign Office from 193© to 1938', Sir Robert Vans it tart gave consistent9 vigorously■=worded warnings against both the rising menace of Nazi Germany and the appeasement policy with which Baldwin and Chamberlain ministries sought to meet ito So unwelcome was his advice to the Government he served„ however, that he was forced to spend the last years of peace as a celebrated casualty of the policy he opposed, condemned to watch helplessly while Hitler moved from triumph to triumphe His is a story which merits close attention. His own version, the autobiographical Mist Procession, is incomplete, out short at the year 1936 by his death (1957)® A fuller account, based on his private papers and official memoranda, and covering all his years at the Foreign Office, has recently been published by lah Colvin (Vansittart in Office, London, 1965)® Yet neither of these should exhaust the historian®s interest in a man who continued active after the close of his official career. To contemporaries, indeed, Vansittart was often better known on account of his activ­ ities during World War II than for his incisive, though less publicized, pre-war critiques of Mazi behavior and ambition. 1 This thesis is addressed to that part ©f the story which has not been carefully told, to an examination of Vansittart ©wt of office, t© the record of a knowledgeable and eloquent civil servant.who had, in virtue of the coming of the war, a singular opportunity to explain and expound his own rejected views of the proper.course of British policy in Europe <> ■ - Because this project was undertaken prior to the appearance of Colvin®s book, much of the material, especially the section dealing, with Vansittart8s years as Ghief Diplomatic Advisor, is largely duplicative® This can be justified in two ways.® First, both the sources con­ sulted and the major conclusions differ at some points from those of Mr® Golvim® Second,- the reactions of" pro­ fessional historians and reviewers to his work have been somewhat less than enthusiastics the full story of "Vamsittart in Office*6 still needs to be told® The present study must necessarily traverse some of the areas which Golvin either neglected or failed to investi­ gate comprehensively® Perhaps the most crucial of these con­ cerns Vansittart® s career prior to M s elevation to the post of Permanent Undersecretary.at the Foreign Office, and / specificallyj the development of his famed anti-Germanisms "#iy should Vansittart, who by birth and education belonged very much to the upper echelon of the English society, have been 3 among the first to realise that the threat from Germany was far more dangerous to British security than the challenge from the Soviet Bnlon,?"^ Although already set upon a career in the British Diplomatic Service9 Bobert Vamsittart was possessed of little knowledge, no experience and few pronounced views with respect to foreign affairs when he graduated from Eton in .1900« Wnlike most of his contemporaries, he had never fully accepted the thesis that Prance was Great Britain*s natural enemy0 In fact, a schoolboy6s holiday spent in Paris a few years earlier left him convinced that Prance was to be admired,cautiously enjoyed, even pitied, but=“=and the Pashoda Crisis (1898) seemed to prove rather than challenge this viewpoint=-she was not to be feared0 At the same time, Taasittart appears to have been little affected by the growing rivalry and hostility between England and Germany= Ihus,.shortly after his graduation, he travelled to Germany hoping to develop his language skills to the point where he could meet the Poreign Service entrance requirements0 Unfortunately, he chose for his initial visit a year which was marked by the first signi­ ficant British military victories of the Boer Waro hot surprisingly, he found the Germans "alive with malice 0 * ' - ' ■ ' •^ffhe limes literary Supplement (March 25, 1965), po 228= - ' ' ! p against Britain*" After several unpleasant experiences9 which included his "being shouted after fey the excessively Anglophobic daughter of his landlord and, on another occasion, being challenged to a duel after winning a point in a tennis match with a German captain, an accomplished swordsman, he quickly abandoned Germany for France* There his penchants for literature and the theatre were better received* This was the start of a lifelong affaire de la coeur for Vansittart, and just as his initial anxieties over Germany had turned,him towards i'rance, so his close Galilean ties reinforced and gave sustenance to those anxieties* If there was an ideal place in which to nurture a ■ 4 suspicion of Germany, it was the British Foreign Office of the early 19006 s* Among the younger luminaries when Vansittart joined the diplomatic corps in 1902 was Sir lyre Growe, whom Vansittart later described as "the greatest public servant ever produced by this country,11 ^ and who was ‘j ' ’ ..