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Political Autobiography and the Art of the Plausible: R. A. Butler at the Foreign Office, 1938–1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Paul Stafford
Paul Stafford
Affiliation:
Christ Church, Oxford
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Extract

R. A. Butler has been one of the outstanding figures in twentieth-century British politics. After his death The Times described him as ‘the creator of the modern educational system, the key-figure in the revival of post-war Conservatism, arguably the most successful chancellor since the war and un-questionably a Home Secretary of reforming zeal’. His record of achievement was unequalled by his rivals in the contests for the party leadership in 1957 and in 1963, but on both occasions the leadership eluded him. How and why this happened was understandably of the greatest interest to those who reviewed Rab's memoirs, The art of the possible, which were published in 1971. These memoirs won unanimous praise for their literary excellence, but otherwise met with a rather mixed reception. Enoch Powell, one of Rab's supporters in 1963, described them as ‘a work of astonishing self-revelation [belonging] with the classic Confessions. Augustine and Rousseau were not more unsparing of themselves than Rab…’ The ‘large episodes’ of Rab's career, Powell went on, ‘are treated with a generous vision (including, it need not be added, a generosity to Rab) which leaves the reader with improved understanding and perspective’. Powell's comments were echoed by others on the Right, but the Left was more critical. Anthony Howard noted that ‘what tend…to get wholly left out are the mistakes and blunders’ – the now infamous Villacoublay meeting during the Suez crisis; and Rab's astonishing admission to the journalist George Gale during the 1964 campaign that the election was slipping Labour's way. Harold Wilson, who had offered Rab the mastership of Trinity, was perhaps the least charitable of all. He found The art of the possible disappointing because, he claimed, Rab underwrote the great occasions. Rab's reticence about Suez, however, upset Wilson less than the description of his tribulations at the hands of Labour MPs as government spokesman for the policy of non-intervention during the Spanish Civil War. Here was an issue which could excite the older soldiers of the British Left, and if Wilson was alone among Rab's reviewers in making more than passing reference to Rab's association with appeasement this was why.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , December 1985 , pp. 901 - 922
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 The Times (10 Mar. 1982), p. 14.

2 Powell, Enoch, ‘R.A.B., the greatest of the might-have-beens’, Daily Telegraph (12 07 1971), p. 12Google Scholar.

3 Howard, Anthony, ‘Losing the game’, New Statesman (16 07 1971), pp. 83–4Google Scholar.

4 The Spectator (17 July 1971), pp. 97–9.

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6 The art of the possible, p. 85.

7 Ibid. p. 78.

8 Ibid. p. 74.

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10 The art of the possible, p. 75.

11 Ibid. p. 66.

12 Ibid. p. 73.

13 Ibid. pp. 73, 77.

14 Ibid. p. 77.

15 Ibid. p. 79.

16 The art of memory, pp. 46–7.

17 The art of the possible, p. 76.

18 The art of memory, p. 53.

19 Documents on German foreign policy, 1918–1945 (1949–), Series D, I, 128.

20 With invitations to the Fellowship's social gatherings and to speak at its lectures, Nazis could explain the regime's point of view to the influential body of parliamentarians, publicists and businessmen who formed the Fellowship's membership. See Griffiths, Richard, Fellow travellers of the Right (Oxford, 1983), pp. 183–5Google Scholar.

21 Public Record Office, Morton to Nicholls, 17 Feb. 1938, C 1212/18, FO 371 21674. Foreign Office papers quoted in subsequent references are also from the Public Record Office.

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25 Ibid.; Brocket to Halifax, 2 Apr., 7 June 1939, FO 800/315.

26 Ogilvie-Forbes to Halifax, 17 Apr., Brocket's memorandum for Halifax on his visit to Berlin, 16–22 Apr. 1939, FO 800/315; The Times (19 Apr. 1939), p. 14.

27 Brocket to Halifax, 7 June 1939, FO 800/315.

28 Hoare to Cadogan, 26 June, Brocket to Halifax, 29 June 1939, FO 800/315; Conwell-Evans to Halifax, 12 July, Brocket to Halifax, 16 July, minute by Halifax, 19 July 1939, FO 800/316.

29 Trinity College, Cambridge, Butler papers, Brocket to Butler, 25 June, 28 July 1939, G 10/48–49.

30 In a speech at Salisbury on 5 Mar. 1938. The Times (7 Mar. 1938), p. 21.

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34 Butler papers, Butler to Wilson, 3 Dec. 1938 G 9/120; Simon to Butler, 13 Dec. 1938, G 9/126.

35 Butler papers, ‘“The Parlour” November 30 1938’, G 9/120–22.

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40 Channon diaries, p. 191.

41 Notes by Butler, dated (later) by him ‘about June 1939’. These notes are typed and bear corrections and additions made after the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Butler papers, G 10/26–31.

42 Channon diaries, p. 192.

43 Ibid. p. 193.

44 Ibid. p. 193.

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53 Birmingham University Library, Neville Chamberlain papers, Neville to Hilda Chamberlain, 28 May 1939, NC 18/1/1101.

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61 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Documents and materials relating to the eve of the Second World War, 2 vols (Moscow, 1948), 11, 20Google Scholar.

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64 Weinberg, G. L., The foreign policy of Hitler's Germany, II, Starting World War Two 1937–1939 (Chicago, 1980), 636–7Google Scholar.

65 Butler papers, G 10/94–5.

66 Cadogan diaries, p. 202.

67 Channon diaries, pp. 211–14.

68 Ibid. p. 217.

69 I should like to thank Mrs Ernest Tennant for her prompt and helpful replies to inquiries about her husband, and Miss Rosemary Graham of Trinity College, Cambridge, for her assistance with the Butler papers. I also benefited from discussion with Mr Anthony Howard, who is currently writing Rab's biography.