The Politics of Empire: Douglas Hailsham and the Imperial Policy of the National Government, 1931–38

Abstract

While the majority of high-profile imperialists were excluded from Britain's National Government during the 1930s, at least one leading imperialist of the era, Douglas Hogg, first Viscount Hailsham (1872–1950), was at the heart of British policy-making. Although historians have largely overlooked the multifaceted contribution of this leading Conservative to inter-imperial affairs, as a senior cabinet minister he made significant interventions in Britain's policy towards both India and Ireland. He was, both publicly and privately, at the forefront of attempts to resist Irish violations of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and, at the same time, became one of the government's leading advocates of a progressive solution to India's constitutional development. The article demonstrates that the simplistic image of Hailsham as a diehard reactionary requires significant modification. His approach was characteristically underpinned by a belief in the sanctity of existing agreements and pledges—whether or not he intrinsically approved of them.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Prof. David Dutton and two referees for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

See, for example, Barnes and Nicholson, Empire at Bay; Charmley, Lord Lloyd; Page Croft, Life of Strife; Toye, Churchill's Empire.

Dutton, Liberals in Schism, 62–3.

For more details, see Cooper, ‘Heir not Apparent’, 206–29.

Cabinet committee for the Disarmament Conference, 26 June 1934, CAB 16/110, The National Archives (hereafter TNA). Transcripts of Crown-copyright material in the National Archives appear by permission of the controller of HM Stationery Office.

Barnes and Nicholson, Empire at Bay, 282.

MacDonald, Titans and Others, 60.

S. Lester to J. P. Walshe, 26 July 1932, in Crowe et al., Documents on Irish Foreign Policy (hereafter DIFP), vol. IV, no. 95; Bodleian Library, Oxford, Sankey papers, MSS Eng.Hist. C.288, diary, 5 Jan. 1935.

Cross, Sir Samuel Hoare, 153–4.

Peele, ‘Revolt over India’, 115.

Hailsham to Mrs Daisy Bates, 29 May 1934, Hailsham papers (HAIL) 1/3/4, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge (hereafter CAC). Extracts from the papers of the first and second Viscounts Hailsham and Winston Churchill are reproduced by kind permission of the Master, Fellows and Scholars of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Beloff, Dream of Commonwealth, 3–4. See also Darwin, ‘Imperialism in Decline?’, 657–79, esp. 667.

Heuston, Lives of the Lord Chancellors, 475.

Darwin, ‘Imperialism in Decline?’, 667.

Hansard, House of Lords Debates (hereafter H of L Debs), 5th series, 26 Nov. 1931, vol. 83, cols 227–8.

Ibid., col. 761.

Mansergh, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, 26.

Hailsham to Quintin Hogg 6 Nov. 1927, 2nd Viscount Hailsham Papers, (HLSM) 8/2/2/2, CAC.

Harkness, ‘England's Irish Question’, 39–40.

Lewis, ‘Quintin McGarel Hogg’, 224; Lewis, Lord Hailsham, 3.

Cabinet, 23 March 1932, CAB 23/70, TNA; Hansard, House of Commons Debates (hereafter H of C Debs), 23 March 1932, vol. 263, col. 1044.

Cabinet ‘Irish Situation Committee’ (hereafter ISC), 12 April 1932, CAB 27/523, TNA.

Ibid., 13 April 1932.

Ibid., 9 May 1932.

Coogan, De Valera, 449–50; Longford and O'Neill, Eamon de Valera, 279; Dwyer, De Valera's Finest Hour, 25.

ISC, 5 June 1932, CAB 27/523, TNA.

Thomas and Hailsham note, 8 June 1932, CAB 24/230, TNA.

Ibid.

Thomas, My Story, 188.

Thomas and Hailsham note, 8 June 1932, CAB 24/230, TNA.

The Times, 11 June 1932.

Hailsham to Granard, 8 June 1934, HAIL 1/1/1, CAC.

H of L Debs, 11 July 1932, vol. 85, col. 750.

Blaxland, J. H. Thomas, 262.

ISC, 27 Sept. 1932, CAB 27/523, TNA.

Ibid.

Hailsham to Thomas, 10 Oct. 1932, Dominions Office papers (hereafter DO), 35 397/13, TNA.

ISC, 25 Oct. 1932, CAB 27/523, TNA.

Canning, ‘Impact of Eamon de Valera’, 203.

ISC, 6 March 1933, CAB 27/523, TNA.

C. Wigram to H. Batterbee, 29 March 1933, DO 35/397/11111/65, TNA.

Fisk, In Time of War, 23.

McMahon, Republicans and Imperialists, 99.

Wigram to E. Harding, 26 Aug. 1933, Prime Minister's Office papers (hereafter PREM) 1/133, TNA.

Midleton to Hailsham, 5 Oct. 1932, DO 11111/350, TNA.

H of L Debs, 11 May 1933, vol. 87, col. 866.

Hailsham to Thomas, 24 Nov. 1933, DO 11111/a/31, TNA.

Cabinet, 4 Dec. 1933, CAB 23/77, TNA.

Ibid., 30 Nov. and 4 Dec. 1933.

Krikorian, ‘British Imperial Politics’, 297–8; Swinfen, Imperial Appeal, 92–3.

H of L Debs, 6 Dec. 1933, vol. 90, col. 337.

The Times, 8 Dec. 1933.

Manchester Guardian, 9 Dec. 1933.

ISC, 12 April 1932, CAB 27/523; cabinet, 4 Dec. 1933, CAB 23/77, TNA.

Hailsham to Thomas, 15 Dec. 1933, DO 11111a/33, TNA.

H of C Debs, 27 Nov. 1922, vol. 159, cols 373–8, emphasis added.

Ibid., cols 378–9; Hailsham to Thomas, 15 Dec. 1933, DO 11111a/33, TNA.

McMahon, Republicans and Imperialists, 8.

Hancock, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, 336.

H of L Debs, 25 July 1934, vol. 93, col. 1076.

Hailsham to Granard, 5 March 1934, HAIL 1/1/1, CAC.

Hailsham to Granard, 25 March 1935, HAIL 2/2/2, CAC.

Crowe et al., DIFP, vol. V, no. 197, J. Dulanty to Walshe, 16 June 1938.

Canning, ‘Impact of de Valera’, 201.

The only relaxation was the ‘coal-cattle pact’ agreed in January 1935.

Hailsham to Willoughby, 1 July 1936, HAIL 1/3/10b, CAC.

Crowe et al., DIFP, vol. IV, no. 294, Dulanty to Walshe, 4 Nov. 1935.

MacDonald, Titans and Others, 64.

Crowe et al., DIFP, vol. IV, no. 372, Dulanty to Walshe, 14 Oct. 1936.

Hailsham to Granard, 2 July 1934, HAIL 1/1/1, CAC.

Fisk, In Time of War, 30.

ISC, 12 May 1936, CAB 27/523, TNA.

MacDonald, Titans and Others, 61.

ISC, 12 May and 17 June 1936, CAB 27/523, TNA.

McMahon, ‘Transient Apparition’, 341.

MacDonald, Titans and Others, 60–1.

Harkness, ‘England's Irish Question’, 47–8.

Cabinet, 25 Jan. 1937, CAB 23/87, TNA.

ISC, 17 June 1936, CAB 27/523, TNA.

Harkness, ‘Mr De Valera's Dominion’, 208.

ISC, 20 Jan. 1937, CAB 27/524, TNA.

Cabinet, 26 Jan. 1938, CAB 23/92, TNA.

ISC, 17 Feb. 1938, CAB 27/524, TNA.

Ibid.

Ibid., 8 April 1938.

Longford and O'Neill, Eamon De Valera, 320.

ISC, 17 Feb. 1938, CAB 27/524, TNA.

Cabinet, 2 March 1938, CAB 23/93; see also ISC, 8 March 1938, CAB 27/524, TNA.

ISC, 10 March, CAB 27/524, TNA.

Hailsham to Chamberlain, 24 March 1938, PREM 1/274/14, TNA.

ISC, 10 March 1938, CAB 27/524, TNA.

Cabinet, 23 March 1938, CAB 23/93, TNA.

Hailsham to Chamberlain, PREM 1/274/14, 24 March 1938, TNA.

Ibid., Chamberlain to Hailsham, 28 March 1938.

Canning, British Policy towards Ireland, 278.

Fisk, In Time of War, 41.

ISC, 1 March 1938, CAB 27/524, TNA.

Ibid.; Colville, Fringes of Power, 410.

Cabinet, 2 March 1938, CAB 23/84, TNA.

Hailsham to Londonderry, 25 April 1938, HAIL 1/4/43, CAC.

Crowe et al., DIFP, vol. V, no. 197, Dulanty to Walshe, 16 June 1938.

Stewart, Burying Caesar, 148, 66; Charmley, Lord Lloyd, 180. For passing references to Hailsham see Muldoon, Creation of the 1935 India Act; Bridge, Holding India to the Empire; Moore, Crisis of Indian Unity.

Self, Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters, vol. 3, Chamberlain to Hilda, 26 Oct. 1929.

Hoare to Willingdon, 20 April 1933, Templewood India Office papers, Eur.E240/4/1043–6, British Library (hereafter BL).

Stewart, Burying Caesar, 152.

Middlemas and Barnes, Baldwin, 717.

Bridge, ‘Conservatism and Indian Reform’, 186; Cowling, Impact of Hitler, 45; Cross, Sir Samuel Hoare, 125–79.

Bridge, Holding India to the Empire, 160.

Muldoon, Creation of the 1935 India Act, 219–20.

Irwin to George Lane-Fox and Samuel Hoare, 29 Jan. 1930, Lord Irwin India Office Papers, Eur.C152/19, BL.

Hailsham to Quintin Hogg, 29 Jan. 1930, HLSM 8/2/2/3.

Lane-Fox to Irwin, 19 Feb. 1930, Eur.C152/19, BL.

Ibid., Simon to Irwin, 10 April 1930.

Manchester Guardian, 15 May 1930.

Hailsham, Sparrow's Flight, 372.

Hoare to Baldwin, 20 Aug. 1930, Baldwin papers, vol. 104, fols 40–1, Cambridge University Library.

Salisbury to Baldwin, 4 Aug. 1930, Baldwin papers, vol. 104, fols 23–6.

Hailsham to Baldwin, 1 Sept. 1930, Baldwin papers, vol. 104, fol. 45.

Peel to Baldwin, 22 Aug. 1930, Baldwin papers, vol. 104, fol. 42.

Hoare to Baldwin, 30 May 1931, Baldwin papers, vol. 105, fol. 41.

Hailsham to Beaverbrook, 11 July 1931, Parliamentary Archives, Beaverbrook papers, BBK C/150.

Hailsham to Beaverbrook, 14 July 1931, Beaverbrook papers, BBK C/150.

Hailsham to Salisbury, 11 Aug. 1931, 4th Marquis of Salisbury papers, S(4)145/97–8, Hatfield House.

Cross, Sir Samuel Hoare, 153.

H of L Debs, 10 Dec. 1931, vol. 83, col. 437.

Hoare to Willingdon, Eur.E.240/1, 10 Dec. 1931, BL.

H of L Debs, 10 Dec. 1931, vol. 83, col. 438.

Ibid., cols 472–4.

Daily Telegraph, 11 Dec. 1931.

Hoare to Willingdon, 10 Dec. 1931, Eur.E.240/1, BL.

Bracken to Churchill, 24 Dec. 1931, Winston Churchill papers, CHAR 1/401a/25-6, CAC.

Hailsham to Salisbury, 11 Aug. 1931, Salisbury papers, S(4)140/58–61, Hatfield House.

Cabinet committee on India (hereafter IndSC), 4 Nov. 1932, CAB 27/520, TNA.

Cabinet, 15 June 1932, CAB 23/71, TNA.

IndSC, 23 Feb. 1933, CAB 27/520, TNA.

Ibid., 4 Nov. 1932.

Ibid., 7 March 1933.

Cabinet, 10 March 1933, CAB 23/75, TNA.

Ibid.

H of C Debs, 22 Feb. 1933, vol. 274, col. 1743.

Peele, ‘Revolt over India’, 134.

Hoare to Willingdon, 1 March 1933, Eur.E240/5, BL.

Hailsham to Charles Allen, 15 April 1934, HAIL 1/3/1, CAC.

The Times, 22 June 1933.

Bridge, Holding India, 103–4.

Manchester Guardian, 29 June 1933.

Ibid.

Barnes and Nicholson, Empire at Bay, 298.

Baldwin to Hailsham, 28 June 1933, HAIL 2/3/3, CAC.

Elibank to Hailsham, 28 June 1933, HAIL 2/3/3, CAC.

Thomas White to Derby, 23 June 1933, 17th Earl of Derby papers, 920DER(17)6/33, Liverpool Record Office.

For more details, see Bridge, ‘Churchill, Hoare, Derby, and the Committee of Privileges’, 215–27.

Hailsham to Sir Arthur Page, 12 July 1934, HAIL 2/2/2, CAC.

The Times, 4 Dec. 1934.

Ibid. 5 Dec. 1934.

Muldoon, Empire, Politics, 230–1.

See, for example, Derby to Willingdon, undated Dec. 1934, Derby papers, 920DER(17) 37/5, Liverpool Record Office.

H of L Debs, 18 Dec. 1934, vol. 95, col. 574.

Wakefield to Hailsham, 19 Dec. 1934, HAIL 2/3/3, CAC.

Lord Munster to Hailsham, 18 Dec. 1934, HAIL 2/3/3, CAC.

Hailsham to Sankey, 11 Aug. 1935, Sankey papers, Eng.Hist.C.513/34.

Hailsham to Ian Colvin, 31 May 1932, HAIL 4/2/4, CAC.

H of L Debs, 25 July 1934, vol. 93, cols 1077–8.

Ibid., 28 Nov. 1922, vol. 159, col. 557.