..BACKSTAIRS IN BRITISH POLITICS

Radio Record, 8 July 1938, Page 10

..BACKSTAIRS IN

BRITISH POLITICS

English Radio Man And Journalist

Talks of The Alleged Machinations

of The "Cliveden Set" -The

Country-House. and Newspaper

Party of the Astors, That

is Called The "Second

British Foreign Office’

In The Old World

By

Will

Grave

VISITING New Zealand on a world ' tour, Mr. Ratcliffe has. been listed for two talks for the NBS.. One was

given recently Irom z2YA on the inauguration’ ceremony for President Roosevelt’ (which Mr. Ratcliffe described some years ago from Washington ‘specially for the BBC); the other,

on "Some English .Celebrities of To-day," is being given on July 7 from 1YA. Before he leaves New Zealand, he is making a recorded talk on the political .situation in U.S.A,

HE English are renowned: for their probity, but in London Americans tell a sly little story. ‘They say that an American big business mau ‘once came to London determined on success. He called on numerous politicians, heads of departments and influential newspaper editors. After chatting with them for a time and outlining the déals he hoped to put through, he would go away, carelessly leaving an open cheque on the desk of the man he was visiting. Next day he would get a furiously cold letter enclosing the cheque, and his business did not prosper. None of his deals went through. . Solution E was worried: about this. It was not human, it was "not-bice. At last a compatriot who had lived somir time’ in Ingland gave him advice. . "Buy-a eountry house,’ he said. "Ask them down for week-euds, with their wives and families. Give them. good wine, cigars and shooting -on, the moors. Don’t ever offer them chéques. Remember, they-Jhave a very old civilisation; much older than ours." . "The American did this, and his ‘business prospered. Tus was the story that ‘came back to me when Mr.:S. KX. Rateliffe, distinguished, Mnglish journalist and BBC radio nian, began to. feH.me-ins Wellington Jast week of: the now-famous . -Cliveden »-(pronounced "Cliv den’ )* Set, which. ig :supposed: 'to::dietate fronr the country ‘louse of ° Viscountess (jNaucy) Astor the: foreign policy of Britain: ©

His name is known all over the world for special articles to the London "Sunday Observer,’ the "Manchester Guardian" and the "Spectator." His Young Friend HE ‘Cliveden Set,’" Mr. Ratcliffe told me, °* "was ¢ ‘exposed’ by a young triend of mine, Claud Cockburn, I know him well. "He was a young and extremely able man on the foreign correspondent staff of ‘The Times,’ who went extreme ‘Left’ in his views. He left the staff of ‘The Times,’ refusing all tempting inducements to stay, and began a small mimeograph publication called ‘The Week.’ "He could write well, but in ‘The Week’ he wrote badly. He copied all the trans-Atlantic tricks of the American magazine: ‘Time.’ His paper was full of what was supposed to be the ‘inside dope’ on the Cliveden Set. "But in ‘Current History’ lately he published a summary, well. written and clearly presented, of his investigatious. It is this, no doubt, that’ has set the rumour about the ‘Clivedeu Set’ going round the world." HE name of Astor, a powerful one in Britain to-day, stands out strongly in any picture, however shadowy, of the Set. One of the Astor brothers, Viscount. Astor, owns the. weekly Sunday newspaper, "The Observer." The other, Major the Honourable John Jacob Astor, owns the controlling interest in the London "Times." Both are profoundly influenced, says Claud Cockburn, by enormously energetic and sprightly Lady Astor, wife of the Viscount. Cliveden is the Thames Valley: country residence of the Viscount and his lady, who came originally from Virginia, U.S.A.

T is the theory of the young journalist Cockburn . that in England, where country house parties. and influential newspapers play such an important part." in politics, the week-end parties at Cliveden made. or nurred the careers of politicians long before the Anglo-"-German issue began to dominate the English political scene. In the spring of 1936, however, Cliveden began to |. be the centre of a policy and an intrigue that. now cause it to be spoken of as Britain’s second Foreign Office. , Its policy is said to be based on active dislike of the French, fear and hatred of all "popular" movements, 2 consequent admiration for the-‘‘defensive" possibilities of -Hitlerism as a bulwark against. Bolshevism; and joined. with that a fear, amounting to panic, of a possible German : attack upon Britain. Meauwhile, Hitler, so Cockburn maintains, is astutely playing on the Cliveden Set’s fears of the spread of Bolshevism to Win concessions of great military and strategica! ‘value. German Guns

"TT -is true, for instance," says Cockburn, "that there ‘are German guns at Tarifa, placed in aspot prohibited by treaty, dominating not only the Straits of Gibraltar but the. harbour of Gibraltar itself. A British Admiral (Sir Roger Keyes) has admitted in the House of Commous that now the British Fleet would need a smokescreen or fog to get through the Straits of Gibraltar safely in the event of war. ‘But,’ reply the British Conservatives, who have drunk so deeply of the subtly-mixed potions produced by Dr. Goebbels, ‘what is the alternative? The alternative is to support the Spanish Government aml

help turn the Germans out of 'Farifa as quickly as possible. But the Spanish Government is ‘red’ (Dr. Goebbels and his British friends have told us SO). So we will let the German guus stay at Tarifa and we will let the German mine-owners divert all the irou-ore of Bilbao to the factories of KKrupp ‘instead of to the factories of Viekers." N this reasoning, uccording to . Cockburn, the policy of the Cliveden Set is based. The Cabinet -Ministers most closely associated with the set are Lord Halifax, Foreign Secretary, Sir Samuei Hoare, Home ‘Seeretary, and Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer. "It is difficult," says Cockburn, "to convey. to. anyone unfamiliar with the ‘atmosphere of Conservative London the extent .o which this fear of the spread of Bolshevism plays . dominant role. Tt is a pity,, of course, about. British soldiers being ‘killed by the Japanese, but are not the Japanese saving China from Bolshevism? "Tt is a pity that Mussolini "should be ‘able to cock snooks ‘at the British Navy all over the

Mediterranean, but would not the alternative to. Mussolini be a-‘red’ Italy? And so on and so-on and so on ad absurdum and infinitum."

This, says Cockburn, is the true background of Anglo-German relations. This is the final key to the paradox of Anglo-German affairs. 9 e AGAINST this plan of friendly relations with the dietators, Anthony Eden stood out. When Lord Halifax was sent ov his mission to Hitler, Mr. Eden, after a furious

‘jnterview with the Prime Minister, resigned-offering as his reason, ‘says Cockburn, not the Halifax visit to. Hitler (the real grounds), . but: instead stating that the feeble progress being made with the British rearmament programme gave him insufficient backing to carry out a strong line of foreign policy. " AND does the Cliveden Set’ dictate the policy of Britain?’ I asked Mr. Ratcliffe. en "My answer is this,’ he -said. "When Mr. Chamberlain was’ made Premier, hé took up _ the. reins with a definite policy. of treating with the Fascist Powers, to bring some sort of seeurity to Europe. "What need, then, was there for the Cliveden Set? What ig all the fuss about? The Cliveden Set exists, of course, but it can -gearcely be accused..of dictating to Chamberlain the policy he had already -formed. oie . °.Pake the position of Mr. Eden. .He'is earnest and sincere... He: must have known his position well: enough. . In the previous Government, he: had the support.of (Continued on page 36:).

Backstairs Politics (Continued from page 11), Mr. Baldwin. When Mr, Baldwin resigned and Mr, Chamberlain was coming in, he should have said to Baldwin: ‘You have supported my policy and I have worked with you. The policy of the incoming Prime Minister is not mine. I will go out with you,'" SEVERAL influences. however, : says Mr. Ratcliffe, may have induced him to take the course of remaining. There was first the possibility of his being able to do some useful work by remaining and, secondly, the fact that | Mr, Chamberlain was an elderly man, of no robust health. This fact must have been in the minds of those younger men in the Cabinet like Walter Flliot, Eden ahd Hore Belisha. Bverybody thought that the Chamberlain Government would be short-lived, and Someone must succeed him. "So Eden stayed in." said Mr. Ratcliffe, "and in the end was broken. "How things change!" said M? Ratcliffe. "There is Lloyd George. He can still wipe the floor with anyone in the. House, but he is a spent force in polltics, There was Ramsay Macdonald, politically °dead three years before he died. There is Winston Churchill. still on the sidelines, Waiting for hig chance, but he is 64 now; he is getting old, his time of usefulness is going."