Negotiating with Mussolini

Abstract

Eden’s obvious successor was Lord Halifax. Close to Chamberlain in both temperament and age, Halifax had already worked with Chamberlain; on one famous occasion he was his personal representative to Germany, and he strongly shared the Prime Minister’s views on foreign policy. Although there was no doubt of Halifax’s qualifications, it was probably the dislike of his politics, so closely identical with those of his boss, which prompted Attlee to challenge the appointment in the Commons.¹ With Halifax’s accession came, if not started before, a decided drift from Spanish affairs which, outside of a general desire to ignore the war as much as possible, and the attitude of the new Foreign Secretary himself, was precipitated mostly by Hitler’s activities in Eastern Europe.