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Franco-British Relations and the Question of Conscription in Britain, 1938–1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2008

DANIEL HUCKER
DANIEL HUCKER*
Affiliation:
Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3FE; deh@aber.ac.uk.
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Abstract

This article examines the interaction between the French campaign for the introduction of British conscription during 1938–9 and the ebbs and flows of British public opinion on the same issue. In particular, it will demonstrate how French pressure for conscription varied in intensity depending on French perceptions of British opinion on the subject. It was this interaction between diplomatic and domestic pressures that ultimately compelled the British government to introduce conscription in April 1939. Furthermore, the issue of conscription also sheds light on the wider issue of Franco-British relations, revealing how French foreign policy was neither dictated by an ‘English governess’ nor pursued independently of Great Britain.

Les relations franco-britanniques et la question de la conscription en grande-bretagne, 1938–1939

Cet article analyse les interactions entre la campagne française pour l'introduction de la conscription en Grande-Bretagne en 1938–39 et les hauts et les bas de l'opinion publique britannique par rapport à la même question. Il en résulte que la pression exercée par les Français pour la conscription variait en intensité selon leurs perceptions de l'opinion britannique sur ce sujet. Au final ce sont les interactions entre les pressions diplomatiques et domestiques qui ont finalement poussé le gouvernement britannique à introduire la conscription en avril 1939. En outre, la question de la conscription éclaire également plus largement les relations franco-britanniques. Elle révèle que la politique étrangère française n'était ni dominée par les Britanniques, ni indépendante de la Grande-Bretagne.

Die französisch-britischen beziehungen und die frage der einführung der wehrpflicht in großbritannien, 1938–1939

Dieser Artikel untersucht die Wechselwirkung zwischen der französischen Kampagne für die Einführung der Wehrpflicht in Großbritannien und die Fluktuation der britischen Öffentlichkeit zu dieser Frage. Im besonderen zeigt der Artikel, wie der französische Druck für die Einführung der Wehrpflicht von französichen Wahrnehmungen der britischen öffentlichen Meinung abhing. Es war diese Wechselwirkung zwischen diplomatischem und innenpolitischem Druck, die letztlich die britische Regierung zur Einführung der Wehrpflicht im April 1939 brachte. Die Frage der Einführung der Wehrpflicht in Großbritannien wirft damit neues Licht auf den weiteren Kontext der französisch-britischen Beziehungen. Es zeigt sich, dass die französische Außenpolitik weder von Großbritannien diktiert wurde, noch völlig von der britischen Außenpolitik unabhängig war.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 17 , Issue 4 , November 2008 , pp. 437 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

1 346 H. C. Deb, 5s., col. 1152.

2 The form of conscription introduced applied only to men aged twenty and twenty-one.

3 This use of a ‘core sample’ borrows from Neilson, Keith, who uses Anglo-Soviet relations as a ‘core sample’ for analysing the wider issue of British strategic foreign policy in the inter-war years: Britain, Soviet Russia and the Collapse of the Versailles Order, 1919–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).Google Scholar

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25 Howard, Continental Commitment, 117.

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34 Beaverbrook to James Agate, 5 Oct. 1938, Beaverbrook Papers, House of Lords Record Office, BBK/B/292.

35 The Daily Mail launched the ballot on 12 October 1938, and published the results on 28 October 1938. The Daily Mail avoided stating an editorial preference, merely seeking to ‘gain those opinions [of their readers], and present the weight of them to the authorities’ (12 Oct. 1938).

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38 Bonnet's speech to the Radical Party Congress, 29 Oct. 1938, cited in Le Temps, 30 Oct. 1938.

39 CSDN, ‘Note sur la situation actuelle’, 12 Oct. 1938, Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre (SHAT), 5N 579, dossier 1. I am grateful to Lora Gibson of the University of Aberystwyth for the reference to this document.

40 Phipps to Halifax, 10 Nov. 1938, TNA, FO 371/21603/C13846/101/17.

41 Memorandum by Colonel Fraser, 12 Oct. 1938; Orme-Sargent minute, 21 Oct. 1938; Halifax minute, 23 Oct. 1938, TNA, FO 371/21785/C12144/11169/18. See also Herman, Paris Embassy, 133–4.

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43 3oème Bureau: Note concernant les demandes à présenter au Gouvernement britannique à l'action militaire terrestre, 23 Nov. 1938; Note, Section de Défense nationale, 22 Nov. 1938, AN, Fonds Daladier 496 AP/11, 2 DA 4 Dr. 2, sdra.

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50 Hitler was alleged to have claimed, ‘If the English have not got universal conscription by the spring of 1939 they may consider their world empire as lost’. Cabinet Committee on Foreign Policy, 14 Nov. 1938, TNA, CAB 27/624.

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52 Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste, La décadence (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1979), 391Google Scholar. Phipps reported how ‘I have never known French public opinion so unanimous as it is against Italy’, Phipps to Halifax, 21 Dec. 1938, TNA, FO 371/23791/R55/7/22.

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54 For example, Pertinax (André Géraud), writing in the Journal des débats, politiques et littéraires, 17 Dec. 1938.

55 Editorial, Daily Herald, 17 Dec. 1938.

56 Duff Cooper, Evening Standard, 6 Dec. 1938; Vansittart minute (for Halifax), 19 Dec. 1938, TNA, FO 371/22922/C358/281/17.

57 Fraser to Phipps, 22 & 23 Dec. 1938, TNA, CAB 21/555.

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63 Dockrill, British Establishment Perspectives on France, 124.

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93 Paris-Midi, 14 April 1939; Le Temps, 24 April 1939.

94 Pertinax, Ordre, 24 April 1939.

95 Paul Nizan, Ce Soir, 14 April 1939.

96 Editorial, Daily Mail, 21 April 1939; Paris correspondent, Observer, 23 April 1939; Paris correspondent, Sunday Times, 9 April 1939; editorial, Daily Express, 30 Mar. 1939.

97 Howard, Continental Commitment, 129.

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107 Scott, Conscription, 2. For more on the fear of air attack see Uri Bialer, The Shadow of the Bomber: The Fear of Air Attack and British Politics, 1932–1939 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1980).

108 Cadogan, Diaries, 176 (emphasis in original).

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110 Editorial, Daily Worker, 26 April 1939; editorial, Daily Herald, 27 April 1939.

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121 Le Matin, 27 April 1939; Wladimir d'Ormesson, Le Figaro, 27 April 1939.

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129 346 H. C. Deb. 5s, col. 1347.