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Lloyd George and the Copenhagen Conference of 1919–1920: the Initiation of Anglo-Soviet Negotiations*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Richard K. Debo
Richard K. Debo
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
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Abstract

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Type
Communications
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 1981 , pp. 429 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

1 For earlier examinations of the agreement see: Haton, Jean, ‘Une phase décisive de l'histoire des relations anglo-soviétiques après la première guerre mondiale: Les négotiations de Copenhague (novembre 1919-février 1920)’, Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique, LXXIII, 1 (1959), 67–81Google Scholar; , W. P. and , Z. K.Coates, A history of Anglo-Soviet relations (2 vols. London, 1945), 1, 15–20Google Scholar; Fischer, Louis, The Soviets in world affairs (2 vols. London, 1930), 1, 250–2Google Scholar; Carr, E. H., The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917–1923 (3 vols. London, 1950–1953), III, 148–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ullman, R. H., Anglo-Soviet relations, 1917–1921 (3 vols. Princeton, 1961–1972), 11, 339–44Google Scholar; Silverlight, J., The victors' dilemma: allied intervention in the Russian Civil War (New York, 1970), pp. 338–40.Google Scholar

2 Ullman, , Anglo-Soviet relations, II, 341.Google Scholar

3 Nicholson, Harold, Curzon: the last phase: 1919–1925. A study in post-war diplomacy (London, 1934), PP. 56–61.Google Scholar

4 Fry, Michael G., Lloyd George and foreign policy. The education of a statesman: 1890–1916 (Montreal, 1977), pp. 22–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Ullman, , Anglo-Soviet relations, II, 75–6, 96–7; III, 454–73.Google Scholar

6 Mayer, Arno J., Politics and diplomacy of peacemaking (New York, 1967), pp. 410–87.Google Scholar

7 Fry, , Lloyd George, pp. 10, 15.Google Scholar

8 For the origin of the negotiations see my article ‘Prelude to negotiations: the problem of British prisoners in Soviet Russia, 1918—1919’, Slavonic and East European Review, LVIII (1980), 58–75.Google Scholar

9 Documents on British foreign policy 1919–1939, first series, vols. I-III (E. L. Woodward and Rohan Butler, eds.), (London, 1947–1949), III, 472, 486–7. Hereafter cited as DBFP. Lord Curzon minuted regarding his original reluctant decision to send the message of 5 August: ‘I wish I had not been so foolish as to surrender my better judgement’. Foreign Office papers, Public Record Office, 371/3942/9/116194, 120135. Hereafter cited as FO 371 followed by volume, file and document numbers.

10 The Times (London), 1 August 1919, p. 8; 9 September 1919, p. 6; 13 September 1919, pp. 10, 13.Google Scholar

11 Ibid. 17 September 1919, p. 11; 18 September 1919, p. 11; 19 September 1919, p. 10.

12 FO 371/3942/9/131991. 136734- 138714- Also see DBFP, III, 597.

13 Lenin, V. I., Polnoe sobranie sochinenii (55 vols., 5th edn, Moscow, 1958–1965), LIV, 418.Google Scholar

14 FO 371/4031/136152/136152. Copies of his credentials are printed in DBFP, in, 670–2.

15 The Times, 15 November 1919, p. 13. Also see FO 371/3942/9/129134, 130873, 131422 and FO 371/3943/9/142057, 148917. 152845.

16 The Times, 15 November 1919, p. 13.

17 See for example Ullman, 11, 341; Shishkin, V. A., Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i strany zapada v 1917–1923 gg. (Leningrad, 1968), pp. 143–52Google Scholar; Carroll, E. Malcolm, Soviet communism and western opinion 1919–1921 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1965), p. 26.Google Scholar

18 FO 371/3943/9/154661.

19 Tzuzuki, Chushichi, H. M. Hyndman and British socialism (Oxford, 1961), p. 260.Google Scholar

20 France. Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris. Europe 1918–1929. Russie, tome 160, folios 24–8. Hereafter cited as MAE followed by collection title, volume number and folio.

21 DBFP, III, 643–4.

22 FO371/4016/67730/151735.

23 Ibid.

24 MAE/Russie/160/24–8. Emphasis added.

25 MAE/Russie/160/34–5, 38–9; DBFP, III, 664, 665–6.

26 The Times, 29 October 1919, p. 17.

27 Ibid. 10 November 1919, p. 9.

28 Official report, parliamentary debates: House of Commons, fifth series, vol. 121, columns 471–5, 715–26. Also see Cabinet papers, Public Record Office, 23/35/5–10.

29 MAE/Russie/213/30–6.

30 The Department of State, United States of America. Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1919, Russia (Washington D.C., 1937), pp. 126, 128–9.Google Scholar

31 MAE/Russie/213/30–6.

32 The Times, 15 November 1919, p. 13.

33 The Lloyd George papers, Library of the House of Lords, London, F/12/2/5.

34 The Times, 29 October 1919, p. 17.

35 Cabinet papers, 23/18/Cabinet 9(19).

36 FO 371/4043/153757/153757.

37 DBFP, III, 652–3, 658–60, 670–2, 687–8.

38 The Times, 4 December 1919, p. 14.

39 Ibid. II December 1919, p. 8; 10 December 1919, p. 15; DBFP, III, 693.

40 DBFP, III, 688–9, 695–6.

41 Ibid. p. 697.

42 FO 371/3944/9/163339, 163316. The latter is published in DBFP, III, 697–8. See also Curzon to Lloyd George, 22 December 1919, Lloyd George papers, F/12/2/16.

43 Churchill to Curzon, 22 December 1919; Curzon to Churchill, 22 December 1919; Curzon to Lloyd George, 22 December 1919; Lloyd George papers, F/12/2/16.

44 The movements of Lloyd George at this time may be followed in Stevenson, Frances, Lloyd George: a diary (London, 1971), pp. 192–9.Google Scholar

45 FO 371/3944/9/163890. Published in DBFP, in, 732–3.

46 DBFP, III, 738–40. Emphasis in original.

47 The Times, 5 January 1920, p. 13; 12 January 1920, p. 13.

48 Morgan, Kenneth O., The age of Lloyd George (London, 1971), p. 196Google Scholar. Also see Stevenson, , Lloyd George, p. 199.Google Scholar

49 Morgan, , Lloyd George, p. 196.Google Scholar

50 Ullman, , Anglo-Soviet relations, II, 317.Google Scholar

51 DBFP, II, 867–70. Wise was especially qualified to write on this subject. He had been a member of the War Office's Russian purchasing committee (1915–16) and then of the Ministry of Munitions' Russian supplies committee (1916–17) and was thus well acquainted with every aspect of Anglo-Russian economic relations prior to the revolution. I wish to thank Professor Keith Neilson for this information.

52 DBFP, II, 866–75, 911–12.

53 Jones, Thomas, Whitehall diary (London, 1969), p. 97. Also see The Times, 16January 1920, p. 10.Google Scholar

54 The Times, 16 January 1920, p. 11; 17 January 1920, p. 10.

55 Ministerstvo inostrannykh del SSSR, Dokumenty vneshnei polihki SSSR (21 vols. Moscow, 1958–1977), 11, 320. Also see DBFP, III, 757–8.Google Scholar

56 The Times, 19 January 1920, p. 12; FO 371/4032/142549/174088.

57 DBFP, III, 762–3.

58 Cabinet papers, 23/20/Cabinet 9(20).

59 DBFP, in, 812–14.

60 Cmd. 587 (Russia No. 1 [1920]), Agreement between His Majesty's Government and the Soviet Government of Russia for the Exchange of Prisoners.

61 FO 371/3945/9/178371, 179726; Lloyd George papers, F/12/3/12. Also see MAE/Russie/160/202.

62 FO 371/3945/9/178052. Although O'Grady was warned that ‘the agreement had to be presented exactly in the form in which it was approved by the Cabinet’, a final paragraph saying that ‘we could not at this stage recognize any modifications which you might feel impelled to introduce in the agreement as the result of further obstruction on the part of Litvinoff’ was deleted before the telegram was sent.

63 FO 371/3945/9/179726.

64 Lloyd George papers, F/12/3/12; The Times, 25 February 1920, p. 9.

65 Ullman, Anglo-Soviet relations, in, 401–10.

66 MAE/Russie/160/135–6.

67 Jones, , Whitehall diary, p. 103.Google Scholar

68 Stevenson, , Lloyd George, p. 206.Google Scholar

69 FO 371/3961/91/178568.