| Description | Bound typescript diary, with other contemporary documents added, beginning on 1 January 1956 and ending on 26 December 1957. The page numbers begin at 331 and end at 454, in the middle of the diary, probably because material after that date was not used in 'Descent to Suez'.
In 'Descent to Suez', Shuckburgh summarises 1956 as follows: 'In this last chapter the diaries record the deteriorating position in the Middle East and my increasing despondency. Harold Macmillan, to his own regret (and mine), had been removed from the Foreign Office at the beginning of the year and had been replaced as Secretary of State by Selwyn Lloyd. At the end of March I was asking to be released from the Middle East work and I left the Foreign Office on secondment to the Imperial Defence College (IDC) on 20 June, five weeks before the nationalization of the Suez Canal. The diaries throw light on the process by which Anglo-American co-operation in the Middle East became eroded and finally broke down over Suez.' (p. 316)
The following documents have been bound with the diary:
1956
/340 press cutting reporting that the Foreign Office has denied that Britain put pressure on Jordan to join the Baghdad Pact
/341a cutting from the New York Times reporting on riots in Jordan, 12 January 1956
/341b cutting from The News Chronicle reporting on talks between John Foster Dulles and Anthony Eden, nd
/352a cuttings reporting on Shuckburgh's preparation for British talks with the US on the Middle East, January 1956
/355a cutting entitled 'US View of Nasser: Stabilising Influence', 23 January 1956
/370a Invitation asking Shuckburgh to lunch from the President of the United States, 31 January 1956
/373a Press cutting - profile of Sir Harold Caccia and Shuckburgh entitled 'Two Men Behind Eden at Talks Typify British Diplomatic Flair', 1 February 1956
/379a Press cutting of a cartoon by Osbert Lancaster, nd
/387a Letter to Shuckburgh from Christopher, telling him that he will not be able to complete a portrait of Shuckburgh's daughter Catherine, 19 February
/410a Note probably from Harold Macmillan: 'do try to work out a plan on which we might stay in Jordan', nd
There are several unnumbered pages between /444 and /445:
Letter to Shuckburgh from Tony Nutting, 17 August 1956
Letter to Shuckburgh from Henry Jackson, 6 October 1956, enclosing letters written by Shuckburgh's relations, 1897-1906
Carbon copy of a letter from Shuckburgh to Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, proposing that the British should insist on Egyptian withdrawal from Israeli territory, 31 October 1956
1957
The diary entries for 1957 have no page numbers. Documents bound with the diary include:
a short memo, author unidentified, probably by Shuckburgh, about British policy in the Middle East, nd
cutting of part of a dispatch from GH Middleton, discussing Nasser and the Middle East, annotated by Shuckburgh, 24 September 1957
Letter to Shuckburgh from Barclay [Foreign Office], 3 February 1958
Letter to Shuckburgh from Harold Beeley, 26 October 1957 |