| Description | Letter and note from Edward [Wood, Edward Frederick Lindley (1881-1959) 1st Earl of Halifax, statesman], Hickleton, Doncaster to Neville Chamberlain
The file contains the following items:
/18: Note, which appears to have been passed in a Cabinet meeting, saying 'the 'Cabinet mind' agreed entirely with your admirable reflections' regarding Italy and Abyssinia [now Ethiopia]. 3 July (marked 'among 1935 letters' by Anne Chamberlain).
/19: Letter regarding Halifax wishing to talk with Chamberlain; invites Chamberlain to stay at Garrowby; says 'the whole affair was a thoroughly bad business' and suggests the 'initial mistake was Sam's [Samuel Hoare] in publishing his...assent in his Paris Communiqué [relates to Hoare's meeting with Laval in Paris on 7 to 8 December at which they secretly agreed that Abyssinia should cede two-thirds of the country to Italy in order to end the war between the two countries. The agreement was known as the 'Hoare-Laval Pact', and after this was prematurely revealed Hoare was forced to resign]; regarding Stanley Baldwin having not done well and suggesting 'this episode might have shaken him'; says Chamberlain's speech in Birmingham 'was just what seem to me to be required'; and says that Hoare did the right thing in resigning. 26 December. |