Cabinet Government, British Imperial Security, and the World Disarmament Conference, 1932—1934

Abstract

High-ranking ministers in the British cabinet supported calls at the World Disarmament Conference demanding the abolition of aerial bombing. Their efforts, however, were checked by the Air Ministry, with the result that British delegates at the conference promoted a compromise position advocating abolition, with a reservation for colonial policing. Pressure from the conference made it difficult to maintain this posture, and abolitionists in cabinet came close to persuading colleagues of their case, but events in Iraq, Aden, and India served to underscore the importance of the overseas RAF. Several salient features of government in this period help account for the cabinet’s attitude to aerial bombing: the heightened importance of consensus in the National Government, the enhanced relevance of the Air Ministry, the necessity of affordably securing the empire, and a prevailing cynicism about the feasibility of an agreement on aerial bombing.

Diehard Conservatives and the Appeasement of Nazi Germany, 1935–1940

“…95 In practice, diehards were suspicious of their own government, not least for its equivocation during the World Disarmament Conference at Geneva. 96 The Italian invasion of Abyssinia in October 1935 led Churchill, Croft, and others on the right, to ally their calls for rearmament with support for the League of Nations. 97 However, Croft's espousal of the League was tepid, and intended to signal his support for the government.…”

‘Nationalising Hundreds and Thousands of Women’: a domestic response to a national problem

“…2 Despite pressure group campaigns against aerial warfare and political negotiations, the dangers of civilian bombing became an increasing concern in the 1930s. 3 Anxiety became more acute following the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Consequently, civil defence planning sought ways 'to protect all civilians even those women and children who could make no useful contribution to the war effort' .…”