2110-7-10-18

DICTATED

7, Audley Square, W.1.

23rd June 1936

My dear John

We have had many tribulations in our world of politics, domestic & foreign, - but you will well believe that nothing excited our personal curiosity more than the collapse of J.H. Thomas. This event caused great glee to the Opposition, but few of them do not feel that Thomas was the victim of his own geniality & easy-going disposition, of his fatal addiction to flattery & entertainment, & to exploitation by astute adventurers. Nobody really believes that Thomas deliberately gave away any Budget secret - notably Sir John Maffey, who says that Thomas would have frankly told him had he done anything of the sort. But Thomas was surrounded by shady friends. It was alleged that during a golf match at Goodwood - on Good Friday, if you please! - one of the foursome said, "Tell us about your beastly Budget, Jim". - to which Thomas briefly replied, "I shan't talk about the Budget. Tee up!"

One can well imagine the kind of convesation between Thomas and some astute hanger-on, who would use the jargon of the bookmaker & assess all the probabilities of a Budget situation in the light of Thomas's evasions, quips & drolleries. Bates, the real villain of the piece - Kosher Bates - like others with equally hideous names in the entourage, had evidently got bold enough to tempt Thomas with very attractive offers, - the satisfaction of seeing his memoirs published, the provision from advance royalties of a very fine house by the seaside (much too grand for a man of Thomas's invested income) - all these para-

Dictated

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sites, with lesser touts in the periphery, combined to cause a very painful impression, and indeed placed Thomas in a position of such extreme delicacy that resignation was his only defence. Like others, I regret his departure. I deprecate the circumstances, which reflect no credit on the Darling of democracy. He was never more than a chance acquaintance of mine: but he was always very cordial, really loyal to Baldwin, devoted to the interests of the Coalition, and a profound believer in the Empire. But he was not quite so successful a Minister as he gave us to understand. His boast of arriving at the Colonial Office with the charwomen every morning was true enough - at least he was often there by 9 a.m. But the papers he read were the newspapers (sheaves of them), and their sporting intelligence. He actually had fitted up a private telephone to Ladbroke's, the Turf Agents, and after exhausting the prospects of racing tips, he used to talk Stock Exchange to the City, and by 11 o'clock would be ripe for an Under-Secretary and a few selected files. Off & on, throughout the morning, he would call up tipsters and bookies - is it not almost incredible? And now the poor man is in eclipse, people begin to review the past, and it would appear that Palestine has been let out of hand - was it indolence, negligence, ignorance? I cannot be certain. But Ormsby-Gore has found it necessary to take a very strong line, and to make announcements of which the purport cannot be misunderstood by the Arab. This mandate of ours is going to be a permanent source of fissure between ourselves and Islam.

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7, Audley Square. W.1.

The wretched Arab cannot resist the temptation to sell his land at three times its full economic value, and then he begins to agitate against the Jew, against the mandate, and above all he is incensed against the mandatory power. Mussolini has been broadcasting blackguardly abuse and misrepresentation in messages specially sent to the Near East, & there is no record of any effective protest against this propaganda amongst the Arabs. I rather suspect the Duce has established a proper funk in Whitehall, whereas the real & only danger is from Goebbels, Goering, Hitler & Co. Charles Londonderry has got himself much criticised by his ostentatious patronage of Ribbentrop, who we suppose to be laughing at his host, and at us, all the time.

The last moral of l'affaire Thomas is that the Opposition were ridiculously wrong in pressing for a Select Committee of Enquiry, instead of a Judicial Tribunal. The Socialists always blunder where judgment has to be combined with forecasting events. Lloyd George, the last survivor of the Marconi scandal, is no doubt thanking his stars that in those remote days there was no Mr. Justice Porter to tell the truth in cool and devastating terms.

Another demise which will be interesting to you is that of Monty James. He suffered a good deal from a weakening heart & a painful struggle for breath, but was courageous & thoughtful to the last. I thought the funeral service at Eton very impressive. I was pleased with the appearance of the King's Scholars and the Sixth Form. I liked

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the strong series of emphatic faces, and I felt that fifty years hence they will be fine figures of men, with outstanding beaks and brows, and just as much of the sinister cast as real countenance and character demand. I liked the prospect of this generation of Eton boys: and at the same time I thought the masters looked a very off-hand and clumsily mannered lot. Travelling home there was some inquisitive talk about the succession to the Provostship. They say tht Alington is quite ready to desert his Deanery. Durham being "wholly unable to sustain a conversation, even in University circles:" but many of the Fellows (who are invited to recommend, as the Prime Minister has nobody to suggest to the King) would not welcome a return from or to Parnassus, though the candidature is not negligible in view of defective competition. Some of the College people would like Marten, the Vice-Provost, as being experienced in scholastic problems. Eustace Percy is an odd suggestion. He has also been talked of for a diplomatic post: and an interesting long shot, which greatly surprised me, is Stephen Gaselee, a real inverterate host. I think that the Provost of Eton has probably got more opportunities of good influence upon the boys than the Headmaster, who is overwhelmed by technical & departmental duties. The Provost, on the other hand, combining wisdom with leisure, can do much: but it is via the breakfast & the tea party that the sceptre should be wielded, and Gaselee's affinities would more naturally flow along the Rhine and the Moselle.

Adieu

The Rt Hon Lord Tweedmuir, G.C.M.G.