Secret Armies | Page 6

Cadogan, who replaced Sir Robert Vansittart as adviser
to the British Cabinet and who acts in a supervisory capacity over the
extraordinarily powerful British Intelligence Service.
Geoffrey Dawson, editor of the London Times.
Lord Lothian, Governor of the National Bank of Scotland, a determined
advocate of refusing arms to the Spanish democratic government while
Hitler and Mussolini supplied Franco with them.
Tom Jones, adviser to former Premier Baldwin.
The Right Honorable E.A. Fitzroy, Speaker of the House of Commons.
The Baroness Mary Ravensdale, sister-in-law of Sir Oswald Mosley,

leader of the British fascist movement.
To understand the amazing game played by the Cliveden house guests,
in which nations and peoples have already been shuffled about as
pawns, one must remember that powerful German industrialists and
financiers like the Krupps and the Thyssens supported Hitler primarily
in order to crush the German trade-union and political movements
which were in the late 1920's threatening their wealth and power.
The Astors are part of the same family in the United States. Lady
Nancy Astor, born in Virginia, married into one of the richest families
in England. Her interests and the interests of Viscount Astor, her
husband, stretch into banking, railroads, life insurance and journalism.
Half a dozen members of the family are in Parliament: Lady Astor, her
husband, their son, in the House of Commons; and two relatives in the
House of Lords. The Astor family controls two of the most powerful
and influential newspapers in the world, the London Times and the
London Observer. In the past these papers, whose influence cannot be
exaggerated, have been strong enough to make and break Prime
Ministers.
Cliveden House, ruled by the intensely energetic and ambitious
American-born woman, had already left its mark upon current history
following other week-end parties. Lady Astor and her coterie had been
playing a more or less minor role in the affairs of the largest empire in
the world, but decisions recently reached at her week-end parties have
already changed the map of Europe, after almost incredible intrigues,
betrayals and double-crossings, carried through with the ruthlessness of
a conquering Caesar and the boundless ambitions of a Napoleon.
The week-ends at Cliveden House which culminated in the historic one
of March 26-27, began in the fall of 1937. Lady Astor had been having
teas with Lady Ravensdale and had entertained von Ribbentrop, Nazi
Ambassador to Great Britain, at her town house. Gradually the
Astor-controlled London Times assumed a pro-Nazi bias on its very
influential editorial page. When the Times wants to launch a campaign,
its custom is to run a series of letters in its famous correspondence
columns and then an editorial advocating the policy decided upon.

During October, 1937, the Times sprouted letters regarding Hitler's
claims for the return of the colonies taken from Germany after the war.
Rather than have Germany attack her, England preferred to see Hitler
turn his eyes to the fertile Ukrainian wheat fields of the Soviet Union. It
meant war, but that war seemed inevitable. If Russia won, England and
her economic royalists would be faced with "the menace of
communism." But if Germany won, she would expand eastward and,
exhausted by the war, would be in no condition to make demands upon
England. The part Great Britain's economic royalists had to play, then,
was to strengthen Germany in her preparations for the coming war with
Russia and at the same time prepare herself to fight if her calculations
went wrong.
Cabinet ministers Lord Hailsham (sugar and insurance interests), Lord
Swinton (railroads, power, with subsidiaries in Germany, Italy, etc.),
Sir Samuel Hoare (real estate, insurance, etc.), were felt out and
thought it was a good idea. Chamberlain himself had a hefty interest
(around twelve thousand shares) in Imperial Chemical Industries,
affiliated with I.G. Farbenindustrie, the German dye trust which is very
actively supplying Hitler with war materials. The difficulty was
Anthony Eden, British Foreign Minister, who was opposed to fascist
aggressions because he feared they would eventually threaten the
British Empire. Eden would certainly not approve of strengthening
fascist countries and encouraging them to still greater aggressions.
At one of the carefully selected little parties the Astors invited Eden. In
the small drawing room banked with flowers the idea was broached
about sending an emissary to talk the matter over with Hitler--some
genial, inoffensive person like Lord Halifax (huge land interests) for
instance. Eden understood why the Times had suddenly raised the issue
of the lost German colonies to an extent greater even than Hitler
himself, and Eden emphatically expressed his disapproval. Such a step,
he insisted, would encourage both Germany and Italy to further
aggressions which would ultimately wreck the British Empire.
Nevertheless, the cabinet ministers who had been consulted brought
pressure upon Chamberlain and while the Foreign Secretary was in

Brussels on a state matter, the