765.84/4317: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 7—12:05 p.m.]
254. Yesterday’s debate25 which was “mostly concerned with disputing responsibility for the Abyssinian tragedy,” was noteworthy for Eden’s admission of the League’s failure and the desirability of its reorganization, and Sir Austen Chamberlain’s26 appeal for the removal of sanctions which was well received by Conservative members. I understand that sentiment in the Cabinet is moving rapidly in the same direction.
However, the debate has precipitated partisan divergencies which are reflected in today’s press. The Labor Daily Herald states “the Government’s loss of a seat at Peckham expresses above all else a loss of popular confidence in its foreign policy and in Mr. Eden. Those who once placed hope in him will read his speech of yesterday with despair.” The opposition Liberal Manchester Guardian states “all this inquest on the dead past matters less than the lively present and the future which either actively or passively, the Government is shaping for us. What then had Mr. Eden to say about this? Nothing at all.” Both the Times and the Daily Telegraph criticise the opposition for taking a partisan line on a question of foreign policy and emphasized that the League’s failure was not individual but collective. The independent Conservative Daily Mail proclaims “That the right course for Great Britain is to clean the slate and give notice as soon as possible that she will have nothing more to do with sanctions or with the penal clauses of the Covenant.”
This debate marks the beginning of the anticipated period of readjustment for the British public as well as for the Government.