Office of the Historian

760F.62/1073: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Kennedy) to the Secretary of State

London, September 25, 1938—7 p.m.
[Received September 25—3:10 p.m.]

1017. I hear indirectly from Oliver Stanley that the Cabinet meeting did not go well this morning and there are seven potential resignations, possibly before tonight: Stanley, Duff-Cooper, Winterton, De La Warr,72 probably Hore-Belisha, and possibly Morrison73 and Elliot. At least this group are fighting Chamberlain on agreeing to the new Czech note and there may be some crack-up this afternoon. Mr. Chamberlain and Halifax are not seeing me because they have no policy outlined yet that they can get the Cabinet to agree to, and I have been frankly advised that they want to have their house in order before saying what they propose doing. There will be a Cabinet meeting after the meeting with the French Ministers. The dissenting members of the Cabinet have insisted that the French be told of the opposition in the Cabinet. The question is peace or war.

Kennedy
  1. The Earl of De La Warr, President of the Board of Education, and Leader of the House of Lords.↩
  2. W. S. Morrison, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.↩