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Table of Contents
The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1
  • 27 October 1937
  • 12 July
  • 18 July
  • 9 August
  • 30 October
  • 31 October
  • 1 November
  • 4 November
  • 5 November
  • 6 November
  • 7 November
  • 9 November
  • 10 November
  • 12 November
  • 15 November
  • 16 November
  • 17 November
  • 18 November
  • 23 November
  • 24 November
  • 25 November
  • 27 November
  • 28 November
  • 29 November
  • 1 December
  • 5 December
  • 6 December
  • 11 December
  • 13 December
  • 16 December
  • 17 December
  • 18 December
  • 19 December
  • 20 December
  • 24 December
  • 27 December
  • 31 December
  • 8 January
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27 December
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By Liakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)

The Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1

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Page 57

27 December
Vansittart unexpectedly asked me over, at the height of the Christmas season. I felt somewhat anxious on my way to the FO. In fact, however, there was no cause for concern. This became clear at the very beginning of our conversation.
On 17 December I attended a lunch that Boothby had arranged for me in parliament. Among those present were Burgin,
Edward Leslie Burgin, Liberal MP, 1929–45; parliamentary secretary, Board of Trade, 1932–37; minister of transport, 1937–39; minister of supply, 1939–40.
junior minister for trade, and Hudson,
Robert Spear Hudson (1st Viscount Hudson), parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Labour, 1931–35; minister of pensions, 1935–36; secretary in the Department of Overseas Trade, 1937–40; privy counsellor, 1938.
the junior minister of labour. We had an open, gloves off, discussion of the issues of the day. Burgin, and especially Hudson, defended the idea of an Anglo-Japanese alliance and the division of China into spheres of influence. I argued with them. Boothby told V. about the lunch. V. got very worked up and decided to see me right away.
V. was really very annoyed with Burgin and Hudson. They were ‘foolish people’ who hadn’t a clue about foreign policy. Their views do not in any way reflect those of the British government on the issue of the Far East. V. would like to affirm once again, and quite categorically, that the British government desires peace in the Far East and does not intend to renew the Anglo-Japanese alliance. He now considers it more desirable than ever that an authoritative Cabinet member should make a speech in parliament clearly setting out the British government’s policy in the Far East. He will speak to Baldwin on this matter and hopes that such a declaration will be made when the Houses reopen at the end of January.
I thanked V. for his explanation and endorsed his idea of a public statement by Baldwin or Simon defining the British line in the Far East. This would assist greatly in clearing the air in Anglo-Soviet relations.
V. further informed me that he had given a lot of thought to our last conversations and had arrived at the conclusion that ministerial visits to the USSR would be one of the best ways of improving relations between our countries. Why shouldn’t Walter Elliot, for one, make a trip to the USSR? For him, as minister of agriculture, the USSR ought to be of considerable interest. And why shouldn’t some other members of government also pay visits to the USSR? As a last resort, if none of the Cabinet members are currently available to travel, he is ready to suggest himself in their place, although a visit by a politician and Cabinet member would of course have greater significance. These words do not reflect the decision of some government agency; rather, he was just thinking out loud.


Page 58

I replied that I wholly endorsed V.’s ‘thoughts’ and that I would deem it useful if they took the form of concrete decisions in the nearest future. These English visits might be official, semi-official or even private, depending on the circumstances. The details can be agreed on in each individual case.
V. agreed with me fully and added that if he himself were to go, he would prefer the form of a private or semi-official visit, since he is no orator, and official visits always involve a great deal of ‘speech making’. Then I showed him the interview given by Neurath to the Berlin correspondent of Messaggero, where he stated that ‘if the Eastern Pact means the perpetuation of the present territorial and political situation in Eastern Europe, then Germany will never join it’. V., who had not seen the interview, became very agitated and, upon reading the statement, exclaimed: ‘This is the crux. It’s very serious.’
I steered the conversation to the Pact of the Four proposed by Neurath to counterbalance the Eastern Pact, and declared plainly that the Pact of the Four is absolutely unacceptable to us in any form (e.g. as a pact of five or six powers), for it will only undermine the authority of the League of Nations. V. promised to inform the Cabinet of our attitude to the Pact.
Maisky had been instructed by Litvinov that any future agreement with Germany, France or England should be conditional on adherence to the ‘Eastern Pact’ and should exclude any revival of the ‘Pact of Four’, which had been signed by Britain, France, Italy and Germany on 15 July 1933 but which never came into force due to major disagreement between the signatories; DVP, 1934, XVII, doc. 437, 21 Dec. 1934.
When I was about to leave, V. took a very intimate and friendly tone and informed me, ‘in absolute confidence’, that if Soviet ‘interference’ in England’s domestic affairs were to continue, all our efforts to improve Anglo-Soviet relations would go to rack and ruin. V. has had reason to convince himself of this ‘interference’ only recently. I asked him what exactly he meant, but he refused to tell me the facts known to him and merely asked me to bear in mind that he had taken the liberty of raising this subject as a ‘friend’ and advocate of Anglo-Soviet rapprochement.


Page 413

Maisky’s report home was extremely succinct and, as would become his practice, attributed to Vansittart initiatives of his own that clearly exceeded his authority. It was Vansittart, he insisted, who ‘established’ that no points of necessary friction existed between the Soviet Union and Britain, while in fact the undersecretary of state was only cajoled into confirming Maisky’s long exposé. Maisky further concealed from Litvinov the fact that he had been wrong to assume that the foreign secretary intended to raise the whole scope of Anglo-Soviet relations in Cabinet and then send for him again. In fact, the FO records show that, when he did raise the issue with Vansittart, he was told that ‘in the case of normal and satisfactory relations the usual course was to let them take care of themselves, seeing only that they were maintained by normal diplomatic contacts’. Moreover, the northern department examined the record of the interview with Simon and established (tongue in cheek) that Maisky was ‘doubtless under a misapprehension’; DVP, 1934, XVII, doc. 431, and TNA FO 371 18306 N6953/16/38.
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Document Details
Document Title27 December
AuthorLiakhovetsky, Ivan Mikhailovich (Maisky)
RecipientN/A
RepositoryN/A
ID #N/A
DescriptionN/A
Date1934 Dec 27
AOC VolumeThe Complete Maisky Diaries: Volume 1
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