I called on Vansittart. He met me cordially, but looked somewhat worn out and upset. Paler than usual. He took me aside and informed me on an entirely confidential basis (but with the request that I tell the Soviet government!) that Samuel Hoare had been appointed foreign secretary.

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In the reorganization of the Cabinet, Baldwin became prime minister, while Hoare replaced Simon as foreign secretary. Sixteen out of the 22 Cabinet members were Conservatives.

He had hoped for better, but this wasn’t too bad. Yesterday he had an extensive conversation with his new boss and learned to his delight that their views were fundamentally similar. Vansittart fears, however, that the name Hoare might make an unfavourable impression in Moscow, and that the Soviet press might give him a hostile reception. One should not jump to conclusions. Just wait and see… Hoare will invite me for a talk immediately after Trinity Sunday. Vansittart hopes fervently that I shall try to reassure Moscow.

We had a grand dinner in honour of Eden tonight. Twenty-seven guests were present… The atmosphere was not bad, even though Hoare had been appointed foreign secretary. Eden and Lord Cecil assured me that Hoare was a convinced advocate of collective security and that he would make a good foreign secretary. We’ll see!

Having placed his bet on Eden, Maisky, in reporting home, went out of his way to explain that, although Eden had failed to receive any significant portfolio, Maisky had been assured by Vansittart that Eden would become a full member of the Cabinet and as such would have ‘more influence in the conduct of foreign policy than before’; DVP, 1935, XVIII, doc. 261.

[One of the first issues to claim Hoare’s attention when he assumed office was Litvinov’s harsh analysis of Hitler’s speech and demand from the British government to reassert its commitment to the principle of indivisible peace in Europe. While Vansittart and the northern department at the Foreign Office wanted to allay Russian fears, Sargent warned that any response to Litvinov’s ‘very cunning note’ was likely to be distorted and exploited in the Soviet negotiations with the French. Vansittart disagreed. He reminded the new foreign secretary that it was in Britain’s interests to maintain a friendly attitude towards Russia, and that this could only be realized if the Russians were treated as ‘participants in the scheme of things’. Hoare, however, was more attentive to Vansittart’s warning that the ‘able and pertinacious’ Maisky would return to the charge. He dreaded the idea of another meeting with Maisky, having himself gained the impression that Maisky was eager ‘to indulge in a legalistic cross-examination’. Maisky was therefore put on hold while events unfolded.

TNA FO 371 18845 C4564/55/18, 15 June 1935.

To overcome the impasse, Vansittart assisted Maisky in setting up a powerful lobby within Conservative circles. The introduction of Maisky to the Fleet Street magnate Beaverbrook resulted in the first favourable mention of Moscow in the Daily Express, which, according to Maisky, hitherto had printed only ‘obvious libels’. Maisky was further invited to a dinner en famille at Vansittart’s home, where he met Churchill. ‘I send you a very strong recommendation of that gentleman,’ wrote Beaverbrook to Maisky. ‘In character he is without a rival in British politics. I know all about his prejudices. But a man of character who tells the truth is worth much to the nation.’ Churchill indeed told Maisky that, in view of the rise of Nazism, which threatened to reduce England to ‘a toy in the hands of German imperialism’, he was abandoning his protracted struggle against the Soviet Union, which he no longer believed posed any threat to England for at least the next ten years. He fully subscribed to the idea of collective security as the sole strategy able to thwart Nazi Germany.