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prestige in the Middle East’ and said it was imperative that Belgrave’s departure

should be presented as if he ‘was retiring of his own volition in order to give way to

a younger man’. Britain, he said, should look for a suitable candidate for the position

and adopt whatever method was necessary to convince the Ruler. The Cabinet

approved the proposal of the Foreign Secretary and suggested that the Minister

should prepare a list of candidates to meet with Eden. Furthermore, it agreed to

seek the best way possible to convince the Ruler to let go of Belgrave. 634

A high-ranked Soviet delegation arrived on a visit to Britain on 19 April,

invited by Eden in the summer of 1955. 635 Prior to the visit, Eden informed

Eisenhower of what Britain had intended to discuss with the Russians during their

stay. The Prime Minister was going to underline to the Soviets ‘that our Middle

Eastern oil supplies are a vital interest and that any attempt to deny them to us will

create a most dangerous state of tension’. 636 The Soviet delegation included Prime

Minister Nikolai Bulganin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and

Nikita Khrushchev a Member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. 637

Eden recorded in his memoir that he had informed ‘the Russians that the

uninterrupted supply of oil were literally vital to our economy’, and, as a result, the

situation in the Middle East had overshadowed discussions. Eden went further as

he declared Britain’s intention vis-à-vis securing oil and that it ‘would fight for it’.

The Soviets on their part criticised Britain for setting up the Baghdad Pact. 638 The

th
634 TNA, CAB 129/80, C.P. (56) 98, Bahrain, 14 April 1956; and TNA, CAB 128/30, C.M. (56), 29
conclusions, 17 April 1956.
635 Descent to Suez, 19 April 1956, 353-54.
636 Eden to Eisenhower, 18 April 1956, (also found in Boyle, 126-27).
637 ‘Court Circular’, The Times, 23 April 1956, 12.
638 Eden, Full Circle, 357-59.

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