Page 67 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

54 The British Diplomats

two years later, however, he resigned from his new position as home secre-
tary in protest against the government’s decision to introduce conscription
into the army. simon contended that it was “wrong to compel a man to be a
soldier.” to demonstrate that he was nevertheless a patriot, he then volun-
97
tarily served for a short time as an officer on Commander Hugh trenchard’s
staff in the royal Flying Corps.
it was not until 1931 that simon returned to a senior government post,
secretary for foreign affairs, and then the second flaw in his character be-
came most evident. By that time, he had acknowledged that his opposition
to conscription had been a mistake, but other than that he retained many
of his earlier views and, more to the point, showed himself to be indecisive;
he could not make up his mind on the most pressing issues, and once he
reached a decision, he often failed to stick to it for very long. eden, who
served as undersecretary for foreign affairs during three years of simon’s
tenure as secretary, complained about his superior’s “methods” of reach-
ing decisions. He was too slow in making up his mind on critical matters
and he failed to “stand up” for his department “in the highest councils of
government.” simon, eden noted in his memoirs, “could master a brief
98
quicker than any man, but this is only part of the business in foreign affairs.
His colleagues used to complain that he was more apt to turn to them for a
policy than to champion his own.” 99
it is difficult to find contemporaries or historians with a kind word
about simon’s stewardship of the Foreign Office, but some of the criticisms
seem misguided. rumbold, for example, referred to him as a “congenital
pacifist,” and many academics and politicians have claimed that he was one
of the most “prominent appeasers,” second only to Chamberlain in impor-
tance. 100 an examination of simon’s reaction to rumbold’s Mein Kampf
dispatch and of simon’s other writings on how to cope with Nazism reveals
that his views were rather complicated and that he cannot be dismissed
simply as an appeaser. true, simon lacked deep knowledge of German poli-
tics, he had not paid much attention to National socialism before Hitler’s
appointment as chancellor, and his recommendations on how to respond
to Hitler’s foreign policy moves were often too timid to have had any effect
on the Führer. Yet at a critical moment in 1933, simon showed real insight
into the dangers that a National socialist Germany represented for all of
europe.

Hugh Montague trenchard was a professional soldier who served as commander of the
royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917 and played a central role in establishing the
royal air Force.