Government are the following: (a) The Allied Governments cannot acquiesce in any
further attack on Finland by either the Soviet or German Governments. In the event
therefore, of such an attack taking place, any refusal by the Swedish Government to
facilitate the efforts of the Allied Governments to come to the assistance of Finland in
whatever manner they may think fit, and still more any attempt to prevent such assistance
would be considered by the Allied Governments as endangering their vital interests.... (c)
Any attempt by the Soviet Government to obtain from Norway a footing on the Atlantic
sea-board would be contrary to the vital interests of the Allied Governments."
The Swedish Foreign Minister expressed his government's astonishment at this note
and its determination to decide such questions for itself and to preserve Sweden's
neutrality in the future as it had been preserved in the past.(20)
It is not clear what was the attitude of the Milner Group toward this effort to open
active hostilities against the Soviet Union while remaining technically in a state of war
with Germany. Halifax was still at the Foreign Office and apparently actively concerned
in this project. The Times was wholeheartedly in favor of the plan. On 5 March, for
example, it said of the Finnish war: "It is becoming clearer every day that this war is no
side issue. Finland is defending more than the cause of liberty and more than her own
soil.... Our own cause is being buttressed by her resistance to the evil of tyranny.... Our
interest is clear and there is a moral issue involved as well as the material. The whole
sentiment of this country demands that Finland should not be allowed to fall."
propagandist article on "The Civilization of Finland." It called Finland "one of the most
democratic nations, on any definition, in all Europe." The rest of the article was a paean
of praise for the kind and magnanimous conduct of the Finnish government in every
crisis of its history from 1917, but nothing was said about the Finnish war, nor was there
any mention of Allied aid.
During this period the Milner Group became increasingly impatient with the
Chamberlain group. This was clear from the June 1940 issue of
criticized the Cabinet reshuffle of April as evoking"almost universal derision." It also
criticized Chamberlain's failure to include able members of his own party in the Cabinet.
This may have been a reference to Amery's continued exclusion. The article said: "This
lack of imagination and courage could be seen in almost every aspect of the Chamberlain
Government's conduct of the war." It excluded Simon and Hoare as possible prime
ministers, on the ground that they were too close to Chamberlain. It was probably
thinking of Halifax as prime minister, but, when the time came, others thought him, also,
to be too closely associated with appeasement. On the crucial day, 8 May 1940, the
Group was badly split. In fact, on the division that preceded Chamberlain's resignation,
Lady Astor voted against the government, while her brother-in-law, John Jacob Astor,
voted with the government. The debate was one of the most bitter in recent history and
reached its high point when Amery cried out to the Government benches the words of
Cromwell: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say,
and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" In the ensuing division, the
whips were on with a vengeance, but the government's majority was only 81, more than a
hundred Conservatives abstaining from voting. Most of the Milner Group members, since
they held offices in the government, had to vote with it. Of the inner core, only Amery
and Lady Astor broke away. In the majority, still supporting Chamberlain, were J. J.
Astor, Grigg, Hoare, Malcolm MacDonald, Salter, Simon' and Somervell. But the fight
had been too bitter. Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill, and Amery came to office
(as Secretary of State for India). Once again the Milner Group and the government were
united on the issues. Both, from 8 May 1940, had only one aim: to win the war with
Germany.
Chapter 13—The Second World War, 1939-1945
The Milner Group played a considerable role in the Second World War, not scattered
throughout the various agencies associated with the great struggle, but concentrated in
four or five chief fiefs. Among these were: (1) the Research and Intelligence Department
of the Foreign Office; (2) the British Embassy in Washington; (3) the Ministry of
Information; and (4) those agencies concerned with economic mobilization and economic
reconstruction. Considering the age of most of the inner core of the Milner Group during
the Second World War (the youngest, Lothian, was 57 in 1939; Hichens was 65; Brand
was 61; Dawson was 65; and Curtis was 67), they accomplished a great deal. Unable, in