Anglo-Irish Relations, 1939-41: A Study in Multilateral Diplomacy and Military Restraint

‘This study bridges two gaps, one in the historiographyof Anglo-Irish relations between 1939 and 1941 and the otherin International Relations (IR) theory. Anglo-Irish relationsduring the Second World War have been the subject of numerousstudies focusing upon the bilateral nature of that relationship,but it was subject to serious multilateral considerations—theCommonwealth and the US. At moments of danger between the twostates, it was not the balance of a bilateral relationship,but rather of a broad multilateral structure which set the paceof British policy-making. This restrained British military planningagainst Eire. The history of Anglo-Irish relations in this periodpositively links the conduct of multilateral diplomacy withthe absence of the use of force. From the standpoint of IR theory,this provides a useful ‘hard’ case for how/why multilateralismmay matter. It also illustrates several of the deficienciesin IR theory, not least the Whiggish assumption that integrationor globalization follow a linear progression (against whichstands the equally Whiggish notion that interstate relationsare eternally cast). This article seeks to demonstrate thata somewhat wider appreciation of history makes it possible toreconcile multilateral diplomacy with many more traditional‘realist’ concerns.’     

The Foreign Enlistment Act and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

This article examines the official response to the policy problemsraised by the over two thousand Britons who went to fight forthe Republic during the Spanish Civil War, with particular referenceto the Foreign Enlistment Act (1870). Revived in January 1937as a means of reducing the flow of volunteers and curbing therecruiting efforts of the Communist Party of Great Britain,the act proved embarrassingly unenforceable. Ambiguity overits applicability to the situation in Spain, combined with problemsof evidence, meant that no charges were ever laid against volunteerscaught attempting to leave for Spain or members of the recruitingorganization of the CPGB. Though a complete failure as a legaltool, the Foreign Enlistment Act nevertheless symbolically underlinedthe British government's declared support for internationalnon-intervention in Spain, and was never rescinded.     

British Courts Martial in North Africa, 1940-3

This article seeks to demonstrate that the exemplary aspectof military law was applied in courts martial cases in NorthAfrica between 1940 and 1943. It will show that there was aclear desire to make examples, which coincided with the preoccupationsof the High Command concerning the state of discipline and moralewithin the British Eighth Army. The article will reveal thatAuchinleck, Montgomery, and Alexander shared many common ideason discipline and morale, but that their concerns often overstatedthe scale of the supposed problem. These fears created an atmospherein which the details of individual cases were often overriddenin the name of discipline and military efficiency. Paradoxically,such an attitude only added to the High Command’s concerns,for by ensuring a high level of convictions, the outcomes ofcourts martial appeared to confirm the validity of its views.     

1939-1941年苏德经贸外交及后果

1939年—1941年苏德战争前,苏德两国从各自的战略和利益出发都要求改善两国关系。如何打破自希特勒上台后两国关系的僵局?苏德双方都力图从经贸外交入手。苏德战争前,苏德之间开展的经贸外交使双方的经贸关系异乎寻常地热起来。这种关系对第二次世界大战的爆发和扩大,对苏德双方产生了什么影响,造成了什么后果,我国学对此研究较少。本就这一问题略抒己见。     

Professional advantage and public health: British veterinarians and State Veterinary Services, 1865-1939

At the beginning of the twentieth century, municipal authorities in England and Wales, and in Scotland, began to develop systems of veterinary public health which encompassed both the welfare of animals and the safety of meat and milk intended for human consumption. This paper examines the motives behind veterinary attempts to extend the integration of human and animal health considerations within the public health framework in the inter-war period. In 1938 the Ministry of Agriculture implemented a national administrative structure for the management of animal diseases which absorbed the veterinary personnel of the municipal authorities, whose own veterinary public health activities largely fell into abeyance. As a result, the ideal of veterinary public health disappeared from British public health practice after 1939, and lost its force as a professional political cause. The mid-century disappearance of animal health from consideration in British public health programmes was one of a complex of historical strands which contributed to the late-twentieth-century emergence of public health crises over such animal-borne diseases as salmonellosis, Escherichia coli infection, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy.     

Seeing the Wood for the Trees: The British Foreign Office and the Anglo-American Trade Agreement of 1938

The Anglo-American Trade Agreement of 1938 was signed againsta backdrop of escalating unease in Europe and a faltering policyof appeasement of the dictators. It is widely accepted thatthe Agreement was concluded more for its political than forits commercial value. Yet the negotiations were no simple affair,dragging on for over nine months and coming near to breakdownon several occasions. The complex negotiations are well documented,but the role of the British Foreign Office in determining policytowards the Agreement is less well known. What emerges is apicture of internecine struggle between the Foreign Office andthe Board of Trade over the direction of the negotiations. Asthe talks became bogged down in technical detail, the ForeignOffice made repeated representations to put the political valueof the deal before commercial considerations and adopt a moreconciliatory stance towards the Americans. The pleas of theForeign Office were made all the more difficult thanks to Americaninflexibility and Washington's determination to bargain hard.The talks were eventually resolved in the wake of the Munichagreement when both sides realised the time was right for ashow of Anglo-American solidarity, and not because of the exertionsof the Foreign Office. Yet this examination of Foreign Officeactivity during negotiation of the Agreement is illustrativenot only of how the Agreement was closed, but also of the suffocatingpower of British appeasement policy and the very determinedbelief of the Foreign Office in the centrality of achievingcloser relations with the United States in this dark preludeto war. ^* The author would like to thank the British Academy for awardinga Small Research Grant to complete this article.     

The Politics of Citizenship in 1940s Britain: The British Nationality Act

The article examines the enactment of the British NationalityAct, 1948. The legislation created a legal status—Citizenshipof the UK and Colonies—that included Britons and ‘colonial’British subjects under a single definition of British citizenship,and entrenched their right to enter the UK. Between 1948 and1962, some 500, 000 non-white British subjects entered underthe legislation, despite documented evidence of elite suspicionof non-white Commonwealth migration. The article argues thatthis apparent contradiction can only be understood by examiningthe legislation in the context of past migration patterns andBritain's international position in 1948. The legislation wasonly marginally related to migration; it was rather an attemptto maintain a uniform definition of subjecthood in the faceof Canada's unilateral introduction of its own citizenship,and it was an affirmation of Britain's place as head of a Commonwealthstructure founded on the relationship between the UK and theOld Dominions. ^* For comments on earlier drafts, I owe my thanks to John Dorwin,Katie Goebs, Iain McLean, and Desmond King.