| Abstract: | In January 1935, Sir John Simon won an action for slander againsta Methodist minister from Norfolk who had accused the ForeignSecretary of attacking the Peace Ballot because it would damagehis financial interests in the armaments business. The casewas the culmination of more than two years of rumours and allegationsagainst Simon. The charge made by the Revd J. W. Bond againstthe Foreign Secretary was entirely without foundation, but invoicing his belief that the private manufacture of armamentswas damaging to the cause of disarmament, he was expressinga view that was widely held both in his own Church and amongthe wider peace movement. The Methodist Church was deeply dividedover international questions in the 1930s. Simon, for his part,took legal action against Bond both because he was weary ofthe allegations against him and in the hope of protecting hisreputation as Foreign Secretary, which had long been under attackboth in the press and in Parliament. |
