Lord Vansittart,Sir Walford Selby and the Debate about Treasury Interference in the Conduct of British Foreign Policy in the 1930s

Abstract

This article examines whether Sir Walford Selby's assertion, made in the 1950s, that there was undue Treasury interference in the conduct of British foreign policy in the 1930s was true. In particular, it focuses on Selby's accusation that the former Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, Lord Vansittart, failed to resist such interference.