\"British Diplomat\" Alexander Cadogan Hand Signed 2.5X4 Card For Sale

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\"British Diplomat\" Alexander Cadogan Hand Signed 2.5X4 Card:
$349.99

Up for sale "British Diplomat" Alexander Cadogan Hand Signed 2.5X4 Card. 

ES-5141E

Sir

Alexander Montagu George 1884 – 9 July 1968) was a British diplomat and civil servant. He was Permanent

Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1938 to 1946. His long

tenure of the Permanent Secretary's office makes him one of the central figures

of British policy before and during the Second World War. His diaries are a source of great value and

give a sharp sense of the man and his life. Like most senior officials at

the Foreign Office, he was

bitterly critical of the appeasement policies of the 1930s but admitted that

until British rearmament was

better advanced, there were few other options. In particular, he stressed that

without an American commitment to joint defence against Japan, Britain would be

torn between the eastern and western spheres. Conflict with Germany would

automatically expose Britain's Asian Empire to Japanese aggression. Cadogan

was brought up in a distinguished and wealthy aristocratic family as the

seventh son and youngest child of George Cadogan, 5th Earl

Cadogan, and his first wife Lady Beatrix Jane Craven, daughter

of William Craven, 2nd Earl

of Craven. He was the brother of Henry Cadogan, Viscount

Chelsea, Gerald Cadogan, 6th Earl

Cadogan, William Cadogan,

and Sir Edward Cadogan. He was

educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read History. Cadogan had a

distinguished career in the Diplomatic Service, serving from 1908 to 1950. His

first posting was to Constantinople, where he

"spent two happy years learning the craft of diplomacy and playing upon

the head of Chancery a series of ingenious practical posting was in Vienna, and during the First World War, he served in the Foreign Office in London. At

the end of the First World War, he served at the Versailles Peace

Conference. In 1923, he became the head of the League of Nations section of the Foreign Office and

remained quite optimistic about the prospects for the League. He was less

confident about the prospects of success for the Disarmament Conference in

Geneva and became quite frustrated at the lack of trust necessary for joint

disarmament. Performing this work, he developed an appreciation for his

colleague and superior, Anthony Eden. Cadogan found him agreeable, and in a 1933

letter to his wife, he wrote, "He seems to me to have a very good idea of

what is right and what is wrong, and if he thinks a thing is right he goes all

out for it, hard, and if he thinks a thing is wrong, ten million wild hordes

won't make him do it." Eden returned the admiration, writing that

Cadogan "carried out his thankless task with a rare blend of intelligence,

sensibility, and patience." In 1933, with Adolf Hitler in power and the fate of the Disarmament

Conference clear, Cadogan accepted a posting at the British legation in Peking. The family arrived in 1934, after the Chinese

government had evacuated Peking because of troubles with Japan. He met

with Chiang Kai-shek and

attempted to persuade him of Britain's support. Despite the lack of a real

Chinese government, Cadogan did his best but lacked support from the Foreign

Office. In 1935, after his recommendation to extend a loan to the Chinese

government was again denied, he wrote that "with all their protestations

that they mean to 'stay in China', they do nothing. And 'staying'

will cost them something in money or effort or risk. The Chinese are becoming

sick of us. And there is no use my 'keeping in touch' with them if I never can

give them an encouragement at all". In 1936, Cadogan received a

request from the newly appointed Secretary of State, Anthony Eden, offering him the post of joint Deputy

Under-Secretary. He regretted leaving China so suddenly but took up the offer

and returned to London. Things there had grown much worse since his departure.

Italy had attacked Abyssinia and Germany

had reoccupied the Rhineland. Assessing the situation,

Cadogan advised a revision of the more vindictive elements of the Treaty of Versailles,

"which was really more in the nature of an armistice." However, this

suggestion was not taken up by Sir Robert

Vansittart or Eden. It was felt that modifying the Treaty would

only increase Germany's ambitions. Cadogan disagreed and wrote in his diary:

"I believe that, so long as she is allowed to nurse her resentment to her

bosom, her claims increase with her armaments." He wanted to engage

Germany in an effort to get German grievances set down on paper and was not as

troubled by his colleagues about the possibility of German domination of

Central Europe. Cadogan grew impatient with the lack of strategic direction in

the Foreign Office. He complained, "It can't be said that our 'policy' so

far has been successful. In fact we haven't got a policy; we

merely wait to see what will happen to us next". 

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