Book Review: Commonwealth of Nations: Halifax
| Date | 01 September 1966 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206602100328 |
| Published date | 01 September 1966 |
| Author | Llewelyn Woodward |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BooK
RE•VIws
391
ambush,
reprisal, the
Auxiliaries
and
the
Black
and Tans,
the
Truce,
the
Treaty
and
the
bitter
aftermath
of
civil
war.
Miss
Macardle
writes
with emotion
but
is
rarely
carried away
by
it.
She
is
at
her
best
in
the
account
of
particular
events,
the
burning
of
Cork,
the
bombard-
ment
of
the
Four
Courts
at
the
onset
of
the
civil
war,
less
satisfying
in
respect
of
complex
negotiation
or
political
manoeuvre.
She
is
fair
to
supporters
of
the
Treaty
to
Griffith
and
to
Collins,
but
approach,
theme
and
viewpoint
combine
to
diminsh
the
stature
of
those
who
opted
for
a
dominion
status
settlement.
Correspondingly
the personality
of
President
de
Valdra
and
the
logical
consistency
of his
stand,
despite
the
claims
of
unity
and
threats
"of
immediate and
terrible
war"
from
London,
is
enhanced.
Yet
in
so
far
as
there
is
bias,
it
is
implicit
in
the
theme.
This
is
the
history
of
the
Republic
and,
by
virtue
of
that
alone,
its
uncompromising champion
occupies,
and
must
occupy
the
centre
of
the
stage.
Miss
Macardle's
book,
supplemented
by
useful
documentary appen-
dices,
remains an indispensable
record.
It
also
remains
narrative,
near-
contemporary
history
its
purpose
to
present
a
faithful
account
of
events
great
and
small
and
leaving to
a
later
generation,
analysis,
reappraisal
in
the light
of
fuller
evidence,
and more
critical
probing
of
inter-
relationship
of
personality
and
action.
St.
John's
College,
Cambrdge
NICHOLAS
MANSERGH
HALIFAX.
The
Life
of
Lord
Halifax.
By
the
Earl
of
Birkenhead.
1965.
(London:
Toronto:
Hamish
Hamilton.
xiii,
626pp.
$12.75)
Lord Birkenhead
has
written
a careful
and
sympathetic
life
of
Lord
Halifax;
he
exaggerates
Halifax's
ability, but
is
not
uncritical
of
him.
The
early chapters
describe
very
well
Halifax's
upbringing
in
a
some-
what
bogus
aristocratic setting,
dominated
by
an
affectionate
but
eccentric
father.
Lord
Birkenhead
is
at
his
best
in
the
chapters
on
India;
he
gives
a
vivid
account
of
the
daily
routine
of
a
Viceroy
and
brings
out
the
boldness
of
Halifax's
attempt
(after
the
disastrous
mis-
take
of
refusing Indian
representation
on
the
Simon
Commission)
to
get the
co-operation
of
the
nationalist
leaders.
Circumstances
outside
the
Viceroy's
control
prevented
his
gesture
from
having
more
than
a
temporary
effect,
but
it
is
unlikely
in
view
of
the
impractical
attitude
of
the Indian
politicians,
that
any
compromise
acceptable
to
the
British
Government
would
have
been
possible.
Lord Birkenhead says
what
little there
is
to
be
said
in defence
of
Halifax's
disastrous
period
as
Foreign
Secretary
in
Chamberlain's
government.
One
wonders
above
all
why
so
deeply
Christian a
man
should
have failed
to
comprehend
the
sheer
wickedness
of
Nazi
and
Fascist
policy
To
posterity
it
will
seem
extraordinary
that
Halifax's
grave
errors
of
judgement
should
not have
excluded
him
from
con-
sideration
for
high
office
(possibly
even
the
Prime
Ministership)
after
Chamberlain's resignation
in
May
1940.
It
is
even
more
odd
that,
although
the
evidence
is
in
print-Lord
Birkenhead
does
not
discuss
it
-public opinion
still
fails
to
realize
that,
if
Halifax
had
been
Prime
Minister
in
the critical
days before
the
success of
the Dunkirk
evacua-
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