Alexander Cadogan - Early Foreign Service Career

Early Foreign Service Career

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 jokes." Cadogan's second 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 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 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, "ith 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, Cardogan 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 he took up the offer and returned to London. Things there had grown much worse since his departure. Italy had attacked Abyssinia and Germany had re-occupied 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 take up by Vansittart or Eden. It was felt that modifying the Treaty would only increase Germany's ambitions. Cadogan disagreed, writing "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."