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Charles Corbin (1881–1970) was a French diplomat who served as ambassador to Britain before and during the early part of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, from 1933 to 27 June 1940.
Early life
He was born in Paris, the son of Paul Corbin, an industrialist. He studied at the
Collège Stanislas de Paris
The Collège Stanislas de Paris (), colloquially known as Stan, is a highly selective private Catholic school in Paris, situated on "Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs" in the 6th arrondissement. It has more than 3,000 students, from preschool to ''class ...
, a private Catholic school in which the father of
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...
taught. He continued his education at the Faculté des Lettres at the
Sorbonne. After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, Corbin served in the press bureau of the French Foreign Ministry at the
Quai d'Orsay, in Paris. He made many British friends; he spoke
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
fluently and had a profound sympathy for Britain and British ways.
[ Corbin served as the French ambassador to Spain (1929–31) and to Belgium (1931-33) before being appointed French ambassador to the court of St. James.][
]
Ambassador in London
Chasing "continental commitment"
He was assigned to London as ambassador in 1933. Corbin arrived in London on 13 March 1933 and presented his credentials as the ambassador of the republic to King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother ...
the same day. His knowledge of economic affairs enabled him to arrange and preside skillfully over meetings of French and British civil servants between 1934 and 1939, while the two nations were preparing for war with Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
.[ The main purpose of Corbin's ambassadorship was to secure the "continental commitment" to have a British commitment to defend France from Germany by sending another expeditionary force on the same scale as in the First World War. The "continental commitment" was the opposite of the "limited liability" defense policy that formed the basis of British rearmament until 1939. Under the "limited liability" doctrine, the majority of the defence budget went to the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy while the British Army was to be kept so small as to rule out the "continental commitment" ever made again. Under the "limited liability" doctrine, the British Army was to be an all-volunteer force intended to serve mostly as a colonial police force that would be strong enough to allow Britain to defend the colonies in the British Empire, but not to fight a major war with a nation like Germany.
The first major crisis in Anglo-French relations occurred in June 1934, when French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou attempted to create an "Eastern Locarno", a counterpart to the Locarno Treaties of 1925-26 guaranteeing the borders of Western Europe for Eastern Europe with the intent of deter Adolf Hitler from aggression in Eastern Europe. The real purpose of the "Eastern Locarno" was to bring the Soviet Union into a front meant to deter Germany; Barthou frankly told Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov at a meeting in Geneva on 18 May 1934 that if Germany refused to join the "Eastern Locarno" as expected, France would sign a military alliance with the Soviet Union.
Barthou's plans to enlist the Soviet Union as an ally against Germany was extremely unpopular in Britain with Corbin reporting that most British newspapers portrayed the Soviets as a menace and Barthou as reckless and irresponsible for wanting to bring the Soviet Union into an anti-German front. On 14 June 1934, Corbin met the Foreign Secretary, Sir John Simon, who was openly hostile to the French plan for an "Eastern Locarno" and the Permanent Undersecretary, Sir Robert "Van" Vansittart, who was mostly silent during the meeting.
A major dilemma for French decisionmakers in the 1930s was that it was felt in Paris that France could not defeat Germany in another war without Britain, but at the same time, Britain until 1939 was opposed to security commitments in Eastern Europe, where France had a number of allies. The issue of the "Eastern Locarno" was considered so important that on 9–10 July 1934 a French delegation consisting of Barthou, Corbin, the Secretary-General of the Quai d'Orsay Alexis St. Léger, the Political Director René Massigli, and ]Roland de Margerie
Roland Jacquin de Margerie (1899 – July 1990) was a French diplomat.
He was the son of the diplomat Pierre de Margerie (1861-1942), who was Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1914 and French Ambassador to Berlin after ...
met in London with Simon, Vansittart, Sir Anthony Eden, Orme Sargent and Lord Stanhope. The meeting went badly, with Simon stating his belief that Hitler was a man of peace and wanted only to revise the "unjust" Treaty of Versailles, and once that was achieved, would live in harmony with all his neighbors. Simon ridiculed French fears of the Third Reich, and when Barthou said the "Eastern Locarno" was necessary to protect France and its allies in Eastern Europe, Simon incredulously replied, "To protect yourselves from Germany?" Barthou, known as one of the most unyieldieng French politicians, refused to yield to Simon's objections while St. Léger and Corbin were more conciliatory. St. Léger spoke of the "fundamental importance that France attached to her friendship with England. She does not ''want'' to do anything ''against'' Great Britain. Better still, the French government does not ''wish'' to get into anything ''without'' Great Britain".
Making friends in London
A man of great charm, distinguished appearance and elegant manners who was fluent in English, Corbin was a favorite of the British Establishment and a dinner invitation with him was a great and much sought after honor. Corbin in his dispatches to Paris made clear his personal preference for anti-appeasement Conservative MPs byu often favorably mentioning Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, Leo Amery, Alfred Duff Cooper, General Edward Spears
Major-General Sir Edward Louis Spears, 1st Baronet, (7 August 1886 – 27 January 1974) was a British Army officer and Member of Parliament noted for his role as a liaison officer between British and French forces in two world wars. Spears was a ...
, and Sir Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, (12 June 1897 – 14 January 1977) was a British Conservative Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957.
Achieving rapid promo ...
together with the Francophile National Labour MP Harold Nicolson
Sir Harold George Nicolson (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British politician, diplomat, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster, and gardener. His wife was the writer Vita Sackville-West.
Early li ...
. Corbin noted in his dispatches to Paris a connection between Francophilia and an anti-appeasement stance by commenting that those MPs most inclined to be Francophiles like Churchill, Duff Cooper, Spears, Amery and Nicolson were the ones most likely to be opposed to appeasement. Through Nicolson and his wife, the novelist Lady Vita Sackville-West
Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (Birth name, née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer.
Sackville-West was a su ...
, Corbin was well connected to the British aristocracy, but Corbin found the bohemian Sackville-West not to match his idea about what a British aristocrat should be like. The French historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle wrote that Corbin's dispatches from London were not of the same literary quality as those of André François-Poncet
André François-Poncet (13 June 1887 – 8 January 1978) was a French politician and diplomat whose post as ambassador to Germany allowed him to witness first-hand the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and the Nazi regime's ...
, the French ambassador in Berlin from 1931 to 1938, whose dispatches are regarded as classics of French writing as he produced a memorably laced-in-acid picture of German society, but Corbin's dispatches were still models of elegant, precise French favored by the Quai d'Orsay, and there was much to be learned about British politics and high society from 1933 to 1940 from reading Corbin's dispatches. Duroselle described Corbin as a man with a very legalistic mind, who favored precise language and was a stickler for details.
The British official that Corbin was most close to was Sir Robert "Van" Vansittart, the francophile Permanent Undersecretary at the Foreign Office between 1930–37, whom Corbin called a true friend of France. Vansittart sometimes leaked material to Corbin in attempts to sabotage his government's policies. Corbin during his time in London was usually frustrated by the widespread attitude in Britain that the Treaty of Versailles was a French-designed "Carthaginian peace" that was far too harsh on Germany and that it was the French who were the principle trouble-makers in Europe by seeking to uphold the treaty. He founded his Anglophilia severely tested by the anti-Versailles and anti-French views held by much of the British people
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs m ...
and Establishment.
In his private conversations with Vansittart, Corbin often vented his frustration with the tendency of so many in Britain to see Germany as the wronged nation, the "victim of Versailles" that Britain should help. In the same way, Corbin with his love of precision was exasperated by the usually vague assurances of British politicians and officials, who told him that Britain wanted to be a friend of France, was opposed to any nation dominating Europe and wanted to avoid another war and that aspects of the international system created by the Treaty of Versailles needed to be revised in the favor of Germany. For his part, Corbin in his usual polite and gentlemanly way made clear his disagreement with the direction of British foreign policy and that he supported an Anglo-French alliance to uphold the system created by the Treaty of Versailles against efforts of Germany to challenge the system.
From Sudetenland Crisis to Munich Agreement
In December 1937, when Vansittart was "kicked upstairs" to the meaningless post of Chief Diplomatic Adviser, whose advice was always ignored, to be replaced with Sir Alexander Cadogan
Sir Alexander Montagu George Cadogan (25 November 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 ...
, Corbin was disappointed. In contrast to his friendship with Vansittart, Corbin was usually negative in his dispatches to Paris towards the "big four" of British politics in the 1930s, Sir John Simon, Lord Halifax
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as The Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and The Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a senior British Conservative politician of the 19 ...
, Sir Samuel Hoare and Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeaseme ...
, all of whom he clearly disliked. Through Corbin was always outwardly polite and courteous towards Chamberlain, Hoare, Halifax and Simon, his dispatches to Paris made plain his real feelings. Chamberlain as the most committed supporter within the Cabinet of the "limited liability" doctrine was Corbin's ''bete noir''.
In a speech about defence policy, Chamberlain stated: "We shall never again sent to the Continent an army on the scale of that which we put into the field of the Great War" The War Minister, Leslie Hore-Belisha, agreed, telling the House of Commons: "Our Army should be organised to defend this country and the empire...to organise it with a military prepossession in favor of a continental commitment is wrong".
On 21 March 1938, Foreign Minister Joseph Paul-Boncour
Augustin Alfred Joseph Paul-Boncour (; 4 August 1873 – 28 March 1972) was a French politician and diplomat of the Third Republic. He was a member of the Republican-Socialist Party (PRS) and served as Prime Minister of France from December 19 ...
instructed Corbin to seek to "interest" the British in Eastern Europe, especially in the states of the ''cordon sanitaire'': Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia. On 23 March 1938, Paul-Boncour stated in his instructions for Corbin that the French had intelligence that German rearmament had not reached a point that the ''Reich'' could fight a long war, and if France mobilised with full British support, that would force the Wehrmacht to concentrate its strength along the West Wall and make any German aggression in Eastern Europe impossible. Paul-Boncour concluded that France did not want a war with Germany, but a strategy of deterrence, instead of appeasement, would be the best way to achieve peace.
On 7 April 1938, Corbin reported to Paris that he received intelligence from an unnamed friend in the British government that was evidently leaked that sources within the Italian government had informed the British embassy in Rome that Hitler was pressuring Mussolini to undertake an aggressively-anti-French foreign policy to distract France from its allies in the ''cordon sanitaire''. Corbin reported that Hitler visited Rome in May 1938 and would expectedly make an arrangement with Mussolini that Germany would support Italian ambitions in the Mediterranean in exchange for Italian support for German ambitions in Eastern Europe. However, Paul-Boncour's strategy of deterrence diplomacy was abandoned with the fall of the government in Léon Blum
André Léon Blum (; 9 April 1872 – 30 March 1950) was a French socialist politician and three-time Prime Minister.
As a Jew, he was heavily influenced by the Dreyfus affair of the late 19th century. He was a disciple of French Socialist le ...
in Paris as the new premier, Edouard Daladier, appointed as his foreign minister, Georges Bonnet, who was hostile to the idea of France going to war for the sake of its allies in the ''cordon sanitarire''. Corbin reported to Paris in April 1938 that the British public was "alarmed" by the possibility of peace conscription, which was the prequesite of the "continental commitment". During Daladier's visit to London in April 1938, Lord Halifax told him that a France could expect only two British Army divisions to assist with the defence of France, a force that the French regarded as completely inadequate.
On 11 July 1938, Corbin met with Herbert von Dirksen
Eduard Willy Kurt Herbert von Dirksen (2 April 1882 – 19 December 1955) was a German diplomat (and from 1936 when he joined the party, specifically a Nazi diplomat) who was the last German ambassador to Britain before World War II.
Early lif ...
, the German ambassador to the Court of St. James. Corbin reported to Paris that Dirksen had told him, "The British people... increasingly tend to envisage the destruction of an air war as the inevitable result of German aggression against Great Britain", which Dirksen saw as a positive development. Dirksen told Corbin that there as long as the British people believed that the Luftwaffe would destroy their cities, there was less chance of British "aggression" against Germany. Dirksen further advised Corbin that for that reason, France should not count on Britain if it decided to honour the 1924 French-Czechoslovak Alliance, which committed France to go to war with any nation that attacked Czechoslovakia. However, Corbin also reported that Dirksen had complained to him that "public opinion is currently against Germany".
When Chamberlain returned to London from Munich on 30 September 1938 after he had signed the Munich Agreement and the Anglo-German Declaration, Corbin was not there to greet him at Heston Airport despite being invited. The snub was noticed by both the British and the French press at the time. In October 1938, Bonnet demoted René Massigli, the anti-appeasement Political Director of the Quai d'Orsay, by making him ambassador to Turkey while Pierre Comert of the Press Department was sent to the French embassy in Washington. Bonnet would have also liked to demote Corbin, whom he knew to be opposed to his policies, but he lacked an obvious replacement. The British historian D.C Watt called Corbin "a determined opponent of any weakness towards Germany on either side of the Channel".
War scares: winter of 1938-1939
Corbin reported the British public opinion had supported the Munich Agreement, but he noted as October 1938 went on, public opinion was "in disarray". In the fall of 1938, Corbin reported to Paris that several right-wing newspapers, most notably the newspaper chain owned by the Canadian media magnate Lord Beaverbrook, whose flagship paper was ''The Daily Express'', were calling for a peacetime conscription, which he took as a sign that the British public was turning against appeasement. Corbin was following his own agenda in his dispatches, as he wanted to convince Daladier and other decisionmakers in Paris that the British public and government were starting to favour "firmness" towards the ''Reich'' as a way to undercut Bonnet's foreign policy of giving Germany a "free hand in the East" in exchange for leaving France alone. Corbin reported that there was a growing demand in Britain for "if not conscription pure and simple, at least a form of 'national service'". In November 1938, Corbin reported that one public opinion poll showed that most British people favoured a "national registry" of young men. At the same time, Corbin told Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax that there was growing defeatism in France and that Bonnet had his own agenda of reaching an understanding with the ''Reich'' that might very well be at Britain's expense.
To counter Bonnet, Corbin urged Halifax that Britain should make an effort to stand by France such as making the "continental commitment" and said that as long the French believed the British "would fight to the last Frenchman", the appeal of Bonnet would continue to grow. On 1 November 1938, Lord Halifax in a dispatch to Sir Eric Phipps, the British ambassador in Paris, stated his fear that France would "turn so defeatist as to give up the struggle of maintaining adequate forces even for the safety of metropolitan France". Corbin also wrote to urge Paris to confront Chamberlain on the conscription issue: "Must we wait six months as in 1914 for the 'first hundred thousand' to make their appearance on our soil?" Corbin was assisted in a way that were not entirely proper by General Sir Henry Pownall
Lieutenant General Sir Henry Royds Pownall, (19 November 1887 – 10 June 1961) was a senior British Army officer who held several important command and staff appointments during the Second World War. In particular, he was chief of staff to the ...
, the Director of Military Operations and Intelligence in the British Army, who leaked information to him to assist him with pressuring Chamberlain to make the "continental commitment". Corbin's friendship with several anti-appeasement Conservative MPs such as Churchill, Eden, Duff Cooper and Amerey encouraged his tendency to argue for a foreign policy that would be more in tune with the anti-appeasers than with the appeasers.
In January 1939, the Chamberlain cabinet was rocked by the "Dutch war scare" when false information planted by the French appear that alleged that Germany was about to invade the Netherlands with the aim of using Dutch airfields to bomb Britain. Chamberlain's "limited liability" doctrine of keeping the British Army so weak as to rule out the "continental commitment" came back to haunt him during the war scare. As the British Army could not defend the Netherlands on its own, the only nation with an army strong enough to save the Netherlands was France. During the war scare, Corbin pressed William Stang to have his government make the "continental commitment" by saying that it would be impossible for France to go to war to defend Britain if Britain was unwilling to do anything to defend France. On 1 February 1939, Corbin handed Stang a note saying that if Britain was not willing to do defend France, France would not be willing to defend Britain.
On 6 February 1939, Chamberlain told the House of Commons that Britain was "guaranteeing" France and said that any attack on France by Germany or Italy would result in an automatic British declaration of war on the aggressor. Chamberlain's statement gratified Corbin, but he continued to press very strongly for peacetime conscription in Britain by saying that the "guarantee" was worthless without conscription. At the same time, Corbin remained very critical of the Labour Party, which had philosophical reasons for opposing peacetime conscription as a major obstacle as Labour leaders vowed to campaign against conscription if introduced at the next general election.
Corbin was forced to explain in a dispatch to Paris that in France conscription to defend the motherland was something almost all Frenchmen supported, but "the psychological atmosphere is not the same in Britain... to the French Trade Unionist, as to all compatriots the idea that conscription should be undemocratic is impossible to grasp". Corbin explained to Paris that to British trade unions, the Labour Party and the British left in general, peacetime conscription was a major violation of basic human rights, and even if the Chamberlain government was willing to bring in conscription, there would be significant domestic opposition. However, Corbin noted that several Labour MPs such as Hugh Gaitskell and Douglas Jay
Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay, PC (23 March 1907 – 6 March 1996) was a British Labour Party politician.
Early life
Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, Jay won the Chancellor's English Essay in 1927 and gained a ...
were speaking in favour of peacetime conscription by arguing the Labour Party was making a mockery of its opposition to fascism by also opposing conscription. Corbin reported the violent anti-British media campaign launched in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
in November 1938 was starting to have some effect and that more and more British people were speaking in favour of conscription as the winter of 1938-1939 went on.
Danzig Crisis: last days of peace, 1939
In March 1939, in response to the Tilea Affair, Chamberlain proposed a four-power declaration by Britain, France, Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
and the Soviet Union that they would defend Romania from a German attack. Corbin, with his usual love of precise language, was described as being horrified by the vague language of Chamberlain's proposed draft, and it was after much consultation with him that the draft for the statement to protect Romania was made much clearer and more precise. Ivan Maisky
Ivan Mikhailovich Maisky (also transliterated as "Maysky"; russian: Ива́н Миха́йлович Ма́йский) (19 January 1884 – 3 September 1975), a Soviet diplomat, historian and politician, served as the Soviet Union's ambassad ...
, the Soviet ambassador in London, talked with Corbin on 29 March 1939 during which Corbin predicated that very soon Britain would make "guarantees" of Poland and Romania and that the United Kingdom seemed "more willing than at any time in the past to accept obligations" in Eastern Europe".
Given the traditional British opposition to any sort of security commitments in Eastern Europe, Corbin was astonished by the speech given by Prime Minister Chamberlain before the House of Commons on 31 March 1939 announcing the "guarantee" of Poland. Corbin reported to Bonnet on 4 April 1939: "Had I been told three weeks ago that during this time period the British government would have guaranteed the independence of Poland... that such a decision would have been cheered by a nearly unanimous Parliament and that no opposition to it would appear in the press or the public, I would have no doubt greeted such a forecast with an incredulous smile.... The new orientation given to British foreign representing such a complete break with the traditional position is so important that it may be said without exaggeration as being of historical magnitude.... The objective was to oppose the establishment of German hegemony over continental Europe.... The dissenting Conservatives that Messers Eden, Churchill and Duff Cooper usually represented immediately rallied in support of the government. On 26 April 1939, Chamberlain announced to the House of Commons that for the first time in British history, peacetime conscription would be introduced and that a British expeditionary force would be sent to defend France in the event of a war with Germany, thus achieving one of the central goals of French diplomacy, namely the "continental commitment". Corbin reported the introduction of peacetime conscription "will have immense reverberations across the world, particularly in France where it has been waited for with such anxiety". Corbin was too modest to note that the pressure he had applied in the winter of 1938-1939 via leaks to the British newspapers had played a major role in that decision.
In the summer of 1939, Corbin poured so much scorn on a proposal to have Pope Pius XII mediate an end to the Danzig crisis by pointing out the impracticalities posed by having the well-known Germanophile pontiff serving as a supposedly neutral mediator that Bonnet was forced to give up the idea. During the debates within the French cabinet between Daladier and Bonnet in August 1939 about going to war with Poland, Corbin strengthened Daladier's hand by reporting that Britain approved of his foreign policy, much to the intense fury of Bonnet, who wanted Corbin to report the opposite. On 27 August 1939, Corbin at present at a meeting between Sir Alexander Cadogan
Sir Alexander Montagu George Cadogan (25 November 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 ...
, the permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office, and the Swedish businessman Birger Dahlerus
Johan Birger Essen Dahlerus (6 February 1891, Stockholm – 8 March 1957, Stockholm) was a Swedish businessman, amateur diplomat and friend of Hermann Göring. He attempted through diplomatic channels to prevent the Second World War.
His fut ...
, who been trying to play amateur diplomat by negotiating an end to the Danzig Crisis. Corbin had been worried that Britain was using Daherus to negotiate behind France's back and so Cadogan invited him to hear him lecture Dahlerus that Germany's "gangster policy would have to cease". On the night of 30 August, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop (; 30 April 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Ribbentrop first came to Adolf Hitler's not ...
gave Sir Nevile Henderson
Sir Nevile Meyrick Henderson (10 June 1882 – 30 December 1942) was a British diplomat who served as the ambassador of the United Kingdom to Germany from 1937 to 1939.
Early life and education
Henderson was born at Sedgwick Park, near Horsha ...
, the British ambassador in Berlin, the German "final offer" demanding for a Polish envoy to arrive in Berlin that night to discuss the resolution of the Danzig Crisis. Chamberlain called Corbin that night to say he thought Hitler was bluffing and the peace could still be saved.
As Italy was not ready for war in 1939, despite the offensive alliance known as the Pact of Steel, Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari ( , ; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 19 ...
proposed an international conference for 5 September 1939, to be chaired by Mussolini, to discuss the crisis. Lord Halifax asked Corbin for French reaction to the Italian peace plan. Bonnet was in favor of the Italian plan for a conference, but needed the approval of the French cabinet and complained that Daladier refused to call a cabinet meeting to discuss Mussolini's conference. Daladier told Sir Eric Phipps
Sir Eric Clare Edmund Phipps (27 October 1875 – 13 August 1945) was a British diplomat.
Family
Phipps was the son of Sir Constantine Phipps, later British Ambassador to Belgium, and his wife, Maria Jane (née Miller Mundy). Henry Phipps ...
, the British ambassador in Paris, that would rather resign than attend the proposed conference and that it would be a "second Munich".
On the morning of 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Corbin telephoned the Foreign Office to ask how best Britain and France should co-ordinate the declarations of war on Germany. Bonnet had sent a message to London asking that Britain and France instead attend the proposed conference, which Corbin distorted by arguing for a time limit for German acceptance on attending the conference, which caused much confusion when Bonnet said there would be no time limit. As Bonnet did not wish to see France declare war, he decided to take up the mediation offer made by Mussolini and instructed Corbin in a phone call at 3:40 pm to tell Chamberlain that he wanted a British commitment to attend Mussolini's proposed conference. However, at 4:10 pm on 1 September 1939, Corbin telephoned Bonnet to say that Lord Halifax had told him that Britain would not take part in the Italian plan for a peace conference unless Germany pulled out all of its forces from Poland immediately.
At 5:30 pm, Corbin tele-texted the instructions that Lord Halifax had given to Henderson to Bonnet to indicate the direction that British policy was going. On the evening of 2 September 1939, a major crisis emerged in Britain, as no declaration of war had been issued, which led to a "sit-down strike" at 10 Downing Street as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir John Simon, previously regarded as one of the men most loyal to Chamberlain, refused to leave 10 Downing Street until he received a promise that Britain would declare war on Germany. As a sign of Allied solidarity, it was felt necessary to time the Anglo-French declarations of war on Germany together, but a major battle in the French cabinet between Daladier who wanted to declare war, Bonnet, who disagreed, made that impossible. France needed to mobilize six million men in the event of war. Corbin issued a press statement on 2 September 1939 in response to angry British callers to remind them that France had to mobilize six million men, which meant a massive degree of disruption to the French economy, and that if Britain had to call a similar number of men to the colors all at once, that too would take some time.
With the backdrop of heavy thunderstorm, Corbin was summoned to 10 Downing Street on the evening of 2 September and discovered a scene of chaos with Chamberlain, Lord Halifax and Cadogan all telephoning Paris in attempts to get hold of Daladier, Bonnet or anybody else in the French government who might be able to tell them what was going on in France. Corbin was told by Chamberlain that his government was on the verge of collapse and predicted the House of Commons would pass a motion of no-confidence against his government the next morning if he did not make a decision to declare war on Germany at once. Corbin told Chamberlain that the French cabinet was badly divided between Daladier and Bonnet and that he did not know when France would make a decision to declare war. Chamberlain also had Corbin speak to Simon to assure him that the reason for the delay in declaring war was the crisis in Paris, not because the prime minister was seeking a way to avoid honouring his commitments to Poland. Corbin was told at about 11:30 pm that the cabinet had approved of the decision to send an ultimatum to Germany at 9 am on the morning of September 3 that would expire at 11 am, and there was to be no co-ordination with France in presenting the declarations of war.
At 9 am on 3 September 1939, Sir Nevile Henderson
Sir Nevile Meyrick Henderson (10 June 1882 – 30 December 1942) was a British diplomat who served as the ambassador of the United Kingdom to Germany from 1937 to 1939.
Early life and education
Henderson was born at Sedgwick Park, near Horsha ...
, the British ambassador in Berlin, handed over the ultimatum demanding Germany cease its war against Poland, or Britain would declare war at 11 am that day. Shortly after 11 am, King George VI went on the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
to announce Britain was at war. At 12:30 pm,
Robert Coulondre
Robert Coulondre (11 September 1885 – 6 March 1959) was a French diplomat who served as the last French ambassador to Germany before World War II.
From Nîmes to Geneva
Coulondre was born in Nîmes, the son of the politician Gaston Coulondre. ...
, the French ambassador in Berlin handed over the ultimatum saying France would declare at 5 pm if Germany did not end its war against Poland.
From Phoney War to Fall of France
In the fall of 1939 and the winter of 1940, Corbin was closely involved in the Anglo-French discussions about war aims. The French wanted to undo the ''Anschluss'' and insisted that Austria be restored, but the British were willing to accept Austria as part of Germany. Finally, a compromise stated that after the Allied victory, a plebiscite would be held to determine if the Austrians wanted their independence back or not. Both the French and the British agreed on restoring Czechoslovakia, but the British held to the frontiers imposed by the Munich Agreement and signalled a willingness to leave the Sudetenland as part of Germany, but the French wanted
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
restored to the pre-Munich frontiers.
However, on other issues, agreement was more possible with both the French and the British agreeing that Poland was to be restored and that all land annexed by Germany was to be returned to Poland, but the question of whatever the parts of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union were to be restored was left ambiguous, and British officials noted that most of the people in the areas annexed by the Soviets were not Polish. Finally, both the French and British agreed that it was not possible to make peace with Hitler, and a new government was needed in Germany, but the British were most insistent that the Allies offer lenient peace terms to post-Hitler government by arguing that a promise of a harsh peace would only drive more Germans to Hitler.
During the Phoney War, in February 1940, Count
Edward Bernard Raczyński
Count Edward Bernard Raczyński (December 19, 1891 – July 30, 1993) was a Polish diplomat, writer, politician, President of Poland- in-exile (between 1979 and 1986).
He was the longest living (101), and oldest serving Polish President (f ...
, the ambassador in London representing the Polish government-in-exile, appealed to Corbin for help in seeking a British statement that German war criminals would be punished after the Allied victory. In January 1940, the Polish government-in-exile published a press statement detailing widespread German crimes in Poland right from the start of the war on 1 September 1939 and asked that the perpetrators of these crimes be punished after the Allied victory. Both Corbin and Raczyński noted there was a precedent by citing the Anglo-French-Russian declaration of May 1915, which called the Armenian genocide a "crime against humanity", which was the first use of the term, and promised to bring the leaders of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
to justice after the Allied victory though the failure to start war crimes trials for the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress in 1919-1922 for political reasons was a less auspicious precedent. At the time, it was the hope of the British government that the Wehrmacht would overthrow Hitler and so the British government was absolutely opposed to idea of punishing German officials and officers for war crimes in Poland in the belief that a statement promising to do so might frighten the Wehrmacht into staying loyal to Hitler. It was only in 1941-1942 after the British finally lost patience with the Wehrmacht, which stayed resolutely loyal to Hitler, that they finally becvame willing to issue statements promising to bring war criminals to justice.
Corbin joined Raczyński in February to April 1940 seeking to lobby Lord Halifax to issue a statement promising to bring war criminals to justice, despite Halifax's objections that such a statement would only make the Wehrmacht more loyal to Hitler. Halifax took the view that the Allies should be trying to divide the Nazis from the Wehrmacht, which meant no commitments to war crimes trials. After much lobbying, Raczyński and Corbin got Lord Halifax to issue a joint Anglo-French-Polish statement saying the countries held "the German government responsible for these crimes and they affirm their determination to right the wrongs inflicted on the Polish people". The statement of 18 April 1940 accused Germany of "brutal attacks upon the civilian population of Poland in defiance of the accepted principles of international law" and of "a policy deliberately aiming at the destruction of the Polish nation" and mentioned the "atrocious treatment" inflicted on the Jewish community of Poland. However, Lord Halifax told Corbin and Raczyński that the British regarded the statement of 18 April 1940 as only a "statement of principle", not a "contractual obligation" like the Anglo-French-Russian Declaration of 1915, and that his government was still opposed to the war crimes trials. He repeated his standard claim the Allies should try to divide the Wehrmacht from the Nazis.
Corbin was with
Jean Monnet on 16 June 1940 when the proposal for the union of
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
was put to Charles de Gaulle, who had been sent to London by tFrench Premier
Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud (; 15 October 1878 – 21 September 1966) was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany.
Reynaud opposed the Munich Agreement of ...
. The proposed Declaration of Union was a desperate last-minute attempt to bolster French resistance in the face of defeatism among the ranks of the French cabinet to keep the Franco-British alliance alive.
[ De Gaulle was staying at the Hyde Park Hotel and was shaving when Corbin and Monnet burst into his room to bring their plan for an Anglo-French union to keep France in the war. De Gaulle was hostile to the plan for Anglo-French union on philosophical grounds, but he was prepared to accept anything that might keep France in the war since he knew full well that Reynaud was losing the cabinet debates with Marshal Pétain, who was openly defeatist and urging the French cabinet to sign an armistice with Germany. On the afternoon of 16 June, de Gaulle and Corbin met with the British Cabinet, which approved of the plan, and as such Churchill and de Gaulle signed the statement of Anglo-French union declaring that the United Kingdom and France were now united in "the unyielding resolution in their common defense of freedom and justice, against subjection to a system which reduces mankind to a life of robots and slaves".
Under the statement of Anglo-French union, the French National Assembly and the British Parliament were to become one; there was to be single War Cabinet in charge of all Anglo-French forces all over the world; and there were to be joint organs for the direction of financial, economic, foreign and military policies. Churchill congratulated de Gaulle on signing the statement of union by saying that he was going to become the Commander-in-chief of all the Anglo-French forces in the world, but King George VI was not informed of the plan and was openly hostile when he heard about it. he wondered if the union of the French republic and the British monarchy now meant he was out of a job. Reynaud embraced the plan for Anglo-French union, but Pétain rejected it as a British plan to take over the French colonial empire and convinced the French Cabinet to reject it. On 17 June 1940, Reynaud's government fell after the 9 ministers came out against his plans to continue the war and for the Anglo-French union and President ]Albert Lebrun
Albert François Lebrun (; 29 August 1871 – 6 March 1950) was a French politician, President of France from 1932 to 1940. He was the last president of the Third Republic. He was a member of the centre-right Democratic Republican Alliance (A ...
appointed Pétain as the new premier.
The first action of the new Petain government was to announce that France would seek an armistice with Germany. In response, de Gaulle went on the BBC on 18 June 1940 in a radio address to denounce Petain and to say to continue the war. On 21 June 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany. On 23 June 1940, de Gaulle announced the formation of a French National Committee
The French National Committee (french: Comité national français, CNF) was the coordinating body created by General Charles de Gaulle which acted as the government in exile of Free France from 1941 to 1943. The committee was the successor o ...
, which the British supported but not did recognize as a government-in-exile, unlike for Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Resignation as ambassador and rest of World War II
On 26 June 1940, Corbin resigned as the French ambassador to the Court of St. James by saying he could not go on. Corbin told Lord Halifax that day it was a "sad decision" to resign but that Roger Cambon, who would take over the embassy, was a capable man. De Gaulle asked for Corbin not to resign but to0 represent his National Committee to the British government, but Corbin stated that the war was lost and that he was now leaving for Brazil while there was still time. Corbin in one of his last acts as ambassador advised the British not to be too closely associated with de Gaulle's National Committee by saying that would make de Gaulle appear to be a British puppet. Corbin made his "tender farewells" to his friends in Britain and left for Brazil in July 1940. De Gaulle's biographer, Jean Lacouture
Jean Lacouture (9 June 1921 – 16 July 2015) was a journalist, historian and author. He was particularly famous for his biographies.
Career
Jean Lacouture was born in Bordeaux, France. He began his career in journalism in 1950 in ''Combat'' ...
, states that Corbin resigned from the Quai d'Orsay but retired to South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
.[Lacouture 1991, p239]
Corbin was greatly angered by the British attack on the French naval base at Mers-el-Kébir on 3 July 1940 and said that he could not in good conscience remain in a country that had just attacked his own nation. Corbin was also further angered by the decision of the new Churchill government to extend the British blockade of Germany to France after 21 June 1940 and by the tone of the British media in the summer of 1940, which openly mocked the French as cowards and defeatists for signing the armistice with Germany. For an Anglophile like Corbin, the sustained anti-French tone of the British media, which sneered at and mocked the French for the misfortune of losing to Germany, was a very bitter blow and hurt him deeply. In the summer of 1940, with Britain facing a German invasion, there was a tendency on the part of the many in the British media to blame the French for the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
's predicament.
Corbin arrived in Rio de Janeiro in August 1940, where he was described as being a deeply depressed man, who was convinced that Germany was going to win the war and the "New Order in Europe" could not be challenged. In December 1940, Corbin made his peace with the "New Order in Europe" by saying in a public statement he awaiting for instructions from Marshal Petain in Vichy for what his role would be in the "New Order", He then denied it to his friends, which caused him a major credibility crisis, with many uncertain about where he stood. In February 1941, Corbin arrived in Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, where Daniel Roché, the second secretary of the French legation in Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, tried to persuade to go back to Brazil. Sir Ronald Campbell, the British ambassador to Portugal, wrote after meeting Corbin that "he struck me as rather bitter and distinctly flabby.... There is no fight in him and he gives the impression of a broken man". Campbell further wrote that Corbin was extremely embittered by Mers-el-Kébir, which he took as a personal betrayal, and that Corbin was obsessed with "the ghastly spectacle of starving children" in France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, which he blamed on the British blockade.
In March 1941, Corbin arrived in Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, where Hoare, who was now serving as the British ambassador to Spain, reported to London that Corbin was a "defeatist" who believed Germany was "invincible". Once Corbin arrived in France later in March 1941, his "black mood" finally lifted, and he refused an offer from Marshal Petain to serve as the ambassador in Washington. Instead, Corbin retired to his cottage in southern France, where his private letters became sharply critical of Vichy. However, he did not take part in the Resistance and said that he was too old for such activities. The British historian Nicholas Atkin described Corbin's attitude as an ambivalent, as he was opposed in principle to the "New Order" but was also convinced for a considerable period of time, at least until 1942, that Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
was going to win the war and that resistance was futile.
References
Books
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* Lacouture, Jean. ''De Gaulle: The Rebel 1890–1944'' (1984; English ed. 1991),
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbin, Charels
1880s births
1970 deaths
Ambassadors of France to the United Kingdom
Ambassadors of France to Spain
Ambassadors of France to Belgium
Collège Stanislas de Paris alumni
War scare