A Venture in ‘The Caverns of Intrigue’: The Conspiracy Against Lord Curzon and his Foreign Policy, 1922–3

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates the opposition, both within and without the British cabinet, to Curzon's handling of relations with France and Germany in the early nineteen‐twenties, opposition which came to a head in the form of a conspiracy to remove him as Foreign Secretary in October 1923. The chief conspirators are identified as the editor of the Morning Post, a senior Foreign Office official—and Lord Derby. The relationship to this conspiracy of the French premier and of several British cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, Baldwin, is a major theme. How Curzon survived, with the help of French documents intercepted by the British intelligence agencies, is part of the conclusion. The article adds to what is known of the making of British foreign policy at this time, and is largely based upon material in the papers of H.A. Gwynne and in the archive of the Morning Post newspaper which has not been utilized by anyone else.