Insects and International Relations: Canada, France, and British Agricultural Sanitary Import Restrictions between the Wars

Abstract

After the outbreak of the Falkland Islands conflict in 1982, the British foreign and commonwealth office met strong criticism for failing to anticipate or avert the Argentine invasion. After the outbreak of the Second World War, similar charges were levelled against the foreign office, which prompted a number of former diplomats to spring to its defence. One of them was Sir Walford Selby who, in a lengthy account of pre-war events, pointed to other departments of state and accused them of interfering in the management of Great Britain's external relations. For example, he wrote, the ministry of agriculture's decision to ban the import of potatoes from France in 1931 'formed part of a chain that linked with the French attitude at the Disarmament Confer-