Abstract
A common view of the Hoare-Laval affair runs as follows: the National Government headed by Stanley (later Lord) Baldwin did not really want to apply a League of Nations oil sanction against Italy or seriously oppose Mussolini's venture into Ethiopia. Following a General Election in November 1935, Sir Samuel Hoare (later Lord Templewood) in his dealings with Pierre Laval, the French Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, during early December expanded a pre-conflict proposal to Italy's advantage. The resulting Hoare-Laval negotiations were to have given Italy the fertile plains while Ethiopia kept the central mountainous region. The public outcry in Britain against this plan caused the Government to place the blame on Hoare, and the plan itself destroyed the League. A. J. P. Taylor has gone on to describe the Hoare-Laval proposals as 'the betrayal of the League'.1 This article explores how far these various interpretations are well-founded or otherwise.
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