March 12, 2015

In December, Winston and Clementine left for Majorca where they heard of the Hoare-Laval proposal to placate Mussolini over Abyssinia. Churchill’s friends, confident that Baldwin would have to include him in a restructured Cabinet, advised him to stay away “because you will be in a unique position of strength since you will neither have supported the Government, compromised yourself by hostility, nor taken the negative though semi-hostfle line of abstention.”

Clementine came home for Chistmas, and Winston accompanied “Prof” Lindemann to Marrakesh and a visit with Lloyd George.

On 20 January King George V died and Churchill returned to England to present the Address of the House to the new King, Edward VIII. Pressure was exerted on the Government to appoint Churchill to the new Ministry of Defence, but Baldwin was determined to resist it – chiefly, said Sir Samuel Hoare, “for the risk that would be involved by having him in the Cabinet when the question of his (SB’s) successor became imminent.” Lindemann called it “the most cynical thing. . . since Caligula appointed his horse as consul.” Clementine said that “perhaps it is a case of ‘those whom the Gods wish to destroy . . .”