§ 1. Sir Waldron Smithersasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the terms of the letter written by Lord Halifax, as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to the Duke of Bedford, indicating that the British Government would never make peace with Germany?
§ The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Eden)I assume that my hon. Friend is referring to correspondence connected with the visit by the Duke of Bedford, then Lord Tavistock, to Dublin early in 1940, about which a statement was made in the House of Commons by the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on the 4th March, 1940. My Noble Friend received a number of letters in 1940 from the then Lord Tavistock urging the desirability of opening negotiations with the German Government for a peace settlement. In reply my Noble Friend made it clear to 724 Lord Tavistock that there was not in his view any possibility of a compromise peace with Hitler.