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Bafflegab - Excellent!

TheExecuter - It does appear there is some upside to a female-less branch of engineering, slightly reassuring.

Writing continues apace, though it has got somewhat distracted from it's original intention. However it should be done soon. Hopefully.

Agamemnon_1781 - When I found that fact out I had an almost overwhelming urge to buy a top hat and monocle. It was exactly that British.

Ciryandor - I think the historic model for software developers works; use it as a dumping ground industry for those not bright enough to be engineers but with too much personal pride to go do business studies. :D

Nathan Madien - As only a heathen would waste good tea by throwing it into the sea I am forced to agree there's something not quite right. I recommend drinking more proper liquids, it may not be too late. There are many excellent US ales so clearly there's still hope the devil's brew coffee can be replaced with the drink of champions, heroes and Empire.

Derek Pullem - 25%? Luxury. I saw one female mining engineer my entire time at uni, she was a year below me and apparently quite terrible at anything numerical. As that made her a natural geologist we were unsure why she chose mining, then she won every discretionary award going and was showered with grants and we understood. Last I heard she actually turned a profit on her degree.

And people wonder why mining engineers are cynical?
 
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Ciryandor - I think the historic model for software developers works; use it as a dumping ground industry for those not bright enough to be engineers but with too much personal pride to go do business studies. :D

:rofl: Let me elaborate that: The kind of people who have good logic skills, but are not bright enough to do a PROPER bit of Calculus! :D
 
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Nathan Madien - As only a heathen would waste good tea by throwing it into the sea I am forced to agree there's something not quite right. I recommend drinking more proper liquids, it may not be too late. There are many excellent US ales so clearly there's still hope the devil's brew coffee can be replaced with the drink of champions, heroes and Empire.

We threw tea into the sea to protest taxes. It wasn't a smart thing to do, but it seemed patriotic at the same.
 
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We threw tea into the sea to protest taxes. It wasn't a smart thing to do, but it seemed patriotic at the same.

If it were taxes on TEA, then I definitely get why you did so.:D
 
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Chapter LXXXI: An Indian Affair Part II - Ambitions and Loyalty.
Chapter LXXXI: An Indian Affair Part II - Ambitions and Loyalty.

Chamberlain's plan for India came in two stages. The first was to pass a stripped down but clarified version of the original 1935 Government of India Act to sort out the more urgent issues and prepare the ground work for self government, the second to despatch a mission to the sub-continent to thrash out the details for a planned Dominion of India Act once a constitution was agreed. To take advantage of the conductive atmosphere in India the first Act made a big play of officially committing Britain to an Indian Dominion and scrapping 'dyarchy', the practice whereby certain (less important) ministers were responsible to the provincial legislature but key ministries were responsible to the Viceroy appointed provincial governor. The Act made all provincial ministers responsible to the legislature as well as establish direct elections to those bodies, greatly extending the role of Indians in provincial government. The final part of the Act was a selection of territorial re-organisations, formally detaching Aden and Burma from British India and breaking up the larger provinces into more manageable territories. As the mission to India was far from certain to be well received, there had been more than enough commissions and round table talks to leave the Indian groups with a healthy suspicion of the motives of British ministers sent to 'make progress', considerable efforts were expended to make clear that a Dominion was the guaranteed end result and the talks were concerned with the detail of a constitution progress did prove possible. As an added flourish, and to curry royal favour, an Imperial Durbah was arranged for King George VI, the new monarch to have his coronation as Emperor of India celebrated by the 'Court of Dehli'. Though not universally popular most of the post-INC breakup groups were brought off with the promise the King would publicly commit Britain to Indian domestic self government and Dominion status, enough of a compromise to ensure the threatened boycott and disruptions never materialised and the ceremony went off smoothly.

If conditions in India were favourable, those in Westminster were far more challenging. It soon became obvious the most determined resistance would come not from the opposition parties but from the government benches. The biggest single obstacle to progress on the new Government of India Act was in fact the Secretary of State for India, Baron Lloyd, a man hand picked by Churchill precisely because of his opposition to significant change in India. A secondary problem was finding the makeup of the mission to India, naturally it had to be all party and include enough government 'heavy hitters' to ensure it was taken seriously. Finally the Prime Minister also had to pay the political price extracted by Churchill for his grudging abstention over the Act; promotions and preference for his supporters. Taken together the obvious solution to these issues was a cabinet re-shuffle, an option Chamberlain was reluctant to take as it was barely six months since the last one. However circumstances forced his hand so the Parliamentary year began with a hastily arranged reshuffle as Chamberlain tried to balance the competing demands and still end up with a useful cabinet. Before that however he chose to concentrate on the Indian mission as his top priority, judging it was necessary to move quickly to keep the pro-British momentum. It was perhaps this very haste that caused his initial efforts to come so badly unstuck.

The key problem with selecting the head of the mission to India was that it wasn't an especially prized job, but would nevertheless require the candidate to be an experienced senior minister to give it the necessary political weight. Consequently it was expected that anybody approached about the role would have to be induced into going, either with carrots, stick or both. After much deliberation and debate the first choice candidate emerged as Sir John Simon, the National Liberal leader and incumbent Home Secretary. As past chair of the Simons Commission he had the necessary experience of India and it was believed that sending him back with a completely different frame of reference would be a good demonstration of the change in British policy. As a added bonuses, from Chamberlain's perspective at least, it would remove the the unpopular Simons from British politics for several months, reduce the National Liberal's influence and free up a great office of state for promoting his own man. The carrot offered was an additional National Liberal in the cabinet while the stick was the threat to reduce the number if he didn't go. Unsurprisingly Simon didn't see it that way, heading up the mission would be a significant personal demotion and leave him vulnerable to replacement as National Liberal leader while out of the country. Moreover the implication that the party's cabinet representation was little more than a bargaining chip did little to endear the offer to the rest of the National Liberals. Insulted by both the blackmail and the implication behind it Simon refused the position and declared he wished to stay at the Home Office. With his authority threatened, and more than a hint of personal dislike as motivation, Chamberlain dug his heels in and gave Simon an ultimatum; India or nowhere. Simon's response was just as unequivocal, he resigned from the cabinet and announced the National Liberals were pulling out of the Government.

Before moving on it is worth briefly discussing one of the more prevalent conspiracy theories about the reshuffle. While there were many good reasons for Simon's selection, there were also excellent reasons he shouldn't go, many of them the flip side of his supposed advantages. For instance while he had got to know the main characters of India he had made his usual bad impression with most of them, he was not a natural diplomat nor especially persuasive. Indeed he had mishandled local relations so badly the government had been forced into pre-announcing several conclusions to the commission just to keep order. This did not mean his mission would have failed, his final report had still formed the basis of much of the revised Government of India Act and he could undoubtedly have produced a decent constitution, but it was not ideal. Thus the conspiracy theory goes that Chamberlain had never intended him to go, as he would have been a disaster, and only offered him the job knowing he would refuse and so could be forced from the government along with the rest of the National Liberals. The supposed evidence for this is the lack of Tory reaction to the departure of Simons and his party, the idea the Conservative back benches saw less National Liberals as a way to increase their own personal chances of advancement apparently being insufficient explanation for this. Whether or not one believes this chain of events probably comes down to a personal preference between conspiracy or cock-up, though it is certainly worth repeating that history indicates the latter is far more prevalent than the former.

In any event the departure of the National Liberals, though it shattered the convenient fiction of a 'National' Government, was not Chamberlain's first concern. His pressing requirement was to fill the gaps left by the departed ministers and get the mission out to India to strike while conditions were still favourable. The Indian mission was therefore first to be decided, Chamberlain selecting the President of the Board of Education, Viscount Halifax. As a member of the cabinet Halifax ticked the seniority box while his time as Viceroy of India gave him the necessary contacts and sub-continent experience. While his tenure as Viceroy had been mixed at best, he had left on a high note and was thus viewed as a relatively successful Viceroy. Crucially he was also motivated to go to India, having allied himself with Baldwin and appeasement his career had stagnated following the former leaders fall from grace, indeed he was only still in the cabinet due to his standing with the declining 'dove' wing of the party. The chance to re-start his stalled career by returning to the sub-continent naturally appealed, the deal sweetened by the assurance of a promotion from the relative backwater of Education should be succeed. With the rest of the cross-party mission relatively easily filled out Chamberlain could concentrate on his cabinet reshuffle.

e2I2oy1.jpg

Viscount Halifax, the man sent to India to negotiate the fine detail of the new constitution. His tenure as Viceroy had been one of extremes, at one end he had imprisoned the entire Congress leadership while at the other he had overseen the peaceful end of Congress' Civil Disobedience. Having left shortly after negotiating the latter and setting the ground for the Round Table Talks his stock in India was still good, giving him the necessary credit to ensure attendance at the constitutional conference. An additional advantage was his good relations with King George VI, forged during the crisis over the succession, helping to ensure government and monarchy were in agreement throughout both the Durbah and subsequent talks.

While referred to as a reshuffle it was perhaps more accurately a reconstruction, in trying to balance all the groups within the party Chamberlain would promote, move or replace almost half his cabinet. Beginning at the top the job of Home Secretary went to Duff Cooper, promoted from the War Office on the back of good work managing the post-war review (discussed in detail in later chapters) and the high profile successes of the British Army on the North West Frontier in India. His successor as Secretary of State for War was the high flying Oliver Stanley, following in the footsteps of his father who had also served in the office during the Great War much was expected as he had faced the tricky task of putting Cooper's review into practice. The appointment of Neville Chamberlain to the freshly expanded Ministry for Pensions and Welfare Reform was another early certainty, an attempt to utilise the work he commissioned from the Conservative Research Department to underpin the government's weak domestic agenda. The hot topic of India saw one of the surprises of the reshuffle as Samuel Hoare continued his rehabilitation by returning to the Indian Office as Secretaty of State For India and being given responsibility for passing the new Government of India Act. The displaced Baron Lloyd was moved sideways to the Colonial Office, removing him from Indian affairs and acting as a reassurance to the die-hards that the actions over Rhodesia and India were not going to be hurriedly replicated across the rest of the Empire. Staying on the Indian theme the replacement for the sub-continent bound Lord Halifax at Education was his associate Rab Butler, selected as much for his standing in the Halifax group in the party as anything else.

Moving to the 'Churchill' area of the reshuffle we see the heavy price extracted for his abstention over India, at least two cabinet posts with perhaps considerable influence on a third. The two clearest cut cases were Brendan Bracken at Agriculture and the Marquess of Londonderry as Lord Privy Seal, the former had been a confidant of Churchill for years while the latter was more complex. Formerly the Secretary of State for Air he had publicly toed the government's line while in cabinet had tried to defend the RAF against vicious cuts and disarmament 'gestures' that would cripple it. These actions saw him first forced from the Air Ministry and then from the cabinet as he became a political embarrassment, accused by many of being a 'warmonger'. Subsequent events had proved his warnings correct, not least the RAF being initially out-performed by their Australian cousins in the Abyssinian War, and his return to the Cabinet gave Churchill another pro-RAF vote for defence spending and Chamberlain another hawk on defence and foreign policy. The third post is interesting, after excellent work on aircraft production Lord Beaverbrook's elevation to Lord President of the Council was purportedly so he could extend his efforts beyond aviation to other industries, logical as far as it went but clearly not the full story. While such a job would be easier from a cabinet level position the obvious choice would have been been either a new Ministry for Industry position or President of the Board of Trade, that he instead became Lord President of the Council suggest scheming and compromise not a fully confident decision. The remaining changes are listed mainly for completeness, a selection of junior ministers and rising stars moved in to replace the departed National Liberals.

  • Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons - Austen Chamberlain
  • Lord Chancellor and Leader of the House of Lords - Viscount Hailsham
  • Lord President of the Council - Lord Beaverbrook
  • Lord Privy Seal - Marquess of Londonderry
  • Chancellor of the Exchequer - Leo Amery
  • Home Secretary - Alfred Duff Cooper
  • Foreign Secretary - Anthony Eden
  • Colonial Secretary - Baron Lloyd
  • Dominions Secretary - Lord De La Warr
  • Secretary of State for War - Oliver Stanley
  • First Lord of the Admiralty - Viscount Monsell
  • Secretary of State for Air - Winston Churchill
  • Secretary of State for India - Samuel Hoare
  • Minister for Co-ordination of Defence - Harold Macmillian
  • Secretary of State for Scotland - Walter Elliot
  • President of the Board of Trade - Earl Stanhope
  • President of the Board of Education - Rab Butler
  • Minister for Pensions and Welfare Reform - Neville Chamberlain
  • Minister of Agriculture - Brendan Bracken
  • Minister of Labour - Ronald Cross
  • Minister of Health - William Morrison
  • Minister of Transport - John Moore-Brabazon
  • First Commissioner of Works - Howard Kingsley Wood
  • Attorney General - Thomas Inskip

Notes;
An update! And all for a svelt 2,700 words. :eek:
First off, I'm fully aware some will yawn at British politics and be disinterested in who goes to what job, I am however resigned to the fact you can't please everybody all the time and promise boat porn later (after one more politics update, sorry.)

So onto the update, Halifax in India? Why not I say? Gets him out of the way and gives him a chance to restart his career. It stalled in the late 1920s before he became Viceroy so I can see him hoping to do the same trick again.

The Beaver as Lord President probably has to be wrangling, you wouldn't put such a schemer in a high profile job unless you had to. Ideally he'd have been just a Minister without Portfolio and told to get on with poking at British industry, however he's managed to scheme himself a grand title and a position at the heart of government.

Nev at Pensions and Welfare is something of a demotion from Lord President, but the CRD was pretty much his personal toy and so he's one of the few senior Tories to actually have a welfare agenda. As the PM knows the Conservatives are weak domestically (Churchill wasn't interested and Austen's been distracted) Nev is drafted to bolster the new programme, though if it's too little too late is another problem.

Lord Londonderry's promotion, he was indeed an early anti-disarmament campaigner and was called a warmonger by Attlee (Labour at the time being committed to completely abolishing the RAF). However OTL after being thrown out of the cabinet he lost his nerve, over-reacted and ended up heavily pushing Anglo-German friendship and appeasement, thus putting him in a worse position than when he started. TTL he didn't get a chance as the Germany's pull out of the Naval Talks then war with Italy intervened, thus he looked clever and fore-sighted. Churchill didn't think much of him so he didn't make his cabinet, but as a pro-Air man who will bolster the RAF vote I can seem Churchill asking for him as a loyal stooge.

Bracken and Butler come in as minions to their masters, Duff Cooper and Stanley continue rising up the ranks after solid work while at the bottom I couldn't resist Moore-Brabazon, I intend a strong British civil aviation industry and he was mostly right on the ideas even if the implementation wasn't that solid.

After this we look at the fall out from the Nat Libs buggering off and have a tentative poke at domestic politics. Boat-porn after that then some tanks. That at least is the plan.
 
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I like Halifax in India--the same qualities that make one shake one's head at him in other roles might well come in handy in this role.

Beaverbrook is well placed to push "Empire Free Trade" I'd think. I do wonder about him having expanded influence over British industry; I've read that his main tactic as Minister of Aircraft Production was to bully the aero executives then take credit for their achievements. ;)
 
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I find myself forced to agree with Donnie on Halifax in India. However, is he really willing to push Chamberlain's policies? ( Am I the only one who thinks about another PM when hearing that name? )
 
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It's both I believe, the writing style does echo the wheeling and dealing that was all too common in governments of the early 20th century, who were often not very quick on the political uptake, unlike today's 24/7 coverage.
 
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How does the opposition play the constant shuffling of cabinet, and how does that play with the average citizen? Currently, at least in Canada, it would be seen as attampting to avoid any actual governing, ensuring that only the status quo would endure. After all, you can't expect a new minister to enact any legislation... He hasn't even been there a year!...

Would the Liberals make any headway with the partisan nature of the move? Would the citizenry care?
 
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That, I have to say, is an impressive cabinet - though I am convinced that it will fracture - Stanhope and Amery will almost certainly clash and I fear that Stanley and Macmillan will be outmanouevred by Churchill. Hoare is a genius move - he and Halifax got on very well and will lead India ably (if quietly). I am genuinely unconvinced that Halifax would accept a move back to India - he was hugely relieved when his tour ended and would hate being sidelined - evidenced by his horror at being "banished" to Washington in 1941.

The only other move I really question, a testament to your approach in that it is so minor, is Bracken. The Tory ranks were filled with boring country-Conservatives who would do reasonably at Agriculture. Putting an urbanite like Bracken in that portfolio would be seen as an odd choice - though as preparation for bigger things not too odd.
 
DonnieBaseball - Very true, appeasing Indian opinion will be one of Halifax's biggest jobs, something he should do well at!

The Beaver poking his nose into other industries, well there is an argument some areas of British industry needed bullying. There were horror stories, some of which will emerge in the updates to come...

trekaddict - The name is unfortunate, especially with both of them knocking around in cabinet at the same time. Most confusing.

C&D - The 'benefit' of a more deferential media (and a more deferential society) was that a great deal of intrigue could be carried out that no-one would know about, and if any journalist found out he could be convinced to keep quiet. A great time for intrigue certainly.

Ciryandor - Just so sir. And thanks for the compliment.

Karelian - You are fortunate in your choice of AAR then, who else will give you a full cabinet and then a rambling update on the detail of tank design?

Bafflegab - The actual details of the reshuffle have been completely obscured by the news the National Liberals left the government. The whole 'National government' idea was pretty thin to start with, now it's been utterly undermined. This will have consequences later I can assure you.

Le Jones - I must confess I was looking forward to your thoughts on this one.

As you point out it's a good array of talents but not necessarily a team, 'guess the first cabinet split' will become a popular House of Parliament game.

Stanley certainly is vulnerable to being out-foxed, still a bit wet behind the ears and the Army has neither the glamour of the RAF or the establishment backing of the RN. Macmillan though will benefit from Amery's watchful eye , after Amery spent so long campaigning for such an office I feel he would try to ensure it stayed important and that it has it's own budget to spend.

Halifax to India, I don't think he has any choice, not if he still has political ambitions. His power-base was peace-minded appeasers and his crawling to Baldwin, the former are diminishing rapidly and the latter is a positive disadvantage. Either he rots in Education (a job he really was disinterested in) till he's dropped completely or he gambles on a short trip to India to re-start his career. The chance to butter up the King while they're both on the trip is probably a big carrot, as is the relatively short duration; this isn't a long term appointment, he will be back in London within months not years.

Bracken, not a good choice for Agriculture I agree but
1. There are no Tory plans for Agriculture; the 'Shire' vote is assured. Thus Bracken can't do any damage if he ruins it completely, not unimportant as he didn't serve the usual political apprenticeship so is something on an unknown.
2. It's not glamorous or particularly coveted, so Chamberlain can buy off Churchill 'on the cheap' without giving away an important office.
3. Gotta have some mistakes somewhere, wouldn't do if it was perfect would it? :D
 
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Methinks Pippy is the master of intrigue at the moment and us poor army chaps are the victims in his AAR reshuffle! :mad:

He claims it's a short update but then adds another whole update on the same topic to the schedule. Political spin Gordon Brown would be proud of!

So another update slips by and my tank update is no closer... :(

Duritz.
 
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Great update. I wonder if Lord Londonderry continues up the ranks, it could influence the governments Irish policies (or the indeed those of the parliament in NI).
 
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First off, I'm fully aware some will yawn at British politics and be disinterested in who goes to what job, I am however resigned to the fact you can't please everybody all the time and promise boat porn later (after one more politics update, sorry.)

Hey, this politics update pleased me, El Pip. :)

So onto the update, Halifax in India? Why not I say? Gets him out of the way and gives him a chance to restart his career. It stalled in the late 1920s before he became Viceroy so I can see him hoping to do the same trick again.

I like seeing Halifax have something to do...although his picture is very small. I can direct you to larger, clearer pictures if you want.

trekaddict - The name is unfortunate, especially with both of them knocking around in cabinet at the same time. Most confusing.

You might have to start numbering them to tell them apart.
 
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Methinks Pippy is the master of intrigue at the moment and us poor army chaps are the victims in his AAR reshuffle! :mad:

He claims it's a short update but then adds another whole update on the same topic to the schedule. Political spin Gordon Brown would be proud of!
Duritz.

Gordon Brown isn't clever enough to be really all that masterful with spin, when in fact Tony Blair and his aide Alistair Campbell better deserve that accolade in bucketloads. In fact, at the moment Tony Blair is quietly spinning himself towards becoming the first President of Europe. Be afraid...be VERY afraid!

Pippy, I've been lurking for ages - unfortunately missed the boat / tank / schemes voting, but it would seem that you probably used it to give you some time to do some research whilst simultaneously giving your regular readers something to do at the same time - ingenious!

Each update makes me want to go searching into history myself and find out what really happened, but I'm enjoying your story so much I wouldn't want to spoil it.
As always, my hat is off to you sir!
Cheers!
Scoob :)
 
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Personally I think politics are always a nice subject for an update.
Tanks would be better, though :D

Amen, Brother Karelian. Now if we can all turn to Hymn No. 82, "Now tanks we call our God".
 
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We asked for politics - and politics we got. Specifically the sort of politics were implementing policy becomes secondary to surviving until next week and high-level appointments are made on influence rather than ability... On the face of it Chamberlain (A) has managed to assemble what looks like a Conservative dream team; the problem is how long it will stay a team once the pressure comes on. With the Liberals reuniting(?) in Opposition and Churchill and the Old Empire faction sniping from the other flank, the government is going to have to walk a very thin line.

At least the government seems to have accepted that Indian self-government is going to happen - if they can convince the Indians that this is not just another smokescreen, it should take some of the heat out of the negotiations on "how" and "when". The loss of Gandhi may make things easier (as a dozen feuding factions are easier to pay or play off than a single idealogically-committed opponent) or it may make things very messy indeed. Has the Pakistan problem reared its ugly head yet?
 
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