ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the experiment be not made, in the first instance, with the Foreign Office.” The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is in an entirely different position from any other Minister. Pronouncements on foreign policy in years when the European situation has been more crucially important than in any period which living men can remember have been very few and very far between. The Foreign Secretary on his own subject naturally dominates his colleagues in the Cabinet, who are reluctant to interfere in the management of a department about which they know so little. In foreign affairs the critical moments often arise unexpectedly and without warning. A very marked diminution in the time devoted to foreign affairs in the House of Commons. The Foreign Office Vote is the one opportunity for a special debate on foreign relations.
