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The Asquith Cabinet and the Decision to Send an Expeditionary Force to France in 1914

Young, John W.

Authors

JOHN YOUNG john.young@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of International History



Abstract

The decision to send the British Expeditionary Force to France has been much discussed from the perspective of its long-term military-strategic background. Yet where the eventual decision to despatch the Force in August 1914 is concerned, limited attention has been paid to the role of the British Cabinet, which gave political approval to the step. Some historians have highlighted a Cabinet decision of 1 August against sending the BEF abroad and pointed out that Prime Minister H.H. Asquith and two key ministerial allies–Lord Haldane and Sir Edward Grey–accepted it. No one has provided a full analysis of why this trio of ministers consistently stuck to their position over the following days. Nor does a full explanation exist of the Cabinet’s eventual agreement, on 6 August, to approve the despatch of the Force. This analysis addresses these questions, arguing that far from being some reluctant step forced on the interventionists by their anti-war colleagues, Asquith, Haldane, and Grey pre-emptively decided to delay the despatch of the BEF. They did this as a way of preventing the disintegration of the government, while leaving open the possibility that Britain would go to war.

Citation

Young, J. W. (2022). The Asquith Cabinet and the Decision to Send an Expeditionary Force to France in 1914. Diplomacy and Statecraft, 33(4), 611-631. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143108

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Sep 23, 2021
Online Publication Date Dec 19, 2022
Publication Date Dec 19, 2022
Deposit Date Oct 28, 2021
Publicly Available Date Jun 20, 2024
Journal Diplomacy and Statecraft
Print ISSN 0959-2296
Electronic ISSN 1557-301X
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 33
Issue 4
Pages 611-631
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143108
Keywords Political Science and International Relations; Sociology and Political Science; History
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6542852
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592296.2022.2143108
Additional Information This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Diplomacy and Statecraft. John W. Young (2022) The Asquith Cabinet and the Decision to Send an Expeditionary Force to France in 1914, Diplomacy & Statecraft, 33:4, 611-631, DOI: 10.1080/09592296.2022.2143108 . It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Files

This file is under embargo until Jun 20, 2024 due to copyright restrictions.



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