Lord Halifax gets at last the office that seemed marked
out for him seven years ago. In 193r, as Lord Irwin, he came home after his five-years' tenure of the Viceroyalty of India. A Labour Government was then in office, without a majority in the House of Commons, and the Conservatives regarded their early return to power certain. Amateur Cabinet-making was in full swing, and the one point on which unanimity prevailed was that the Foreign Secretary would be Lord Irwin if he would consent to serve. It was said, I have no doubt accurately, that Mr. Baldwin had quite made up his mind about that. But the unexpected happened. A Coalition Government succeeded the Labour administration ; its Prime Minister, after the General. Election of 1932, was still Ramsay MacDonald, and the different constituent parties in the Government put in their claims for offices. It was in those circumstances that the Foreign Office went to the leader of the National Liberals, Lord Halifax being allotted to the Board of Education. His appointment to the Foreign Office on Mr. Eden's resignation seemed almost pre-ordained—in spite of his membership of the House of Lords.
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