Edward VIII's Nazi sympathies

[Chris Burford]

The latest release of UK cabinet papers about Edward VIII and his abdication deflect speculation about his Nazi sympathies, with press getting interested in whether Wallace Simpson had another lover.

However as the following report notes, there are no papers by MI5. It may also be that Baldwin kept his greatest concerns to himself, but also in the climate of appeasement that was widespread in Britain in the 1930's certain things were thought unremarkable that are shocking now.

But it may be that Baldwin's statement to the cabinet that the Commonwealth would not accept a king married to a divorcee had hidden geopolitical implications.

A good historical documentary on UK tv last week, gave evidence that Simspson and Edward has such close relations with the fashionable German ambassador Ribbentrop, that a government minister found himself being asked questions by Ribbentrop about a cabinet meeting held that morning, on which the Prime Minister had briefed the King.

Edward spoke fluent German. He made a trip to see the poor in South Wales, and said "something must be done". After his abdication he and Simpson made a private visit to Germany ostensibly to study working and living conditions.

On this visit Edward made a Nazi salute, in a limp wristed way, that he thought was rather clever.

His sympathies were well enough known for him to be a security risk in France and in the Iberian peninsular. His exile to the Bahamas is clearly in retrospect to avoid abduction and him becoming a quisling.

Yet his successor as King George VI feted Chamberlain on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in front of cheering crowds for bringing "peace in our time back from Munich".

The class and imperialist contradictions were much more complicated than the story of romantic modern love implies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/freedom/Story/0,2763,885183,00.html

Chris Burford

London