Nyon Conference
Channel: the aleatoric learning channel
Date: 2021-12-21

Naval patrols were established; the United Kingdom and France were to patrol most of the western Mediterranean and parts of the east, and the other signatories were to patrol their own waters. In May 1937, Neville Chamberlain succeeded Stanley Baldwin as British Prime Minister, and adopted a new policy of dealing directly with Germany and Italy. The British believed they could convince Italy to abandon Germany through appeasement. Following attacks on the German cruiser Leipzig on 15 and 18 June, Germany and Italy withdrew from the patrols. The United Kingdom and France offered to replace Germany and Italy in patrols of their sections, but the latter powers believed these patrols would be too partial. The British Admiralty proposed four plans in response to attacks on British shipping, favouring sending significant naval resources to the Mediterranean as the best solution; previous control measures had been widely evaded. On the night of 31 August to 1 September, the Italian submarine Iride unsuccessfully attacked the British destroyer Havock with torpedoes, between the Gulf of Valencia and the Balearic Islands, strengthening British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden's sceptical stance towards Italy. Italy had made a declaration that it would stop Italian volunteers from fighting in Spain on 7 January 1937, and put a moratorium on volunteers on 20 January, also agreeing to support limitations on the number of volunteers on the 25th. Italy continued to request that belligerent rights be given to the Nationalists and Republicans, so both would gain the right to search vessels for contraband, thus removing the need for naval patrols. In the Eastern Mediterranean, British and French ships would patrol up to the Dardanelles, but not in the Adriatic Sea. Several proposals were not implemented: for instance, the British Admiral Ernle Chatfield wanted the Spanish parties to be able to verify that the flag a ship was displaying was correct, thereby preventing attacks on British shipping if Republican ships continued to use the British flag as a means of escape. Italy unequivocally rejected it, refusing to patrol the Tyrrhenian Sea. The British government, and in particular Neville Chamberlain, desired better relations with Italy and these were achieved with the signing of the Anglo-Italian Agreements of 1938.The patrols were a strain on the Royal Navy and the provisions were relaxed with French agreement, effective from January.