page_title: War cabinet crisis, May 1940
section_title: Third session
hierarchical_section_title: War cabinet crisis, May 1940 / War cabinet meetings – 26 to 28 May / Sunday, 26 May / Third session
caption_attribution_description: English: The Royal Navy during the Second World War A head and shoulders portrait shot of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay who was in charge of the naval evacuation at Dunkirk. Photograph taken at his London Headquarters in October 1943.
context_page_description: In May 1940, during the Second World War, the British war cabinet was split on the question of whether to make terms with Nazi Germany or to continue hostilities. The main protagonists were Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax. The dispute escalated to crisis point and threatened the continuity of the Churchill government.
  With the British Expeditionary Force in retreat to Dunkirk and the Fall of France seemingly imminent, Halifax believed that the government should explore the possibility of a negotiated peace settlement. His hope was that Hitler's ally, the still-neutral Italian dictator Mussolini, would broker an agreement. When a memorandum proposing this approach was discussed at the War Cabinet on 27 May, Churchill opposed it and urged his colleagues to fight on without negotiations. He was supported in the war cabinet by its two Labour Party members, Clement Attlee and Arthur Greenwood, and also by the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, who as leader of the Liberal Party was co-opted to the war cabinet for its meetings about the proposed negotiations.
context_section_description: After Reynaud's departure, the war cabinet held another meeting in Admiralty House. The cabinet papers do not cover the first fifteen minutes as the Cabinet Secretary was not present to take minutes. The cabinet papers indicate that this session was in fact a continuation of the 2:00 pm one by including both under the same heading. It seems to have lasted about an hour from 5:00 pm till 6:00 pm as, in effect, the third Sunday meeting. The minutes confirm that the service ministers were not present.
  In the minutes, Churchill began by comparing Great Britain's military status with that of France. We, he said, still had powers of resistance and attack, which France did not. If France could not defend herself, he asserted, it was better that she should get out of the war rather than drag Great Britain into a settlement which involved intolerable terms. Attlee and Chamberlain both suggested that Hitler had a schedule and that he must win the war before winter. Attlee emphasised the importance of keeping France in the war so that Hitler could not turn on Great Britain in 1940.
  Churchill replied that he wanted France to hang on but stressed that Great Britain must not be forced into the weak position of seeking negotiation before engaging in any serious fighting. Halifax now openly disagreed with Churchill by saying that he attached "rather more importance than the Prime Minister to the desirability of allowing France to try out the possibilities of European equilibrium". He went on to say that it was important to reason with Mussolini about the balance of power in Europe and that Great Britain might then consider Italian claims. Greenwood pointed out that it was not within Mussolini's power to take a line independent of Hitler and Chamberlain added that Mussolini could only take an independent line if Hitler allowed him to do so. Chamberlain added that the problem was a difficult one and every point of view must be discussed.
  Having listened to Chamberlain, who was still somewhere between himself and Halifax, Churchill suggested that nothing should be decided about future conduct of the war, including any negotiated settlement, until the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk was completed. While he acknowledged that Operation Dynamo might fail, he was optimistic that a significant portion of the BEF would be saved, but much depended on air superiority. The war cabinet decided that Halifax must write, for discussion on Monday, the draft of a communication to Italy (this was circulated as paper no. WP (40) 170), together with a record of his latest meeting with Bastianini. It was also agreed, at Churchill's suggestion or insistence, that Sinclair should become a de facto member of the war cabinet ahead of future discussions about Italy. While Churchill may already have gained the support of the two Labour members, he needed Sinclair as Liberal Party leader to strengthen his position.
  Sometime after 6:00 pm, Churchill telephoned Vice-Admiral Ramsay in Dover to give the go-ahead for Dynamo to begin. At 6:57 pm, Ramsay sent the signal which initiated Dynamo, though with evacuation in some form already having taken place over the last four days, it is difficult to differentiate between the work of Dynamo and the work that preceded it.
caption: Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay initiated Operation Dynamo.
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