Worthington-Evans becomes Minister of Blockade
- Category:
- Politics
- Date:
- 18 July 1918
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Tags:
- Great Britain, naval blockade, neutrality
On 18 July 1918, according to a British chronology of the war, Sir Laming Worthington-Evans succeeded Lord Robert Cecil as British Minister of Blockade. Cecil had headed the ministry since its creation in February 1916, for more than two years. The American collection of diplomatic documents Foreign Relations of the United States gives 19 July as the date of the change. The one-day difference probably depends on whether one counts the day of the decision or the day of taking office.
Cecil did not leave the government. Since 1915 he had been Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, and he had held the post of Minister of Blockade alongside that office. Now he became deputy to the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, with the title of Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. That title was already used in the House of Commons on 29 July by the Liberal MP Pringle, when he asked whether the secretary of the Ministry of Blockade had not been saved from dismissal by the intervention of the Foreign Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of State. Bonar Law replied that he knew nothing of it. Cecil was by then increasingly occupied with plans for a league of nations after the war: in May 1918, with the cabinet’s consent, he had sent President Wilson the report of a government committee on the subject.
The new minister was 49. He was a solicitor by training, Conservative MP for Colchester since 1910, and had been made a baronet in 1916. He had already dealt with the blockade. In 1916 he headed the Foreign Trade Department, which kept the British blacklist of firms trading with the enemy, and on behalf of the Foreign Secretary he signed the reply to the American protest on the matter. From the end of 1916 he was parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Munitions. The Ministry of Blockade, however, was no longer the same office as in 1916. Since the United States had entered the war, and since the Allied Blockade Committee had been set up in March 1918, more and more decisions on the neutral countries were taken jointly with the Allies.
Worthington-Evans headed the ministry until January 1919, when he became Minister of Pensions. In the 1920s he was twice Secretary of State for War.
Remember the articles you have read? Only in this browser; nothing is sent anywhere.How it works
Read ·
Spotted a mistake?Report an error
Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
- 19 July 1918 · Middle EastBritish set out for TranscaspiaOn 19 July 1918 a detachment of General Malleson's mission left Mashhad for the border of Transcaspia, where Bolshevik rule had been overthrown a week before.
- 19 July 1918 · War at seaSinking of the San DiegoOn 19 July 1918 off Fire Island near New York the armoured cruiser San Diego struck a mine laid by U-156. Six sailors were killed.
- 16 July 1918 · Italian FrontDismissal of ConradIn mid-July 1918 Karl I removed Field Marshal Conrad from command in the Tyrol, sweetening it with the title of count. Archduke Joseph August replaced him.
- 20 July 1918 · Western FrontGermans withdraw back across the MarneOn the night of 19–20 July 1918 the Germans left their bridgehead south of the Marne, won on 15 July. In the morning the French found empty ground ahead.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 20 March 1918 · DiplomacyAllied Blockade CommitteeIn March 1918 Britain, France, Italy and the United States set up the Allied Blockade Committee in London to coordinate policy towards the neutrals.
- 13 August 1918 · DiplomacyBritain recognises the CzechoslovaksOn 13 August 1918 the Balfour note of 9 August was published. Britain recognised the Czechoslovaks as an Allied nation and their council as a proto-government.
- 11 December 1918 · PoliticsMannerheim becomes regent of FinlandIn December 1918 the pro-German regent Svinhufvud stepped down and parliament elected General Mannerheim in his place. Finland turned towards the Entente.
- 15 November 1917 · DiplomacyAlsace and Lorraine a war aimOn 15 November 1917 Lord Robert Cecil assured the Commons that the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France had been a British war aim from the outset.