Editing Hoare–Laval Pact (section)

===Britain===

The Pact was met with a wave of moral indignation in Britain.{{r|gunther1940}} On 10 December the Opposition [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] claimed if the reports in the press of the contents of the Pact were true,  the government had contradicted the pro-League policy on which it had just won the 1935 election.<ref>[[Keith Middlemas]] and John Barnes, ''Baldwin. A Biography'' (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969), pp. 887-889.</ref>
 
The Conservatives dominated the government and cared little for opinion on the left. They paid attention, however, when attacks came from the right.<ref>Ernst L. Presseisen, "Foreign Policy and British Public Opinion: The Hoare-Laval Pact Of 1935," ''World Affairs Quarterly'' (1958) 29#3 pp. 256–277.</ref>  In an editorial titled ‘A Corridor for Camels’, ''The Times'' on 16 December denounced the Pact and said there never was "the slightest doubt that British public opinion would recommend them for approval by the League as a fair and reasonable basis of negotiations".<ref>''The Times'' (16 December 1935), p. 15.</ref> The Archbishop of Canterbury, [[Cosmo Lang]], condemned the Pact in a letter to ''The Times'', and many other bishops wrote directly to [[Stanley Baldwin]] to oppose it.<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, p. 890.</ref>

[[Duff Cooper]], the [[Secretary of State for War]], later wrote:

<blockquote>But before the Duce had time to declare himself there arose a howl of indignation from the people of Great Britain. During my experience of politics I have never witnessed so devastating a wave of public opinion. Even the easy-going constituents of the [[Westminster St George's (UK Parliament constituency)|St. George's division]] were profoundly moved. The post-bag was full and the letters I received were not written by ignorant or emotional people but by responsible citizens who had given sober thought to the matter.<ref>Duff Cooper, ''[[Old Men Forget]]'' (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1953), pp. 192–193.</ref></blockquote>

The Conservative Chief Whip told Baldwin: "Our men won't stand for it".<ref>Middlemas and Barnes, p. 890.</ref> Sir [[Austen Chamberlain]] in a speech to the Conservative Foreign Affairs Committee condemned the Pact and said: "Gentlemen do not behave in such a way".<ref>Harold Macmillan, ''Winds of Change'' (London: Macmillan, 1966), pp. 446–447.</ref> [[Harold Nicolson]] later wrote that he had had sleepless nights worrying whether he could keep his seat.<ref>Macmillan, pp. 451–452.</ref>