Sir Stafford Cripps Goes to Moscow

Abstract

As the German army poured into France the need for a more satisfactory arrangement with the Soviet Union became a matter of some urgency. Something more than an endless and frustrating exchange of notes was badly needed. Halifax felt that if a mission were to be sent to Moscow Cripps was the man best suited for the task. Cripps was eager to go, confident that he could build on the foundations he had laid in his brief visit, and readily accepted the Foreign Secretary’s invitation. The British Government was willing to send him, and the Soviets, in spite of the fact that he was a social democrat and a teetotaller, were anxious to have him, and Maisky was delighted. But there remained the thorny, if somewhat arcane problem of his official status. Halifax wanted him to go to Moscow simply to test the water. The Soviet Government wanted the British to have an Ambassador in Moscow. There was no great enthusiasm on either side for the suggestion that Seeds might return to his post, and it was agreed that it would confuse the situation if Seeds and Cripps were to travel to Moscow together. Halifax therefore suggested that Cripps should go as an ‘ambassador on a special mission’.¹