176 J.-A. PEMBERTON
This declaration may have provided some comfort to those members
of the House of Commons who were anxious about the future status of
those mandates which had once been colonies of Germany. However,
it sat somewhat oddly alongside an assurance given earlier by Prime
Minister Baldwin. On April 27, Baldwin had stated in the most ‘cate-
gorical terms’ that the government ‘have not considered and are not
considering transferring mandated territories to any other Power.’^310
As Wood pointed out, one cannot but conclude ‘that the inability to
find a solution could be admitted only after some reflection had been
devoted to the matter.’^311 Nonetheless, on February 15, 1937, Baldwin’s
formula was repeated by Viscount Cranborne (Robert Gascoyne-
Cecil), under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, who had been asked
by Vyvyan Adams to ‘dispel ill-founded German expectancy’ through
stating unmistakably that the British Government ‘cannot contemplate
the cession to Nazi Germany of any territory whatsoever under British
political control.’^312 Cranborne replied as follows: ‘As has been pre-
viously stated, His Majesty’s Government have not considered and are
not considering such transfer.’^313 On March 2 in a speech in the House
of Commons, Eden quoted Cranborne’s reply to Adams, adding that
the ‘statement of my Noble Friend remains the policy of His Majesty’s
Government, and I have nothing whatever to add to that reply.’^314
Irrespective of these declarations of the government’s official position
and the grave difficulties involved in any transfer of mandatory territo-
ries as acknowledged by Eden, the prospect of such a transfer had not
been entirely ruled out. Weinberg touches on this point in the follow-
ing description of British thinking in relation to the mooted conversation
with Schacht in Paris:
If a basis for negotiation could be reached on...political questions, the
French [and British Governments] would be ready to include in the dis-
cussions consideration of the question of assisting Germany to re-estab-
lish her financial and economic system on a sounder basis....In regard to(^310) 311 Parl. Deb., H.C. (5th series), 27 April 1936, 552–53. See also Wood, Peaceful
Change and the Colonial Problem, 129–30.
(^311) Wood, Peaceful Change and the Colonial Problem, 131.
(^312) 320 Parl. Deb., H.C. (5th series), 15 February 1937, 815.
(^313) Ibid.
(^314) 321 Parl. Deb., H.C. (5th series), 2 March 1937, 211.