The Ministry of Economic Warfare went through many changes as the war progressed, and the structure evolved as the Ministry's tasks and strategy altered. Many adjustments were made as a result of shifts in the relative importance of the Ministry, since the political fortunes of the Ministry followed the progress of the war. This chapter follows the MEW, from its beginning in September 1939, through to the end of the war, examining the changes in the ministerial structure and in its personnel along the way.
The first of the three Ministers of Economic Warfare was Ronald Cross, who was appointed on 3 September 1939, along with Sir Frederick Leith-Ross, who served as Director General. Cross was elected Unionist MP for Rossendale in 1931, a position he held until the end of the war. From 1935-37 he was a Government Whip. He served in many departments: appointed Lord of the Treasury in 1937; Vice-Chamberlain of FIM Household, a position he held from 1937-38; and Parliamentary Secretary at the Board of Trade, from 1938-39, when he was appointed to the MEW. Aside from two years as private secretary to Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, Leith-Ross spent much of his career in the Treasury. Despite having no formal education in economics or finance, he attained the position of Deputy Controller of Finance in the Treasury before he was appointed Chief Economic Adviser to the Government in March 1932. In this capacity he acted as the British Representative for international bodies. In 1938 he negotiated a revised German payments agreement to ensure service of guaranteed Austrian loans following the Anschluss. In September 1939 he was appointed to the MEW, and was intimately involved in the negotiations with allied and neutral governments. He enjoyed dealing with the post-war economic policy questions for the Ministry, and served as Chairman of the Inter-Allied Post War Requirements Committee from 1941-43, doing preparation work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In February 1942 he followed Cross' successor, Hugh Dalton, to the Board of Trade.2 As detailed in Chapter 1, the structure of the Ministry was arranged before the war, into seven departments: Plans, Foreign Relations, Prize, Intelligence, Legal, Establishment and Financial Pressure. (see Table 3) Each department was expected to deal with what was anticipated to be a key area in economic warfare. The Custodian of Enemy Property was set up in order to hold the assets of enemies affected by the Statutory List. In November 1939, provision for this was made under Section 2 (2) of the Trading with the Enemy Act which applied to enemy firms as well as to the businesses listed because of their enemy associations. With the outbreak of war and the expansion of government to meet requirements, the MEW was not able to find a permanent home immediately. It occupied a building at the London School of Economics from September 1939 until March 1940, when it relocated to Berkeley Square House for the duration of the war. 3 During the initial phase of the war a representative from the French Minis tére du Blocus had an office in the same building as the MEW to facilitate the co-operative effort. This Ministére worked with the MEW in developing the Allied economic warfare effort. The British government strategy of looking at single commodities rather than damaging the German economy as a whole led to one of the early modifications of the MEW bureaucracy - the establishment of separate sections to deal with individual key commodities. At the suggestion of Viscount Edward Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, Cross set up a special section to deal with the oil problem at the end of October 1939. The section was to be composed of several administrative officers from the MEW and a petroleum expert, along with suitable staff. It was to concentrate on centralising information and initiating plans for the blockading of oil, with pre-emptive purchases left to the Petroleum department. 4 Similar sections were planned to deal with oil seeds and food stuffs, non-ferrous metals, rubber, iron and manganese, and raw textile materials. In March 1940 nine committees were set up. Each looked at sources, what was needed and what the MEW could do in order to limit the supply.
The Ministry of Economic Warfare and Britain's conduct of economic warfare, 1939-1945 Cox, Nechama Janet Cohen https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/file... .
The Ministry of Economic Warfare and Britain's conduct of economic warfare, 1939-1945 Cox, Nechama Janet Cohen https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/file... .
