‘A Supremely Good Chinovik’: William Strang, Europe, and the Role of the Official, 1919–1949

Abstract

Sir William Strang was the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office from 1949 to 1953, he was the most senior Foreign Office official at an important period in British foreign policy. Prior to this appointment, he enjoyed a Foreign Office career that spanned some three decades, where he was involved in notable episodes such as the Munich Agreement, the Moscow Conference (1939), the workings of the European Advisory Commission, and the post-war occupation of Germany. Strang’s career, however, has been subject to little scholarly attention. He is often regarded as a competent, yet singularly dull individual lacking the intellect or the original thinking of his contemporaries, such as Robert Vansittart, Alexander Cadogan, Orme Sargent, or Gladwyn Jebb. This article challenges this interpretation, arguing that while Strang has a clearly identifiable worldview, this was intrinsically tied to his view of the proper function of a Foreign Office official. For Strang, it was not the role of the official to sway a minister’s mind with well-argued memoranda, but to make vast quantities of information and arguments comprehensible to allow a minister to make as informed a decision as possible. This fundamental tenet of Strang’s worldview must be understood when examining his career prior to his appointment as Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office.