Ministry of Economic Warfare

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The Ministry of Economic Warfare ( MEW ; German  " Ministry for Economic Warfare " ) was a ministry of the British government with responsibility for the activities of economic warfare against the Axis powers during World War II . It existed from 1939 to 1945 and, among other things, also exercised control over the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The administration building was in Berkeley Square House, London.

Prehistory and foundation

The idea of ​​establishing a ministry for economic warfare goes back to the experiences of the First World War , in which the British naval blockade in the North Sea played a large part in the victory over the Central Powers .

In the interwar period, Great Britain initially concentrated on the revival of international trade, with the idea of ​​using economic rehabilitation to prevent the defeated enemy states from commemorating revenge also played a role. However, as early as 1924, on the recommendation of the Committee of Imperial Defense (CID), an Advisory Committee on Trading and Blockade in Time of War was founded, which advised the CID on questions of economic warfare in the event of a major international conflict. British military spending had been cut back sharply after the end of the war, which raised the need to be able to react quickly to international crises by other means. To this end, an economic approach based on the still strong Royal Navy seemed promising.

In the 1920s and early 1930s, the Advisory Committee dealt with possible conflicts with the Soviet Union , emerging Japan and fascist Italy , among other things . Compared to Germany pursued man - despite its rearmament after the coming to power of the Nazis  - relatively long a policy of "economic appeasement ". It was not until 1937 that the CID recommended that serious planning be undertaken for an economic war against Germany. For this purpose, a Sub-Committee on Economic Pressure on Germany was founded, which met for the first time in the summer of 1937. In the meantime, overlaid by the crisis in the Far East , it was not until March 1938 that, under the impression of the “ Anschluss ”, the focus was primarily on a possible war against the growing German Reich.

Against the vote of other ministries and committees involved in these activities, such as the Board of Trade , the Advisory Committee recommended in early 1938 the establishment of an independent department for economic warfare, should it come to a war with the participation of the United Kingdom. Its minister should also have a seat and vote on the Committee of Imperial Defense. The staff of the new ministry should mainly come from the Foreign Office , so the MEW should practically become a "subsidiary ministry" of the Foreign Office. The recommendations of the Advisory Committee were approved by the Committee of Imperial Defense in March 1938 and subsequently the structure and staffing of the MEW were provisionally determined. In June 1938, the CID recommended introducing a control mechanism for banned goods . As a result, a Handbook of Economic Warfare for official use was drawn up.

The actual foundation of the MEW came in September 1939, when Great Britain and France declared war on the German Reich because of its invasion of Poland . The Conservative MP, Sir Ronald Cross , was appointed the first Minister of Economic Warfare on September 3 . The ministry's general director was initially the economist Sir Frederick Leith-Ross , who had been the British government's chief economic advisor since 1932 . The Ministry was initially located in a building belonging to the London School of Economics before moving to Berkeley Square House in 1940 . During the Seat War , the French Ministère du Blocus maintained a liaison office in London.

activities

The activities of the Ministry of Economic Warfare initially focused on the measures to block and hinder Germany's trade with the neutral countries. The Trading with the Enemy Act of September 5, 1939 formed the legal basis. As a sea blockade as in the First World War was not realistic due to the danger of submarines and air, ports of control were initially declared for contraband , the ships that wanted to enter the war zone to start up. Due to the associated delays in the transport of important goods, the company soon switched to the Navicert system. The neutral countries were to be prevented from trading with Germany in a variety of ways, for example through diplomatic channels through trade agreements with the United Kingdom and through import limits imposed by the British government, which were intended to allow only the goods currently needed to get into the countries concerned. Black lists ( Statutory Lists ) were created through German middlemen and bogus companies abroad , which prohibited any business dealings with them. Goods were confiscated and the assets of official Germany and its foreign agents were frozen. In April 1940, the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation was founded under the chairmanship of Lord Swinton with the aim of buying up goods that are important for Germany on the world market.

For direct warfare in Great Britain, the MEW provided information through its reconnaissance department, which was expanded into its own branch in the course of the war . However, due to the often overly optimistic assessments of the situation in British intelligence, the results of the investigation had a rather bad reputation. The Industrial Target Reports and Industrial Damage Reports compiled by MEW for the strategic bombing war against Germany were mostly ignored by the Air Ministry and the bosses of the bomber fleets. Nevertheless, at the beginning of 1943, the MEW published the so-called “ Bomber's Baedeker ”, which classified German cities based on their importance for the war economy.

Roundell Palmer, Minister from 1942 to 1945, in his London office

In May 1940, the Chamberlain government overthrew and Winston Churchill formed a coalition government . The office of Minister of Economic Warfare went to Labor politician Hugh Dalton . He made a number of personnel changes, including installing Dingle Foot as Parliamentary State Secretary and making Hugh Gaitskell his private secretary. Joint Directors of the Ministry, nominally under Leith-Ross, were Henry Charles Ponsonby Moore, 10th Earl of Drogheda and Noel Frederick Hall . Dalton also founded an Economic War Council within the Ministry in May 1940 and achieved that the MEW was allowed to send a permanent representative to the Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee . Last but not least, he made sure that the Special Operations Executive , founded in the summer of 1940, came under the control of the MEW.

Due to the extensive domination of Europe by the Germans in 1940 and 1941, the effectiveness of the MEW's work initially fell sharply, only to increase again after the USA entered the war in December 1941. In February 1942 Dalton left the MEW to take on the post of Minister of Commerce ( President of the Board of Trade ), he was accompanied by Leith-Ross. His successor was the conservative politician Roundell Palmer, 3rd Earl of Selborne , who had not made much appearance , while Lord Drogheda took over the function of Leith-Ross. In the spring of 1942, after the founding of the US counterpart to the MEW, the Board of Economic Warfare , the US embassy in London formed an Economic Warfare Department under Winfield W. Riefler with headquarters in Berkeley Square. The Allies subsequently formed joint Combined Economic Warfare Agencies (CEWA) for certain geographic regions.

With the end of the war in sight after the invasion of Normandy , the importance of economic warfare declined. Planning for the post-war order and the preparation of new trade relations became more important. The original plan was to wind up the MEW by the end of 1944, and large parts of the staff left the ministry. Ultimately, the MEW remained in Europe until shortly after the end of the war. The role of the previous MEW was taken over by the Economic Warfare Department in the Foreign Office, where most of the members of the MEW also moved.

minister

literature

  • Nechama Janet Cohen Cox: The Ministry of Economic Warfare and Britain's Conduct of Economic Warfare, 1939-1945. (Dissertation, King's College London, 2001; online ).

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