Cabinet Government, British Imperial Security, and the World Disarmament Conference, 1932–1934

The British cabinet contained high-ranking ministers who supported calls at the World Disarmament Conference demanding the abolition of aerial bombing. Their efforts, however, were checked by the Air Ministry, with the result that British delegates at the conference promoted a compromise position advocating abolition with a reservation for colonial policing. Pressure from the conference made it difficult to maintain this posture, and abolitionists in cabinet came close to persuading colleagues of their case, but events in Iraq, Aden and India served to underscore the importance of the overseas RAF. Several salient features of government in this period help account for the cabinet’s attitude to aerial bombing: the heightened importance of consensus in the National Government, the enhanced relevance of the Air Ministry, the necessity of affordably securing the empire, and a prevailing cynicism about the feasibility of an agreement on aerial bombing.