John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon

Simon was born in a terraced house on Moss Side, Manchester, the eldest child and only son of Edwin Simon (1843–1920) and wife Fanny Allsebrook (1846–1936). His father was a Congregationalist minister, like three of his five brothers, and was pastor of Zion Chapel in Hulme, Manchester. His mother was a farmer's daughter and a descendant of Sir Richard Pole and his wife, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury. Simon was educated at King Edward's School, Bath, as his father was President of Somerset Congregational Union. He failed to win a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, but won an open scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford. He achieved Seconds in Mathematics and Classical Moderations. Simon was briefly a trainee leader writer for the Manchester Guardian under C. P. Scott. Some of his work was done on the Western Circuit at Bristol. He worked exceptionally hard, often preparing his cases through the night several times a week. His initial lack of connections made his eventual success at the Bar all the more impressive. Even three years after his wife's death, he spent Christmas Day 1905 alone by walking aimlessly in France. ==Early political career==

Simon entered the House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Walthamstow at the 1906 general election. In 1908, he became a KC (senior barrister) He entered the government on 7 October 1910 as solicitor-general, succeeding Rufus Isaacs, and was knighted later that month, as was then usual for government law officers (Asquith brushed aside his objections). At 37, he was the youngest solicitor-general since the 1830s. Along with Isaacs, Simon represented the Board of Trade at the public inquiry into the sinking of the in 1912; their close questioning of witnesses helped to prepare the way for improved maritime safety measures. Unusually for a government law officer, he was active in partisan political debate. again succeeding Isaacs. Unusually for an attorney-general, he was made a full member of Cabinet, as Isaacs had been, rather than simply being invited to attend when he was required. He was already being tipped as a potential future Liberal prime minister. Simon contemplated resigning in protest at the declaration of war in August 1914 but, in the end, changed his mind. Early in 1915, Asquith rated Simon as "equal seventh" in his score list of the Cabinet, after his "malaise of last autumn". ==First World War==

On 25 May 1915, Simon became Home Secretary in Asquith's new coalition government. He declined an offer of the job of Lord Chancellor, which would have meant going to the Lords and restricting his active political career thereafter. He resigned in January 1916 in protest against the introduction of conscription of single men, which he thought a breach of Liberal principles. In August 1916, Simon became chairman of the Royal Commission on the Arrest... and Subsequent Treatment of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Thomas Dickson and Patrick James McIntyre. The Commission published its report in September but without the evidential proceedings. After Asquith's fall in December 1916, Simon remained in opposition as an Asquithian Liberal. Amidst questions as to whether it was appropriate for a serving officer to do so, Simon spoke in Trenchard's defence in Parliament when Trenchard resigned as Chief of Air Staff after Trenchard had fallen out with the President of the Air Council Lord Rothermere, who soon resigned. However, Simon was attacked in the Northcliffe Press (Northcliffe was Rothermere's brother). Simon's Walthamstow constituency was split up at the "Coupon Election" in 1918 and he was defeated at the new Walthamstow East division by a margin of more than 4,000 votes. ==1920s==

Out of Parliament In 1919, he attempted to return to Parliament at the Spen Valley by-election. Lloyd George put up a coalition Liberal candidate in Spen Valley to keep Simon out Although the Coalition Liberals, who had formerly held the seat, were pushed into third place, Simon came second; in the view of Maurice Cowling (The Impact of Labour 1920-4), his defeat by Labour marked the point at which Labour began to be seen as a serious threat by the older political parties. Deputy leader of Liberals In the early 1920s, he practised successfully at the bar before being elected for Spen Valley at the general election in 1922, and from 1922 to 1924, he served as deputy leader of the Liberal Party (under Asquith). In the early 1920s, he spoke in the House of Commons about socialism, the League of Nations, unemployment and Ireland. He may well have hoped to succeed Asquith as Liberal leader. He retired temporarily from the Bar around then. In October 1924, Simon moved the amendment that brought down the first Labour government. At that year's general election, the Conservatives were returned to power, and the Liberals were reduced to a rump of just over 40 MPs. Although Asquith, who had lost his seat, remained leader of the party, Lloyd George was elected chairman of the Liberal MPs by 29 votes to 9. Simon abstained in the vote. By this time he was increasingly anti-socialist and quite friendly to the Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin and clashed increasingly with Lloyd George. He stood down as deputy leader and returned to the Bar. Trade Union historian Henry Pelling comments that Simon's speech was clearly intended to intimidate, but had little effect. A few days later he was answered by Labour’s Sir Henry Slesser, who argued that a strike was only illegal if it could be proven to be a seditious conspiracy against the state. Pelling believes that Slesser was right as sympathetic strikes were not explicitly made illegal until the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927. Simon was then one of the highest-paid barristers of his generation and was believed to earn between £36,000 and £70,000 per annum (). It seemed for a while that he might abandon politics altogether. From 1927 to 1931, he chaired the Indian Constitutional Development Committee or the Indian Statutory Commission, known as the Simon Commission, on the constitution of India. His personality was already something of an issue: Neville Chamberlain wrote of him to the Viceroy of India Lord Irwin (12 August 1928): "I am always trying to like him, and believing I shall succeed when something crops up to put me off". During the late 1920s and especially during the 1929-31 Parliament, in which Labour had no majority but continued in office with the help of the Liberals, Simon was seen as the leader of the minority of Liberal MPs who disliked Lloyd George's inclination to support Labour, rather than the Conservatives. Simon still supported free trade during the 1929-31 Parliament. In 1930, Simon headed the official inquiry into the R101 airship disaster. In June 1931, before the formation of the National Government, Simon resigned the Liberal whip. In September, Simon and his 30-or-so followers became the Liberal Nationals (later renamed the "National Liberals") and increasingly aligned themselves with the Conservatives for practical purposes. Simon was accused by Lloyd George of leaving "the slime of hypocrisy" as he crossed the floor (on another occasion, Lloyd George is said to have commented that he had "sat on the fence so long the iron has entered into his soul", but this quote is more difficult to verify). ==1930s: National Government==

Foreign Secretary Simon was not initially included in Ramsay MacDonald's National Government, which was formed in August 1931. Simon offered to give up his seat at Spen Valley to MacDonald if the latter had trouble holding Seaham (MacDonald held the seat in 1931 but lost it in 1935). On 5 November 1931, Simon was appointed Foreign Secretary when the National Government was reconstituted. Thereafter, Simon was known as the "Man of Manchukuo" and was compared unfavourably to the young Anthony Eden, who was popular at Geneva. Simon was excellent in offering up an analysis of a problem in which he would lay out the advantages and disadvantages of each option, but he had much difficulty in choosing which to select, much to the vexation of Eden who complained "he expects the Cabinet to find his policy for him-Poor Simon is no fighter. Nothing will make him into one". Simon's inability to choose an option reflected his background as a lawyer where he would lay out all the possible options for his client, who would then choose which option to pursue. The British historian David Dutton wrote that some of the attacks on Simon's handling of the Japanese conquest of Manchuria were not fair in the sense that everything is put down to Simon's supposed personal weaknesses rather than to the so-called Ten Year Rule instituted in 1919 by the War Secretary Winston Churchill which stated that British defence spending was to be based on the assumption that there would be no major war in the next ten years. As a result of the Ten Year Rule, Britain did not have sufficient military forces to face Japan, most notably as Singapore Naval Base, begun in 1921, was still under construction. Simon's tendency to equivocate with regard to Manchuria and his suggestions that more research was needed to establish whether Japan had committed aggression or not was a way of covering up the fact that Britain was not capable of fighting a major war in 1931. In particular, Simon's equivocating was to cover up the fact that the much vaulted Singapore strategy was a sham as the Singapore naval base would not be finished until 1938. Moreover, although the League of Nations' collective security doctrine should had required the other members of the League to respond to an act of aggression against China, there was little support in Britain in 1931 for going to war against Japan for the sake of a Chinese province of whose existence many people only learned when Japan seized it. Adding to the charge against Simon was the claim that the administration of Herbert Hoover wanted to have the United States act against Japan and that Simon spurred the American offer. The historian A. L. Rowse, who belonged to the "guilty men" school of historiography and who tended to be very harsh in his writings towards Simon, conceded that this claim that Simon rejected American offers in 1931-1932 to take joint action against Japan was a myth, apparently invented by American historians to explain why the United States was not more forceful in responding to Japan's aggression. However, it is true that in January 1932 Simon rejected an offer by the American Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson calling for a joint Anglo-American declaration stating that they would never establish diplomatic relations with the sham state of Manchukuo, which was viewed in Japan as a pro-Japanese gesture that reflected a quiet sympathy for Japan's actions. Japanese diplomats and generals believed that Britain could be persuaded to accept Manchukuo in exchange for a promise that Japan would support Britain in upholding its extraterritorial rights in China, and that there was no prospect of any British action against Japan as long as Simon remained Foreign Secretary. Japanese diplomats viewed Labour and the Liberals as the "anti-Japanese" parties committed to the League of Nations while the Conservatives were viewed as the "pro-Japanese" imperialist party committed to realpolitik in upholding the British empire in Asia. Though Simon was a Liberal, he was felt in Japan to be closer to the Conservatives in his views. The repeated demands by the Chinese for the abolition of all the extraterritorial rights in China held by foreign powers gained via the so-called "unequal treaties" in the 19th century was felt in Japan to be the basis of a common Anglo-Japanese front against China that would ultimately lead to Britain recognising Manchukuo. At the same time, Adolf Hitler was coming to power in Germany in January 1933. Hitler immediately withdrew Germany from the League of Nations and announced a programme of rearmament, initially to give Germany armed forces commensurate with France and other powers. Simon did not foresee the sheer scale of Hitler's ambitions, but Dutton pointed out, the same was then true for many others. There was talk of Neville Chamberlain, who dominated the government's domestic policy, becoming Foreign Secretary, but that would have been intolerable to MacDonald, who took a keen interest in foreign affairs and wanted a leading non-Conservative in that role. In 1933 and late 1934, Simon was being criticised by both Austen and Neville Chamberlain as well as by Eden, Lloyd George, Nancy Astor, David Margesson, Vincent Massey, Runciman, Jan Smuts and Churchill. – but thought that it might be a useful deterrent against territorial aggression by Hitler. The first stirrings of Italian aggression towards Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) were also then seen. During Simon's tenure of the Foreign Office, British defence strength was at its lowest point of the interwar period, which severely limited his freedom of action. Leo Amery was a rare defender of Simon's record: in 1937, he recorded that Simon "really had been a sound foreign minister – and Stresa marked the nearest Europe has been to peace since 1914". Home Secretary Simon served as Home Secretary (in Stanley Baldwin's Third Government) from 7 June 1935 to 28 May 1937. That position was in Dutton's view better suited to his abilities than the Foreign Office. He also became Deputy Leader of the House of Commons on the understanding that the latter position would be given to Neville Chamberlain after the election (in the event, it was not). In 1936 Simon was the last Home Secretary to attend a royal birth (of Princess Alexandra). The Battle of Cable Street In 1936 – despite pressure from the former Labour leader and MP George Lansbury, as well as from mayors of five East London Boroughs (Hackney, Shoreditch, Stepney, Bethnal Green and Poplar) and a 100,000 signature-strong petition from local East Londoners (organised by the Jewish People's Council) – the then-home secretary Simon refused to ban a march organised by the British Union of Fascists (BUF) through the then predominantly Jewish East End of London. The BUF's announcement of this large-scale march was widely regarded "an act of provocation (...) aimed at (...) Jews and Communists". The ensuing events have since become known as the Battle of Cable Street. Two days after the event, the Labour Party Annual Conference denounced Sir John Simon for not banning the march and articulated a need for legislation. While the ensuing Public Order Act (1936) did successfully restrict politically extremist movements, it was nevertheless criticised for handing significant powers to the police to determine the routes of marches and processions. but records show that Simon did commend the bill to the house. Other issues Simon also played a key role behind the scenes in the 1936 Abdication Crisis. He was one of the signatories to the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936. He also introduced the Factories Act 1937. Chancellor of the Exchequer Peace In 1937, Neville Chamberlain succeeded Baldwin as prime minister. Simon succeeded Chamberlain as Chancellor of the Exchequer and was raised to GCVO in 1937. As Chancellor, he tried to keep arms spending as low as possible in the belief that a strong economy was the "fourth arm of defence". In 1938, public expenditure passed the previously unthinkable level of £1,000m for the first time. In the spring 1938 budget, Simon raised the income tax from 5s to 5s 6d and increased duties on tea and petrol. He retained the support of Chamberlain until around the middle of 1939. Chamberlain privately told colleagues that he found Simon "very much deteriorated". Simon's position weakened after Churchill rejoined the Cabinet on the outbreak of war and got on surprisingly well with Chamberlain, who toyed with the idea of replacing Simon with former Chancellor Reginald McKenna (then aged 76) or Lord Stamp, the chairman of the LMS Railway who had a secret meeting at Downing Street about the position. Even Captain Margesson, the Chief Whip, fancied his chances for the position. ==Lord Chancellor==

In May 1940, following the Norway Debate, Simon urged Chamberlain to stand firm as Prime Minister although Simon offered to resign and take Samuel Hoare with him. On 13 May 1940, he was created Viscount Simon, of Stackpole Elidor in the County of Pembroke, a village from which his father traced descent. Simon interrogated Rudolf Hess, who had flown to Scotland, and also chaired the Royal Commission on the Birthrate. In May 1945, after the end of the wartime coalition, Simon continued as Lord Chancellor but was not included in the Cabinet of the short-lived Churchill caretaker ministry. After Churchill's defeat in the 1945 general election, Simon never held office again. ==Later life==

Although he had won plaudits for his legal skills as Lord Chancellor, Clement Attlee declined to appoint him to the British delegation at the Nuremberg War Trials and told him bluntly in a letter that Simon's role in the pre-war governments made it unwise. In 1948, Simon succeeded Lord Sankey as High Steward of Oxford University. ==Private life and personality==

, Viscountess Simon (17 February 1920) Simon married Ethel Mary Venables, a niece of the historian J. R. Green, on 24 May 1899 in Headington, Oxfordshire. They had three children: Margaret (born 1900, who later married Geoffrey Edwards), Joan (born 1901, who later married John Bickford-Smith) and John Gilbert, 2nd Viscount Simon (1902–1993). Ethel died soon after the birth of their son Gilbert, in September 1902. In 1917, in Paris, Simon married the abolition activist Kathleen Manning (1863/64–1955), a widow with one adult son, who had for a while been governess to his children. He was an avid chess player and frequently sought for as a dignitary to open major chess tournaments in England. Simon was neither liked nor trusted, and he was never seriously considered for prime minister. He possessed an unfortunately chilly manner, and from at least 1914 onwards, he had difficulty in conveying an impression that he was acting from honourable motives. His awkward attempts to strike up friendships with his colleagues (asking his Cabinet colleagues to call him "Jack": only J. H. Thomas did so, and Neville Chamberlain settled on "John") often fell flat. Jenkins likens him to the nursery rhyme character Dr Fell. In the 1930s, his reputation sank particularly low. Although Simon's athletic build and good looks were remarked on even into his old age, the cartoonist David Low portrayed him with, in Low's own words, a "sinuous writhing body" to reflect his "disposition to subtle compromise". Harold Nicolson, after Simon had grabbed his arm from behind to talk to him (19 October 1944), wrote pithily "God what a toad and a worm Simon is!" Another anecdote, from the late 1940s, tells how the socialist intellectual G. D. H. Cole got into a third-class compartment on the train back from Oxford to London to break off conversation with Simon; to his dismay, Simon followed suit, only for both men to produce first-class tickets when the inspector did his rounds. Simon was devoted to his mother and wrote a well-received Portrait of My Mother in 1936 after her death. ==Cases==

House of Lords • Nokes v Doncaster Amalgamated Collieries Ltd [1940] AC 1014 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council • Abitibi Power and Paper Company Limited v. Montreal Trust Company, [1943] AC 536, [1943 UKPC 37] (PC – Canada): Constitution Act, 1867, s. 92(13) – provincial power to enact specific moratorium legislation • Atlantic Smoke Shops Limited v Conlon, [1943] AC 550, [1943 UKPC 44] (PC – Canada): Constitution Act, 1867, s. 92(2) – provincial power to impose sales taxes • The Attorney General of Ontario and others v The Canada Temperance Foundation and others, [1946] AC 193, [1946 UKPC 2] (PC – Canada): Constitution Act, 1867, s. 91, "peace, order and good government" – federal power to enact laws relating to matters of national concern ==References==