David Lidington Quotes
It is vital that people are aware of what the Foreign Office can and can't do.
Lidington, David. "British Behaviour Abroad Report 2012." GOV.UK, HM Government, 19 July 2012.
Secretary of State Jefferson wrote to the French foreign minister, Edmond Genet:
In 1904 the Archduchess of Austria was visiting the Adriatic port of Fiume where hundreds of immigrants to America were waiting to board the ship. The nobility of the time found amusement in the poor immigrants boarding with their meager possessions and poor clothes. The Archduchess wanted the people to board 3 days early so she could watch the spectacle before she left. They would then have to stay in the steerage of the ship for 3 extra days. The American consul refused to issue the necessary papers until just before the sailing:
The Constitution was not drafted until 1787 and was ratified later. In the interim the young United States functioned under the Articles of Confederation, in a sense, our first Constitution. This clause established that the Federal Government should have the exclusive power and authority to conduct foreign affairs.
Diplomatic recognition of the People’s Republic of China was being debated. Many of Churchill’s Conservative Party Colleagues were opposed on the grounds that diplomatic relations gives a signal of legitimacy. In the U. S. this general issue is a constant source of political controversy when diplomatic relations and talks are considered with Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
Terrorists in Iraq had murdered the Egyptian Ambassador a few weeks before. Although not generally known, being a diplomat in a foreign country has substantial risk.
The basic treaty sold some of Ethiopia’s colonial territory (Eritrea and Tigray) to Italy in exchange for arms. Italy had tried to conquer the area but lost 500 men in the Battle of Dogali. However, after this peace treaty, Italy maintained that Article 17 of the treaty gave them the right to declare Ethiopia an Italian Protectorate which they did. However, there were two different versions of the treaty that the Italians had drawn up—one in Italian, the other in Aramaic. Britain, Belgium and Germany supported Italy; France, Turkey and Russia supported Ethiopia. Menelik then, to make matters clear, repudiated the treaty in 1893. Italy send an invasion force that was soundly thrashed by the Ethiopians setting the stage for the Italian attack on Ethiopia in World War II years later. Parties to International treaties thereafter have paid close attention to the different language versions.
In 1983 in the wake of the Korean airliner shootdown, there were diplomatic arguments of landing rights in New York for Russian U. N. diplomats. This prompted some U. N. member nations to call for the removal of the U. N. from New York:
Sir David Roy Lidington KCB CBE is a British politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aylesbury from 1992 until 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2018 to 2019 and was frequently described as being Theresa May's de facto Deputy Prime Minister.
