Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Churchill’s bid to cover up Nazis’ Edward VIII plot
Scheme to reinstate him as King
WINSTON Churchill tried to block the release of secret documents revealing Nazi plans to put Edward VIII back on the throne.
Captured telegrams showed a German plot to allow the former king to become monarch again if Britain was forced to make peace in the Second World War.
Messages also showed conversations in which the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, reportedly told Nazi agents he was unhappy with the British government and the King, his brother George VI.
After the war, historians sought to publish the telegrams but Churchill decided to intervene in a bid to protect the duke’s reputation, files released by the National Archives reveal.
In 1953, when he was Prime Minister, Churchill wrote to US President Dwight Eisenhower, appealing to his sense of “justice and chivalry” to delay publication for another 10 or 20 years.
Churchill said the files may “leave the impression the duke was in close touch with German agents and was listening to suggestions that were disloyal”.
But the telegrams were released in 1957 as part of the Allied publication of captured German diplomatic archives.
They showed the Nazis wanted to lure the duke – then living in neutral Portugal – to Spain in the 40s where it was hoped he would be persuaded to co-operate with the help of General Franco’s regime.
The documents also revealed that Germany’s Foreign Minister believed the duke, who visited Hitler in 1937, strongly favoured peace with the Nazis.
Churchill’s 1950s government raised the allowance for royal princesses as they could not find rich husbands, National Archives papers show.