In "The Military Papers of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, 1940-42" edited by Dr Timothy Bowman (Boydell Press for the Army Records Society, 2021) there appears on page 316 the following paragraph, in a letter dated 30 January 1942 from Auchinleck to his Chief of Staff Middle East, Lt-Gen Arthur Wilson: "I am sorry Lyttelton [the Minister of State Resident in the middle East] had to interrupt his tour,but I am glad it was for political not military reasons. I did not hear what really happened in the crisis between the King and the Cabinet, though I know how it started." It seems most unlikely that King George VI would have had serious disagreement with his Cabinet, enough to provoke a crisis, and I wonder if anyone knows the cause. It may have been something arising from Japan's entry into the war, or from discussions between Churchill and Roosevelt, with their respective staffs, in the USA in the latter part of December 1941, or it may have had something to do with discussions between the UK Government and the Congress Party in India, when independence for India after the war was discussed.. It doesn't seem to relate to events in the Middle East, since it is the final paragraph in the letter quoted and no other mention is made of it. I have looked at Churchill's war memoirs but, perhaps unsurprisingly, I couldn't find any reference to such a "crisis". Does anyone have any ideas, please? Ron Clifton
I don't have the context, but is there any chance he is referring to the King and Cabinet of Egypt? In January 1942, when Farouk was away on vacation, Lampson pressured Serry Pasha into breaking diplomatic relations with Vichy France. As the king was not consulted about the severing of ties with Vichy France, Farouk used this violation of the constitution as an excuse to dismiss Serry and announced he planned to appoint Maher as prime minister again. Source: Farouk of Egypt - Wikipedia See also: PRIMEMINISTERS40 Abdeen Palace incident of 1942 - Wikipedia
