Alexander Cadogan

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Sir Alexander George Montagu Cadogan OM GCMG KCB PC (25 November 1884–9 July 1968) was a British civil servant. An alumnus of Eton College, he was United Kingdom Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 1938 to 1946, representative to the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in 1944, member of the Privy Council in 1946, Britain's representative to the United Nations from 1946 to 1950, and Chairman of Board of Governors of the BBC from 1952 to 1957.

He is known to have been in frequent conflict with Sir Neville Meyrick Henderson, British Ambassador to Germany, throughout 1939 over the proper stance Britain should take toward the Nazi regime, and played a significant part in the negotiations between Great Britain and Germany mediated in part by the amateur Swedish diplomat Birger Dahlerus in late August and early September, 1939. At a meeting on August 27, 1939 between Dahlerus and Neville Chamberlain, Lord Halifax, Sir Horace Wilson and Cadogan a set of proposals from Hitler were presented to the British Government, recorded by Cadogan. ^[1] Dahlerus was sent back to Berlin, re-appearing on August 30, 1939 before the same four people. Dahlerus found them highly mistrustful of Hitlers laterst proposals. ^[2] Cadogan, a permanent Foreign Office official, had always been impervious to Hitler's rhetoric.

Shortly after the German attack on Poland, Dahlerus telephoned the Foreign Office with a further peace proposal, and was put through to Cadogan, who told him that nothing could now be done. Dahlerus insisted that the Cabinet be informed of his proposal; when he phoned back he was told by Cadogan that mediation while German troops were on Polish soil was out of the question.^[3]

Preceded by Robert Gilbert Vansittart	Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs 1938–1946	Succeeded by Orme Sargent
Preceded by Ernest Simon	Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors 1952 - 1957	Succeeded by Sir Arthur fforde