Gordon Vereker

Roving diplomat

Vereker was born in County Galway, Ireland to a prominent and wealthy Protestant "Ascendancy" family, the son of Sir George Medlicott Vereker and Frances Gore Vereker (née Manders). He was usually known as Gordon instead of George. Vereker was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Vereker won the Épée title at the 1913 British Fencing Championships.

Vereker served in the British Army in World War One where he awarded the Military Cross and was mentioned in dispatches for heroism under fire. In 1919, he joined the Foreign Office to begin his career as a diplomat. From 1919 to 1923, he was stationed at the British high commission in Cairo, Egypt. From 1923 to 1927, he was stationed at the British legation in Beijing, China and in 1925 was involved in an international incident when he visited with the American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews Urga (modern Ulaanbaatar), the capital of Outer Mongolia. The Communist government of Mongolia accused him of being a spy and expelled him. From 1927 to 1930, he was stationed at the British legation in Budapest, Hungary. On 27 March 1928, he married Marjorie Mulliner in London. After serving at the Foreign Office's headquarters in London in 1930–1932, Vereker served at the British embassies in Warsaw, Poland in 1932-1934 and in Stockholm, Sweden in 1934–1938. The journalist George Bilainkin who visited Vereker's home in Warsaw in 1934 described it as decorated with Hungarian and Chinese art, giving it a very "Oriental" feel.

He served as the charge d'affairs at the British Embassy in Moscow in 1938-39 where he was noted for his hostile views of the Soviet Union. On 16 May 1936, the French ambassador to the Soviet Union, Robert Coulondre met Vereker to talk to him about settling up an Anglo-Franco-Soviet alliance to contain Nazi Germany. Vereker wrote he was "mystified as to the motives of M. Coulondre's invitation, for I have always understood that he is usually reserved and uncommunicative". Vereker told Colondre that his view was that the "Russians were Asiatics...and that with present Byzantine regime in the Kremlin anything might happen", concluding that the Red Army would be no match for the Wehrmacht and there was no point in trying to have the Soviet Union as a counterweight to Germany for that reason. At a Christmas Eve party at the British embassy in 1938, Vereker met with the Soviet foreign commissar, Maxim Litvinov where the discussion turned to the "Ukrainian question" where Litvinov stated about the support extended to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists by Germany that the Soviet Union was "not unduly alarmed by the latest German bogey-an independent Ukraine" as the mere "horn blowings" of a handful of Ukrainian nationalists were nothing. Vereker, who tended to sympathize with Ukrainian nationalism, told Litvinov: "I always understood that it was something more than a mere blowing of horns, and that in fact it was nothing less than an earthquake that caused the collapse of the walls of Jericho". On 10 January 1939, Vereker reported to London his belief that the "Ukrainian question is no doubt seriously exercising the mind of the Soviet government". On 13 November 1939, Lawrence Steinhardt, the American ambassador in Moscow, reported that he talked to Vereker who told him that he believed Britain should have broken diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union following the invasion of Finland, but decided not since the last time Britain had broken off relations with Moscow in 1927 had served no purpose.

In late 1939, Vereker was appointed the British minister in La Paz. While leaving the Soviet Union on board an Estonian freighter that was to take across the Baltic Sea, a Kriegsmarine cruiser violated Estonian neutrality by stopping the ship and sending sailors aboard to take Vereker prisoner. The incident, which was a major violation of international law, caused protests around the world and the Germans soon released Vereker.

Ambassador in Helsinki

After briefly serving as the Minister-Plenipotentiary to Bolivia, he served as the British Minister-Plenipotentiary to Finland in 1940–41. Vereker arrived in Helsinki during the Winter War. On 24 February 1940, Vereker had to present his credentials to President Kyösti Kallio during a Red Air Force bombing raid. The meeting was held in the bomb shelter in the Presidential palace. Also attending the meeting was the Finnish foreign minister Väinö Tanner. During his meeting with President Kallio, Vereker promised British support to Finland and spoke of the possibility of 20,000 British soldiers arriving in Finland by April. Vereker stated that about 20,000–25,000 British troops would leave the United Kingdom on 15 March 1940 and would arrive in Finland no later than 15 of April. Vereker also stated that the British forces would go to the southern front in Karelia instead of the northern front above the Arctic Circle. Vereker stated that the British force would be entirely armed with automatic weapons, saying "A battalion would be equal to a regiment". As a landing at Petsamo above the Arctic Circle would be difficult and a journey across Norway and Sweden would be a more expeditious way to reach Finland, Vereker wanted Tanner to pressure the Norwegian and Swedish governments to grant transit rights to the British. Vereker felt that the governments in Oslo and Stockholm would be more be likely to grant transit rights if the appeal came from a fellow Scandinavian power instead of Britain.

In the meantime, Vereker urged the Finns to keep fighting despite the adverse turn in the war and not to make peace with the Soviet Union. The Finnish Commander, Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, advised the cabinet that a force of 20,000–25,000 troops would be too small to affect the outcome of the war and pointed out that both Norway and Sweden were refusing to grant transit rights for Allied forces intended to go to Finland. Mannerheim stated that only 50,000 or more soldiers would be sufficient to affect the outcome of the war, and they needed to arrive immediately. Mannerheim together with the other Finnish generals advised the cabinet to disregard Vereker and make peace with the Soviet Union while it was still possible to make peace, saying the Red Army had broken through the Mannerheim line and to continue the war into April as Vereker wanted might very be the end of Finland as an independent state.

On 27 February 1940, Vereker was informed by London that there were rumors that the Finns had opened peace talks with the Soviets owing to their recent defeats, and he was instructed to find out if this was true or not. On 28 February 1940, Vereker met with Tanner to ask him to continue the war and pressured him into making an appeal for British aid. Tanner admitted that the Finns had opened peace talks via the Swedish government, and through he stated he was moved by the British offer of help, he added that April would be far too late for his nation. Tanner stated that the military situation was dire as the Red Army was advancing into Karelia, and Finland needed to either make peace now or be conquered. Vereker hurt his own credibility by lowering the number of men available, now saying the number of troops sent to Finland would number only 12, 000–13, 000. On 3 March 1940, Vereker again lowered the number of men available, teling Tanner that only 6, 000 British troops would go to Finland. It turned out that the force of 20,000–25,000 that Vereker had promised was not due to instructions he received from London, but was rather an offer he made on his own. Vereker believed that if he promised a larger force, then the Finns would be more likely to make the appeal for British aid, and thus the Norwegian and Swedish governments would be more likely to grant transit rights.

Ambassador in Montevideo

From 1943, he was appointed as the Minister-Plenipotentiary to Uruguay. In 1944, Britain and Uruguay agreed to upgrade their relations from the legation level to the embassy level, and Vereker became the first British ambassador to Uruguay. Uruguay had close economic relations with Argentina, and during the Second World War, the United Kingdom and even more so, the United States had difficult relations with Argentina owing to that nation's pro-Axis neutrality. On 23 March 1944, the Uruguayan foreign minister José Serrato told Vereker about his government's concern about the "hostile" and "clumsy" American attitude towards Argentina. Serrato asked for the end of "the diplomatic blockade" of Argentina, saying it was a mistake "to hide our light behind a bush, not having a defined policy towards Argentina".

In 1944, Vereker was involved in blocking an American plan to exchange the Germans interned in Uruguay for European Jews who held Uruguayan passports, an effort which floundered over the inability to determine which Germans held in Uruguay would be of no value to the war effort, and the fear of the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, that the Jews released go to Palestine instead of Uruguay. On 15 November 1944, Eden wrote to Vereker: "Most of the holders of these documents (Latin American passports) are of the Jewish race who have been accepted as immigrants to Palestine". Vereker wrote back to Eden about the interned Germans: "All of them are capable of rendering services to Germany if in that country. Many have qualities that would render them of considerable value to Germany. For instance, it seems absurd to suggest sending to Germany highly trained employees of the German banks who otherwise are languishing here doing nothing but draw their pay. Any such action would certainly be misunderstood and give rise to all sorts of ideas that we have gone all soft and sentimental over the Germans." In 1945, Lord Halifax, who was now serving as the British ambassador to the United States, sent Vereker a note saying the American plan was "of academic interest". In 1945, Vereke's first marriage ended and on 17 February 1945 he married an American socialite, Roxane Bowen. On 11 August 1947, in a public letter Vereker thanked Alberto Guani, the Uruguayan foreign minister in 1939, for interning the crew of the Admiral Graf von Spree after the Battle of the Rio Plate. 1948, King George VI appointed him a Knight Commander, Order of St. Michael and St. George. After his retirement from the diplomatic corps, he moved to Australia where he died.