Editing Alec Douglas-Home (section)

==== Eden government: 1955–1957 ====
When Eden succeeded Churchill as prime minister in 1955 he promoted Home to the cabinet as [[Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations]]. At the time of this appointment Home had not been to any of the countries within his ministerial remit, and he quickly arranged to visit Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India, Pakistan and Ceylon.<ref name="d21">Dutton, p. 21</ref> He had to deal with the sensitive subject of immigration from and between Commonwealth countries, where a delicate balance had to be struck between resistance in some quarters in Britain and Australia to non-white immigration on the one hand, and on the other the danger of sanctions in India and Pakistan against British commercial interests if discriminatory policies were pursued.<ref>Thorpe (1997), p. 169</ref> In most respects, when Home took up the appointment it seemed to be a relatively uneventful period in the history of the Commonwealth. The upheaval of Indian independence in 1947 was well in the past, and the wave of decolonising of the 1960s was yet to come.<ref>Dutton, p. 20</ref> However, it fell to Home to maintain Commonwealth unity during the [[Suez Crisis]] in 1956, described by Dutton as "the most divisive in its history to date".<ref name=d21/> Australia, New Zealand and South Africa backed the Anglo-French invasion of Egypt to regain control of the Suez Canal. Canada, Ceylon, India and Pakistan opposed it.<ref name="t178">Thorpe (1997), pp. 178–181</ref>

There appeared to be a real danger that Ceylon, India and, particularly, Pakistan might leave the Commonwealth.<ref name=t178/> Home was firm in his support of the invasion, but used his contacts with [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], [[V. K. Krishna Menon]], [[Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit|Nan Pandit]] and others to try to prevent the Commonwealth from breaking up.<ref>Thorpe (1997), p. 185</ref> His relationship with Eden was supportive and relaxed; he felt able, as others did not, to warn Eden of unease about Suez both internationally and among some members of the cabinet. Eden dismissed the latter as the "weak sisters";{{Sfnp|Wilby|2006|p=109}} the most prominent was Butler, whose perceived hesitancy over Suez on top of his support for appeasement of Hitler damaged his standing within the Conservative party.<ref>Roth, pp. 112–113</ref> When the invasion was abandoned under pressure from the US in November 1956, Home worked with the dissenting members of the Commonwealth to build the organisation into what Hurd calls "a modern multiracial Commonwealth"<ref name=dnb/> (notwithstanding the Commonwealth was already multiracial.)