The Society came formally into existence on 5 June 1942.
It was the creation of Licenciado Alfonso Rosenzweig Diaz,
the first Mexican Minister (later Ambassador) to London
after the resumption of full diplomatic relations between
the two countries in October 1941. This followed the break
in relations which had occurred in May 1938 as a consequence
of the Mexican
expropriation in March of that year of foreign oil companies.
President Manuel Avila Camacho
Although Britain was at the darkest moment of the war against
Germany in December 1940 it was then that President
Manuel Avila Camacho chose to take the first informal
steps, through intermediaries, to let the British Government
know that he would like to restore relations. The British
Foreign Minister at the time was Anthony
Eden, who welcomed this move, and was encouraged by
the United States Government to respond.
Prime Minister Anthony Eden
At the end of September 1941 he sought the approval of
His Majesty King
George VI for the appointment of a Minister to Mexico,
and Mr (later Sir Charles) Batemen presented his Letters
of Credence in Mexico City on 7 October 1942. Meanwhile
Licenciado Alfonso Rosenzweig Diaz had presented his in
London on 21 January 1942 and had immediately begun an active
campaign to set up a ‘friendship’ society.
King GeorgeVI
Rosenzweig, while always observing proper courtesies, was
impatient with some of the formalities he was expected to
go through to achieve official recognition of such a body,
and by the time Mexico declared
war on the Axis Powers on 28 May of that year he had
already assembled a distinguished group of friends of Mexico
who were eager to cooperate with him. So, only three days
after calling on Eden to inform him officially of Mexico’s
declaration of war, he was able to announce, in a telegram
to Eden sent on the afternoon of 5 June, the formation of
the British Mexican Society, itself an unorthodox way of
proceeding.
Eden responded with a personally signed letter ‘warmly’
welcoming the Society ‘as a valuable contribution to the
promotion of friendship and understanding between the two
countries’. (At the same time a group of distinguished Mexican
and British people in Mexico were active in setting up the
Anglo-Mexican Cultural Institute in Mexico, although this
did not formally come into existence until June 1943.)
In succeeding years the Society was active, with the strong
help, both financial and moral, of the Mexican Embassy in
publishing a variety of newssheets and organising cultural
events. Rosenzweig tried in September 1942 to hold a BMS
reception in honour of Eden and possibly Churchill, the
Prime Minister, but the Foreign Office and the Prime Minister’s
office felt that if they accepted it would mean that they
would have to do the same for all other similar societies.
However, Eden did agree to be guest of honour at a luncheon
on 14 October.
Churchill
declined an invitation to be the guest of honour at a lunch
to mark the second anniversary of Mexico’s declaration of
war, as well as an invitation to visit Mexico, but the Society
marked this anniversary with a dinner at the Dorchester
Hotel which received some publicity. And on 15 June 1944,
not long after the reciprocal raising of the diplomatic
missions in the two countries to full embassies, the Mexican
Ambassador hosted a luncheon, attended by the diplomatic
representatives of all the other belligerent Latin American
countries, at which Churchill was guest of honour.
However, an invitation shortly after this to Churchill
to become an honorary member of the BMS was politely declined
because of the precedent it would set. But someone in the
Foreign Office minuted that it might be suitable to repeat
the invitation on the hundredth anniversary of the founding
of the Society — which will be in 2042!
