Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T05:55:23.675Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

V. The British Radicals and the Balance of Power, 1902–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Howard S. Weinroth
Howard S. Weinroth
Affiliation:
McGill University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

On 3 August 1914 a short-lived Radical body of intellectuals, the‘Neutrality Committee’, issued a statement to the press calling upon Britain not to depart from a policy of strict neutrality. A similar organization, which went under the title of the British Neutrality League, and supported by an imposing array of Liberals—Lord Welby, the Lord Provost of Glasgow, the Lord Mayor of Manchester, the Bishop of Hereford and C. P. Scott of the Manchester Guardian—did much the same. It implored the nation not to take part in a Continental war, since no British interest was involved: ‘the violation of Belgian neutrality was insufficient to bring us into war’. Other spokesmen of moderate and left-wing Liberal opinion followed suit, among them a fairsized number of Cambridge scholars. Meetings and demonstrations were held throughout the country to protest against possible British intervention. Organized by the socialists in Trafalgar Square, these were of impressive proportions. In Parliament, too, a small group of dissenting M.P.s withstood the gathering war hysteria and urged the Government to accept the German guarantee of Belgian ‘integrity’, though this might mean a temporary invasion of her frontiers. All in all this last-minute spectacle of opposition to British involvement in the 1914 War has sometimes led to the historical assessment that the Radicals, together with their socialist allies, were men of an insular mind and isolationist in their approach toward European politics.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , December 1970 , pp. 653 - 682
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Manchester Guardian, 3 August 1914.

2 Gooch, G.P., The Life of Lord Courtney (London, 1963), p. 501.Google Scholar

3 Speaker, 15 February 1902.

4 Hansard, Parl. Debates, H. of C, Fourth Series, CII (13 February 1902), 1292.

5 Manchester Guardian, 14 February 1902.

6 Contemporary Review, November 1905.

7 Speaker, 7 October 1905.

8 Monger, G.W., End of Isolation (London, 1963), p. 286Google Scholar

9 Review of Reviews, November 1905 (my italics).

10 Speaker, 28 October 1905.

11 Manchester Guardian, 10 April 1904.

12 Speaker, 10 December 1904.

13 Economist, 1 April 1905.

14 Speaker, 21 April 1906. It should be noted that this Francophile sentiment endured the Tangier crisis. But as A. J. P. Taylor has rightly pointed out, it may very well be due to the individual bias of J. L. Hammond, editor of the weekly, rather than a reflexion of Radical sentiment at large.

15 Andrew, C., Théophile Delcasse and the Making of the Entente Cordiale (London, 1968), pp. 266–7;CrossRefGoogle Scholar also Speaker, 17 June 1905.

16 Economist, 1 April 1905; see also Speaker, 8 April 1905. The Speaker contended that France's moral pressure on this backward state was one of the most justifiable of all cases in the realm of imperial or colonial politics.

17 Speaker, 13 January 1906; also Economist, 1 April 1905.

18 Ibid. 8 April 1905 and 16 December 1905.

19 Manchester Guardian, 8 April 1905.

20 Ibid. 7 June 1905.

21 Ibid. 29 June 1905, 5 July 1905 and 9 August 1905.

22 Speaker, 17 June 1905.

23 Manchester Guardian, 13 and 14 October 1905; also Speaker, 14 October 1905.

24 Massingham, H.W., ‘Personalities in Parliament’, Speaker, 14 10 1905Google Scholar (my italics). Massingham felt that the French sources now confirmed his own appraisal of Delcassé as a conservative pro-Russian intriguer, whose policy had created hazards for the future of Anglo-French co-operation.

25 Economist, 7 October 1905; also Manchester Guardian, 25 May 1906. Even those Radicals who justified Germany's case in Morocco were inclined to look upon her as one of the greatest obstacles to a pacific and democratic Europe. See column, H.W. Massingham's, ‘Personalities in Parliament’, in the Speaker, 29 07 1905.Google Scholar

26 Manchester Guardian, 15 December 1905; 28 March 1906.

27 Ibid. 15 December 1905; 9 and 28 February 1906.

27aThe extension of the Entente Cordiale to incorporate Germany was not only suggested by Radicals. This idea also found a prominent place in the argumentation of socialists. See Labour Leader, 14 July 1905 and 25 August 1905.

28 Manchester Guardian, 16 November 1906.

29 Manchester Guardian, 30 November 1905; also Hutchinson, H.G., The Life of Sir John Lubbock (London, 1914), p. 223.Google Scholar

30 Sir Thomas Barclay founded the Brotherhood Alliance, whose goal was to create friendly feelings between workmen of different countries, and it was connected with the International Churches of London. See the British Weekly, 15 June 1905. He also canvassed support for Anglo-German friendship among the chambers of commerce in Germany in 1906.

31 Daily News, 17 May 1906.

32 British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914, ed. by Gooch, and Temperley, , III, 359–60.Google Scholar

33 Labour Leader, 28 October 1908.

34 Manchester Guardian, 17 April 1909.

35 Labour Leader, 4–18 June 1909.

36 Baker, E.B. and Noel-Baker, P.J., J. Allen Baker (London, 1927), pp. 173–9.Google Scholar

37 Ibid. pp. 197–8.

38 One of the most persistent complaints of the Radicals was that Germany had become the most faithful ally of the Hamidian Empire. See Nation, 5 September 1908 and 31 October 1908; also Daily News, 31 July 1907.

39 Lady Courtney's Diaries, 30 April 1911. Courtney Collection (British Library of Economic and Political Science). British Radicals placed greater faith in the Social Democrats than in the commercial classes of Germany as the sturdiest and most reliable forces of peace.

40 Daily News, 20 December 1907.

41 Manchester Guardian, 2 December 1909; also Nation, 4 December 1909.

42 Manchester Guardian, 12 May 1910.

43 Nation, 18 and 25 December 1909; also Manchester Guardian, 29 December 1909 (citing the Berlin correspondent of the Standard).

44 Manchester Guardian, 12 May 1910.

45 Ibid. 22 and 24 September 1910.

46 Nation, 24 May 1913.

47 Manchester Guardian, 27 May 1907.

48 Ibid. 19 June 1907.

49 Daily News, 17 May 1907. In fact almost simultaneously with the sealing of the compact, loans were floated in London and Paris. See Daily News, 18 February 1908.

50 Manchester Guardian, 12 June 1907.

51 See J. Joll, Britain and Europe, pp. 207–8; also Manchester Guardian, 12 June 1907.

52 Manchester Guardian, 2 September 1907. Equivocations of this nature were to recede with the years, as the implications of the Convention became more palpable.

53 Lord Courtney to G. H. Perris, 10 April 1909. Courtney Collection.

54 Ibid. 10 April 1909.

55 Hansard, Parl. Debates, H. of C, Fourth Series, CLXXXIX (26 May 1908), 963.

56 Ibid. Fourth Series, CLXXXIX (28 May 1908), 1262.

57 Manchester Guardian, 5 June 1908.

58 Ibid. 6 June 1908; also Hansard, Parl. Debates, H. of C, Fourth Series, CXC (4 June 1908), 261–3.

59 Daily News, 27 May 1908; see column of P. W. Wilson, the parliamentary correspondent of the Daily News.

60 Hansard, Parl. Debates, H. of C, Fourth Series, CXC (4 June 1908), 234–41.

61 Daily News, 5 June 1908.

62 Hansard, Parl. Debates, H. of C, Fourth Series, CLXXXIX (26 May 1908), 963–4.

63 Ibid. Fourth Series, cxc (4 June 1908), 253–8.

64 Ibid. Fourth Series, cxc (4 June 1908), 261–3; Maddison, a Lib-Lab M.P., was secretary of the International Arbitration League and active in other peace groups. He lost his seat in the 1910 election.

65 Daily News, 5 July 1908. See t he column of P. W. Wilson, parliamentary correspondent for the paper. Wilson was also M.P. for St Pancras at t he time. Like Fred Maddison he was swept out of office during the Liberal setback of 1910.

66 Hansard, Parl. Debates, H. of C, Fourth Series, cxc (4 June 1908), 267–8.

67 There were at least three M.P.s punished in this manner—Ponsonby, Keir Hardie and the independent socialist, Victor Grayson.

68 J. A. Pease to Arthur Ponsonby, 5 June 1908; Ponsonby Collection. (I am grateful to Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede for permission to use these papers.)

69 Arthur Ponsonby to J. A. Pease, 6 June 1908; Ponsonby Collection.

70 Nation, 3 August 1907.

71 Daily News, 4 September 1907.

72 E.G. Browne, ‘The Persian Oil Concession’, War and Peace, July 1914.

73 Manchester Guardian, 29 May 1908.

74 Nation, 13 June 1908.

75 Manchester Guardian, 6 October 1908.

76 Ibid. 6 and 8 October 1908.

77 Lord Courtney in a letter to The Times (but not sent) Spring 1909; Courtney Collection.

78 Manchester Guardian, 14 October 1908.

79 Ibid. 16 October 1908.

80 Ibid. 10 November 1908.

81 Daily News, 20 November 1908.

82 Manchester Guardian, 27 November 1908.

83 Nation, 6 February 1909.

84 Ibid. 11 January 1909; also 27 March 1909.

85 Nation, 18 December 1909.

86 Nation, 14 January 1911.

87 Daily News, 11 January 1911. Bethmann-Hollweg's speech was delivered on 10 December 1910. The deductions the Daily News drew from this speech were not only far-fetched; they also serve as an excellent example of how Radical journals tended to be carried away by declarations of statesmen.

88 Manchester Guardian, 11 January 1911.

89 Brailsford, H.N., The War of Steel and Gold (1915 edition), p. 323.Google Scholar

90 Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1911.

91 Ibid. 1 April 1911.

92 Manchester Guardian, 19 May 1911.

93 Ibid. 22 April 1911.

94 Ibid. 2 May 1911.

95 Lloyd George delivered his famous but controversial speech on 21 July 1911. Manchester Guardian, 22 July 1911.

96 Manchester Guardian, 24 July 1911.

97 C. P. Scott Memoranda, 25 July 1911; C. P. Scott Collection (B.M. Add. MSS. 50901).

98 Manchester Guardian, 25 and 28 July 1911.

99 Daily News, 3 July 1911.

100 Daily Nevis, 24 July 1911 (my italics). Wilfrid Scawen Blunt claims in his diaries that pressure was brought to bear on the editor of the Daily News, at this time, not to come out against official policy. See W. S. Blunt, My Diaries, 11, 374. C. P. Scott also relates in his memoranda how Lloyd George cornered him on 22 July 1911 about not letting the Government down in the diplomatic clash. See C. P. Scott Memoranda, 22 July 1911; C. P. Scott Collection (B.M. Add. MSS. 50901).

101 Nation, 25 July 1911.

102 Labour Leader, 11 August 1911.

103 Hansard, Parl. Debates, H. of C, Fifth Series, XXVI (27 July 1911), 1830–1.

104 Lady Courtney's Diaries, 28 July 1911; Courtney Collection.

105 The Italian press claimed that the invasion of Tripoli had been made with Britain's foreknowledge. The Manchester Guardian, at first, declined to believe this, but on 3 October 1911 it communicated to its readers that‘ Mr Lucien Wolf, writing in the Daily Graphic, say that our Foreign Office was aware a month ago, that Italy intended to take steps in Tripoli’.Sir Edward Grey's refusal to see a deputation of the Peace Society, which approached him with a protest memorandum on the Italian action, must have augmented suspicions. Some Radicals pointed out that in the case of the Bosnian annexation he had not hesitated to intervene.

106 Noel Buxton, ‘England and Germany’, Contemporary Review (November 1911).

107 Nation, 20 January 1912.

108 Ibid. 20 January 1912.

109 C. P. Scott Memorandum, 7 November 1911; C. P. Scott Collection.

110 C. P. Scott Memorandum, 7 January 1912; C. P. Scott Collection.

111 Lady Courtney's Diaries, 7 November 1911. Courtney's Diaries, 7 November 1911; Courtney Collection (my italics).

112 Lascelles, Sir Frank, ‘Thoughts on the Anglo-German Problem’, Contemporary Review (01 1912).Google Scholar

113 Hansard, , Parl. Debates, H. of C, Fifth Series, XXXII (27 11 1911), 60–1.Google Scholar

114 Manchester Guardian, 23 January 1912.

115 Daily News, 31 May 1912.

116 See the resolution (submitted by G. R. Thome) of the National Liberal Federation at the second session of its general council's annual meeting, 21 November 1912; Liberal Publication Department.

117 Daily News, 25 March 1913.

118 Manchester Guardian, 30 May 1913; see also the Circular of the National Peace Council, 15 January 1913.

119 Nation, 10 May 1913.

120 Taylor, A.J.P., The Trouble Makers (London, 1957), pp. 125–6.Google Scholar

121 Manchester Guardian, 26 June 1913.

122 Daily News, 17 January 1914.

123 Nation, 19 March 1914 (my italics).