Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T16:27:40.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Return of the ‘exer ex-Ministers’: The Opposition front bench, December 1923–November 1924

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2009

Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

At the Carlton Club meeting in October 1922 Balfour had reflected caustically that while ‘it has never been a Conservative principle to abandon a Leader … I concede it has sometimes been a Conservative practice’. At this meeting, the Conservative Party had abandoned Austen Chamberlain. A little over a year later it appeared as if a similar fate would befall his principal successor. Amid the ruins of Law's victory for ‘Tranquillity’ many observers subscribed to Hanky's view that ‘Baldwin, though a nice fellow is not the stuff of which British Prime Ministers are made’. In the immediate aftermath of this disaster, most also assumed he would be compelled to pay the ultimate price for this inadequacy. Certainly Birhenhead was one of them. Electoral defeat was a vindication of all that he had predicted since the fall of the Coalition. Rejoicing that it had finally ‘put an end to the idea that fifth rate intelligence could govern the Empire’, Birkenhead set in motion the final act in a strategy to which he had committed the Chamberlainites in November 1922. Between 6 and 10 December rumours abounded that the former Conservative Coalitionists were about to displace Baldwin, replace him variously with Balfour, Derby or Chamberlain and then form some sort of Liberal-Conservative combination to exclude Labour from office. In the event, the plan miscarried. The apparent recrudescence of the ‘old intrigue’ rallied the victors of the Carlton Club to defend the Party, their brand of Conservatism and, by necessity, its leader from coalitionist conspiracy. Virtually overnight, Baldwin was transformed from the wanton destroyer of Law's majority into the guarantor of Conservative principle. As Amery told Baldwin, ‘you embody and personify the decision of the Party to live its own life and have its own constructive policy’. Ultimately, therefore, despite much Conservative anger, frustration and despair at Baldwin's perceived folly, the impulse which brought about the coalescence of figures as diverse as the Cecils, Younger, Strachey, Gretton and the ministerial beneficiaries of the Carlton Club was the consensus that they were ‘not prepared to cut off Baldwin's head and make Austen Chamberlain King’. They were even less inclined to install Birkenhead as Regent.

Type
Research Article
Information
Royal Historical Society Camden Fifth Series , Volume 5 , July 1995 , pp. 241 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1995

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 This remark is quoted in Birkenhead, Contemporary Personalities, 20Google Scholar. The official report in Gleanings and Memoranda, LVI. 11 1922, 487–495Google Scholar makes no reference to it but the suspension dots on P494 may conceal the omission.

2 Hankey Diary, 9 December 1923, Hankey MSS 1/7 fol.5.

3 James, R.R., Victor Cazalet: A Portrait, 93.Google Scholar

4 For the ‘Birkenhead Plot’ see Cowling, M., The Impact of LabourGoogle Scholar, Chapter XVII.

5 Davidson, J.C.C. to Wolmer, , 11 12 1923Google Scholar, Wolmer MSS 6. (Bodleian Library, Oxford)

6 Amery, to Baldwin, , 8 12 1923Google Scholar, Baldwin MSS 35/169–71.

7 Derby Diary, 17 December 1923. For similar comments see Neville Chamberlain Diary, 19 December 1923; Younger, to Cecil, Lord Hugh, 11 12 1923Google Scholar, Quickswood MSS 31/146.

8 Chamberlain, A. to Chamberlain, N. 8 12 1923Google Scholar, NC1/27/83.

9 See Chamberlain interview, Daily Mail, 11 12 1923Google Scholar and speech at Birmingham, Birmingham Post, 8 12 1923.Google Scholar

10 Interview in Daily Mail, 11 12 1923.Google Scholar

11 Chamberlain, A. to Pollock, E.M., 1 01 1924Google Scholar, Hanworth MSS d.433/1.

12 Chamberlain, A. to Ida, , 20 01 1924Google Scholar, AC5/1/3O3.

13 Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 24 01 1924Google Scholar, AC5/1/3O4. See also Baldwin, to Chamberlain, A., 21 01 1924Google Scholar, AC35/4/1. That this was the obvious purpose even to those on the other benches see Grigg, to Bailey, Abe, 24 01 1924Google Scholar, Altrincham MSS (Bodleian Library, Oxford). Cf. the assessment in Amery Diary, 21 January 1924, The Leo Amery Diaries, 364.Google Scholar

14 Chamberlain at the Jeweller's Dinner, Birmingham, Morning Post, 28 01 1924.Google Scholar

15 Amery Diary, 23 January 1924, Leo Amety Diaries, I, 365.Google Scholar

16 Amery Diary, 4 February 1924 reporting Neville Chamberlain.

17 Neville Chamberlain Diary, 6 February 1924. Dilks, D., Neville Chamberlain, 370Google Scholar incorrectly dates the meeting as 6 February.

18 Chamberlain, A. to Carnegie, Mary, 27 01 1924Google Scholar, AC4/1/1239.

19 ‘Memo of conversation with Mr. Baldwin’ 4 02 1924Google Scholar, Whittinghame MSS 19 (National Register of Archives, Scotland).

20 Neville Chamberlain Diary, 24 January 1924.

21 Chamberlain, N. to Hilda, , 9 02 1924Google Scholar, NC18/1/425.

22 Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 6 02 1924Google Scholar, AC5/1/310.

23 Chamberlain, A. to Ida, , 9 02 1924Google Scholar, AC5/1/3O7. See also his letter to Chilcott, in Hyde, H. Montgomery, Baldwin, 203–4Google Scholar.

24 Neville Chamberlain Diary and Derby Diary, both 7 February 1924.

25 Chamberlain, A. to Hoare, , 28 01 1924Google Scholar, Templewood MSS V/I (Cambridge University Library).

26 Amery Diary 7 February 1924. See also Neville Chamberlain Diary 7 February 1924 and Bridgeman Diary January 1924, II fol.99–101.

27 See Self, R.C., Tories and TariffsGoogle Scholar, Chapter VII.

28 Amery Diary, 6 March 1924.

29 Balfour, to Churchill, (draft) 14 03 1924Google Scholar, Whittinghame MSS I. For Chamberlain boasting of his role see Lady Kennet Diary, 1 April 1924, Kennet MSS D/16 (Cambridge University Library).

30 The People 18 05 1924Google Scholar. For this incident see Driberg, T., Lord Beaserbrook A Study in Power and Frustration (1956), 178–185.Google Scholar

31 Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 25 05 1924, AC5/1/319Google Scholar. Also Diary, Jones, 25 05 1924Google Scholar, Whitehall Diary, I, 280Google Scholar; A. Chamberlain memoranda on conversation with Baldwin, 21 May 1924, AC24/6/3.

32 House of Commons Debates, 5 Series, vol 174 col 2260, 18 06 1924Google Scholar. See Chamberlain, N. to Ida, , 22 06 1924Google Scholar, NC18/1/441 for this complaint.

33 Emma Alice Margaret Tennant (1864–1945). Daughter of Sir Charles Tennant. Known as Margot. Second wife of the Liberal Leader in 1894 after the death of his first wife in 1891. Published four separate volumes of memoirs.

34 John Wheatley (1869–1930). Labour MP for Glasgow Shettleston November 1922 until his death on 12 May 1930. Minister of Health 1924.

35 Samuel John Gurney Hoare (1880–1959). Conservative MP for Chelsea 1910–44. Secretary for Air 1922–24, 1924–29, 1940. Secretary for India 1931–35; Foreign Secretary 1935; First Lord of Admiralty 1936–37; Home Secretary 1937–39; Lord Privy Seal 1939–40. Ambassador in Madrid 1940–44. Conservative Party Treasurer 1930–31. Succeeded as and Baronet 1915. Created Viscount Templewood 1944.

36 On 18 May 1924, the People published a long exclusive interview with Baldwin. In this ‘bombshell’ he denounced Rothermere, Beaverbrook and Birkenhead specifically as well as a general attack upon ‘this Churchill plotting’ and the desire of its instigators ‘to go back to the old dirty kind of polities’.

37 On 18 June 1924, Baldwin announced that they would buy Dominion corn fo distribution at cost price: a proposal greeted by Snowden as ‘the biggest Socialisti proposal’ he had ever heard.

38 See Lady Kennet Diary, 20 March 1924, Kennet MSS D/16.

39 Chamberlain, N. to Ida, , 22 06 1924Google Scholar, NC18/1/441.

40 Chamberlain, A. to Baldwin, , 18 07 1924Google Scholar, Baldwin MSS 159/195.

41 For both speeches see, The Times, 18 07 1924.Google Scholar

42 Chamberlain, A. to Baldwin, , 18 07 1924Google Scholar, Baldwin MSS 159/195.

43 Baldwin, to Chamberlain, A., 21 07 1924Google Scholar, AC35/5/2a.

44 Baldwin, at Manchester, , 26 07Google Scholar, The Times, 28 07 1924.Google Scholar

45 ‘Parties and Prospects’, Evening News, 30 07 1924Google Scholar. Emphasis added.

46 Chamberlain, A. to Ivy, , 29 07 1924Google Scholar, AC/6/1/544.

47 In June 1924 a Committee on Currency and Bank of England Note Issues was appointed to consider the amalgamation of the Treasury controlled currency note issue with that of the Bank of England: an issue which inevitably led it to consider the much broader issue of the return to the Gold Standard as the Cunliffe Committee in 1918 had recommended that amalgamation should be deferred until they had a year's experience on the Gold Standard. As a former Chancellor, Chamberlain became its first Chairman and by September a full draft of the Committee's report had been prepared endorsing Cunliffe's conclusions before handing over to Bradbury in November when he became Foreign Secretary.

48 George Joachim Goschen (1831–1907). Liberal Unionist MP for the City of London 1863–1880 and Ripon 1880–1885 when he was elected for Edinburgh East as Independent Liberal 1880–87 and St. George's Westminster 1887–1900. Paymaster-General 1865–1866; Chancellor of Duchy of Lancaster 1886; President Poor Law Board 1868–1871; First Lord of Admiralty 1871–74 and 1895–1900; Chancellor of Exchequer 1887–1892 when retired. Created Viscount Goschen 1900.

49 After the Labour Attorney-General dropped the prosecution for sedition of J.R. Campbell, the Communist editor of The Workers Weekly, the Conservatives tabled a censure motion for alleged improper interference with the judiciary.

50 George William Hubbard (1870–1939). Journalist and editor, Birmingham Daily Mail, 1903–1906Google Scholar; Birmingham Daily Post, 1906–1933Google Scholar.

51 William Clive Bridgeman (1864–1935). Conservative MP for Oswestry 1906–29. Secretary for Mines 1920–22; Home Secretary 1922–24; First Lord of Admiralty 1924–29. Created Viscount Bridgeman 1929.

52 John Gilmour (1876–1940). Conservative MP for Renfrewshire East 1910–18; Glasgow Pollok 1918–40. Assistant Whip 1913–15, 1919–21; Scottish Whip 1921–22, 1923–24; Scottish Secretary 1924–29; Minister of Agriculture 1931–32; Home Secretary 1932–35; Minister of Shipping 1939–40. Succeeded as Second Baronet 1920.

53 Douglas McGarel Hogg (1872–1950). Conservative MP for St Marylebone 1922–28. Attorney-General 1922–24, 1924–28; Lord Chancellor 1928–29, 1935–38; Secretary for War 1931–35; Lord President 1938; Conservative Leader in the Lords 1931–35. Knighted 1922, created Baron Hailsham 1928, Viscount 1929.

54 Chamberlain, A. to Baldwin, , 31 10 1924Google Scholar, AC35/5/3.

55 Chamberlain, A. to Ivy, , 3 and 5 11 1924Google Scholar, AC6/1/590, 592.

56 Chamberlain, A. to Ivy, , midnight 5 11 1924Google Scholar, AC6/1/593.

57 Chamberlain, A. to Derby, , 9 11 1924Google Scholar, Derby MSS. For same complaint see Chamberlain, A. to Baldwin, , 6 11 1924Google Scholar, Baldwin MSS 42/248.

58 See Gretton, to Baldwin, , 1 11 1924Google Scholar, Baldwin MSS 36/22–4; Birkenhead, to Byron, Dame Fanny, 31 10 1924Google Scholar forwarded to Baldwin by Lady Houston in early November, Baldwin MSS 159/214–5.