BRITISH HISTORY

THE TAME OF BIG CHANGES

Edward VII died in 1910 during the Liberal Government’s conflict with the Lords. The government, headed by Herbert Henry Asquith and radical David Lloyd George, had introduced a whole series of reforms including the Old Age Pensions Act and the ‘People’s Budget’. The latter included major increases in taxation, especially for those with higher incomes. Other measures included an increase in death duties on the estates of the rich and heavy taxes on profits gained from the ownership and sale of property.
The Conservatives, who had a large majority in the House of Lords, made it clear that they intended to block these proposals. David Lloyd George reacted by touring the country making speeches in working-class areas on behalf of the budget and portraying the nobility as men who were using their privileged position to stop the poor from receiving their old age pensions.
The Liberal government decided to take action to reduce the House of Lords’ powers. King Edward promised to give his support to the reform of the Lords if the Liberal Party won a General Election on this issue. Although the 1910 General Election held in December did not produce a clear victory for the Liberals, the new king, George V, agreed to keep his father’s promise.
When the House of Lords attempted to stop the passage of the 1911 Parliament Act, George V made it clear he was willing to create 250 new Liberal peers in order to remove the Conservative majority in the Lords. Faced with the prospect of the House of Lords with a permanent Liberal majority, the Conservatives agreed to let the 1911 Parliament Act become law.
The Act drastically cut the powers of the Lords. They were no longer allowed to prevent the passage of ‘money bills’ and it also restricted their ability to delay other legislation to three sessions of parliament. The bill also changed the maximum length of time between general elections. It was reduced from seven years to five and provided payment for Members of Parliament.
At the end of July, 1914, it became clear to the British government that the country was on the verge of war with Germany. Four senior members of the government, Lloyd George, Charles Trevelyan, John Burns, and John Morley, were opposed to the country becoming involved in a European war. They informed the Prime Minister, that they intended to resign over the issue. When war was declared on 4th August, three of the men, Trevelyan, Burns and Morley, resigned, but Asquith managed to persuade Lloyd George, to change his mind.

The outbreak of the First World War created problems for the royal family because of its German background. Owing to strong anti-German feeling in Britain, it was decided to change the name of the royal family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. To stress his support for the British, the king made several visits to the Western Front. On one visit to France in 1915 he fell off his horse and broke his pelvis.
Meanwhile, Asquith made strenuous attempts to achieve political solidarity and in May 1915 formed a coalition government. Gradually the Conservatives in the cabinet began to question Asquith’s abilities as a war leader. So also did Lord Northcliffe, the powerful newspaper baron, and his newspapers, The Daly Mail and The Times led an attack on Asquith. In December, 1916 David Lloyd George agreed to collaborate with the Conservatives in the cabinet to remove Asquith from power.
Lloyd George, who had upset the radicals in his party by not opposing conscription in 1916, was now in overall charge of the war effort. However, Lloyd George found it difficult to control the tactics used by his generals on the Western Front but he had more success with the navy when he persuaded them to use the convoy system to ensure adequate imports of food and military supplies. An energetic war leader, Lloyd George received a lot of credit for Britain’s eventual victory over the Triple Alliance.
In 1917 George V took the controversial decision to deny political asylum to the Tsar Nicholas II and his family after the Bolshevik Revolution. People were shocked by George’s unwillingness to protect his cousin but his advisers argued that it was important for the king to distance himself from the autocratic Russian royal family. Some people questioned this decision when it became known that the Bolsheviks had executed Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children.

Lloyd George’s decision to join the Conservatives in removing Herbert Asquith in 1916 split the Liberal Party. In the 1918 General Election, many Liberals supported candidates who remained loyal to Asquith. Despite this, Lloyd George’s Coalition group won 459 seats and had a large majority over the Labour Party and members of the Liberal Party that supported Asquith.

In 1924 George V appointed Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister, although in the 1923 General Election the Labour Party won only 191 seats and the Conservatives had 258. MacDonald agreed to head a minority government, and faced the problem of forming a Cabinet with colleagues who had little, or no administrative experience. As MacDonald had to reply on the support of the Liberal Party, he was unable to get any socialist legislation passed by the House of Commons.

In October 1924 the MI5 intercepted a letter written by Grigory Zinoviev, chairman of the Comintern in the Soviet Union. The Zinoviev Letter urged British communists to promote revolution through acts of sedition. Vernon Kell, head of MI5 and Sir Basil Thomson head of Special Branch, told MacDonald that they were convinced that the letter was genuine. It was agreed that the letter should be kept secret but someone leaked news of the letter to the Times and the Daily Mail. The letter was published in those newspapers four days before the 1924 General Election and contributed to the defeat of MacDonald. The Conservatives won 412 seats and formed the next government.

Two years later he played an important role in persuading the Conservative Government not to take an unduly aggressive attitude towards the unions during the General Strike. In an attempt to achieve national harmony during the economic crisis of 1931, the king persuaded MacDonald to lead a coalition government. The following year George V introduced the idea of broadcasting a Christmas message to the people.

The king had not enjoyed good health for a long time and during his final years he spent much of his time on his grand passion, philately. Patriotically, he concentrated on collected stamps from the British Empire. George V died of influenza on 20th January, 1936.

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One day after declaring war, on July 29, Austria bombarded Belgrade – the capital of Serbia. Russia then mobilised for war. Germany responded by mobilising her forces and implementing what was called the Schlieffen Plan, which involved invading France through neutral Belgium.
Up until this point Britain had remained on the sidelines, despite its allegiance with France and Russia. But Germany’s unprovoked invasion of Belgium was the last straw. The British cabinet issued an ultimatum demanding Germany withdraw from Belgium. When this was ignored Britain declared war on Germany. The date was August 4, 1914. In Britain joining the army was voluntary – conscription was not introduced until 1916. To encourage men to sign up the Secretary for War, Lord Kitchener, launched a recruiting campaign. This included the famous “Your Country Needs You” poster which showed Lord Kitchener himself pointing his finger at likely recruits.
So within six weeks of an archduke’s assassination in the Balkans, Europe was at war as never before. The British foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey declared: “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

 

 

 

 

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Suffragettes Getting Wilder

In 1912 the suffragettes deployed new militant tactics. More than 120 women were arrested on 1 March, including the suffragette leader Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst, after a series of attacks on shops in London’s West End. Women, many with stones and hammers hidden in their muffs, caused thousands of pounds’ worth of damage by smashing windows as they rampaged through the streets. Two women also hurled stones at No 10 Downing Street.
The attacks appeared to be well-planned, as groups of women struck almost simultaneously. Within 20 minutes a trial of devastation stretched from Oxford Street to Strand. Swan and Edgar’s store at Piccadilly Circus was one of several famous shops to be attacked. Most of the women made no attempt to elude arrest after the attacks, which signalled a new phase in the suffragette campaign reflecting the increasing influence of Christabel Pankhurst.
Militancy had grown as the suffragettes had seen the government grant concessions to railwaymen and miners after strikes had escalated into serious public disorder.
Three days later police arrested 96 women more after a suffragette raid on the House of Commons.
The next, 1913, year became one of unprecedented violence by the women campaigning for the vote. That included:

– the death of a suffragette, Emily Davison, after she threw herself under the king’s horse in the Derby at Epsom in June;
– physical attacks on the prime minister Asquith, as he visited Scotland in August and November;
– widespread arson ranging from setting alight letters in pillar-boxes to fires at buildings including a railway station and Kew Gardens;
– the trial of Pankhurst after a bomb attack on the Surrey home of chancellor Lloyd George in February;
– Pankhurst’s arrest on her return from the United States in December.

Lloyd George

Lloyd George became British prime minister in 1916. His role in fighting the war was crucial for Britain. Like Churchill in the World War II, Lloyd George had qualities that fitted a war time situation. He was aggressive and determined to see things through. He put in place the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) which effectively made him dictator of Britain. He fought the war in a manner that was necessary in “Total War”. Few leaders in the conflict had the degree of control and foresight as Lloyd George.
On the other hand, Lloyd George was arrogant and at times quite oppressive in his behaviour. He was convinced that only he could run the Liberal Party and that Britain’s future was inextricably linked with his. Whatever his shortcomings, he had run Britain wisely during the war, and he did bring a touch of realism to the proceedings at Versailles.
Of the “Big Three” it was Lloyd George who understood the necessity to punish Germany but not to the extent that she would never be able to participate in European politics again. French demands for the total overthrow of German business were simply folly to Lloyd George. However, he could not neglect the voice of British public opinion. The “Hang the Kaiser” campaign was riding high in the British press and many British people wanted to see Germany punished. The Royal Navy had its eyes on the German fleet and the foreign office had its eyes on Germany and its Turkish colonies.
Lloyd George had to walk a difficult path at Versailles, leaning towards the punishment lobby of the French but at the same time listening to the likes of John Maynard Keynes, who put forward the logical idea that a punished Germany would be of little use for the other economies of Europe. But, in the atmosphere of postwar Europe, there was little hope that logic would prevail.

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In 1882 Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. The three countries agreed to support each other if attacked by either France or Russia. France felt threatened by this alliance. Britain was also concerned by the growth in the German Navy and in 1904 the two countries signed the Entente Cordiale (friendly understanding). The objective of the alliance was to encourage co-operation against the perceived threat of Germany.
Three years later, Russia, who feared the growth in the German Army, joined Britain and France to form the Triple Entente. The Russian government was also concerned about the possibility of Austria-Hungary increasing the size of its empire. It therefore made promises to help Serbia if it was attacked by members of the Triple Alliance.