A Riot in Birmingham and the Death of David Lloyd George: A Timeline from December 1901

[pipisme]

A Nationalist offensive in Galicia in north-west Spain in June 1939 was largely a failure. They advanced a few miles before a Republican counter-offensive pushed them back. In October 1939, a Republican offensive captured Malaga from the Nationalists. But otherwise the territory controlled by the two sides in the civil war had changed little by the end of the year.

Austen Chamberlain resigned as leader of the Conservative Party after its defeat in the November 1935 general election. He was succeeded as leader in late November 1935 by Sir Samuel Hoare, the former Foreign Secretary.

 

[pipisme]

Austen Chamberlain died on 16 March 1937. The subsequent by-election in Birmingham West on 29 April was held by the Conservatives, with a majority of 20.6% in a straight fight with Labour. This was up from 13.0 % in the November 1935 general election.

The Argyllshire by-election on 13 May 1937, caused by the death of Basil Murray (Liberal) on 2 April 1937, was won for the Liberals by John Bannerman, by a majority of 12.6% in a straight fight with the Conservatives, down from 19.6% in the general election. Bannerman was a former rugby international player. (1)

The Cheltenham by-election caused by the resignation of Walter Preston (Conservative) took place on 22 June 1937. The local Conservative Party refused to endorse Daniel Lipson as their candidate for the election because of anti-semitism. So he stood as an Independent Conservative and was elected. (2) The Liberals stood aside for him. They came second in the 1935 general election.

The Holland-with-Boston by-election on 24 June 1937 was a Conservative gain from Liberal, The Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine by-election on 13 January 1939 was held for the Liberals by Arthur Irvine, (3) The Conservatives took Chorley from Labour in the by-election on 27 October 1938. They gained Cardiff East from Labour in the by-election on 27 January 1939. The Southwark North by-election on 17 May 1939 was a Labour gain from Liberal.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bannerman,_Baron_Bannerman_of_Kildonan.

2) This was as in OTL.

(3) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Irvine.

 

[pipisme]

Sir Francis Acland, Liberal MP for Cornwall North, died on 9 June 1939. He was a member of the Liberal shadow cabinet, Colonial Secretary in Liberal governments from April 1923 to May 1928, and junior minister in previous governments. The subsequent by-election on 12 July was held for the Liberals by Winston Churchill. His majority in a straight fight with the Conservatives was 14.4%, down from 29.4% in the 1935 general election. He had lost his Carmarthen seat in the general election. The Camborne by-election on 28 October 1939 was a Conservative gain from Liberal.

Morgan Jones, the India Secretary and Labour MP for Caerphilly, died on 23 April 1939. Clynes made the following changes in the subsequent government reshuffle:
Ellen Wilkinson from Minister of Labour to India Secretary,
Emmanuel Shinwell from Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to India Secretary,
David Grenfell from Financial Secretary to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,
John Strachey appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

Wilkinson was the first woman to be India Secretary, and there was much comment on her appointment. She had visited India in 1932 and met Mahatma Gandhi and her report on the condition of India was published in 1934.

 

[pipisme]

The Government of India Act 1940 established the Dominion of India, (1) The princely states had the option of staying outside the Dominion or joining it. They had control over their internal affairs, and Britain over their external affairs. (2) The Viceroy became the Governor-General. The India Office and the posts of Secretary of State for India and Under-Secretary of State would remain for the next few months.

(1) For Dominions see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion.

(2) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princely_state.

 

[pipisme]

In its passage through parliament the Government of India Bill was supported by Labour and most Liberals. It was opposed by Conservatives and some Liberals including Winston Churchill and Sir John Simon. They believed that it went too far in giving India Dominion status. Churchill was bitterly opposed to any self-government for India,

A general election was due no later than 26 November 1940, and the political parties studied the results of by-elections to see which way the political wind was blowing, The Swansea East by-election on 5 February was held by Labour. Their majority over Liberal increased slightly from 29.7% to 29.9%. In the Southwark Central and West Ham Silvertown by-elections on 10th and 22nd February, the Labour majority over Conservative fell from 29.3% to 20.4% and from 75.6% to 68.6% respectively.

The Conservatives won the Leeds North-East by-election on 13 March. Their majority over Labour wentb up from 22,9% to 34.3% In the Lonsdale by-election on 12 April, the percentage votes for each party were as follows (November 1935 general election):
Conservative: 48.3 (42,9)
Labour: 26,9 (26.6)
Liberal: 24.8 (31.5)
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Conservative majority: 21,4 (11.4)
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The Battersea by-election on 17 April was won by Labour. Their majority over Conservative fell from 33.0% to 23.5%. The Conservatives held Glasgow Pollok in the by-election on 9 May. But their majority over Labour in a straight fight rose only from 28.6% to 34.4%. In the East Renfrewshire by-election the Conservative majority increased from 6.0% to 15.4%. The percentage figures were:
Conservative: 51.6 (51.6)
Labour: 36.2 (41.8)
Scottish National: 12.2 (10.4).

In the Middleton and Prestwich by-election on 22 May, the Conservative majority was up from 3.9% to 8.0% The figures were:
Conservative: 46.9 (40.9)
Labour: 38.9 (37.0)
Liberal: 14.2 (22.1).
The Newcastle-upon-Tyne by-election on 7 June was won by the Conservatives. Their majority over Labour was up from 30,5% to 39.9%.

 

[pipisme]

Tributes were paid in the House of Commons to George Lansbury who died on 7 May. He was Labour MP for Poplar Bow and Bromley, and First Commissioner of Works in the 1928 to 1931 Labour government. The by-election in Bow and Bromley on 12 June was easily won by Labour. Their majority in a straight fight with the Conservatives fell from 69.6% to 60.8%.

That was the last by-election of the parliament elected in November 1935. On 3 September, an official announcement was made to the press, that parliament would be dissolved on 6 September, and a general election held on 3 October. The closing date for nominations was 23 September. Parliament would assemble on 22 October after the general election.

 

[pipisme]

The Labour Party campaigned on its record in government. Such as unemployment having fallen from 2,063,000 in October 1931 to 642,000 in September 1940 (rounded to the nearer thousand), the establishment of the Public Health Service in 1938, the increase in old age pensions, the abolition of the means test, and giving workers holidays with pay.

 

[pipisme]

The Conservative Party said that unemployment and income tax were both too high, and that a Conservative government would reduce both of them. They also promised not to repeal the Labour government's social welfare legislation, or bring back the mean's test.

The Liberal Party's campaign featured their policy report Ownership for All. This was endorsed at the 1938 Liberal Assembly, and resulted from Ownership for All Committee chaired by Elliott Dodds, the Liberal MP for Huddersfield, and a member of the Liberal shadow cabinet, The report affirmed property ownership as the "bedrock of liberty". It "called for reforms of the rating system, .....and came out against state intervention in the economy except in the most extreme of circumstances..,,,,it also promoted co-ownership in industry." (1)

(1) Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Dodds, section headed 'Politics and Liberalism'.

 

[pipisme]

The Second Sino-Japanese War was happening as in OTL. The Labour government promised that it would continue to strengthen defences in Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore.

Relations between Italy and Greece deteriorated since the Italian conquest of Albania in April 1939. That month the British government guaranteed the independence of Greece. On 15 August 1940 a Greek light cruiser was sunk by an Italian submarine while it was in harbour. On the same day another Greek ship was bombed by Italian planes. The Italian Ambassador to Greece, Emanuele Grazzi, tried to calm things down. He believed in Italian-Greek friendship, and was kept in his post to allow Greek suspicions that a invasion was being planned by Italy.

On 8 September 1940, Mussolini told the Italian Chief of Staff, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, that Italy was going to war with Greece. King Victor Emmanuel III, who could have stopped the war, gave it his blessing. On Monday 23 September 1940, Italian forces invaded Greece in several places. (1) The next day, Britain declared war on Italy. This was supported by almost all of the Labour Party and by the Liberal Party. It was opposed by the Conservative Party because the invasion was not threat to British interests. Also a few left wingers in the Labour Party, and the Independent Labour Party said that Britain should not go to war in support of fascist Greece. Opponents of the British declaration of war protested that it should not have been made during the general election campaign.

Mussolini and his government, and military high command believed that the general election campaign would distract Britain from the Italian invasion of Greece.

(1) For events leading up to the invasion of Greece see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Italian_War. In OTL, the Italian invasion was on 28 October 1940.

 

[pipisme]

Mussolini wrote to Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria on 13 September 1940 inviting him to take part in the forthcoming invasion of Bulgaria. Ferdinand agreed. Bulgaria declared war on Greece on 23 September, following the Italian declaration of war on Greece the same day. Bulgarian troops invaded Greece and advanced south to the Aegean Sea. On the same day, Britain declared war on Bulgaria having declared war on Italy. In the following days the RAF sent squadrons of bombers and fighters to British bases in Egypt.

On 25 September, the Prime Minister, John Clynes, met Haile Selassie at his residence, Fairfield House, in Bath. (1) He told him that the government would commit British armed forces for the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian rule.

A feature of the Liberal Party general election campaign was that their leader, Arthur Cecil Murray, was the only party leader who had served in the armed forces. This was in the Great War and he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1916.

(1) For Fairfield House see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfield_House,_Bath.

 

[Coulsdon Eagle]

Minot nitpick - Bulgaria joining the forthcoming invasion of Bulgaria?

 

[pipisme]

Minot nitpick - Bulgaria joining the forthcoming invasion of Bulgaria?

That should be Bulgaria joining the forthcoming invasion of Greece.

There was widespread agreement that constituencies with large electorates, mostly in the London suburbs, would need to be divided. So in their election manifestos, the three main parties promised that they would establish a Speaker's conference. This would examine the redistribution of seats, reform of the franchise, conduct and costs of parliamentary elections, and methods of election.

A Gallup Poll published in the News Chronicle on 30 September 1940, showed the following percentages of voting intention for political parties:
Labour: 38
Conservative: 37
Liberal: 23
Others: 2.
Though few people took any notice of it.

On election day, 3 October 1940, polling stations were open from 8 am to 8 pm. The election results were broadcast on BBC radio. The first result was for Manchester Exchange. The percentage votes were as follows (November 1935 general election):
Conservative: 37.4 (40.0)
Liberal: 32.1 (30.4)
Labour: 30.5 (29.6)
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Conservative majority: 5.3 (9.6)
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As more results were declared overnight, Labour gained seats from Conservative and Liberal. The majority of declarations were on 4 October, when Labour continued to take seats from the other two parties, and Liberals gained a few rural seats from Conservative. It was not until 5 October that results from all the constituency results were in, when all the university seats had declared. The number of seats won by each party in the House of Commons were as follows (1935 general election):
Labour: 308 (270)
Conservative: 207 (245)
Liberal: 96 (96)
Independent Labour Party (ILP): 3 (4)
Independents: 3 (4)
independent Conservative: 1 (n/a)
Independent Labour: 1 (n/a)
Independent Progressive: 1 (n/a)
(Communist: 1)
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Total: 620 (620)
----------------------
Though the Labour Party was short of an overall majority, with ILP and Independent Labour, all varieties of Labour had 312 seats, to 308 for Conservatives and Liberal and other Independents. However the Speaker of the House of Commons, Robert Young, was elected as a Labour MP.

The percentage votes for each party were:
Labour: 40.1 (39.4)
Conservative: 36.4 (39.0)
Liberal: 21.0 (19.3)
Other: 2.5 (2.3)
The turnout was 79.8% (79.4%)

 

[pipisme]

The election result was the best so far for Labour. However Michael Foot was not successful for Labour in Plymouth Devonport, where he did not defeat Leslie Hore- Belisha (Liberal). Hugh Gaitskell was elected Labour MP for Leeds South.

More Conservatives were elected than in the general elections of 1906, 1925 and 1928, and they were relieved that more than two hundred were elected. Sir Kingsley Wood, Parliamentary Secretary Ministry of Health, in the 1931 to 1935 Conservative government, lost his Woolwich West to Labour. Also Nancy Astor lost Plymouth Sutton to Labour. Neville Chamberlain, Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1931 to 1935, retired as Conservative MP for Birmingham Edgbaston.

The Liberals were very disappointed that although their both numerical and percentage votes increased, they did not win any more seats. They gained five seats from Conservative and two from Labour, but lost seven seats to Labour. Sir John Simon, who was a cabinet minister in Liberal governments, lost Spen Valley to Labour,

 

[pipisme]

After the general election, the Prime Minister, John Clynes became Minister of Defence and made extensive changes to his government on 7 and 8 October 1940. Here is the new cabinet (previous minister if different)
Prime Minster and Minister of Defence: John Clynes (new as Minister of
Defence)
Lord Chancellor: Lord Pethick- Lawrence (Lord Sankey)
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons: Arthur Greenwood (Thomas Johnston as Lord President of the Council only. The Prime Minister was Leader of the Commons)
Lord Privy Seal: Earl de la Warr
Chancellor of Exchequer: Thomas Johnston (Hugh Dalton)
Foreign Secretary: Hugh Dalton (William Lunn)
Home Secretary: Somerville Hastings (Sir Stafford Cripps)
First Lord of the Admiralty: Albert Victor Alexander
Air Secretary: Frederick Montague (Lord Marley)
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries: Tom Williams
Colonial Secretary: Philip Noel- Baker (Clement Attlee)
Dominion Affairs Secretary: Sir Stafford Cripps (Earl of Listowel)
President Board of Education: James Chuter Ede
Minister of Fuel and Power: David Grenfell (new post)
Minister of Health : Ellen Wilkinson (Somerville Hastings)
Minister of Labour: Emmanuel Shinwell
Minister Without Portfolio: Earl of Listowel (new post)
Scotland Secretary: Joseph Westwood (Patrick Dollan)
Minister of Supply: Aneurin Bevan (new post)
President Board of Trade: Patrick Dollan (Arthur Greenwood)
Minister of Transport: Alfred Barnes (Herbert Morrison)
War Secretary: Clement Attlee (Frederick Montague).

 

[pipisme]

The India Office was abolished and its responsibilities transferred to the Dominion Affairs Office.

Ministers not in the cabinet:
Attorney-General: Terence Donovan (Sir Charles Buxton)
Solicitor-General: Eric Fletcher (Sir Frederick Pethick-Lawrence)
Minister of Information: Herbert Morrison
Chancellor Duchy of Lancaster: John Lawson (David Grenfell)
Minister of Pensions: Ernest Thurtle
Paymaster-General: Wilfred Paling
Postmaster-General: John Strachey (John Lawson)
Minister of Works (formerly First Commissioner of Works): John Wilmot (Alfred Barnes).
Donovan and Fletcher were given the customary knighthoods on being appointed Law Officers.

Selected junior ministers:
Financial Secretary to the Treasury: George Hall (John Strachey)
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury: William Whiteley (Tom Kennedy)
Under Secretary Foreign Office: Hector McNeil (Philip Noel- Baker)
Jennie Lee joined the government as Parliamentary Secretary Board of Education.

 

[pipisme]

There were sixteen Greek army divisions in Epirus against Italy, and eight divisions facing Bulgaria in Thrace . Bulgarian troops advanced steadily against courageous Greek opposition. They captured the city of Komotini on 28 September, and reached the Aegean Sea by 4 October 1940. (1)

The Italian invasion met strong Greek resistance and was a failure. It was stopped just inside Greece by 6 October, with British air and weapons help. The RAF flew from Athens airfield, and from bases in Egypt. It established air superiority over the Italian air force.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komotini.

 

[pipisme]

The British dominion nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa joined the UK in declaring war on Italy and Bulgaria.

Bulgarian troops continued their advance in Thrace and captured the Greek city of Alexandroupolis on 17 October 1940. (1) Following the halting of the Italian invasion of Greece, counter-attacked, with RAF support, and crossed into Albania. They took the town of Korce on 9 October. (2)

Italian troops invaded British Somaliland (officially Somaliland Protectorate) on 7 October. They captured Hargeisa on 14 October, the capital, Barbera, on 18 October. (3) By 29 October 1940, all of Somaliland was occupied by Italy.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandroupolis.

(2) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hargeisa, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbera.

(3) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korce.

 

[pipisme]

A general election for the Dail was held in the Irish Free State on Wednesday 16 June 1936, Patrick Pearse dissolved the Dail elected on 15 August 1932 early before of its five year term. This was because the Labour Party, which was supporting his Cumann na Poblachta government, opposed the proposed Constitution of Ireland. (1) They and Sinn Fein did so because they objected to its territorial claim to all of the island of Ireland, to its provisions on the Catholic Church, and on women. The proposed constitution was a significant issue in the general election.

The number of seats in the Dail won by each party were as follows (1932 general election):
Cumann na Poblachta: 59 (76)
Sinn Fein: 47 (52)
Labour: 30 (18)
Independents: 8 (10)
(Farmers: 3)
-------------------- ---
Total: 144 (159)
----------------------
The number of seats was reduced from 159 to 144 because of boundary changes.

(1) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Ireland, section headed response.

 

[pipisme]

The plebiscite on the constitution was also held on 16 June 1936, It was rejected by 51.5% to 48.5%.

A Sinn Fein/ Labour coalitiin government took office. Michael Collins (Sinn Fein) became President of the Executive Council, and William O'Brien (Labour) Vice President,

 

[pipisme]

Michael Collins appointed the Executive Council. Its members were as follow (party):
President: Michael Collins (Sinn Fein)
Vice President and Minister for Local Government and Public Health: William O'Brien (Labour)
Minister for Agriculture: Michael Brennan (Sinn Fein)
Minister for Education : Seamus Burke (Sinn Fein)
Minister for Defence: Sean Mac Eoin (Sinn Fein)
Minister for Finance: William Cosgrove (Sinn Fein)
Minister for Industry and Commerce: William Norton (Labour)
Minister for Justice: Kevin O' Higgins (Sinn Fein)
Minister foe Lands: Patrick Hogan (Labour)
Minister for Posts and Telegraph: Timothy J. Murphy (Labour).
There were six Sinn Fein and four Labour members of the Executive Council.
Bridget Redmond (Sinn Fein) was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister for Local Government and Public Health.