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THE LIBERAL WAR COMMITTEE AND THE LIBERAL ADVOCACY OF CONSCRIPTION IN BRITAIN, 1914–1916*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2008

MATTHEW JOHNSON
MATTHEW JOHNSON
Affiliation:
Merton College, Oxford
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Abstract

The advent of conscription in Britain in 1916 was greeted with profound dismay by many in the Liberal party. At Westminster, however, a significant minority of Liberal MPs, who were members of the Liberal War Committee (LWC), were amongst the most enthusiastic advocates of compulsory service, from a surprisingly early stage in the war. It has usually been assumed that those Liberals who embraced conscription were effectively abandoning their progressive principles, and moving to another, more reactionary, political allegiance. This article argues that this was not the case. The Liberal advocates of conscription represented a range of political opinions, but all insisted that they remained Liberals, and many went to considerable lengths to reconcile their support for universal military service with their continued adherence to the Liberal creed. This article reassesses the phenomenon of Liberal support for compulsory service, examining the arguments, activities, and personnel of the LWC. It sheds new light on the vitality of Liberal principles in wartime, demonstrating that Liberal doctrine was often far more flexible than scholars have realized.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , June 2008 , pp. 399 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Michael Hart, Philip Waller, Adrian Gregory, and the anonymous referees at the Historical Journal for their helpful and constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

1 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, lxxviii, 1037–42, lxxxii, 1487–92. For the history of the passage of the Military Service Bills, and of the political manoeuvrings of the principal figures behind them, see John Turner, British politics and the Great War: coalition and conflict, 1915–1918 (London, 1992), pp. 64–90; D. Hayes, Conscription conflict: the conflict of ideas in the struggle for and against military conscription in Britain between 1901 and 1939 (London, 1949); R. J. Q. Adams and P. P. Poirier, The conscription controversy in Great Britain, 1900–1918 (Basingstoke, 1987).

2 Richard C. Lambert, The parliamentary history of conscription in Great Britain (London, 1917), pp. iii–v.

3 A. J. P. Taylor, Politics in wartime and other essays (London, 1964), pp. 12–13; Trevor Wilson, The downfall of the Liberal party, 1914–1935 (London, 1966), pp. 23–4, 30–5, 39, 51; Hart, Michael, ‘The Liberals, the war and the franchise’, English Historical Review, 97 (1982), pp. 820–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Duncan Tanner, Political change and the Labour party, 1900–1918 (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 382–3.

4 G. R. Searle, A New England? Peace and war, 1886–1918 (Oxford, 2004), p. 832.

5 Liberal Magazine, Feb. 1916.

6 Hansard, 1915, lxxiv, 213.

7 Nation, 22 Jan. 1916.

8 John Grigg, Lloyd George: From peace to war, 1912–1916 (London, 1985), pp. 325–41; Paul Addison, Churchill on the home front, 1900–1955 (London, 1992), pp. 173–81; Cameron Hazlehurst, Politicians at war, July 1914 to May 1915: a prologue to the triumph of Lloyd George (London, 1971), pp. 301–3.

9 Nation, 28 Aug., 5 June 1915.

10 Turner, British politics, p. 77; Adams and Poirier, Conscription controversy, p. 153.

11 Wilson, Downfall of the Liberal party, p. 36.

12 Hansard, 1914, lxv, 2093–4.

13 Ibid., 1915, lxxi, 2397, 2408–10, 2415; Times, 24 June 1915.

14 Times, 28 July 1915.

15 Ibid., 16 Aug. 1915.

16 Ibid., 15 Sept. 1915. The Liberal signatories were Cawley, Herbert, Mond, Wedgwood, Ellis Griffith, Chiozza Money, Dudley Ward, William Cowan, A. W. Barton, H. W. Carr-Gomm, David Davies, Sir Hamar Greenwood, Sir Charles Henry, Robert Harcourt, Harold Pearson, Sir Herbert Raphael, Walter Waring, Guy Wilson, and Freddie and Henry Guest.

17 Ibid., 23 Oct. 1915.

18 Nation, 2 Oct. 1915.

19 Daily Chronicle, 13 Jan. 1916. The other founding members were Sir George Agnew, Sir Edward Beauchamp, J. A. Bryce, Sir Edwin Cornwall, David Davies, Eustace Fiennes, Sir Hamar Greenwood, Sir H. H. Raphael, and John Ward.

20 MacCallum Scott diary, 24 Dec. 1915, 23 Jan., 26 Jan. 1916, University of Glasgow Library (U. Glas. L.), MacCallum Scott papers, MS Gen 1465/6 fo. 358, 1465/7 fos. 23, 26.

21 Times, 19 Apr., 4 May, 17 May, 18 May, 25 May 1916.

22 U. Glas. L., MacCallum Scott diary, 14 Jan., 16 Mar. 1916, MS Gen 1465/7 fos. 14, 76; Times, 7 Jan., 14 Jan. 1916.

23 Daily Chronicle, 12 Apr. 1916; Times, 4 May, 26 May 1916.

24 Daily Chronicle, 13 Jan. 1916.

25 Hansard, 1916, lxxvii, 1617–29.

26 Times, 23 Mar. 1916.

27 John Barnes and David Nicholson, eds., The Leo Amery diaries, i: 1896–1929 (London, 1980), p. 128.

28 Nation, 25 Mar. 1916.

29 Hansard, 1916, lxxviii, 131–45.

30 Westminster Gazette, 19 Apr. 1916.

31 Hansard, 1916, lxxviii, 147–8.

32 Reynolds's Newspaper, 12 Mar. 1916.

33 U. Glas. L., MacCallum Scott diary, 16 Mar., 22 Mar. 1916, MS Gen 1465/7 fos. 76, 82.

34 Nation, 8 Apr. 1916.

35 Adams and Poirier, Conscription controversy, p. 153.

36 Times, 17 Apr. 1916; Nation, 29 Jan. 1916.

37 Westminster Gazette, 7 Dec. 1916; Daily Chronicle, 8 Dec. 1916.

38 Morning Post, 8 Dec. 1916. As well as fourteen of the original nineteen founding LWC members, the list included the following names: R. H. Barran, A. W. Barton, Clifford Cory, J. H. Edwards, W. Glyn Jones, R. L. Harmsworth, Lewis Haslam, T. O. Jacobsen, F. G. Kellaway, George Lambert, G. Croydon Marks, Chiozza Money, A. C. Morton, Joseph Walton, A. W. Yeo, and William Young.

39 U. Glas. L., MacCallum Scott diary, 8 Mar. 1916, MS Gen 1465/7 fo. 68.

40 Times, 1 Mar., 28 June 1917.

41 Ibid., 26 Apr.. 15 Aug., 28 Nov., 5 Dec. 1917.

42 Daily Chronicle, 7 Mar. 1917; Times, 3 Apr., 20 Apr., 1 May, 10 May 1917, 11 Apr. 1918.

43 Times, 5 Dec. 1916, Daily Chronicle, 8 Dec. 1916.

44 Grigg, Peace to war, pp. 326–35; Turner, British politics, pp. 71–4.

45 Sunday Times, 16 Jan. 1916; Trevor Wilson, ed., The political diaries of C. P. Scott, 1911–1928 (London, 1970), p. 170.

46 Times, 2 Nov. 1916.

47 U. Glas. L., MacCallum Scott diary, 8 Mar. 1916, MS Gen 1465/7 fo. 68; Edward David, ed., Inside Asquith's cabinet: from the diaries of Charles Hobhouse (London, 1977), p. 184; Addison, Churchill on the home front, p. 173.

48 Westminster Gazette, 7 Dec. 1916.

49 U. Glas. L., MacCallum Scott diary, 7 Dec. 1916, MS Gen 1465/7 fo. 342.

50 John Turner, Lloyd George's secretariat (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 2–3.

51 J. M. McEwen, ed., The Riddell diaries, 1908–1923 (London, 1986), p. 154; S. E. Koss, The rise and fall of the political press in Britain (2 vols., London, 1984), ii, p. 81; Reynolds's Newspaper, 16 Jan., 23 Apr., 3 Dec. 1916.

52 Wilson, Downfall of the Liberal party, p. 37; M. Freeden, Liberalism divided: a study in British political thought, 1914–1939 (Oxford, 1986), pp. 20–1.

53 U. Glas. L., MacCallum Scott diary, 13 Jan. 1916, MS Gen 1465/7 fo. 13.

54 H. V. Emy, Liberals, radicals, and social politics, 1892–1914 (Cambridge, 1973), p. 144; B. K. Murray, The People's Budget, 1909–1910: Lloyd George and Liberal politics (Oxford, 1980), p. 181.

55 I. G. C. Hutchison, A political history of Scotland, 1832–1924: parties, elections and issues (Edinburgh, 1986), pp. 239–40; Emy, Liberals, radicals, and social politics, pp. 98, 143, 186.

56 Daily Chronicle, 7 Jan. 1916.

57 H. C. G. Matthew, The Liberal Imperialists: the ideas and politics of a post-Gladstonian elite (Oxford, 1973), pp. 300–1.

58 Those voting for the naval reductions were A. W. Barton, John Ward, Josiah Wedgwood, J. Annan Bryce, Charles Henry, Arthur Markham, Ivor Herbert, J. H. Edwards, and MacCallum Scott. On every occasion, the ‘Little Navy’ amendments were defeated. Hansard, 4th series, 1907, clxxix, 1047–50, 1908, clxxxv, 467–70, 5th series, 1911, xxii, 1995–2999, 1913, l, 2055–6, 1914, lix, 191–2; Navy League Journal, June 1908.

59 A. J. A. Morris, Radicalism against war, 1906–1914: the advocacy of peace and retrenchment (London, 1972), p. 339.

60 Times, 24 June 1915.

61 Fortnightly Review, May 1915.

62 Times, 14 June 1915.

63 House of Lords Record Office (HLRO), Lloyd George papers, MS LG/D/11/1/11.

64 Michael Bentley, The Liberal mind, 1914–1929 (Cambridge, 1977), p. 26.

65 Taylor, Politics in wartime, p. 24.

66 Wilson, Downfall of the Liberal party, p. 36.

67 Bentley, Liberal mind, p. 37.

68 Hansard, 1915, lxxiv, 94.

69 Ibid., 1915, lxxiii, 2408.

70 Ibid., 1916, lxxvii, 1619.

71 Turner, British politics, p. 77; Times, 18 May 1915.

72 Times, 12 May, 18 June 1915.

73 Hansard, 1916, lxxx, 2107.

74 For a defence of the Liberal credentials of the post-war Coalition Liberals, see K. O. Morgan, ‘Lloyd George's stage army: the Coalition Liberals, 1918–1922’, in A. J. P. Taylor, ed., Lloyd George: twelve essays (London, 1971), pp. 225–54.

75 Hutchison, Political history of Scotland, p. 313.

76 J. C. Wedgwood, Memoirs of a fighting life (London, 1940), p. 143; Chiozza Money papers, Cambridge University Library, Add MS 9259/i, fos. 300–13; HLRO, Lloyd George papers, MS LG/F/35/2/86.

77 Times, 11 Dec. 1916.

78 Hansard, 1915, lxxiii, 2409.

79 Ibid., 1916, lxxvii, 1536.

80 Ibid., 1915, lxxiii, 2433.

81 Times, 28 June 1915.

82 Nation, 29 Jan. 1916.

83 Times, 27 Sept. 1915.

84 Turner, British politics, pp. 188–9.

85 Hansard, 1917, xcii, 1622–40; Nation, 14 Apr., 21 Apr. 1917.

86 Freeden, Liberalism divided, pp. 20–6.

87 Hansard, 1915, lxxiii, 609.

88 Manchester Guardian, 11 Aug. 1915.

89 Hansard, 1916, lxxvii, 1529. A system of compulsory military training for young men had been introduced in Australia in January 1911 by Andrew Fisher's Labour government, echoing a similar measure implemented in New Zealand two years earlier by Joseph Ward's Liberal administration.

90 Ibid., 1916, lxxxii, 180.

91 Ibid., 1915, lxxv, 520–4, 1916, lxxvii, 951.

92 Bodleian Library, MS Asquith, 28, fos. 283–4.

93 Hansard, 1915, xviii, 378.

94 Griffith, E. J., ‘Military compulsion’, Contemporary Review, Feb. 1916, pp. 137–45Google Scholar.

95 HLRO, Samuel papers, MSS A/46/2.

96 Turner, British politics, pp. 53, 73–7.

97 Hansard, 1916, lxxvii, 1647; Viscount Simon, Retrospect (London, 1952), p. 107.

98 Turner, British politics, p. 90.

99 Nation in Arms, Christmas 1913.

100 J. E. B. Seely, Adventure (London, 1930), pp. 92–3; Nation in Arms, Apr. 1911.

101 R. J. Scally, The origins of the Lloyd George coalition: the politics of social imperialism, 1900–1918 (Princeton, 1975), pp. 172–210; David, ed., Inside Asquith's cabinet, p. 134.

102 D. French, Military identities: the regimental system, the British army, and the British people, c. 1870–2000 (Oxford, 2005), pp. 31–6.

103 Hansard, 1915, lxxv, 521.

104 Manchester Guardian, 11 Aug. 1915.

105 The SDF's arguments were routinely rejected by the vast majority of the organized Labour movement in Britain. See Justice, 31 Aug. 1907; Report of the conference of the Independent Labour Party (1914), p. 59; Labour Leader, 10 July 1908.

106 National Service Journal, Nov. 1903.

107 Griffith, ‘Military compulsion’, pp. 137–45.

108 Times, 28 June 1915.

109 Hansard, 1916, lxxvii, 1010.

110 Ibid., 1916, lxxxi, 2633–4.

111 Times, 25 May 1916.

112 Hansard, 1915, lxxi, 2416.

113 Milner to Ellis-Griffith, 19 Nov. 1917, National Library of Wales (NLW), Ellis Jones Ellis-Griffith papers, fo. 472.

114 Adrian Gregory, ‘Military service tribunals: civil society in action, 1916–1918’, in Jose Harris, ed., Civil society in British history: ideas, identities, institutions (Oxford, 2003), pp. 177–90.

115 Reynolds's Newspaper, 23 Jan. 1916.

116 Lambert, Parliamentary history of conscription, p. iii.

117 NLW, Ellis-Griffith papers, fos. 25, 178–9; K. O. Morgan, Wales in British politics, 1868–1922 (Cardiff, 1963), p. 283.

118 Times, 22 July 1915.

119 Nation, 22 Jan. 1916.

120 Bentley, Liberal mind, p. 34.