Chapter 11 Final positions

In the last few days of the campaign, with an uneasy truce holding at the national level, and the Daily Express suggesting a Conservative majority of twenty-five, the leading politicians attempted to reinforce the positions of their respective camps with speeches in the constituencies.¹ The following list of speakers and their engagements in the last days of the election does suggest some patterns. Some of the main speakers such as Lloyd George and Walter Guinness had already been returned unopposed following the closure of nominations and could devote their time to supporting party colleagues in more difficult seats. Peers were also much in evidence in giving speeches for the same reason that they too did not face the prospect of losing their seats.

Friday 10 November

Lloyd George (Coalition Liberal) at Swansea and Haverfordwest

Marquess Salisbury (Conservative) at Newport

Sir Arthur Griffith Boscawen (Conservative) at Hull

Leopold Amery (Conservative) at Rugby

H. A. L. Fisher (Coalition Liberal) at Middleton (Lancashire)

Asquith (Liberal) at Paisley

Lord Derby (Conservative) at Accrington

J. H. Thomas (Labour) at Derby

Lord Birkenhead (Coalition Conservative) at Bedford

Walter Guinness (Conservative) at Darlington

Sir John Simon (Liberal) at Spenn Valley

Saturday 11 November

Bonar Law (Conservative) at Manchester and Sheffield

Baldwin (Conservative) at Newcastle

Lord Peel (Conservative) at Walsall

Lord Cave (Conservative) at Portsmouth

J. R. Clynes (Labour) at Oldham

Walter Guinness (Conservative) at Preston

Lloyd George (Coalition Liberal) on way to Criccieth speaking at Llanelly, Camarthen and Aberystwyth

Lord Birkenhead and Austen Chamberlain (Coalition Conservatives) at Birmingham

Asquith (Liberal) at Leicester

Sir Robert Horne (Coalition Conservative) at Glasgow

Churchill (Coalition Liberal) at Dundee

J. H. Thomas (Labour) at Manchester

Walter Runcimann (Liberal) at Gateshead

Lord Derby (Conservative) at Southport and Leigh

Monday 13 November

Bonar Law (Conservative) at Glasgow

Lord Peel (Conservative) at Brighton

Douglas Hogg (Conservative) at Reading

Lord Birkenhead (Coalition Conservative) at Ilkeston

Lloyd George (Coalition Liberal) at Denbigh and Flint

Asquith (Liberal) at Paisley

Lord Grey (Liberal) at Berwick

Churchill (Coalition Liberal) at Dundee

Duke of Devonshire (Conservative) at Dudley

Lord Long (Conservative) at Devizes

Lord Derby (Conservative) at Oldham

Tuesday 14 November

Lloyd George (Coalition Liberal) at Oldham, Bolton, Stockport, Bristol and five other locations

Lord Peel (Conservative) at Salisbury

Lord Londonderry (Conservative) at Hartlepool

Lord Long (Conservative) at Swindon

Lord Birkenhead (Coalition Conservative) at Southampton

Lord Grey (Liberal) at Berwick

J. H. Thomas (Labour) at Derby

J. R. Clynes (Labour) at Manchester

Bonar Law (Conservative) at Glasgow

For some of the Bonar Law camp it was a matter of being seen to support the parliamentary aspirations of the Coalition Liberals. For example, on 13 November at Dudley the Duke of Devonshire had made a speech praising the value of ‘team work’ and expressing great respect for ‘the splendid part Mr. Lloyd George and his Government played in the war’.² The wider intended audience for the speech was evident from the fact that the fight at Dudley was a straight contest between the Conservatives and the Labour Party. Other signals were also being sent. For example, Lloyd George at Colwyn Bay, speaking in support of J. C. Davies, who was facing a three-cornered contest against a Conservative and an Asquithian Liberal, used the opportunity to attack the rival Liberal camp. He condemned those Liberals who might hand the Conservatives a large enough majority to give free rein to die-hardism.³ He also played the anti-socialist card as he spoke at Pennygroes where the National Liberal candidate was involved in a straight fight with Labour. Calling on Conservative voters in particular, Lloyd George asked the electorate to deliver a defeat to Labour that would check their schemes which would inevitably damage national prosperity.⁴

The speech by Lord Birkenhead at Ilkeston on 13 November came in support of General J. E. B. Seeley, also facing a strong challenge from Labour, who were buoyed by the intervention of a Conservative candidate. Birkenhead’s support of ‘one of his oldest private and political friends’ and call for Conservatives ‘not to waste their votes’ was capped with an appeal to the electorate not to potentially gift the seat to Labour.⁵ Given Birkenhead’s unpopularity, this perhaps rather ran counter to Seely’s careful political fence-sitting up to this point as he attempted to attract votes from Liberals of both persuasions.

The following day, on 14 November, with just one day to go before polling, Lord Derby’s speech to Lancashire Conservatives at Oldham (a two-member constituency which would elect a Conservative and a Coalition Liberal) was a final effort to get Lancashire Conservatives to support Coalition Liberals. He expressed great pride in the fact that ‘there isn’t a single National Liberal candidate being opposed by a Conservative candidate in the county of Lancashire’.⁶

Bonar Law used his final speech of the campaign to reiterate the four main themes which he suggested constituted the Conservative appeal to the nation:

1. National economy, with a view to the easing of the crushing burden of taxation.
2. A policy of non-interference with trade and commerce, giving an opportunity for an industrial revival.
3. The strengthening of the Entente with France, impaired by Lloyd Georgism.
4. The abandonment of wild-cat adventures at home and abroad.⁷

While the last two of these points expressed criticism of Lloyd George and his former regime, the first two were sufficiently general as to create grounds for co-operation with like-minded politicians in other parties after the election.

Lloyd George for his part, taking the final day to deliver nine speeches as he travelled from Lancashire to Bristol, reiterated the need for voters to elect progressive candidates who would rein in reaction on one side and keep socialism out on the other. This was further emphasised in a written appeal to voters in Scotland in which he expressed hopes that:

‘I hope my friends in Scotland (both men and women) will come out to-morrow to vote for the candidates who are opposing Socialism … I am looking forward to the return to the new Parliament of men of progressive ideals as a move against reaction on the one hand and revolutionary extremes on the other’.⁸

On the other side of the ‘co-operation’ fence, speaking that same day was Lord Beaverbrook in East Dorset who was doing his best to sabotage the election chances of Freddie Guest by publicly supporting the Unionist candidate the night before the election. Beaverbrook appeared at Poole to deliver his most emphatic attack on the National Liberals. Supporting the publisher and Conservative candidate Gordon Hall Caine, Beaverbrook argued: ‘The Coalition Liberal was a very dangerous man at this moment. If he gets to Westminster … a representation of 50 or 60, even 40 Members, he will hold the balance of power’.⁹ His attempt to depersonalise the nature of his intervention against Guest by talking about ‘The Coalition Liberal’ probably went unappreciated by the former Coalition Liberal chief whip.