Читать книгу As It Happened - Clement R. Attlee - Страница 16

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As soon as I got my discharge from the Army I went to Stepney to see how things were moving in East London. Haileybury House was closed. The younger men who had been running the club had been killed in the war, and there was no one immediately available to replace them. As I wanted to live and work in Stepney, I once more took up residence at Toynbee Hall (then being run by Eldred Hitchcock) as a temporary measure, while I looked round for somewhere to live. I also returned to the London School of Economics, where Professor Urwick welcomed me again on his staff.

Like everything else, the war had changed the school, which was rapidly expanding. There was a large enrollment in the Social Science Department. Among my students was an interesting group of young ex-soldiers, ex-physical training instructors who were training to be welfare workers in industry. I took charge of them, and they brought a pleasant variety into my tutorial work, which was otherwise mainly directed to girls training for the social science certificate.

Politically I found great activity in East London. For the first time the Labour movement was organized. Arthur Henderson’s reorganization of the party on the basis of individual membership and local Labour parties was bearing fruit. There were active Labour parties in Mile End and Limehouse, while in Whitechapel and St. George’s there were two rival organizations which were soon to be amalgamated. All three seats had been contested at the December 1918 General Election, and although our candidates had been heavily defeated, yet the fact that Parliamentary seats had actually been fought by Labour made a new situation. Besides this, the extension of the franchise had given votes to the women and to many of the workers for the first time.

The breaking up of the Liberal party and the course of events in Ireland had set free the Irish voters from their old-time allegiance and they now formed a most valuable element in the movement.

There was now a Trades Council and Borough Labour party in Stepney, to which a high proportion of the trade-union branches in the borough were affiliated. The moving spirit in the Stepney movement was a chemist in Mile End, Oscar Tobin, who had shown considerable organizing ability. I had a long talk with him and learned that it was proposed to contest the London County Council elections. I was invited to offer myself as a candidate either for Mile End or Limehouse, and I chose the latter. In the party there, my old comrades of the Independent Labour party were prominent, along with a strong contingent of Irish formerly aloof from Labour only because of the Home Rule issue. I was speedily adopted as candidate, together with Con Bryan, an official of the Watermen and Lightermen’s Union.

We fought a vigorous campaign for the London County Council^[1] and were successful in returning my colleague, Con Bryan, but I was beaten by some eighty votes by an excellent man, a Liberal baker with a strong local following. My defeat was largely due to the intervention of a parson who stood as an ex-serviceman candidate and took away some of the votes I might have had. Later, when I was in the first Labour government, he sought my aid to be made a dean. Apart from his unsuitability, I did not think his previous interposition gave him a valid claim on me.

Close on the London County Council elections came those for the Boards of Guardians, and we decided to contest all the seats on the Limehouse Board.

In the course of the London County Council elections a demand had arisen that I should contest Limehouse at the next Parliamentary contest, which was then considered as quite likely to occur before long, as the Coalition government might easily break up. I was duly adopted, and it was therefore decided that I should not put up for the Guardians. At this election we won twelve of the sixteen seats. At the first meeting of the board it was decided to co-opt me as a member, and I thus gained my first experience of public administration. I served on the board for some years and was chairman of the Children’s Home in Essex. I was also chosen as the board’s representative on the Metropolitan Asylums Board, which was an indirectly elected body controlling a large number of hospitals and other institutions. Among them was a training ship on the Thames for boys. I served on the committee that administered this. We changed the policy of the Limehouse Board, which had tended to be conducted on the principles of the Act of 1834. We did much to humanize the institutions, and sought to preserve, instead of breaking up, the families that sought the assistance of the Poor Law.

Meanwhile I had found a place to live in. There was an old house, formerly the home of some well-to-do merchant in a cul-de-sac off the Commercial Road behind Limehouse Free Library. It had fallen on evil days and had until recently been occupied by the local Conservatives. The house contained some good rooms with Adam mantelpieces, but was in a dilapidated condition. I took it on lease and made some repairs. Part of it was used as a club for the local Labour party. I had a flat on the first floor, and two other flats were let to members of the party. A coalman occupied part of the yard.

Just at this time a former batman of mine wrote to ask if he could come to me as a personal servant, not realizing that I did not employ a valet. However, he came and looked after me for some time, but then returned to Lancashire, where he married a widow whose pursuit of him he had sought to avoid by coming south. After an old club boy had looked after me for a month or two, I was fortunate to secure a local ex-service lad, Charlie Griffiths, who has remained a close friend of my family and myself ever since. He is a great character with a genius for making friends.

Elections followed thick and fast in 1919. In the autumn came the Borough Council^[2] elections. Previously the council had always met in the afternoon, a time very convenient to the publicans who formed a considerable part of it, but, of course, prohibitive for the attendance of workingmen. It was therefore essential for us to capture the council. A minority party could not have functioned.

In London boroughs all councillors retire every three years. In Stepney there were sixty seats to contest, and we decided to fight them all. There were two Liberal members of the council who had come over to us; otherwise, our candidates were without municipal experience. I wrote the election address, in which was set forth faithfully the sins of commission and omission of the old council, every paragraph being followed by the slogan “Sack the Lot,” a phrase which at that time Admiral Lord Fisher had been using freely. The result was a great shock to our opponents, for we won forty-three seats, including all fifteen in Limehouse.

The question of the mayoralty at once arose, a difficult matter where three local Labour parties were concerned. There were veterans who had claims for consideration, but the councillors decided to co-opt me as mayor. I thus began my municipal career from the top, as the youngest mayor the borough had ever had. I had an extensive knowledge of local government, but it was only theoretical.

Mr. Attlee as Mayor of Stepney, his first public office, 1919.

The year that followed was one of very hard work and gave me a great deal of useful experience. I made a careful selection of chairmen of committees, giving due weight to each of the parties, and my recommendations were accepted. I used to have frequent meetings with the chairmen in order to concert policy. We were fortunate to have as leader of the council and chairman of the Finance Committee a very able barrister, Hubert Hull, who lived in a Catholic Settlement in Wapping. Our party had a considerable contingent of Irish Catholics and a number of Jews, and some diplomacy was needed to get harmonious working, but this was successfully achieved.

Our powers to deal with the housing situation were limited and there was not much space for building, but we did what we could. It was, however, possible for us to get existing houses repaired. We appointed a number of extra sanitary inspectors, made a complete survey of the borough, served over forty thousand legal notices on house-owners to repair their property, and saw that these were enforced.

In another field great progress was made. Infant mortality had long been high. We instituted health visitors, prenatal clinics, and soon brought the death rate down to one of the lowest in London. I recall in this regard an incident at the end of my mayoralty when votes of thanks were moved to the chairmen of committees. A somewhat untutored member was charged with moving the vote of thanks to the chairman of the Public Health Committee. He came to me and asked what he should say. I said, “Well, you know what we’ve done in reducing the infant mortality rate.” He, however, when the time came, said, “Mr. Mayor, I move a very hearty vote of thanks to the chairman of the Public Health Committee. During the year there has been a great increase in the birth rate, mainly due, as we all know, to the personal efforts of the chairman.”

There were in the borough a large number of unemployed, many of them ex-servicemen, and, in default of government action, the councils had to do what they could to find work for them. This put a great burden on the local rates.^[3]

The year 1920 brought the quinquennial valuation of the property in the borough. I was chairman of the Valuation Committee. We found that many properties, especially the licensed premises, had never been properly valued. We employed professional valuers, with the result that without increasing the assessment of residential property we added over £200,000 to the rateable value of the borough. Despite this, owing largely to expenses incurred in trying to relieve unemployment, our rates went up to over twenty shillings in the pound. This was due to the division of London into rich and poor boroughs, causing a disparity in financial resources that was not remedied until after the Poplar councillors had gone to prison as a protest.

We also set up advice bureaus to advise tenants on their rights under the Rent Restriction Acts, and thus got many thousands of pounds out of the clutches of the slum landlords. Altogether, it was a fruitful year of office. I ended my mayoral year with a reception that was graced by the presence of Lord Milner, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, the only time I met him.

Fifteen other London boroughs had Labour mayors, and we formed an association, which still exists, for the purpose of meeting together and coordinating policy. I was made chairman.

There were three memorable events in my year of office. There was the death in Brixton prison of the Lord Mayor of Cork, who had been on a hunger strike. An impressive service was conducted by Cardinal Mannix, and a funeral procession through London was organized in which my fellow mayors and I marched.

There was a Conference on Unemployment which I called on behalf of the London mayors and which was held in Shoreditch Town Hall. It was well attended by mayors and provosts from all over the country, and resolutions introduced by George Lansbury, then mayor of Poplar, and other Labour mayors were discussed and carried. We were constantly pressing the problem of the unemployed. I recall a meeting at the Mansion House where the Lord Mayor was proposing some mild measures. I asked to be allowed to speak, which was contrary to precedent at these meetings, where the proceedings are generally cut and dried. I made a forcible appeal for more vigorous measures, and my fellow mayors followed on the same lines, rather to the consternation of the City Fathers.

The government did little or nothing, and eventually we decided on a deputation to the Prime Minister. The unemployed—largely ex-servicemen—assembled at various points and were marched by their mayors to the Embankment. I led the Stepney contingent, a big one, from Mile End Waste. At the Embankment a halt was called while we mayors went to Downing Street. We were received by Lloyd George, who had very little to offer, and strong speeches were made. When we came out we found Whitehall filled with a mass of men, with mounted police trying to control the crowd. There were some rough elements that had determined to provoke a riot, and George Lansbury tried in vain to address the crowd. I then went round by George Street and found the Stepney contingent marching down Bridge Street in perfect order with a police sergeant at its head, about to be led into the scrimmage. I ordered the column to halt and turn about and led them back to Stepney, thus saving some broken heads. The demonstration did, I think, have some effect on the government.

One other activity of my term of office as mayor may be mentioned. I happened to meet Miss Lena Ashwell, who had done great work with her theatrical company entertaining the troops during the war. She wanted to continue her work of bringing good drama to the people. I suggested that, in cooperation with the mayors of the Labour boroughs, good plays at popular prices might be staged in the various town halls. This was done with considerable success in some boroughs, though, unfortunately, in Stepney we had no suitable hall.

My tutorial and lecture work allowed me to do some municipal work in the daytime. There were in London a great many organizations formed of representatives from the borough councils, such as the Standing Joint Committee and various Whitley Councils.^[4] I was the Stepney Borough Council’s representative on all of them and thus gained a wide knowledge of London problems. The one, in particular, which was to engage my attention for several years was that of the Municipal Electricity Authorities of Greater London. I was elected vice-president of this body and collaborated closely with the chairman, Sir Duncan Watson. For many years thereafter he and I worked in perfect harmony. We met in the Council Chamber of the Westminster City Council.

I summed up the position in the following verse:

Oh, East is East and West is West

And never the two shall meet

Till Watson and I sit side by side

On the Westminster mayoral seat.

I was somewhat handicapped in my work as mayor by being unmarried. My sister Margaret was kind enough to act as mayoress on several occasions, but, living in Putney, she could not get down to Stepney very often, as she had to be with my mother a good deal. During the year my mother died and the old home at Putney was broken up. My sister Dorothy also died the same year.

In the course of my term of office I was chosen to fill a vacancy on the Aldermanic Bench caused by the death of a Labour veteran, and I continued to serve in that office until 1927.

[1]

The London County Council is responsible for the administrative county of London, an area of 117 square miles, and deals with questions affecting the county as a whole. There are 124 councillors elected by popular vote every three years, four by the City of London proper, and two each by the sixty electoral divisions. The councillors elect 20 additional members, called aldermen, and a chairman.—Ed.

[2]	The London County Council area is divided into twenty-eight metropolitan boroughs, each with its mayor and borough council, which deals with purely local matters. Each borough is subdivided into wards.—Ed.

[3]	Rates are local taxes on the occupiers of real property.—Ed.

[4]	The Whitley Councils were formed at the end of the First World War as a means of bringing representatives of labour and management together to discuss wages, conditions of work, and so on.—Ed.