Читать книгу The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George - Max Aitken - Страница 6

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Easter gave Lloyd George a short respite. The House of Commons met again on April 4th, 1921. The close season in politics was over.

Nearly three weeks had passed since Bonar Law had resigned from the Government. Speaker Lowther retired on April 25th and Lloyd George’s speech on the resolution of thanks was praised by his friends. But his fortunes were ebbing away. Discontent prevailed and discordant voices were raised in criticism of the Prime Minister and the Coalition.

The raw ingredients of a real crisis were within reach. But how to make use of these materials had not yet been worked out.

The easy plan would be to enlist the help of Bonar Law, who was in Paris convalescing from his illness of March, though I believed him to be in good health by this time. His entry on the political scene at Westminster as the rightful leader of the Protectionist movement would give the necessary focus to a confused and perplexed Tory Party in the House. There was little or no hope of inducing him to make any decision which would involve him in hostility to the Government of which he had so recently been a member.

While he was staying in Paris, aloof from political issues and devoting himself to games of golf, tennis and chess, I wrote him several letters. In mid-April I gave him my version of the domestic situation.^[1] In politics, I told him, everything waited on the coal strike. Churchill and Birkenhead were both angry with the Prime Minister. Coalition Liberals and Protectionist Tories were quarrelling over anti-dumping legislation,^[2] while Lloyd George hoped to rid himself of the Bill by criticism in Press and Parliament. Even Asquith was failing to give a fighting lead to his Free Trade followers.

Bonar Law^[3] sought more news, and nostalgically commented on the scene at Westminster. He admitted that he wanted occupation, but was glad all the same to be out of the Government. He would not come to London until the Whitsuntide recess.^[4] In mid-May another attempt to bring Bonar Law to London had no effect.^[5] An offer of a place on the Board of the Midland Bank, put forward by Mr. McKenna,^[6] did not bring acceptance.

Sir Robert Borden^[7] in Canada had been my correspondent over many years. A letter to him of the same time^[8] recorded the influence of the coal strike in warding off impending political crisis; the hostility of Churchill, and Birkenhead’s intention to challenge the Tory Leadership of Austen Chamberlain.

Lloyd George, whose popularity in the country was declining with extraordinary speed,^[9] delivered in early May an ultimatum to Germany. Reparations within a week, or a military occupation of the Ruhr—that was his cry. The Germans yielded and the announcement in the House of Commons was received with such enthusiasm that the Prime Minister was greatly encouraged. He told Miss Stevenson, his secretary, who wrote in her diary:^[10]

... they [the Members of the House] were all very pleased—excepting Lord R. Cecil, who sat, D. [David Lloyd George] said, with a look of despair on his face. He saw the downfall of the Gov. further removed than ever! D. said he had the same look on his face when Bonar’s resignation was announced—he realized what a mistake he had made in crossing the House, as he would have been Chamberlain’s rival for the leadership.

Lloyd George, in his growing isolation and falling popularity, longed for the days when Bonar Law had protected and fortified the Parliamentary reputation of the Coalition. To Miss Stevenson he made a comparison of the old and new Leaders of the Tory Party.

We had dinner in D.’s [David Lloyd George’s] room in the House again on Tuesday night. This is becoming an institution. He just asks one or two people with whom he can let himself go and it is a great relief for him. Since Bonar left, he [Lloyd George] has lost an ideal companion with whom he could laugh and joke and enjoy himself. He cannot do that with Chamberlain, who is pompous to the last degree, and has become increasingly so since he took Bonar’s place. He is a vain man. He is very fond of relating an interview he once had with Bismarck, and what the great man said and what he said. Someone told me the other day—I think it must have been Berthelot—that Bismarck also spoke of the incident but his comment was that nothing very great could ever come out of so poor a head!

In an attempt to meet criticism in commercial, industrial and banking circles over the failure of negotiations to end the coal strike, Lloyd George convened a meeting of the executive of the Mining Association (owners) and the Miners’ Federation (workmen). The attempt failed and added to the growing confusion.

It was on May 13th that Lloyd George faced his House of Commons critics. Miss Stevenson, describing the scene, wrote:

D. [Lloyd George] made an amazing speech in the House on Friday. I knew it was going to be something out of the ordinary as he sent to get me up to the House and waited to begin his speech till I was there. He had fortified himself with a strong dose of port wine and just let go about Poland—and the French! It was a remarkably able speech—he was never in better form—full of the most sparkling passages and trenchant phrases. But I am afraid it will cause trouble! In fact the French press are already busy and beginning to howl. All the same, I think D. was right, though we nearly had a row after his speech about the things he said of the French. But they are certainly not playing the game in this instance. And the Germans will—and are—making the most of D.’s speech.

Again on May 18th he resorted to a statement to the Press:

D. [Lloyd George] has again attacked the French attitude towards Silesia in his statement to the Press. I begged him to make it less violent and succeeded in persuading him to omit a few violent words which would have made all hope of a reconciliation impossible.^[11]

The Irish issue was ever present. The misery and wretchedness of the Government’s repressive measures gave much concern to the Liberal following in and out of Parliament, even though the Press paid only a restricted attention to the problem. The Irish Protestant hero, Carson, whose volcanic eruptions had subsided, was raised to the peerage on the recommendation of the man he hated, the Prime Minister. In the Cabinet the Irish controversy rumbled. The bitter hostility of the Prime Minister to his able Secretary for the Colonies, Winston Churchill, was the subject of an extraordinary passage in Miss Stevenson’s diary.^[12]

D. [Lloyd George] very annoyed at Winston, who is being difficult, as he has returned from his voyage very disgruntled. He was furious at all the changes which were made in his absence, and is making mischief behind D.’s back. He declared his intention this morning of opposing the Government’s Irish policy, and D. told him he would have a chance of doing it immediately, as the question was coming up at once. This put Winston rather in a fix, as he must either go back on his statement to D., or else show his hand at once in the Cabinet and be no doubt in a small minority, since he has not yet had time to work up his Cabal.

Sir Robert Horne warned Lloyd George that Churchill was contemplating resignation and recommended an effort at reconciliation. Miss Stevenson’s diary contained a clear and vigorous account of the Prime Minister’s response:

Winston is going to prove troublesome and F. E. [Birkenhead] is half inclined to back him. Horne told me Saturday that Beaverbrook is getting hold of Churchill and Horne thinks we ought to keep C. [Churchill] in with the P.M. But D. [Lloyd George] is so sick with C. I don’t think he cares if he does go. Horne says C. is criticising the Government on Finance and Ireland in the clubs and lobbies. H. [Horne] wanted to go to C. and have it out with him, but I advised him not to. I said the P.M. will give him “one on the nose” sooner or later and he is the best person to do it.

Lloyd George decided on a dinner party which he hoped would bring his Cabinet Ministers into closer and more friendly relations with himself and his plans. It was held at Sir Philip Sassoon’s house in Park Lane, a frequent meeting place, where the Prime Minister was used to exerting his charms. That was the object of the Sassoon parties. Unhappily on this occasion the results were not at all satisfactory, though they gave pleasure to the Prime Minister, who rejoiced because he believed Churchill was embarrassed.

Geddes^[13] stated that there was only one person that the people cared about and would listen to and that was D. [Lloyd George]. D. said that when Geddes said this, Winston could not conceal his anger and irritation and others noticed it too. D. says he is going to detach F.E. [Birkenhead] from Winston. He wants a general election in the autumn, as he thinks it would be useful then. But all the same he is a little worried at the way things are going, and would not mind at times, getting away from it altogether. Poor old thing, my heart aches for him sometimes.^[14]

Lloyd George, alarmed at the signs and portents of rebellion among his colleagues, the discontent in the House of Commons, the discord between Tories and Coalition Liberals and the growing distrust in the country, resolved on a campaign to restore his authority. He decided:

(1) To reject reconciliation with Churchill, while holding out the hand of friendship to Birkenhead.

(2) To hold a General Election in the autumn, so that every member of the Government would be compelled to “stand up and be counted”.

(3) To make terms with Bonar Law for his return to the Cabinet, or to obtain assurances of his neutrality during the election.

One week after the Sassoon dinner party Lloyd George wrote to Bonar Law. It was his first message to his former colleague, though nearly three months had passed since Bonar Law left the Government and London.^[15] In his letter the Prime Minister mentioned “Crises chasing each other like the shadows of clouds across the landscape. Miners, Unemployment, Reparation, Silesia, and as always Ireland.” He declared that he missed Bonar Law’s counsel more than he could tell, concluding, “I want to see you.”

Bonar Law replied^[16] that he was in better health than he had been in for four years; he was leading a lazy life, and if he were young it “would be perfectly disgraceful”. He was sure that his sojourn would not amuse him indefinitely. He declared that Lloyd George had done “the best that was possible but even the best is not very good”. And he promised to see Lloyd George on a visit to London planned for ten days later.^[17]

Foreign policy, which gave rise to so much friction between Churchill and Curzon, occupied the Prime Minister’s attention on June 11th, 1921. A meeting was held at Chequers, attended by Churchill, Curzon, Montagu and Sir Laming Worthington-Evans.^[18] Lloyd George hoped to get agreement on Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet and particularly in relation to the Graeco-Turkish conflict. He failed. His own account of the meeting, set down in Miss Stevenson’s diary, is a depressing record.^[19]

D. [Lloyd George] said that every one of them was more or less hostile to him—Winston was obviously disappointed at finding the P.M. looking so well; Montagu always hostile and cynical; Curzon hopes to be the next Prime Minister and has just entertained the King and Queen lavishly. The latter by the way have dined this week with the Crewes, and lunched with the Asquiths. D. says it looks as though they were expecting a change of government, but I told him that he does not pay the King very much attention—he always gets out of going to the Palace if he can and has constantly refused invitations to Windsor. He cannot be surprised if the King is a little hurt.

D. is a little worried about the whole political situation. He says we have been on the crest of the wave—politically—and are now going down again into the trough and will have a bad time, it looks likely.^[20]

There is no doubt he has a lot of enemies in the Government who will leave him if they think they can better themselves. Austen he thinks will stick to him. He certainly gets on with him much better than he expected to. Austen plays the game and he sees that he can trust the P.M. who conceals nothing from him.

D. has just had a letter from Bonar, who evidently does not dream of coming back to politics and commiserates with D. on the bad time he is having—a thoroughly typical letter, not tending to cheerfulness.

The savage suggestion that Churchill was disappointed at finding the Prime Minister looking so well and the frank admission that “every one of them [the Ministers] was more or less hostile to him” was indeed a strange prelude to the contemplated General Election in the autumn.

Meanwhile on the same day Birkenhead wrote to Bonar Law, inviting him to return to the fray.^[21]

He mentioned his step in the peerage:

I heard from Max that you had most kindly interested yourself in my promotion. I did not mention it to a living soul. I was too proud to go to L.G. and not prepared to recognise that Austin as leader in the H.C. had anything whatever to do with the matter. It was like you to remember it and kind as you have always been to me.

The coal strike was now over, he declared, but of crises there were too many to count. He mentioned neglect to take account of Bonar Law’s prescience over agriculture and predicted very bad consequences in the agricultural constituencies. The Prime Minister in the last autumn had “rammed down our throats” bad arguments. Of the Graeco-Turkish situation he said “there is a devil of a fuss going on or brewing up ... Winston seems to have become almost pro-Greek having always hated them. I suspect the explanation is that the Kemalists are being helped by the Bolshevists & W. will support anyone who attacks them.” His anxieties over the loss of the agricultural constituencies and the “devil of a fuss” over the Graeco-Turkish conflict were well-founded.

With such disturbances in the Cabinet and with so many disintegrating influences at work^[22] the Protectionist group began the preparation for election purposes of Protectionist literature for pamphlet and press. Mr. R. D. Blumenfeld,^[23] the gifted and distinguished editor of the Daily Express, undertook this task, and with energy and ability performed his duties in a short space of time. Surely, the Cabinet so desperately divided could not stand even until the autumn.

[1]	See Appendix 20, Beaverbrook to Bonar Law, undated but written in April, 1911.

[2]	A tiny infringement on the Free Trade front of Protectionist legislation in disguise.

[3]	See Appendix 21, Bonar Law to Beaverbrook, April 30th, 1921.

[4]	Whit Sunday was May 15th, 1921.

[5]	See Appendix 22, Beaverbrook to Bonar Law, May 13th, 1921.

[6]	Rt. Hon. Reginald McKenna, former Chancellor of the Exchequer under Asquith and in 1921 Chairman of the Midland Bank.

[7]	For many years Prime Minister of Canada.

[8]	See Appendix 23, Beaverbrook to Borden, May 12th, 1921.

[9]	Briand and Millet when conferring with British Ministers over German reparations remarked on Lloyd George’s declining authority over his colleagues—Miss Stevenson’s diary, May 4th, 1921.

[10]	Miss Stevenson’s diary, May 12th, 1921.

[11]	Miss Stevenson’s diary, May 20th, 1921.

[12]	Miss Stevenson’s diary, May 25th, 1921.

[13]	Sir Eric Geddes, Minister of Transport.

[14]	Miss Stevenson’s diary, June 1st, 1921.

[15]	See Appendix 24, Lloyd George to Bonar Law, June 7th, 1921.

[16]	See Appendix 25, Bonar Law to Lloyd George, June 8th, 1921.

[17]	Lloyd George hoped that the terms of Bonar Law’s letter might mean a willingness to return to office.

[18]	Secretary of State for War.

[19]	Miss Stevenson’s diary, June 11th, 1921.

[20]

Quotation from Lloyd George: “It was like the Battle of Dunbar, where after the battle was almost won, the clergy persuaded the Scottish Army to go down into the plains and fight. They did and were beaten.” It was said by Bishop Burnet or another that Cromwell proclaimed, Glory be to God, the Lord has delivered them into our hands.

[21]	See Appendix 26, Birkenhead to Bonar Law, June 9th, 1921.

[22]

In mid-June, 1921, the Government losses in by-elections aroused anxiety. With five contests lost by the Conservative section of the Coalition and the fear of more to come, Chamberlain wrote the Prime Minister seeking authority to launch prosecutions against Lord Rothermere and me. We had certainly broken the election law, though unconsciously, by distributing free copies of our papers in by-election centres. The Attorney-General advised action. But Lloyd George was not so sure—his own Chronicle newspaper, which he had acquired out of Party funds in 1918, was in the same boat. Lloyd George, in a letter to Chamberlain, made it clear that any charge against the newspaper proprietors must go on without him.See Appendices: 27, Younger to Chamberlain, June 10th, 1921; 28, Chamberlain to Lloyd George, June 13th, 1921; 17, Lloyd George to Chamberlain, June 14th, 1921.

[23]	The only newspaper man, in my experience, who was the object of the affection and devotion of the entire political community.