Parliament and Politics in the Age of Asquith and Lloyd

Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16245-7 - Parliament and Politics in the Age of Asquith and Lloyd George: The Diaries of Cecil Harmsworth, MP, 1909–1922: Camden Fifth Series: Volume 50 Edited by Andrew Thorpe and Richard Toye Frontmatter More information

PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS IN THE AGE OF ASQUITH AND LLOYD GEORGE

THE DIARIES OF CECIL HARMSWORTH, MP, 1909–1922

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-16245-7 - Parliament and Politics in the Age of Asquith and Lloyd George: The Diaries of Cecil Harmsworth, MP, 1909–1922: Camden Fifth Series: Volume 50 Edited by Andrew Thorpe and Richard Toye Frontmatter More information

PARLIAMENT AND POLITICS IN THE AGE OF ASQUITH AND LLOYD GEORGE

THE DIARIES OF CECIL HARMSWORTH, MP, 1909–1922

edited by ANDREW THORPE and RICHARD TOYE

CAMDEN FIFTH SERIES Volume 50

FOR THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY University College London, Gower Street, London WC16BT 2016

Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge University Printing House, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB28BS, United Kingdom 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473,USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia C/Orense, 4, Planta 13, 28020 Madrid, Spain Lower Ground Floor, Nautica Building, The Water Club, Beach Road, Granger Bay, 8005 Cape Town, South Africa C Royal Historical Society 2016

First published 2016

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781107162457 hardback S U B S C R I P T I O N S. The serial publications of the Royal Historical Society, Royal Historical Society Transactions (ISSN 0080-4401) and Camden Fifth Series (ISSN 0960-1163) volumes, may be purchased together on annual subscription. The 2016 subscription price, which includes print and electronic access (but not VAT), is £176 (US $294 in the USA, Canada, and Mexico) and includes Camden Fifth Series, volumes 49, 50 and 51 as well as Transactions Sixth Series, volume 26 (published in December). The electronic-only price available to institutional subscribers is £148 (US $247 in the USA, Canada, and Mexico). Japanese prices are available from Kinokuniya Company Ltd, P.O. Box 55, Chitose, Tokyo 156, Japan. EU subscribers (outside the UK) who are not registered for VAT should add VAT at their country’s rate. VAT registered subscribers should provide their VAT registration number. Prices include delivery by air. Subscription orders, which must be accompanied by payment, may be sent to a bookseller, subscription agent, or direct to the publisher: Cambridge University Press, University Printing House, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB28BS, UK; or in the USA, Canada, and Mexico: Cambridge University Press, Journals Fulﬁllment Department, 100 Brook Hill Drive, West Nyack, New York, 10994-2133, USA. SINGLE VOLUMES AND BACK VOLUMES. A list of Royal Historical Society volumes available from Cambridge University Press may be obtained from the Humanities Marketing Department at the address above.

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii

INTRODUCTION 1

THE DIARIES 27

1909 29

1910 51

1911 73

1912 105

1913 139

1914 155

1915 177

1916 209

1917 239

1918 263

1919 289

1920 309

1921 319

1922 329

INDEX 343

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been a long time in the making. The papers of Cecil Bisshopp Harmsworth, First Baron Harmsworth, came up at auction in 2008. Harmsworth had corresponded with a wide range of well- known individuals and letters he had received from luminaries such as Winston Churchill and W.B. Yeats were naturally attractive to bidders. Therefore, the collection did not remain wholly intact. Happily, however, the University of Exeter’s bid for Harmsworth’s extensive diaries was successful. Subsequently, the University acquired further tranches of documents that had remained unpurchased at the original sale. It may be said that although incomplete, the Harmsworth Papers that have now been deposited in the University Library’s Special Collections are both substantial in volume and valuable in terms of the light that they cast on twentieth-century British politics and society. We understand that Harmsworth’s wife Emelie also kept a diary: it may still exist but sadly we failed to track it down. It would probably provide a very interesting complement to Cecil’s. It was our intention from the start to produce a published edition. This has been made possible by the agreement and support of the Harmsworth family, specifically Daniel Harmsworth (formerly McCulloch) and Kevin McCulloch as copyright holders. For this we are very grateful. We would also like to thank our colleagues at the Royal Historical Society (in particular Professor Arthur Burns and Professor Emma Griffin) for their support and encouragement, as well as Daniel Pearce and the production team at Cambridge University Press. Additionally, we would like to thank Simon Luterbacher and his colleagues at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions and Christine Faunch, head of the University of Exeter Special Collections. We profited greatly from the constructive comments of the RHS’s anonymous readers of the original proposal, and were greatly encouraged by the interest shown in the project by Professor Larry L. Witherell of Minnesota State University. We are also grateful to Dr Richard Batten for compiling the index, to Miranda Bethell for the copy-editing, and to Dr David Thackeray for his assistance with locating sources. The task of transcription and selection was undertaken chiefly by Richard Toye. The work of annotation and the writing of the

viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS introduction were carried out by both editors jointly. We have, as always, greatly enjoyed working together, and we would like to dedicate this volume to our colleagues in the Department of History and the College of Humanities at the University of Exeter.