72-11430 BRADEN, James Allen, 1941- THE LIBERALS AS A THIRD PARTY IN BRITISH POLITICS, 1926-1931: A STUDY IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1971 History, modern University Microfilms. A XER0K Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan (^Copyright by James Allen Braden 1971 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE LIBERALS AS A THIRD PARTY IN BRITISH POLITICS 1926-1931: A STUDY IN POLITICAL COMMUNICATION DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By James Allen Braden, B. S., M. A. * + * * The Ohio State University 1971 Approved by ment of History PLEASE NOTE: Some Pages haveIndistinct print. Filmed asreceived. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS Sir, in Cambria are we born, and gentlemen: Further to boast were neither true nor modest, Unless I add we are honest. Belarius in Cymbeline. Act V, sc. v. PREFACE In 1927 Lloyd George became the recognized leader of the Liberal party with the stated aim of making it over into a viable third party. Time and again he averred that the Liberal mission was to hold the balance— as had Parnell's Irish Nationalists— between the two major parties in Parlia­ ment. Thus viewed in these terms the Liberal revival of the late 1920's must be accounted a success for at no time did the Liberals expect to supplant the Labour party as the party of the left. The subtitle reads: "A Study in Political Communi­ cation " because communications theory provided the starting point for this study. But communications theory is not im­ posed in any arbitrary fashion, for Lloyd George and his fol­ lowers were obsessed with exploiting modern methods of commu­ nications. His experience as Prime Minister during World War I had convinced him that effective propaganda— carried by a party communications network— could revive Liberalism. He devoted special care to the press since he wished to use it as a link between Liberalism and the voters which had former­ ly been supplied by English Nonconformity. Hence, Lloyd iii George's version of Liberalism may be justly called news­ paper Liberalism with a vengeance. Other media besides newspapers, metropolitan and pro­ vincial, were used by the Lloyd George Liberals. Books, adver­ tising, mobile campaign vans, propaganda meetings, pamphlets and leaflets are considered in this study; special attention is given to circulation figures and numbers of people in at­ tendance at meetings. On the whole the Liberals were more print-oriented than Labour, for Lloyd George Liberalism could not be reduced to an easily understood formula such as "Socialism in our Time" or "For King and Country." Liberalism was based in the main on nonassociated in­ terest groups such as the Free Churches, Irish Roman Catho­ licism, Welsh and Scottish nationalism, and temperance groups. None of these groups acted in more than an intermittent fash­ ion. There was no associational interest group such as the Trade Unions which could communicate to a mass electorate. Had the middle class expanded more rapidly, a base might have been created for a Liberal associational interest group on the lines of the black coated unions of today. Liberals appeared as political pirates— middle class lawyers and pro­ fessors who were defending no legitimate interest in society. Compared to the Liberals, the trade unions possessed a new legitimacy even after the General Strike. A free-wheeling, iv profiteering society with a wide-open communications net­ work was precisely what most Britons did not want. It hardly seems necessary to add that Lloyd George's status as the high­ est paid journalist in the world did little to enhance his reputation with the voters. The Liberal message was too much at variance with the media used to succeed in reaching a mass electorate; in other words it could not be translated into mass media terms. Lloyd George Liberalism was print-oriented— designed for the thoughtful middle class reader. The Liberal elite was struc­ turally divorced— by industrialization— from the potential Liberal classes. In the case of the trade unions there was a structural communications link between Labour politicians and their followers which no longer existed in the Liberal party. The Conservative party possessed a communications sub-structure in the Church of England, the system of defer­ ential politics, and businessmen's organizations such as the associated chambers of commerce. Since this study is built around David Lloyd George's leadership of the Liberal party, private papers of that worthy constitute the principal source. These papers are located in the Beaverbrook Library in London and at the home of the Rt. Hon. Earl of Dwyfor at Brimpton Mill, near Newbury, * Berkshire. The Churchill papers were closed to me, but I used the Baldwin papers (Cambridge University Library) to provide a Conservative view of Liberal revival. Hugh Dalton's Diary (MS. copy in the British Library of Political and Eco­ nomic Science) provides the best Labour party source current­ ly available. The Samuel papers located in the House of Lords Record Office/ London, give an inside view of Liberal reorganization. Lloyd George's enemies in the Liberal party are studied through the medium of the Herbert Gladstone papers (British Museum) and the H. H. Asquith papers (Bodleian Li­ brary, Oxford). The Gilbert Murray papers located at the Bodleian also contained the views of the anti-Lloyd George faction. C. P. Scott's journal (British Museum) is indis­ pensable for understanding the key role played by that re­ markable journalist. J. L. Hammond's letters to his wife which are preserved at the Bodleian provide a corrective supplement to some of Scott's more extreme statements. R. C. K. Ensor's papers found in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford give some insight into how the Daily Chronicle and Lloyd George (its chief stockholder) worked together. Since the role of the press is important in Liberal revival the newspapers used have been selected with some care. The London dailies have all been used— especially the Liberal Daily Chronicle and Daily News. For the General Strike period vi the Government's British Gazette is essential. More impor­ tant for this study is the provincial press; the Liberal Yorkshire Observer is the most important provincial organ of the New Liberalism; the Liverpool Post and Mercury gives the "Old" Liberal point of view. The Cardiff Western Mail speaks for Welsh Conservatism, the Glasgow Herald for Scottish Inde­ pendent opinion, the Weekly Scotsman for Conservative Union­ ists, and the Belfast Northern Whig is essential for under­ standing the Liberal role in Ulster. These newspapers give a national spread of opinion which enables us to put the Li­ beral revival in perspective. Since this is a study of the media by which the Lib­ eral elite sought to communicate with potentially Liberal electors, no attempt has been made to discuss local party organization. While such a study might add to our knowledge of Liberal revival, it has no direct bearing on the commu­ nications link between mass and elite. The decade of the 1920's is the period when British political methods became thoroughly modernized. Lloyd George was mainly responsible for this and the problems raised by the role of the mass media in politics are by no means irrelevant to our concerns today. This study owes a great debt to The Ohio State Univer­ sity Department of History, which awarded me a grant for a year's research in Britain. Signal kindness was shown me by the Rt. Hon. Earl of Dwyfor, who permitted a stranger to vii examine heretofore unused papers belonging to his grand­ father, David Lloyd George. Invaluable aid was accorded me by Mr. A. J. P. Taylor, Honorary Director of the Beaverbrook Library, and his assistant, Mr. Iago, in using the Lloyd George and Bonar Law papers. In addition, I should like to thank the staffs of these libraries for their help: the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, the library at Corpus Christi College (Oxford), and the Cambridge University Library. Collections at the Public Records Office, the House of Lords Record Office as well as the Collindale News­ paper Library were essential to completing this study. I am grateful to the librarian and staff at the British Library of Political and Economic Science for their assis­ tance in using the Dalton Diary and the Passfield Papers. Finally, the Library of Congress granted me a carrel and study facilities which aided me in writing up the results of my research. In preparing the manuscript comments and suggestions provided by my adviser, Professor Philip P. Poirier, proved of great value. I owe a special debt to my typist, Gerda Hagan, with­ out whose assistance I could not have completed this manu­ script. viii VITA October 10, 1941 ............... Born, Washington, Pennsylvania 1964 .............................B. S. (History) , California State College, California, Pennsylvania 1966 .............................M. A. (Modern British History), The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1964-1969........................ Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1971 ............................. Associate Professor, Department of History, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field of Study: Modern British History, Adviser: Professor Philip P. Poirier Tudor-Stuart England. Professor Clayton Roberts Ancient History. Professor William F. MacDonald English Literature. Department