37 Jones Liberals Divided

Liberals divided Dr J. Graham Jones examines the February 1921 by- election in Cardiganshire, where Asquithian and Lloyd George Liberals engaged in bitter internecine warfare ‘‘EveryEvery votevote forfor LlewelynLlewelyn WilliamsWilliams isis aa votevote againstagainst LloydLloyd George’George’ 1 lewelyn’s opposed to national waste; In October W. Llewelyn Williams, Liberal ‘L So work for him with zeal and haste.’ MP for the Carmarthen Boroughs since , a By the s Welsh Liberals proudly referred to former close associate of Lloyd George who had the Cardiganshire constituency as ‘the safest seat dramatically fallen out with him primarily over the held by a Liberal member’. This remote, predomi- need to introduce military conscription during nantly rural division on the western seaboard of , wrote to Harry Rees, the secretary of the Wales, so far removed from the hub of political life at Cardiganshire Liberals. ‘You will have seen that the Westminster, and first captured by the Liberals in the Carmarthen Boros are going to be wiped out, & ‘breaking of the ice’ general election of , was that I shall therefore be looking for a new seat ei- held continuously by the party from until the ther in Carm. or elsewhere. I should be glad to defeat of Roderic Bowen in . But this long hear from you what are the prospects in tenure was not always characterised by political har- Cardiganshire?’ Williams wrote in the certain mony, calm and tranquillity. During the early s knowledge that his own seat was about to disappear in particular, intensely bitter political controversy in the impending redistribution of parliamentary beset Cardiganshire. It was a deep-rooted conflict constituencies. In the event no peerage material- which left indelible scars for a whole generation and ised for Vaughan Davies, and no parliamentary va- longer. The advent of ‘total war’ after had made cancy arose for Llewelyn Williams. Williams’ fate a deep impression upon the life of the county. It in- was effectively sealed by the course of the famous augurated a period of redefinition and a crisis of Maurice Debate in the House of Commons in deeply entrenched values caused by the pressures of May when he was one of the ninety-eight world war, which undermined severely the tradi- Liberal MPs to enter the opposition lobby. ‘Ll.G. is tional ethos embodied in nonconformist Liberalism. now definitely at the head of a Tory The county’s Liberal MP ever since had Gov[ernmen]t’, he wrote defiantly to Harry Rees, been Matthew Lewis Vaughan Davies, squire of ‘… Of course the Liberal Party will be split up Tanybwlch mansion near Aberystwyth, justifiably again, but I don’t fear the result. I am prepared, if dubbed ‘the silent backbencher’ whose long, undis- necessary, to make an alliance with the Labour tinguished tenure of the constituency had caused Party.’ As the war ran its course speculation per- ‘the most enervating torpor’ to ‘seize’ the local Lib- sisted that Vaughan Davies, who had declared him- eral Party. During the later stages of the war per- self a supporter of Lloyd George in , was likely sistent rumours circulated that the veteran MP was to be awarded a peerage. anxious to ‘retire’ to the upper house, and specula- As it happened Vaughan Davies was returned to tion ensued on the identity of his likely successor as parliament unopposed in the ‘coupon’ general elec- Cardiganshire’s representative in the House of tion held on the conclusion of hostilities, having re- Commons. ceived official endorsement from the coalition camp Journal of Liberal Democrat History 37 Winter 2002–03 3 over two years longer. In the autumn of county in , she had been accompa- H. H. Asquith was welcomed to nied pointedly by Captain Ernest Aberystwyth amidst scenes of great ju- Evans. Evans had already avidly sought bilation and enthusiasm. the Liberal nomination for the Univer- At long last, in the early days of , sity of Wales constituency in , but the peerage anticipated for several years had been persuaded to withdraw his finally materialised: M. L. Vaughan name (probably due to pressure from Davies became Baron Ystwyth in the Lloyd George) in favour of veteran New Year’s Honours List. Already Welsh Liberal Sir John Herbert Lewis, a eighty years of age, with nigh on close political associate of the Prime twenty-six years of continuous service Minister’s for fully thirty years. The fa- in the Commons and recently elected vour now needed to be repaid. as chairman of the Welsh Parliamentary Evans had already addressed several Party, he was hailed in some circles as political meetings in the county during the ‘doyen of Welsh political life’ whose the spring and summer of . On the ‘promotion’ was ‘rather overdue’. The very day that Vaughan Davies’s peerage local Asquithian camp was less im- was announced, Captain Evans arrived pressed. The Prime Minister was at at Aberystwyth fresh from Downing once reminded that, as a reforming, Street, and within four short days had radical Chancellor of the Exchequer already canvassed the electors of the key Matthew Vaughan Davies (later Baron back in , intent on carrying his towns of Aberaeron, Aberystwyth and Ystwyth), MP for Cardiganshire 1895– 1920 ‘People’s Budget’, he had dismissed the Tregaron. It was widely felt throughout upper chamber as ‘purely a branch of Cardiganshire that such underhand tac- as early as the previous July. There was the Tory organisation’. Now he stood tics should not be allowed to go un- some disquiet in Cardiganshire as a result accused of ‘recklessly throw[ing] challenged. The coalition ‘nominee’ was of the MP’s apparent ready endorsement Cardiganshire into the turmoil and ex- certainly not to be granted a ‘walk- of the coalition government. Vaughan pense of an election’. It was indeed over’. There was also a growing senti- Davies attempted to assuage local oppo- contended from the outset that a ment that some protest should be made sition by declaring his unwillingness to keenly observed by-election lay in against the increasingly lavish expendi- continue to support the coalition after prospect, and it was soon realised that ture of the coalition government, and the signing of the peace treaties if the Vaughan Davies’s elevation was prima- plans to put up an ‘anti-waste’ candidate government violated Liberal principles. rily a device engineered by the Prime were well received within the county As the election loomed, Llewelyn Minister to bring into parliament his boroughs of Aberystwyth, Lampeter Williams again doggedly staked his claim own private secretary, Captain Ernest and Cardigan. in the event of a vacancy: Evans, himself a native of Aberystwyth, It was widely felt that the fledgling a Welsh speaker, a barrister by profes- county Labour Party, set up in Decem- There is a persistent rumour that sion and an erudite public speaker with ber , was not yet sufficiently well Vaughan Davies will be raised to the extensive local connections. established to put up its own parlia- peerage at the last moment, & a It was noted, too, that ‘Wee Free’ mentary candidate, but its supporters George man will be rushed in for (Asquithian) support was substantial were strongly attracted by the prospect Cardiganshire. within the county. Indeed Asquith had of an ‘anti-waste’, ‘anti-coalition’ aspir- In such a case I want you to make himself been considered a possible ant. Some Labourites from the south it known that I should be willing to Liberal candidate for Cardiganshire of the county favoured a socialist candi- offer my services, as a Liberal, pre- only a short time earlier, before his re- date, but ‘wiser counsels in the Aberyst- pared to give loyal support to the turn for Paisley in . Local passions wyth district and the Labour men in Gov[ernmen]t until peace is declared, ran high against the notion that Lloyd the North were loath to spend time and but prepared to fight them if they will George should consider the county energy on a fight which did not hold try (as they declare) to play hanky- Liberal Association the mere ‘hand- out a fair prospect of success’. It was panky with Dis[establishmen]t & Im- maiden’ of an administration compris- considered that left-wing supporters perial Preference, & try to perpetuate ing mainly Unionist MPs whose good were likely to vote for an independent Conscription &c. name had been tainted beyond hope Liberal candidate. Should they run the thing very of recovery by the atrocities of the As the post-war coalition govern- fine (they are capable of anything!) I Black and Tans in Ireland. ment ran its course, resentment had could wire the £ required to be Resentment increased as it became grown apace at the apparent betrayal of deposited at nomination. ever more apparent that the course of traditional Liberal principles, now al- In the event no vacancy arose and events had long been manipulated by legedly ‘sacrificed to the Moloch of po- Vaughan Davies continued to represent the Prime Minister. When his wife Mrs litical opportunity’. In some quarters the county in parliament for a little Margaret Lloyd George had visited the outrage had followed the decision to 4 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 37 Winter 2002–03 make a grant of £,, from the member of the secretariat at Down- votes and Captain Ernest Evans . Treasury to the disestablished Welsh na- ing-Street, Mr Evans came into con- On the day of the fateful selection tional church. Demands for devolu- tact and close contact with Mr Lloyd meeting Williams had asserted, ‘I am tionary concessions to Wales – even the George, but he comes to the electors coming out as a strong “anti-waste” modest call for a Secretary of State for of Cardiganshire free from any bond, candidate, because of the extravagance Wales – were heard no longer, it was ar- spoken or written.

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