The Political Career of Douglas Hogg, First Viscount Hailsham 1922-38
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The University of Liverpool Conservatism, Imperialism and Appeasement: The Political Career of Douglas Hogg, first Viscount Hailsham 1922-38 Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of The University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy Chris Cooper August 2012 i Abstract: By using the political career of the leading Conservative Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham, as a prism, this thesis explores important aspects of inter-war British politics. Considering that Hailsham held key posts during the 1920s and 1930s, his career has attracted less historical coverage than one would expect. By charting his important role in the policy-making process, this study sheds light upon the major challenges facing Conservative leaders and enhances our understanding of British politics during this turbulent period. Hailsham helped shape the moderate form of Conservatism that asserted itself at this time and became intimately involved in formulating Britain’s imperial, defence and foreign policies. Hailsham’s contribution to the Conservatives’ response to the rise of the Labour Party during Britain’s newfound age of mass democracy emphasises the intricacies of inter-war Conservatism. Notwithstanding the overwhelmingly working class electorate, the Conservatives were the dominant party at the polls and this study demonstrates that Hailsham played no small part in the Conservatives’ highly successful inter-war appeal. By the end of the 1920s, he had assumed such a prominent position that a number of high-ranking Tories regarded him as Stanley Baldwin’s likely successor. During the 1930s, Hailsham confirmed that he was a committed imperialist. He was amongst those who defined Britain’s policy as the Empire was transformed into the Commonwealth. He also made important contributions to the interplay between the National Government’s foreign and defence policies. He was one of only a handful of ministers whose continued presence allowed them to make interventions in Britain’s disarmament, rearmament and appeasement policies during the era of the European dictators and the rise of militaristic Japan. Hailsham’s contribution is even more significant because he has strong claims to being the first cabinet minister to express disquiet over the mounting German menace. ii Contents Acknowledgements p.1 Introduction p.2 Literature Review p.3 Methodology p.18 Structure p.19 Early Life, Career in the Law and Political Beginnings p.21 Part I: Hailsham, Conservatism and Conservative Politics 1922-35 p.30 Rising Star p.32 Heir not Apparent p.87 National Crisis p.116 Full Circle p.139 Conclusion p.152 Part II: Hailsham the Imperialist 1932-8 p.155 The Ottawa Conference 1932 p.159 Hailsham’s Irish Question 1932-38 p.169 Indian Constitutional Reform 1930-35 p.203 Conclusion p.236 Part III: Hailsham and Appeasement 1932-8 p.238 Secretary of State for War p.241 Disarmament p.245 Rearmament p.284 Appeasement p.310 Hailsham’s Last Hurrah p.339 Conclusion p.354 Conclusion p.356 Retirement p.356 Assessment p.359 Bibliography p.365 iii Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Professor David Dutton for his help, patient supervision and guidance throughout the preparation of this thesis. His excellent undergraduate teaching encouraged me to continue my studies at a postgraduate level. Professor Mark Peel has always provided sound advice and has been an additional source of support. I am indebted to the University for providing a generous studentship and a number of research bursaries. Staff in archives across the UK helped me enormously with my research. The team at Churchill Archives Centre deserve a special mention. Thanks go to my office mate, Matthew Young, Dr Jackie Clulow, Dr Michael Hopkins, Dr Stephen Kenny, Professor Robert Self and Dr Paul Booth for their assistance. I am grateful to the students who helped carry me through term time and those who took an interest in my work. Finally, I must thank my friends and family for their love and support. Arlene Dean, James Dean and Rosa Parker continue to do all they can to help me. The Walton family have always treated me as one of their own and Marc Ambrose’s legendary hospitality made numerous research trips to Leeds so much easier. Finally, if it were not for the late Ray Parker, I might never have arrived at far-flung research destinations. It is to my parents that I dedicate this thesis. They work so hard and I owe them so much. 1 Introduction During the years 1922-38, Douglas McGarel Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham, sat almost continuously on the Conservative front bench in the House of Commons or the House of Lords. He was twice Attorney-General (1922-4 and 1924-8), twice Lord Chancellor (1928-9 and 1935-8), Leader of the House of Lords (1931-5), Conservative Leader in the Upper Chamber (1930-35), Secretary of State for War (1931-5), Lord President of the Council (1938), acting Prime Minister during the summer of 1928 and regarded as Baldwin’s potential successor as Tory leader between 1927 and 1931. As one obituary concluded, Hailsham ‘held many important offices in his brilliant career. He was one of the mainstays of the Conservative Party’.1 Yet his career has attracted little attention from historians. This longstanding historiographical neglect should not be taken to indicate Hailsham’s relative insignificance. This thesis will show that Douglas Hailsham was a politician of the first rank and a leading force in the Conservative party, and in Conservative and National governments. An examination of unpublished primary sources enables Hailsham’s career to be used as a prism, through which fresh details are revealed over a range of important aspects of inter-war British politics. Hailsham made significant interventions in domestic policy, imperial policy, grand strategy and foreign policy. Even during his two periods on the Woolsack, he remained, first and foremost, a politician and a vocal figure within the cabinet and its relevant sub-committees. His career sheds fresh light on the challenges facing leading Conservatives during the inter-war period and adds a new dimension to on-going historical debates. A man so close to the nation’s leaders and so involved in the key policy issues of the day deserves a comprehensive study of his own. 1 Sunday Times, 20 Aug. 1950. 2 Literature Review2 Secondary Sources Forty years after the death of Douglas Hailsham his son complained: ‘I wish he were better remembered now than he is. He deserves to be.’3 But two decades further on, little has been done to satisfy this wish. The relative neglect of Hailsham’s political career is clear in any survey of the literature. No methodical examination of his important contributions to British politics exists and, granted the vast and growing number of publications relating to inter-war British politics, his career represents a curious gap in the literature. Notwithstanding the tendency of political historians to focus disproportionately upon Prime Ministers and party leaders, historical discussion concerning this major figure was not encouraged by his own determination to be absent from the historical record and his refusal to produce memoirs. Unlike his son who wrote frequently both during and after his career, Douglas Hailsham seemed keen to ensure that he would not figure prominently in historical accounts of the period. Shortly after his retirement in 1938, he noted: I have had no less than four publishers anxious for me to write my reminiscences; but I have explained to them that if I wrote what I really knew I should be very indiscreet and very embarrassing to the [National] Government, and if I didn’t include indiscretions the reminiscences would be very dull... When the lives of the Lord Chancellors are brought up to date, all they will find to say about me is that I am believed to have been educated at Eton, that I was twice Lord Chancellor, once 2 Overviews of the literature relating to the key themes of this thesis, ‘Conservatism’, ‘Imperialism’ and ‘Appeasement’, will be provided in the relevant sections. This review concerns Douglas Hailsham’s political career more generally. 3 Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, A Sparrow’s Flight (London, 1990), pp.261. 3 Secretary of State for War, and subsequently Lord President of the Council, but that further details of my life are wrapt in obscurity.4 But Hailsham’s attempts at achieving anonymity were less successful than he expected. However inadequate the existing literature may be, he is not completely absent from the historical record. As Hailsham anticipated, he received an entry in R.F.V. Heuston’s Lives of the Lord Chancellors. Although this 45-page account is nearly half a century old, it remains the most comprehensive study of Hailsham to date. With Heuston focusing predominantly upon Hailsham’s career in the law, he offers only limited insights into his political activities. While Hailsham’s rise through the Conservative ranks and awareness of the German menace is duly noted (but not properly explained), Heuston lacked access to the full collection of Hailsham’s private papers, and those of his son and peers. Writing before the enactment of the thirty-year rule, Heuston could not consult the mass of government records now available. Forty years later, John Ramsden produced a useful article in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [ODNB], charting the main events in Hailsham’s career in the law and politics. Although this was more detailed than John Simon’s original Dictionary of National Biography [DNB] entry, Ramsden provided a brief summary and his essay fills just three pages. Apart from short entries in Who’s Who, Who was Who and encyclopaedias covering twentieth century British politics, the only remaining sketch of Hailsham was published in 1924, less than two years after his political career began and with almost 15 years of frontline politics ahead of him.5 While useful for outlining Hailsham’s early political convictions and his motives for entering politics, it has obvious limitations.