Boer War Dr Jacqueline Beaumont considers the importance of the Liberal press in the politics of the Boer War. TheThe LiberalLiberal PressPress andand thethe SouthSouth AfricanAfrican WarWar
t is well known that it was the Liberals who The Daily Telegraph Ifought for and won a free press for this country The newspaper which claimed the largest circula- by effecting the abolition of the ‘tax on knowl- tion before the appearance in of the Daily Mail edge’, an act which was in large measure responsi- was the Daily Telegraph. Founded in , it was a ble for the huge proliferation of cheap newspapers paper intended to have a broader and more popular from the mid s onward. It was Liberal theorists appeal than the older newspapers. Its foreign news too who hoped that this new press would act as a coverage was said to rival that of The Times and it also force for educating the newly enfranchised masses offered from its early days book reviews, special arti- into a full appreciation of their rights and duties as cles and interviews. Appealing as it did to ‘the man voting members within the body politic through on the knifeboard of the omnibus’ it always offered a the fulfilment of its role as ‘the fourth estate’. The good and comprehensive city page for the many city role of the Liberals both in theory and in practice men who bought it. The paper had been owned by in the development of the press in the second half the Lawson family almost from its foundation. By of the nineteenth century has long been recognised , Sir Edward, who became Lord Burnham in as significant. Liberals were prominent in founding, , had been formally in control since , and financing and editing new newspapers, both na- informally for much longer. Although there was an tional and provincial. editor, John Le Sage, Sir Edward was in practice By the time of the South African War the Brit- both proprietor and editor; he was ‘The Guv’nor’. ish press, in whose efficacy as the bridge between He vetted and approved the appointment of new governors and governed the Liberals believed so staff and he often decided which leaders were to be fervently, had almost reached its apogee. Alan Lee written and the line to be followed. has reckoned that in London alone in there When J. L. Garvin became a leader writer on the were newspapers, mainly local. Throughout paper in the summer of , his appointment had the provinces there were , , while Scotland to be approved by Sir Edward although he owed it had , Wales and Ireland . These figures to the paper’s chief leader writer and literary editor, include all newspapers, but if one considers only the W. L. Courtney. Garvin regularly received notes London-based national press, with which I shall be from Sir Edward with instructions as to the subject primarily concerned, when war broke out there and line of his leaders. He did not mind this control, were thirteen morning and five evening papers. In for he was politically in accord with Sir Edward, a , of the thirteen morning papers, only four Liberal Unionist, and had respect for his judgement. claimed to be Liberal and of the five evening papers Indeed he came to dread the occasions when Sir three were Liberal. The four morning papers com- Edward was absent and the editor took charge, often prised The Daily Chronicle, the Daily News, the aided by Lawson’s eldest son, Harry. During the Morning Leader and, surprisingly, the Daily Tel- general election Harry Lawson was standing as egraph. The evening papers were the Star, a sister a Radical Liberal while his father was, in Garvin’s paper to the Morning Leader, the Echo and the words, ‘running about to Unionist meetings in the Westminster Gazette. I would like to consider these country’. As a result leaders were not always as con- papers individually before making some general sistent and clear cut as Garvin would have liked, as comments about the nature of the Liberal press both members of the family had to be placated. ‘I during the war.
10 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 was told to say’, Garvin complained on The Daily News home issues. Cook was forced to resign one occasion, ‘that the Government The divisions within the Liberal Party and was replaced by Rudi Lehmann, must be returned by an overwhelming which briefly annoyed Garvin during then on the staff of Punch, who himself majority but that the opposition were resigned after only seven months. the general election had a far more seri- Britons after all’. Garvin’s annoyance ous effect on the two leading Liberal The troubles of the paper contin- was that of a journalist with strong newspapers, the Daily News and the ued, reflecting clashes between differ- opinions who had joined a newspaper Daily Chronicle. The Daily News was ent styles of Liberalism and between which he believed to be consistent in Lloyd George and the financial back- claimed to be ‘the recognised organ of its views. The Daily Telegraph had altered the Liberal party’ by press directories, but ers he had secured. However, al- politically from a paper which sup- by it was not easy to define what though in theory the paper was sup- ported Gladstone to a Unionist news- this meant. Founded in , briefly un- posed to ignore the war, in practice it paper. Although it billed itself in such der the editorship of Charles Dickens, did not. The issue of farm burning trade manuals as the Willings Press Guide and financed by wealthy radical Liberals which had in fact gone on ever since as a Liberal newspaper, the editorial to support a programme of reform at Lord Roberts entered the Free State in staff was Unionist and Conservative to home, events abroad in the s ex- the spring of , was assiduously fol- a man – mainly Conservative. posed the divisions within the Liberal lowed by the newly radicalised Daily Although the Daily Telegraph had no Party over Britain’s Imperial role and News and by the end of May it known links with any party or govern- had their effect on the Daily News. was plain that the paper had decided ment department, informal links with E. T. Cook, who was appointed edi- to take up the conduct of the war sys- the Conservative party did exist tor in , belonged to the imperialist tematically. No other paper had so through a member of the editorial staff, wing of the party and spoke for it with much information about the devasta- E. B. Iwan Muller, a close associate and increasing vigour as imperial issues tion of farms and crops. friend of Arthur Balfour. Muller had came to dominate the news pages. No other paper had such full cover- other contacts both in the Hotel Cecil Cook had close contacts in South Af- age of the concentration camps. It was and in government. As one of the rica. Edmund Garrett, editor of the the Daily News that carried the first for- mainstays of the Conservative Canning Cape Times and a forthright supporter mal protest against the policy in a letter Club at Oxford in the early s, he of the High Commissioner, was an old from Joshua Rowntree and gave the had known both Lord Curzon and friend and colleague from days when fullest coverage to Emily Hobhouse’s Lord Salisbury’s heir, Lord Cranborne. they were both on the staff of the Pall report. She herself had insisted on giv- Curzon had helped to further his career Mall Gazette. Garrett was Cape Town ing the text to the Daily News for ex- and remained a friend. In addition, and correspondent for the Daily News until clusive coverage. The paper printed a most importantly for the paper during the summer of . Cook was also a summary running to more than a page the war, he was an old friend of Sir Al- personal friend of Milner, whom he and there followed during the next few fred Milner, the High Commissioner in had known from the days when he was weeks many letters expressing concern South Africa, whom he had known a brilliant undergraduate at New Col- and horror at the short-sightedness of since his school days. lege, Oxford and Milner a newly ap- the policy. It is difficult to escape the Before the war the paper consist- pointed fellow. conclusion that there was more to this ently looked to and supported Joseph This was to influence the editorial than moral indignation; it was part of a Chamberlain. During the war its views of the Daily News when South concerted plan to pull the Liberal Party stance on the major issues concerning African affairs became prominent on together behind Sir Henry Campbell- the conduct of the war was, predict- the news pages. Cook, like Sir Edward Bannerman in a radical programme, us- ably, to criticise the War Office, expose Lawson, followed Chamberlain’s lead in ing a highly emotive issue which could stupid generals and to defend farm the months before war broke out. He only embarrass a Government already burning and the concentration camps, also defended Milner vigorously, nota- floundering as the war dragged on un- as far as possible. Indeed, as the war bly after the publication of his helot successfully and expensively. progressed any pretence that the despatch. Cook’s appointment had newspaper had to be Liberal became been unwelcome to many radical Lib- increasingly stretched and by the sum- erals, who had always looked upon the The Daily Chronicle The Daily Chronicle had had a some- mer of it was attacking the pro- Daily News as their voice. Eventually, what chequered career in terms of its Boers for giving psychological support early in , Lloyd George, by then value to the Liberal Party, since it to the Boers with as much vigour as one of the Parliamentary leaders of the started publication in . This was to any of the Conservative newspapers ‘pro-Boers’, arranged for the paper to continue throughout the war. In its and dismissing the evidence about the be purchased by a syndicate headed by early days it had little political content camps with as much evasiveness as the two wealthy Liberal businessmen, on or foreign news, being largely devoted Minister for War, St John Brodrick. the understanding that the Daily News to advertising. During the s it had Indeed, Emily Hobhouse’s report, would take a neutral position on the taken a Unionist position on Ireland, published on June , was not men- war and concentrate on important tioned at all. only returning wholly to Gladstonian
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 11 Liberalism in . In Henry proved of the paper’s attacks on the It was hoped that Sir John Brunner, Massingham, who had been the assist- Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, the influen- one of the founders of ICI and well ant editor since , became editor. At tial Imperialist editor of the Methodist known for his radicalism and his inter- the time he seemed to be a supporter of Times. Massingham was ordered not to ests in the press, would finance the Lord Rosebery’s version of Liberalism, express views on South African affairs. scheme, but this was not to be. a position which he soon abandoned. This was tantamount to dismissal, for Massingham estimated that at least His second-in-command, Henry Nor- no editor could possibly remain silent £, would be needed to start a man, remained a Liberal Imperialist on the main issue of the day and on new paper. It was never collected; by while Massingham veered increasingly November , Massingham duly early March £, had been to the left of the party, more particularly resigned. promised, very little of which was ever on foreign issues and imperialism. The Thereafter the paper became impec- received. In the meantime, the Man- staff whom he engaged were like- cably Imperialist on the war. Spender chester Guardian, which had taken minded. Harold Spender, his Parliamen- and Nash both resigned, but Nevinson Massingham on as its London editor tary correspondent, was a Liberal radical; stayed on. At the time of the change he and found space both for Vaughan so too were Vaughan Nash, his labour was locked up in Ladysmith during the Nash and Harold Spender in Man- correspondent, and Henry Nevinson, siege and it was some weeks before he chester, filled the gap. Copies of the war correspondent, leader writer and lit- heard the news. It was a blow, for, as he paper were sent to London and, ac- erary editor. Henry Norman resigned in mourned in his diary, ‘all my influence cording to J. L. Hammond, could be May , leaving a clear field for is gone’. When he returned to England bought in Fleet Street by . in the Spender and Nevinson as Massingham’s he found that this was indeed so: the morning. Hammond’s own weekly chief assistants. new editor, J. H. Fisher, whom he came paper, The Speaker, was also regarded by During the months before war to detest, allowed him little leeway even his friends as to some extent a substi- broke out, the paper became increas- in the choice of books for review. He tute for the Chronicle during the pe- ingly uneasy and critical of Govern- tried to move to the Daily News with- riod between Massingham’s resigna- ment policy in South Africa and by the out success, but, somewhat ironically, tion and the acquisition of the Daily summer of was voicing all the ar- was consoled by the civilised presence News fourteen months later for the guments against intervention in the in the Chronicle office of E. T. Cook, radical cause. Transvaal and acting as the most impor- who was taken on to write leaders for tant public sounding board for ‘pro- the paper after leaving the Daily News. Boer’ opinions. However, Frank Lloyd, The Morning Leader owner of the paper since , did not But there were always alternatives to like Massingham’s policy on the Trans- A new paper? the Daily News and the Daily Chronicle. vaal, which was affecting turnover, and The fortunes of these two newspapers There were the two newspapers in it was rumoured that Mrs Lloyd disap- horrified many radical Liberals opposed which Sir John Brunner had a finan- to the war at the time. It seemed to cial interest, the Morning Leader and Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1836–1908), them that a vital element in the public the Star. The Morning Leader, founded leader of the Liberal Party 1899–1908 discussion of Britain’s role in the world, in , was by edited by Ernest the moral basis of British hegemony, Parke. It is a paper which has been was under threat of being stifled. For largely ignored in press histories. these two papers represented and were Where they do mention it, it is to dis- read by the type of middle-class, edu- miss it as being of little political im- cated Liberal who also read The Times. portance. It had, apparently, no con- Most educated Liberals saw as tacts with the government or leading the year when their Press was totally politicians. H. N. Brailsford, who was emasculated because it had no signifi- happy to write leaders for it in cant national voice. When the Daily when the choice of newspapers to Chronicle changed sides, an attempt was work for was severely limited for ‘pro- made to raise funds for a new Liberal Boer’ Liberal intellectuals like himself, newspaper to fill the perceived gap in remarked somewhat patronisingly to the market. The prime movers in the Gilbert Murray, ‘It is cheap, popular scheme, apart from Massingham him- and sometimes vulgar but it is staunch self, were a group of radical Liberals, all and loyal, has a good circulation and is ‘pro-Boer’, who included Vaughan preparing to reform itself into as good Nash, Frederick Mackarness, a radical a paper as one can expect for ½d’. lawyer prominent in the South African The Morning Leader was certainly Conciliation Committee, Lady Carlisle different from the other Liberal morn- and her son-in-law, Professor Gilbert ing papers. Its primary aim, in good tra- Murray. ditional Liberal fashion, was to educate
12 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 its readership, but it had also adapted to ions of the different radical movements penny evening newspaper, which from the new journalism. It was easier to while providing its readership with ex- the start was noted for its advanced Lib- read, having only five columns on a cellent literary and music criticism. So its eral views. From it was owned by page in place of the six or seven fa- letter pages accommodated Fabians, J. Passmore Edwards, Liberal MP for voured by most other morning daily Trade Unionists and Marxists, while Ri- Salisbury, and well known as the papers and using a larger font through- chard Le Gallienne and George Bernard founder of many public libraries and out. It was also illustrated, with a daily Shaw wrote respectively of literature and institutions. The Echo was his voice un- cartoon and other pictures of current music. It had a pungent style of presenta- til the end of when he sold it, to- interest. tion, including headlines in language gether with the Morning Herald, to the Education on the issues of the day aimed both to attract immediate atten- Liberal MP and businessman, Thomas was provided in its leaders, which tion and to proclaim the paper’s stance, Lough, and to John Barker, who was tended to review and criticise the which by had become more famil- elected MP for Maidstone in . whole range of editorial opinion on iar and popularised through the Daily They appointed Sir Hugh Gilzean Fleet Street. This was supplemented by Mail than it had been a decade earlier. By Reid, also a Liberal MP and proprietor special articles on the subjects of the O’Connor had long departed and of several successful newspapers in day, some serious, some frankly satirical the editor was Ernest Parke. Scotland and the North of England, as and intended to entertain. It did not The role of the Star was dismissed manager and William Crook as editor. aim at the highly educated intellectual by Francis Williams as of little impor- Crook was an Irishman, son of the elite of the party. Some idea of those tance, particularly in capturing the founder of the Methodist College in who did read it is provided by the widespread attention of the all-impor- Belfast. He had himself been a teacher newspaper itself. At the end of October tant lower middle class mass reader- when he first came to England, but had , it offered to its readership a cheap ship. But reading its pages one cannot for many years also been a journalist, news telegram service. On November but be struck by its sharp freshness in writing regularly for Hugh Price the paper reported that the first sub- support of a frankly ‘anti-jingo’ policy, Hughes’s Methodist Times under the scriber was ‘a London tradesman – who or by its combination, in the space of a pseudonym ‘Historicus’. As editor of desired to post the news in his shop mere four pages, of the essentials of the the Echo he continued Passmore window for the benefit of his custom- latest news, comment upon it, regular Edwards’s radical Liberalism. When war ers and the public generally’. During coverage of labour issues and book re- started he soon fell out with Price the first few days, the paper subse- views and theatre criticisms. Hughes, who disliked his ‘pro-Boer’ at- quently announced: Whether or not the Star and the titude, and ceased to write for the Meth- Not only did tradesmen in remote Morning Leader had significant influ- odist Times. At the end of that year he country towns accept the idea initiated ence, what that was and why they was also forced to resign as editor of the in London and seek to become news foundered are questions which might Echo. The paper was making a loss and purveyors to their neighbours; instances bear re-examination. During the war he and his unpopular views on South came to hand of bands of men engaged in some common employment club- neither ever wavered in their sympa- Africa were blamed. Crook himself bing together to obtain the service. In thies for the Boers; indeed they were so blamed the proprietors for having one case the clerks of a big waterworks sympathetic that in Milner made poured too much money into their sent an order, in another soldiers in bar- sure that their chief apologist for Presi- other newspaper, the Morning Herald, racks, in a third men working on some dent Kruger was publicly exposed as a which had never done well and was large engineering job in a remote dis- Boer agent in the pay of the Transvaal eventually sold on and amalgamated trict of Wales. Government. This was Reginald into the new Daily Express. Its readership, judging from its substan- Statham, one time editor of a newspa- Like the Star, the Echo had only four tial letter columns, also included many per in Natal, leader writer for the Daily pages, but it too managed to cram in a nonconformist clergymen mainly, but News during the first Anglo-Boer war, vast amount of information about news not exclusively, from London. It seems and the first journalist in England to and current affairs, trade union matters, to have appealed to women too. popularise the theory of a capitalist sport and entertainment. Crook con- conspiracy on the Rand aimed against tinued to write for it even after he The Star the Transvaal Government, financed by ceased to be editor and, of course, later the Randlords, including Cecil Rhodes he took on the post of chief publicist Its sister paper, the Star, was slightly older. and operating through a bought Press, for the Liberal Party, but the Echo was Founded in under the legendary soon to be more widely popularised by more non-committal in its coverage of editorship of T. P. O’Connor, with a J. A. Hobson. the war after Crook resigned. talented staff, including Massingham and George Bernard Shaw, it was and re- mained uncompromisingly and consist- The Echo The Westminster Gazette ently radical, more so than either the Radical Liberals were also able to look The most significant of the evening Daily News or the Daily Chronicle. It to another evening paper, the Echo. papers was the Westminster Gazette. aimed to represent and unify the opin- Founded in , it was the first half- Like all evening papers it was not pri-
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 13 Campbell-Bannerman, elected leader were family businesses. Consequently all of the party at the start of , a rela- were undercapitalised and had plant and tionship which developed during the equipment badly in need of modernisa- South African war. tion. None of them could hope to com- Campbell-Bannerman seems to pete with a new paper like the Daily have become acquainted with Spender Mail which had invested in the latest through his friend and fellow Scottish equipment which allowed it to reach MP James Bryce. Sir Henry found unprecedented circulation figures. Spender an intelligent and sympathetic Secondly it was not a press which put supporter to whom he could send ad- news first and foremost, like the Ameri- vance copies of speeches delivered in can press of the time, upon which the Scotland, secure in the knowledge that new tabloid newspapers, the Daily Mail they would be properly reported in the and the Daily Express, modelled them- Westminster Gazette. The Press Associa- selves. Debate and comment in leaders tion, which in Scotland was dominated and articles was still regarded as being by representatives of the Scotsman and of equal importance and, in the case of the Glasgow Herald, both papers hostile evening papers, perhaps even greater to Campbell-Bannerman, and the na- importance. These two factors were tional London-based papers therefore both disadvantageous to the wide dis- received mangled and inadequate re- semination of a Liberal view of the war. J. A. Spender (1862–1942), editor of the ports of his Scottish speeches. But even more disadvantageous was Westminster Gazette 1896–1921 During the khaki election of the third point; the lack of any uniform Spender also provided the Liberal pattern or homogeneity in the Liberal marily a newspaper. Indeed sometimes leader with an aide to help him to write press, any more than there was in the it hardly bothered with news at all, speeches and present himself to the Liberal Party at that time. At the out- preferring to use its space for ample public. But despite these close links break of war the Liberal section of the comment combined with articles of with the Liberal leadership Spender national press had been profoundly af- general interest. Founded in on never provided the uncompromising fected by the various arguments within the initiative of E. T. Cook to replace support which one finds in the Daily the party and was divided, not over so- the Pall Mall Gazette as an evening pa- Chronicle under Massingham or Rudi cial aims, but over the question of un- per in the Liberal interest (after the lat- Lehmann’s Daily News. Spender did not ion and, increasingly, over the problems ter had been purchased by John Jacob want war; he saw no necessity for it. arising from the existence of the British Astor and changed its politics), it had Like his friend Bryce he blamed the Empire. From , with the election been edited by J. A. Spender since new diplomacy of Chamberlain for an of Lord Salisbury’s coalition Govern- Cook’s departure to edit the Daily unnecessary war, but once war came ment of Conservatives and Unionists News in . It was owned by Sir Spender, like many Liberals, saw no op- and the appointment of the former George Newnes who accepted con- tion but to bend before the storm, hope Liberal, Joseph Chamberlain to the post sistent losses during his period of it would all be over soon and prepare of Colonial Secretary this latter ques- ownership because, under Cook and for a generous, liberal settlement. tion became ever more dominant and Spender, it became the most prestig- Even after hopes of achieving this divisive within both party and press. ious national evening paper of the day. were dashed, Spender was still tempera- This is reflected in the very variable ap- Spender used his editorial pulpit to mentally incapable of taking a hard line. proach which the different papers took preach sweet reason. He approached For instance, he condemned the con- to the issues raised by the war. The lack any question with a open mind and he centration camps but, typically, argued of unanimity in the party on most of was more prepared to examine it from that their shortcomings must be the re- the major issues, remained throughout several angles than any other editor on sult of mismanagement and not delib- the war a weakness constantly on show Fleet Street. His leaders were required erate policy. in the Liberal press and constantly ex- reading for cabinet ministers and mem- ploited by its opponents. bers of the opposition alike even if those with strong partisan views, such Conclusions Dr Jacqueline Beaumont is a Research Fel- as Leonard Courtney’s wife Janet, com- Such was the national Liberal press at low at Oxford Brookes University. This pa- plained that he was a ‘wobbler’. Politi- the time of the South African war. Cer- per is based on her talk to the Liberal Demo- cally his links were with the Liberal tain features are striking. crat History Group meeting on July , Party and he was in the confidence of First, it was not a press dominated by ‘Liberalism and the Boer War’. the party leadership. His links with groups and cartels motivated primarily Asquith at a later date are well known, by profits and circulation figures. Most of 1 Alan Lee, ‘The Structure, Ownership and Con- but he was equally close to Sir Henry these papers were small businesses, some trol of the Press, 1855–1914’ in Ed Boyce,
14 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 Curran and Wingate Newspaper History from war. Koss’s volume is the chief source of infor- per. Bodleian Library: Ms Murray 7 £7 for sub- the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day mation for many of the newspapers referred to scribers and figures in the attempt to float a new (London 1978), p. 121. See too Alan J. Lee, The in this paper. For an account of the Daily News paper. Origins of the Popular Press 1855–1914 London during this period, which may not be entirely re- 7 See for instance Francis Williams, Dangerous 1980 pp. 274–80 for more detailed tables. liable see Archibald Marshall Out and About . Estate London 1957 pp. 134–5. 2For the Daily Telegraph see Lord Burnham ‘Pe- Random Reminiscences pp. 85–89. Marshall, 8 Bodleian Library, Ms Murray 124 11.1.1900 Let- terborough Court: The Story of the Daily Tel- who was a friend and admirer of Lehmann, sug- ter from H. N. Brailsford to Gilbert Murray egraph’ (1955). gests that Lehmann was forced out of the 9 R. F. Statham My Life’s Record: A Fight for Jus- 3For Garvin and the Daily Telegraph see David editorship. Gerald Shaw The Garrett Papers, tice. London 1901. Statham regularly wrote let- Ayerst ‘Garvin of the Observer’, especially Van Riebeck Society, Second Series, No 15, ters to the Star expressing views sympathetic chapter 2. The quotation is taken from Garvin’s Cape Town 1984 pp. 1–39. towards the Transvaal and the Kruger regime in letter to his wife Christina dated 3 Oct 1900. The 5For the Daily Chronicle see Koss op. cit., A. the months before war broke out. letters are owned by Garvin’s grandson, Profes- Havighurst, H. W. Massingham, Bodleian Li- 10 This paragraph is based upon information in let- sor John Ledingham, to whom I am grateful for brary Ms Eng Misc e 610/6 Journal of H. W. ters in the Crook papers; Bodleian Library: Ms permission to quote from them. Nevinson Feb 1899 – March 1900. Eng Lett d 380. See too Stephen Koss, op. cit. 4 Stephen Koss, The Rise and Fall of the Political 6 Bodleian Library: Ms Harcourt 32 3.12.1899 11 F Wilson Harris, J. A. Spender, London 1946, Press in Britain vol 1, London 1981 pp. 362–66 Letter from John Morley to Harcourt with Koss op. cit. for the Westminster Gazette. for Cook, pp. 397–404 for changes during the Massingham’s comment as to cost of a new pa-
Research in Progress If you can help any of the individuals listed below with sources, contacts, or any other information — or if you know anyone who can — please pass on details to them. Details of other research projects in progress should be sent to the Editor (see page 2) for inclusion here.
The party agent and English electoral culture, c.1880 – c.1906. The Liberals and the local government of London 1919–39. Chris Fox, development of political agency as a profession, the role of the 173 Worplesdon Road, Guildford GU2 6XD; election agent in managing election campaigns during this period, [email protected]. and the changing nature of elections, as increased use was made of Crouch End or Hornsey Liberal Association or Young Liberals in the the press and the platform. Kathryn Rix, Christ's College, 1920s and 1930s; especially any details of James Gleeson or Patrick Cambridge, CB2 2BU; [email protected]. Moir, who are believed to have been Chairmen. Tony Marriott, Flat Liberal policy towards Austria-Hungary, 1905–16. Andrew A, 13 Coleridge Road, Crouch End, London N8 8EH. Gardner, 22 Birdbrook House, Popham Road, Islington, London N1 The Liberal Party and foreign and defence policy, 1922–88; of 8TA; [email protected]. particular interest are the 1920s and 30s, and the possibility of The Hon H. G. Beaumont (MP for Eastbourne 1906–10). Any interviewing anyone involved in formulating party foreign and information welcome, particularly on his political views (he stood as defence policies. Dr R. S. Grayson, 8 Cheltenham Avenue, a Radical). Tim Beaumont, 40 Elms Road, London SW4 9EX. Twickenham TW1 3HD.
Edmund Lamb (Liberal MP for Leominster 1906–10). Any Liberal foreign policy in the 1930s. Focussing particularly on Liberal information on his election and period as MP; wanted for biography anti-appeasers. Michael Kelly, 12 Collinbridge Road, Whitewell, of his daughter, Winfred Lamb. Dr David Gill, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim BT36 7SN [email protected]. The Liberal Party and the wartime coalition 1940–45. Sources, Joseph King (Liberal MP for North Somerset during the Great War). particularly on Sinclair as Air Minister, and on Harcourt Johnstone, Any information welcome, particularly on his links with the Union Dingle Foot, Lord Sherwood and Sir Geoffrey Maunder (Sinclair's of Democratic Control and other opponents of the war (including PPS) particularly welcome. Ian Hunter, 9 Defoe Avenue, Kew, his friend George Raffalovich). Colin Houlding; Richmond TW9 4DL; [email protected]. [email protected] The grassroots organisation of the Liberal Party 1945–641945–64; the role The political life and times of Josiah Wedgwood MP. Study of the of local activists in the late 1950s revival of the Liberal Party. Mark political life of this radical MP, hoping to shed light on the question Egan, 42 Richmond Road, Gillingham, Kent ME7 1LN. of why the Labour Party replaced the Liberals as the primary The Unservile State Group, 1953–1970s. Dr Peter Barberis, 24 popular representatives of radicalism in the 1920s. Lime Avenue, Flixton, Manchester M41 5DE. Paul Mulvey, 112 Richmond Avenue, London N1 0LS; [email protected]. The Young Liberal Movement 1959–1985; including in particular relations with the leadership, and between NLYL and ULS. Carrie Recruitment of Liberals into the Conservative Party, 1906–1935. Park, 89 Coombe Lane, Bristol BS9 2AR; Aims to suggest reasons for defections of individuals and develop [email protected]. an understanding of changes in electoral alignment. Sources include personal papers and newspapers; suggestions about how The political and electoral strategy of the Liberal Party 1970–79. to get hold of the papers of more obscure Liberal defectors Individual constituency papers, and contact with members of the welcome. Cllr Nick Cott, 1a Henry Street, Gosforth, Newcastle- Party’s policy committees and/or the Party Council, particularly upon-Tyne, NE3 1DQ; [email protected]. welcome. Ruth Fox, 7 Mulberry Court, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts CM23 3JW.
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 29 Winter 2000–01 15