WINSTON CHURCHILL FALLS FROM POLITICAL POWER IN 1922 '" v ROBYN KELLER e Communicated by: Dr. Roy Schreiber n Department ofHistory s ;. y ABSTRACT t. Two factors led to Winston Churchill's political downfall in 1922. First, Churchill was seen as a key figure t. y promoting force in Chanak, Turkey. Secondly, the Coalition government in power was losing the popularity n that it needed to remain in place. is re ly The political consequences of Chanak were substantial. The crisis had been played out in public and the ie newspapers were well informed ofprocesses going on in the Cabinet. Churchill's part in propelling the Cabinet ie Df to the brink of a totally unexpected and unnecessary war caused him to lose support from all parties. In addition at to this already shaky foundation, the Coalition was weakening and had been acquiring disapproval before the 1e m crisis in Turkey. The pattern of these two events occurring simultaneously was enough to cause the downfall VO of the Liberal Coalition in October 1922. in, JP of Had Ministers Austen Chamberlain and F .E. Smith accepted advice to abandon Lloyd George and form a ed en center party with Winston Churchill, who would have been the leading Liberal left to receive Unionist support, he Churchill may have survived the turmoil in 1922. Instead they publicly supported George which forced 1ry rm Churchill to fight for his Parliamentary seat in Dundee, Scotland as a Liberal and Free Trader. This meant that the Liberal vote would be split three ways. The public view that portrayed Churchill as a warmonger, due to the reports of his handling the situation in ,f Turkey, and the already faltering Coalition government caused Winston Churchill to be forced out of political 10. 1lla power for the second time in his career in the public arena. 1 On November 15, 1922, fifteen days before his forty-eighth a town on the Wes tern Shore of Turkey and the Coalition 11 birthday, Winston Churchill was to fall from political power government was losing the popularity it had previously held for the second time in eight years. This date marks his defeat and was on the verge of collapse.' at Dundee, Scotland, a seat in Parliament he had held for fourteen years. Churchill went down to overwhelming defeat. A strange coincidence made the town of Chanak, on the His previous majority at Dundee in 1918 had been fifteen Eastern Shore of the Dardanelles, the waterway that thousand votes; in 1922 he was rejected by more than 10,000 separates Turkey in Europe and Asia (Asia Minor), the (Gilbert 456). The fickle nature of politics had been dramatically demonstrated. 1 The English Government has a prime minister. The prime ~ minister is the leader of the majority party in the House of Commons. Two main factors led to Churchill's political downfall in Assuming there is no majority party, a prime minister would have a 1922. He was seen as a key figure promoting force in Chanak, majority coalition or at least a coalition that was not rejected by the majority. 52 R. Keller Moslem world, and so relieving ourselves of the disastrous realization both military and financial to ··-·-· ·--··- -.....-.-., "'""" 3 which our anti-Turk policy has exposed us in the Middle East and in India... I am convinced that -~·\.•ii~ the restoration of Turkish sovereignty or suzerainty ~1~:~~~~ over the Smyrna Province is an indispensable step .. ;· 01~.JmJAf!Jait' ; S5b""'1 TURKEY· to the specification of the Middle East. (Cabinet IN· ~· EUROPE Minutes and Memoranda, Cabinet 23/31) •• MiliT11p11 JJ,... '3'4}1Ht' : Churchill went to Lloyd George with a warning of what he felt • GALLIPOLI would happen if the Greeks went on the offensive against the PENINSULA Turks to gain pieces of Asia Minor; "If the Greeks go off on another half-cocked offensive, the last card will have been played and lost, and we shall neither have a Turkish peace nor a Greek army" (James 156). Churchill's observations seemed to be coming true. On September 10, 1922 Mustaphe Kemal, a powerful Gallipoli commander, had driven out the Greek forces in Turkey (Gilbert 821). The Greeks reached the port of Smyrna in confusion, followed by the Kemalist army. The victorious Kemalist army turned north and advanced upon the neutral ASIA zone of the Dardanelles created by the Treaty of Sevres in Ml NOR 1920 (Gilbert 821). The arrival of the Kemalist forces at Chanak presented a difficult situation for Churchill. Although Churchill had previously been opposed to George's support of Greece, he now reversed his position. He viewed the line of water __.,... AJl;er;hvarshlpS. l~ ~c:h 19t5 • t..n<Mgl>e...,..,2!/...,.,1.. 5 separating Asia from Europe as imperative to the Empire and •••• Mi:H.<t"fQ~e1-.2tiAo!'ifHi~5- thought that line must be kept secure at all costs (Gilbert 820). ~ a,....," ....~ 3(}Ap.> t9>5 Churchill felt that if they did not fight for the piece of land Figure I: On the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles, the town of Chanak A where Chanak sits on the shores of the Dardanelles, then all neutral zone had been imposed here under the Treaty of Sovres in 1920, In the lives lost in the Balkan War would have been for nothing. 1922, the Turkish Army advanced on the Greeks towards Chanak (Source: Gilbert, Martin, Churchill A life, New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc,, 1991) The Chiefs of Staff were concerned for the safety of the small British forces off Chanak. Due to the safety of the men at Chanak, the Cabinet was ready to concede to many ofKemals' indirect cause of political disaster for Winston Churchill for requirements for a peaceful settlement. However, several of the second time in eight years. the Ministers, Churchill being one of the most prominent, balked at being forced to negotiations under pressure by In 1915, he had been thrown into a political wilderness by Kemal. allegations of mishandling the Dardanelles campaign. He had been relieved of First Lord of the Admiralty due to At a cabinet meeting in September 1922, questions facing accusations of mismanagement. Churchill had been blamed Chanak spurred ministers into resolute judgment (James 157). for the "loss of three cruisers and the faulty disposition which Some ministers had now concluded, (perhaps swayed by led to the action off Coronel" (Gilbert 319). A serious Churchill's enthusiastic and persuasive speeches) that accusation was that he interfered with naval experts and their "Chanak had now become a point of great moral significance recommendations. to the prestige of the Empire" (James 157). The foundations ofChurchill 's renewed political power began Churchill and Lloyd George continued their struggle against to crack in December 1920 with his view of the Middle East. the Kemalists and disapproved of any proposal to bargain with He had consistently opposed Prime Minister Lloyd Georges' the Kemalists over the safety of the Greek army, which would pro-Greek policies and opposed the open support given to the "in any way compromise our European policy" (Cabinet Greeks in their quest for pieces of Asia Minor. On December Minutes and Memoranda, Cabinet 23/31 ). Churchill stated in 11, 1920, Churchill stated his opinion in a memorandum: the same meeting: We should make a definite change in our policy in The Asiatic arrangement should be kept separate. direction of procuring a real peace with the The line of deep water-separating Asia from Winston Churchill Falls from Political Power in 1922 53 Europe was a line of great significance, and we the British Governnient had already angered its allies and must niake that secure by every means within our isolated itself from them. power. If the Turks take the Gallipoli Peninsula and Constantinople, we shall have lost the whole The Governnient also had to face the grim reality that they fruits of our victory and another Balkan War would were not going to receive support from Britain's people. be inevitable. (Cabinet Minutes and Memoranda, There had been virtually no indication that a military situation Cabinet 23/31) was looming and the British people were not in favor of entering another war. The Prime Minister's statement about the dilemnia was as strongly stated as Churchill's stance: The very factors mentioned above that had gotten the :lt ministers into trouble, the communique Churchill had issued ie In no circumstance could we allow the Gall.ipoli to the press, the anger of the Dominion Ministers and the m Peninsula to be held by the Turks. It was the most French Governnient at reading of their proposed stance in the :n important strategic position in the world, and the paper, and the uproar of the British people who were just or closing of the straits has prolonged the war by two informed that they were on the brink of war, ironically niade years. It was inconceivable that we should allow the ministers even more determined not to compromise their the Turks to gain possession of the Gallipoli position. )n Peninsula, and we should fight to prevent their )li doing so. (Public Records Office, Cabinet 23/31) The situation escalated on September 18. The Cabinet ey decided that any Soviet subniarines, subniarine chasers, and m As a whole, the cabinet resolved "any attempt by the Kenialist mine-layers arriving in the Straits should be attacked; that us to occupy the Gallipoli Peninsula shall be resisted by force" "any such craft approaching the Straits on the surface from the ral (James 157). Black Sea under the Russian flag should be warned off; and in that, in the event of risk to any Allied ship from the approach The Cabinet discussed the stand and strategy they would take of any such craft encountered in the Black Sea or Straits, it on the fifteenth of September.