The Road Not Taken

by Frank McLynn

  22. Thomas, My Story, pp. 125–6.

  23. Thomas Marlowe was a Tory of the extreme Right, notorious for his eager participation in the 1924 Zinoviev Letter fraud (Farman, General Strike, p. 162). For his falling out with Lord Rothermere and resignation from the editorship later in 1926 see Time (27 September 1926).

  24. Pugh, Men of Steel, pp. 400–1; Citrine, Men and Work, p. 171.

  25. Feiling, Life of Neville Chamberlain, p. 157.

  26. Kingsley Martin, Father Figures (1966), p. 162. See also L. S. Amery, My Political Life (1953), ii, p. 483; Middlemas and Barnes, Baldwin, pp. 408–9.

  27. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 172.

  28. Thomas, My Story, p. 102.

  29. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 172.

  30. Bullock, Ernest Bevin, p. 97.

  31. The General Council’s letter was published next day. It is reproduced in Milne-Bailey, Trade Unions and the State, p. 67 and Milne-Bailey, Trade Union Documents, p. 340.

  32. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 218; Bullock, Bevin, i, p. 309.

  33. David Sinclair, Two Georges: The Making of the Modern Monarchy (1988), p. 105.

  34. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 173.

  35. Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald, p. 425.

  36. Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald, p. 439, upholds his hero but Bullock, in his assertion that Bevin a) could not have ‘bullied’ a granite block like Smith and b) in fact did not do so, is more convincing. Bullock, Ernest Bevin, pp. 330–1.

  37. L. J. MacFarlane, The British Communist Party: Its Origin and Development until 1929 (1966), pp. 156–7.

  38. Hansard (3 May 1926).

  39. Jones, Whitehall Diaries, ii, p. 36.

  40. Quoted in Perkins, General Strike, p. 113. For other views, linking the speech with the Daily Mail incident, see Daily Herald (3 May 1926); The Times (3 May 1926).

  41. Crook, General Strike, pp. 364–5.

  42. Feiling, Neville Chamberlain, p. 157; G. M. Young, Baldwin (1952), p. 114.

  43. Mowat, Britain Between the Wars, p. 308.

  44. For Baldwin’s obsession with Lloyd George see Jones, Whitehall Diaries, ii, pp. 190–2.

  45. Mowat, Britain Between the Wars, p. 309.

  46. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 184.

  47. Martin, Father Figures, p. 162.

  48. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 175.

  49. Julian Symons, The General Strike: A Historical Portrait (1959), p. 44.

  50. David Kirkwood, My Life of Revolt (1935), p. 231.

  51. Cole, ed., Diaries of Beatrice Webb, p. 91.

  52. Ibid., pp. 71–2

  53. Crook, General Strike, p. 425.

  54. Liverpoool Echo (5 May 1926).

  55. Phillips, General Strike, p. 161.

  56. Ibid., p. 154.

  57. H. Montgomery Hyde, Baldwin: The Unexpected Prime Minister (1973), pp. 270–1.

  58. R. A. Florey, The General Strike of 1926: Economic, Political and Social Causes of the Class War (1981), pp. 100–2, 111–12.

  59. Arnot, General Strike, p. 175.

  60. The subject of the railways in the General Strike is dealt with in a number of studies: A. J. Mullay, London’s Scottish Railways: LMS and LNER (2005); Michael R. Bonavia, The Four Great Railways (Newton Abbot, 1980); Norman McKillop, The Lighted Flame (1950).

  61. Bullock, Bevin, i, p. 317.

  62. Taylor, English History, p. 245.

  63. Symons, General Strike, pp. 52, 143.

  64. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 178.

  65. Ibid., p. 177.

  66. Crook, General Strike, pp. 373–7; R. W. Postgate et al., Workers’ History of the Great Strike (1927), pp. 17–32.

  67. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 180.

  68. Yorkshire Evening Post (27 May 1926).

  69. Perkins, General Strike, p. 118.

  70. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 180.

  71. Ibid.

  72. Mowat, Britain Between the Wars, p. 313.

  73. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 179; Jones, Whitehall Diaries, ii, p. 39.

  74. Ibid., p. 38.

  75. Cole, ed., Diaries of Beatrice Webb, p. 90.

  76. Ibid., p. 100.

  77. Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965 (1965), p. 247.

  78. Crook, General Strike, pp. 383, 400–1; Milne-Bailey, Trade Unions and the State, p. 71.

  79. Symons, General Strike, p. 58; Perkins, General Strike, p. 203.

  80. For an overall analysis of the British Gazette see Fyfe, Behind the Scenes, pp. 25–38; Kingsley Martin, The British Public and the General Strike (1926), pp. 69–95; Farman, General Strike, pp. 125–33. For its encouragement of fascism see R. H. Haigh, D. S. Morris and Anthony R. Peters, eds, The Guardian Book of the General Strike (1988), pp. 141–2; cf. also Citrine, Men and Work, p. 183.

  81. Farman, General Strike, p. 131; Perkins, General Strike, p. 251.

  82. Hyde, Baldwin, p. 270.

  83. Renshaw, General Strike, p. 132.

  84. Robert Rhodes James, Churchill: A Study in Failure, 1900–1939 (1970), p. 244.

  85. Jones, Whitehall Diaries, II, p. 36.

  86. Fyfe, Behind the Scenes, p. 25.

  87. S. J. Taylor, The Great Outsiders: Northcliffe, Rothermere and the Daily Mail (1996), p. 249; cf. also J. H. Porter, Devon and the General Strike (1926).

  88. Perkins, General Strike, pp. 171–2.

  89. Manchester Guardian (5 May 1926).

  90. Hamilton Fyfe (1869–1951) was a star journalist, who had covered Blériot’s 1909 maiden flight across the English Channel, the overthrow of General Huerta in the Mexican Revolution (1914) and the retreat from Mons in World War One, as well as covering turbulent events in Spain, Portugal and Russia. H. B. Grisditch and A. J. A. Morris, ‘Fyfe, Henry Hamilton’, ODNB (Oxford, 2004), 21, pp. 222–3. For his editorship of the British Worker see Farman, General Strike, pp. 133–8.

  91. Fyfe, Behind the Scenes, pp. 25–38.

  92. Perkins, General Strike, p. 142.

  93. Hugh Thomas, John Strachey (1973), pp. 57–8.

  94. Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 181–2.

  95. A. E. Bell, ed., The Diary of Virginia Woolf, 5 vols (1980), iii, p. 78; N. Flower, ed., The Journal of Arnold Bennett, 3 vols (1933), iii, p. 132.

  96. Francis Wheen, Tom Driberg: The Soul of Indiscretion (2001), pp. 44–5.

  97. Citrine, Man and Work, pp. 182–3.

  98. Jones, Whitehall Diaries, ii, p. 38.

  99. Hansard (6 May 1926); Crook, General Strike, pp. 470–1; Keith Laybourne, The General Strike: day by day (Stroud 1996) p. 75.

  100. Crook, General Strike, pp. 471–2. For Astbury see P. A. Landon, ‘Astbury, Sir John Meir (1860– 1939)’, ODNB (Oxford, 2004), 2, pp. 764–5.

  101. Cited in Skidelsky, Keynes, ii, p. 105.

  102. A. L. Goodhart, ‘The Legality of the General Strike in England’, Yale Law Review, 36 (1927), pp. 464–85.

  103. Crook, General Strike, pp. 472–3; Martin, British Public, pp. 96–109.

  104. Samuel, Memoirs, p. 187. Henry Segrave (1896–1930) was one of the most famous figures of the day. He set three land-speed records, plus the water-speed record, and held land- and water-speed records simultaneously. He was the first person to travel at over 200 mph (in 1927 at Daytona Beach, Florida) and set a land-speed record of 231.45 mph at Daytona Beach in 1929. He was knighted in 1930, but died shortly afterwards while capturing the world water-speed record. He published his autobiography as The Lure of Speed (1928).

  105. Manchester Guardian (13 May 1926).

  106. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 179.

  107. John Bowle, Viscount Samuel: A Biography (1957), pp. 250–1; Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 186–7.

  108. Wasserstein, Samuel, p. 286.

  109. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 187.

  110. Wasserstein, Samuel, pp. 289–90.

  111. Jones, Whitehall Diaries, ii, p. 40.

  112. Wasserstein, Samuel, p. 42.

  113. Ibid., p. 41.

  114. Citrine, Men and Wo
rk, pp. 184, 191.

  115. Ibid., pp. 185–6.

  116. Ibid., p. 190.

  117. Journal of Arnold Bennett, iii, pp. 133–4.

  118. Phillips, General Strike, p. 223.

  119. J. K. A. Bell, Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury (1938), pp. 1306–7; Briggs, History of Broadcasting, i., pp. 362–77.

  120. Rhodes James, Memoirs of a Conservative, p. 245.

  121. Ibid., p. 231.

  122. Cole, ed., Diaries of Beatrice Webb, pp. 90–1.

  123. Bell, ed., Diary of Virginia Woolf, iii, p. 77.

  124. Charles Stuart, ed., The Reith Diaries (1975), pp. 94–5.

  125. John Reith, Into the Wind (1949), pp. 108–9; Briggs, History of Broadcasting, i, pp. 362–77.

  126. Rhodes James, Memoirs of a Conservative, p. 248.

  127. Bell, Randall Davidson, pp. 1306–7.

  128. Rhodes James, Memoirs of a Conservative, p. 249.

  129. Guardian Book of the General Strike, p. 95.

  130. Reith Diaries, pp. 93, 96; Reith, Into the Wind, pp. 108–9.

  131. Briggs, History of Broadcasting, i, pp. 363, 369, 376.

  132. Reith, Into the Wind, pp. 111–12.

  133. Perkins, General Strike, p. 213.

  134. Briggs, History of Broadcasting, i, p. 365.

  135. Fyfe, Behind the Scenes, pp. 63, 75.

  136. Spectator (8 May 1926).

  137. Bell, ed., Diary of Virginia Woolf, iii, p. 80.

  138. S. Usherwood, ‘The BBC and the General Strike’, History Today, 22 (1972).

  139. Briggs, History of Broadcasting, i, p. 369; A. J. P. Taylor, English History, p. 246

  140. Cole, ed., Diaries of Beatrice Webb, pp. 91–2.

  15 Revolution’s Last Chance

  1. Crook, General Strike, pp. 387–8, 417–19.

  2. Guardian Book, pp. 82–3.

  3. Fyfe, Behind the Scenes, pp. 58, 68; Scott Nearing, The British General Strike: An Economic Interpretation of Its Background and Significance (NY, 1926), pp. 45–6.

  4. Harold Nicolson, King George V: His Life and Reign (1952), p. 418.

  5. Martin, British Public, pp. 90–1.

  6. Perkins, General Strike, p. 206.

  7. MacFarlane, British Communist Party, pp. 156–7, 162.

  8. Osbert Sitwell, Laughter in the Next Room (1958), p. 236.

  9. Donoghue and Jones, Herbert Morrison (1973), p. 80; Citrine, Men and Work, p. 186.

  10. Phillips, General Strike, p. 146.

  11. Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 192–3.

  12. Renshaw, General Strike, p. 271.

  13. Kirkwood, My Life of Revolt, p. 232.

  14. Crook, General Strike, pp. 411–12, 415–17.

  15. Guardian Book, pp. 59–60, 65–6, 72–3, 81–2.

  16. Bell, ed., Diary of Virginia Woolf, iii, p. 82.

  17. For a thorough study of the entire incident and its aftermath see Margaret Hutcheson, Let No Wheels Turn: The Wrecking of the Flying Scotsman (2006).

  18. Phillips, General Strike, pp. 212–13.

  19. Nearing, British General Strike, pp. 71–3.

  20. The Times (12 May 1926).

  21. Crook, General Strike, p. 387.

  22. Quoted in Mowat, Britain Between the Wars, p. 316.

  23. Milne-Bailey, Trade Unions and the State, p. 73; Fyfe, Behind the Scenes, p. 60; Perkins, General Strike, p. 80.

  24. Postgate, Workers’ History, pp. 58–60; E. Burns, The General Strike 1926: Trades Councils in Action (1926), pp. 70–2.

  25. Farman, General Strike, p. 184.

  26. Phillips, General Strike, p. 203. For a general survey of the problems in policing strikes in the interwar period see Jane Morgan, Conflict and Order: The Police and Labour Disputes in England and Wales, 1900–1939 (Oxford, 1987).

  27. G. C. Peden, ‘Wood, Sir Kingsley’, ODNB (Oxford, 2004), 55, pp. 124–7; Roy Jenkins, The Chancellors (1998), pp. 394–400.

  28. Crook, General Strike, pp. 406–10; Postgate, Workers’ History, pp. 67–8; Nearing, British General Strike, pp. 148–65; Arnot, Miners, pp. 436–43; Farman, General Strike, pp. 172–82.

  29. For his colourful career see Michael Squires, Saklatvala: A Political Biography (1990).

  30. Guardian Book, p. 81.

  31. Phillips, General Strike, pp. 203–4.

  32. Martin, British Public, pp. 52–67; J. T. Murphy, The Political Meaning of the General Strike (1926), pp. 89, 120–1.

  33. MacFarlane, British Communist Party, p. 158.

  34. Nearing, British General Strike, pp. 83–97; Burns, General Strike.

  35. Postgate, Workers’ History, pp. 34–5; Crook, General Strike, pp. 402–12.

  36. Farman, General Strike, pp. 162–3.

  37. Ibid., pp. 165–6; Jones, Whitehall Diaries, ii, p. 38.

  38. Cole, ed., Diaries of Beatrice Webb, p. 92.

  39. Journal of Arnold Bennett, iii, p. 148.

  40. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 190.

  41. For a full analysis see R. I. Hills, The General Strike in York (1980).

  42. Perkins, General Strike, p. 160.

  43. Kingsley Martin, Harold Laski (1953), p. 66.

  44. Symons, General Strike, p. 218.

  45. Alzina Stone Dale, Outline of Sanity: A Biography of G. K. Chesterton (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1983), pp. 255–7.

  46. G. K. Chesterton, The Return of Don Quixote (1927), p. 263.

  47. Guardian Book, pp. 62, 68; Bowle, Viscount Samuel, p. 257.

  48. Guardian Book, p. 69.

  49. Ibid., pp. 30, 37, 49, 149.

  50. Bowle, Viscount Samuel, p. 52; Guardian Book, p. 76. Peary, Cook and Byrd had all claimed to have reached the North Pole earlier, but the best modern scholarship rejects their claims.

  51. Robin Page Arnot, The General Strike, May 1926: Its Origin and History (1926), p. 201.

  52. Ernest J. Oldmaster, Francis, Cardinal Bourne, 2 vols (1944); Michael J. Walsh, The Westminster Cardinals: The Past and the Future (2008), pp. 85–109.

  53. Fyfe, Behind the Scenes, p. 60.

  54. Ibid., p. 69; Crook, General Strike, p. 421; Arnot, General Strike, p. 201.

  55. Feiling, Neville Chamberlain, pp. 157–8.

  56. Jones, Whitehall Diaries, ii, pp. 45–7; Nicolson, George V, pp. 418–19; Kenneth Rose, King George V (1983), p. 341.

  57. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 186.

  58. Ibid., p. 189; Perkins, General Strike, pp. 139–40.

  59. Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 193–4; Samuel, Memoirs, p. 190; Wasserstein, Samuel, p. 286.

  60. Crook, General Strike, pp. 429–30, 602–3; Arnot, General Strike, pp. 225–6; Milne-Bailey, Trade Union Documents, pp. 348–50.

  61. Farman, General Strike, pp. 222–7; Symons, General Strike, pp. 241–7.

  62. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 198; Nearing, British General Strike, pp. 49–53.

  63. Thomas, My Story, pp. 131–4; A. J. Cook, The Nine Days (1926), pp. 20–2

  64. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 196.

  65. The Times (15 May 1926), (21 January 1927); Sitwell, Laughter, p. 242; Wasserstein, Samuel, pp. 289–90; Jones, Whitehall Diaries, ii, p. 42.

  66. Martin, Laski, p. 66.

  67. Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 197, 199–200.

  68. Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald, p. 439.

  69. Nearing, British General Strike, pp. 49–53.

  70. Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 196–7.

  71. Ben Turner, About Myself (1930), pp. 311– 13.

  72. Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 197–8.

  73. Bullock, Ernest Bevin, p. 117.

  74. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 199.

  75. Ibid.

  76. Sitwell, Laughter, pp. 237–8.

  77. Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 200–1.

  78. Bullock, Bevin, i, p. 334.

  79. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 202.

  80. Frederick Winston Birkenhead, The Life of F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (1959), p. 533.

  81. Turner, About Myself, p. 298.

&nbs
p; 82. Crook, General Strike, pp. 604–8.

  83. Hyde, Baldwin, p. 273.

  84. Arnot, General Strike, pp. 221–4.

  85. Bullock, Bevin, i., pp. 230, 337.

  86. Turner, About Myself, p. 314.

  87. Arnot, Miners, pp. 446–9.

  88. The Times (13 May 1926).

  89. The Times (15 May 1926); Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald, p. 440.

  90. Campbell, F. E. Smith, p. 775.

  91. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 203.

  92. Crook, General Strike, pp. 436–46.

  93. Perkins, General Strike, pp. 246–7.

  94. Crook, General Strike, pp. 441–4.

  95. Arnot, General Strike, pp. 230–9.

  96. Citrine, Men and Work, pp. 204–5.

  97. Symons, General Strike, p. 231.

  98. Donoghue and Jones, Herbert Morrison, p. 80.

  99. Cole, ed., Diaries of Beatrice Webb, p. 98.

  100. Crook, General Strike, p. 601.

  101. Philip S. Bagwell, The Railwaymen (1963), pp. 479–97. For a detailed analysis of the situation on the GWR see C. R. Potts, The Great Western Railway and the General Strike (1996).

  102. Cook, Nine Days, p. 20; Thomas, My Story, p. 135; Crook, General Strike, pp. 452–65, 609–12.

  103. Mowat, Britain Between the Wars, p. 332.

  104. Hansard (26 July 1926).

  105. F. A. Iremonger, William Temple (1948), pp. 337–43.

  106. Mowat, Britain Between the Wars, p. 334.

  107. Hansard (27 September 1926).

  108. J. R. Raynes, Coal and Its Conflicts (1928), pp. 247–82.

  109. Arnot, Miners, pp. 457–506.

  110. Crook, General Strike, pp. 614–22.

  111. See Francis Williams, Bevin: Portrait of a Great Englishman (1952), p. 145.

  112. Matthew Worley, Labour Inside the Gate: A History of the British Labour Party Between the Wars (2005), p. 114.

  113. Phillips, General Strike, p. 281; Farman, General Strike, p. 260; Renshaw, General Strike, p. 225.

  114. The Economist (20 November 1926).

  115. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 217; Wiliam Camp, The Glittering Prizes: A Biographical Study of F. E. Smith, First Earl of Birkenhead (1960), p. 194.

  116. Citrine, Men and Work, p. 218; Farman, General Strike, p. 251.

  117. Mowat, Britain Between the Wars, p. 331; Taylor, English History, p. 248; Phillips, General Strike, p. 287.

  118. Peter Mathias, The First Industrial Nation: An Economic History of Britain, 1700–1914 (2001), p. 449.