The Unknown David Lloyd George

Travis L. Crosby is Emeritus Professor of History at Wheaton College, Massachusetts.

His publications include Joseph Chamberlain: A Most Radical Imperialist (I.B.Tauris), The Two Mr. Gladstones and Sir Robert Peel’s Administration.

Travis L. Crosby

D

avid Lloyd George is widely regarded as one of the most successful prime ministers of the twentieth century. A dynamic speaker and committed social reformer, he led Britain successfully through the devastation of World War i and had a powerful impact on international politics. After 1916, he headed a coalition government, where his administrative talents stood him in good stead – his smooth management of the production of artillery and munitions played a critical role in determining the outcome of the conflict.

In the postwar peace treaties, he sought a just, rather than a vengeful, settlement for the defeated powers in an attempt to preserve a peaceful international order.

Whilst Lloyd George’s achievements were undoubtedly substantial, his political record was not entirely without blemish. He often skirted perilously close to the boundaries of acceptable parliamentary practice and was involved in a number of dubious enterprises.

In his personal life, he was a fascinating and complex character. He was renowned as a womaniser and after 1913 he retained two separate households – one with his wife and one with his mistress, Frances Stevenson, his former private secretary. This lengthy scandal was much commented on at the time and has also been reflected in Lloyd George’s enduring reputation.

A Statesman in Conflict | Travis L. Crosby Cover photograph David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (1863–1945) pictured at Downing Street whilst Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1912. Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

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Based on extensive research, Travis L. Crosby provides a fresh appraisal of the life of one of Britain’s most conflicted politicians.

Drawing on many unpublished sources, he sheds new light on Lloyd George’s personality and political career, revealing Lloyd George to be a surprisingly vulnerable man, constantly in need of reassurance, who struggled to reconcile the competing demands of ambition and family.

A fair-minded and thorough biography, this book provides an important new perspective on one of Britain’s greatest statesmen.

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Travis L. Crosby is Emeritus Professor of History at Wheaton College, Massachusetts.

His publications include Joseph Chamberlain: A Most Radical Imperialist (I.B.Tauris), The Two Mr. Gladstones and Sir Robert Peel’s Administration.

THE UNKNOWN LLOYD GEORGE A Statesman in Conflict

TRAVIS L. CROSBY

Published in 2014 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com Distributed the United States of America and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010 Copyright Š Travis L. Crosby, 2014.

The right of Travis L. Crosby to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

ISBN: 978 1 78076 485 6 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Number available Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY.

CONTENTS

List of Plates vii Acknowledgements viii Introduction xi 1 The Education of a Statesman

1

2 To England to Parliament

17

3 With Radical Intent?

42

4 In the Cabinet

67

5 Robbing the Hen Roost

86

6 Triumph

110

7 Scandal and Failure

127

8 Imperial Matters and Foreign Affairs

150

9 A Nightmare World

164

10 ‘The Righteousness That Exalteth a Nation’

175

11 Prime Minister in War

203

12 Prime Minister in Peace

238

13 Reconstruction and Resistance

261

14 The Irish Revolution

286

15 ‘To Straighten Ragged Edges’

312

16 The Long Good-Bye

334

17 Return to Wales

365

Notes Bibliography Index

384 508 543

INTRODUCTION

It may be thought that the theme of conflict in David Lloyd George’s life can also easily be applied to most politicians. In their pursuit of public service and the path to governance, politicians must also engage in power brokering, deal making and often of outright jobbery. Conflicts naturally arise in these circumstances. It can be argued, however, that Lloyd George encountered (and encouraged) conflict to an unusual degree – not only in his political, religious, social, but also in his personal life. Overcoming humble circumstances with few advantages, he fought to make his mark against wealth and privilege. He learned early that what he gained could not be given, but must be earned. English born (Manchester in 1863), Lloyd George was the son of Welsh parents. His schoolteacher father died in Lloyd George’s infancy.

Returning to Wales when only two years of age, he and his mother found a new home with his uncle Richard Lloyd in the Welsh village of Llanystumdwy.

Lloyd George retained some consciousness of his Welsh roots throughout his life. With his family, on the political platform in Wales and to his closest political comrades he spoke his native tongue. He was known to burst into song, especially Welsh hymns, on any occasion. Wales provided him with two strong influences, which were also to shape and define his early political life – his nonconformist religion and his radical political views. In addition, Lloyd George’s early family life and Welsh heritage gave him a sense in his early years of being outside an alien English culture.

As a Welshman in English political circles, he was able to stand on the periphery of generally accepted political practices and social conventions. This sense of being removed from the traditional British elite was strengthened by his lack of public school and university education.

Encouraged by his Uncle Lloyd, a surrogate father, Lloyd George was driven to excel in his early years. In schooling, apprenticing to the law and in public life, he was determined to make his mark. In 1890, at the early age of 37, he entered Parliament.

Within a short time, he made a reputation as a superlative orator and debater. His initial cause was promoting the interests of his native Wales. In this, he was a gadfly to Liberals and Conservatives alike. By the turn of the twentieth century, he was engaged in his first national cause as a critic of the South African (Boer) War. Lloyd George was among the lonely few to protest the aims, direction and management

xii The Unknown Lloyd George of that conflict. In the post-war era, he turned his attention to domestic affairs.

Now firmly established as a radical Liberal, he was a persistent and effective foe of the Conservative Party then in power. He led the attack against Conservative plans for educational reform, which would have upheld traditional Anglican privileges at the expense of nonconformist practices. In like manner, he became a leading spokesman against another Conservative initiative, tariff reform, which would have levied protectionist import duties on foreign goods, challenging free trade, a Liberal article of faith.

Lloyd George’s oratorical power in the countryside and his mastery of Parliamentary technique dominated the House of Commons during the early years of the twentieth century. These years of his earliest national prominence – the Edwardian era, from 1901 to 1914 – have been described as a golden age, a languid summer afternoon which characterized the reign of King Edward VII, who had acceded to the throne upon the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. The dark night of a European war and its tumultuous aftermath seemed in stark contrast.

But Edwardian Britain has also been described as a time of severe political and social conflict. Industrial unrest and successive waves of strike action were common.

Enmity between workers and management rose significantly. The persistent denial of women’s full electoral rights spurred a nationwide women’s suffrage movement which turned violent in the face of a stubborn masculine intransigence. In Ireland, the campaign for Home Rule among Irish Nationalists threatened civil war between Protestant Ulster and Catholic Southern Ireland. Internal conflict was matched by insecurity abroad. The British Empire, then at the height of its expansion and influence, faced new competitors. The emergent economic power of the United States had risen steadily, threatening Britain’s global supremacy. More menacing was the rise of Germany as the preeminent military power on the continent.1 To address these challenges was the primary object of the Liberal government of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, formed in December 1905. Indeed, the government’s legislative record made it one of the most significant reformist periods in modern British history. The most persistent voice for change was that of Lloyd George. Rewarded for his service to the cause of Liberalism in his early years in the House of Commons, he first assumed office as President of the Board of Trade. Responsible for initiating legislation that would promote British trade around the globe, Lloyd George was also important in promoting harmonious labourmanagement relations. Demonstrating unusual skill in resolving conflict between the two sides, he was determined to avoid crippling strikes and a loss of productivity to the nation. His success as a junior member of the Cabinet marked him for early advance. When H.H. Asquith succeeded Campbell-Bannerman as Prime Minister in April 1908, Lloyd-George became Chancellor of the Exchequer. From this position, he launched an extensive programme of social reform.

Perhaps Lloyd George’s most significant achievement was winning the battle for national health insurance. In doing so, he confronted entrenched medical interests.

To pay for this government-sponsored scheme, he fought for increased taxes among the wealthy. He also successfully legislated old-age pensions and sickness and

Introduction

xiii

unemployment benefits for working families. In rallying the country behind his social welfare programmes, he laid the foundations of what was to become the welfare state. His provocative speeches throughout the countryside against the Conservative opposition brought him added fame among his supporters – as well as a greater hatred from his detractors. In Parliament as well, he was fiercely denunciatory of the Conservatives, especially those who sat in the House of Lords. In the midst of his often abrasive and ferocious public statements against various political foes, he nevertheless continued to demonstrate a remarkable ability to work behind the scenes in settling disputes and reaching comprises. As Chancellor of the Exchequer during heated debates on reform and taxation in 1910, for example, he proposed to Conservative leaders a coalition of both parties to carry out the nation’s business more effectively and cooperatively. Although this venture failed, he had signalled to all that he had been willing to compromise on important issues. It was a trait that he would often show in the decades that followed.

With the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, the Liberal government was called upon to prepare the nation for the coming conflict. As a wartime minister of state, Lloyd George demonstrated a surprising armoury of talents, quite different from his peacetime duties. He became, as one biographer has noted, the organizer of victory and the great driving power behind the developing British war machine.2 Among his actions as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the earliest days of the war was to calm the financial markets by guaranteeing the safety of depositors’ banking accounts and restoring confidence in the credit markets. He soon turned his talents for speechmaking, previously honed in the political battles prior to 1914, into a force for mobilizing the country against the enemy. As the war dragged on, his responsibilities grew. He was involved in promoting recruitment, smoothing wartime industrial relations and proposing schemes for a greater productive capacity of the materiel of war. Rising in the estimation of the public at large and in the eyes of his colleagues, he became Minister of Munitions and then Minister of War. In these offices, he continued to demonstrate an energetic and forceful administrative power, determined to harness the nation as a whole towards the common goal of defeating the enemy.

Continued failures on land and sea, however, called into question the military expertise of British generals. The lacklustre leadership of Prime Minister Asquith also hindered a thoroughgoing pursuit of victory. Failures at Gallipoli and the Somme brought matters to a head. In December 1916, Asquith was thrust aside.

Lloyd George stepped forward, promising a more energetic approach to winning the war. As the new Head of State, Lloyd George organized a coalition government of Liberals and Conservatives with the intention not only of reducing political party conflict, but also of drawing upon all the talents of the nation necessary to defeat the enemy. Along with an invigorated domestic productive capacity, an increasingly seasoned military leadership and an influx of fresh American troops, he was eventually able to advance on all fronts. Victory was at last achieved in November 1918 with the declaration of an armistice.

xiv The Unknown Lloyd George At war’s end, Lloyd George’s energies shifted to making the peace. Rivalry among the victorious and desperate actions of the defeated often brought negotiations to a standstill at the Paris Peace Conference. Here, too, Lloyd George played a dominant role. He was at the centre of every major decision. He was determined to discourage the extreme demands of some Allied powers and to establish a sense of equity and fairness among the vanquished. He argued for leniency, especially with regard to the demands for war reparations among some of the Allies. In the immediate post-war world, too, he sought to create a better climate for maintaining peace through a series of international conferences. He was clearly attempting a return to his pre-war tactical approach of conflict resolution by direct face-to-face intervention.

Continuing conflict on an international scale was not the only contentious postwar legacy. At home, the wounds of war were not easily bound up. Labour unrest during peacetime economic adjustments led to persistent work stoppages. In Ireland, the demand for Home Rule and separation from Britain was increasingly insistent.

Domestic politics became strident as the wartime Liberal/Conservative coalition began to fray. Abroad, Lloyd George’s attempt to settle post-war problems through a series of international conferences ultimately failed. During the summer of 1922, in a simmering aftermath of World War I, Greek and Turkish hostilities broke out.

Under the invigorating leadership of Mustafa Kemal, the Turks (who had fought with Germany and Austria during the war) drove westward, defeating the Greeks and challenging British interests in that part of Europe. Lloyd George, from his position as a guarantor of peace in Europe, in turn threatened war against Turkey.

But any renewed military venture was intolerable to a British public whose memory of the recent global conflict was still fresh. Conservative members of the coalition seized their opportunity and withdrew their support on 19 October 1922. Lloyd George promptly resigned.

Once out of power, Lloyd George’s influence and political prospects receded.

Indeed, his career after 1922 is often presented as a failure, a denouement to his earlier achievements. The primary vehicle of his political power, the Liberal Party, had been weakened and divided by the war. In the post-war era, Liberals at large lost ground to both the triumphant Conservatives on the right and an emergent Labour Party on the left. Internecine struggles with the party prompted further divisions.

Many Liberals blamed Lloyd George for their loss of influence. They believed that his wartime coalition government, dominated by Conservatives, had effectively scuttled the Liberal agenda.

Lloyd George was nevertheless determined to reestablish his once paramount position in British politics. The odds against him were undoubtedly high. Forced to operate largely outside the ranks of the ascendant Conservatives, the disillusioned Liberals and the eager Labourites, he sought to establish a centrist position. In his attempt to revive his fortunes, he remained active in pursuing progressive policies.

To ease unemployment during the great depression of the 1930s, he advocated increased state aid in sponsoring public works projects. To reduce tensions abroad, he recommended a policy of restraint and accommodation. His countryside speeches could still rally the faithful; and in Parliament, too, he captured the headlines.

Introduction

xv

By the mid-1930s he stepped up his programmatic approach to politics by organizing a Council of Action. With its slogan, ‘Peace and Reconstruction’, he hoped to address both the darkening diplomatic skies over Europe and to solve the lingering problems of unemployment at home. In a controversial move, he sought to placate Hitler by travelling to Germany and engaging in direct conversations with the German leader. Upon his return to Britain, Lloyd George publicly declared his support for Hitler’s leadership. When war with Germany broke out in September 1939, Lloyd George carefully considered his response. Initially, he raised the possibility of negotiations with Hitler as a means of preventing all out war. Once this option was no longer viable, he supported Winston Churchill government’s war effort – though not without some criticisms of detail. Lloyd George’s stature remained high enough in the early stages of the war that rumours circulated that he would soon be called into the Cabinet. But Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was strongly opposed. Moreover, Lloyd George’s advanced age – he was 76 in 1939 – prevented this becoming a realistic possibility. As the war went on, his health slowly deteriorated. He was less and less able to attend the House of Commons. In his final days, he left England and returned to Wales. His death on 26 March 1945 came as Britain and its Allies were nearing victory.

At the centre of political conflict all his adult life, Lloyd George also was in continuous personal conflict. Though devoted to his wife, Margaret, Lloyd George’s relations with her were never easy. Their separation throughout much of his Parliamentary career – he in London or travelling throughout the country and abroad, and she at home in Wales – doubtless contributed to a gradual alienation between them. More seriously may have been Lloyd George’s reputation for engaging in casual affairs with other women. A topic of some private speculation in his own day, these relationships have been more publicly assessed particularly since the 1960s after his own son, Richard, made known his views on what he considered his father’s infidelities. Since then, other accounts have examined the evidence in detail. There seems little doubt that Lloyd George was often attracted to women, and they to him. Margaret certainly suspected something and had heard incriminating rumours: it was a topic of considerable tension between them. Although evidence for his sexual philandering remains scanty and unreliable, Lloyd George’s posthumous reputation has undoubtedly been adversely affected by continuing allusions to his serial adulteries.

Undeniable and far more significant was his decades’ long relationship with Frances Stevenson. Here the evidence is indisputable. Frances was not simply a convenient dalliance: she became in fact his second wife. Indeed, it is not too much to claim that Lloyd George essentially led a bigamous life for more than three decades, including the time of his greatest achievements. How Lloyd George was able to manage his affair with Frances is of more than prurient and passing interest.

She was a talented and attractive young woman – younger than Lloyd George by a quarter of a century. A graduate in classics from Royal Holloway College, University of London, she was also a suffragist, fluent in French and keenly interested in politics and public life. Throughout her long association with Lloyd George, she was

xvi The Unknown Lloyd George in continuous contact with those who were in the upper echelons of government. In these exalted circles, she was able to hold her own.

Perhaps most importantly, Frances fulfilled a palpable emotional need in Lloyd George. As we know, he was at the centre of numerous political storms in his life: he was a man who did not shirk conflict. Indeed, he courted it. But this came at some personal cost. Although in public he was often a brash and thrusting political fighter, in private Lloyd George revealed a surprising emotional vulnerability. In letters to his immediate family – to Margaret, to his brother William and to Uncle Lloyd – he continually sought praise and approbation. Letters both published and in the archives at the National Library of Wales reveal in touching terms his frequent demands for unconditional approval of some political action of his, or of some speech in the countryside, or of a Parliamentary success. When absent from home and family, whether he was in London or on holiday abroad, he expected daily letters of support and encouragement. If these were not forthcoming, he would express sadness, or annoyance, and occasionally anger.

In Frances he found not only an attractive younger helpmate, but someone who could also fulfil his need for attention and adulation. She travelled with him extensively as his companion during numerous holidays abroad. She was with him during the many months during the Paris Peace Conference following World War I. She frequently attended his speeches in the House of Commons: afterwards, she sent him notes from the gallery praising his performance. She could be a friendly critic, too, of his political role and of his later work as an author. Officially she was Lloyd George’s secretary, an employee on the government payroll. She moved with him in his advance through Cabinet positions from Chancellor of the Exchequer to Secretary for War. When Lloyd George became Prime Minister, she was one of his two official principal private secretaries. Intelligent, industrious and discreet, she not only excelled in her official capacity: she was Lloyd George’s indispensable personal companion and vigorous champion during times of distress and misfortune.

As the details of the relationship between Lloyd George and Frances have gradually emerged, the effect upon his posthumous reputation has undoubtedly been damaging. His morals have been deplored and his personal life the subject of considerable criticism. Most importantly, questions about his public life as a politician and a statesman have arisen. How could the Prime Minister give his full attention to affairs of state when so often involved in obvious chicanery and deceptions about his private affairs? Were not these personal matters a distraction from his public responsibilities? How widely known the amorous affiliation between Lloyd George and Frances was in his own time is debatable. Most historians believe that his closest colleagues and many in the highest political circles were aware of the relationship.

But it never became a matter of public comment. Those who knew likely enough had their own secrets they wished kept quiet. Privately, he was certainly the object of rumour and innuendo. To his friends and colleagues, it was a venial sin. To his enemies, however, Lloyd George was immoral and a hypocrite.

As Kenneth O. Morgan observed many years ago, Lloyd George has had a unique capacity to inspire or to enrage, both in his own time and since then among

Introduction

xvii

historians. Morgan rightly observes that it is difficult to think of any Prime Minister before or since whose character and career have provoked such violent conflict.3 Little has changed since. John Grigg, in a preface to his unfinished biography of Lloyd George, warns that the complications of Lloyd George’s life ensure that ‘the last word will never be written on Lloyd George, or on any part of his career’.4 In assessing Lloyd George, this book does not attempt a last word. But it does attempt an evenhanded approach in examining Lloyd George’s life and times. A dispassionate discussion of Lloyd George as reflected in his own words, in the eyes of his contemporaries and in the analysis of historians can lend a depth and perspective to his complex career which may lead to a greater understanding of the tensions and conflicts of his private and public lives. And only then, too, can Lloyd George be fairly evaluated amid the controversy that still surrounds ‘the little man who won the Great War’.