Figure 1.-- This photograph nof Labour Leader Clemt Attlee was taken Seotember 1938 during the Munich Crisis. Labour had been opposing rearmament, but the Munich Crisis changed the attitudes of many Labour MPs, including Attlee. Labour had been less willing than the Conservatives to trust Hitler, but they were also less willing to launch major armaments prigrams. Source: British National Portrait Gallery.

Labour Prime-Minister Ramsay MacDonald as a result of the Depression formed a coalition Nationasl Government with the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party (1931). Unexpectedly, the Labour Party suffered what has been described as an an electoral massacre. Only the 52 of the most solidly working-class constituencies voted Labour. Atlee in his Limehouse costiuency was one of the feed Lsbour survivors. Attlee as a result repudiated MacDonald and refused, like most other Labour ministers, to serve in MacDonald’s National Government (1931–35). Attlee became deputy party leader under George Lansbury. The Lsbour Party was a socialist party with substantial support for Meexist ideas. And one of those prinbciples was tghzat it was capitalism thst was responsible for war, including the tragedy of World War I. Lansbury in particulr was a was a staunch pscifist who gavored unilaterall dusarmament. Wwith the rise of Hitler and the NAZIs this was a hard idea to seel even within tghe Labour Party. Lansbury was forced to resign (1935). Attlee succeeded to the leadership. A by-election and the subsequent general election returned several figures to the House of Commons—including Arthur Greenwood and Herbert Morrison—who probably would have been preferred to Attlee had they been members of the previous Parliament. They did not, however, succeed in replacing him as leader. The Conservative Party won a landslide majority in the General Election (1935). Baldwin sensing the national mood ran a campsaign of opposing military spending and accomdation with NAZI Germany. The focus wa on zavoilding another war. The Labour Party opposed the NAZI and Fascist dictators on principle, but until the late-1930s also opposed military spending as an even greater greater threat. The Party even after replacing Lansbury, still had had a significant pacifist wing. Atlee like most of the Party, advocated pacifism and opposed re-armament, but not disarmament. His speeches sounded more like a sermon on these issues. He was among the MPs who took Churchill to task when he began warming about NAZI rearmament. He said in the House, "The Right Hon. Gentleman is one of those brilliant and erratic gentlemen who, when he sees clearly sees very, very clearly; and sometimes he does not." [Attlee, 1934] Gradually as the threat became greater, Attlee changed as he began to understand the dangers of Baldwin's and Chamberlain's appeasement policy. This did not begin to change until Labour's pacifist leader George Lansbury resigned (1935). The issue was a party resolution in favor of sanctions against Italy, condemning the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. Lansbury was afraid sanctions would lead to war. Lansbury was replaced by Clement Attlee, who like most of the Labour Party at first opposed rearmament, advocating the abolition of national militaries and a world peace-keeping force under the direction of the League of Nations. [Vickers, p. 92.] German rearmament was, however, proceeding at a apace that could not be ignored. The increasing threat from the NAZIs and the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations in opposing the NAZI, Italian, and Japanese aggression caused Attlee and Labour to reassess their views on rearmament. After the German invasion of Poland (1939), Attlee supported the British declaration of war on Germany. He was, however, unwilling to join a coalition government with Conservative Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Attlee’s refusal was decisive in forcing Chamberlain’s resugnation and replacement by Winston Churchill (1940). He served in Britain's wartime coalition government first as Lord Privy Seal and then as Deputy Prime Minister.

Created: 11:31 PM 1/8/2021
Last updated: 11:32 PM 1/8/2021