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Classifications

Content Type:

Digitised primary source

Periods:

1951

Churchill Archive Centre Classifications

UKAT :

Elections, International cooperation, International tensions, Speeches

File Information

This item is part of a larger file:

CHUR 5/44A-B

Speeches: Non-House of Commons: Speech notes and source material.
14 Oct 1951 - 23 Oct 1951
2 files (275 loose folios)
CHUR 5/44B/197-241
Speech notes for WSC's election address (Home Park Football...
23 Oct 1951

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CHUR 5/44B/197-241

"Election Address"

Speech notes for WSC's election address (Home Park Football Ground, Plymouth [Devon]) on subjects including: the nation's improvement in health being due to science, not socialism; the disunity of the Labour Party and unity of the Conservatives, particularly between WSC and Anthony Eden [later 1st Lord Avon]; the harm done to relations with the United States by the Government; accusations that WSC and the Conservatives are war-mongers, and WSC's own hopes of helping to prevent a Third World War; past Conservative support for the Government's rearmament programme and the Labour Party's former opposition to rearmament; Conservative policy on transference of power to India, and the Government's responsibility for the loss of life in the Indian civil war; Britain's place in world affairs and need of support from other powers in the Middle East; the need for stable government instead of internal party quarrels.

Typecript speaking notes laid out in "psalm" style to aid delivery. Includes manuscript annotations by WSC and others. Also includes a synopsis of the speech, with notes on the Empire, agriculture and the balance of payments.

Date: 23 Oct 1951

Physical/Folio: 44 folios

Publication: Complete Speeches VIII pp 8281 - 6

Language: English

General Election, 23 October 1951 Home Park Football Ground (Car Park) PLYMOUTH. SYNOPSIS OF PLYMOUTH SPEECH Britain's three big tasks:- 1. To make her defences sure, and play proper part in world organisation of peace. 2. To export enough to pay for the food and raw materials our 50 million people must have. 3. To maintain our living standards and social services. All this calls for the encouragement of enterprise. Unless we produce more we fail. The spirit of adventure - Drake today would still by trying to get a permit or a priority. He would be in the queue, not on the latter. Fortunately we are not alone. Importance of Empire (See attached Note A.) Special part that home agriculture can play (see attached Note B.) NOTE A. EMPIRE The surest hope for world peace and for our own survival as a great Power lies in the unity, strength and progress of the British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations. We have unbounded faith in its destiny. A Conservative Government will work to improve all the machinery for consult- ation and action in our great family of nations. There are within the Empire untapped economic resources which should be developed for the good of all. We intend, should we be called upon to form a Government, to invite both the Dominions and the Colonies to an imperial economic conference. We will also discuss with them better methods of co-operation in the military sphere. Much would be gained by the establishment of a Commonwealth Defence Council, a combined staff and the standard- isation of equipment, organisation and training. You will have seen that in our election manifesto we pledged ourselves to retain Imperial Preference and uphold the right to grant and receive such preferences as are mutually agreed with Empire countries. It is our firm determination that the Empire producer shall have a place in our home market second only to the home producer. Now I would like to say a word about the position of our home producer. (see Note B on Agriculture). NOTE B. AGRICULTURE If we are to close the yawning gap between what we earn by our exports and the services we render, and what we have to pay for our imports, we must at all costs increase the amount of food we grow at home. A Conservative Government would aim at raising home production from our soil to at least half as much again as we produced before the war. The Socialist party are taking to themselves all the credit for the present system of guaranteed prices and assured markets for farmers, but these were introduced during the War by a Conservative Minister of Agriculture and their continuation in time of peace was agreed to by all parties in the National Government, of which I was the head, and which rested on a solid Conservative majority. Of course a Conservative Government will continue this system of guarantees. But a price guarantee loses much of its worth when the value of money falls continually. Guaranteed prices are fixed each Spring, but before the year is over many farmers find that their costs have increased owing to rising prices. I am told that already this year alone the farming industry is faced with a £20 million bill because of the increases it has had to pay for the things it needs to carry on. Farmers therefore in common with the rest of the country will realise how important it is to return to honest money. That is the first step that a Conservative Government will take to help the farmers. We shall also be concerned to restore fertility to the idle acres on our hill and upland farms. We still have much marginal land which could be brought into cultivation. To help farmers to buy fertilisers would be a good investment. We need more machinery on the land, and our manufacturers would be able to do more to meet this need if they were given an adequate allocation of steel. In this part of the country you do not need me to remind you of the importance of horticulture, an industry which produces one-sixth of the total value of our home grown produce. The Government have exhorted urged horticulturists to increase their output. but they have left them in continual doubt as to whether they would find the market flooded by foreign imports The Conservative party will protect British horticulture them from foreign dumping. We will do the same for the fishing industry. There is room for improvement in our methods of marketing and distribut- ing, but nationalisation, as we have seen everywhere it has been tried, will not lead either to greater efficiency or to lower prices. Much better results both for the grower and for the consumer will be achieved if producers and merchants, encouraged by the Government, work together to extend and improve the well- tried system of voluntary and statutory marketing boards. I would add one final word before I leave this subject of farming. At the 1945 general election nationalisa- tion of the land figured in the election manifesto of the Socialist party. This time they are very careful to keep the idea out of sight. But that does not mean that it has been thrown overboard. It remains their intention, and I have no doubt that it would be carried out by a Socialist Government that was able to secure a working majority. BALANCE OF PAYMENTS We are now facing yet another balance of payments crisis. These crises always follow the same pattern. First, the Government say how splendidly we are doing and then figures are published, and we find that we have spent abroad far more then we have earned. The Conservative Party in the House of Commons warned the Government that the relief afforded by devaluation could by only temporary and that if any permanent advantage was to come of it, they must cut control Government expenditure, and make a determined attack on inflation. Now we are facing a balance of payments deficit which even at the most optimistic estimate cannot now be less that £400 million for the year 1951. The Government appear to think that the crisis will solve itself while they make speeches, but only a complete reversal of the financial and economic policies of the last six years can save us. We have tried restrictions on imports, exchange control, devaluation. What about trying, for a change, economy in Government expenditure and a new releasing e of the productive energies of the British people? General Election - Plymouth. 23.10.51. Home Park Football Ground Car park I am always glad to come to the West Country and here we hv the candidates for Totnes, Tavistock, Bodmin, Sutton, and as you will understand last but not least to me Devonport. The H/C will be the richer for the return or arrival of these capable, earnest and patriotic members. Let us ram them all home with a run. We can do it if we try. The P.M in his Broadcast dilated upon the increase of industrial production and improvements in National Health tt hv taken place in the 6 years since the War. "The health of the Nation is better," he says, "than ever before. "People are living longer. "Many fewer babies are dying than ever before." He claims tt the credit for this is due to the action of his Govt. But this is not ture true. The advance in productivity and in physical conditions is not due to socialism; it is Science not socialism tt has the honour of whatever has bn achieved. Every day seince science is bestowing in an ever widening flow upon mankind more material benefits than in any other period ever known. All the machinery and electric power and improved methods of production tt are at work, are not the results of politics. It was not the Soc Pty tt discovered Penicillin. M and B - that marvellous healer - does not stand for Morrison and Bevan. It was not the Socs who made possible the tireless advance in medicine and surgery. On the contrary it wd be more true to say tt the dose we hv had of Socialism has hampered and restricted the progress of science, and reduced the benefits wh the whole Nation might hv gained fm the tremendous conquest of natural forces wh is now being made all over the world, and wh, if world peace can be maintained, and I believe it can, be, may open to the whole human race an age of prosperity beyond their brightest hopes. One fifth of our industries hv bn nationalized. This is the part which is lagging behind. Our export trade by which we live, and the vast mass of our production which pays its way, is made by the other four-fifths on which Socialism has not yet laid its clumsy partisan and rigid grip. The free enterprise four-fifths pays for the Soc. errors and yet has enough so far to keep us going by a narrow margin alive The Socs hv no more right to claim the credit for the technical advance of this age of science than they hv for maintaining employment. Both are the result of world causes, and 2,000 million pounds in gifts and loans fm the capitalist U.S. A far richer harvest wd hv bn reaped by our hard-working people if they had not bn hampered by doctrinaire experiments, misguided planning, and astonishing financial mismanagement and waste. Of course everyone can say especially at election time, how much better we shd hv done it than the other chaps. But if the electors take a calm and sober view of how and where we stand this afternoon at home and in the world, surely there wd be vy few who wd not feel tt things wd be much better in Persia and Egypt if Mr. Eden had bn at the F.O. for the last 2 few years; and I think the housewives and the Old Age Pensioners and others living on fixed incomes, might well feel the pressure upon them was a good deal less if Lord Woolton had bn looking after our food supplies and if some check had bn imposed upon the wild extravagance w wh our limited finances hv bn dispersed. The Cons and Nat. Libs come before the electors as a united Party. In fact we are at once the least rigidly formally disciplined and the only united Party. We seek to preserve the old dignity of a member of the H of C wh Edmund Burke asserts ed in his former famous speeches. For 16 years my friend, Mr Eden, and I, whether in or out of office, hv worked together in close accord and on all the gt and changing issues of the foreign situation, whether before, during or since the war. We hv measured the Brit position in relation alike to our Allies and other countries w the same sense of values and the same guiding purpose. As I said at the Albert Hall a year ago, "Mr Eden will carry on the torch of Tory democracy when other and older hands hv let it fall" Mr Eden's recent visit to the U.S. was most helpful to our country. It did a lot to repair the damage to Anglo-American harmony wh had bn caused and is being caused by the constant attacks and criticisms of Mr. Bevan and Mr. Harold Wilson, the Dribergs, the Silvermans and the Foots - I hope that is grammar! Nothing cd be worse for our country and nothing cd be more injurious to the cause of world peace than for Mr Attlee to be returned, dependent upon a sham reconciliation betw the main body of the Soc Pty and the powerful and turbulent Left-Wing forces whom Mr. Bevan represents, and who, as he says are looking forward to the "luxury of a quarrel". The whole process of growing unity and confidence betw us and the gt Republic across the Atlantic Ocean wd be weakened. and our power to influence the course of American policy might be seriously impaired. I do not hesitate to say tt such a situation wd be prejudicial to the growing hopes of reaching a good working arrangement w Soviet Russia, by negotiation based upon the patient growing strength and living concord of the free world. This is not the time when we can afford either to weaken American comradeship or still more to lose our influence upon American thought based upon confidence and goodwill. I must now refer to a personal issue. The Socialists somewhat shamefacedly, and the Communists brazenly, make the charge tt I am a war monger. and tt shd the Cons. Pty gain a majority on Thursday the chances of a World War will be increased. This is a cruel and ungrateful accusation. It is the opposite of the truth. If I remain in public life at this juncture it is because, rightly or wrongly, but sincerely, I believe tt I may be able to make an important contribution to the prevention of a Third World War, and to the bringing nearer tt lasting peace settlement wh the masses of the people of ev race and in ev land fervently desire. I pray indeed tt I may hv this opportunity. It is the last prize I hv seek to win. I hv bn blessed w so much good fortune throughout my long life, and I am treated w so much kindn by my fellow countrymen far outside the ranks of Pty. and indeed also in the United.States. and in Europe, tt all the daydreams of my youth are satisfied have been surpassed. It is therefore w a single purpose and a strong sense of duty tt I remain at my post as Leader of the Cons. Pty through these baffling and anxious years. I applied the word "ungrateful" a moment ago to the slander by wh some of our opponents hope to gain advantage. I think it is the right word to use. It is quite true tt at a very dark moment in our history I was called upon to take the lead for more than 5 years of awful war, and tt I did my best until victory was won. But tt tt shd be made the ground as Mr. Shinwell suggests for saying tt I want to hv a Third World War to show off my talents, is base and shabby and mean beyond compare. Trusting as I do to the sense of justice and fairplay which inspires the Brit. race, I am sure tt these taunts and insults will recoil upon the heads of those who make them. We shall not hv very much longer to wait before we shall see what is the Brit. answer to tt is to all that. Now I leave the personal question and am only sorry to hv had to burden you w it. But the charge is also made tt the expected return of a Cons. Govt on Thursday next will increase the likelihood of a world war. This is also false, and also ungrateful. Mr Attlee's Govt in their 6 years of power hv taken many grave steps for national and international defence. They hv introduced conscription in time of peace. They hv taken part in a whole system of alliances to resist a possible aggression by Soviet Russia. They now call upon us to spend 5,000 millions in 3 years, on rearmament upon a vast scale. In all this the Cons Pty hv given them their effective support. We now know what were the adverse forces at work inside the Soc Pty. They came into the light of day when Mr. Bevan and his colleagues resigned, and received much prominence by the election of Mr. Bevan and his supporters to the head of the Soc. Executive at the Scarborough Conference. Is it not ungrateful as well as untruthful to turn upon those upon whose aid the Govt. hv depended, and accuse them of wishing to bring about another war? But there is one particular instance to which I must draw your attention. Mr. Attlee's Govt. hv agreed to the establishment of an enormous American air base in our Eastern Counties, which cd hv no other purpose than to bring home the threat of atomic war, as a deterrent to Russian aggression. Again we supported them. I must however say tt no more formidable step has bn taken in time of peace by any Govt. tt I can remember, nor one tt wd be more certain to put us in the front line shd war come. Is it not disgraceful tt they shd accuse us of being war-minded because we hv supported them in this as in other measures of defence on patriotic grounds? We can easily see what they wd hv done had the positions bn reversed and we bn responsible for proposing such measures. We hv only to look at Mr. Attlee's and Mr. Morrison's conduct before the late war in resisting every measure of rearmament and even in voting agst conscription a few months before the outbreak. And then they talked spoke of Mr Chamberlain just as about "Guilty men"! We ought to be proud tt our Pty record bears no such stain. But the fact tt because we hv acted fairly by them in these gt matters of national safety, and tt they shd new seek to make shameful capital out of our support, reaches a lower level than anything so far recorded in the public life of modern times. India There is one subject w wh I must deal though it is not in any way an issue at this election. Several Soc. speakers hv suggested tt if I had bn returned at the 1945 Election we shd hv bn involved in War w the peoples of India. This is quite untrue. I and my Cons. colleagues were all pledged to the granting to India of Dominion status carrying w it the right to secede fm the Brit. Emp. and Commonwealth. The only question open was how this transference of power was to be made. Mr. Attlee so conducted the process tt 5 hundred thousand innocent human beings were slaughtered in the Punjab alone and at least 2 or 3 hundred thousand more in other parts of the vast Indian peninsula. There is to say 3 or 4 times as many lives were destroyed by violent and avoidable butchery in India than were lost by the whole Brit. Emp. in the Second World War. Im I am astonished tt this shd be treated as a mere incident in the progress of Oriental liberation and self-Government. I am sure tt it wd hv bn possible to maintain law and order in India as we did in the face of the armed revolt of the Congress Pty at the time of the threat attempted of Japanese invasion without any serious diffi- culty; or bloodshed and tt a c Constituent a Assembly far more representative of all the real forces of Indian life than the Congress Pty cd hv shaped an Indian constitution and transfered the power to the new rulers of India. in an orderly manner without any serious loss of human life. This I count is arguable, but statements to the contrary are mere assertions. The vast human tragedy which occurred in the process of handing over is a fact for which I thank God I had no responsibility. I cannot leave this question without saying tt what has bn done in Idia India is irrevocable. It can no more be reversed than we can bring back fm the grave the myriads who hv perished. The Cons. Pty wishes the new India, Pakistan and Ceylon all success in their future, and will we shall show them all friendship and goodwill. But the burden wh rests upon the Soc. Govt. for the frightful catastrophe of slaughter is one wh only history can measure. The Soc Govt's responsibility is not tt of a criminal who throws a train off the line by sabotage, but rather that of a signalman who has pulled the levers in the wrong way or in the wrong order, and thus caused the disaster. While we debate and brawl demonstrate & argue among ourselves here at home events are moving all over the world. One must not suppose tt resistance to lawless outrages contrary to Treaty or other obligations by Powers morally and physically not in the first rank, raise the issues of a World War. A Third World War cd only come if the Soviet Govt calculated or miscalculated their chances of an ultimate victory and fell upon us all in violent in ferocious aggression. That is why I am hopeful about the future. If I were a Soviet Commissar in the Kremlin tonight looking at the scene fm their point of view I think I shd be inclined to hv a friendly talk w the leaders of the free world and see if something cd not be arranged wh enables us all to live together quietly for another generation. Who can look beyond that? However I hv not been chosen as a Soviet Commissar, - nor for any other office tt I can think of! There or here! But what I cannot understand is how any of the leaders of Soviet Russia or the United States or here in Britain or France or in United Europe or anywhere else cd possibly imagine tt their interests cd be bettered by having an unlimited series of frightful immeasurable explosions. For another World War wd not be like the Crusades or the dramatic romantic struggles we hv known in the past read about in former centuries. It wd be nothing less than a wholesale massacre of human beings whether in uniform or out of uniform by the hideous forces of perverted science. Science, wh now offers us a Golden Age, with mankind offers at the same time w the other hand the doom of all tt we hv built up inch by inch since the Stone Age. My faith is in the high progressive destiny of man. I do not believe we are to be flung back into abyssmal darkness by those gleaming fearsome discoveries wh human genius has made. Let us make sure tt they are our servants but not our masters. Let us hold fast to the three supreme purposes. The freedom of the individual man in an ordered society; a world organization to prevent bloody quarrels betw nations by the rule of law; and for ourselves who hv played so gt a part in what I called 'our finest hour', to keep our own50 millions alive in a small island at the high level of progressive civilization wh they hv attained. Those are the 3 goals. To reach them we hv first to regain our independence financially, economically and morally. If we are to play our part in the greater affairs of the free world we hv to gather around us our Empire and the states of the Brit. Commonwealth and bind them ever more closely together. We hv to give our hand generously, wholeheartedly, to our Allies across the Atlantic Ocean, upon whose strength and wisdom the salvation of the world at this moment may well depend. Joined w them in fraternal association, drawn and held together by our common language and our joint inheritance of literature and custom, we may save ourselves and save the world. We support the Govt's belated policy of firmness in Egypt. If we become responsible we sh go on w it firmly and resolutely. But if even 6 months ago they had taken the advice I gave in Parlt, and approached the problems of the Mid. East on the 3-Power or 4-Power basis, as they hv now at last done, how differently might all the Persian and Egyptian situations hv bn unravelled. We are no longer strong enough ourselves alone to protect the rule of law in these important regions. That was the reason why I thought we shd much earlier hv tried to bring the U.S. into our Middle Eastern problems. I hv used every channel open to me to impress upon our American friends how much more important what is happening in the Middle East is to the cause of world peace even than the stern struggle wh is still open on the Peninsula promontory of Korea. I am sure tt if even 6 months ago Britain, the U.S., and France, w Turkey by all means, had developed a united policy in regard to Persia, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine and Syria, none of the present unsolved embarrassments wd hv arisen. Without any question of world war for the free nations, no needless loss and humiliation wd hv bn inflicted upon John Bull. We readily admit recognise the difficulties and tangles of the Middle Eastern scene. No doubt the murder of the Persian P.M. was a disastrous surprise for the Brit. Govt, but a wider and more far-seeing view wd hv brought into action at an earlier stage these larger groupings wh now all are working for, and through wh much better solutions for all, including the Persians and the Egyptians, might hv bn, and may still be achieved. We are now at the final stage in this fateful election. Whatever happens on Thursday we must all hope tt we get a stable solid Govt and get out of this exhausting and distracting electioneering atmosphere, where all the forces of 2 gt Pty machines hv to go on working in every street and in every village week after week, to try to range the Brit people in opposing ranks. This is indeed a crisis in our island story. Never before in peace time did we have so much need to judge policy on the merits and act in the true interests of our country, and of its Empire and Commonwealth of Nations. To go like we hv for the last 2 years or so 20 months w .....a Govt struggling to keep its head above water fm day to day and thinking of its Party chances and of an election wh might wh may come at any moment, is to give all tt is strong and noble and resurgent in Britain the heaviest load to carry and the hardest battle to win. It is not my fault, nor indeed is it Mr. Attlee's entirely, tt we hv had this prolonged period of uncertainty. He had a majority of 6 7 at the last election. The burden fell on him and on his Party. It is indeed remarkable tt under these conditions we hv not fallen lower more. But we hv only to go on indefinitely absorbed in our Party quarrels to use up so much of our vitality and are to be written down so low much in world repute. tt our influence upon events may well become almost negligible. Terrible decisions tt wd immediately affect our whole lives may be taken by others at a time when we seem to count little more than many of the smaller States of Europe whom we liberated after the gt struggle. We cannot afford to go on like this. Here now is the main point I make to you and indeed to all Parties. Bear in mind tt we ought to hv a strong and stable Govt resting on a majority tt can uphold the responsibilities and burdens of Britain in the world for 3 or 4 years at least. The other point wh I submit to you for your judgement and your vote is whether it is not time for a change? Ought there not to be an approach to world problems and home problems fm a new angle, a new point of view? The Govt is wearied and worn out. Its leading Ministers hv borne nearly 12 years of stress. They hv no message to give. Their principal figures, the late Mr. Bevin and Sir Stafford Cripps, are no longer on the scene. Let me say how glad I am to see the recovery of health tt Sir S. Cripps is making. And in this mood let me tell you how much I look forward to the time when this loud clatter and turmoil of Party strife dies down for a spell and gives us a good, long, steady period in wh the opposing Parties may be able to see some of each other's virtues instead of harping on each other's faults. The Brit people are good all through. We face the same toils and perils. We share many of the same desires and anxieties. We are in many ways more truly one nation than can be found the wide world over o'er. Let us rise to our full height above class and party interests, and guard w growing comradeship and brotherhood the land of hope and glory we all love so well.