Who 'betrayed' whom? Power and politics in the 1920/21 agricultural crisis

Agricultural History Review

Volumn 45, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 176-194

  Penning Rowsell, Edmund C ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 1642474695     PISSN: 00021490     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (106)

1. E Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire, 1968, p 199.
2. The government did intervene once in the 1920S in the case of sugar-beet, which received a growers' subsidy from 1926 under the British Sugar Subsidy Act 1925.
3. See Edmund Penning-Rowsell, 'The rhetoric and reality of the 'Great Betrayal': British government and agriculture 1917-1922', unpublished Middlesex University MA thesis, 1985.
4. S Pollard, The Development of the British Economy 1914-67, 1969. p 141.
5. For important texts on key agricultural issues in this period see A F Cooper, British Agricultural Policy 1912-36: A Study in Conservative Politics, Manchester, 1989; R Perren, Agriculture in Depression, 1870-1940, 1995; G Robinson, Agricultural Change: Geographical Studies of British Agriculture, Edinburgh, 1988.
6. For important texts on key agricultural issues in this period see A F Cooper, British Agricultural Policy 1912-36: A Study in Conservative Politics, Manchester, 1989; R Perren, Agriculture in Depression, 1870-1940, 1995; G Robinson, Agricultural Change: Geographical Studies of British Agriculture, Edinburgh, 1988.
7. For important texts on key agricultural issues in this period see A F Cooper, British Agricultural Policy 1912-36: A Study in Conservative Politics, Manchester, 1989; R Perren, Agriculture in Depression, 1870-1940, 1995; G Robinson, Agricultural Change: Geographical Studies of British Agriculture, Edinburgh, 1988.
8. See, for example, W H Beveridge, British Food Control, 1928; Lord Ernle, English Farming, Past and Present, 6th ed, 1961; E H Whetham, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Volume 8: 1914-1939, 1978; FML Thompson, English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century, 1963.
9. See, for example, W H Beveridge, British Food Control, 1928; Lord Ernle, English Farming, Past and Present, 6th ed, 1961; E H Whetham, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Volume 8: 1914-1939, 1978; FML Thompson, English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century, 1963.
10. See, for example, W H Beveridge, British Food Control, 1928; Lord Ernle, English Farming, Past and Present, 6th ed, 1961; E H Whetham, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Volume 8: 1914-1939, 1978; FML Thompson, English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century, 1963.
11. See, for example, W H Beveridge, British Food Control, 1928; Lord Ernle, English Farming, Past and Present, 6th ed, 1961; E H Whetham, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Volume 8: 1914-1939, 1978; FML Thompson, English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century, 1963.
12. Beveridge, Food Control, p 2.
13. Ibid, p 342.
14. Whetham, Agrarian History, p 92.
15. Ibid, p 96.
16. Ibid, p 95.
17. But see the reservations, based on more recent research, in P Dewey, British Agriculture in the First World War, 1989.
18. Whetham, Agrarian History.
19. D Lloyd George. War Memoirs, III, 1934, pp 1269 and 1322.
20. Bevendge, Food Control, p 295.
21. Thompson, Landed Society. The effect of the land purchases was probably small, but it would be difficult to separate this from the general trend.
22. Pollard, British Economy.
23. R R Enfield, The Agricultural Crisis 1920-23, 1924.
24. F E Green, The Agricultural Labourer: 1870-1920, 1927, p 6.
25. The archives of the NFU, the CLA and the NUAW are held at the Institute of Agricultural History at the University of Reading (hereafter IAH). In the cases of the NFU and the NUAW these archives are extensive and yet almost entirely neglected by agricultural historians despite containing much valuable information on the processes and politics of agricultural policy change. They have considerable potential for further research.
26. PRO, CAB/CP, 2247.
27. PRO, CAB/CP, 2631.
28. PRO, CAB/CP, 2283.
29. As indicated the royal commission had been asked specifically to examine the question of cereal prices and had advocated certain guaranteed prices as part of its plan for the control of agriculture. This plan was accepted by the government, and the prices had been written into the Agriculture Act 1920.
30. PRO, CAB 73/73/71/20, pp 245-7.
31. The guaranteed prices were linked to input costs with the effect that as input costs rose so did the guaranteed prices, thus creating the circumstances where market prices would be lower than the guaranteed prices and these would then become payable.
32. PRO, MAF/48/235, document signed 'RJS,' dated 19 March 1921.
33. We are very fortunate to have a key archive of surviving material collected personally by Floud, who was Permanent Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture at the time; the file perhaps only survives because he had the papers bound into a single volume (PRO, MAF/48/235). This material was apparently missed by both E H Whetham, 'The Agriculture Act 1920 and its repeal - the "Great Betrayal" AHR, 20, 1974, pp 36-49, and A F Cooper, 'The transformation of agricultural policy 1912-36: a study in conservative politics', unpublished University of Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1980. The former appears to rely almost entirely on just the formal Cabinet papers.
34. We are very fortunate to have a key archive of surviving material collected personally by Floud, who was Permanent Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture at the time; the file perhaps only survives because he had the papers bound into a single volume (PRO, MAF/48/235). This material was apparently missed by both E H Whetham, 'The Agriculture Act 1920 and its repeal - the "Great Betrayal" AHR, 20, 1974, pp 36-49, and A F Cooper, 'The transformation of agricultural policy 1912-36: a study in conservative politics', unpublished University of Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1980. The former appears to rely almost entirely on just the formal Cabinet papers.
35. PRO, MAF/48/235/10, 5 May 1921.
36. Ibid, p 8. The context was, of course, the governments's refusal to subsidize coal production.
37. Ibid, p 10. The overall aim of the interventionist policy was to raise home production to increase self-sufficiency.
38. PRO, Lloyd George papers, vol V, 3 May 1921.
39. PRO, MAF/48/135/14.
40. PRO, MAF/48/235/21.
41. Ibid, p 22.
42. PRO, MAF/48/235/23.
43. PRO, MAF/48/235/36.
44. PRO, MAF/48/235/letter dated 23 May 1921.
45. Hansard, 4 July 1921, col 70.
46. Hansard, 5 July 1921, cols 91 and 107.
47. Ibid, col 294.
48. A Boscawen (later Griffith-Boscawen), Memories, 1925, pp 234-5.
49. Whetham, Agrarian History, ch 8.
50. The full set of minutes include those of the council (IAH, NFU/3), the all-important general purposes committee (IAH, NFU/23), the organization committee (IAH, NFU/28 & 29), the legal committee (IAH, NFU/34), the labour committee (IAH, NFU/36) and the parliamentary and press and publicity committee (IAH, NFU/31). To date their use by agricultural historians appears to have been minimal.
51. IAH, NFU/137.
52. IAH, NFU/3, Report of 24 Nov 1921.
53. IAH. NFU/3, 14 Aug 1921. Note that there is no direct archival record for this first approach and contact.
54. PRO, MAF/53/12/14: IAH, NFU/3, 22 June 1921.
55. IAH, NUAW/13/D/II/1, p 103.
56. PRO, MAF/53/14/2.
57. Ibid, p 3.
58. This is a revealing comment: he clearly means farming interests. not the government's interests.
59. PRO, MAF/53/14/3.
60. The Secretary of State for Scotland.
61. PRO, MAF/53/14/3.
62. Ibid, pp 3 and 6.
63. Ibid, p 4. Note again the use of 'we' (presumably referring to Munro and Boscawen) as well as 'the government'.
64. Ibid, p 7.
65. Ibid, p 8.
66. IAH, NFU/3, 22 June 1921.
67. Ibid.
68. IAH, NFU/137, 8 Aug 1921.
69. IAH, NFU/137, 14 July 1921.
70. PRO, MAF/53/12/14.
71. IAH, NFU/3, 22 June 1921. Only small landowners were eligible for membership of the NFU. Estate owners joined the less influential Country Landowners' Association.
72. IAH, NFU/36, 14 July 1921.
73. IAH, NFU/3, report of 24 Nov 1921.
74. IAH, NFU/34.
75. IAH, NFU/3, 24 Aug 1921.
76. Ibid.
77. IAH, NUAW/B/I/5; B/II 2 and 3; B/III 1 and 2.
78. IAH, NUAW/D/II/3.38, unattnbuted newspaper cutting.
79. Land Worker, May 1921, p 13.
80. IAH, NUAW/D/II/11 Jan 1921.
81. Land Worker, March 1921, p 1.
82. Daily Herald, 5 April 1921.
83. Land Worker, February 1921, p 1.
84. Ibid.
85. PRO, MAF/53/12/15. The date of this important meeting was 7 June 1921.
86. Ibid.
87. Ibid. See also the union president, W R Smith, writing in the Daily Herald, 23 June 1921: the threat of industrial dispute was real, but he 'hoped that it would not be necessary to resort to direct action although at the same time the conditions of the farm worker had got to be maintained'.
88. Ibid. See also the union president, W R Smith, writing in the Daily Herald, 23 June 1921: the threat of industrial dispute was real, but he 'hoped that it would not be necessary to resort to direct action although at the same time the conditions of the farm worker had got to be maintained'.
89. Star, 18 June 1921.
90. Penning-Rowsell, 'Rhetoric and reality', appendix 4.4: letters from R B Walker to branch secretaries and organizers dated 9 and 14 June 1921 respectively. Copies also in IAH, MUAW/D/II/1, 2 and 3.
91. G Dallas, Farm Workers: Greatest Betrayal. An Exposure of the Coalition Government, Triumph of Labour Pamphlets No 2, undated (but the Agriculture Act 1920 'has not been quite six months on the Statute Book' so the date is early June 1921).
92. Sussex Daily News, 23 June 1921.
93. IAH, NUAW/D/II/47.
94. Western Daily Press, Letter, 8 July 1921.
95. West Gazette, Letter, 9 June 1921.
96. Norfolk Chronicle, Letter from Walker, 1 or 2 July 1921.
97. Preston Guardian, 23 July 1921. ]
98. Ibid.
99. Whetham, 'The Agricultural Act 1920', pp 36-49.
100. Thompson, Landed Society, p 331; J Stevenson, British Society 1914-45, 1984, P 333.
101. Thompson, Landed Society, p 331; J Stevenson, British Society 1914-45, 1984, P 333.
102. Robinson, Agricultural Change, pp 146-7.
103. Cooper, 'The transformation of agricultural policy', ch 3; idem, 'Another look at the "Great Betrayal",' AH, 60, 1986, pp 80-104; idem, British Agricultural Policy, p 43.
104. Cooper, 'The transformation of agricultural policy', ch 3; idem, 'Another look at the "Great Betrayal",' AH, 60, 1986, pp 80-104; idem, British Agricultural Policy, p 43.
105. Cooper, 'The transformation of agricultural policy', ch 3; idem, 'Another look at the "Great Betrayal",' AH, 60, 1986, pp 80-104; idem, British Agricultural Policy, p 43.
106. Perren, Agriculture in Depression, p 39.