Tag: 100 Years Ago

4 JULY 1924

The second reading of the Seditious and Blasphemous Teaching to Children Bill was agreed to in the House of Lords, and the House also disposed of the Commons amendment to the Prevention of Eviction Bill.

Scottish Estimates were discussed in the House of Commons. On the vote for agriculture the Secretary for Scotland said that one of the most gratifying features of the Scottish Board’s work had been the response of agriculturists to the proposals for research. But millions of pounds were lost to the farmer annually because of the determined individualism of his methods of buying and selling. He urged farmers to prepare for continued competition from abroad by organisation at home.

A Paris telegram says that French opinion is beginning to concentrate, not without anxiety, upon the forthcoming Allied Conference in London.

Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, who is touring his constituency (the Aberavon Division), spoke hopefully of the coming Allied Conference, and said that one thing which the Labour Government had given the country during their five months of office was honest administration.

Notwithstanding the decision of the building employers to withdraw the lock-out notices, the operatives resolved to adhere to their decision to strike to-morrow failing an increase of wages and provision for a guaranteed week.

At the Congress of the Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire in London a resolution was carried – only some half-dozen delegates voting against it – urging the adoption of a liberal and generous Inter-Imperial Preference, as most desirable for furthering Imperial development and attaining the ideal of eventual freedom of trade within the Empire.

3 JULY 1924

The building trades employers have decided to postpone posting lock-out notices for a week, pending the proposed Court of Inquiry.

The Cabinet, acting on the advice of the Committee of Imperial Defence, have decided against the Channel Tunnel scheme.

The Reorganisation of Offices (Scotland) Bill, the object of which is to give statutory authority to arrangements which have been made for altering the constitution of certain public offices in Scotland, passed second reading in the House of Lords.

The Committee stage of the Finance Bill was continued in the House of Commons, with discussion chiefly on clauses relating to Income Tax.

General Hertzog, the new South African Premier, in a speech at Pretoria, said that Great Britain should and always would be, as far as he and his Government were concerned, their first and chief friend. They were in the midst of an industrial epoch in their history. To develop their industries would be in consonance with the motto, “South Africa First.”

A special correspondent at Ottawa, in an article on Canada and the Lausanne Treaty, refers to the demands of the Dominions for a fuller share of control of foreign policy, and to the suggestion of Mr Ramsay MacDonald that the whole question should be investigated by a Royal Commission. Our correspondent says that the development of the British Prime Minister’s detailed views will be awaited with great interest in Canada.

2 JULY 1924

The Public Health (Scotland) Amendment Bill, the object of which is to enable Public Health Authorities in Scotland to assist necessitous persons in obtaining insulin treatment for diabetes, and to provide medicines for sufferers from other diseases, was read a second time in the House of Commons.

An announcement that the report of the Departmental Committee on Taxation and Regulation of Road Vehicles, dealing with the existing system of motor taxation, will be soon available was made in the House of Commons by the Minister of Transport. The signatories of the main report, he said, had arrived at the conclusion that no method of administering the motor spirit duty could be contrived which would not inflict grave inconvenience, or which could be relied upon as a revenue yielder.

Interesting revelations of foreign policy are contained in a Blue book giving the history of the negotiations for an Anglo-French Pact.

Further efforts will be made to-day to avoid a lock-out in the building industry, and in the event of neither side being able to make a concession which would form the basis of joint negotiations, the Minister of Labour states that he will make a suggestion which might provide a way out of the deadlock. The suggestion is understood to mean the reference of the dispute to a Court of Inquiry.

At the World Power Conference at Wembley, the power resources of the British Empire and the United States were discussed.

1 JULY 1924

The German Government, in their note acceding to the Allies’ demand for an inspection of German armaments, declare that Germany is reduced to a state of complete lack of military armament without parallel in the history of nations. “This”, says the note, “is why the German people is quite unable to understand that any fear should be entertained that such a Germany constitutes a menace to the peace of Europe, and that more apprehension is not felt on account of the fact that the idea of general disarmament has hitherto made no appreciable progress among other nations”.

The Bishop of Oxford’s Liquor (Popular Control) Bill, which proposes Local Option for England, was discussed in the House of Lords on second reading.

The House of Commons was occupied with the Committee stage of the Finance Bill, and inflected upon the Government their seventh defeat, carrying by 220 votes to 165 an amendment, which the Chancellor resisted, exempting from duty entertainments on behalf of philanthropic, charitable and educational objects.

Answering questions in Parliament about the Sudan, the Prime Minister regretted that statements had been made in Egypt, and action taken to create trouble in the Sudan which could only be explained as an attempt to force his hands.

30 JUNE 1924

Saad Zaghloul Pasha, the Egyptian Premier, made a declaration in the Chamber regarding Egypt’s claim to the Sudan, which, he said, they could never abandon. He expressed disappointment at the attitude of the British Government, and said he could not negotiate on their basis. Saad Zaghloul Pasha announced his resignation of the Premiership, but King Fuad refused to accept it.

By 456 votes to 26, the French Chamber voted the Ruhr credits. 43 socialists voted for the Government, whilst 61 abstained.

The new French Government have announced their principal proposals in regard to the amnesty to be granted to French subjects sentenced for military offences during the war.

General Hertzog encountered difficulties in the formation of a South African Cabinet.

29 JUNE 1924

The Soviet and British Governments failed to reach agreement regarding the repayment of bearer bonds which had been issued both after and before the 1917 Russian Revolution.

A deficit of £316,276 on the London County Council tramways is estimated for the year 1924-1925, and in the past 12 years the net loss has been over £1 million.

28 JUNE 1924

Speaking at a luncheon given by the Manchester Branch of the Federation of British Industries, David Lloyd George said he welcomed the announcement that there was to be a Governmental inquiry into the condition of trade. He discussed the prospects of British trade, and expressed his confidence in the British manufacturer and workmen.

A deputation of the National Federation of Building Operatives informed the Minister of Labour that they declined to meet the employers until the lock-out notices had been withdrawn.

It is stated in a Berlin telegram that the German Government will accept unconditionally the terms of the Allied Note regarding military control.

Saad Zaghloul Pasha, the Egyptian Premier, has expressed great disappointment with the British Government’s declaration regarding the Sudan.

The Portuguese Cabinet has resigned.

27 JUNE 1924

Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, denied in the House of Commons certain newspaper reports which represented that at the recent Chequers meeting with M. Herriot assurance had been given that in the event of France being attacked by Germany, Britain would again be on the side of France and Belgium. Some of the statement, he said, were particularly mischievous.

In a statement in the House of Commons on the question of an Irish Minister-Plenipotentiary at Washington, the Secretary for the Colonies said the demand of people in both countries for a Republic for Ireland would receive the same reply from the present British Government as the latter believed it would have received from either of the two Governments which had been in office since the signing of the Treaty.

A discussion of recent disputes, with particular reference to the strike on the London Underground Railways, took place in the House of Commons on a Vote for the Ministry of Labour. The Government declined to order an inquiry into the causes, and though expressing disapproval of unauthorised stoppages, held that their powers for dealing with such situations are sufficient.

26 JUNE 1924

What the Marquis Curzon described as an “unequivocal, uncompromising and thoroughly satisfactory statement” was made in the House of Lords by Lord Parmoor, who in reply to questions declared that the Government were not going to abandon the Sudan, regarding their obligations towards the Sudanese as of such a character that they could not be abandoned without serious loss of prestige.

The Government’s scheme to meet the thrift disqualification grievance of old age pensioners was explained in the House of Commons by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the appropriate financial resolution.

Developments took place in the building trade dispute. The operatives decided to accept the employers’ challenge, and to allow the lock-out decision to take its course. The employers, on the other hand, agreed, on the suggestion of the Minister of Labour, again to meet the operatives.

25 JUNE 1924

The British Ambassador and the French Charge d’Affaires presented to the German Chancellor a personal message from the British and French Prime Ministers regarding “most disquieting reports” of the increasing activities of the Nationalist and Militarist Associations. It is obviously to the interest of the German Government, states the message, that the real facts regarding Germany’s disarmament should be thoroughly established.

Great enthusiasm marked the opening proceedings of the US Democratic Convention in New York, at which candidates were nominated for the Presidency and the Vice Presidency of the United States.

Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, visited Glasgow, and was presented with the Freedom of the City, an honour which he shared with Sir Donald MacAlister, the Principal of the University.

There was a hand to hand fight between Deputies in the German Reichstag.

Benito Mussolini, in a speech in the Senate, referred to the Matteotti affair. The National Militia are to be demobilised at once.