East Fulham Revisited

You will remember the election at Fulham,' said Baldwin in his speech of appalling frankness in the House of Commons on 12 November 1936. Baldwin himself evidently did not remember it very well, for he continued; 'when a seat which the National Government held was lost by about 7000 votes' (the correct figure was 4840). Most important, he said the seat was lost 'on no issue but the pacifist', and used this interpretation of the East Fulham election as a central feature of his apologia for his handling of rearmament. He amplified his description by saying: 'You will remember perhaps about the National Government candidate who made a most guarded reference to the question of defence was mobbed for it. That was the feeling in the country in 1933. My position as a leader of a great party was not altogether a comfortable one. I asked myself what chance was there when that feeling that was given expression to in Fulham was common throughout the country what chance was there within the next year or two of that feeling being so changed that the country would give a mandate for rearmament ? Supposing I had gone to the country and said that Germany was rearming and we must rearm, does anybody think that this pacific democracy would have rallied to that cry at that moment ? I cannot think of anything that would have made the loss of the election from my point of view more certain

Ancient history · Political science · History · Irish and British Studies · Political and Economic history of UK and US · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

• Public Opinion and Historians

  Open Access•D George Boyce•History•1978

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• Reinventing tradition

  Lawrence N Powell, Lawrence Powell•Slavery and Abolition•1999

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• Pacifism and Politics in Britain, 1931–1935

  Open Access•Michael Pugh•The Historical Journal•1980

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