The Great War

As ministers made their way through cheering crowds to hear Asquith tell an enthusiastic Commons that Britain was at war with Germany, they sensed that they enjoyed the backing of most of their fellow countrymen. ‘Peace resistance’ melted away almost overnight. The ILP directed a greeting of sympathy ‘across the roar of the guns’ towards its German comrades, but the international solidarity of the working class proved to be little more than a slogan. Ramsay MacDonald, critical to the end of Grey’s foreign policy, resigned as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, to be replaced by Arthur Henderson, who, like his counterparts abroad, voted war credits and offered the government his patriotic support. Most suffragists, the WSPU as well as the majority of the NUWSS, rallied behind the war effort. Though reservations abounded, those who harboured them deemed it prudent, for the time being, to maintain a public silence.

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