The Land of Might-Have-Been: 1936, chapter one, part four.

 

A Very British Coup in the Making,

October-November 1936.

During the next two months, few photographs of the King and Mrs Simpson on the Nahlin Cruise were published in Britain, but in other countries, particularly America, the pictures caused public comment. Twice after his return from the cruise, King Edward saw to it that Mrs Simpson’s name was printed in the Court Circular; once at a dinner party which Mr and Mrs Baldwin attended, the other on the arrival of Mrs Simpson with some guests at Balmoral (above). On 20th October, Baldwin had gone to see the King on his own initiative to tell him of the growing alarm at rumours which would, he thought, damage the Crown. It was not just a matter of the King’s affection for a woman who already had one divorced husband living, and was in the process of divorcing her second. There were also constitutional issues, not least about the King’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. These rumours had spread to the general British public, despite the fact that the British press had still not published either text or photographs.

On October 27th, a decree nisi was granted to the Simpsons at Ipswich Assizes, but only small photographs appeared in the British Press reporting the event. The Times gave the story twelve lines, and the Morning Post and Daily Telegraph followed suit. Wallis would be free to marry Edward as soon as the decree was made absolute the following April. The problem was that, as King and therefore, also, Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith, Edward VIII was not free to marry her, or so it seemed.

That same evening, Alec Hardinge dined with the Duke of York, no doubt advising him that his cabal was ready to pass the crown to him should his brother announce his engagement to Mrs Simpson. Perhaps almost simultaneously, the King was presenting Mrs Simpson with a magnificent engagement ring from Cartier, a Mogul emerald set in platinum, engraved on the back, ‘WE (Wallis joined with Edward) are ours now’.  Harold Nicholson heard rumours about their engagement, together with the suggestion that Wallis would be made Duchess of Edinburgh. The American press was already announcing the engagement, but Edward still controlled the British press, and it remained silent on the matter. The engagement was also kept secret by the couple, with Wallis telling lies about their intentions as late as 18th November. It was this deliberate deception which turned moderates like Nicholson against them. He also judged that public opinion would soon do the same:

The Upper classes mind her being an American more than they mind her being divorced. The lower classes do not mind her being an American but loathe the idea that she has had two husbands already.

Edward was alerted to the extent of constitutional opposition to his marriage by a letter from Hardinge, urging him to send Wallis abroad. This had been written by the cabal, as Susan Williams has recently shown. Chamberlain viewed the letter as a means, not just of forcing Edward VIII’s abdication, but also Baldwin’s retirement in his favour. Baldwin had suggested to him that he might continue until after the Coronation, planned for the following May. Together with the letter, Chamberlain had drafted a Memorandum of Censure which he wanted to send after Hardinge’s letter. This was an ultimatum requiring the King to end his relationship with Mrs Simpson, or abdicate. It also threatened that, if he did neither, the press silence would cease: Dawson had already drafted his leading article. Chamberlain had ‘induced the PM to call a few colleagues together’ to discuss the situation, having prepared everything in advance. However, Baldwin was also well-briefed, and rejected the plan, which he later told his former Cabinet Secretary Tom Jones would have risked disaster at that stage, with the King refusing point-blank. Worse still, it would force the government’s resignation and a general election on the issue. If, as seemed likely, the product was a hung parliament, the King might decide to form his own government of those loyal to his rule, in effect a dictatorship. This argument forced  Chamberlain’s allies back into line and Baldwin regained control over the developing crisis. On Friday 13th November, he gave instructions that  Alec Hardinge’s letter be sent to the King. The letter warned that the silence of the British press could not be maintained indefinitely and that, when the story broke, it might well force the government’s resignation over the issue, resulting in Your Majesty having to find someone capable of forming a government that would have the support of the House of Commons. Given the current feeling in the House, there was little chance of this. The only alternative was, Hardinge told the King, for Mrs Simpson to go abroad without further delay.

The King returned to the Fort from a successful two-day visit to the Home Fleet, anchored off Portland, which had made him more popular than ever in the armed forces.. Hardinge’s letter was waiting for him, and he was not pleased with what he read. He immediately ceased to use Hardinge as a trusted channel to the PM. Having discussed the situation with Wallis over the weekend, Edward summoned Baldwin to the Fort for a second meeting. So, on 16th November, Edward saw Baldwin again and told the PM: “I am going to marry Mrs. Simpson and I am prepared to go.” Baldwin replied that he needed time to consult with his Cabinet colleagues. Back at the Commons that night, a relieved PM told Ramsay MacDonald the news, before breaking it to the King’s one ally in the Cabinet, Duff Cooper. He added that Prince Albert was better suited to the job and would do it just like his father. The King joined his mother, Queen Mary, for dinner, after which he told her of his intention to marry Wallis and, if necessary, to abdicate.

Following his meeting with the Prime Minister, the next day the King boarded a train for Paddington, from where he travelled to South Wales for a tour of the distressed areas, including the Rhondda, Merthyr Tydfil and the Monmouthshire valleys. Though Chamberlain’s budget speech in the Spring of 1936 had represented an important departure in public policy, it did not mark a wholesale shift in government thinking, nor did it have any immediate, radical effects. In fact, though the increasingly dangerous international situation created a nervousness about the excessive concentration of the population in the Midlands and the South East of England, it also created increased demand for labour in the industries which were responsible for rearmament and which were concentrated in these areas of the country. Nonetheless, there was a detectable change of tone in Malcolm Stewart’s third report of November 1936, which contained an acknowledgement of the negative effects of transference upon the Special Areas and promised inducements to attract new industries. However, the Commissioner continued to stress the need for the transference scheme to continue:

The establishment of industries in the Areas on an effective scale will take time. Meanwhile, to fail to help the youths and younger generation of the unemployed to districts offering better opportunities would be to neglect their best interests; they must not wait idly until they are absorbed locally. The question of future increased local requirements of labour must wait to be dealt with until it becomes a practical issue.

Nevertheless, both the establishment of new industries and recovery in the coal mines would still leave a residual problem of unemployment among older men. The proportion of older men among the unemployed was greater in communities like Dowlais, in Merthyr Tydfil, where nearly 67% were over thirty-four in 1936, 46% over forty-five.

It was against this backdrop that Edward VIII’s visit to South Wales was announced in October 1936. The growing nervousness in government circles prompted by the Jarrow Crusade and the impending constitutional crisis, in turn led Captain Ellis of the National Council of Social Service to warn against the visit, planned for mid-November. This was when the revised code of regulations for men on transitional benefits, who had exhausted their right to unemployment benefit, was to come into effect. Ellis penned the following letter to Godfrey Thomas at Buckingham Palace on October 12^th:

I feel bound to say first that I think the date is ill-chosen. The new UAB (Unemployment Assistance Board) regulations come into force on (November) 16th. On the whole they tend to affect South Wales more than most places, and it is extremely likely that between the 16th and 19th, which is the first day, there will be a great deal of demonstration against them. It seems to me that if that time is chosen for a visit of the King, the agitators will say that his visit is intended to distract attention from the regulations, and to mark by Royal approval what is being done by the Ministry of Labour and other bodies. His visit will then be given for the first time a political significance…When Tom Jones saw the announcement of the date in the paper, he asked me to tell you that he felt very strongly that the King should not be taken to South Wales during that week.

Tom Jones was not only Baldwin’s former Cabinet Secretary and close advisor, but also now the Secretary of the Pilgrim Trust, the American philanthropic foundation that was funding much of the relief work among the unemployed which government did not yet undertake, in an era before the creation of the welfare state in Britain. These three ‘establishment’ Welshmen were key figures among those who tried to keep control over events in the distressed area, by loosening the purse strings through providing charitable funds for ameliorative projects for the unemployed. There was some basis in evidence for their apprehensions. In August the Merthyr Unemployed Lodge of the South Wales Miners’ Federation (SWMF) had demanded a one-day strike, a march on London and a ‘monster petition’ of the whole of South Wales in the campaign against the new regulations. Later the same month the Dowlais Unemployed Lodge had decided to join the boycott of the Coronation celebrations. Moreover, earlier in 1936, the Communist Party had won the leadership of the miners and their powerful ‘Fed’ by getting Arthur Horner elected as General Secretary. Despite this, relations between the Unemployed Lodges and the Communist Party were not always easy, even where the issue of Spanish Aid was concerned. This was the case in Dowlais.

Refusing to heed the warnings of Tom Jones, Edward chose to go ahead with his visit. Its purpose was to show the King’s continuing commitment to the plight of the unemployed, first expressed during his visit in 1929, when he was still Prince of Wales. On this occasion, the King had also commanded that Malcolm Stewart be present the next evening in his dining car so that he could get a more comprehensive picture of the problem. Stewart had just resigned due to the government’s failure to give him the resources to do his job of attracting new industries to the area, and his third report, just published (as detailed above), contained greater criticism of current measures to tackle unemployment than his first two had done. The Labour Party had also announced the setting up of its own Commission of Enquiry into the Distressed Areas on the first day of his visit, with a preliminary Conference to be held in Cardiff that December. Although also charged with investigating West Cumberland, Durham and the North-East Coast, Mid Scotland and Lancashire, its top priority was South Wales. Edward was entering an area of his kingdom which was generating acute political sensitivity, both within itself and among the metropolitan establishment, and at a time which was also acutely sensitive for the monarchy.