There were no elections or plebiscites in Palestine nor other territories
seized by the British and French during the Great War, nor in those seized
from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Invented “nations” Czechoslovakia
and Yugoslavia have fallen apart more than once and the Britain’s
purported justification for involvement in the war “the self-determination
of nations” was exposed as a sham.
In fact the most powerful men in Britain had secretly determined on the
destruction of Germany from 1904 and in 1911, jointly with France planned
the timetable for the deployment of an expeditionary army force in France
which was executed to the second in 1914. It was intended that Britain’s
Navy would be its main armed force and that Russian and French troops
would steamroller the German Army. Conscription was not contemplated.
Russia was offered Constantinople. Britain had allied herself with the
Ottoman Empire in the Crimean war to deny Constantinople to Russia.
During the Great war she had threatened to bombard both Athens and
Constantinople and attempted to bribe the Greeks with the offer of Cyprus
in a vain attempt to drag Greece into the bloodbath.
Like Mae West’s Mink Coat, “Goodness had Nothing to Do” with British policy
in the Great, or any other war.
The Political Diaries of C.P. Scott, published in 1961, thirty years after his death, make the above remarks unchallengable. A former Liberal MP, Editor of the Manchester Guardian for 57 years and owner for 25, Scott was like the proverbial Doctor’s Daughter who knew All The Men That Mattered. In these Islands and much of the rest of the world.
Probably the most (or only?) ethical British Prime Minister in history, Henry Campbell Bannerman, led the Liberal Party to election victory in 1906. His party took over 400 seats, without needing support from Irish or Labour members.
The Unionists/Conservatives were routed, left with just 156 votes. The Prime Minister Arthur Balfour lost his seat,but was unperturbed, stating that in office or out his party would continue to “direct the affairs of this Great Empire” .(I paraphrase)
It was no idle boast for the Unionist majority in the Lords could veto any Bill passed in the Commons, except a money Bill.
Balfour had set up the Committee for Imperial Defence in 1904, a body which most Britons had never heard of, to plan for war on Germany. Many MPs and even Cabinet Ministers had not heard of it by 1911, when C.P. Scott found out. But it was not an exclusively Unionist body. Liberal Imperialists including Herbert Asquith were in it from the start, and when Campbell Bannerman died in 1908, he succeeded him as Prime Minister and led Britain in what was called the war to end war.
In December 1918 Sinn Fein candidates, great numbers of whom were in British Gaols stood for election with a manifesto promising to establish a sovereign republic according to the Insurrectionary Declaration of Easter Week 1916.
On the eve of the Election Sinn Fein held 3 seats , the Unionists 26 and the Nationalists 76.
Following the election the Unionists held 26, the Nationalists held 6 and Sinn
Fein were elected by 73 constituencies. Those Sinn Feiners not in Gaol
refused to take Westminster seats, but met on 21st January 1919 as Dail
Eireann, the Parliament of Ireland.
Alone in the world Ireland democratically established a Parliament and
a National State in accordance with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s
Fourteen Points. and Britain’s boasted principles.
Sinn Fein’s President, Eamon De Valera, though imprisoned, was re-elected
for East Clare which had elected him in the 1917 in the by Election following
the death of Major Willie Redmond, brother of the then Nationalist leader
John Redmond in Flandes.
Simultaneously De Valera was elected for the Mayo seat, in a contest with
John Dillon, who had succeeded John Redmond as leader of the Nationalist
Party.
For three years after Sinn Fein’s stupendous victory Irish voters in national,
municipal,county, and district elections, supported republican (including Labour)
candidates and institution in the teeth of lying propaganda and murderous repression by British forces.
Dail Eireann and the Irish State still endure.
TO BE CONTINUED???
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