George V. 1910 - 1936
Due to the German connection the family name was changed to the House of Windsor
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George V, succeeded his father, Edward VII, in 1910. His solid virtues were quickly appreciated. Throughout his reign he was devoted and sympathetic to the welfare of " his very dear people." Asquith's Liberal Government introduced the Parliament Bill for curtailing the powers of the House of Lords. The Lords side-tracked it. Asquith appealed to the country. The electors returned him to power again. None the less, the Lords tried to mangle the bill. But their resistance ended, in 1911, under Asquith's threat to swamp the Conservative majority in the Upper House by creating a host of new peers. So the Lords lost their absolute power of veto over legislation. They could only hold up bills for a period of two years. And they could not even do that with " money bills." It was at this time that members of Parliament first received payment for their services. The grant was designed to help the workers representatives to enter Parliament. In the same year a measure of the highest social value was carried through by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Lloyd George. |
The National Health Insurance Act gave manual workers and many other employees pay and free medical attention during sickness. For these benefits the employee paid a weekly sum by way of insurance and the employers and the State supplemented it. The Act also granted unemployment pay to workers in certain selected trades. ( In 1920 the benefit was extended to most of the other industries.)
These were troubled times, filled with industrial disputes and strikes that well nigh paralysed the country's trade.
And Ireland was fighting over Home Rule. In 1912 the Liberals introduced a new bill to grant it. On this occasion
the excitement centred round the attitude of Ulster, the north - eastern province. The greater part of Ulster was
predominantly British and also intensely Protestant. It wished for nothing more than to remain under the United
Kingdom Parliament. And it declared that, rather than submit to an Irish Parliament dominated by Catholics, it
would fight. Civil , war would certainly have blazed had not the coming Great War of 1914 superseded it.
Inevitably after the war trade crashed, causing mass unemployment, grave labour unrest and bitter want throughout
Europe. In Britain (to the horror of old-fashioned politicians) the first very shaky Labour, or Socialist, government
came into office in 1924. A National Government, formed from all parties and elected in 1931, definitely abandoned
Free Trade and adopted the policy of Protection and Imperial Preference for which Joseph Chamberlain had fought
so strenuously at the beginning of the century. Gradually trade conditions improved and somewhat better times followed.
Women had been demanding the right to vote for years past. Their splendid services during the war, now made their
claims irresistible. Accordingly, in 1918, women of thirty or over possessing a property qualification were given
the vote. Adult suffrage for all males (irrespective of the previous property and lodgers' qualifications) was
also granted. Ten years later women were put on the same footing. Thus the ideal of equal adult suffrage was at
length attained.
In the early 1920s the voice of radio, or wireless broadcasting, began to bring public affairs, education and entertainment
into almost every household. In 1922 Britain withdrew her protectorate over Egypt and declared the country to be
an independent State. British troops, however, remained in occupation for defence purposes. In Ireland, during
the war, a new "Sinn Fein" party, encouraged by German agents, had started another insurrection and proclaimed
an independent republic.
Eventually, in 1920 - 22, an agreement was come to under which the country was divided into two regions: six counties of Ulster (thenceforth called Northern Ireland ), and the rest of the island ( to be known as the Irish Free State ). Each was given its own Parliament; but, while Northern Ireland still remained a part of the United Kingdom, the Free State became a self-governing Dominion, like Canada. The republican party, however, bitterly opposed the agreement and in 1932 they came into power in the Free State Parliament. From then onwards down to the end of the reign their leader, Mr. de Valera, proceeded to break one link after another in the slender chain that. bound the Free State to Britain.
During the war the self-governing Dominions had eagerly rushed to the aid of the mother country. Side by side with
their magnificent efforts the already growing feeling of their own separate nationhood had strongly developed.
To this sentiment effect was willingly given at an imperial Conference held in 1926 and confirmed by the Statute
of Westminster in 1931. Great Britain and the Dominions were declared to be equal, self-governing communities,
united by a common allegiance to the Crown and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
The Dominions concerned at this date were Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, the Irish Free State and
South Africa - the last-named being a Union, effected in 1909, of Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange
Free State. India had not yet attained " Dominion " rank; but it was training hard to achieve self-government,
and a few years later, in 1935, an All-India Federation was foreshadowed.
While these more or less peaceful changes were occurring, other countries were seeking their ideals of government by violent means. Russia became a completely Communist country, in which the State controlled everything, including labour, and threatened war on all capitalist nations. In Italy Mussolini, with his Fascist followers, set up a dictatorship after seizing power in 1922. In 1935, cynically disregarding the Covenant of the League of Nations, he made a pretext for invading and annexing Abyssinia. The League proved incapable of bridling him, and its feeble attempts only embittered Italy against France and Britain, and threw her into the arms of Germany.
In 1933 the defeated German's re-established Adolf Hitler dictatorship , in January 1936 King George V. passed
away.
