Fatal Fortnight by Duncan Marlor

Author:Duncan Marlor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: HIS027090; HISTORY / Military / World War I
ISBN: 9781473838123
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2014-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

So there was to be no accountability to Parliament at large on the Government’s decision for war. The country might be in the war by the time Parliament debated it. Philip Morrell would not sit down. The exchange went on, with angry shouts raining on the Burnley MP.

Philip was watched intently by his wife in the Ladies’ Gallery. Ottoline recorded in her memoirs her husband protesting ‘splendidly and courageously’. To the disgust of many, Morrell’s persistence brought success. The Speaker granted an adjournment debate to allow backbenchers to make their comments. This was to follow several hours later. It was Ottoline’s view that without Philip’s intervention, ‘there would have been no debate on the question of England joining in the war’. Where did he find the courage from to get up on such a day? Was this one of his ‘wild’ moments? Certainly no one with any normal sense of self-preservation would have dared to take on the House of Commons when it was worked up in this state. Wherever it came from, Morrell performed a memorable service by repairing what would have been a gaping democratic gap. The arguments against British entry into the war would now be heard by the House of Commons.38

Charles Trevelyan found time to scribble a note to Molly to say, ‘I am going to resign as soon as I can get at the Prime Minister.’ He added that his brother and E. D. Morel approved of his decision.39

So ended this part of the day of decision. A year later Leonard Outhwaite, speaking in the House of Commons, would describe it as ‘the fatal afternoon’.40

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