Political Wings: William Wedgwood Benn, first Viscount Stansgate by Alun Wyburn-Powell

Author:Alun Wyburn-Powell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / Aviation
ISBN: 9781473848153
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

Simon, no friend or ally of Benn’s, confined himself to this limited rebuke, but then returned to his purdah. This suited Benn.

MacDonald wound up the debate by adding force to Simon’s argument that there was nothing to be gained by exploiting disagreements in Parliament, nor by pre-empting or diverting the conclusions of the Simon Commission. Effectively, the debate had been a non-event, which had let off some steam, but which had changed no minds (other than about Benn’s ability to retort to Lloyd George’s insults). As it was an adjournment debate called by the government, there was no vote taken. Lloyd George and a section of the Conservative right had hoped to be able to press for a division, but it was not granted by the Speaker. Baldwin thus avoided exposing the divisions within the Conservative Party to any further scrutiny. Benn had not looked completely in command of the situation, but he had managed to avoid any serious damage to the government’s, or his own, position and had scored a rhetorical victory over Lloyd George. The work of the Simon Commission and the preparation for the round table conference proceeded, but the situation in India remained precarious.

Benn also had to contend with minor skirmishes within his own party, including a motion in the Commons put down by Fenner Brockway, James Maxton and others to reduce Benn’s salary. Brockway explained: ‘I should like to make it clear that the Motion on the Paper for a reduction of his salary [by £100 per year] is not in any way antagonistic to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for India. Indeed, I can claim personal friendship with him. But it is because I believe the moment has come when very strong protest should be made against the policy which he and the Government are pursuing in India.’48 The three were arguing for faster progress, rather than a change of direction. In the event they did not proceed with the motion to reduce Benn’s salary.

Overall though, there was much more than money or hurt pride at stake in terms of the impact of Indian policy. In India, people were being killed and injured in riots. Irwin survived several assassination attempts, including having his train bombed in December 1929.49 And in the background was the Meerut conspiracy trial, which had started before Benn took office and was still in progress when he left. The authorities believed that there was a Moscow-inspired plot to encourage a Communist revolutionary spirit within India’s trades unions. Thirty-two people had been charged with conspiracy to deprive the King of the sovereignty of British India. The protracted length of the trial encouraged public sympathy for the accused to grow. Against this background, Benn decided to ban the former British Communist MP, Shapurji Saklatvala, who had been defeated at the 1929 election, from returning to his native India.50 As Benn stated in the Commons, ‘I do not like doing it at all, but I have to consider a very delicate situation’.

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