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FABIAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL THOUGHT
Series Two: The Papers of Hugh Dalton, 1887-1962,
from the British Library of Political and Economic Science

Part 1: The Complete Diaries, 1916-1960

Ben Pimlott, editor of the published two volume edition of extracts from Dalton’s massive and intricately observed manuscript diaries, has no doubts about the considerable merits of this publication of the complete run of Dalton's diaries:

"It is the wealth of detail in Dalton’s record and his rare understanding of policy, combined with his extreme political nosiness, which have helped to make this diary a classic ... Anybody who has worked among the political papers of an age before investigative reporting, intrusive television or 'Private Eye', will be powerfully aware of this uniqueness, and of the beacon Dalton is able to shine on areas of history for which the only other published sources are government papers or party minutes."

This diary is so valuable because it is the only diary of a prominent Labour politician kept for much of the period, because of the amount of detail recorded, and because of the clear picture it provides of all the maneouvres and fineagling in party politics and government which escape public notice. Contained within 56 notebooks and folders, it amounts to roughly 1.5 million words.

Born in 1887, Dalton was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge (where he read mathematics and economics, taught by Pigou and Keynes). He discovered Fabian Socialism together with his close friend, Rupert Brooke. Dalton became a lifelong member of the Fabian Society (1919-1962) and went to the LSE at the Webbs’ instigation to get his doctorate in economics. His diary was inspired by the example of Beatrice Webb and began during the war in 1916 whilst serving for the Royal Artillery in Italy.

He campaigned for Labour in the immediate post war period and was elected MP for Peckham in 1924.

After 5 years representing that constituency he switched to Bishop Auckland in 1929, whom he represented for 30 years, excepting only 1932-1934 when he lost his seat as a result of supporting Henderson and the PLP majority against MacDonald. He was: 
• Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 1929-1931
• Labour's leading spokesman on Foreign Affairs, 1935-1937
• Minister for Economic Warfare, 1940-1942
• Controller of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) for its first 19 months, 1941-
1942
• President of the Board of Trade, 1942-1945
• Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1945-1947
• Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1948-1950
• Minister of Town and Country Planning, 1950-1951
• Minister of Local Government and Planning, 1951-1959. 

He travelled to Russia and Italy in 1932 and to Germany in 1933. This entire period is very well covered in by his diary entries.

His diary is never less than full, frank and flavoursome, reaching full flow in c.1930 and peaking in 1942; it is a marvellous source of political insight and perhaps achieved its greatest recognition when Herbert Morrison commented "I didn’t know the bugger kept a diary like that". There are very revealing entries for the 1930s and 1940s providing scholars with excellent source material for the pre-war years of appeasement and turmoil in Europe, the Second World War, the post-war Labour Government, and Post-War Planning.

Trained as an economist, as Chancellor Dalton often ignored the Treasury experts. At LSE he met his wife, Ruth Fox, an energetic young Fabian. Dalton was also greatly influenced by the Webbs and the Cambridge Fabian, Ben Keeling, but he always regarded 'Keir Hardie Night' in February 1907 as his own, personal Damascus Road. Dalton wrote of Hardie's visit to Cambridge "That night I became a quite convinced Socialist."

The astounding detail in his diary entries is highlighted by these extracts:

29 February 1916
"Car still under repair so ride about all day on a horse. A lot of activity in the air in the morning. We bring down 2, & according to some accounts 3 German airmen, one only a few miles away, some of our own people witnessing it, 3 British machines converging on him from above. Observer wounded in leg, pilot uninjured."

5 May 1916
"Rumour of a big move soon, heralded by early arrival of some more French Divisions on the line now purely British. Last time we made such a mess of our Big Push that this time the French are going to stiffen us a bit. I don't blame them...."

30 May 1916
"About 8pm a very heavy bombardment begins to work up. The Germans are making their fair share of the noise. It sounds to be over our left sector of the line (by 150th) & the 38th Division on our left again. It is, I think, the heaviest I have heard yet. The dull twilight distance is lit up by continual flashes of bursting shrapnel & very lights."

Start of Diary Entry for 28 October 1937
"Sir Neville Henderson, British Ambassador in Berlin, came to see me in my flat, at his own request, and stayed for a little over an hour. He did not make a very good impression on me, either in respect of political intelligence or character. I had only once seen him before, seven years ago when he was Minister at Belgrade; and it was not really either very gentlemanly or very clever to jeer at his predecessor in Berlin to a complete stranger. This arose when I said that, being in France last month, I had heard that Francois Poncet felt very much frozen out since Phipps had left. On this Henderson said, "I found an impossible state of things when I got to Berlin. It was common talk that there was no British Embassy there at all. It was only a branch of the Quai d' Orsay. I was compelled to make a change ... Phipps was a most unsuitable appointment. When he got Berlin I wrote him "Dear Eric, I shan't congratulate you because I think you are going to the wrong capital. You should be going to Brussels, where you would be much closer to your spiritual home."
(followed by 4 pages of detail on their conversations).

Start of Diary Entry for 30 November 1937
"Jacques Kayser who is very close to Chautemps came to see me this morning. I always find him very clear-headed and sensible on international questions. He said that Chautemps and Delbos were well satisfied with their visit. It was the first time that Chautemps had met Cahamberlain. They had made a tour of the world with British Ministers and it was true to say that "complete agreement had been reached", but rather on the problems to be studied than on the solutions to be proposed. He was assured, however, that The Times and its adherents had been defeated. Their propaganda had been too strong. I told him of the activities in this country of Sir Neville Henderson and of the Cliveden gang..."

Folio 40 of the same diary volume is headed:

'Straws in the wind, latter half of November 1937' and begins: 
"I made a note at the time of my talk with Neville Henderson. There is a lot going on of which his visit here and Halifax's to Berlin are outward signs. The movement in influential quarters here to come to some kind of Anglo-German agreement, even if this means making large "concessions" to Germany, either at our own or other people's expense, is formidable. German strength and determination are impressive; the weakness and unreliability of others not less so. Who knows what is happening in Russia or what will happen to-morrow, or what she would be worth if war came, or whether she would really be willing to march or fly at all. "

This continues for 4 pages; on the third page (folio 42), half way down, Dalton continues:
"...In the Sunday press of November 28th there is a great barrage in favour of concessions to Germany. "Scrutator" in the Sunday Times (who would pay any heed to him if he signed his name Sidebottom ?) thinks that "There is no doubt that, but for France's Eastern alliance, the peace of Western Europe could be made secure for at least a generation, and it is sheer vanity that pretends to be able to see further ahead than that." His geography is wonky, thus "France could not reach Czechslovakia to help her against Germany except through Italy or by way of the sea, which Italy could probably prevent and only British sea power could guarantee."

Page 4 ends:
"Reynolds is full of a story of a grave Cabinet Crisis and a split which may result in Eden's resignation. It represents Eden and Vansittart against the rest and says that Kingsley Wood is exercising great influence on the other side."

Dalton diary entry for 10 May 1940 records his reaction to Hitler's invasion of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg. On 14 May 1940 he describes at great length his appointment by Churchill as Minister for Economic Warfare; the entry for 3 January 1942 shows him engaged in 'extremely frank' discussions about 'our air facilties'. By 1944 he is engrossed in his activities as President of the Board of Trade, as can be seen from his diary entry for 28 January 1944 dealing with the Labour Party Committee on the Cost of Living, cotton prices, the price of coal, gas and clothing, pensions and subsidies. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his entry for Saturday 9 February 1946, he reports on how 'our programme of rapid-fire legislation is going well'. The following extract is typical of his period as Chancellor of the Exchequer:

Tuesday 29 July 1947
"Cabinet this morning, without papers, to discuss Balance of Payments generally. CRA opens briefly and then I speak. HM has now more or less come round to my side and SC is on my side, though playing no leading part at all in the discussion. I emphasise the urgency of it all and the need to take big, bold measures and I put over the "Stop buying" slogan. To my surprise Strachey takes this very well. (I see him after the Cabinet alone and tell him that his cover and mine, of which his should last a bit longer than mine, will be totally ruined if we do not act boldly. It is agreed that our officials should look into the possibilities of dollar savings through "stop buying" for a period and I take the precaution of dictating, in his presence [Strachey's], a note on what we are agreed. This, in view of his previous slippery conduct). We have, as usual, full lengthy orations from Shinwell and AB. The former is exceptionally rattled, suspicious, irrelevant and discourteous. He demands information on our gold and dollar reserves as though I had deliberately withheld it from him. He has by now wholly antagonised all our colleagues. The most severe criticism that any person with real knowledge could make of the PM is that he has allowed this man to continue for so many months of failure to be Minister of Fuel and Power..."

Part 2 of this microfilm project will concentrate on Dalton’s Papers and Correspondence, 1916-1945. Part 3 will cover Correspondence and Papers, 1945-1960. This material will include his Labour Party papers, political papers, speeches, political and general correspondence, letters from Ruth Dalton, material on SOE and the war, and cartoons and photographs, all of which are particularly strong from 1940 onwards.




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