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From
Pressure Group Archives
, Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull.
The UDC was established during the first days of the First World War to
work
for parliamentary control of foreign policy and a moderate peace
settlement.
There was a belief in some quarters that Britain had been
dragged into the war
because of secret military agreements with France and
Russia. The early leaders
of the group initially called the Committee of
Democratic Control, were Charles
Trevelyan (the only member of the Liberal
government to resign over the
declaration of war), James Ramsay Macdonald,
Arthur Ponsonby, Norman Angell and
E.D. Morel. Morel became the secretary
and initial driving force behind what
was soon re-named the Union of
Democratic Control.
The group was formally launched with an open letter to the press in
early
September 1914. The UDC's stated objectives were: parliamentary
control over
foreign policy and the prevention of secret diplomacy, a
movement for
international understanding after the war, and a just peace.
A Committee of 18
members was established, including Arthur Henderson,
J.A. Hobson and Bertrand
Russell. Operations were initially based at
Charles Trevelyan's London home,
but offices were quickly acquired off the
Strand, and later, on Fleet Street.
Running costs were met from
subscriptions, plus large donations received from
several major Quaker
business concerns. In late 1917 the UDC reached its
maximum membership of
some 10,000 individuals in over 100 branches. By 1918,
300 other groups
(mainly co-operatives, trade unions and women's organisations)
with
650,000 members were also affiliated to the UDC.
The UDC undertook a massive publicity effort in support of its aims. During
the
War, 28 pamphlets, 47 leaflets and 18 books were issued, plus a
journal, The
UDC (later re-titled Foreign Affairs). The pamphlets, in
particular, were very
successful, and the first 15 sold over 500,000
copies by 1915. The UDC also
played a part in the terminal decline of the
Liberal Party, especially after
the formation of the Lloyd George
coalition government in December 1916.
Joining the UDC became a sort of
half-way house between leaving the Liberals
and joining the rising Labour
Party. Morel himself started the War as a
prospective Liberal
Parliamentary candidate, but in 1918 joined the Independent
Labour Party.
Members of the UDC (especially Morel, with his Germanic name)
were often
harshly criticised for their views (and Morel was even imprisoned).
But
this was softened by two factors: the publication by the Bolsheviks
after
the Russian revolution of the secret treaties between Britain,
France and
Russia before 1914; and the first of President Woodrow Wilson's
'Fourteen
Points', referring to 'open covenants openly arrived at'.
However, the UDC's
campaign to modify the Treaty of Versailles peace
settlement was largely
ineffective. Nevertheless, the UDC, established as
a wartime phenomenon,
continued to thrive after the War.
By July 1921 organisations affiliated to the UDC contained over one
million
members. Thirty members of the UDC were elected as Labour MPs in
1922, and in
November 1922 Morel himself defeated Winston Churchill (then
a National
liberal) at Dundee for Labour. The first ever Labour government
in 1924
included five members of the UDC Executive and eight members of
its General
Council - although not Morel, owing to personal animosity
between him and the
Prime Minister, Ramsay Macdonald. Again, in practice
the UDC still had very
little influence on government policy, except in
gaining British recognition of
the Soviet Union. ED Morel died suddenly in
1924 at the age of 51. The UDC was
never really the same again, even
though membership subsequently included the
likes of Fenner Brockway and
Harold Wilson.
From the 1920s the UDC concentrated its efforts on highlighting and
offering
solutions to problems in international affairs, eventually
becoming a leading
anti-colonial organisation. In the 1920s, it pressed
for the keeping of peace
by open diplomacy and a reformed League of
Nations (to include Germany and
Russia); in the 1930s, it challenged the
growth of armaments and imperialism in
China and East Africa; and in the
1940s it supported the struggles for
independence in Asia and Africa. With
the virtual disintegration of the British
Empire by the mid-1960s, the UDC
was eventually wound up in December 1966.
More information
on the U.D.C. from Spartacus Educational.
From the inside cover of the first 16 pamphlets
THE FOUR CARDINAL POINTS
IN THE POLICY OF THE
UNION OF DEMOCRATIC
CONTROL
ARE AS FOLLOWS
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1. No Province shall be transferred from one Government
to another without the consent by plebiscite of the population
of such province.
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2. No Treaty, Arrangement or Undertaking shall be entered
upon in the name of Great Britain without the sanction of
Parliament. Adequate machinery for ensuring democratic control
of foreign policy shall be created.
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3. The Foreign Policy of Great Britain shall not be aimed
at
creating Alliances for the purpose of maintaining the "Balance
of Power"; but shall be directed to the establishment of a
Concert of Europe and the setting up of an International
Council whose deliberations and decisions shall be public.
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4. Great Britain shall propose as a part of the Peace settlement
a plan for the drastic reduction, by consent, of the
armaments of the belligerent Powers, and to facilitate that
policy shall attempt to secure the general nationalisation of the
manufacture of armaments, and the prohibition of the export of
armaments from one country to another.
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In pamphet 16a (July 1916) five points are referred to. Pamphlet 19a
(August
1916) reads as follows:
THE FIVE CARDINAL POINTS
IN THE POLICY OF THE
UNION OF DEMOCRATIC
CONTROL
ARE AS FOLLOWS:-
To formulate and organise support for such a policy
as shall lead to the establishment and maintainence of
an enduring peace. For this purpose, to advocate the
following points, and take any other action which the
Council of the Union of Democratic Control may, from
time to time, declare to be in furtherance of such policy.
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1. No Province shall be transferred from one
Government to another without the consent, by
plebiscite or otherwise, of the population of such
province.
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2. No Treaty, Arrangement or Undertaking
shall be entered
upon in the name of Great Britain
without the sanction of
Parliament. Adequate
machinery for ensuring democratic control
of foreign
policy shall be created.
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3. The foreign policy of Great Britain shall not
be aimed at creating Alliances for the purpose
of maintaining the Balance
of Power, but shall
be directed to concerted action between the Powers
and the setting up of an International
Council
whose deliberations and decisions shall be public,
with such machinery for securing International
agreement as shall be the guarantee of an abiding
peace.
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4. Great Britain shall propose as a part of the
Peace settlement
a plan for the drastic reduction, by
consent, of the
armaments of the belligerent
Powers, and to facilitate that
policy shall attempt to
secure the general nationalisation of the
manufacture
of armaments, and the prohibition of the export of
armaments from one country to another.
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5. The European conflict shall not be continued
by economic war after the military operations have
ceased. British policy shall be directed towards
promoting free commercial intercourse between all
nations, and the preservation and extension of the
principle of the open door.
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