ARUNI MUKHERJEE
USING ALL THE INFORMATION IN THIS SECTION AND THE RESULTS IN THE TABLE ATTEMPT TO GIVE A WELL BALANCED EXPLAINATION OF THE CONSERVATIVE SUCCESS
Lord Salisbury William Gladstone
In the period of late 19th century and early 20th century the Conservative Party of Britain was a very strong organisation and it had the support of all classes of people in the UK. Its opposing parties Labour and Liberal could not cope up with the popularity of the Conservatives. Liberals also had some splits within them and organisational weaknesses whereas Labour was a nascent party and was yet to be seen as a major party on the big stage. There were various aspects at which one might look to find out the reasons behind Conservative success in that period.
Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister of England and the main Conservative leader persuaded the queen to call a general election soon after the British forces won against the main Boer armies in South Africa. This would lead to a widespread Conservative support because the conservatives would claim the credit for the English victory in the war due to their strategies. This type of election based on patriotic appeal is called a ‘khaki’ election and the Conservatives used this method to supreme success in the election of 1900. Leading conservatives appealed to the people on the basis of patriotism. But the historians are divided on their opinion of the conservatives fighting a ‘khaki’ election. R. Shannon, in his work History Of The Conservative Party seems to be opposed to the idea but R. Price agrees, in his An Imperial War And The Working Men claims that the issue of social reforms was far more important than the war particularly in London.
The elector, as The Daily Mail writes, has to keep various issues in mind before selecting which candidate to vote for but the most significant one would of course be the issue of the Boer War and the conservatives were doing all they could to exaggerate the greatness of the new territories which had just been added to the British Crown. However, Liberal Leaders like Campbell- Bannerman argue that the conservatives were desperately trying to put the bravery of the crown soldiers aside and furnish the credit to the Conservative Party. But we can see splits in the Liberal Party, as on one hand the use of the Boer War in the election was thoroughly opposed by some of the Liberal Leaders, it was, however not even mentioned in the election campaigns of some well-known Liberal leaders like Richard Bell (who could be called a Liberal-Labour candidate). On another aspect of the current situation shows Chamberlain appealing to the Unionists to come forward and vote for the government and he claimed that every vote cast against the government in the parliament would be a vote to the Boers. Finally, however, the unionists caused the conservatives to come in power. The Daily Telegraph quotes the Conservative leader Balfour claiming that the conservatives were the party to start the crown victory in South Africa and they were the best people to carry on with it. In a letter to Sir William Harcourt, Campbell-Bannerman expressed his disappointment on the loss and pointed out the divisions within the Liberal Party and the lack of motivation and enthusiasm among the part workers. In conclusion we might say that it affected the whole country thoroughly and the only issue the newspapers could cover was about the war and people had only one thing to talk about among themselves-The Boer War.
