Cylchgronau Cymru

continue to sit in the House of Commons until the next general election, it was considered most unlikely that he would stand for re-election.21 These suspicions were confirmed at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Montgomeryshire Liberal Association on 23 September, when Davies announced that Lever Brothers required an undertaking from him that he would retire from Parliament at the next general election. He promised, however, to serve his constituents to the best of his ability in the meantime.22 The announcement was a bombshell to local Liberals, many of whom recalled only too readily the trauma and upheaval experienced by the Associa- tion four years previously when David Davies had stood down and a successor chosen.23 Moreover, it was generally agreed that the minority Labour Government which had come into office in June 1929 was unlikely to survive for very much longer.24 Although Montgomeryshire Liberals immediately set up an investigation committee to select a new candidate,25 it was a task which few of its members relished. It was believed in some quarters that the difficulty might be resolved by selecting Mrs. Jano Clement-Davies as candidate to succeed her husband. Such was the course advocated by W. P. Phillips of Newtown, a former Treasurer of the Association, in a letter to Clement Davies congratulating him upon his appointment by Lever Brothers. 26 The daughter of a London Welsh surgeon, Dr. Morgan Davies, Mrs. Jano Clement-Davies had been the youngest head-teacher of her time in London,27 and had strongly supported her husband's political work ever since his selection as a parliamentary candidate in 1927. 28 An eloquent public speaker and a woman of strong convictions, she was invited to appear before the investigation committee in January 1931. 29 The invitation was declined.30 It is evident that the selection of a candidate was predictably protracted and fraught with pitfalls. Although it was reported in March 1931 that three local aspirants were under consideration,31 no decision was made. Davies had recom- mended to the Annual General Meeting of the Association's Council in February that his successor should be 'first and foremost a Welsh-speaking Welshman, a thorough-going Radical, and one who would have the interests of everybody at heart in the county'.32 Little progress was made and attempts were undertaken to persuade Davies to reconsider his decision to stand down. He remained adamant, and in June informed the Association that Mrs. Davies could not contemplate the candidature because of her indifferent health.33 He urged the selection of a candidate 'as soon as possible' and went so far as to name one possibility from outside the county Captain Ernest Evans, Coalition Liberal Member of Parliament for Cardiganshire from 1921 to 1923 and Liberal representative for the University of Wales seat since 1924. M 21 Montgomeryshire Express, 19 and 26 August 1930. 21Montgomeryshire Liberal Association, Newtown, Mont. Lib. Assoc. minute book, 1920-60, Executive Committee minutes, 23 September 1930. 23 J. Graham Jones, loc. cit., p.87-93. 24Montgomeryshire Express, 30 September 1930. 25/bid. 26N.L.W., Clement Davies papers J7/39: W. P. Phillips to Clement Davies, 15 August 1930. 27lbid., S5/4. 28 Liverpool Post and Mercury, 13 May 1929. 29N.L.W., Clement Davies papers Tl/14: W. Morris Lewis to Mrs. Jano Clement-Davies, 22 December 1930. ^Ibid., endorsement by Mrs. Jano Clement-Davies. 31 Montgomeryshire Express, 3 March 1931. 32Montgomeryshire Liberal Association, Newtown, Mont. Lib. Assoc. minute book, 1920-60, A.G.M. Council minutes, 21 February 1931. ^Ibid., Executive Committee minutes, 13 June 1931. "Ibid.