Cylchgronau Cymru

When the Executive next met on 29 October and it was proposed that Davies should be re-adopted as candidate, Hamer proposed that the matter should be referred to the local associations throughout the county. The original proposition received fourteen votes, and Hamer's amendment seven. so When the Association's council met later the same day to adopt a candidate, a stormy meeting ensued. 'What can I do?', asked Davies, 'Do you want me to be an independent Liberal?' There were cries of 'Yes' and 'No'. In response to his further question, 'How much good could I do?', came the acid response, 'You could be honest!' Davies condemned both the Lloyd George Liberals and the Samuelite Liberals as ineffective and impotent. He went on: 'There is another little band of us. It does not depend on Sir John Simon or Mr. Walter Runciman. We meet together every week and we go through the Bills. If there is something in them that offends our Liberal conscience we go round to see the Minister. We do the best we can to get the best measures for the people. If that is not Liberalism, what is? If you want something else, choose somebody else. That is my confession of faith and I am in your hands entirely' Hamer and the Llanidloes Liberal delegation spearheaded the attack upon Davies. Referring to Montgomeryshire's overwhelming vote in the Peace Ballot of 1935 and to Davies's vote in favour of rearmament in the House of Commons, Hamer went on, 'Who does Mr. Davies represent? Baldwin or Montgomeryshire? If he represents Montgomeryshire, he should have voted according to the mandate of Montgomeryshire. He has no right to flout his constitu- ency. If Mr. Davies goes back to Parliament as a National Liberal he will not be there representing the Liberal Party, and will be in a false position'.82 Another Llanidloes Liberal went so far as to describe Davies as 'well on the way to the Tory party'.83 Davies promised that he would vote against any measure which was not truly radical. When these objections were pressed to a vote at the end of a long and turbulent meeting, Davies secured re-nomination by seventy-two votes to thirty-two.84 This significant minority reflected, in the main, support for Lloyd George and his Council of Action in Llanidloes, a town with a strong radical tradition. But one Llanidloes Liberal attempted to explain the actions of his associates thus in the columns of the local press: It has very little to do with the Council of Action. It is the pent-up disappoint- ment of genuine Liberals who have viewed with dismay and anger the so-called "Liberals" of the Simonite group consistently voting with the Tory majority, and keeping in power the Tory party with a thin veneer of "National" hypocrisy. The last straw was the action of Mr. Clement Davies in voting with the Tory majority for a huge programme of rearmament in direct opposition to the wishes of the people of Montgomeryshire who gave the highest percentage of votes in the kingdom for the peace ballot'.85 Montgomeryshire Conservatives decided to support Davies once again as 'the National mIbid., Executive committee minutes, 29 October 1935. 81 Montgomeryshire Express, 2 November 1935. H2Ibid. 83 Ibid. ^Montgomeryshire Liberal Association, Newtown, Mont. Lib. Assoc. minute book, 1920-60, Council minutes, 29 October 1935. ^Montgomeryshire Express, 9 November 1935.