Radical, Centrist or Right-wing?
Described as being on the Radical wing of the Liberal party especially in relation to foreign policy, Mason played a leading role in condemning Italian atrocities in Tripolitania during the war between Italy and Turkey in 1911 and urging British government intervention. Attempting to rally an effective protest Mason said the Italian invasion had provoked an outburst of indignation from the friends of freedom and foes of aggression’ in Britain. However another historian has called Mason a ‘Liberal Centrist’ typical of the sort of candidates being adopted by Liberal Associations in the hope of attracting working class votes whilst maintaining the support of traditional Liberals.
Mason was certainly associated with radical causes. He was a strong proponent of Irish Home Rule and supporter of John Redmond. He was connected to the Peace Society and opposed greater spending on arms and armaments and was a member of a deputation to Liberal prime minister H H Asquith to advise him of the uneasiness of the Parliamentary Liberal Party regarding increasing spending on the Navy. All this, and his criticisms of the government got him into trouble with Coventry Liberal Association who announced in January 1914 that they would be finding a new candidate for the next election In response Mason said he would stand as an Independent Liberal in opposition to the official candidate. He was a member of the Liberal Foreign Affairs Committee, a private backbench group set up in December 1911. This was an essentially radical organisation and critical of the direction and conduct of the foreign policy of Sir Edward Grey. In July 1914, a dozen or so of the group, including Mason met and passed a resolution urging British neutrality in the emerging crisis. Mason was a signatory to the letter which the group sent to Grey covering the text of the resolution and urging him to use the government’s good offices to secure peace.
Mason was an opponent of the Bill introducing conscription in 1916, being one of one 34 Liberal MPs to vote against it. He was also in favour of votes for women and was identified by Sylvia Pankhurst as a fervent supporter of the Suffragette cause inside and outside Parliament.
However it is clear that Mason was far more conservative on issues surrounding the economy. He kept a high political profile during the 1920s with his chairmanship of the Sound Currency Association and many letters to the Times newspaper on various aspects of the economy, trade and foreign policy . He was described as a ‘notorious advocate of a return to the gold standard’. However he may have been moving in that direction far earlier as he was re-elected to Parliament at the 1931 general election as a Liberal candidate in East Edinburgh promising to support National Government of Ramsay Macdonald, the official position of the Liberal Party, and defeating the sitting Labour MP, Drummond Shiels. At this election, the Conservative candidate J Carmont had withdrawn in favour of Mason because he pledged support to the government but the honeymoon with the Unionists did not last and Mason got into trouble with the local Unionist association for voting against the government just a few weeks later. By the time of the 1935 general election he had gone into opposition with his Liberal colleagues, and so faced a Unionist opponent. However the seat was won back by Labour and Mason finished bottom of the poll. That year he joined the Anglo-German Fellowship.
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