Early Political Career
In 1907, Guinness was elected to the London County Council and also to the House of Commons as Conservative member for Bury St Edmunds, which he continued to represent until 1931. He took the conservative line on Home Rule for Ireland, suffragism and reform of the House of Lords. In 1912, the editor of the magazine Guinness owned, The Outlook, broke the Marconi scandal, accusing Lloyd George and other Liberal ministers of share frauds. Other publications developed the story but it could not be proven after lengthy debate. When his role was debated, Guinness explained that he was on safari in Africa at the start, and that his editor’s target was inefficiency, not corruption. He visited eastern Anatolia in 1913 and reported that Armenians were being armed secretly by Russia,
World War I reduced Guinness's attendances and opponents accused him of cowardice for being in the House at all. In a heated Armistice speech, he insisted that Germany pay full war reparations, that no ties be made with Russian bolshevism, and: “Since the days of Mahomet no prophet has been listened to with more superstitious respect than has President Wilson” (of the USA). Irish political developments after 1916 were a concern as the Guinness business was in Dublin. During the Easter Rebellion the brewery first aid teams helped both sides. The Guinnesses were opposed to the Sinn Féin rebels, who hailed the Central Powers as 'gallant allies'. This had to change and by the time of the Treaty debates in 1922 which established the Irish Free State he said he preferred ‘a slippery slope to a precipice’ and voted in favour. Despite their politics, during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War his family was popular enough to escape loss or injury. In 1922, the Chanak crisis caused the coalition Prime Minister Lloyd George to step down unexpectedly in favour of Andrew Bonar Law. Guinness’s comments on Turkey were a part of the debate; he had come to admire Atatürk, despite serving at Gallipoli and he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War under Lord Derby. Hereafter, his pronouncements appear less dogmatic. He lost office on the Labour election victory in January 1924, but the following month, Guinness was sworn of the Privy Council.
Though they had generally been political opponents in 1907-21, Guinness’s working political relationship with Winston Churchill started after the election victory in late 1924, when he was made Financial Secretary under Churchill, the new Chancellor. Together, they put the Pound sterling back on the gold standard; a point of pride, but not a policy that lasted for long. A ministerial vacancy enabled him to join the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture from November 1925 until June 1929, where his main success was in increasing the sugar beet area. The first beet processing factory was built in his constituency, partly on the advice of Martin Neumann (a grandfather of Stephen Fry), who became a manager there.
After the Conservative defeat in 1929, he had to retire from office. He did no stand for re-election in the 1931 election and was created Baron Moyne of Bury St Edmunds in January 1932.
Read more about this topic: Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne
Famous quotes containing the words early, political and/or career:
“...to many a mother’s heart has come the disappointment of a loss of power, a limitation of influence when early manhood takes the boy from the home, or when even before that time, in school, or where he touches the great world and begins to be bewildered with its controversies, trade and economics and politics make their imprint even while his lips are dewy with his mother’s kiss.”
—J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)
“For aesthetics is the mother of ethics.... Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe—not empirically, alas, but only theoretically—that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens.”
—Joseph Brodsky (b. 1940)
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)