Trudy Gold
Josiah Wedgewood: An English Hero and Adventurer
Trudy Gold - Josiah Wedgwood: An English Hero and Adventurer
- It’s five o'clock, four minutes past five in England. It’s soggy as I’ve already said, but it’s lovely to be with lockdown again. And I hope you’ve realised that this month, we’ve completely thrown all our usual plans out of the window and we’re either talking about, and the regular team are in sporadically with other new people. And we are really talking about either our heroes or people we really admire. And I have decided to today, really devote a whole session to Josiah Wedgwood. Many of you will have heard of him. I know that some of you who live outside of England won’t have done, but I really think he is someone who needs to be honoured and needs to be remembered. And because he was passionate about freedom, he was passionate about justice for all, and he was also very Zionist. And in the 30s, when the world became so dark, he was one of the few members of the English establishment. He was a member of parliament who screamed out against what was happening in Nazi Germany and did everything he could to rescue Jews, to help Jews, and was one of the first to take on what was actually happening in the show. So he dies in 1943. So I really wanted to honour him as someone who personally, I would’ve loved to have meet. I played a lovely game with my grandson yesterday, he’s nine years old and he believes that time machines are possible. And he actually said to me, grandma, if you went back in history and you could live in 10 different eras and, or you could meet 10 different people, who would you choose?
And I realised that Josiah Wedgwood was one of those I would’ve chosen to meet. And it’s a lovely game for you to play with your families. Just think about the areas you are really interested in, be it history, literature, sciences, work out. Where would you like to be? You just have that window of a few seconds, few minutes. Let’s give you a few minutes to go back, see an era and talk to someone there. Okay, so let’s go on. Can I see the first slide, please? Josiah Wedgwood first about made into a Baron, first Baron Wedgwood. And he came from quite an illustrious family. Let’s have a look at the man who really created it all, his great-great-grandfather. His great-great-grandfather was Josiah Wedgwood. And those of you who are collectors of China will of course know that he was the man, the Potter, who was behind the incredible collection of Wedgwood pottery, which is still so much prize today. And in England, it was quite possible to make a fortune in trade and elevate your family. And let’s have a look at their stately home. This is where Josiah, the one I’m talking about, was born, it’s Barlaston Hall in Staffordshire, and that was the home into which he was born. So he is born into a family of privilege. He was the son of Clement who was a partner in the family business. The family were very humanitarian. They were very much into abolition of slavery. His father was a Unitarian, which is a kind of branch of Christianity, which is in its low church and it’s embracive of anyone’s views.
So he came from a very well educated family that was part of the trend of liberalism, that was sweeping England, and sweeping England amongst the privileged. And let’s have a look at where he was educated because this is interesting. He was educated at Clifton College. Clifton College is one of the 26 original English public schools. It was created in 1862. It’s unlike schools like Eton and Harrow, it’s less concerned with social elitism than it is with emphasis on a really solid education. Not emphasis necessarily on the classics, but on sciences to create people fit for the modern economy. Also, it had a Jewish boarding house. So coming from a very relaxed family, he would’ve mixed a lot with young Jewish boys. And of course, they would’ve been Jewish boys of a certain income because Clifton of course, was very expensive. He then travels onto the Royal Navy College in Greenwich. Let’s have a look at that. Remember, this is at the height of empire. There’s the old Royal Navy College, beautiful, beautiful building. And he was very proficient in mathematics. So what does a young man do who’s proficient in mathematics? By the way, is commissioned in the royal artillery. There’s this strong sense of duty in his family. And in his first position was actually at Elswick. Can we have a look at Elswick? Elswick was a, it’s an ordinance company where they were involved in the making of weapons. Now like Alfred Noble, who made his fortune out of dynamite, but of course later on created the Nobel Prizes, did something happen in his early years when he’s involved so much in armaments because he’s going to see the horror of war. Can we go on please? Having done that, he is actually commissioned in the role. He becomes the Assistant Naval Constructor in Portsmouth. He’s got a great love of shipping. He’s involved in that particular, and then he moves to Newcastle where he’s in the drawing office of another arms manufacturer, Armstrong. So at this stage, there’s nothing particularly out of the ordinary.
In fact, you can say he’s making a living out of the armaments business, although he does come from a very wealthy background. Following the outbreak of the Second World War is the first, I beg your pardon. Following the outbreak of the Boer War, he serves- Can we see the next slide, please? He serves in the second Boer War. And of course, you do know that in October, we are going to be spending a lot of time on South Africa. So it’s going to be fascinating, hearing South African historians look at the history of their country. And of course, from the British point of view, this was really the first war of the 20th century. It was a horrifying mechanised war. And so many people died. And was it just? Was it unjust? That’s such a huge, is war ever justified? These are the issues that later on Wedgwood is going to play with. He actually becomes a captain in the Second Boer War. And he commands a battery in the raw field artillery. Now, by the way, to give you a notion of the kind of man he was, back in 1894, he married his first cousin. They had seven children together, but then she left him for another man and divorced him. And in those days, divorce needed a guilty party. So even though she had left him, he agreed to take the blame and he allows her to divorce him for adultery and desertion of the children. He got horrific criticism from the press and from the pulpit. And I should say that he was not a unitarian. He had moved to an Anglicanism. So he was considered the man who had destroyed the family. When later on, it was discovered, it was actually trumped up. He had further criticism, but he stuck to what he believed was right and he believed he’d been married to her. She was the mother of his children and he was prepared to protect her. He later married another woman and that was a happy marriage. So consequently, it gives you a smell of what the man he’s going to become.
Now, after the Boer War, he remains in South Africa. He becomes a resident magistrate. And can we see the next slide please, Corina? This is a Ermelo in Transvaal. And of course, it’s under British control. And he’s got a very good brain. He studies native land law, which gave him a real interest in land law. And he developed a theory which later on, he’s going to take into parliament. He saw, and maybe it was his travels, just how uneven the world was. If you were born in a certain place, at a certain time, you are going to have so much better a life than others. It had to do with your position, your economic situation, et cetera, et cetera. And in a world where privilege was what was aspired to, he took on something called the single, single tax. He believed that what would be much more equitable, and this is what he fought for when he came back to England, was a single tax on property replacing a tax on income and on goods. He believed that that would be far more equitable for the poorer classes. If the wealthy were actually taxed, it would be on their properties than they would be in a position of helping far more the less fortunate. So already, he’s thinking very seriously about the kind of world he is living in. So in 1905, he comes back to the United Kingdom. And in 1906, can we see the next film? He becomes a liberal MP for Newcastle. Now Newcastle underline, now let me explain that there was a two party system in England to all expense extent and purposes. It was the Tories and the Whigs, and the Whigs had morphed into the liberal party.
But when he was taken up as a candidate and the Wedgwood name was very famous, he insisted that he would always be allowed to vote according to his conscience. Later on, we are going to see that he becomes very disillusioned with the liberal party because they didn’t honour their election commitments to land reform. You should also know that he was very pro women’s rights. He was a very strong supporter of the suffragette movement. And he believed that the liberal party had remained on its promises to women. And then something else that he really, really fought for. He was a libertarian. He didn’t believe that governments should become too involved in the personal. And this came to the fore in something called the Mental Deficiency bill. Now let me just to bring this to your attention, of course, you all know about eugenics and how eugenics was becoming the kind of buzzword of many European countries. In fact, the whole theory had been begun in England with Dalton. And many people believed that a group they called the mentally feeble should not be allowed to reproduce. This bill would have restricted procreation of what they called the feeble-minded, and according to him, would punish those who have mental defectives. What the bill didn’t do, which it was doing in certain parts of America, in Sweden, in Iceland, it had actually become law that if someone was accused of being feeble-minded, they would be sterilised, they wouldn’t be allowed to procreate. It’s a terrible, terrible situation that was really sweeping through many of the countries of Northern Europe, and of course, in America. This is a comment, he said, it’s appalling that a bill that gives the state power to take a child from its home by force and for parliament to sit on reports by members of the public of feeble-minded people. Because how do you find out who’s feeble-minded, you are told on by your neighbours.
He was totally against anything this, of anything on this. He was actually joined by a member of the Tory party, another libertarian called Lord Robert Cecil, who came from the very famous Cecil family. Those of you who love your history will know that the Cecil family had been in politics back in Elizabethan times when, of course, the William Cecil, the original Robert Cecil was, and his son, William, were in fact, the advisors to Queen Elizabeth I. The clause which also stuck in his throat, and I’m quoting, desirable in the interests of the community, that feeble-minded should be deprived of the opportunity of procreating. And as far as he was concerned, and he said in parliament, this is the most vulnerable thing ever suggested, what he did was he held a filibuster. He actually listed 200 amendments of the bill. He went on for two nights. He made 150 different speeches. It was all over the press. He’s a brilliant backbencher, he’s a brilliant orator. He’s all over the press. He keeps himself going on a 24 hour circle for two days and two nights, living on barley water and chocolate. He went so far on it that in the end, the government decided not to go with it. Now to give you a notion of what was going on in other places, the United States sterilised 200,000 people for the category. I’m using their terms, feeble mindedness. Under 30 state and federal laws, Sweden, 60,000, Canada, Norway, Finland, Estonia, and Iceland, all passed these law. Germany, of course, after the rise of Nazism, a most terrible programme in Germany, ‘cause of course, Hitler completely swallowed eugenics. Over 400,000 people were sterilised. And in just 18 months, once the war is underway, 70,000 of them were actually murdered. At first they were given a lethal injection by doctors. Think about morality and education. It’s an important point.
And in fact, they gased them so they would free up hospital beds for soldiers at the front. So there is absolutely no morality in any of this. Now, it also had to be said Roman Catholic countries did not pass the law nor did Holland. Ironically, the Soviets never passed a law like that because in the days of Stalin, he was far more interested in killing who people who were potential enemies of the state. Now, the reason I think Britain is interesting because as I said to you, Galton was the man who really pioneered these kind of things. And most of the scientists in Britain were in favour. Also, even the Fabian, socialists were in favour of it. H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Maynard Keynes. So what I’m saying to you, the intellectuals on the left were also in favour for it. In fact, Arthur Balfour, who was later conserved to Prime Minister. And later on, Author of the Balfour Declaration, he actually chaired the first Eugenics International Congress in London. And one of the sponsoring vice presidents was in fact, Winston Churchill. The Oxford Union voted for it by two to one, Churchill and himself said, the multiplication of the feeble-minded was a terrible danger to the race. Ironically, Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton, who were incredibly right wing, but Catholic, they were against the bill. In fact, it was reintroduced, but in of 1912, but a lot of the sting had gone out of the tail. And I think what is important, and the reason I’ve harboured this, I’ve sort of laboured this point, is it gives you a notion of the man that Wedgwood was becoming. He said, eugenics is an issue of individual liberty. And the case that was cited, there was an American court case in Virginia. Carrie Buck was a 17 year old girl who had been committed to a colony for the quote, unquote, epileptics and the feeble-minded where she lived with her mother and daughter, Emma and Vivian. Vivian was seven months old. The babe was declared at seven months an imbecile. And Carrie was sterilised.
And Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of the great pillars of the American legal system. He said, three generations of imbeciles are enough. The child died young. But Carrie, who’d been sterilised, survived into old age. And we know that she was a very respectable woman in inverted commas and a loved crossword puzzles. So also in America, eugenics was very much stimulated by anti-immigration prejudice. So you’ve got a fascinating development where people like Wedgwood are going to stand so firm on it. And you see, he was always prepared. And from the days of the Boer War, he was always prepared to stand out for what he believed in. And then of course, World War I erupts and he’s in parliament. He is becoming more and more disillusioned with the liberal party. But I’ll lead that till we come back from the first World War. He was a lieutenant commander. Can we go onto the next slide? He was in Gallipoli. He was actually, he was awarded the distinguished service medal. He was later wounded. And whilst serving in Gallipoli, he met a man who was going to have an incredible impact on him. Can we see him? Joseph Trumpeldor. Now, go back a bit. Go back to Zionism. Joseph Trumpeldor was a Russian Zionist. He’d actually been a doctor in the Russian army. He’d lost an arm fighting for the Russians in the Russia, Japanese war. What happened to him was that he makes it to Palestine, he’s a committed Zionist. But in 1914, when war breaks out, the Turks control Palestine and they begin expelling Eastern European Jewish immigrants as enemy aliens, because tramadol officially is Russian.
He arrives in Alexandria, where over 5,000 of them ascent, which is of course, controlled by the British. He’s with whom? Vladimir Jabotinsky. And he decides, Trumpeldor and Jabotinsky, they realise one of the best ways to put forward the Zionist, 'cause you see, both of them believe the British are going to win the war. So why not fight for the British? Now the British aren’t too happy about a proper fighting force, but they do allow Trumpeldor to create the Zion Mule Corps. And off they go to Gallipoli where they are incredibly brave. Let’s have a look at the Zion Mule Corps. And they meet up with Wedgwood and Wedgwood has huge respect for them, and he also has huge respect for Trumpeldor. And later on meets, because Jabotinsky didn’t fight with the Zion Mule Corps, he actually went off to London and creates regiments out of Russian Jewish soldiers in London to fight for the British. He goes to Palestine. He is the first Jew to cross the Jordan. They called him Captain Jager-Whiskey And so, this is the beginning of a close association with Jabotinsky. Tragically, Trumpeldor dies of the siege of Tel Hai. And many of you who live in Israel will know his story and know just how many streets are named for him. He is one of the great heroes of the Zionist movement. And he dies very young. So after the war, Wedgwood comes back to England. He is more and more disillusioned with the liberals and he also, he’s sent to Siberia to in- Can we see the next slide, please? Why do they send him to Siberia? Because they want to encourage Russian participation in the war and also gathering intelligence on the Bolsheviks.
Don’t forget that the Bolsheviks were committed to taking Russia out of the war. He comes back to Britain, the war has changed him, and he begins to fight for the rights of refugees. He begins to see that we need a more open door refugee problem, because don’t forget, at the end of the First World War, just how many refugees there were, particularly Jewish refugees. Just think about what happened in the Ukraine. When the Ukrainian cossacks under Petliura, I’ve forgotten his name for a minute, went on the rampage, something like 70,000 Jews were murdered, others were murdered by anarchist groups. He’s well aware of the vulnerability of the Jewish community. He’s becoming more and more interested. Anyway, in the election, and someone else he wanted asylum for. And let’s have a look at a woman. He was often controversial. Emma Goldman, the famous Jewish anarchist. Of course, when I say Jewish or Jewish Boer, Emma Goldman, like all the rest of the revolutionaries have thrown off their Jewish identity. But can you ever? And those who hated Jews and who saw revolution and anarchy as a Jewish disease, of course, thought she was the wicked Jew. She had been forced to leave America because America was tightening its doors against anyone who was potentially a threat. And they saw communists and anarchist as a threat.
She was repatriated with thousands and thousands of other young people, mainly Jewish, who’d been affiliated to the communist or anarchist parties, and which would asked for her asylum in this country. It wasn’t granted. She actually finished up in Sweden, had an interesting life for Emma Goldman. And she wrote a fascinating autobiography, that’s another book you should read. But he stood up for her in the House of Commons. Now he’s reelected, but he’s becoming more and more disillusioned with the liberals and he switches to, he becomes independent labour. And then finally, switches to the Labour Party. In 1919, he’s one of the most famous backbenchers. He’s always speaking in debate. He is a spell binder. And by 1921, he is Vice Chairman of the Labour Party. He’s champion of all the underdogs, new ideas. Ramsey MacDonald, who’s the labour leader though, thought he was too unpredictable, wary of his outspokenness in the press and of his radical ideas. And in the Wedgwood realised that he was not the kind of man he wanted as leader and didn’t really want to support him. But nevertheless, he joins the first fully labour cabinet of 1924. He was passionate about home rule, self-government for India. And he hoped for a place in the cabinet. He wanted the colonial office or not that the admiralty, but they gave him the Dutchy of Lancaster, which is really minister without portfolio. Now the other thing he did, he’d already written a history of Staffordshire. He was always a keen amateur historian. He was a very, very clever man. He wrote the history of Staffordshire parliamentarianism from the earliest times to the present day. He started it in 1917. It took him 20 years to research. And it was the inspiration behind another project, which he suggested to parliament. He was worried about the Gulf between the people of England and those who governed them.
He thought that the Parliament was becoming far too high handed, was not really representing the workers, not really representing the people, not representing women. And he felt that recording parliamentary history would help connect the people to parliament. He wanted to, in the end, to come up with a biography of anyone who’d ever served in the English parliament. He was also, as the 20s evolved in the 30s, he realised just how much democracy was being threatened by totalitarianism. History doesn’t always completely repeat itself, but which I think you’ll probably find this, have a certain amount of resonance. Because although, I am a historian and not meant to put forward any politics, I think politics for me as a historian, is a private matter, but I think we would all agree that democracy in so many countries is under threat now. And he was aware of that. He was horrified by what was happening in Spain, in Russia, disillusioned by completely. He’d never been a communist. He’d been in Siberia, remember he saw it in action. But he believed in freedom within the rule of law. But that rule of law had to be a just law. So in fact, he publishes a couple of volumes. It’s not well received. His niece was a very good historian called BJ Wedgwood. She wrote, I remember when I was studying at university, we used a lot of her books. She gave very good reviews. It was criticised for being far too romantic. Ironically, after his death, it’s been taken up again. And the history of parliament is still active. I should also mention, he was highly critical of the German reparations. He said that if you push Germany into the ground, you will not allow any government of any the beliefs in freedom to be able to exist.
And of course, that is exactly what happened in Germany. Also, he was very interested in the plight of Jews throughout Europe. Hungary, there’d been Bela Kun’s revolution, it was suppressed. And Admiral Horthy had instituted what we call the white terror, where thousands of Jews were being persecuted, there were pogroms. And he also asked a question in Parliament, what is going on in Hungary? Why are the Jews being persecuted? So always, he had this idea of supporting the Jewish community. He was also zealous for the independence of India. Now let’s turn more to his Zionism. Early on, can we go onto the next slide, please? Early on, remember, he’s already met Trumpeldor, the Zion Mule Corps. It’s pretty likely that he had Jewish friends at Clifton and something else. This his relationship with Jabotinsky. Early on, after the riots of 1920, I’m going to have to take you back a little bit into the history of Zionism, which we have covered. During the early days of the mandate, when you had a military or a civil rather than a civil administration. He asked why they hadn’t set up the Civil administration and how it was far too much run by soldiers. He also said that he believed many of those soldiers were antisemitic because they’d either served in Egypt or they had served in Russia. He was spot on on this. Also in 1920, the nebulous riots around Passover, of course, Nabi Musa is the Muslim feast that the Muslim ceremony that coincides with Passover, the Feast of Moses, the Haj Amin, the Mufti, the man who became the Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini whipped the mob up, they go on the rampage and there are massacres in Jerusalem. What happens is that Jabotinsky who had fought, remember for the British, he’s still in Palestine.
He creates the Haganah. Both he and the Mufti are sentenced in 15 years imprisonment. What happens is the Mufti escapes, Jabotinsky is put in prison. And this is what Josiah Wedgwood asked in the house. Jabotinsky, the man who fought in Gallipoli and afterwards raised the Jewish battalion in London and took them to Palestine, has been sentenced to 15 years for attempting to raise a force in Jerusalem to defend his co-religionists during the pogrom there. And if so, will we have an inquiry made with a view to his release. In fact, Weizmann didn’t defend him. Many of the Zionists did not defend Jabotinsky. And what is fascinating, is he was released under an amnesty when Herbert Samuel arrived in Palestine. But remember, it’s this man in the house, a so-called skill of the English aristocracy, a bastion of liberalism though, when I mean liberalism in the full sense of the world who is asking for about Jabotinsky. This is Earl Winterton in response to the comment of Wedgwood. Earl Winterton later on was the representative at Evian. You will remember the Evian conference in 1938 to look at the plight of German and later and Austrian refugees, where basically the nations of the world decided to do very, very little.
And at the end of the conference, Winterton, who was the British representative, he actually apologised to the German ambassador in London for quote, unquote, the unwarranted in interference in the affairs of a sovereign state. Now, this is what he said in reply in the house, in reply to Wedgwood, is there any evidence to show that the Muslim men, the Muslims and Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem have committed a pogrom or does not the evidence show that there are six of one and half a dozen of another. So what happens is Wedgwood visits Palestine in the 20s, and he’d been also, he later said that the person who really pushed him into Zionism was an English woman called Dorothy Miller Richardson. Unfortunately, I forgot to put in a picture of her, but she’s somebody you really should look at. Dorothy Miller Richardson. Her dates are 1873 to 1957. She was an author, a very, very unconventional journalist who split her time. Her father was wealthy, then lost it all. And her mother tragically was depressive. She had a very odd background. She finished up in Bloomsbury in a boarding house where she became very close to one of the Jewish borders, who was a Zionist. She later, later immortalised him in her novels called “Pilgrimage.” She wrote 13 semi autobiographical novels between 1915 and 1967. She’s a very strong feminist and she was very close to the Bloomsbury crowd who David Herman’s going to talk about in a couple of weeks. She had an affair with H.G. Wills. A scholar writing about her, a woman called Rose, attempting to produce a feminine equivalent of the current masculine realism.
So she’s really being rediscovered at the moment, and those of you who are interested in feminist literature, I would really give her a go. You see, in those days, what is fascinating today, I think the Jewish state and Zionism, somehow there’s been a slight of hand, I’m not talking about the current problems and the Zionist state is seen as a colonising state by the kind of people who at this period, many of them were supporting Zionism. So there’s been a fascinating slight of hand here. So he visits Palestine in the 1920s. He goes to America on fundraising drives and he writes many, many books, but he actually writes a book called “The Seventh Dominion.” And he proposed that in a multinational commonwealth, after all with, there were French Canadians in Canada, there are Dutch, south Africans, all subjects of the crown. Why not admit Jews into the commonwealth? Why not create in Palestine? He did later call it a Jewish state actually in a fundraising drive in 1926 in South Africa. He actually called it the Jewish state, let’s call it a Jewish homeland in Palestine. At this stage, why not admit Jews into the Commonwealth? He also said that the mandatory government is anti-Semitic and particularly the low level officer class, they resent the Balfour declaration, so does the commonwealth. And this was very much his mantra, that there’s a huge amount of injustice being perpetrated in Palestine against the Jews.
And remember, he’s very close to Vladimir Jabotinsky. And of course, Jabotinsky pacts The Seventh Dominion at a meeting in Central Hall Westminster. This is on the 26th of February, 1929. Wedgwood in the presence of several MPs, launch the Seventh Dominion League with himself as chairman. Now the Jewish Chronicle, the paper in London was wildly enthusiastic. Mainstream Zionism wasn’t too keen by this time, Weizmann and Jabotinsky were total enemies. Jabotinsky had completely parted company with the British. He wanted land both sides of the Jordan. He believed that would be the only answer to solving the problem of Jewish homelessness. The Jewish press in England took it up, but not in America, because the American Jewish press did not want it tied to closely to the British Empire. So you have many of the Zionists against it, because of Jabotinsky and you have the American Zionists against it. But the point is, he creates this idea. And really, Jabotinsky was very much the kind of Jew that Wedgwood said he admired.
He really supported his ideas and he believed in a Jewish state now. Now the other point though, he becomes more and more worried about Germany. But going back to his views on Jabotinsky, I’m just going to give you some, a few other examples of him in the house, because he’s often going to speak in the house about Jabotinsky and what happens to Jabotinsky, let me just find the reference because it’s quite important. Anyway, in 1929, you will know that there was another horrific incident in Jerusalem. Again, it begins at the holy site, the Mosque of Omar, the whaling wall, the western wall, and it leads to wholesale riots and massacre of Jews in Hebron and in Jerusalem. Jabotinsky was on a fundraising drive and he was actually not allowed back. And Wedgwood is the right honourable gentleman aware that Lieutenant Jabotinsky fought for us in World War I and was decorated. He was decorated by the British and that he has been excluded from Palestine, surely because of Arab massacre. The reply is not the gentleman a felt firebrand. And again, can we go on please with the next slide. Here you see Jabotinsky himself. Okay. Later on in 1936, at the time of the Peel Commission, he’s going to give evidence as the situation becomes more and more difficult. So 1933, oh, there was one more incident before that. December the 13th, 1932, this is in Hampstead again. He asked the question in the House of Commons whether the British minister in Warsaw had already supplied the British government with information regarding the anti-Jewish excesses in Poland. You’ve got to remember that anti-Semitism was not confined to Germany. Tragically, the disease was sweeping through Europe in the 30s.
And the situation in Poland was particularly difficult. Remember, it was the heartland of the Jewish world. There were a third of the population of Warsaw was Jewish. There were over three and a quarter of million Jews in Poland. And the under Secretary of State Foreign Affairs, Anthony Eden, he said the situation in Warsaw, Lemberg, and other towns, towns where the Jews were attacked is now almost normal, further trouble was not anticipated. So basically, all the time, he is being fudged off. And remember, he’s the leader of this league of the Seventh Dominion. In his spare time, if he had any really, he would go on fundraising drives. Can you imagine what it was like for the revisionist Zionist to have a man like Wedgwood, standing up for them in, he goes to Holland on a fundraising drive. He travels around Europe. He travels around America. Ironically, although he and Churchill were often at loggerheads, they respected each other. And he and Churchill in the 30s worked closely together, trying to do something about the next huge problem that he’s going to have to try and fight, and that’s the problem of Hitler in Germany. 22 days after Hitler became chancellor. This is a question he gave to the home secretary, because should not refugees come into Britain, he was terribly, terribly aware of the situation. He says this, our ancestors allowed the Huguenots to come into this country without damage to our country or our reputation. Would he be prepared to give an equally felicitous asylum to the persecuted victims of Nazi terrorism in Germany?
He also asked on behalf of German socialists, remember, he’s a member of the Labour Party. And this is the reply, aliens are only allowed to come in for residence if their settlement here is consonant with the interests of this country. Wedgwood was totally dissatisfied with that reply. To balance it, remember the Wall Street crash the unemployment in England, last week when I talked about miffed and I talked about Oswald Mosley, the British Union of Fascists, the headline in the Beaverbrook press, who ray for the black shirts. So there is lots of tensions. This is Wedgwood again in debate, what we must always put in parliament, what we must always put first is a principle based on humanity and justice. If you put the state first, you can justify any crime in the past and any crime in the future. I’m going to repeat that to you because I think this is so important today as it was then. If you put the state first, you can justify any crime in the past and any crime in the future. And for the next 10 years, right up until his death in 43, he asserts that Palestine was a place of refuge for persecuted Jews as well as suggesting the colonies. He as the plight of the Jews in Germany worsened. He’s shouting out in parliament. He’s not alone. And I’ll come onto that in a minute. But he’s one of the most vocal. And one of the most, ironically, despite him always being such a maverick, I think because he had a certain purity in his fights for justice, that he was respected and he must have been quite irritating to the pragmatists.
This is another, this is the 13th of April, that English people see whether they too can receive these people into their families to make a home here and to show whatever the Prussian Arian may think about the Jew or the peace mongers or even the socialists. We will in this country realise the value of brains and the duty of hospitality to the oppressed. He didn’t get any answer for that. He’s absolutely ceaseless in the fight. He’s also asking for Visas. He’s constantly asking for Visas. And in the early days of the war, he screamed out against the internment of German and Austrian refugees, Jewish refugees, a foreign office official. They didn’t shred enough papers, described him as being hopelessly unbalanced on the subject of supporting the Jews. This is what his niece see the Wedgwood described of him. He’s the last of the true radicals. A man who will take all risks. The man who will never consider any other aspects of the question, save that of justice. A man like that is essential to society and such men are rare and precious. And I really believe that. And that’s why I decided in, because this month, we have quite a lot of flexibility over who we teach. And that’s why I decided, I wanted to honour him. At the end of the 30s, he wrote a letter to his daughter, I should always remain intolerant of cruelty, injustice, and terror, and error. Even if the individual resists not evil, bows down to power and authority, then any tyrant prospers why civilization and humanity decay, I must repeat this. I just wish that these statements could be heard more in the British parliament. And I’m not making a party predict forecast here. I do not take sides.
So I shall remain intolerant of cruelty, injustice, and error. If the individual resists not evil, bows down to power and authority, then only tyrants prosper why civilization in the humanity decay, I think you can understand why of course, he and Churchill became close to each other. It was Churchill who later makes him into a barren because Churchill in the end, yes, at one stage, he had been in favour of eugenics. He had lots of strange views, but in the end, he had the courage to hold a people together. So during 1938, particularly after the Angeles, he calls for the wholesale of mission and naturalisation of refugees from mainland Europe. I’m just going to read to you some comments from the British press at the time. This is March the 23rd, 1938. Okay. Anxious time, think. The policy of fully open door is not practicable. And it’s important that oppressed minorities should not assume that admission into this country is to be offered to all in sundry. The problem has an international character and it is clearly impossible for this country alone to provide the rescue. That was the Scotsman. This is The Daily Telegraph. The government is bound to qualify sympathy with practical and prudential considerations, the Daily Mail, to be ruled by the misguided sentimentalism of those who think with Colonel Wedgwood would be disastrous. Once it was known that Britain offered sanctuary to all who cared to come, the floodgates would open and we should be inundated by thousands seeking a home. The Daily Express, we need to ask for theirs is a powerful agitation here to admit all Jewish refugees without question or discrimination. Well, that’s a slightly sinister statement. Let me repeat it, the express. We need to ask, for there is a powerful agitation here to admit all Jewish refugees without question or discrimination. It would be unwise, it would stir up elements that fatten on antisemitic propaganda. They would point to the fresh tide of foreigners, almost all belonging to the extreme left. They would ask what if Poland, Hungary, Romania, also expel its Jewish citizens? Must we admit them too? And of course, he made such a passionate statement. He said, for our honours sake, we must admit them.
It is for the sake of our honour. He said one should do justice even if heaven’s form. He said, this is a debate in May, 1934, I am not pro Jew. I am pro English. I set a higher value on the reputation of England for justice than for anything else. And at the time of the Kinder Transport, because what happens of course, is that is after Krista Mart. There is such an outcry from many Englishmen, including the extraordinary archbishop of Canterbury and quite a lot of other characters. There were the good guys, that in the Quakers were involved. Jewish MPs, although not all Jews welcomed it, they thought they put their head too high above the parapet. They themselves would be picked on. It’s such a complicated issue. But in the end, the kinder transport was allowed in, it would save them having to admit 10,000 Jewish refugees into Palestine children. And Wedgwood himself paid for 200 guarantees at 50 pounds a head, which is quite a lot of money. And also he became Chairman of the Jewish Refugee Hospitality Committee with Eleanor Rathbone. Can we have a look at some of the other slides, please? Yes. That’s the house he had in Moddershall Oaks in Staffordshire. He actually put up refugees in that house. He was quite an extraordinary individual. Because I’m running out of time, of course, as the horror of the war, really real was unleashed. And gradually more and more evidence came to England.
He teamed up with an extraordinary individual called Szmul Zygiebojm. Szmul Zygiebojm was the- There were two Jews in the Polish government in exile. You’ve got to remember that there were nine governments in exile in London. And on the 1st of August, 1942, as a result of information coming through from Poland and a statement by the Polish Vice President in London, he says this, it’s evident that the policy of the Germans is to wipe out entirely, not only the Jews in Poland, but the Jewish population of the whole of Europe. This is the Polish Vice President and Szmul Zygiebojm and Josiah Wedgwood. They write the introduction to the Polish pamphlet, which is one of the things that leads on the 17th of December, 1942 to the intergovernmental declaration against what was happening to the Jews of Europe. Szmul Zygiebojm himself, his story, he lost his family in the Warsaw ghetto and he actually committed suicide. The evidence was hitting London and of the deportations, and he committed suicide to bring the world’s attention to what was happening to the Jews. That was in May, 1943. And by that time, of course, Wedgwood had passed away. He wrote a number of books, by the way, he wrote “Fighting for Freedom” in 1940. He wrote Palestine, “The Fight for Jewish Freedom of Honour.” That was a collection of speeches that he’d made. And at a press interview on Palestine, he said, palace, the Jews, he’s Great Britain has done nothing for the Jews or the country. Now to continue, ironically, even though he passed, his name lived on.
Can you jump a few slides and get to the last slide, please? Go back, go back, sorry, to the statement. There you are. I want you to be able to take that down. I’ve given it to you. I am not pro Jew but pro English. I set a higher value on the reputation of England all over the world for justice. You see, he did believe in England. Now, can we go on to the last slide? Lord Peel, Eleanor Rathbone, I will give you a session on her at another time. She was an amazing feminist who fought in the House of Commons for all sorts of rights, including the rights of Jews. There you see, children on the kinder transport, 10,000 of them. Refugees are intelligent people, capable of producing wealth and are useful assets for the country. And I hate to say this, but I think I should tell you that the German and Austrian Jewish exodus, what it gave to Britain and America, I think is probably, no, I better not say it, because there have been many, many useful refugee contributions. But certainly, if you want to look at the culture of Britain and America, it was astounding. But then most refugee groups, as far as I know, have enriched the countries in which they live, so fascinating. Josiah Wedgwood has streets in many, many cities in Israel. And even more than that, there was a ship, a ship was named for him, a ship named the Josiah Wedgwood. It was a former Canadian ship. Now this is after 1945. All the evidence is revealed and the new labour government, Wedgwood is dead by this time. They do not open the gates to Palestine. So the Haganah is running ships to Palestine and they send members of Mossad Lealiyah Bet to America and Canada to find ships. And one of them was a Canadian Corvette. It was surplus. The war was over. It was bought by money from the Mossad and its repairs were conducted in New York Harbour. It sailed on the 1st of April, 1946.
The captain was an American veteran. It was mainly staffed by American and Canadian naval officers, Naval people who were in fact, Jewish, plus volunteers from the Zionists used youth movement. And it was on its way to Palestine and it was attacked by the British. The refugees were taken off and they were sent to the detention camp at Atlit. But later on, when the Israeli navy was created, some of the shadow fleet came into service. And the Wedgwood, this ship that’s remained the Wedgwood was the second vessel to be commissioned. So certainly, and let me just finish on Churchill, were I asked for the best evidence of the virtues of our democracy, I would cite the whole political life of my old and gallant friend, Josiah Wedgwood. And that was his foreword. In 1940, he wrote the foreword to Josiah Wedgwood’s book, “Memoirs of a Fighting Life.” Let me finish again on that wonderful statement, where I asked for the best evidence of the virtues of our democracy, I would cite the whole political life of my old gallant friend, Josiah Wedgwood. Thank you. I hope you realise why I like him.
Q&A and Comments:
Adrian is pointing to problems in Israel.
Well, this is interesting. My father and brother both went to Clifton College and on to Oxbridge. I didn’t know Wedgwood was also there. There were quite a few illustrious Cliftonians. Yes, very much so. He obviously wasn’t. There’s one Jewish, unfortunately it’s closed now, but there’s still scholarships for Jewish kids. Pollock’s is closed. Wedgwood would not have gone to the Jewish house. But there was a Jewish boarding house at Clifton College. Clifton was set up in 1862.
This is Carol, Wedgwood China pieces were very popular among Jews, especially Holocaust Live survivors now I know why. Wedgwood company did start producing excellent quality modern stars to keep up with the times. Yes. The Wedgwood family is still involved in the company and I believe Wedgwood’s grandson runs it today.
Speaking of Canada, which still had more British influence then. In the US, eugenic laws also fueled by racism against what was called at the time Negroes. Oh, very much so. There’s absolutely no, the weight of history is on your side on this.
Yes, of course. Eugenics is a very, very weird disease. It grew out of social Darwinism and it was Galton who put it forward. Many of these ideas, ironically, we won’t touch eugenics and we won’t touch this whole notion of genetics anymore, will we? But I do believe, I’m not a scientist, we really must have electron genetics. But I do believe voluntarily Jewish couples have managed, I think Tay-Sachs has been eradicated in the Ashkenazi Jewish community, perhaps someone knows much more than I do.
Emma Goldman died in Toronto. Did she? What is a backbencher? That is a member of parliament who doesn’t have government office. They sit on what they call the backbenches. Oh, yes, yes. Thank you. I
’m asked. Yes. The Wedgwood crockery business is from the same family. Also, children with learning difficulties used to be treated very badly. There was no special schooling. Yes, of course, we knew very, very little, didn’t we? It was this notion of conformity. We didn’t understand. Well, how much do we understand today how the mind works. We’ve got a long way to go.
Oh, this is Lorna. I was hoping for a presentation on Wedgwood pottery, not on a Jewish. Oh, I’m sorry, Lorna. I will turn over to the cultural group to find out. Is this a problem? Yes. I don’t know if Patrick is an expert on pottery, but I can certainly speak to him, if one thinks there or I’ll speak to Wendy about it. See if one, there would be an audience for it.
No, I didn’t say Jabotinsky created the Haganah. He actually organised and created it in Jerusalem. Okay. Didn’t say he created it. Janet says she no longer receives recordings. Okay. Karina, can you take note of that? I’ve had a couple of other people being, I know we do try and send them on. So it is just a glitch. And by the way, the website is up the first week in September.
[Karina] And you can let everyone know, Trudy, that all of the recordings are in the auto response. Sometimes, it goes to people’s junk mail.
Okay, thank you, Karina. I’m sure that, I know that we are very, very careful with things like that. Thank you. So some of you want to lecture on pottery. Well, it can’t come from me, but I will certainly ask. Thank you. This is from Arnold. I often walk by his street in Jerusalem. Remind me of the- Thank you.
Yeah. Wedgwood is still well known throughout the USA. My daughter had a vacation home on a lake in very rural southern Virginia. It’s on Wedgwood Lane. However, I would guess that few Americans know much about the origins of the name.
Q: Was Jay?
A: No, he’s never been called a righteous gentile because he didn’t- Righteous Gentile is a term of absolute rescue during the show up. Now he did allow people, he did facilitate Visas. I don’t know, I’ll take that further. Was Frederick Engels a precursor to Wedgwood? No, he was an ideologue. I don’t think Wedgwood was an ideologue. Thank you, Ruth.
Eugenics, the actual theories were developed in England, but eugenics very much was taken up in America. Oh, yes. I’ve been asked that question.
Q: Was Wedgwood Benn a relative?
A: I’m going to have to research that. Funnily enough, my son-in-law asked that question today and I didn’t have time to research, it wouldn’t be surprised. Our Jewish country club in Port Elizabeth was called Wedgwood, never thought to ask why.
Saul, I know that he visited South Africa on fundraising drives and of course, Jabotinsky was often there. That’s what I’m going to find out, Jackie.
This is Sharon. Look, Corina, she said, I’ve tried my junk mail. I’ve checked, I don’t get them anymore for the last three weeks.
This is from Shelly, in the Haredi community, they do genetic testing for diseases like Tay-Sachs with male and female proposed match without names. If neither are a carrier, the matches is a go. If one carrier is a carrier, then that person is not identified, but the matches are no go. I believe though that that is elective. I believe it’s elective, Shelly, correct me if I’m wrong. You see that’s the line, isn’t it? I remember. I mean, for example, down syndrome has been eradicated in Denmark because they can now, they can actually alter the gene. I remember having a discussion with a man who he had a downs child and he said, but what is wrong with my child? So along every one of these roads, you come across a moral dilemma. Elective but encouraged. Thank you.
Yes. Oh, wait a minute. This is Jean. I also have problems getting the recordings. I use a different email for the recordings now and have no trouble receiving them. I think, we’ve got a bit of a puzzle to unravel, Karina. I know that they’re pretty zealous. They work very hard at all of this. So maybe, Karina, can you have a word with Lauren just to maybe what might be an idea is to just tell them what to do. If we could just maybe, on the next presentation, tell me exactly how to do it. May would that help?
[Karina] And it’ll be solved once the website is up.
Okay, thank you. Yes, everything’s going to be solved then. This is Harriet. There’s more than Tay-Sachs in Ashkenazi Jews, there’s Canavan disease in Gaucher as well. Okay. A lot of people are now saying, so yes, you haven’t got much longer to wait. I believe that. And also there’s transcriptions of a lot of them. There’s going to be transcriptions of many of the lectures. Aren’t there? I believe. Anyway-
[Karina] Yes.
Yeah. Is that correct?
[Karina] Yes. All of them are being transcribed.
Okay. So I don’t know if they’ll all be up at the beginning because how many lectures have we got? It’s quite an extraordinary number.
[Karina] Over 1200.
That’s an awful lot of lectures people have listened to. Anyway, I’m sorry you thought I was going to lecture on pottery, but I think that’s actually, I must go and tell my children that. But I think those of you who love it, it will be quite an interesting idea. Won’t it? Can you feed that through Karina and I will bring it up with Patrick?
[Karina] Absolutely.
Okay. Thanks very much, Karina. And I will see you all, I think next week, not this week. And you’ve got some lovely lectures coming up this week. So enjoy and take care all of you. Bye.