Government of Cousins

Lord Balniel, 38, is the eldest son and heir of the 27th Earl of Crawford. He is a director of the Bank-of-England-controlled $28,000,000 Lancashire Steel Corp., Ltd. He is a member of Parliament, one of 415 Conservative Party members who give Prime Minister Chamberlain his majority, crisis after crisis. So are two of his brothers-in-law. So is his wife's brother-in-law and the ex-husband of another of her sisters. So are the husbands of three of her first cousins. Viscount Wolmer, another Tory M.P., is distantly related to him--the Viscount's father married Lord Balniel's wife's cousin's aunt--as are at least four more Tory M.P.s--Major Oscar Guest, Lieut. Colonel Henry Guest, their nephew, Ivor and Minister of Transport Captain the Rt. Hon. David Euan Wallace.

Currently exciting comment in London is a provocative, 263-page book that analyzes the tangled family, social, economic and political relationships of Government supporters in the House of Commons. Called Tory M.P., believed the work of several contributors who write under the common pseudonym of "Simon Haxey, " it is an unobtrusive piece of political dynamite, abundantly proves its main point--that people like Lord Balniel are not exceptional among Conservative* members.

Like 100 of his Parliamentary colleagues, Lord Balniel went to Eton. Like 180 of the 415 Tory M.P.s, he is a director of a corporation. He is younger than the average Tory in the House (50), but he is like the majority in his widespread family connections: on Government benches, in the House of Lords, in the Cabinet, he has cousins, in-laws, distant relatives, as have the Scotts, Stanleys, Cavendishes and the Guests who can count 77 past and present M.P.s related by blood or marriage.

Biggest argument of Tory M.P. is that Great Britain's democracy is threatened by this concentration of family, political and economic power. More impressive than its argument, however, is its roll call of big British businessmen who are also members of Parliament. Examples:

Finance. Government M.P.s are directors of 43 insurance companies, 27 finance companies, 16 banks. The Bank of England has only one M.P.--Sir Alan Anderson--among its directors, but Sir Alan is also a director of railroads and ship lines that have other M.P.s on their directorates. Typical of Parliamentary financiers is Lieut. Colonel Glyn Keith Murray Mason, who is a director of the Midland Bank (biggest in England) and vice chairman of powerful Guardian Assurance Co., Ltd. When family backgrounds are considered, the financial power of Tory M.P.s looks towering. Lord Wimborne, a director of Barclays Bank until 1939 and once a Tory M.P. himself, has two brothers, a son, and a nephew on Conservative benches, while his son-in-law's brother-in-law is a Cabinet minister, and his brother-in-law's brother-in-law, the same Viscount Wolmer, has represented Aldershot for 21 years.

Heavy Industry. Coal, iron & steel and engineering firms (including armaments) account for 59 Tory M.P.s holding 109 directorships, giving heavy industry the heaviest representation among Conservatives in Parliament. Sir Alfred Beit, descendant of diamond-mining South African pioneers, is a director of airplane-manufacturing firms as well as of an African railway. Lieut. Colonel Henry Guest, Viscount Wimborne's brother, is a director of the $75,000,000 Guest, Keen & Nettlefold's iron, steel and coal company, of Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries with a capacity of 20,000,000 tons annually. The Rt. Hon. Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery is a director of Cammell Laird and Co., Ltd., famed British warship-builders, is married to a sister of Viscount Greenwood, another of whose sisters married Viscount Wimborne's nephew.

Communications. Sir Charles Coupar Barrie is a Tory M.P. for Southampton, a director of $150,000,000 Cable and Wireless, Ltd. But he is also on the board of big Phoenix Assurance Co., Ltd., which controls eleven subsidiary insurance companies; of Santa Rosa Milling Co., Ltd., which has Chilean and Peruvian subsidiaries; of London & Northeastern Railway Co., Central Argentine Railway Ltd., the Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd., Crown Flour Mills, Ltd., United Baltic Corp., Ltd., of companies dealing in tobacco in Dublin, telegraph services in Africa.

Beer. Eleven Tory M.P.s are directors of breweries, but looming over them all is Ind Coope & Allsopp's Chairman Colonel the Rt. Hon. Sir George Courthope, member for Rye for 33 years.

Amusements. Thirteen Tory M.P.s hold directorships in companies operating cinemas, theatres, race tracks. Typical is Lieut. Colonel John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon, 55-year-old aviation enthusiast, a director of Greyhound Racing Association Trust Ltd., which owns tracks in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, paid 40% dividends last year.

Packed with big names, big numbers, in-laws, cousins and old friends, Tory M.P. sometimes reads like the society page of a small-town newspaper conscientiously reporting a family reunion. This has the effect of making wealthy Tories appear less menacing than the authors intended. Also weakening the picture is the fact that many a rich M.P. opposes his cousins, follows some anti-Chamberlain policies that the authors of the book advocate. Persuasive rather than strident, the book is obviously aimed for this autumn's probable General Election, attacks pro-Nazis and the Munich settlement, adopts a stern tone only when discussing outright Fascists and Conservatives and the Tory members of the Anglo-German Fellowship. British readers, who knew the British ruling class was rich, small and solid but scarcely expected to find that most of the world of Parliament is kin, doubted that much would come of the revelations in Tory M.P.

This week, however, ear-to-the-ground Neville Chamberlain told the House that Cabinet Ministers, forbidden since 1906 to hold directorships in public companies, would henceforth be obliged to give up also their directorships in private companies (unincorporated companies not required to issue annual reports). It was revealed that the hardest hit Minister, shipping tycoon Lord President of the Council Viscount Runciman, had already given up six important private directorships.

*In Tory M.P. all Government supporters in the House, whether Conservatives, Unionists (Scottish Conservatives), National-Laborites or Liberal-Nationals, are grouped under the general head of Tories.

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