Item 160 - Letter from G. D. H. Cole to F. W. Pethick-Lawrence

1 single sheet

‘As from’ 7 Parsifal Road, London, N.W.6.—Sends, for the consideration of the Policy Sub-Committee, a paper recommending that a Labour Government should immediately nationalise the joint-stock banks (see 1/161).

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Transcript

As from 7 Parsifal Road, | London, N.W.6.
1/6/32.

Dear Pethick Lawrence,

Dalton suggested to me that I should see you in order to put before you, with an eye to the L. P. Policy Committee, my view about the Joint Stock Banks; but, as I shall be out of London till next Wednesday, it seems I had better write. I have tried to put down, on a couple of sheets, my reasons for thinking that the new Labour policy, if it is to be effective, must include provision for the immediate taking over of the joint stock banks as well as the Bank of England. I gather privately from Dalton that the Policy Sub-Committee is at present inclined not to take this view. If that is so, I should very much like a chance of backing my own opinion before it if that is possible. I feel so strongly that this is the key question, and that it cannot be bucked at the present stage. For, if I am right in thinking we shall have to tackle the joint stock banks at the start, I think it follows we ought to make our intentions clear at once. It will take us a long time to get our own people to the point of intelligent propaganda on this issue; and it will also take time to combat the fears which the policy will arouse in the minds of certain large sections of the electorate. We want the longest possible time before an election for intelligent putting of our case before the public.

I shall be back in town next Wednesday. Till Monday, my address is Bradfields, Topperfield, Great Yeldham, Essex. Sorry to bother you; but it’s all in the hope of getting the best possible policy for Leicester.

Yours sincerely
G. D. H. Cole

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2020.