British Diplomatic Oil Crisis: Contemporary Anglo-Saxon Geopolitical Rivalries in the Persian Gulf: Drawing a Lesson? Or Sir Anthony Eden‘s Delusion of Grandeur.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE COMING OF THE CONSERVATIVE
PARTY TO OFFICE
IN 1951
The aim of
this chapter and the next one is to examine how the Conservative
Party, which came to power after the fall of the Labour Government in
October 1951, dealt with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s crisis.
The Conservative Party
traditionally and conspicuously supported standing
for the British Empire and its expansion. It was the Conservative Government
that brought the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company’s crisis to a settlement by 1954.
The Conservative Party took office on 25th October 1951 with Churchill as
Prime Minister presiding over the crisis. Churchill was overtly a defender
of British imperial power and believed in taking firm action against those
who challenged British power and interests. This example will illustrate:
Churchill once said in the 1930s about India’s independence that, ‘the
Indians would never be fit to govern themselves, and that in any case to
give them independence would undermine the whole of the British Empire.’
1 On another occasion, regarding India’s
independence, Churchill commented: ‘you will depress the British heartbeat
all over the globe.’
2 First, studies will be made about the Conservative
Party’s attitude towards colonialism.
The Conservative Party
proclaims the
necessity for capital-labour co-operation and the end of
restrictive practices both between employers and among employees. It is the
party of social mobility. ‘Quality and not equality’ and ‘opportunity rather
than security’ are two of its slogans.3
-
F. LONGFORD, Eleven at
No. 10, (London: Harrap, 1984), p.
48. -
Ibid.
-
S.E. FINER, Comparative Government,
(Middlesex: Penguin,
1970), p. 104.Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177
