title: Komagata Maru incident

text: When "Komagata Maru" arrived in Canadian waters, first at Coal Harbour in Burrard Inlet some 200 meters (220 yards) off CPR Pier A, it was not allowed to dock. The first immigration officer to meet the ship in Vancouver was Fred "Cyclone" Taylor. While Prime Minister of Canada Robert Borden decided what to do with the ship, the Conservative Premier of British Columbia, Richard McBride, gave a categorical statement that the passengers would not be allowed to disembark. Conservative MP H. H. Stevens organized a public meeting against allowing the ship's passengers to disembark and urged the government to refuse to allow the ship to remain. Stevens worked with immigration official Malcolm R.J. Reid to keep the passengers offshore. Reid's intransigence, supported by Stevens, led to the mistreatment of the passengers on the ship and prolonged its departure date, which was not resolved until the intervention of the federal Minister of Agriculture, Martin Burrell, MP for Yale—Cariboo.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: Some South Asian Canadians already settled in Canada began launching "shore committees" led by Husain Rahim (Gujarati-Canadian), Muhammad Akbar (Punjabi-Canadian) and Sohan Lal Pathak. These were to protest the decision that denied entry to the Komagata Maru passengers. Protest meetings were held in Canada and the United States. At one of these meetings held in Dominion Hall, Vancouver, the assembly resolved that if the passengers were not allowed entry into Canada, Indo-Canadians should follow them back to India to start a rebellion or "Ghadar". A British government agent who infiltrated the meeting wired government officials in London and Ottawa to tell them that supporters of the Ghadar Party were on the ship.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: The shore committee raised $22,000 as an installment for chartering the ship. They also launched a lawsuit under J. Edward Bird's legal counsel on behalf of Munshi Singh, one of the passengers. On July 6, the full bench of the British Columbia Court of Appeal delivered a unanimous judgement that under new orders-in-council it had no authority to interfere with the decisions of the Department of Immigration and Colonization. Angry passengers relieved the Japanese captain of control of the ship, but the Canadian government ordered the harbour tug "Sea Lion" to push the ship out to sea. On July 19, the angry passengers mounted an attack. The next day the Vancouver newspaper "The Sun" reported: "Howling masses of Hindus showered policemen with lumps of coal and bricks ... it was like standing underneath a coal chute".


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: The government also mobilized , a Royal Canadian Navy ship under the command of Commander Hose, with troops from the 11th Regiment "Irish Fusiliers of Canada", 72nd Regiment "Seaforth Highlanders of Canada", and the 6th Regiment "The Duke of Connaught's Own Rifles". In the end, only twenty passengers were admitted to Canada, since the ship had violated the exclusion laws, the passengers did not have the required funds, and they had not sailed directly from India. The ship was turned around and forced to depart for Asia on July 23.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: During the controversy, Punjabi residents of Canada had supplied information to W. C. Hopkinson, a British immigration official. Two of these informants were murdered in August 1914. Hopkinson was gunned down at the Vancouver courthouse while attending the Punjabi trials in October 1914.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: "Komagata Maru" arrived in Calcutta on September 27. Upon entry into the harbour, the ship was stopped by a British gunboat, and the passengers were placed under guard. The government of the British Raj saw the men on "Komagata Maru" not only as self-confessed lawbreakers, but also as dangerous political agitators. The British government suspected that white and South Asian radicals were using the incident to create rebellion among South Asians in the Pacific Northwest. When the ship docked at Budge Budge, the police went to arrest Baba Gurdit Singh and the twenty or so other men whom they viewed as leaders. He resisted arrest, a friend of his assaulted a policeman, and a general riot ensued. Shots were fired and nineteen of the passengers were killed. Some escaped, but the remainder were arrested and imprisoned or sent to their villages and kept under village arrest for the duration of the First World War. This incident became known as the Budge Budge riot.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: Ringleader Gurdit Singh Sandhu managed to escape and lived in hiding until 1922. Mahatma Gandhi urged him to give himself up as a "true patriot". Upon his doing so he was imprisoned for five years.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: The "Komagata Maru" incident was widely cited at the time by Indian groups to highlight discrepancies in Canadian immigration laws. Further, the inflamed passions in the wake of the incident were widely cultivated by the Indian revolutionary organization, the Ghadar Party, to rally support for its aims. In a number of meetings ranging from California in 1914 to the Indian diaspora, prominent Ghadarites including Barkatullah, Tarak Nath Das, and Sohan Singh used the incident as a rallying point to recruit members for the Ghadar movement, most notably in support of promulgating plans to coordinate a massive uprising in India. Their efforts failed due to lack of support from the general population.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: In 1952 the Indian government set up a memorial to the "Komagata Maru" martyrs near the Budge Budge. It was inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The monument is locally known as the "Punjabi Monument" and is modelled as a kirpan (dagger) rising up toward the sky.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: A tripartite agreement was signed between the Kolkata Port Trust, Union Ministry of Culture and the "Komagata Maru" Trust for the construction of a G+2 building behind the existing memorial. The building will house an administrative office and library in the ground floor, a museum in the first floor and auditorium in the second. The total cost of the construction will amount to 24 million Indian rupees (INR).


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: In 2014 government of India issued two special coins, INR 5 and INR 100, to mark the centenary of the "Komagata Maru" incident.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: A plaque commemorating the 75th anniversary of the departure of "Komagata Maru" was placed in the Sikh gurdwara (temple) in Vancouver on July 23, 1989.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: A plaque commemorating the 80th anniversary of the arrival of "Komagata Maru" was placed in Vancouver harbour in 1994.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: A monument in remembrance of the "Komagata Maru" incident was unveiled on July 23, 2012. It is located near the steps of the seawall that lead up to the Vancouver Convention Centre West Building in Coal Harbour.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: A stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the arrival of "Komagata Maru" was released by Canada Post on May 1, 2014.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: The first phase of the "Komagata Maru" Museum was opened in June 2012 at the Khalsa Diwan Society Vancouver Ross Street Temple.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: Raj Singh Toor, spokesperson and vice-president of the Descendants of the "Komagata Maru" Society worked to bring about commemorations to the legacy of the "Komagata Maru". Toor is a grandson of Baba Puran Singh Janetpura, one of the passengers on the "Komagata Maru". After Toor spoke to Surrey, British Columbia city council, part of 75A Avenue in Surrey was renamed "Komagata Maru" Way on July 31, 2019. As well, a heritage storyboard titled "Remembering the "Komagata Maru"" was installed at R. A. Nicholson Park in Surrey on September 17, 2020. On December 23, 2020, as a result of Toor's presentations to Delta city council, a storyboard commemorating the "Komagata Maru" was installed in the North Delta Social Heart Plaza.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: As well, due to lobbying efforts by Toor, May 23, 2020, was recognized by the city of Surrey and the province of British Columbia as "Komagata Maru" Remembrance Day. The city of New Westminster and city of Victoria declared May 23, 2021, as "Komagata Maru" Remembrance Day, while the city of Vancouver commemorated the day as "Komagata Maru" Day of Remembrance. The city of Burnaby and the city of Port Coquitlam proclaimed May 23 of every year as "Komagata Maru" Remembrance Day.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: In response to calls for the government of Canada to address historic wrongs involving immigration and wartime measures, the Conservative government in 2006 created the community historical recognition program to provide grant and contribution funding for community projects linked to wartime measures and immigration restrictions and a national historical recognition program to fund federal initiatives, developed in partnership with various groups. The announcement was made on June 23, 2006, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized in the House of Commons for the head tax against Chinese immigrants.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: On August 6, 2006, Prime Minister Harper made a speech at the Ghadri Babiyan da Mela (Festival of the Ghadar Party) in Surrey, B.C., where he stated that the government of Canada acknowledged the "Komagata Maru" incident and announced the government's commitment to "undertake consultations with the Indo-Canadian community on how best to recognize this sad moment in Canada's history". On April 3, 2008, Ruby Dhalla, MP for Brampton—Springdale, tabled motion 469 (M-469) in the House of Commons which read, "That, in the opinion of the House, the government should officially apologize to the Indo-Canadian community and to the individuals impacted in the 1914 "Komagata Maru" incident, in which passengers were prevented from landing in Canada." On May 10, 2008, Jason Kenney, Secretary of State (Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity), announced the Indo-Canadian community would be able to apply for up to $2.5 million in grants and contributions funding to commemorate the "Komagata Maru" incident. Following further debate on May 15, 2008, Dhalla's motion was passed by the House of Commons.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: On May 23, 2008, the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia unanimously passed a resolution "that this Legislature apologizes for the events of May 23, 1914, when 376 passengers of the "Komagata Maru", stationed off Vancouver harbour, were denied entry by Canada. The House deeply regrets that the passengers, who sought refuge in our country and our province, were turned away without benefit of the fair and impartial treatment befitting a society where people of all cultures are welcomed and accepted."


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: On August 3, 2008, Harper appeared at the 13th annual Ghadri Babiyan Da Mela (festival) in Surrey, B.C., to issue an apology for the "Komagata Maru" incident. He said, in response to the House of Commons motion calling for an apology by the government, "On behalf of the government of Canada, I am officially conveying as prime minister that apology."


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: Some members of the Sikh community were unsatisfied with the apology because they expected it to be made in Parliament. Secretary of State Jason Kenney said: "The apology has been given and it won't be repeated".


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: The British Columbia Regiment (Duke of Connaught's Own), which was involved in the expulsion of the "Komagata Maru", was commanded by a Sikh, Harjit Sajjan, from 2011 until 2014. He later became Minister of National Defence.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: On May 18, 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a formal "full apology" for the incident in the House of Commons. This formal apology came about due to lobbying from the Indo-Canadian community, such as the work done by The Descendants of the "Komagata Maru" Society.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: On May 18, 2021, due to lobbying efforts of Raj Singh Toor, Vancouver City Council said that they "sincerely apologize for the role the City played in the incident, especially supporting laws that prevented passengers from disembarking". Also due to lobbying efforts of Toor, New Westminster City Council acknowledged on September 27, 2021, that the city's "...formal support of discriminatory, racist and exclusionary legislation contributed to the plight of the passengers of the "Komagata Maru", both in Canadian waters and upon their return to India." Consequently, "The City of New Westminster formally apologizes to the South Asian community and the descendants of the survivors of the "Komagata Maru" for its past actions which resulted in discrimination and exclusion."


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: "Jeevan Sangram" is a 1974 Indian Hindi-language action-drama film directed by Rajbans Khanna. Based on the Komagata Maru incident it follows Arjun on board the ship and his return to India thereafter where he escapes the firing at the harbour and becomes a rebel against British rule in India.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: The first Canadian play based on the incident is "The Komagata Maru Incident", written by Sharon Pollock and presented in January 1976. It was presented again in 2017 by the Stratford Festival, directed by Keira Loughran, starring Kiran Ahluwalia.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: The first Canadian novel based on the incident is "Lions of the Sea", written by Jessi Thind and published in 2001. In 2011 Diana Lobb cited "Lions of the Sea" as one of the first fictionalized South Asian perspectives on the "Komagata Maru" in her philosophical dissertation presented to the University of Waterloo. Several friends of the author suggested the title of the novel for the Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada Komagata Maru exhibition in 2014 which was subsequently titled "Lions of the Sea: The National Komagata Maru Exhibition."


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: Ajmer Rode wrote the play "Komagata Maru" based on the incident in 1984. In 1989, when Indo-Canadian community of British Columbia commemorated the 75th anniversary of the "Komagata Maru", Sadhu Binning and Sukhwant Hundal wrote a play Samundari Sher Nal Takkar ("The Battle with the Sealion") and co-edited and produced first issue of Punjabi literary magazine "Watan" on the "Komagata Maru" incident. Phinder Dulai wrote A Letter To The Maru – 1914–1994. The letter was a fictionalized narrative utilizing both public record documentation and archival material; the piece ran in 1998 in an issue of "Rungh Magazine".


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: "Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?" is a 2006 novel by the Indo-Canadian writer Anita Rau Badami, it follows a woman named Bibi-ji who retraces her father's steps during the incident in Canada, with the plot being linked with other contemporary issues in India. "Oh Canada, Oh Komagata Maru" is a 2012 play by Alia Rehana Somani which explores memories of the incident among the Indo-Canadian community.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: In 2004, Ali Kazimi's feature documentary "Continuous Journey" was released. This is the first in-depth film to examine the events surrounding the turning-away of the "Komagata Maru." The primary source research done for the film led to the discovery of rare film footage of the ship in Vancouver harbour. Eight years in the making, "Continuous Journey" has won over ten awards, including the Most Innovative Canadian Documentary at DOXA, Vancouver 2005, and a Golden Conch at the Mumbai International Film Festival, 2006. Also in 2006, Kazimi assisted broadcaster Jowi Taylor in obtaining a piece of red cedar from Jack Uppal's Goldwood Industries, the first Sikh-owned timber mill in British Columbia, as a way of bringing the "Komagata Maru" story and the story of Sikhs in Canada into the Six String Nation project. Parts of this wood now serve as kerfing strips on either side of the end block in the interior of "Voyageur", the guitar at the heart of the project.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: The CBC radio play "Entry Denied", by the Indo-Canadian scriptwriter Sugith Varughese focuses on the incident.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: In 2012, filmmaker Ali Kazimi's book "Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru" was published by Douglas & McIntyre.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: In 2014, "dream / arteries", written by Phinder Dulai, was published by Talon Books. The poetry book begins with a suite of poems that utilize archival records, public repositories, and online uploaded material never published before, including new photographs of the "Komagata Maru" from the Vancouver Public Library.


title: Komagata Maru incident

text: Simon Fraser University Library launched a website "Komagata Maru: Continuing the Journey" in 2012 funded by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada under the auspices of the Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP). This website contains information and documents related to the "Komagata Maru" incident and a timeline that unfolds the details and supports teaching, research and knowledge about the "Komagata Maru" for school-aged, post-secondary and general audiences.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: Danny Robert Worsnop (born 4 September 1990) is an English singer most prominently known as the lead vocalist of rock bands Asking Alexandria and We Are Harlot. He has worked with several artists including I See Stars, With One Last Breath, Breathe Carolina, Memphis May Fire, The Word Alive, All That Remains, and Testarossa, providing guest vocals on several songs.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: Worsnop also maintains a solo music career. He released his debut solo full-length country-inspired studio album, "The Long Road Home", in 2017. He has since released his second studio album "Shades of Blue" in 2019 through Sumerian Records, followed by the two standalone singles "Another You" and "Happy".


title: Danny Worsnop

text: Danny Worsnop was born on 4 September 1990 in Beverley, England and grew up in the small village of Gilberdyke with his parents Philip and Sharon and his younger sister Kelly. Worsnop himself has stated that his love for music started when he was a toddler when he would make "beats" using empty boxes and pots, but started playing instruments at the age of 8, his first being the violin and took lessons to play it, a year later learning the trumpet, and another year later he was playing at his local village school orchestra. Eventually he would take up guitar and bass and became more influenced by rock and metal music, and was self-taught. He initially planned to join the military in hopes of becoming a sniper, however the success of Asking Alexandria's debut album "Stand Up and Scream" convinced him to continue a music career.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: Although Ben Bruce originally formed the band in Dubai in 2006, after he realized that he wouldn't be able to achieve international success in Dubai, he moved to Nottingham in England in 2008 and reassembled the band with new members from the York area, including lead singer Danny Worsnop, Ben had moved in with Danny at his parents home Gilberdyke. He carried the name over due to not wanting to bother to come up with a brand new name, so he stuck with the old one. When asked why he chose that particular name, he explained that "Most bands have a pretty shit band name, so I just came up with something. I came up with Alexandria as a human name, because people relate to humans", although the reason for using the word 'asking' is not explained.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: The band released their first official debut album titled Stand Up and Scream in 2009 via Sumerian and Victory records, produced by Joey Sturgis. Although it did not chart in the UK, it did chart in the US, peaking at 4 in the Top Heatseekers, 24 in the Top Hard Rock Albums and 29 in the Top Independent Albums. The band's second album, titled Reckless and Relentless, was released in 2011 via Sumerian records, which again featured Joey Sturgis. This time, the album did chart in the UK, peaking at 7 on the UK Rock Chart, and also charted in Australia at 30 on the Australian Albums Chart. They released their third album, titled From Death to Destiny in 2013 via Sumerian Records and peaked in the US at 5 and the Top Hard Rock Albums at 1, and also charted in the UK at 28 and in Australia at 11, making it their most commercially successful album to date.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: On 22 January 2015, Danny Worsnop announced on his departure from the band, stating that he wants what's best for the band hence his departure, and also to focus on his new band We Are Harlot, despite this departure the band will be touring and also recording a new album, despite no further announcements being made about his replacement. Fans reacted to news in distress as they believe he was essential to the band's sound, while others were not surprised by his career move, some going as far to say he performs better with his new band We Are Harlot than he does with Asking Alexandria.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: Worsnop himself has explained that he loved being a part of Asking Alexandria but he no longer wanted to create heavy music, stating that even if We Are Harlot didn't exist, he would have left the band anyway. He further commented that he also grew apart from the rest of the band musically and had reached a point where he wanted to do different things, hence the change from a metal band to a hard rock band. While Ben Bruce has admitted that the band is happier without Worsnop, he continued to show support for Asking Alexandria after they released their first single, "I Won't Give In", featuring Denis Stoff as the main vocalist with a positive response on his social media. When Worsnop was asked if he would ever return to making metal music online he responded with "Not opposed to it, but nothing planned at this point in time."


title: Danny Worsnop

text: On 21 October 2016, guitarist Ben Bruce confirmed that Worsnop had officially reunited with Asking Alexandria after parting ways with Stoff around 18 months.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: In multiple interviews Danny Worsnop mentioned this band and referred to it as 'Harlot', which he has explained that after touring with Asking Alexandria in 2013, he would be touring with this band and release an album, along with his solo album in the near future. The band was formed three years prior to the events of 2014 after Worsnop and Jeff George formerly of Sebastian Bach, who shared the same lawyer Eric German, had met in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve, and within two days the pair bonded and moved in together as roommates at Worsnop's Beverley Hills home.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: After discussing their musical endeavours, Worsnop invited Bruno Agra, formerly of Revolution Renaissance, and the three started to make demos based on Agra's former band. This was initially going to be used as material for Worsnop's solo album, but once they met Brian Weaver from Silvertide, who became part of the band after they advertised the role for a full-time bassist, it grew into the band. The band released their debut album on 30 March 2015. When asked if he preferred to perform with We Are Harlot or Asking Alexandria, Worsnop said that he disliked that question and that they are two opposites, with the statement "It's like comparing Aerosmith and Metallica."


title: Danny Worsnop

text: The band's debut self-titled album was successfully released on 30 March and peaked in the US at 165 and in the UK at 58, it sold 5,000 copies in the US alone within its debut week and was well received by critics. The band recently stated that they will be releasing a second album in February 2017, and despite Worsnop's return to Asking Alexandria, they will not be sidelined in any way.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: Worsnop is to be releasing a solo album, however since announcement in 2011 he had only released a 50-second clip of the song Photograph via YouTube. In an interview with Artisan News Service Danny has said that he is expecting to release the album by Easter of 2014. In a Facebook post on 20 December 2013, he also stated that he is working with producer Jay Ruston, and that the album would be released through Sumerian Records, however this is not the case after his announcements in 2016.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: In September 2015 in an interview with Altpress he stated that he was in the middle of recording his album, and that was doing so with country and blues music in mind, stating that he was a country boy when he grew up in England. He has also worked with songwriters Hillary Lindsey and John Paul White, and is also working with producer Jim Kaufman. He also stated that his solo project will include music videos and hopes it will be a success, however admitted that there are no plans to tour per se. In early December Worsnop officially announced that his debut solo album will in fact be released in 2016, and gave insight on the album's lyrical and musical influences, such as the fact that the album will include his past dealings with drugs, alcoholism, and his rehabilitation along with his other "dark demons".


title: Danny Worsnop

text: He goes on to say that he wrote the album intensely in a week and recorded the whole album live and raw in his Kaufman's living room, he also funded the project himself and oversaw every single aspect of the album's making, including its artwork of which he created and the music videos which he had written and directed himself, the album's recording officially ended in early February. Later the same month he released an album cover and the album's title, "The Prozac Sessions", and stated that he was in Nashville to find a label to release the album on. He also mentioned that there will be four variations of the album's artwork and possibly variations of bonus tracks to accommodate them. In early March Worsnop unveiled a series of song teasers and all four album covers on his website, and stated on his social media that he will be announcing debut live performances soon.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: The first single released off of the album was "I Got Bones" in early April 2016, and was accompanied by a music video. The song itself is considered to be mostly country with blues mixed in, with Worsnop's vocals delivering some more powerful moments. Along with the single release the album itself became available for preorder.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: On 26 September 2016, Worsnop announced through an Instagram post that the upcoming album will no longer be called "The Prozac Sessions" due to legal reasons. The name was changed to "The Long Road Home".


title: Danny Worsnop

text: On 10 May 2019, Danny released his second solo album "Shades of Blue" through Sumerian Records with more music in the works for an upcoming 2020 album release, including new singles "Another You" and "Happy", which Danny says "a song I wrote about my never being content or satisfied. My constant need to do more and be better. The want to be able to slow down but the awareness that I never will."


title: Danny Worsnop

text: Worsnop has written an autobiography titled "Am I Insane?", which has not been released yet. An excerpt of it was released on 31 July 2013. In an interview with Wayde Flowerday of MusicReview.co.za, Danny stated that he had been working on the book for two years, and it should hopefully be ready by sometime in 2015. However, as of 2021, the book has not been released.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: In his biography on his website, he has stated that he is also a photographer and that he will be releasing some of his works on charity auctions at some point in the future. Danny has said in a Facebook post that he is organising an auction for 2014.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: In February 2015 Worsnop made his first film acting debut as a guest star in a film created by Sumerian Records titled "What Now" written and directed by Ash Avildsen, owner of the record company. Later in the year it was also announced that he would have a role in the latest "The Devil's Carnival" film, "Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival", stating that Darren Bousman, Terrance Zdunich and Sean DeMott invited him to the first film's premiere in Los Angeles, after which he was invited to be in its sequel, while he was excited he had to cancel since it initially clashed with tour times, however, after the tour was cancelled he asked to be involved again and was written into the film to play the part of the blacksmith-type character called "the Smith". After his involvement he went and got a manager and an agent and is looking for another project. He has also appeared in Average Joe, a comedy on YouTube, written and produced by Andy Biersack's cousin, Joe Flanders.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: Worsnop has had a history of substance abuse and alcoholism, even appearing intoxicated during a 2011 performance by Asking Alexandria, which eventually led to Worsnop seeking help via drug rehabilitation. Snippets from the audio of the incident were included on the intro part of the song "Don't Pray for Me" from the band's third studio album "From Death to Destiny", released in 2013. In 2012, in between recording sessions of the album, he suffered a near-death drug overdose. In an interview with Genius, he said "It was right after Mitch Lucker passed, so I was in a massive dark hole." Heavy drug use caused him to convulse, so he called a previous girlfriend who rushed him to rehab. Worsnop said the woman "saved my life." He dedicated the song "Room 138" to the incident—the room where Worsnop overdosed in the Grafton hotel in Los Angeles. The song is the closing track on the band's self-titled fifth album. According to Ben Bruce, Worsnop re-joined the band in 2016 "completely sober".


title: Danny Worsnop

text: During his initial leaving of Asking Alexandria in January 2015, he fell into conflict with some of the other members, particularly Ben Bruce, who was said to be his "best friend". Their friendship rekindled in 2016, leading to his rejoining of Asking Alexandria.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: From 2016 to 2017 Worsnop was in a relationship with a Nashville-based country singer Sarah Ross. He performed guest vocals on the song "All I Want To Know" from her "Nervous Breakdown" EP released in 2018.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: On 12 January 2018, during a VIP meet and greet session before the show in Kansas City, Missouri, Worsnop met Victoria Potter, an active member of the United States Navy personnel at the time; the two began dating later that month. On 5 August 2018, during a show in Columbus, Ohio, Worsnop proposed to Potter. In 2019, the pair were married.


title: Danny Worsnop

text: The following is series of lists that include albums and singles released by bands when Danny Worsnop was an official band member.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Anne-Marie Belinda Trevelyan (née Beaton; born 6 April 1969) is a British politician, a member of the Conservative Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed since 2015. Trevelyan is a junior minister, and has served in the Foreign Office as Minister of State for Indo-Pacific since October 2022. She previously served as Secretary of State for Transport from September to October 2022, Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade from 2021 to 2022, and as Secretary of State for International Development in 2020. As well as serving in Secretary of State positions, Trevelyan has also served in the junior minister positions of Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth in 2021, Minister of State for the Armed Forces between 2019 and 2020, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement in 2019.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan was born in London on 6 April 1969, the daughter of Donald Leonard and Katherine (née Bougarel) Beaton. Trevelyan was privately educated at St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith. She subsequently studied at Oxford Polytechnic.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: She qualified as a chartered accountant in London with Price Waterhouse (a predecessor firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers) and worked in PwC's corporate finance department before moving to Northumberland in 1996. She is a former Governor of Northumbria Healthcare Trust and of Berwick Academy. Reports prepared by Trevelyan's "Dual the A1 Campaign" were submitted to the consultation to make the road a dual carriageway.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: She unsuccessfully stood as the Conservative candidate in the Morpeth North ward of Castle Morpeth Borough Council in 1999. She subsequently stood as the Conservative candidate in the Hartburn ward of Castle Morpeth Borough Council in 2003, but failed to get elected.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan unsuccessfully stood in the 2010 general election as the Conservative candidate for Berwick-upon-Tweed, achieving a swing from the Liberal Democrats to Conservatives of 8.3%. In so doing, she reduced Sir Alan Beith's majority from 8,632 to 2,690.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: At the 2015 general election, Trevelyan was elected as the MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed, gaining the seat for the Conservatives with a 9.6% swing, after the sitting MP Sir Alan Beith stood down. She was re-elected with an increased majority in the 2017 general election.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In June 2015, Trevelyan was appointed Vice-Chairman of the newly created All-Party Parliamentary Group on Forestry. In Parliament, Trevelyan served on the Public Accounts Select Committee between July 2015 and May 2017.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In November 2015, she was appointed to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. On 27 October 2016 during Prime Minister's Questions the then-Prime Minister Theresa May praised Trevelyan for her work on the Armed Forces Covenant. In January 2018, Trevelyan was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gavin Williamson in the Ministry of Defence.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: An outspoken Eurosceptic, Trevelyan resigned as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in November 2018 over her disagreement with Theresa May's draft Brexit withdrawal agreement.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In November 2018, Trevelyan referred Labour shadow minister Kate Osamor to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, on the grounds that Osamor's behaviour "failed to uphold" the code of conduct for MPs, after Osamor continued to employ her son Haringey Councillor, Ishmael Osamor, as a senior communications adviser, despite her son pleading guilty to possession of drugs valued at £2,500. Osamor denied any wrongdoing and called the referral "politically motivated".


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: On 27 July 2019, Trevelyan was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement in the first Johnson ministry.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: She was promoted to Minister of State for the Armed Forces on 16 December 2019. As Minister of State for the Armed Forces, she met with the United States Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy at The Pentagon on 11 February 2020.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: On 13 February 2020, Trevelyan was promoted to Secretary of State for International Development during the first cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry. Prior to her appointment, Trevelyan expressed apparent scepticism about the value of foreign aid on a number of occasions.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In May 2020 the Labour MP and first British female MP of Chinese descent Sarah Owen accused Trevelyan of Sinophobia after Trevelyan posted a WhatsApp message of a picture of a split fortune cookie, saying in broken English "You not have coronavirus", captioned "Just received my Covid-19 rapid test kit from China. Soooooo relieved!", with a follow-up message of "Just for Bob" and a winking emoji referring to Conservative MP Bob Seely, who responded by sending a love heart and smiling emoji. Owen said: "If Anne-Marie Trevelyan doesn't understand why this sort of humour was left in the 1970s, I would be happy to explain it to her." Seely responded to Owen by saying "It was a well-meaning joke at my expense and I didn't think anything of it", referring to his campaign against the Chinese tech company Huawei. Trevelyan responded to Owen by saying "It was not my intent to cause any offence, and I am truly sorry if I did so".


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: After the Beirut explosion of 4 August 2020, the UK government, through Trevelyan's Secretary of International Development Department, aid-funded the UK Emergency Medical Team (UK EMT) were sent to help. The UK also gave £5m in emergency support, £3m of it for the British Red Cross. As International Development Secretary, Trevelyan represented the UK at a donor event hosted by UN secretary general António Guterres and French president Emmanuel Macron.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in August 2020 Trevelyan set up the Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility, its funding being £4.85 million from UK aid and £2 million from businesses. The premise was that the Department for International Development, UK supermarket and fashion businesses such as Morrisons, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Primark, and charities such as Care UK, The Fairtrade Foundation and the Ethical Trading Initiative, work together to improve working conditions and support access to healthcare and health information for workers in developing countries, with a focus on countries such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan's department was merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 2 September 2020, when Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab assumed responsibility for a new department, named the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. This made her the last Secretary of State for International Development. Following the merger, Trevelyan left the government.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan returned to the backbench between September 2020 and January 2021 during which time on 7 November 2020, Trevelyan was appointed the UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency. However on 8 January 2021, Trevelyan returned to government after being appointed Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: On 15 September 2021, Trevelyan was appointed Secretary of State for International Trade during the second cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In November 2021 The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) revealed Trevelyan's accommodation expenses were £136,590.26 on a flat in London since she was elected in 2015, despite the fact she had already had a flat in London which she does not use. The criticism of her accommodation expenses were part of the parliamentary second jobs controversy following Owen Patterson's resignation from Parliament.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: During the second jobs controversy Trevelyan supported MPs having second jobs outside parliament, however on different radio shows commented different hours a week a MP should be allowed to work outside parliament. On Times Radio she said they should be allowed to work 8 to 10 hours a week, on "BBC Breakfast" 10 or 15 hours a week, and on BBC Radio 4 10 to 20 hours a week. Her comment to "BBC Breakfast" was ridiculed on the current affairs panel show "Have I Got New For You", "I think the question of MPs having jobs that involve lobbying perhaps should be looked at again. But, across the board, I don’t think we should have a removal of the ability to maintain a second job, because it brings a richness to our role as members of parliament."


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan supported Prime Minister Boris Johnson during the Westminster lockdown parties controversy. After Boris Johnson's resignation, on 7 July 2022, launched the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, she supported Tom Tugendhat, and was his proposer for his candidacy. After he was knocked out in the 3rd ballot on 19 July she endorsed Foreign Secretary Liz Truss., who won the election on the 5th September, againist former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, getting 57.4% of the member's vote to Sunak's 42.6%.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: On 6 September 2022, Trevelyan was appointed Secretary of State for Transport during the formation of the Truss ministry.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: On 21 September 2022, she also assumed responsibility for shipping and aviation, previously handled by the Under-Secretary of State for Transport Robert Courts. She is the first modern Secretary of State for Transport to assume responsibility for shipping directly, as this responsibility has traditionally been delegated to a junior minister.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: After Liz Truss's resignation on 20 October 2022 Trevelyan endorsed former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the resulting Conservative Party leadership election, after Johnson stated he would not run for a second term Trevelyan did not endorse anyone else for the leadership. Rishi Sunak would win the election unopposed on the 24 October 2022 after Penny Mordaunt withdrew from the election.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: On 25 October 2022 Trevelyan was dismissed as Secretary of State for Transport by Rishi Sunak upon his ascension to Prime Minister, being replaced by Mark Harper. On 26 October 2022, Trevelyan was appointed as Minister of State for Indo-Pacific. Her appointment was reported as a demotion by various media outlets due to her support for Liz Truss in the July–September leadership election, and for Boris Johnson, in the October leadership election, both times against Rishi Sunak.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In June 2015, Trevelyan joined the Conservatives for Britain group, a Eurosceptic group within the Conservative Party which subsequently moved closer to outright opposition to British membership of the European Union. She later joined the European Research Group – the primary Eurosceptic lobbying group within Parliament. Trevelyan advocated a vote in favour of Brexit for the 2016 EU membership referendum.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In March 2018, she attended a protest in London organised by the Fishing for Leave group against proposed access to British waters for EU fisherman up to 2021. The event included the UKIP MEP Nigel Farage. "The Independent" reported that Trevelyan faced calls for her sacking as a ministerial aide for attending the event in defiance of an order from Conservative whips for party MPs not to take part. On 15 November 2018, Trevelyan resigned from her post as a Parliamentary Private Secretary over Theresa May's draft EU withdrawal agreement.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan has campaigned for reducing plastic packaging. In 2005, she opposed the ban on fox hunting. She supports fracking, including voting in 2016 in support of fracking under Northumberland National Park, and voting against Labour's motion to ban fracking for shale gas in October 2022. Between 2010 and 2012 Trevelyan wrote a series of incorrect tweets denying global warming, including stating "[there is] clear evidence that the ice caps aren't melting after all" and "global warming isn't actually happening".


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan is a member of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme and campaigns to improve mental health services for veterans in Northumberland.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In 2015 Trevelyan secured the support of life sciences minister George Freeman for pharmaceutical company Covance which had a site in her constituency.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan campaigned for dualling the A1 road. In 2007 she set the Dual the A1 campaign group to raise government awareness. In 2014 then-Prime Minister David Cameron announced an initial £290 million investment to upgrade the road.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan has campaigned for improving rural broadband. She has also campaigned for reopening the Harbottle Surgery.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In September 2020 she commented on the rejection of the opening of an open cast mine at Druridge Bay, a seven-mile stretch of Northumberland Coast from the seaport town of Amble to the village of Cresswell:


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In May 2016, it was reported that Trevelyan was one of a number of Conservative MPs being investigated by police in the 2015 general election party spending investigation, for allegedly spending more than the legal limit on constituency election campaign expenses. In May 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service said that while there was evidence of inaccurate spending returns, it did not "meet the test" for further action.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: In April 2018, Trevelyan was criticised by the Alnwick Labour Party in the wake of the Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal over claims that a Russian businessman gave almost £50,000 to fund her 2015 general election campaign. The Labour Party questioned why the Conservative Party was accepting large donations from such sources. Trevelyan stated that the man in question was now a naturalised British citizen born in Ukraine who had invested significantly in the region, while she had personally not received any funds from Alexander Temerko, with funds going to the Berwick-upon-Tweed Conservative Association, with Trevelyan commenting "as is his right as a British citzen".


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Temerko was born in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (present-day Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union). He fled to London shortly after he was examined by criminal investigators in October 2004.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan's connections with Temerko caused her to step down a from Government project that involved him. In 2021, Temerko was responsible for a project to establish a cross-channel power cable to provide a electricity link between England's south coast and Normandy in France, and so Trevelyan recused herself from the project, Labour MP Catherine West said that Treveyan "quite rightly recused herself". Fellow Conservative MP Alok Sharma also recused himself, leaving then Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng responsible for the decision making.


title: Anne-Marie Trevelyan

text: Trevelyan lives in London and Northumberland. She is divorced with two teenage children, in October 2017, she said that one of her teenage sons might not have voted for her if he had been old enough to vote. She previously lived in Netherwitton Hall, a Grade II listed country house near Morpeth with her former husband John Trevelyan, owner of the Netherwitton Hall Estates.


title: International reactions to the 2020 Belarusian presidential election and protests

text: The following is a list of the official reactions to the 2020 Belarusian presidential election and the surrounding 2020 Belarusian protests.


text: The following countries participated in military cooperation with the Belarusian government following the election:


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics of the first half of the 20th century. His base of power was the largest circulation newspaper in the world, the "Daily Express", which appealed to the conservative working class with intensely patriotic news and editorials. During the Second World War, he played a major role in mobilising industrial resources as Winston Churchill's Minister of Aircraft Production.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: The young Max Aitken had a gift for making money and was a millionaire by 30. His business ambitions quickly exceeded opportunities in Canada and he moved to Britain. There he befriended Bonar Law and with his support won a seat in the House of Commons at the December 1910 United Kingdom general election. A knighthood followed shortly after. During the First World War he ran the Canadian Records office in London, and played a role in the removal of H. H. Asquith as prime minister in 1916. The resulting coalition government (with David Lloyd George as prime minister and Bonar Law as Chancellor of the Exchequer) rewarded Aitken with a peerage and, briefly, a Cabinet post as Minister of Information.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: After the war, the now Lord Beaverbrook concentrated on his business interests. He built the "Daily Express" into the most successful mass-circulation newspaper in the world, with sales of 2.25 million copies a day across Britain. He used it to pursue personal campaigns, most notably for tariff reform and for the British Empire to become a free trade bloc. Beaverbrook supported the governments of Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain throughout the 1930s and was persuaded by another long-standing political friend, Winston Churchill, to serve as his Minister of Aircraft Production from May 1940. Churchill later praised his "vital and vibrant energy". He resigned due to ill-health in 1941 but later in the war was appointed Lord Privy Seal.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook spent his later life running his newspapers, which by then included the "Evening Standard" and the "Sunday Express". He served as Chancellor of the University of New Brunswick and developed a reputation as a historian with his books on political and military history.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken was born in Maple, Ontario, Canada, in 1879, one of the ten children of William Cuthbert Aitken, a Scottish-born Presbyterian minister, and Jane (Noble), the daughter of a prosperous local farmer and storekeeper. When he was a year old, the family moved to Newcastle, New Brunswick, which Aitken later considered to be his hometown. It was here, at the age of 13, that he set up a school newspaper, "The Leader". Whilst at school, he delivered newspapers, sold newspaper subscriptions and was the local correspondent for the "St John Daily Star".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken took the entrance examinations for Dalhousie University, but because he had declined to sit the Greek and Latin papers he was refused entry. He registered at the King's College Law School, but left after a short while. This was to be his only formal higher education. Aitken worked in a shop, then borrowed some money to move to Chatham, New Brunswick, where he worked as a local correspondent for the "Montreal Star", sold life insurance and collected debts. Aitken attempted to train as a lawyer and worked for a short time in the law office of R. B. Bennett, a future prime minister of Canada. Aitken managed Bennett's successful campaign for a place on Chatham town council. When Bennett left the law firm, Aitken moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, where he again sold life insurance before moving to Calgary where he helped to run Bennett's campaign for a seat in the legislative assembly of the North-West Territories in the 1898 general election. After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a meat business, Aitken returned to Saint John and to selling insurance.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In 1900, Aitken made his way to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where John F. Stairs, a member of the city's dominant business family, gave him employment and trained him in the business of finance. In 1904, when Stairs launched the Royal Securities Corporation, Aitken became a minority shareholder and the firm's general manager. Under the tutelage of Stairs, who would be his mentor and friend, Aitken engineered a number of successful business deals and was planning a series of bank mergers.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Stairs' unexpected early death in September 1904 led to Aitken acquiring control of the company and moving to Montreal, then the business capital of Canada. There he bought and sold companies, invested in stocks and shares and also developed business interests in both Cuba and Puerto Rico. He started a weekly magazine, the "Canadian Century" in 1910, invested in the "Montreal Herald" and almost acquired the "Montreal Gazette". In 1907 he founded the Montreal Engineering Company. In 1909, also under the umbrella of his Royal Securities Company, Aitken founded the Calgary Power Company Limited, now the TransAlta Corporation, and oversaw the building of the Horseshoe Falls hydro station.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In 1910–1911 Aitken acquired a number of small regional cement plants in Canada, including Sir Sandford Fleming's Western Canada Cement Co. plant at Exshaw, Alberta, and amalgamated them into Canada Cement, eventually controlling four-fifths of the cement production in Canada. Canada was booming economically at the time, and Aitken had close to a monopoly on the material. There were irregularities in the stock transfers leading to the conglomeration of the cement plants, resulting in much criticism of Aitken, as well as accusations of price-gouging and poor management of the cement plants under his company's control. Aitken sold his shares, making a large amount of money.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken had made his first visit to Britain in September 1908, and when he returned there in the spring of 1910, in an attempt to raise money to form a steel company, he decided to make the move permanent, but not before he led the underwriting, with a preponderance of British money, of an amalgamation of smaller units into the Steel Company of Canada. Very shortly later Aitken moved his family to the UK.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In 1910, Aitken moved to Britain and he became friends with Bonar Law, a native of New Brunswick and the only Canadian to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The two men had a lot in common: they were both sons of the manse from Scottish-Canadian families and both were successful businessmen. Aitken persuaded Bonar Law to support him in standing for the Unionist Party in the December 1910 general election at Ashton-under-Lyne. Aitken was an excellent organiser and, with plenty of money for publicity, he won the seat by 196 votes. Aitken's "bumptious" election campaign brought him some notoriety.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken rarely spoke in the House of Commons, but did promise substantial financial support to the Unionist Party, and in 1911 he was knighted by King George V. Aitken's political influence grew when Bonar Law replaced A.J. Balfour as leader of the Unionist party late in 1911. Aitken's demands for a protectionist bloc uniting the British empire made him into a disruptive force in the Conservative and Unionist ranks as the idea of a bloc would mean higher food prices, making the plan unpopular with many segments of the British people who disliked the "food taxes" and "stomach taxes". The great dividing line in British politics were between the Whole Hoggers who were willing to accept higher food prices as the consequences of a protectionist bloc vs. the Free Fooders who were not. Aitken had a financial interest in the supporting the Whole Hoggers as in 1912 he purchased all of the grain terminals in Alberta in the expectation that an Imperial Preference tariffs would soon be enacted as law. Aitken had little to do as an MP, and set about seeking the acceptance of British elites. The British historian Neal Ascherson wrote: "The first is that posh English society was no match for him. He was ‘vulgar’, but there was a charm in his self-promotion which made languid ladies and gentlemen want to be on his side and at his side. He was wildly rich even then, but knew how to use his wealth in hospitality and (discreetly) by rescuing grand friends from awkward debts. Above all, he was fun to be with."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In 1911, Aitken was strongly opposed to the reciprocity agreement with the United States signed by the Liberal prime minister of Canada, Sir Wilfried Laurier, which he believed would lead to the American annexation of Canada. As such, Aitken temporarily returned to Canada to vigorously campaign for the Conservatives led by Sir Robert Borden. Aitken had his friend Rudyard Kipling intervene in the election on the behalf of the Conservatives. At the time the line between British and English-Canadian national identities were more blurred than today, and Aitken did not regard Kipling as a "foreign" figure. On 7 September 1911, the "Montreal Daily Star" (the most widely read newspaper in Canada at the time) published a front-page appeal to all Canadians by Kipling where he wrote: "It is her own soul that Canada risks today. Once that soul is pawned for any consideration, Canada must inevitably conform to the commercial, legal, financial, social and ethical standards which will be imposed on her by the sheer admitted weight of the United States." Kipling's article attracted much attention in Canada and was reprinted in every English-language Canadian newspaper over the following week, where it was credited with helping the Conservatives win the election.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken bought Cherkley Court near Leatherhead and entertained lavishly there. In 1913 the house was offered as a venue for negotiations between Bonar Law and the Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, over Ulster and Irish home rule. Later in life Aitken wrote about his early political efforts:


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken continued to grow his business interests while in Parliament, and also began to build a British newspaper empire. After the death of Charles Rolls in 1910, Aitken bought his shares in Rolls-Royce Limited, and over the next two years gradually increased his holding in the company. However, Claude Johnson, Rolls-Royce's Commercial managing director, resisted his attempt to gain control of the company, and in October 1913 Aitken sold his holding to James Buchanan Duke of the American Tobacco Company. In January 1911 Aitken secretly invested £25,000 in the failing "Daily Express". An attempt to buy the "Evening Standard" failed, but he did gain control of another London evening paper, "The Globe". In November 1916 a share deal worth £17,500, with Lawson Johnson, landed Aitken a controlling interest in the "Daily Express", but again he kept the deal secret.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Due to the outbreak of the First World War, Aitken was able to show off his great organisational skills. He was innovative in the employment of artists, photographers and film makers to record life on the Western Front. Aitken also established the Canadian War Memorials Fund, which evolved into a collection of art works by the premier artists and sculptors in Britain and Canada. In accordance with establishing these works, he also was instrumental in creating the Canadian War Records Office in London and arranged for stories about Canadian forces appearing in newspapers. His visits to the Western Front, with the honorary rank of colonel in the Canadian Army, resulted in his 1916 book "Canada in Flanders", a three-volume collection that chronicled the achievements of Canadian soldiers on the battlefields. Aitken also wrote several books after the war, including "Politicians and the Press" in 1925 and "Politicians and the War" in 1928. At a time when censorship was extremely strict with British journalists being kept away from the Western Front, Aitken's ‘Eyewitness’ reports from the Western Front, which were published in the Canadian newspapers made him famous.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken became increasingly hostile towards the British Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, whom he considered to be mismanaging the war effort. Aitken's opinion of Asquith did not improve when he failed to get a post in the Cabinet reshuffle of May 1915. An attempt by Bonar Law to secure the Order of St Michael and St George for Aitken was also blocked by Asquith. After the failure of the Dardanelles campaign, Winston Churchill was sacked as the First Lord of the Admiralty, and Aitken went to see him to offer him his sympathy. Aitken wrote about Churchill: "The charm, the imaginative sympathy of his hours of defeat, the self-confidence, the arrogance of his hours of power and prosperity". Later, when Churchill went to the Western Front, Aitken allowed him to stay as his guest at his house in Saint-Omer. Ascherson wrote: "A momentous friendship began. In return for contacts and inside information, Aitken would give Churchill hope and energy, and Churchill – in spite of some volcanic quarrels over the next half-century – came to rely on him not only as a political and journalistic ally but as an unfailing source of optimism, gossip, reassurance and sheer fun."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Aitken was happy to play a small part, which he greatly exaggerated, as a go-between when Asquith was forced from office and replaced by David Lloyd George in December 1916. The man Aikten wanted to see replace Asquith was Bonar Law, not Lloyd George. Lloyd George offered to appoint Aitken as President of the Board of Trade. At that time, an MP taking a cabinet post for the first time had to resign and stand for re-election in a by-election. Aitken made arrangements for this, but then Lloyd George decided to appoint Albert Stanley instead. Aitken was a friend of Stanley and agreed to continue with the resignation, so that Stanley could take Aitken's seat in Parliament and be eligible for ministerial office. In return, Aitken received a peerage on 23 January 1917 as the "1st Baron Beaverbrook", the name "Beaverbrook" being adopted from a small community near his boyhood home. He had initially considered "Lord Miramichi", but rejected it on the advice of Louise Manny as too difficult to pronounce. The name "Beaverbrook" also had the advantage of conveying a distinctive Canadian ring to the title.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook's controlling stake in the "Daily Express" became public knowledge later in 1917, and he was criticised by parts of the Conservative Party for financing a publication they regarded as irresponsible and often unhelpful to the party.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In February 1918, Beaverbrook became the first minister in the newly formed Ministry of Information, was also made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and was sworn of the Privy Council. Beaverbrook became responsible for propaganda in Allied and neutral countries and Lord Northcliffe (owner of the "Daily Mail" and "The Times") became Director of Propaganda with control of propaganda in enemy countries. Beaverbrook established the British War Memorials Committee within the Ministry, on lines similar to the earlier Canadian war art scheme, but when he established a private charity that would receive income from BWMC exhibitions, it was regarded as a conflict of interest and he dropped the scheme. Beaverbrook had a number of clashes with the Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour over the use of intelligence material. He felt that intelligence should become part of his department, but Balfour disagreed. Eventually the intelligence committee was assigned to Beaverbrook but they then resigned "en masse" to be re-employed by the Foreign Office. In August 1918, Lloyd George became furious with Beaverbrook over a leader in the "Daily Express" threatening to withdraw support from the government over tariff reform. Beaverbrook increasingly came under attack from MPs who distrusted a press baron being employed by the state. He survived but became increasingly frustrated with his limited role and influence, and in October 1918 he resigned due to ill-health. A tooth had become infected with actinomycosis and the often fatal disease progressed into his throat; his English doctors were unable to provide a cure, and it was a Portuguese medic who cured him by administering iodine solution orally until the fungus was arrested.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: A. J. P. Taylor later wrote that Beaverbrook was a pathbreaker who "invented all the methods of publicity" used by Britain to promote the war, including the nation's first war artists, the first war photographers, and the first makers of war films. He was especially effective in promoting the sales of war bonds to the general public. Nevertheless, he was widely disliked and distrusted by the political elite, who were suspicious of all they sneeringly called "press lords."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: After the war, Beaverbrook concentrated on running the "Daily Express". He turned the dull newspaper into a glittering and witty journal with an optimistic attitude, filled with an array of dramatic photo layouts. He hired first-rate writers such as Francis Williams and the cartoonist David Low. He embraced new technology and bought new presses to print the paper in Manchester. In 1919 the circulation of the "Daily Express" was under 40,000 a day; by 1937 it was 2,329,000 a day, making it the most successful of all British newspapers and generating huge profits for Beaverbrook whose wealth was already such that he never took a salary. After the Second World War, the "Daily Express" became the largest-selling newspaper in the world, with a circulation of 3,706,000. Beaverbrook launched the "Sunday Express" in December 1918, but it only established a significant readership after John Junor became its editor in 1954. In 1923, in a joint deal with Lord Rothermere, Beaverbrook bought the "Evening Standard". Beaverbrook acquired a controlling stake in the Glasgow "Evening Citizen", and in 1928 he launched the "Scottish Daily Express".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook purchased The Vineyard, Fulham, a "tiny Tudor house in Hurlingham Road" where ... "far from the centre of London I was relieved of casual callers and comparatively free of long-winded visitors. I provided facilities by means of private telephone lines without any direct contact with the Telephone Exchanges. Thus the political conferences held there were safeguarded against interruption." Powerful friends and acquaintances such as Asquith, Lloyd George, Churchill, Frederick Edwin Smith, Philip Sassoon, Diana and Duff Cooper, Balfour and Tim Healy were guests at both Cherkley and the Vineyard. The circle included Valentine Castlerosse, H. G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling, who was godfather to Beaverbrook's youngest son Peter, but this did nothing to repair the rift that developed between them when Beaverbrook endorsed Irish Home Rule.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook, the first baron of Fleet Street, was often denounced as excessively powerful because his newspapers supposedly could make or break almost anyone. Beaverbrook enjoyed using his papers to attack his opponents and to promote his friends. From 1919 to 1922 he attacked David Lloyd George and his government on several issues. A colorful character, the American historian Randall Woods described him as "...a sharp, intense, unpredictable man. He was something of a firebrand, tending to overstatement and even irresponsibility in his editorials or public statements...Conspiracy was second nature to him...In conversation, Beaverbrook was constantly exaggerating and embellishing." Beaverbrook was considered to be likeable character full of charm and zest, but he was widely distrusted by the British elite as he was viewed as an unprincipled intriguer. A flamboyant, charismatic man full of dynamism and exuberance who stood out on the account of his Canadian Maritime accent, Beaverbrook was the subject of much fascination by the public. He was disliked by his employees as a demanding boss who had telephones installed in every room of his house so that he would always call his newspapers editors to give his orders about what story was interesting him at the moment without having to wait. Beaverbrook's much vaulted principle of "independence" under which he felt free to attack his allies via his newspapers made him few friends.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Though a Conservative, Beaverbrook was opposed to British intervention in the Russian civil war and used his newspapers to argue that the question of who ruled Russia was no business of Britain's. Giving impetus behind Beaverbrook's efforts was he had one of his periodic falling outs with Churchill at the time, and saw attacking the intervention in the Russian civil war, which Churchill had strongly promoted, as a way of lashing out. On 6 September 1919, Beaverbrook ran on the front page of "The Daily Express" a banner headline, "ARCHANGEL SCANDAL EXPOSED: FAMOUS VC APPEALS TO THE NATION" above a public letter from Lieutenant Colonel John Sherwood-Kelly, a winner of the Victoria Cross, who attacked the intervention as pointless and singled out the War Secretary Winston Churchill as the author of an expedition that Sherwood-Kelly claimed had gone horribly wrong. The subtitle of the article was "DUPLICITY OF CHRUCHILL'S POLICY TOWARDS RUSSIA-THE PUBLIC HUMBUGED". The essence of Sherwood-Kelly's letter together with an linked article was that the British force in Arkhangelsk were poised to go deep into Russia with the aim of overthrowing the Bolshevik regime and Churchill had lied to the British people about the purpose of the expedition. In 1920, he was opposed to British aid to Poland under the grounds that the Soviet-Polish war did not involve British interests.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook began supporting independent Conservative candidates and campaigned for fifteen years to remove Stanley Baldwin from the leadership of the Conservative Party. In the 1924 election, he used the "Daily Express" to associate the Labour Party with the Soviet Union, writing in a leader: "We are not fighting Mr. Ramsay MacDonald in his saner moments, but the Russian Bolshevists and the shade of Lenin. The "Daily Express" and the "Sunday Express" therefore exerted their whole influence in order to secure the return of an immense Conservative majority". The "Daily Express" did not first publish the so-called Zinoviev letter, a probably forged letter in which Grigory Zinoviev, the chief of the Comintern, was alleged to order British Communists to infiltrate the Labour Party and the military, which was published in the "Daily Mail" instead. However, after the Zinoviev letter was published, Beaverbrook had the "Daily Express" in its coverage of 1924 election associate the Labour Party with Communism. The cartoons which the "Daily Express" published tended to depict Communists as alien, dirty, hairy, and unkempt thereby associating them with popular stereotypes of the poor.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In foreign policy, Beaverbrook promoted a policy known as "empire isolationism", namely that Britain should devote its interests to the British empire, but be otherwise disengaged from the rest of the world. A recurring theme of Beaverbrook's newspapers was that Britain was not a European nation, and should have as little to do as possible with the affairs of Europe. Likewise, Beaverbrook was opposed to British membership in the League of Nations and in a 1923 leader advocated giving up the Palestine Mandate (modern Israel), which Britain held as the administrating power for the League, under the grounds that Palestine was more of a debit than a credit for the British empire. A typical statement from Beaverbrook was: "The British empire exists for the British race. It is our heritage. Let us cultivate it, defend it, cherish it, and make it great, rich and strong in righteousness, an example and object lesson for the rest of mankind". In 1925, Beaverbrook wrote: "In the Empire and not in Europe our future lies and the "Daily Express" has never failed to preach the Imperial doctrine in good or bad times. The "Daily Express" believes that the British Empire is the greatest instrument for good the world has ever seen". Beaverbrook believed that protecting the greatness as he saw it of the empire could be best accomplished via "splendid isolation" as he consistently argued for an isolationist foreign policy. In 1925, Beaverbrook via the "Daily Express" was strongly opposed to the Treaty of Locarno under which Britain "guaranteed" the current borders of France, Belgium, and Germany along with the permanent demilitarised status of the Rhineland as involvement in European conflicts where no British interests were at stake.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Reflecting his origins, Beaverbrook always thought in terms of the British empire rather than of Britain, and he had an essentially Commonwealth perspective as he argued that the Dominions were just as important as Britain in holding the empire together. Beaverbrook believed that because Britain had more people than what British agriculture was capable of feeding while the Dominions produced more food than what their people needed that a symbiotic relationship would be possible with British industry supplying the manufactured goods for the Dominions while the Dominions would supply food and other raw materials to Britain. As such, Beaverbrook wanted to see the end of all trade barriers within the Commonwealth and a system of tariffs to keep non-Commonwealth products out of the Commonwealth to form what he called the Empire Free Trade zone. Taylor credited Beaverbrook's Canadian origins for his beliefs about an "Empire Free Trade zone" as he wrote: "At the bottom this was pure sentiment, a desire to be both British as well as Canadian, and a desire, also characteristic of a Canadian, that the British empire should maintain its independence from the United States".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook had long resented Baldwin's leadership of the Conservative Party and the loss of his influence that had followed the resignation of Bonar Law in 1923. Beaverbrook had privately "rejoiced" when the Conservatives lost the 1929 election, seeing Labour's victory as a chance to impose his views on the Conservative party, especially with regard to the Empire Free Trade zone. Through there was much discontent within the Conservative ranks over Baldwin's leadership, Beaverbrook was regarded as an "untouchable" by the Conservative elite. In July 1929, Beaverbrook launched the Empire Crusade movement to campaign for the "Empire Free Trade zone", which attracted support from various Tory backbencher MPs, peers and local riding associations.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: He very shrewdly sold the majority of his share holdings before the 1929 crash and in the resulting depression launched a new political party to promote free trade within the British Empire. Empire Free Trade Crusade candidates had some success. An Independent Conservative who supported Empire Free Trade won the Twickenham by-election in 1929. In December 1929, Beaverbrook set up a central office to co-ordinate the Empire Crusade movement. However, Beaverbrook could not quite decide if the purpose of the Empire Crusade was to depose Baldwin or just merely have the Conservative party give him the respect he felt he deserved. In February 1930, the Empire Crusade movement was joined by Lord Rothermere, the proprietor of the "Daily Mail". Beaverbrook and Rothermere founded that month the United Empire Party. The United Empire Party was intended to split the right-wing vote to such an extent that it would be impossible for the Conservatives to ever win a general vote again, and in this way Rothermre and Beaverbrook intended to impose their will on the Conservative party. However, Beaverbrook and Rothermere differed in their intentions. Rothermere made it very clear that he wanted to see Baldwin replaced with a puppet leader of his choosing. Likewise, Rothermere had doubts about the "food taxes" as the proposed tariffs on food were known and promoted a "no-surrender line" with regard to the Government of India act. The Empire Free Trade candidate won the South Paddington by-election in October 1930. In February 1931, Empire Free Trade lost the Islington East by-election and by splitting the vote with the Conservatives allowed Labour to hold a seat they had been expected to lose. Duff Cooper's victory for the Conservatives in St George's Westminster by-election in March 1931 marked the end of the movement as an electoral force.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: On 17 March 1931, during the St George's Westminster by-election, Stanley Baldwin described the media barons who owned British newspapers as having "Power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In March 1933, he visited Germany where he wrote that it was his impression that "the stories of Jewish persecution are exaggerated". His most enduring impressions of his German trip was he felt that SA could not march properly, and he seemed to regard the Nazis as something of a joke who were not capable of achieving much of anything. Beaverbrook frequently changed his views about Adolf Hitler, which caused the obituary writers that worked for him much anguish as they were forced to change their drafts of a Hitler obituary from positive to negative to positive again. After the Night of the Long Knives, Beaverbrook "turned solidly, fanatically anti-Hitler" as he compared Hitler to Al Capone and the Nazis to gangsters. Beaverbrook was to change his opinions about Hitler a number of times afterward.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In a guest opinion column published in April 1935 in the Hearst newspapers, Beaverbrook set out to explain "the section of opinion to which I belong - the Isolationists". Beaverbrook advocated that: "Britain should make no alliances except with the United States, that we should occur no obligations, no responsibilities, no liabilities outside of the Empire except in relation to the Anglo-Saxon race". He supported the "limited liability" rearmament under which the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy were built up at the expense of the British Army as the rearmament program in best accord with his own foreign policy ideas. In 1935, Beaverbrook campaigned against the Peace Ballot, an unofficial referendum organised in 1935 by the League of Nations Union, as the "Ballot of Blood". He was concerned that if Britain should be obliged to enforce the collective security policies of the League of Nations against aggression, it could involve Britain in wars where no British interests were at stake. In a leader in the "Daily Express", he wrote the collective security policy of the League "will drag you and your children into a war" caused by "the ambitious and unscrupulous powers" that were the other members of the League (Beaverbrook failed to mention that to activate collective security required the approval of the League Council, which Britain was a veto-holding member of). Beaverbrook stated that his readers should not take part in the Peace Ballot and wrote: "Tear up the ballot paper. Throw the pieces in the waste paper basket. Turn away from Europe. Stand by the Empire and Splendid Isolation".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: During the crisis caused by the Italian aggression against Ethiopia, Beaverbrook was opposed to the policy of imposing sanctions on Italy under the banner of the League of Nations as he argued that the Italo-Ethiopian war did not concern Britain. In a leader, he warned that the sanctions on Italy might cause a "world race war" as he stated that Ethiopia was not worth fighting for as it was an African nation. Likewise, when Germany remilitarised the Rhineland on 7 March 1936, violating both the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Locarno, Beaverbrook used his newspapers to argue against Britain taking action to enforce the treaties it had signed. Beaverbrook maintained good relations with Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador in London, writing to him in 1936 about his "...friendly attitude towards your Great Leader" and he was "determined that nothing shall be said or done by any newspaper controlled by me which is likely to disturb your your tenure in office". Beaverbrook concluded "while I am free, and my newspapers in the attitude I take to the Russian leader, I must say I admire and praise his conduct of government". In 1936, at the invitation of Joachim von Ribbentrop, the new German ambassador the Court of St. James, Beaverbrook attended the opening of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but quickly became bored with the Third Reich and soon returned to Britain."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In the 1930s, while personally attempting to dissuade King Edward VIII from continuing his affair with American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, Beaverbrook's newspapers published every titbit of the affair, especially allegations about pro-Nazi sympathies. Reflecting his "empire isolationism", Beaverbrook used the "Daily Express" to promote British neutrality as he wrote a leader which compared supporting the Spanish Republic as alike to supporting the Whites in the Russian civil war as he declared that British intervention in the Russian civil war "cost us some thousands of British soldiers' lives, £100, 000, 000 in cash, and the bitter enmity of the Russian government for the next ten years...and the intervention failed anyway. Britain had backed a loser. It is the mark of a mug to go on backing the same loser". In 1936, the "Daily Express" published an opinion piece by Lloyd George who just returned from meeting Hitler at the Nuremberg Party Rally in which he called "der Führer" "the George Washington of Germany". Beaverbrook published the piece, but told Lloyd George that he was embarrassed by it as he stated disliked "the regimentation of opinion" in Germany. In regards to the Sino-Japanese war, Beaverbrook was entirely concerned about a possible Japanese threat to the British empire and used the "Daily Express" to sound his fears that the Japanese might try to seize the British colonies in Asia. In a 1938 leader, Beaverbrook warned: "Too many people would be interested in checking Japan if that country really MEANT trouble against white people...The British public seem to have sensed what the British ministers have not-that Japan is dynamiting her way not only through the Chinese empire, but dangerously near other empires. Get out your map!" Along the leader was a map that showed the proximity of Japanese troops to Hong Kong. Beaverbrook supported the Munich Agreement and hoped the newly named Duke of Windsor would seek a peace deal with Germany.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Testifying before a Parliamentary inquiry in 1947, former "Express" employee and future MP Michael Foot alleged that Beaverbrook kept a blacklist of notable public figures who were to be denied any publicity in his papers because of personal disputes. Foot said they included Sir Thomas Beecham, Paul Robeson, Haile Selassie and Noël Coward. Beaverbrook himself gave evidence before the inquiry and vehemently denied the allegations; Express Newspapers general manager E. J. Robertson denied that Robeson had been blacklisted, but did admit that Coward had been "boycotted" because he had enraged Beaverbrook with his film "In Which We Serve", for in the opening sequence Coward included an ironic shot showing a copy of the "Daily Express" floating in the dockside rubbish bearing the headline "No War This Year".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In the late 1930s, Beaverbrook used his newspapers to promote the appeasement policies of the Chamberlain government. The slogan 'There will be no war' was used by the "Daily Express". At the time of the Sudetenland crisis, Beaverbrook wrote in a leader: "Remember always that the British Empire is a Treasure House. Do not ask foreigners to protect your possessions. And do not get caught up in quarrels over foreign boundaries that do not concern you." Beaverbrook was strongly opposed the famous "guarantee" of Poland offered by Chamberlain in the House of Commons on 31 March 1939 under his usual grounds that Britain had no interests in Poland, and therefore no reason to go to war for Poland. Beaverbrook told Maisky: "I want the empire to remain intact, but I don’t understand why for the sake of this we must wage a three-year war to crush “Hitlerism”...Poland, Czechoslovakia? What are they to do with us? Cursed be the day when Chamberlain gave our guarantees to Poland!" On 4 August 1939, a leader in "The Daily Express" questioned the need for British commitments to Poland as it was declared: "while there are some reasons in favor of an alliance with France...our alliances in Eastern Europe are another matter"." On 7 August 1939, the "Daily Express" ran a banner headline saying "No War This Year" as it predicated the Danzig crisis would be settled peacefully. In a memo dated 3 March 1943, Beaverbrook was unapologetic about the "no war" headlines as he wrote: "The prophecy proved wrong. The policy, had it been pursued more vigorously might had proved it right". The British historian Daniel Hucker wrote that Beaverbrook was out of touch with the readers of his newspapers in the summer of 1939.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Though Beaverbrook did not welcome the British declaration of war on the "Reich" on 3 September 1939, he had newspapers take an ultra-patriotic line in supporting the war effort, not least because he knew the vast majority of his readers supported the war. During the Second World War, in May 1940, his friend Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister, appointed Beaverbrook as Minister of Aircraft Production. Beaverbrook was given almost dictatorial powers over all aspects of aircraft production. In June 1940, Beaverbrook went with Churchill in a desperate mission to Tours to meet the French government with the aim of keeping France in the war. The French Premier, Paul Reynaud, was against an armistice with Germany and in favor of continuing the war from Algeria, but the strongest voice in the French cabinet was that of Marshal Philippe Pétain, the revered "Victor of Verdun", who argued for an immediate armistice. Churchill devised a scheme for an Anglo-French Union as a way to keep France in the war, which Beaverbrook was strongly opposed to. Unlike Churchill, Beaverbrook did not see any particular importance of keeping France in the war, and was much more indifferent to the prospect of France being defeated than was the prime minister, arguing that Britain still had the Commonwealth and the empire. Churchill's viewpoint that if France were occupied, it would shorten the flying time of the Luftwaffe to bomb Britain from hours to minutes and allow the "Kriesgmarine" to use the French Atlantic ports to attack shipping the Western Approaches made no impression on Beaverbrook. The plans for an Anglo-French union fell flat when Pétain - who regarded the plan for a union as a way for the British to seize France's colonial empire - persuaded the French cabinet to reject it.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: With Churchill's blessing, Beaverbrook overhauled all aspects of war-time aircraft production. He increased production targets by 15% across the board, took control of aircraft repairs and RAF storage units, replaced the management of plants that were underperforming, and released German Jewish engineers from internment to work in the factories. He seized materials and equipment destined for other departments and was perpetually at odds with the Air Ministry. Beaverbrook did not tolerate the arguments that supply "bottlenecks" were hindering aircraft production and required that aircraft manufacturer submit to him a daily list of "bottlenecks" which he made his mission to resolve. One of Beaverbrook's first acts as minister of aircraft production was to order the "cannibalisation" of all wrecked aircraft which totaled about 2, 000 air planes. For every two wrecked planes, it was possible to fashion a new plane. His appeal for pots and pans "to make Spitfires" was afterwards revealed by his son Sir Max Aitken to have been nothing more than a propaganda exercise. Still, a "Time Magazine" cover story declared, "Even if Britain goes down this fall, it will not be Lord Beaverbrook's fault. If she holds out, it will be his triumph. This war is a war of machines. It will be won on the assembly line."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Under Beaverbrook, fighter and bomber production increased so much so that Churchill declared: "His personal force and genius made this Aitken's finest hour." Beaverbrook's impact on wartime production has been much debated but he certainly energised production at a time when it was desperately needed. The Royal Marine General Leslie Hollis who worked as the Senior Assistant Secretary to the War Cabinet recalled in an interview: "For all Beaverbrook's tremendous achievement in producing aeroplanes, there was little to praise in the way he rode roughshod over everyone. He never carried an oil can. He did as he liked, when he liked. He once promoted an Air Commodore to Air Vice-Marshal-over the heads of fifty more senior Air Commodores. This sort of behavior did not make for happiness, but it was the way he worked, and the end justified the means". Hollis stated that for Beaverbrook all that mattered was if someone was efficient or not, and he was very ruthless about sacking those he viewed as inefficient. However, it has been argued that aircraft production was already rising when Beaverbrook took charge and that he was fortunate to inherit a system which was just beginning to bear fruit. Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, Head of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain wrote that "We had the organization, we had the men, we had the spirit which could bring us victory in the air but we had not the supply of machines necessary to withstand the drain of continuous battle. Lord Beaverbrook gave us those machines, and I do not believe that I exaggerate when I say that no other man in England could have done so."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Hollis recalled in an interview: "Beaverbrook's ruthless, cut-throat, steam-roller approach to every problem made him feared as well as respected. You either got on with him or you did not; and in the latter case it was better and safer to give him a wide berth. Nevertheless, he was a staunch and faithful friend to me, and immensely kind." Beaverbrook increasingly came into conflict with Ernest Bevin over a number of issues such as whose ministry would be responsible for safety training in aircraft factories, and the two ministers spent much time feuding. Hollis recalled: "Their hostility grew to such an extent that it embarrassed Mr. Churchill, and caused a great deal of unhappiness in the government. It seemed astonishing that, at such a time, two men of such stature and ability should be so eager to score points off each other. I was especially grieved at this because I admired both men very much". Hollis also recalled that Beaverbrook's relations with Churchill would vary dramatically as he stated: "Beaverbrook's friendship with Churchill was of very long standing and to my mind, quite stormy. They would fight and argue every Monday and Tuesday; ;part on Wednesday and Thursday; and then make it up again on Friday and Saturday".


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook resigned on 30 April 1941 and, after a month as Minister of State, Churchill appointed him to the post of Minister of Supply. Here Beaverbrook clashed with Ernest Bevin who, as Minister of Labour and National Service, refused to let Beaverbrook take over any of his responsibilities. On 10 May 1941, Rudolf Hess made his flight to Scotland to contact the Duke of Hamilton about opening talks for an Anglo-German peace. Instead he was taken into custody by the local police constables. Beaverbrook was sent to interview Hess with orders to find out just what had motivated the deputy führer to fly to Scotland. Hess spoke fluent English and it was in that language that the interview was conducted. Beaverbrook reported to Churchill that Hess was an exceedingly eccentric and strange man who believed that the war between Germany and Britain was a grave mistake. Beaverbrook further stated that the best he could discern for Hess's motives was that he had told him that Germany was going to be invading the Soviet Union in the very near-future and now was the ideal time for the two "Nordic" nations to stop their pointless "fratricidal" war and join forces forces against the Soviet Union, whom Hess insisted was the common enemy of both nations.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Early on the morning of 22 June 1941, Hess's predications about the coming invasion of the Soviet Union came true when Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion in history was launched with 3 million German soldiers organised into three army groups invaded the Soviet Union. In 1941, Beaverbrook headed the British delegation to Moscow with his American counterpart Averell Harriman. This made Beaverbrook the first senior British politician to meet Soviet leader Joseph Stalin since Adolf Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. Harriman said of Beaverbrook's role in the mission: ‘has been a great salesman...His genius never worked more effectively.’ Beaverbrook met Stalin at the Kremlin and developed a liking for the Soviet leader, finding him to be a man like himself who regarded committees as time-wasting and preferred action over meetings.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Much impressed by Stalin and the sacrifice of the Soviet people, he returned to London determined to persuade Churchill to launch a second front in Europe to help draw German resources away from the Eastern Front to aid the Soviets. In a memo to Churchill on 19 October 1941, Beaverbrook wrote the involvement of the Soviet Union in the war offered a chance to win decisively far sooner than expected. In February 1942, Beaverbrook became Minister of War Production and again clashed with Bevin, this time over shipbuilding. In the face of Bevin's refusal to work with him, Beaverbrook resigned after only twelve days in the post. In September 1943 he was appointed Lord Privy Seal, outside of the Cabinet, and held that post until the end of the war. After leaving the War Cabinet, Beaverbrook made himself the main spokesman for the "Second Front Now" campaign, calling for an Anglo-American invasion of France. This put him at odds with Churchill who favored the "peripheral strategy" of winning the war via strategical bombing of Germany; maintaining command of the sea; and the "Mediterrean strategy" of engaging the Wehrmacht in North Africa and Italy. Despite their disagreement over the second front, Beaverbrook remained a close confidant of Churchill throughout the war, and could regularly be found with Churchill until the early hours of the morning. Clement Attlee commented that "Churchill often listened to Beaverbrook's advice but was too sensible to take it."


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: In addition to his ministerial roles, Beaverbrook headed the Anglo-American Combined Raw Materials Board from 1942 to 1945 and accompanied Churchill to several wartime meetings with President Roosevelt. He was able to relate to Roosevelt in a different way to Churchill and became close to Roosevelt during these visits. This friendship sometimes irritated Churchill who felt that Beaverbrook was distracting Roosevelt from concentrating on the war effort. For his part Roosevelt seems to have enjoyed the distraction.


title: Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook

text: Beaverbrook devoted himself to Churchill's 1945 general election campaign, but a "Daily Express" headline warning that a Labour victory would amount to the 'Gestapo in Britain' (adapted from a passage in a radio election speech by Churchill on 4 June) was a huge mistake and completely misjudged the public mood. Beaverbrook renounced his British citizenship and left the Conservative Party in 1951, but remained an Empire loyalist throughout his life. In 1947, Beaverbrook was vehemently opposed to the plans to end the Raj with the colony of India to be granted independence and partitioned into the new nations of India and Pakistan. Through the decision to end the Raj was taken by the Labour prime minister, Clement Attlee, Beaverbrook directed his ire against the last Viceroy, Admiral Louis Mountbatten, who Beaverbrook believed could have somehow defied the government and not granted independence if he had wanted to. In a leader, the "Daily Express" wrote that "in all the world we have few more dangerous enemies" than Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru. Beaverbrook never forgave Mountbatten and for the rest of his life used the "Daily Express" to blacken his reputation and always presented Mountbatten in the worse possible light.