9 - REGINALD MCKENNA

Summary

Reginald McKenna was singularly fortunate in finding a new career, in which he became not less distinguished than in politics, when the personal and party rift which ended with the resignation of Mr Asquith brought his life as a Cabinet Minister to a standstill, which he found himself exceedingly ready to leave undisturbed unless it could be ended entirely on his own terms.

Yet it was by 1925 a fatal loss to the country that the most adventurous and at the same time the most constructive and persistent intellect of that brilliant band who had surrounded Mr Asquith should have been too far removed from the seat of power to influence decisively the course of events. From the years preceding the return to gold to its final abandonment in disaster, and the still later disrepute of contractionism, McKenna, in a way that no other banker had ever attempted, made the chairmanship of his great institution a pulpit from which to instruct and educate public opinion. In this way he played a signal part in creating that new public opinion, which has made what then seemed the invincible orthodoxy of the ‘twenties disappear like the old London fogs. During those years he was the one powerful champion of the new ideas speaking from an unchallengeable position in the City itself. But as a mere instructor, cut off from the actual formation of policy, he was not able to prevail until after evil had been done.