Austen Chamberlain Quotes
October 16, 1863 – March 17, 1937
More Austen Chamberlain Quotes
The combination of the Liberal and Labour Parties is much stronger than the Liberal Party would be if there were no third Party in existence. Many men who would in that case have voted for us voted on this occasion as the Labour Party told them i.e. for the Liberals. The Labour Party has "come to stay"...the existence of the third Party deprives us of the full benefits of the 'swing of the pendulum', introduces a new element into politics and confronts us with a new difficulty.
Austen Chamberlain— Late 1910s, quoted in E. H. H. Green, The Crisis of Conservatism, 1995.
[I believe in] the throne...parliamentary institutions...private enterprise and individual opinion against the socialization of the state...equity in the distribution of public burdens and strict maintenance of public faith with the creditors of the state [and] a fresh guarantee of peace by an alliance with France and...Belgium for the defence of our common interests against unprovoked attack.
Austen Chamberlain— Speech to the Oxford Carlton Club (March 3, 1922).
The danger which threatens us comes from Labour...Those who think that the Conservative or Unionist Party, standing as such and disavowing its Liberal allies, could return with a working majority are living in a fools paradise and, if they persist, may easily involve themselves and the country in dangers the outcome of which it is hard to predict.
Austen Chamberlain— Letter to Parker Smith (11 October, 1922).
The first thoughts of an Englishman on appointment to the office of Foreign Secretary must be that he speaks in the name, not of Great Britain only, but of the British Dominions beyond the seas, and that it is his imperative duty to preserve in word and act the diplomatic unity of the British Empire. Our interests are one. Our intercourse must be intimate and constant, and we must speak with one voice in the Councils of the world.
Austen Chamberlain— 1924. Quoted in H. Blair Neatby, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Methuen, 1963), p. 40.
I tell you I look forward with terror to her [Germany] making war upon us again in ten years.
Austen Chamberlain— 1925. Quoted in Sir Charles Petrie, The Life and Letters of Sir Austen Chamberlain: Vol. II (Cassell, 1940), p. 263.
No British Government ever will and ever can risk the bones of a British grenadier.
Austen Chamberlain— On the Polish Corridor in a letter to Sir Eyre Crowe. (16 February, 1925).
We have a peculair interest because the true defence of our country, owing to scientific development, is now no longer the Channel...but upon the Rhine.
Austen Chamberlain— Speech at the Imperial Conference, 1926.
Scratch me and you will find the Nonconformist.
Austen Chamberlain— 1927. Quoted in Sir Charles Petrie, The Life and Letters of Sir Austen Chamberlain: Vol. II (Cassell, 1940), p. 321.
Gentlemen do not behave in such a way.
Austen Chamberlain— On the Hoare-Laval Pact 1935. Quoted in Harold Macmillan Winds of Change (Macmillan, 1966), pp. 411-12.
