Welsh Journals

SIR ALFRED MOND, CARMARTHENSHIRE AND THE 'GREEN BOOK'* ALFRED moritz MOND, first Baron Melchett (1868-1930), entered Parliament as the Liberal MP for Chester as one of his party's many dynamic new recruits in the landslide general election of 1906. Although today remembered primarily as the founder of I.C.I. and similar industrial concerns, and perhaps as the co-chairman of the significant Mond-Turner industrial peace conferences of 1928 to 1930, Mond served as the Liberal MP for Swansea Town from January 1910 until 1918, for Swansea West from 1918 until his defeat in 1923 at the hands of the Labour barrister Walter Samuel, and for Carmarthenshire from August 1924 until June 1928, though sitting as a Conservative from January 1926. His important political career has tended to be dwarfed by his multifarious industrial and economic activities, but he did serve as commissioner of Public Works from December 1916 (in part his recognition for assisting Lloyd George to attain the premier- ship), and in April 1921 he entered the Cabinet as minister of Health. The dissolution of Lloyd George's coalition government at the end of the following year saw Mond's return to the backbenches, a move which led to valiant efforts on his part to reunite, pacify and revive an increasingly ailing Liberal Party until, in January 1926, ever more exasperated by his leader's highly radical (even socialistic) land policies I wish to acknowledge the very helpful comments of Professor Kenneth O. Morgan on an earlier draft of this article.