1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,840 Speaker 1: Hello everyone, it's Eves checking in here to let you 2 00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:04,920 Speaker 1: know that you're going to be hearing two different events 3 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 1: in history in this episode. They're both good, if I 4 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:11,600 Speaker 1: do say so myself. On with the show. Hi, um, Eves. 5 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to This Day in History Class, a show that 6 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: reveals a little bit more about history day by day. 7 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:31,520 Speaker 1: The day was April twentie, nineteen sixty eight. British Member 8 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 1: of Parliament Enoch Powell gave a speech to a Conservative 9 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,960 Speaker 1: Association meeting in Birmingham, England that became known as the 10 00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 1: Rivers of Blood Speech. Powell, a Conservative MP for the 11 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 1: Wolverhampton Southwest constituency, used the speech to espouse his opposition 12 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: to mass immigration. He argued that so called ordinary English 13 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:57,959 Speaker 1: People were becoming a persecuted minority and strangers in their 14 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 1: own country, and he said out for immigrants integration was difficult, 15 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 1: if not impossible. Powell proposed ending almost all immigration into 16 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: Britain and encouraging immigrants already there to leave voluntarily. Needless 17 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:18,600 Speaker 1: to say, the speech was and remains controversial. By the 18 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: time Powell gave his speech, hundreds of thousands of people 19 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: from the Commonwealth of Nations countries had moved to Britain. 20 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:29,720 Speaker 1: This was largely due to the British Nationality Act nineteen 21 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:33,039 Speaker 1: forty eight, which created the new status of citizen of 22 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: the United Kingdom and Colonies that applied to people who 23 00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:39,399 Speaker 1: were born are naturalized in the UK or its colonies. 24 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:43,360 Speaker 1: These people were permitted to live and work in the 25 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:47,039 Speaker 1: UK without a visa, which led to a rapid increase 26 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:50,280 Speaker 1: in immigration in the UK over the next two decades. 27 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:55,040 Speaker 1: British lay people and government officials began to object to 28 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,400 Speaker 1: the large number of migrants and express their desire to 29 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 1: bar new immigrants and to send immigrants already there back 30 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: out of the UK. In nineteen fifty a Cabinet committee 31 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 1: formed to figure out quote ways which might be adopted 32 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 1: to check the immigration into this country of colored people 33 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:19,000 Speaker 1: from British colonial territories. After that committee found that no 34 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:23,080 Speaker 1: restrictions on immigration were required, the issue was tossed around 35 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: without any real conclusion for several years, but in nineteen 36 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:31,520 Speaker 1: sixty two, Parliament passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, which tightened 37 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:36,520 Speaker 1: regulations on the immigration of all Commonwealth passport holders. According 38 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: to the Act, Commonwealth immigrants had to apply for a 39 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: worka boucher graded based on their employment prospects to be 40 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: able to settle in the UK. In nineteen sixty five, 41 00:02:47,240 --> 00:02:51,120 Speaker 1: the government reduced the number of vouchers available. After Asians 42 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 1: from Kenya and Uganda began to immigrate to Britain. In 43 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:59,080 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, Enoch Powell and other Conservatives started campaigning 44 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: for more restrictions on immigration. Parliament soon passed the Commonwealth 45 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:08,080 Speaker 1: Immigrants Act nineteen sixty eight, which further restricted immigration to 46 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,520 Speaker 1: the UK. For citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations countries 47 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: to have automatic right of entry into the UK, the 48 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,040 Speaker 1: person or at least one of his parents or grandparents 49 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 1: had to be born, naturalized or adopted in the UK, 50 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: or had to have become a citizen by registration under 51 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:29,440 Speaker 1: the British Nationality Acts. It was in a climate divided 52 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: over the issue of immigration that Powell gave his Rivers 53 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: of Blood speech. In it, he criticized the Race Relations 54 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: Bill going through Parliament that would make it illegal to 55 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:45,600 Speaker 1: refuse housing, employment, or public services to people based on color, race, 56 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: ethnicity or nationality. He argued that in a couple of 57 00:03:49,400 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 1: decades or less, quote, the black man will have the 58 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: whip hand over the white man. He gave an anecdote 59 00:03:56,960 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: about one of his constituents, a white woman, who was 60 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:04,080 Speaker 1: her rest by so called grinning piccaninnies, and he pointed 61 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:07,000 Speaker 1: to the race riots and violence during the Civil Rights 62 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:09,680 Speaker 1: Movement as an example of what would happen in the 63 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:12,800 Speaker 1: UK if they stayed on the same path of immigration 64 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:17,400 Speaker 1: and race relations. Powell said in the speech it almost 65 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:20,280 Speaker 1: passed his belief that at this moment, twenty or thirty 66 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 1: additional immigrant children are arriving from overseas in Wolverhampton alone 67 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:28,080 Speaker 1: every week, and that means fifteen or twenty additional families 68 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:32,359 Speaker 1: a decade or two. Hints. Those whom the gods wished 69 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:36,320 Speaker 1: to destroy, they first make mad. We must be mad, 70 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:39,880 Speaker 1: literally mad, as a nation to be permitting the annual 71 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: inflow of some fifty dependents, who are, for the most part, 72 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: the material of the future growth of the immigrant descended population. 73 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: It is like watching a nation busily engaged in heaping 74 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:56,680 Speaker 1: up its own funeral pyre. Nowhere in the speech did 75 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,960 Speaker 1: Powell say the phrase rivers of blood, but near the 76 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 1: end of the speech he did say the following, as 77 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:07,240 Speaker 1: I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding like the 78 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,360 Speaker 1: Roman I seemed to see the river Tiber foaming with 79 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:15,080 Speaker 1: much blood. This allusion to Virgil's epic poem A Needed 80 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:18,720 Speaker 1: is where the nickname for the speech comes from. During 81 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: his speech and after it was finished, how was applauded. 82 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:25,159 Speaker 1: After Pal gave the speech, people came out in support 83 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:31,359 Speaker 1: of repatriating immigrants, while others denounced his racism. After he 84 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: gave the speech, Conservative leader Ted Heath dismissed him from 85 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: the Conservative Shadow Cabinet, and eventually he left the Conservative 86 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:44,160 Speaker 1: Party and became an Ulster unionist. Pale's suggestions to restrict 87 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:48,160 Speaker 1: immigration did not lead to any major anti immigration policy changes, 88 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:51,719 Speaker 1: but his anti immigrant views were popular at the time 89 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,760 Speaker 1: and the phrase enoch was right game attraction in the 90 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:59,800 Speaker 1: years since. I'm each Jeff Coote and hopefully you know 91 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,880 Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 92 00:06:03,839 --> 00:06:07,720 Speaker 1: Get more notes from history on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook 93 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:13,920 Speaker 1: at T D i h C Podcast. Thanks again for listening, 94 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:16,919 Speaker 1: and I hope you come back tomorrow for more delicious 95 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: morsels of history. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to 96 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:36,920 Speaker 1: This Day and History Class, a podcast where you really 97 00:06:36,920 --> 00:06:39,960 Speaker 1: do learn something new every day. I hope you all 98 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:43,839 Speaker 1: are still doing well, I'm doing well, still recording here 99 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,600 Speaker 1: in my closet. I know that the days can get 100 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 1: pretty long and sometimes monotonous, but I do hope that 101 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:53,320 Speaker 1: this podcast brings something new into each of your days, 102 00:06:53,400 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: into each of your lives. So let's get on with 103 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:10,520 Speaker 1: the show. The day was April nineteen forty six. The 104 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:14,320 Speaker 1: League of Nations, an intergovernmental organization that formed after the 105 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:18,760 Speaker 1: First World War ended, was dissolved. The League of Nations 106 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 1: was the predecessor of the United Nations. Back in nineteen fourteen, 107 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:28,080 Speaker 1: a British political scientist named Goldsworthy Lowe's Dickinson drew up 108 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,800 Speaker 1: a scheme for an international organization to maintain peace and 109 00:07:31,840 --> 00:07:35,800 Speaker 1: called it the League of Nations. Dickinson, along with the 110 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:39,840 Speaker 1: British academic and politician Lord Bryce, founded a group of 111 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:45,080 Speaker 1: international Pacificists in the US. In nineteen fifteen, a similar 112 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: organization called the League to Enforce Peace formed. It promoted 113 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:54,400 Speaker 1: arbitration and imposing sanctions rather than going to war. In 114 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:59,040 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, the British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour appointed a 115 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:02,200 Speaker 1: committee on the League of Nations to study the feasibility 116 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:05,800 Speaker 1: of creating such an organization. The committee was known as 117 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:11,360 Speaker 1: the Phillimore Commission after its chairman, Walter Fillmore. The Phillimore 118 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:15,640 Speaker 1: Commission recommended the establishment of a Conference of Allied States 119 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: whose members agreed not to go to war with one 120 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:23,640 Speaker 1: another without first submitting the dispute to arbitration. In June 121 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: of nineteen eighteen, France also drafted a proposal advocating the 122 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:32,840 Speaker 1: establishment of an International Council. After US President Woodrow Wilson 123 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,560 Speaker 1: saw the Phillimore Plan, he instructed his adviser, Edward House, 124 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:40,360 Speaker 1: to draft a US plan that incorporated his own views 125 00:08:40,480 --> 00:08:44,600 Speaker 1: in those of the Phillimore Commission. Some of Wilson's views 126 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: were idealistic. For instance, he suggested the prohibition of dishonorable 127 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:55,560 Speaker 1: behavior between states, such as dishonesty and espionage. World War 128 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:59,199 Speaker 1: One ended in November of nineteen eighteen when Germany signed 129 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:03,439 Speaker 1: an armistice agreement with the Allies. The Treaty of Versailles, 130 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:08,079 Speaker 1: signed on June nineteen nineteen, ended the war between Germany 131 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: and the Allied Powers. An estimated twenty million people died 132 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 1: in the war, as militaries were able to cause a 133 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:20,560 Speaker 1: lot of destruction with new technologies like tanks, airplanes, and 134 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:26,800 Speaker 1: machine guns. Beyond the casualties, political economic, and social structures 135 00:09:26,840 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: broke down. In the wake of the war, people began 136 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: to demand that some sort of method be established to 137 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:36,560 Speaker 1: help prevent another devastating war from happening. There was a 138 00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:39,200 Speaker 1: lot of support in the UK and the United States 139 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:43,120 Speaker 1: for an international body that could maintain peace and prevent 140 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: further wars. British politician Lord Robert Cecil and South African 141 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: statesman Yon Smuts were the principal drafters of the Covenant 142 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:55,800 Speaker 1: of the League of Nations. By the time the Paris 143 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: Peace Conference began in January of nineteen nineteen, the proposals 144 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:02,880 Speaker 1: for the Legue of Nations had gone through several revisions, 145 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 1: but that month delegates agreed to form the League of Nations. 146 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,480 Speaker 1: Part one of the Treaty of Versailles established the League 147 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:14,040 Speaker 1: of Nations. In June of nineteen nineteen, forty four countries 148 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:17,800 Speaker 1: signed the Covenant, which served as a charter for the organization. 149 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:22,000 Speaker 1: The League of Nations was officially established on January tenth, 150 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty, when its Covenant went into effect. It held 151 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:30,000 Speaker 1: its first meeting on January sixteenth. The US never joined 152 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:34,200 Speaker 1: the League, whose headquarters were at Geneva. Though the organization 153 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:38,600 Speaker 1: did successfully mediate minor international disputes, it did not prevent 154 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:41,560 Speaker 1: the outbreak of the Second World War in nineteen thirty nine. 155 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:46,199 Speaker 1: It was dissolved on April twentieth, nineteen forty six. After 156 00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:51,120 Speaker 1: the United Nations was established. The United Nations continued many 157 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,719 Speaker 1: of the operations that existed under the League of Nations, 158 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:59,200 Speaker 1: like the Committee of Intellectual Cooperation, which became UNESCO and 159 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:04,800 Speaker 1: the Health Organization, which became the World Health Organization. I'm 160 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:07,120 Speaker 1: Eve chef Cote, and hopefully you know a little more 161 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like 162 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:12,960 Speaker 1: to send us a comment or you have any questions, 163 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:15,600 Speaker 1: you can send us a note on social media where 164 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:19,600 Speaker 1: at t d i h C podcast. You can also 165 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: send us a note via email at this day at 166 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,960 Speaker 1: i heeart media dot com. Thanks again for listening to 167 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:36,760 Speaker 1: the show, and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts 168 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:38,760 Speaker 1: from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, 169 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:41,439 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.