1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,760 Speaker 1: Hey there, history fans, We're taking the day off, but 2 00:00:02,840 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 1: don't worry. We've got plenty of classic shows to tide 3 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,119 Speaker 1: you over. Check out these selections from previous years of 4 00:00:09,119 --> 00:00:11,480 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class, and I'll meet you back 5 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:15,840 Speaker 1: here tomorrow with a brand new episode. See you then, Hi, 6 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: I'm Eves. 7 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:20,680 Speaker 2: Welcome to This Day in History Class, a show that 8 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:23,599 Speaker 2: reveals a little bit more about history, day by day. 9 00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 2: The day was April twentieth, nineteen sixty eight. British Member 10 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 2: of Parliament Enoch Powell gave a speech to a Conservative 11 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 2: Association meeting in Birmingham, England that became known as the 12 00:00:44,479 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 2: Rivers of Blood Speech. Powell, a Conservative MP for the 13 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 2: Wolverhampton Southwest constituency, used the speech to espouse his opposition 14 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:59,400 Speaker 2: to mass immigration. He argued that so called ordinary English 15 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:03,400 Speaker 2: People were becoming a persecuted minority in strangers in their 16 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:08,000 Speaker 2: own country, and he said that for immigrants integration was difficult, 17 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:13,400 Speaker 2: if not impossible. Powell proposed ending almost all immigration into 18 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 2: Britain and encouraging immigrants already there to leave voluntarily. Needless 19 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 2: to say, the speech was and remains controversial. By the 20 00:01:24,040 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 2: time Powell gave his speech, Hundreds of thousands of people 21 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 2: from the Commonwealth of Nations countries have moved to Britain. 22 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:35,160 Speaker 2: This was largely due to the British Nationality Act nineteen 23 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,480 Speaker 2: forty eight, which created the new status of citizen of 24 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:41,760 Speaker 2: the United Kingdom and Colonies that applied to people who 25 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:44,840 Speaker 2: were born are naturalized in the UK or its colonies. 26 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 2: These people were permitted to live and work in the 27 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:52,440 Speaker 2: UK without a visa, which led to a rapid increase 28 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 2: in immigration in the UK over the next two decades. 29 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:00,560 Speaker 2: British laypeople and government officials began to object to the 30 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 2: large number of migrants and expressed their desire to bar 31 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 2: new immigrants and to send immigrants already there back out 32 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,960 Speaker 2: of the UK. In nineteen fifty a Cabinet committee formed 33 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,480 Speaker 2: to figure out quote ways which might be adopted to 34 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 2: check the immigration into this country of colored people from 35 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 2: British colonial territories. After that committee found that no restrictions 36 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 2: on immigration were required, the issue was tossed around without 37 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 2: any real conclusion for several years, but in nineteen sixty 38 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 2: two Parliament passed the Commonwealth Immigrants Act, which tightened regulations 39 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 2: on the immigration of all Commonwealth passport holders. According to 40 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,239 Speaker 2: the Act, Commonwealth immigrants had to apply for a work 41 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,720 Speaker 2: voucher graded based on their employment prospects to be able 42 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 2: to settle in the UK. In nineteen sixty five, the 43 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:56,680 Speaker 2: government reduced the number of vouchers available. After Asians from 44 00:02:56,800 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 2: Kenya and Uganda began to immigrate to Britain. In nineteen 45 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 2: sixty seven, Enoch Powell and other Conservatives started campaigning for 46 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:09,919 Speaker 2: more restrictions on immigration. Parliament soon passed the Commonwealth Immigrants 47 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:13,919 Speaker 2: Act nineteen sixty eight, which further restricted immigration to the UK. 48 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 2: For citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations countries to have 49 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 2: automatic right of entry into the UK, the person or 50 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:23,800 Speaker 2: at least one of his parents or grandparents had to 51 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 2: be born, naturalized or adopted in the UK, or had 52 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:30,880 Speaker 2: to have become a citizen by registration under the British 53 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:35,200 Speaker 2: Nationality Acts. It was in a climate divided over the 54 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:39,280 Speaker 2: issue of immigration that Powell gave his Rivers of Blood speech. 55 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 2: In it, he criticized the Race Relations Bill going through 56 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,840 Speaker 2: Parliament that would make it illegal to refuse housing, employment 57 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 2: or public services to people based on color, race, ethnicity 58 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 2: or nationality. He argued that in a couple of decades 59 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 2: or less quote the black man will have the whip 60 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 2: hand over the white man. He gave an anecdote about 61 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 2: one of his constituents, a white woman, who was harassed 62 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 2: by so called grinning piccaninnies, and he pointed to the 63 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,200 Speaker 2: race riots in violence during the Civil Rights Movement as 64 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:16,080 Speaker 2: an example of what would happen in the UK if 65 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 2: they stayed on the same path of immigration and race relations. 66 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,800 Speaker 2: Powell said in the speech, it almost passes belief that 67 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 2: at this moment twenty or thirty additional immigrant children are 68 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:31,360 Speaker 2: arriving from overseas in Wolverhampton alone every week, and that 69 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:35,280 Speaker 2: means fifteen or twenty additional families a decade or two. Hints. 70 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 2: Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. 71 00:04:40,640 --> 00:04:44,039 Speaker 2: We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation to 72 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:47,680 Speaker 2: be permitting the annual inflow of some fifty thousand dependents, 73 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:50,440 Speaker 2: who are, for the most part the material of the 74 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 2: future growth of the immigrant descended population. It is like 75 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 2: watching a nation busily engage in heaping up its own 76 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:02,760 Speaker 2: funeral pyre. Nowhere in the speech did Powell say the 77 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 2: phrase rivers of blood, but near the end of the 78 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:10,160 Speaker 2: speech he did say the following, as I look ahead, 79 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:13,720 Speaker 2: I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem 80 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:18,240 Speaker 2: to see the river Tiber foaming with much blood. This 81 00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:21,159 Speaker 2: allusion to Virgil's epic poem A Needed is where the 82 00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 2: nickname for the speech comes from. During his speech and 83 00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:28,600 Speaker 2: after it was finished, Howe was applauded. After Powell gave 84 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 2: the speech, people came out in support of repatriating immigrants, 85 00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:37,480 Speaker 2: while others denounced his racism. After he gave the speech, 86 00:05:37,760 --> 00:05:41,679 Speaker 2: Conservative leader Ted Heath dismissed him from the Conservative's Shadow cabinet, 87 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:45,560 Speaker 2: and eventually he left the Conservative Party and became an 88 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 2: Ulster unionist. Powell's suggestions to restrict immigration did not lead 89 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:54,839 Speaker 2: to any major anti immigration policy changes, but his anti 90 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:58,239 Speaker 2: immigrant views were popular at the time, and the phrase 91 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 2: Enoch was right gain traction in the years since. I'm Eves, Jeffcote, 92 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:07,000 Speaker 2: and hopefully you know a little more about history today 93 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 2: than you did yesterday. Get more notes from History on Twitter, 94 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:19,360 Speaker 2: Instagram and Facebook at TDIHC podcast. Thanks again for listening, 95 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,320 Speaker 2: and I hope you come back tomorrow for more delicious 96 00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 2: morsels of history. Hello everyone, I'm Eves, and welcome to 97 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,560 Speaker 2: this day history Class a podcast where you really do 98 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:52,400 Speaker 2: learn something new every day. The day was April twentieth, 99 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 2: nineteen forty six. The League of Nations, an intergovernmental organization 100 00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 2: that formed after the First World War ended, was dissolved. 101 00:07:02,120 --> 00:07:05,400 Speaker 2: The League of Nations was the predecessor of the United Nations. 102 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:10,440 Speaker 2: Back in nineteen fourteen, a British political scientist named Goldsworthy 103 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:14,640 Speaker 2: Loew's Dickinson drew up a scheme for an international organization 104 00:07:14,720 --> 00:07:19,560 Speaker 2: to maintain peace and called it the League of Nations. Dickinson, 105 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 2: along with the British academic and politician Lord Brice, founded 106 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:28,560 Speaker 2: a group of international pacifists in the US. In nineteen fifteen, 107 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 2: a similar organization called the League to Enforce Peace formed. 108 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 2: It promoted arbitration and imposing sanctions rather than going to war. 109 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:43,280 Speaker 2: In nineteen eighteen, the British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour appointed 110 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 2: a Committee on the League of Nations to study the 111 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 2: feasibility of creating such an organization. The committee was known 112 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:55,240 Speaker 2: as the Philmore Commission after its chairman, Walter Phillmore. The 113 00:07:55,280 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 2: Phillimore Commission recommended the establishment of a conference of Allied 114 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 2: States whose members agreed not to go to war with 115 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:07,680 Speaker 2: one another without first submitting the dispute to arbitration. In 116 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:11,880 Speaker 2: June of nineteen eighteen, France also drafted a proposal advocating 117 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 2: the establishment of an International Council. After US President Woodrow 118 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,960 Speaker 2: Wilson saw the Phillimore Plan, he instructed his adviser, Edward House, 119 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,800 Speaker 2: to draft a US plan that incorporated his own views 120 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:28,960 Speaker 2: in those of the Phillymore Commission. Some of Wilson's views 121 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:33,520 Speaker 2: were idealistic. For instance, he suggested the prohibition of dishonorable 122 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 2: behavior between states, such as dishonesty and espionage. World War 123 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,559 Speaker 2: One ended in November of nineteen eighteen when Germany signed 124 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:47,760 Speaker 2: an armistice agreement with the Allies. The Treaty of Versailles, 125 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:51,440 Speaker 2: signed on June twenty eighth, nineteen nineteen, ended the war 126 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:56,640 Speaker 2: between Germany and the Allied Powers. An estimated twenty million 127 00:08:56,679 --> 00:09:00,200 Speaker 2: people died in the war, as militaries were able to 128 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:04,800 Speaker 2: cause a lot of destruction with new technologies like tanks, airplanes, 129 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:10,520 Speaker 2: and machine guns. Beyond the casualties, political, economic, and social 130 00:09:10,520 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 2: structures broke down. In the wake of the war. People 131 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:17,160 Speaker 2: began to demand that some sort of method be established 132 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:20,760 Speaker 2: to help prevent another devastating war from happening. There was 133 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:23,080 Speaker 2: a lot of support in the UK and the United 134 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:26,960 Speaker 2: States for an international body that could maintain peace and 135 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 2: prevent further wars. British politician Lord Robert Cecil and South 136 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:36,200 Speaker 2: African statesman Yon Smutz were the principal drafters of the 137 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,800 Speaker 2: Covenant of the League of Nations. By the time the 138 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:43,360 Speaker 2: Paris Peace Conference began in January of nineteen nineteen, the 139 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:46,800 Speaker 2: proposals for the League of Nations had gone through several revisions, 140 00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:50,960 Speaker 2: but that month delegates agreed to form the League of Nations. 141 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:54,840 Speaker 2: Part one of the Treaty of Versailles established the League 142 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:58,400 Speaker 2: of Nations. In June of nineteen nineteen, forty four countries 143 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:02,080 Speaker 2: signed the Covenant, which served as a charter for the organization. 144 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:06,360 Speaker 2: The League of Nations was officially established on January tenth, 145 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 2: nineteen twenty, when its Covenant went into effect. It held 146 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:14,360 Speaker 2: its first meeting on January sixteenth. The US never joined 147 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:18,560 Speaker 2: the League, whose headquarters were at Geneva. Though the organization 148 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:22,960 Speaker 2: did successfully mediate minor international disputes, it did not prevent 149 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,880 Speaker 2: the outbreak of the Second World War in nineteen thirty nine. 150 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:30,600 Speaker 2: It was dissolved on April twentieth, nineteen forty six. After 151 00:10:30,679 --> 00:10:35,480 Speaker 2: the United Nations was established. The United Nations continued many 152 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:38,760 Speaker 2: of the operations that existed under the League of Nations, 153 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 2: like the Committee of Intellectual Cooperation, which became UNESCO and 154 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:49,160 Speaker 2: the Health Organization, which became the World Health Organization. I'm 155 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,800 Speaker 2: Eve Chefcote and hopefully you know a little more about 156 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:55,400 Speaker 2: history today than you did yesterday. If you'd like to 157 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:57,800 Speaker 2: send us a comment or you have any questions, you 158 00:10:57,840 --> 00:10:59,960 Speaker 2: can send us a note on social media where at 159 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:04,360 Speaker 2: t d i HC podcast. You can also send us 160 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:10,199 Speaker 2: a note via email at this Day at iHeartMedia dot com. 161 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:12,360 Speaker 2: Thanks again for listening to the show, and we'll see 162 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:12,960 Speaker 2: you tomorrow