3 JUNE

GLADSTONE – SLAVES ARE NOTHING MORE THAN THE PROPERTY OF THEIR OWNERS

[ 3 June 1833 ]

William Gladstone was to become Liberal Prime Minister four times between 1868 and 1894. He is often acclaimed as the most progressive of Britain’s Victorian prime ministers, extending voting rights in Britain to the majority of working men (though rejecting calls for extending the franchise to women) and according to one of his recent biographers ‘was acknowledged by friend and foe alike for his commitment to principle and Christian ideals.’¹

CHINESE DESTROY BRITISH OPIUM LEADING TO THE FIRST OPIUM WAR

[ 3 June 1839 ]

On 3 June 1839, Lin Zexu, an imperial commissioner of Qing China, ordered the destruction of illegal opium imports, which were being smuggled in increasing quantities by British traders.

CHURCHILL ANXIOUS TO ACHIEVE FASTER DEPORTATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES

[ 3 June 1940 ]

Today in 1940, Winston Churchill wrote a minute to the Cabinet Secretary asking anxiously: ‘Has anything been done about shipping 20,000 internees to Newfoundland or St. Helena ?’ Churchill added, ‘I should like to get them on the high seas as soon as possible.’⁴

FOOTNOTES

1. David Bebbington, William Ewart Gladstone: Faith and Politics in Victorian Britain, William B. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993, p vii.
2. Hansard, 3 June 1833, p. 335.
3. ‘House of Commons, Monday June 3,’ The Morning Advertiser, 4 June 1833, p. 2.
4. S.G. Checkland, The Gladstones: A Family Biography, 1764-1851, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971, p. 321.
5. Bernard Wasserstein, Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945, Oxford University Press, 1988 p 96.

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