BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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thinks it would be inadvisable to withdraw the warrants at the present
time." The 1899 Roll suggests Liverpool had six active Habitations. 5^
Countywide, Lancashire was regarded as the most successful
Primrose League region.
By 1901 it was also in difficulty, having only
forty-nine active Habitations.
Thirteen others were listed as "dead"
and the state of thirty was unknown.
Only two Habitations were in the
process of formation.
These figures present a sorry contrast to the
reputed 113 active associations recorded for Lancashire on the 1899
Roll. 60 In the western region of England, things were no better. The
entire province was listed as "unsatisfactory" and earmarked for "a
special effort ... in the coming year." Scotland, ever a troubled
spot for activity of the Primrose League, was also having great
difficulty in maintaining Habitations and members by 1900.
The SGC was
sufficiently alarmed at the falling rate of Tributes collected from
Knights and Dames in 1899 to have its Political
Secretary prepare a
report the following year discussing where "the leakage was taking
place."
The result was a three page statement produced in April
detailing the state of Habitations in decline.
Subsequent Annual
reports for 1900 and 1901 focused on associations in "abeyance" and in
need of "resuscitation." By February of 1901 official figures of the
SGC recorded only eighty-six Habitations, a noticeable reduction from
59 Minutes of the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 1
November 1900. The 1899 Roll of Habitations, p. 115.
60 Minutes of the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 19
December 1901. Based on my computer tabulation of the number of
Habitations in Lancashire from the 1899 Roll of Habitations.