BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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The years 1900-1914 were marked by the League gradually
assuming the status of a official party organ.
By 1903 annual
conferences of the Primrose League were regularly scheduled in
conjunction with the yearly meetings of the National Union.
Habitations were increasingly called upon to perform direct services
for the party, typically through their assistance provided to local
Conservative agents or candidates standing for office.H
The decision to become a formal part of the party organization
was made in 1913.
The change was underscored by the inclusion in 1914
of a declaration of loyalty to the Unionist party within the oath of
the Primrose League.12
while it marked no great departure in terms of
the practice or policies pursued, the action, nevertheless, served as
an indication of the less significant role accorded the League and its
departure from the "independent" extra-parliamentary sphere of politics
by the First World War.
The role of the Primrose League as a formally sanctioned party
organ was emphasized in 1913.
Chairman of the Party Organization,
Steel-Maitland, requested the Primrose League obtain endorsements for
the "British Covenant" program, which was established to provide
shelter and financing for the families of Ulster Loyalists in the event
11
Ibid., 16 July 1903. 18 October 1900; 1 November 1900; 13
December 1900; 1 February 1906; 17 October 1907; 6 January 1910; 16
March 1910; 24 November 1910; 16 March 1911.
12 G.A. Arbuthnot, "The Principles of the Primrose League,"
The Primrose Election Guide, ed. G.A. Arbuthnot (London: Evaleigh Nash,
1914), pp. 7-9. A copy is available at the London School of Economics.
Minutes of the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 13 March 1914; 3
April 1914.