| Description | Written as continuous text in two volumes of 'Collins Scribbling Diary' for 1929 and 1930. The 1930 diary contains a draft of Part I of 'The Alternative' written from the front of the volume. The right hand pages contain text, with the date of composition of each day's work; the left hand pages contain notes and references, including information about proposed chapter divisions. It appears that Mosley wrote this draft between Jan 1947 and Jun 1947.
Written from the rear of the volume are what appear to be drafts of short articles, some with headings including 'The Labour Party' and 'Africa'.
The 1929 diary contains a draft of Part II of 'The Alternative', written from the rear of the volume. The layout of the text follows the conventions described for the draft of Part I, and the dates of composition suggest that Part II was drafted concurrently with Part I.
This volume also contains a draft of 'My Answer' which Mosley published in 1946. This draft is written in continuous text from the front of the volume, and is followed by a series of what appear to be drafts of short articles, some with headings including 'Freedom of Speech' and 'The Economic Debate'. Some of these pieces of writing include an indication of the number of words they consisted of, suggesting that Mosley may have been writing them for inclusion in particular publications.
Both these volumes were obviously re-used for Mosley's draft writings, but they also contain diary entries for the years 1929 and 1930. The 1929 volume contains entries for several days in Jun and July 1929, just after Mosley had been appointed to Ramsay MacDonald's cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster with special responsibility for unemployment, under J. H. Thomas, the Lord Privy Seal. The entries contain information about Mosley's meetings with Thomas, Ramsay MacDonald and others, and some include comments about his work on the committee and his theories about how to alleviate unemployment. There are also entries for 21 Oct and 13 Dec, and written on one of the Memoranda pages at the rear of the volume are diary entries for 21 Feb, 25 Feb and 27 Feb 1930 which discuss events surrounding the attempted resignation of J. H. Thomas from the cabinet over Mosley's discussion of his proposals to deal with unemployment with Ramsay MacDonald, without first discussing them with Thomas. Another Memoranda page contains a pencilled list of dates for which there are diary entries in the 1929 volume
The 1930 Diary contains one brief diary entry for 6 Mar 1930 which contains details of Mosley's appointments that day. |