The Relugas Compact

As Relugas Compact (English Relugas - agreement ) reached a political agreement of the British statesmen Herbert Henry Asquith, Richard Haldane and Sir Edward Grey in November 1905 called, in which the three opposition leaders themselves, with regard to their plans in the event of a government takeover of the Liberal Party which they belonged, coordinating and agreements met the conditions under which they would be willing to enter into a neuzubildende liberal government.

Effectiveness and Scope of the agreement

The agreement, also known as the liberal troika triumvirate is named after the location of the fishing lodge owned by Sir Edward Grey in the administrative area of ​​Moray in northern Scotland, in Asquith, Haldane and Grey met to closing of their agreement.

Asquith, Grey and Haldane, 1905, the leading men of the right wing of the opposition Liberal Party, arrived at their meeting in Grey's hut is general consensus on the preconditions to be fulfilled by their party leader, Sir Henry Campbell - Bannerman, so they would be ready in a enter government led by him. Since the resignation of the incumbent government Balfour and the assumption of the responsibilities of government by the Liberals was already foreseeable at the time, decided the three "rights" ( Liberal Imperialists ) in Relugas consensus against the "left" wing of the party belonging to Campbell - Bannerman, in the phase of government formation and occur later united in a common cabinet. A letter of intent, which they combined with the hope to raise more political weight through a common occurrence and so be able to exert more pressure on the future prime minister.

So agreed the three that precondition of each of them would be the following distribution of responsibilities: Asquith would have after the Prime Minister to obtain the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, the second most important government office, Grey would get the post of foreign minister and Haldane, in turn, would have to post of the Lord Chancellors get. The heart of the agreement was that you had to Campbell - Bannerman persuade the occasion of the formation of a government to give up the leadership of the Liberals in the House in favor of Asquith to agree to his own elevation to the peerage and the associated Company advances to the House of Lords. Furthermore, it should swing in the government line at crucial points on the course of the imperialist wing of the party.

A month later, when it actually came to form a government, the Relugas Compact initially remained without consequences: After the fall of the government Balfour Cambpell - Bannerman started it now, as expected, with the formation of a new government, but showed it completely unimpressed by the - very diplomatic presented - demands of the three right liberals. Instead of just hoping for the integration of the three leading men of the right wing of his party as " essential " to keep a prerequisite for the formation of a government and, accordingly, to accept all their demands, he signaled rather the willingness, if necessary also a government without Haldane, Asquith and Grey to form. After Grey had delayed formation of the government a few days while accepting the risk of a party split, gave the three finally at small and joined the new government, Campbell - Bannerman's on his terms. Asquith and Grey were given the desired of them offenses, while Haldane had to make do with the War Department. Crucially, however, was that Campbell - Bannerman continues to themselves reserved the key position of leader of the Liberals in the House and the attempt abblockte to deport him to the House of Lords.

The Relugas Compact was once again relevant to the policy of the government formed by Asquith to Campbell - Bannerman's death in 1908, as the collusion of the compact pretending the organizational basis and the substantive orientation of the Asquith government in 1908 to 1914/15 mainly. So Asquith took over after Campbell - Bannerman's death, the leadership of the Liberals in the House and Haldane held from 1912 to 1915 the office of Lord Chancellor, while formulated in Relugas internal and external political views of the three Liberal Imperialists crucial importance for the British government policy between 1908 and should be 1915/ 16 have.