The Peace Ballot of 1934–35 was a nationwide questionnaire in Britain of five questions attempting to discover the British public's attitude to the League of Nations and collective security. Its official title was "A National Declaration on the League of Nations and Armaments." Advocates of the League of Nations felt that a growing isolationism in Britain had to be countered by a massive demonstration that the public demanded adherence to the principles of the League. Recent failures to achieve disarmament had undermined the credibility of the League, and there were fears the National government might step back from its official stance of supporting the League.[1]
The Ballot was run by the "National Declaration committee" set up by the League of Nations Union and spearheaded by the LNU's president, Lord Cecil of Chelwood. It was not sponsored by the government and was only an unofficial expression of opinion of about half the electorate. The main opposition came from Lord Beaverbrook, whose Daily Express newspaper repeatedly ridiculed the ballot; however most major newspapers were supportive.[2]
According to Dame Adelaide Livingstone who wrote the official history of the ballot, the first objective of the Peace Ballot from the outset, even before the questions had been posed, was to prove that the British public supported a policy of the League of Nations as the central determining factor of British foreign policy. Starting in 1933 plans for polls were discussed and local polls were taken in 1934 to test the questions and the canvassing process, for nothing remotely on the same scale had ever been attempted in Britain.[3]
Half-a-million supporters went door-to-door starting in late 1934, asking all those registered to vote in parliamentary elections. From February 1935 onwards through to May there was a rapid rise in the numbers of people voting in the Ballot. The poll was completed in June 1935 and the final results were announced on 27 June 1935, at a huge rally at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The Archbishop of Canterbury took the Chair and Lord Cecil announced the results.[4] The total number who voted was 11.6 million, 38% of the adult population and over half the 21 million who voted in the general election five months later.