In June 1919, when he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Stanley Baldwin had a famous letter published in The Times, signed FST, in an attempt to encourage the most wealthy in society to give up a fifth of their capital to help pay off the national debt, which had shot to £7.4 billion up as a result of the First World War. He himself sent £120,000 (equivalent to some £5 million today), one fifth of his wealth, to the Treasury, describing it as “a thank-offering” for victory. Few followed his example. The following letter, published in The Daily Telegraph on 1 December, was written in response to comments on the subject by Charles Moore.
SIR -- Just one person worked out that Stanley Baldwin was the mysterious “FST” when he made his famous gift to the Treasury in June 1919, to which Charles Moore refers (Notebook, November 29). Andrew Bonar Law, the perceptive Tory leader, said to him the next day “I know who FST is.” Otherwise the secret held until May 1923 (not until 1924 as Moore indicates) when the name of the benefactor appeared in the press.
Conservative Central Office and JCC Davidson, Baldwin’s devious private secretary, were almost certainly responsible. They wanted to establish Baldwin, in the public mind, as an unusually noble and disinterested political leader.
He never regretted making the gift, but he could have done with the money himself in later years, when his family business ceased to be profitable during the interwar depression. His income fell so sharply he needed a bank overdraft. The man who had hoped to help pay off the national debt fell into debt himself.
Lord Lexden
London SW1
