(Boston, 1913), Milner said almost the same thing. Milner’s distaste for party politics was
shared by Lord Esher and Lord Grey to such an extent as to become a chief motivating
force in their lives. See H. Begbie, Albert, Fourth Earl Grey (London, 1918), especially
p. 52, and The Journals and Letters of Reginald, Viscount Esher (4 vols., London, 1938),
passim.
3. Letter of Milner to Congdon, 23 November 1904, in Cecil Headlam, ed., The
Milner Papers (2 vols., London, 1931-1933), II, 506.
4. Cecil Headlam, ed., The Milner Papers (2 vols., London, 1931-1933), I, 267 and
288; II, 505. Milner’s antipathy for party politics was generally shared by the inner circle
of the Milner Group. The future Lord Lothian, writing in The Round Table, August 1911,
was very critical of party politics and used the same arguments against it as Milner. He
wrote: “At any moment a party numbering among its numbers all the people best
qualified to manage foreign affairs may be cast from office, for reasons which have
nothing to do with their conduct of these matters. . . . If the people of Great Britain
manage to keep at the head of the great Imperial offices of State, men who will command
the confidence of the Dominions, and who pursue steadfastly a . . . successful policy, and
if the people of the Dominions are tolerant and far-sighted enough to accept such a policy
as their own, the present arrangement may last. Does history give us any reason for
expecting that the domestic party system will produce so great a combination of good
fortune and good management?” ( The Round Table, I, 414-418).
In the introduction to The Nation and the Empire, written in 1913, Milner expressed
himself in a similar vein.
5. Marquess of Crewe, Lord Rosebery (2 vols., London, 1931), 615.
6. See John, Viscount Morley, Recollections (2 vols., New York, 1917), II.
7. The fact that a small “secret” group controlled the nominations for Chancellor
of Oxford was widely recognized in Britain, but not frequently mentioned publicly.
In May 1925 the Earl of Birkenhead wrote a letter to The Times to protest against
this usurpation by a nonofficial group and was answered in The Times, by a letter
which stated that, when the group was formed after the interruption of the First
World War, he had been invited to join it but had never acknowledged the
invitation! Milner’s nomination was made by a group that met in New College,
under the chairmanship of H. A. L. Fisher, on 5 May 1925. There were was about
thirty present, including Fisher, Lord Astor, Lord Ernle, Steel-Maitland, Pember,
Wilkinson, Brand, Lucas, M. G. Glazebrook, Sir Herbert Warren (classmate and
friend of Milner’s), Archbishop Davidson, Cyril Bailey, etc. The same group,
according to Lord Halifax’s biographer, nominated Lord Halifax to the
Chancellorship in 1933.
8. The editors were assisted in the work of producing the two volumes by Margaret
Toynbee. The influence of the Milner Group can be discerned in the list of
acknowledgments in the preface to Weaver’s volume. Among eighteen names listed may
be found those of Cyril Bailey (Fellow of Balliol, 1902-1939, and member of the
Ministry of Munitions, 1915-1918); C. R. M. F. Cruttwell (member of All Souls and the
Round Table Group, Principal of Hertford College since 1930); Geoffrey Dawson, H. A.
L. Fisher; and Ernest Swinton (Fellow of All Souls, 1925-1939). Apparently these
persons decided what names should be included in the Dictionary.
Chapter 6
1. The Milner Group's control over these lectures appears as much from the list of
presiding officers as from the list of lecturers, thus:
President Speaker Title
A. D. Steel-Maitland Michael Sadler The Universities and the War
Lord Bryce Charles Lucas The Empire and Democracy
Lord Milner A. L. Smith The People and the Duties of Empire
Lord Selborne H. A. L. Fisher Imperial Administration
Earl St. Aldwyn Philip Kerr The Commonwealth and the Empire
Lord Sumner G. R. Parkin The Duty of the Empire in the World
2. Buckle came to The Times staff in 1880 because of his All Souls connection, being
recommended by Sir William Anson, according to the official History of The Times. He
was apparently selected to be the future editor from the beginning, since he was given a
specially created position as "confidential assistant" to the editor, at a salary "decidedly
higher than an Oxford graduate with a good degree could reasonably hope to gain in a
few years in any of the regular professions." See The History of The Times (4 vols.,
London, 1935), II, 529. Buckle may have been the link between Lord Salisbury and The
Times, since they could easily meet at All Souls. Obviously The History of the Times,
which devotes a full volume of 862 pages to the period of Buckle's editorship, does not
tell the full story on Buckle, since he rarely appears on the scene as an actor and would
seem, from the History, to have been ignorant of most of what was happening in his
offices (the Rhodes-Jameson connection, for example). This is difficult to believe.
The History of The Times is unsatisfactory on other grounds as well. For example, it is
not possible from this work to construct a complete record of who held various staff
positions. We are told, for example, that Flora Shaw became head of the Colonial
Department in 189O, but that ends that department as far as the volume is concerned.
There is considerable material on Miss Shaw, especially in the chapters on the Transvaal,
but we never find out w ho was her successor, or when she left the staff, or if (as appears
likely) the Colonial Department was a creation for her occupancy only and did not
survive her (undated) withdrawal from the staff; similarly the exact dates and positions of
men like Amery and Grigg are not clear.
3. The History of The Times (4 vols., London, 1935), III, 755.
4. There were others, but they are not of primary, or even secondary importance in the
Milner Croup. We might mention Aubrey L. Kennedy (son of Sir John Kennedy of the
diplomatic service), who was on The Times staff from 1910 to 1942, in military
intelligence in 1914-1919, diplomatic correspondent for the BBC in 1942-1945, and an
influential member of Chatham House since 1919.
5. E. Moberly Bell, Flora Shaw (London, 1947), 115.
6. At the suggestion of the British Foreign Office, copies of these articles were
circulated in America and in Europe. See E. Moberly Bell, Flora Shaw (London, 1947)
228.
7. The History of The Times (4 vols., London, 1935), III, 212, 214.
8. All quotations are from The History of The Times (4 vols., London, 1935), III,
chapters 7 and 9.
9. See E. T. Cook, Edmund Garrett (London, 1909), 118-119. The difference of