(1900-1902) and then resumed his post as editor of the Star. In 1903 he resigned in
protest against Milner's policy of importing Chinese laborers and walked across Africa
from the Cape to Egypt. Resuming his position on The Times (1903-1908), he became a
director of the firm for the last four years of his life (1908-1912). About this time Lord
Rowton, w ho had been Disraeli's private secretary, left his papers to The Times to be
used for a Life of Disraeli. The task was begun by Monypenny, but he finished only the
first two volumes of the six-volume work. The last four volumes were written by George
E. Buckle, editor of The Times (1884-1912), Fellow of All Souls (1877-1885), and a
contemporary of Milner's at Oxford (1872-1876).
It is perhaps worth noting that when Monypenny resigned from the Johannesburg Star
he was replaced as editor by William Basil Worsfold, who held the post for two years,
being replaced, as we have
said, by Geoffrey Dawson. In the years 1906-1913 Worsfold published a three-volume
study of Milner's accomplishments in South Africa. This contains the most valuable
account in existence of the work of the Kindergarten.(4)
Fabian Ware (Sir Fabian since 1922), who had been a reporter on The Morning Post
(1899-1901), was Assistant Director and Director of Education in the Transvaal (1901-
1905) and Director of Education in the Orange River Colony (1903), as well as a member
of the Transvaal Legislative Council (1903-1905). He was editor of The Morning Post in
1905-1911 and then became special commissioner to the board of the Rio Tinto
Company, on which Milner was director. During the First World War he rose to the rank
of major general. Since then he has been permanent vice-chairman of the Imperial War
Graves Commission. A book which he wrote in 1937, The Immortal Heritage, The Work
of the Imperial War Graves Commission, was made the occasion of an article on this
subject in The Round Table. Sir Fabian was a member of the Imperial Committee on
Economic Consultation and Cooperation in 1933 and was a director-general in the War
Office in 1939-1944.
Main Swete Osmond Walrond was in the Ministry of Finance in Egypt (1894-1897)
before he became Milner's private secretary for the whole period of his High
Commissionership (1897-1905). He was then appointed District Commissioner in Cyprus
but did not take the post. In 1917-1919 he was in the Arab Bureau in Cairo under the
High Commissioner and acted as an unofficial, but important, adviser to Milner's mission
to Egypt in 1919-1921. This mission led to Egyptian independence from Britain.
Lionel Curtis is one of the most important members of the Milner Group, or, as a
member of the Group expressed it to me, he is the fons et origo. It may sound extravagant
as a statement, but a powerful defense could be made of the claim that what Curtis thinks
should be done to the British Empire is what happens a generation later. I shall give here
only two recent examples of this. In 1911 Curtis decided that the name of His Majesty's
Dominions must be changed from "British Empire" to "Commonwealth of Nations." This
was done officially in 1948. Again, about 1911 Curtis decided that India must be given
complete self-government as rapidly as conditions permitted. This was carried out in
1947. As we shall see, these are not merely coincidental events, for Curtis, working
behind the scenes, has been one of the chief architects of the present Commonwealth. It is
not easy to discern the places where he has passed, and no adequate biographical sketch
can be put on paper here. Indeed, much of the rest of this volume will be a contribution to
the biography of Lionel Curtis. Burning with an unquenchable ardor, which some might
call fanatical, he has devoted his life to his dominant idea, that the finer things of life—
liberty, democracy, toleration, etc.—could be preserved only within an integrated world
political system, and that this political system could be constructed about Great Britain,
but only if Britain adopted toward her Dominions, her colonies, and the rest of the world
a policy of generosity, of trust, and of developing freedom. Curtis was both a fanatic and
an idealist. But he was not merely "a man in a hurry." He had a fairly clear picture of
what he wanted. He did not believe that complete and immediate freedom and democracy
could be given to the various parts of the imperial system, but felt that they could only be
extended to these parts in accordance with their ability to develop to a level where they
were capable of exercising such privileges. When that level was achieved and those
privileges were extended, he felt that they would not be used to disrupt the integrated
world system of which he dreamed, but to integrate it more fully and in a sounder
fashion—a fashion based on common outlook and common patterns of thought rather
than on the dangerous unity of political subjection, censorship, or any kind of duress. To
Curtis, as to H. G. Wells, man's fate depended on a race between education and disaster.
This was similar to the feeling which animated Rhodes when he established the Rhodes
Scholarships, although Curtis has a much broader and less nationalistic point of view than
Rhodes. Moreover, Curtis believed that people could be educated for freedom and
responsibility by giving them always a little more freedom, a little more democracy, and
a little more responsibility than they were quite ready to handle. This is a basically
Christian attitude—the belief that if men are trusted they will prove trustworthy—but it
was an attitude on which Curtis was prepared to risk the existence of the British Empire.
It is not yet clear whether Curtis is the creator of the Commonwealth of Nations or
merely the destroyer of the British Empire. The answer will be found in the behavior of
India in the next few years. The Milner Group knew this. That is why India, since 1913,
has been the chief object of their attentions.
These ideas of Curtis are clearly stated in his numerous published works. The
following quotations are taken from The Problem of the Commonwealth drawn up by the
Round Table Group and published under Curtis's name in 1916:
“Responsible government can only be realized for any body of citizens in so far as
they are fit for the exercise of political power. In the Dependencies the great majority of
the citizens are not as yet capable of governing themselves and for them the path to
freedom is primarily a problem of education.... The Commonwealth is a typical section of
human society including every race and level of civilization organized in one state. In this
world commonwealth the function of government is reserved to the European minority,
for the unanswerable reason that for the present this portion of its citizens is alone
capable of the task—civilized states are obliged to assume control of backward
communities to protect them from exploitation by private adventurers from Europe....
The Commonwealth cannot, like despotisms, rest content with establishing order within
and between the communities it includes. It must by its nature prepare these communities
first to maintain order within themselves. The rule of law must be rooted in the habits and
wills of the peoples themselves.... The peoples of India and Egypt, no less than those of