undergraduate days at New College (1903-1907), and who became one of the inner circle
of the Milner Group as early as 1914, will be discussed later. He has been, since 1917,
one of the most important persons in Britain in the formation of British imperial policy.
The Beit Railway Trust and the Beit chairs at Oxford have been controlled by the
Milner Group from the beginning, through the board of trustees of the former and
through the board of electors of the latter. Both of these have interlocking membership
with the Rhodes Trust and the College of All Souls. For example, the board of electors of
the Beit chair in 1910 consisted of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, the Regius Professor
of Modern History, the Chichele Professor of Modern History, the Secretary of State for
Colonies, Viscount Milner, H. A. L. Fisher, and Leopold Amery. By controlling All
Souls and the two professorships (both ex-officio fellowships of All Souls), the Milner
Group could control five out of seven electors to the Beit professorship. In recent years
the board of electors has consistently had a majority of members of All Souls and/or the
Milner Group. In 1940, for example, the board had, besides three ax-officio members,
two members of All Souls, a Rhodes Trustee, and H. A. L. Fisher.
The Beit Lectureship in Colonial History was similarly controlled. In 1910 its board of
electors had seven members, four ax-officio (The Vice-Chancellor, the Regius Professor
of History, the Chichele Professor of History, the Beit Professor) and three others (A. L.
Smith, H, A. L. Fisher, and Leopold Amery). In 1930 the board consisted of the Vice-
Chancellor, the Beit Professor, H. A. L. Fisher, F. M. Powicke, and three fellows of All
Souls. As a result, the lectureship has generally been held by persons close to the Milner
Group, as can be seen from the following list of incumbents:
W. L. Grant, 1906-1910
J. Munro, 1910-1912
L. Curtis, 1912-1913
R. Coupland, 1913-1918
E. M. Wrong, 1919-1924
K. N. Bell, 1924-1927
W. P. Morrell, 1927-1930
V. T. Harlow, 1930-1935
K. C. Wheare, 1935-1940
Without attempting to identify all of these completely, it should be pointed out that
four were Fellows of All Souls, while, of the others, one was the son-in-law of George
Parkin, another was the son-in-law of A. L. Smith, and a third was librarian of Rhodes
House and later acting editor of The Round Table.
During this period after 1905, the Milner Group was steadily strengthening its
relationships with New College, All Souls, and to some extent with Balliol. Through
Fisher and Milner there came into the Group two tutors and a scholar of New College.
These were Alfred Zimmern, Robert S. Rait (1874-1936), and Reginald Coupland.
Alfred Zimmern (Sir Alfred since 1936) was an undergraduate at New College with
Kerr, Grigg, Brand, Curtis, Malcolm, and Waldorf Astor (later Lord Astor) in 1898-1902.
As lecturer, fellow, and tutor there in the period 1903-1909, he taught a number of future
members of the Milner Group, of whom the chief was Reginald Coupland. His teaching
and his book The Greek Commonwealth (1911) had a profound effect on the thinking of
the inner circle of the Milner Group, as can be seen, for example, in the writings of
Lionel Curtis. In the period up to 1921 he was close to this inner core and in fact can be
considered as a member of it. After 1921 he disagreed with the policy of the inner core
toward the League of Nations and Germany, since the core wanted to weaken the
one and strengthen the other, an opinion exactly opposite to that of Zimmern. He
remained, however, a member of the Group and was, indeed, its most able member and
one of its most courageous members. Since his activities will be mentioned frequently in
the course of this study, we need do no more than point out his various positions here. He
was a staff inspector of the Board of Education in 1912-1915; the chief assistant to Lord
Robert Cecil in the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office in 1918-1919;
Wilson Professor of International Politics at University College of Wales, Abersytwyth,
in 1919-1921; Professor of Political Science at Cornell in 1922-1923; deputy director and
chief administrator of the League of Nations Institute of Intellectual Cooperation in 1926-
1930; Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at Oxford in 1930-1944;
deputy director of the Research Department of the Foreign Office in 1943-1945; adviser
to the Ministry of Education in 1945; director of the Geneva School of International
Studies in 1925-1939; adviser and chief organizer of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 1946; and Visiting Professor at Trinity College,
Hartford, Connecticut, from 1947.
Another Fellow of New College who joined the Milner Group was R. S. Rait (1874-
1936). Of much less significance than Zimmern, he worked with the Group in the Trade
Intelligence Department of the War Office in 1915-1918. He is the chief reason why the
Milner Group, especially in the writings of Lionel Curtis, emphasized the union with
Scotland as a model for the treatment of Ireland. A close friend of A. V. Dicey, Fellow of
All Souls, he wrote with him Thoughts on the Union between England and Scotland
(1920), and, with C. H. Firth, another Fellow of All Souls, he wrote Acts and
Ordonnances of the Interregnum, 1642-1660 (1911). He left New College in 1913 to
become Professor of Scottish History at the University of Glasgow (1913-1929) and five
years later was made Royal Historiographer of Scotland (1919-1929). Originally intimate
with the inner circle of the Milner Group, he drifted away after 1913.
Reginald Coupland (Sir Reginald since 1944) came into the Milner Group's inner
circle shortly before Rait moved out, and has been there ever since. A student of
Zimmern's at New College in 1903-1907, he became a Fellow and lecturer in ancient
history at Trinity College, Oxford, immediately upon graduation and stayed there for
seven years. Since then his academic career has carried him to the following positions:
Beit Lecturer in Colonial History (1913-1918), Beit Professor of Colonial History (since
1920), Fellow of All Souls (since 1920), and Fellow of Nuffield College (since 1939). He
was also editor of The Round Table after Lord Lothian left (1917-1919) and again at the
beginning of the Second World War (1939-1941). His most important activities,
however, have been behind the scenes: as member of the Royal Commission on Superior
Civil Services in India (1923), as adviser to the Burma Round Table Conference of 1931,
as a member of the Peel Commission to Palestine (1936-1937), and as a member of Sir
Stafford Cripps's Mission to India (1942). He is reputed to have been the chief author of
the Peel Report of 1937, which recommended partition of Palestine and restriction of
Jewish immigration into the area—two principles which remained at the basis of British
policy until 1949. In fact, the pattern of partition contained in the Peel Report, which
would have given Transjordan an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea across the southern
portion of Palestine, was a subject of violent controversy in 1948.
Coupland has been a prolific writer. Besides his many historical works, he has written
many books that reflect the chief subjects of discussion in the inmost circle of the Milner
Group. Among these, we might mention Freedom and Unity, his lecture at Patna College,