organized this under Cecil-Milner auspices in 1915. Davis became editor of the
Dictionary of National Biography under the same auspices in 1921 and soon asked
Weaver to join him. They jointly produced the Dictionary supplement for 1912-1921.
After Davis's death in 1928, Weaver became editor and brought out the supplement for
1922-1930. (8) He continued as editor until shortly before he was made President of
Trinity College in 1938. Weaver wrote the sketch of Davis in the Dictionary and also a
larger work called Henry William Carless Davis, a Memoir and a Selection of His
Historical Papers, published in 1933.
This control of the Dictionary of National Biography will explain how the Milner
Group controlled the writing of the biographies of its own members so completely in that
valuable work. This fact will already have been observed in the present work. The only
instance, apparently, where a member of the Milner Group or the Cecil Bloc did not have
his biographical sketch written by another member of these groups is to be found in the
case of Lord Phillimore, whose sketch was written by Lord Sankey, who was not a
member of the groups in question. Phillimore is also the only member of these groups
whose sketch is not wholeheartedly adulatory.
The influence of the Milner Group in academic circles is by no means exhausted by
the brief examination just made of Oxford. At Oxford itself, the Group has been
increasingly influential in Nuffield College, while outside of Oxford it apparently
controls (or greatly influences) the Stevenson Professorship of International Relations at
London; the Rhodes Professorship of Imperial History at London; Birkbeck College at
London; the George V Professorship of History in Cape Town University; and the
Wilson Professorship of International Politics at University College of Wales,
Aberystwyth. Some of these are controlled completely, while others are influenced in
varying degrees. In Canada the influence of the Group is substantial, if not decisive, at
the University of Toronto and at Upper Canada College. At Toronto the Glazebrook-
Massey influence is very considerable, while at present the Principal of Upper Canada
College is W. L. Grant, son-in-law of George Parkin and former Beit Lecturer at Oxford.
Vincent Massey is a governor of the institution.
Chapter 6—TheTimes
Beyond the academic field, the Milner Group engaged in journalistic activities that
sought to influence public opinion in directions which the Group desired. One of the
earliest examples of this, and one of the few occasions on which the Group appeared as a
group in the public eye, was in 1905, the year in which Milner returned from Africa. At
that time the Group published a volume, The Empire and the Century, consisting of fifty
articles on various aspects of the imperial problem. The majority of these articles were
written by members of the Milner Group, in spite of the fact that so many of the most
important members were still in Africa with Lord Selborne. The volume was issued under
the general editorship of Charles S. Goldman, a friend of John Buchan and author of With
General French and the Cavalry in South Africa. Among those who wrote articles were
W. F. Monypenny, Bernard Holland, John Buchan, Henry Birchenough, R. B. Haldane,
Bishop Lang, L. S. Amery, Evelyn Cecil, George Parkin, Edmund Garrett, Geoffrey
Dawson, E. B. Sargant (one of the Kindergarten), Lionel Phillips, Valentine Chirol, and
Sir Frederick and Lady Lugard.
This volume has many significant articles, several of which have already been
mentioned. It was followed by a sequel volume, called The Empire and the Future, in
1916. The latter consisted of a series of lectures delivered at King's College, University
of London, in 1915, under the sponsorship of the Royal Colonial Institute. The lectures
were by members of the Milner Group who included A. L. Smith, H. A. L. Fisher, Philip
Kerr, and George R. Parkin.(1) A somewhat similar series of lectures was given on the
British Dominions at the University of Birmingham in 1910-1911 by such men as Alfred
Lyttelton, Henry Birchenough, and William Hely-Hutchinson. These were published by
Sir William Ashley in a volume called The British Dominions.
These efforts, however, were too weak, too public, and did not reach the proper
persons. Accordingly, the real efforts of the Milner Group were directed into more
fruitful and anonymous activities such as The Times and The Round Table.
The Milner Group did not own The Times before 1922, but clearly controlled it at least
as far back as 1912. Even before this last date, members of the innermost circle of the
Milner Group were swarming about the great newspaper. In fact, it would appear that The
Times had been controlled by the Cecil Bloc since 1884 and was taken over by the
Milner Group in the same way in which All Souls was taken over, quietly and without a
struggle. The midwife of this process apparently was George E. Buckle (1854-1935),
graduate of New College in 1876, member of All Souls since 1877, and editor of The
Times from 1884 to 1912. (2) The chief members of the Milner Group who were
associated with The Times have already been mentioned. Amery was connected with the
paper from 1899 to 1909. During this period he edited and largely wrote the Times
History of the South African War. Lord Esher was offered a directorship in 1908. Grigg
was a staff writer in 1903-1905, and head of the Imperial Department in 1908-1913. B.
K. Long was head of the Dominion Department in 1913-1921 and of the Foreign
Department in 1920-1921. Monypenny was assistant editor both before and after the Boer
War (1894-1899, 1903-1908) and on the board of directors after the paper was
incorporated (1908-1912). Dawson was the paper's chief correspondent in South Africa
in the Selborne period (1905-1910), while Basil Williams was the reporter covering the
National Convention there (1908-1909). When it became clear in 1911 that Buckle must
soon retire, Dawson was brought into the office in a rather vague capacity and, a year
later, was made editor. The appointment was suggested and urged by Buckle.(3) Dawson
held the position from 1912 to 1941, except for the three years 1919-1922. This interval
is of some significance, for it revealed to the Milner Group that they could not continue
to control The Times without ownership. The Cecil Bloc had controlled The Times from
1884 to 1912 without ownership, and the Milner Group had done the same in the period
1912-1919, but, in this last year, Dawson quarreled with Lord Northcliffe (who was chief
proprietor from 1908-1922) and left the editor's chair. As soon as the Milner Group,
through the Astors, acquired the chief proprietorship of the paper in 1922, Dawson was
restored to his post and held it for the next twenty years. Undoubtedly the skillful stroke
which acquired the ownership of The Times from the Harmsworth estate in 1922 was
engineered by Brand. During the interval of three years during which Dawson was not
editor, Northcliffe entrusted the position to one of The Time's famous foreign
correspondents, H. W. Steed.