members of the council were of the Milner Group. These included Lord Astor
(chairman), L. Curtis, G. M. Gathorne-Hardy, Lord Hailey, H. D. Henderson, Stephen
King-Hall, Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, Sir Neill Malcolm, Lord Meston, Sir Arthur Salter, J.
W. Wheeler-Bennett, E. L. Woodward, and Sir Alfred Zimmern. Among the others were
A. V. Alexander, Sir John Power, Sir Norman Angell, Clement Jones, Lord Lytton,
Harold Nicolson, Lord Snell, and C. K. Webster. Others who were on the council at
various times were E. H. Carr, Harold Butler, G. N. Clark, Geoffrey Crowther, H. V.
Hodson, Hugh Wyndham, G. W. A. Ormsley-Gore, Walter Layton, Austen Chamberlain,
Malcolm MacDonald (elected 1933), and many other members of the Group.
The chief activities of the RIIA were the holding of discussion meetings, the
organization of study groups, the sponsoring of research, and the publication of
information and materials based on these. At the first meeting, Sir Maurice Hankey read a
paper on "Diplomacy by Conference," showing how the League of Nations grew out of
the Imperial Conferences. This was published in The Round Table. No complete record
exists of the meetings before the fall of 1921, but, beginning then, the principal speech at
each meeting and resumes of the comments from the floor were published in the Journal.
At the first of these recorded meetings, D. G. Hogarth spoke on "The Arab States," with
Lord Chelmsford in the chair. Stanley Reed, Chirol, and Meston spoke from the floor.
Two weeks later, H. A. L. Fisher spoke on "The Second Assembly of the League of
Nations," with Lord Robert Cecil in the chair. Temperley and Wilson Harris also spoke.
In November, Philip Kerr was the chief figure for two evenings on "Pacific Problems as
They Would Be submitted to the Washington Conference." At the end of the same
month, A. J. Toynbee spoke on "The Greco-Turkish Question," with Sir Arthur Evans in
the chair, and early in December his father-in-law, Gilbert Murray, spoke on "Self-
Determination," with Lord Sumner in the chair. In January 1922, Chaim Weizmann
spoke on "Zionism"; in February, Chirol spoke on "Egypt"; in April, Walter T. Layton
spoke on "The Financial Achievement of the League of Nations," with Lord Robert Cecil
in the chair. In June, Wilson Harris spoke on "The Genoa Conference," with Robert H.
Brand in the chair. In October, Ormsby-Gore spoke on "Mandates," with Lord Lugard in
the chair. Two weeks later, Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland spoke on "The League of Nations,"
with H. A. L. Fisher in the chair. In March 1923, Harold Butler spoke on the
"International Labour Office," with G. N. Barnes in the chair. Two weeks later, Philip
Kerr spoke on "The Political Situation in the United States," with Arthur Balfour in the
chair. In October 1923, Edward F. L. Wood (Lord Halifax) spoke on "The League of
Nations," with H. A. L. Fisher in the chair. In November 1924, E. R. Peacock (Parkin's
protege) spoke on "Mexico," with Lord Eustace Percy in the chair. In October 1925,
Leopold Amery spoke on "The League of Nations," with Robert Cecil as chairman, while
in May 1926, H. A. L. Fisher spoke on the same subject, with Neill Malcolm as
chairman. In November 1925, Paul Mantoux spoke on "The Procedure of the League,"
with Brand as chairman. In June 1923, Edward Grigg spoke on "Egypt," with D. G.
Hogarth in the chair. In the season of 1933-1934 the speakers included Ormsby-Gore,
Oliver Lyttelton, Edward Grigg, Donald Somervell, Toynbee, Zimmern, R. W. Seton-
Watson, and Lord Lothian. In the season of 1938-1939 the list contains the names of
Wilson Harris, C. A. Macartney, Toynbee, Lord Hailey, A. G. B. Fisher, Harold Butler,
Curtis, Lord Lothian, Zimmern, Lionel Hichens, and Lord Halifax. These rather scattered
observations will show how the meetings were peppered by members of the Milner
Group. This does not mean that the Group monopolized the meetings, or even spoke at a
majority of them. The meetings generally took place once a week from October to June
of each year, and probably members of the Group spoke or presided at no more than a
quarter of them. This, however, represents far more than their due proportion, for when
the Institute had 2500, members the Milner Group amounted to no more than 100.
The proceedings of the meetings were generally printed in abbreviated form in the
Journal of the Institute. Until January 1927, this periodical was available only to
members, but since that date it has been open to public subscription. The first issue was
as anonymous as the first issue of The Round Table: no list of editors, no address, and no
signature to the opening editorial introducing the new journal. The articles, however, had
the names of the speakers indicated. When it went on public sale in January 1927, the
name of the Institute was added to the cover. In time it took the name International
Affairs. The first editor, we learn from a later issue, was Gathorne-Hardy. In January
1932 an editorial board was placed in charge of the publication. It consisted of Meston,
Gathorne-Hardy, and Zimmern. This same board remained in control until war forced
suspension of publication at the end of 1939, When publication was resumed in 1944 in
Canada, the editorial board consisted of Hugh Wyndham, Geoffrey Crowther, and H. A.
R. Gibb. Wyndham is still chairman of the board, but since the war the membership of
the board has changed somewhat. In 1948 it had six members, of whom three are
employees of the Institute, one is the son-in-law of an employee, the fifth is Professor of
Arabic at Oxford, and the last is the chairman, Hugh Wyndham. In 1949 Adam Marris
was added.
In addition to the History of the Peace Conference and the journal International
Affairs, the Institute publishes the annual Survey of International Affairs. This is written
either by members of the Group or by employees of the Institute. The chief writers have
been Toynbee; his second wife, V. M. Boulter; Robert J. Stopford, who appears to be one
of R. H. Brand's men and who wrote the reparations section each year;' H. V. Hodson,
who did the economic sections from 1930-1938; and A. G. B. Fisher, who has done the
economic sections since Hodson. Until 1928 the Survey had an appendix of documents,
but since that year these have been published in a separate volume, usually edited by J.
W. Wheeler-Bennett. Mr. Wheeler-Bennett became a member of the Milner Group and
the Institute by a process of amalgamation. In 1924 he had founded a document service,
which he called Information Service on International Affairs, and in the years following
1924 he published a number of valuable digests of documents and other information on
disarmament, security, the World Court, reparations, etc., as well as a periodical called
the Bulletin of International News. In 1927 he became Honorary Information Secretary of
the RIIA, and in 1930 the Institute bought out all his information services for £3500 and
made them into the Information Department of the Institute, still in charge of Mr.
Wheeler-Bennett. Since the annual Documents on International Affairs resumed
publication in 1944, it has been in charge of Monica Curtis (who may be related to Lionel
Curtis), while Mr. Wheeler-Bennett has been busy elsewhere. In 1938-1939 he was
Visiting Professor of International Relations at the University of Virginia: in 1939-1944
he was in the United States in various propaganda positions with the British Library of