Information and for two years as Head of the British Political Warfare Mission in New
York. Since 1946, he has been engaged in editing, from the British side, an edition of
about twenty volumes of the captured documents of the German Foreign Ministry. He has
also lectured on international affairs at New College, a connection obviously made
through the Milner Group.
The Survey of International Affairs has been financed since 1925 by an endowment of
£20,000 given by Sir Daniel Stevenson for this purpose and also to provide a Research
Chair of International History at the University of London. Arnold J. Toynbee has held
both the professorship and the editorship since their establishment. He has also been
remunerated by other grants from the Institute. When the first major volume of the
Survey, covering the years 1920-1923, was published, a round-table discussion was held
at Chatham House, 17 November 1925, to criticize it. Headlam-Morley was chairman,
and the chief speakers were Curtis, Wyndham, Gathorne-Hardy, Gilbert Murray, and
Toynbee himself.
Since the Survey did not cover British Commonwealth affairs, except in a general
fashion, a project was established for a parallel Survey of British Commonwealth
Relations. This was financed by a grant of money from the Carnegie Corporation of New
York. The task was entrusted to W. K. Hancock, a member of All Souls since 1924 and
Chichele Professor of Economic History residing at All Souls since 1944. He produced
three substantial volumes of the Survey in 1940-1942, with a supplementary legal chapter
in volume I by R. T. E. Latham of All Souls and the Milner Group.
The establishment of the Stevenson Chair of International History at London,
controlled by the RIIA, gave the Croup the idea of establishing similar endowed chairs in
other subjects and in other places. In 1936, Sir Henry Price gave £20,000 to endow for
seven years a Chair of International Economics at Chatham House. This was filled by
Allan G. B. Fisher of Australia.
In 1947 another chair was established at Chatham House: the Abe Bailey
Professorship of Commonwealth Relations. This was filled by Nicholas Mansergh, who
had previously written a few articles on Irish affairs and has since published a small
volume on Commonwealth affairs.
By the terms of the foundation, the Institute had a voice in the election of professors to
the Wilson Chair of International Politics at the University College of Wales,
Aberystwyth. As a result, this chair has been occupied by close associates of the Group
from its foundation. The following list of incumbents is significant:
A. E. Zimmern, 1919-1921
C. K. Webster, 1922-1932
J. D Greene, 1932-1934
J. F. Vranek, (Acting), 1934-1936
E. H. Carr, 1936 to now
Three of these names are familiar. Of the others, Jiri Vranek was secretary to the
International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (to be discussed in a moment). Jerome
Greene was an international banker close to the Milner Group. Originally Mr. Greene had
been a close associate of J. D. Rockefeller, but in 1917 he shifted to the international
banking firm Lee, Higginson, and Company of Boston. In 1918 he was American
secretary to the Allied Maritime Transport Council in London (of which Arthur Salter
was general secretary). He became a resident of Toynbee Hall and established a
relationship with the Milner Group. In 1919 he was secretary to the Reparations
Commission of the Peace Conference (a post in which his successor was Arthur Salter in
1920-1922). He was chairman of the Pacific Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations
in 1929-1932. This last point will be discussed in a moment. Mr. Greene was a trustee
and secretary of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913-1917, and was a trustee of the
Rockefeller Institute and of the Rockefeller General Education Board in 1912-1939.
The study groups of the RIIA are direct descendants of the roundtable meetings of the
Round Table Group. They have been defined by Stephen King-Hall as "unofficial Royal
Commissions charged by the Council of Chatham House with the investigation of
specific problems." These study groups are generally made up of persons who are not
members of the Milner Group, and their reports are frequently published by the Institute.
In 1932 the Rockefeller Foundation gave the Institute a grant of £8000 a year for five
years to advance the study-group method of research. This was extended for five years
more in 1937.
In 1923, Lionel Curtis got a Canadian, Colonel R. W. Leonard, so interested in the
work of the Institute that he bought Lord Kinnaird's house at 10 St. James Square as a
home for the Institute. Since William Pitt had once lived in the building, it was named
"Chatham House," a designation which is now generally applied to the Institute itself.
The only condition of the grant was that the Institute should raise an endowment to yield
at least £10,000 a year for upkeep. Since the building had no adequate assembly hall, Sir
John Power, the honorary treasurer, gave £10,000 to build one on the rear. The building
itself was renovated and furnished under the care of Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, who, like her
late husband but unlike her son, Oliver, was a member of the Milner Group.
The assumption of the title to Chatham House brought up a major crisis within the
Institute when a group led by Professor A. F. Pollard (Fellow of All Souls but not a
member of the Milner Group) opposed the acceptance of the gift because of the financial
commitment involved. Curtis put on an organized drive to mobilize the Group and put the
opposition to flight. The episode is mentioned in a letter from John Dove to Brand, dated
9 October 1923.
This episode opens up the whole question of the financial resources available to the
Institute and to the Milner Group in general. Unfortunately, we cannot examine the
subject here, but it should be obvious that a group with such connections as the Milner
Group would not find it difficult to finance the RIIA. In general, the funds came from the
various endowments, banks, and industrial concerns with which the Milner Group had
relationships. The original money in 1919, only £200, came from Abe Bailey. In later
years he added to this, and in 1928 gave £5000 a year in perpetuity on the condition that
the Institute never accept members who were not British subjects. When Sir Abe died in
1940, the annual Report of the Council said: "With the passing of Sir Bailey the Council
and all the members of Chatham House mourn the loss of their most munificent
Founder." Sir Abe had paid various other expenses during the years. For example, when
the Institute in November 1935 gave a dinner to General Smuts, Sir Abe paid the cost. All
of this was done as a disciple of Lord Milner, for whose principles of imperial policy
Bailey always had complete devotion.
Among the other benefactors of the Institute, we might mention the following. In 1926
the Carnegie United Kingdom Trustees (Hichens and Dame Janet Courtney) gave £3000
for books; the Bank of England gave £600; J. D. Rockefeller gave £3000. In 1929
pledges were obtained from about a score of important banks and corporations, promising
annual grants to the Institute. Most of these had one or more members of the Milner
Group on their boards of directors. Included in the group were the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company; the Bank of England; Barclay's Bank; Baring Brothers; the British American