great, the RIIA was able to extend its intellectual influence into countries outside the
Commonwealth. This was done, for example, through the Intellectual Cooperation
Organization of the League of Nations. This Organization consisted of two chief parts:
(a) The International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation, an advisory body; and (b)
The International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, an executive organ of the
Committee, with headquarters in Paris. The International Committee had about twenty
members from various countries; Gilbert Murray was its chief founder and was chairman
from 1928 to its disbandment in 1945. The International Institute was established by the
French government and handed over to the League of Nations (1926). Its director was
always a Frenchman, but its deputy director and guiding spirit was Alfred Zimmern from
1926 to 1930. It also had a board of directors of six persons; Gilbert Murray was one of
these from 1926.
It is interesting to note that from 1931 to 1939 the Indian representative on the
International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation was Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. In
1931 he was George V Professor of Philosophy at Calcutta University. His subsequent
career is interesting. He was knighted in 1931, became Spalding Professor of Eastern
Religions and Ethics at Oxford in 1936, and became a Fellow of All Souls in 1944.
Beginning in 1928 at Berlin, Professor Zimmern organized annual round-table
discussion meetings under the auspices of the International Institute of Intellectual
Cooperation. These were called the International Studies Conferences and devoted
themselves to an effort to obtain different national points of view on international
problems. The members of the Studies Conferences were twenty-five organizations.
Twenty of these were Coordinating Committees created for the purpose in twenty
different countries. The other five were the following international organizations: The
Academy of International Law at The Hague; The European Center of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace; the Geneva School of International Studies; the
Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva; the Institute of Pacific Relations. In
two of these five, the influence of the Milner Group and its close allies was preponderant.
In addition, the influence of the Group was decisive in the Coordinating Committees
within the British Commonwealth, especially in the British Coordinating Committee for
International Studies. The members of this committee were named by four agencies, three
of which were controlled by the Milner Group. They were: (1) the RIIA, (2) the London
School of Economics and Political Science, (3) the Department of International Politics at
University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and (4) the Montague Burton Chair of
International Relations at Oxford. We have already indicated that the Montague Burton
Chair was largely controlled by the Milner Group, since the Group always had a
preponderance on the board of electors to that chair. This was apparently not assured by
the original structure of this board, and it was changed in the middle 1930s. After the
change, the board had seven electors: (1) the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, ex officio; (2)
the Master of Balliol, ex officio; (3) Viscount Cecil of Chelwood; (4) Gilbert Murray, for
life; (5) B. H. Sumner; (6) Sir Arthur Salter; and (7) Sir. J. Fischer Williams of New
College. Thus, at least four of this board were members of the Group. In 1947 the
electoral board to the Montague Burton Professorship consisted of R. M. Barrington-
Ward (editor of The Times); Miss Agnes Headlam-Morley (daughter of Sir James
Headlam-Morley of the Group); Sir Arthur Salter; R. C. K. Ensor; and one vacancy, to be
filled by Balliol College. It was this board, apparently, that named Miss Headlam-Morley
to the Montague Burton Professorship when E. L. Woodward resigned in 1947. As can be
seen, the Milner Group influence was predominant, with only one member out of five
(Ensor) clearly not of the Group.
The RIIA had the right to name three persons to the Coordinating Committee. Two of
these were usually of the Milner Group. In 1933, for example, the three were Lord
Meston, Clement Jones, and Toynbee.
The meetings of the International Studies Conferences were organized in a fashion
identical with that used in other meetings controlled by the Milner Group—for example,
in the unofficial conferences on British Commonwealth relations—and the proceedings
were published by the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation in a similar way to those of the
unofficial conferences just mentioned, except that the various speakers were identified by
name. As examples of the work which the International Studies Conferences handled, we
might mention that at the fourth and fifth sessions (Copenhagen in 1931 and Milan in
1932), they examined the problem of "The State and Economic Life"; at the seventh and
eighth session (Paris in 1934 and London in 1935), they examined the problem of
"Collective Security"; and at the ninth and tenth sessions (Madrid in 1936 and Paris
1937) they examined the problem of "University Teaching of International Relations."
In all of these conferences the Milner Group played a certain part. They could have
monopolized the British delegations at these meetings if they had wished, but, with
typical Milner Group modesty they made no effort to do so. Their influence appeared
most clearly at the London meeting of 1935. Thirty-nine delegates from fourteen
countries assembled at Chatham House to discuss the problem of collective security.
Great Britain had ten delegates. They were Dr. Hugh Dalton, Professor H. Lauterpacht,
Captain Liddell Hart, Lord Lytton, Professor A. D. McNair, Professor C. A. W. Manning,
Dr. David Mitrany, Rear Admiral H. G. Thursfield, Arnold J. Toynbee, and Professor C.
K. Webster. In addition, the Geneva School of International Studies sent two delegates: J.
H. Richardson and A. E. Zimmern. The British delegation presented three memoranda to
the conference. The first, a study of "Sanctions," was prepared by the RIIA and has been
published since. The second, a study of "British Opinion on Collective Security," was
prepared by the British Coordinating Committee. The third, a collection of "British
Views on Collective Security," was prepared by the delegates. It had an introduction by
Meston and nine articles, of which one was by G. M. Gathorne-Hardy and one by H. V.
Hodson. Zimmern also presented a memorandum on behalf of the Geneva School.
Opening speeches were made by Austen Chamberlain, Allen W. Dulles (of the Council
on Foreign Relations), and Louis Eisenmann of the University of Paris. Closing speeches
were made by Lord Meston, Allen Dulles, and Gilbert Murray. Meston acted as president
of the conference, and Dulles as chairman of the study meetings. The proceedings were
edited and published by a committee of two Frenchmen and A. J. Toynbee.
At the sessions on "Peaceful Change" in 1936-37, Australia presented one
memorandum ("The Growth of Australian Population"). It was written by F. W.
Eggleston and G. Packer. The United Kingdom presented fifteen memoranda. Eight of
these were prepared by the RIIA, and seven by individuals. Of the seven individual
works, two were written by members of All Souls who were also members of the Milner
Group (C. A. Macartney and C. R. M. F. Cruttwell). The other five were written by
experts who were not members of the Group (A. M. Carr-Saunders, A. B. Keith, D.
Harwood, H. Lauterpacht, and R. Kuczynski).
In the middle 1930s the Milner Group began to take an interest in the problem of