diplomatic control, and it is becoming evident that in no part of the Empire would public
opinion sanction our active interference in the local disputes which may ensue. The
Polish Corridor to Danzig is a case in point.... Our proper course is to revise and restate
our position towards the League in accordance with these facts.... First, we wish to do our
utmost to guarantee peace, liberty, and 18w throughout the world without committing
ourselves to quixotic obligations to foreign States. Second, we wish to assist and develop
the simple mechanism of international dealing embodied in the League without
mortgaging our freedom of action and judgment under an international Covenant. Our
policy toward the League should, therefore, be revised on the following guiding lines: 1.
We should state definitely that our action within the League will be governed solely by
our own judgment of every situation as it arises, and we must undertake no general
obligations which we may not be able or willing, when the test comes, to discharge. 2.
We must in no case commit ourselves to responsibilities which we cannot discharge to
the full with our own resources, independent of assistance from any foreign power. 3. We
must definitely renounce the idea that the League may normally enforce its opinions by
military or economic pressure on the recalcitrant States. It exists to bring principals
together for open discussion of international difficulties, to extend and develop the
mechanisms and habit of international cooperation, and to establish an atmosphere in
which international controversies may be settled with fairness and goodwill.... With the
less ambitious objects defined above it will sooner or later secure the whole-hearted
support of American opinion.... The influence of the League of Nations upon British
Imperial relations has for the moment been misleading and dangerous.... It is only a
question of time before this situation leads to an incident of some kind which will
provoke the bitterest recrimination and controversy. . .”
In the leading article of the September 1920 issue, The Round Table took up the same
problem and repeated many of its arguments. It blamed Wilson for corrupting the
Covenant into "a pseudo world-government" by adding sham decorations to a
fundamentally different structure based on consultation of sovereign states. Instead of the
Covenant, it concluded, we should have merely continued the Supreme Council, which
was working so well at Spa.
In spite of this complete disillusionment with the League, the Milner Group still
continued to keep a firm grip on as much of it as Britain could control. In the first
hundred sessions of the Council of the League of Nations (1920-1938), thirty different
persons sat as delegates for Britain. Omitting the four who sat for Labour governments,
we have twenty-six. Of these, seven were from the Milner Group; seven others were
present at only one session and are of little significance. The others were almost all from
the Cecil Bloc close to the Milner Group. The following list indicates the distribution.
Name Sessions as Delegate
Anthony Eden 39
Sir John Simon 22
Sir Austen Chamberlain 20
Arthur Balfour 16
Lord Robert Cecil 15
Six Alexander Cadogan 12
E. H. Carr 8
H. A. L. Fisher 7
Sir William Malkin 7
Viscount Cranborne 5
Lord Curzon 3
Lord Londonderry 3
Leopold Amery 2
Edward Wood (Lord Halifax) 2
Cecil Hurst 2
Sir Edward H. Young 2
Lord Cushendun 2
Lord Onslow 2
Gilbert Murray 1
Sir Rennell Rodd 1
Six others 1 each
At the annual meetings of the Assembly of the League, a somewhat similar situation
existed. The delegations had from three to eight members, with about half of the number
being from the Milner Group, except when members of the Labour Party were present. H.
A. L. Fisher was a delegate in 1920, 1921, and 1922; Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton was one in
1923, 1926, 1927, 1928, and 1931; Lord Astor was one in 1931, 1936, and 1938; Cecil
Hurst was one in 1924, 1926, 1927, and 1928; Gilbert Murray was one in 1924; Lord
Halifax was one in 1923 and 1936; Ormsby-Gore was one in 1933; Lord Robert Cecil
was one in 1923, 1926, 1929, 1930, 1931, and 1932; E. H. Carr was one in 1933 and
1934, etc. The Milner Group control was most complete at the crucial Twelfth Assembly
(1931), when the delegation of five members consisted of Lord Robert Cecil, Lord
Lytton, Lord Astor, Arthur Salter, and Mrs. Lyttelton. In addition, the Group frequently
had other members attached to the delegations as secretaries or substitutes. Among these
were E. H. Carr, A. L. Smith, and R. M. Makins. Moreover, the Group frequently had
members on the delegations from the Dominions. The South African delegation in 1920
had Robert Cecil; in 1921 it had Robert Cecil and Gilbert Murray; in 1923 it had Smuts
and Gilbert Murray. The Australian delegation had Sir John Latham in 1926, while the
Canadian delegation had Vincent Massey ten years later. The Indian delegation had L. F.
Rushbrook Williams in 1925.
The Milner Group was also influential in the Secretariat of the League. Sir Eric
Drummond (now sixteenth Earl of Perth), who had been Balfour's private secretary from
1916 to 1919, was Secretary-General to the League from 1919 to 1933, when he resigned
to become British Ambassador in Rome. Not a member of the Group, he was
nevertheless close to it. Harold Butler, of the Group and of All Souls, was deputy director
and director of the International Labor Office in the period 1920-1938. Arthur Salter, of
the Group and All Souls, was director of the Economic and Financial Section of the
League in 1919-1920 and again in 1922-1931. B. H. Sumner, of the Group and All Souls
(now Warden), was on the staff of the ILO in 1920-1922. R. M. Makins, of the Group
and All Souls, was assistant adviser and adviser on League of Nations affairs to the
Foreign Office in 1937-1939.
To build up public opinion in favor of the League of Nations, the Milner Group
formed an organization known as the League of Nations Union. In this organization the
most active figures were Lord Robert Cecil, Gilbert Murray, the present Lord Esher, Mrs.
Lyttelton, and Wilson Harris. Lord Cecil was president from 1923 to 1945; Professor
Murray was chairman from 1923 to 1938 and co-president from 1938 to 1945; Wilson
Harris was its parliamentary secretary and editor of its paper, Headway, for many years.
Among others, C. A. Macartney, of All Souls and the RIIA, was head of the Intelligence
Department from 1928 to 1936. Harris and Macartney were late additions to the Group,
the former becoming a member of the inner circle about 1922, while the latter became a
member of the outer circle in the late 1920s, probably as a result of his association with
the Encyclopedia Britannica as an expert on Central Europe. Wilson Harris was one of
the most intimate associates of Lionel Curtis, Philip Kerr, and other members of the inner
core in the 1920s, and this association became closer, if possible, in the 1930s. A
graduate of Cambridge University in 1906, he served for many years in various capacities