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‘On the Safe and Right Lines’: The Lloyd George Government and the Origins of the League of Nations, 1916–1918*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Peter Yearwood
Peter Yearwood
Affiliation:
University of Jos, Nigeria
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Extract

The success of wartime governments in the twentieth century is determined not just by their effectiveness in waging war, but also by their ability to plan for peace. Mobilizing the population for total war and winning the benevolent neutrality or active support of major uncommitted powers require the projection of a vision of a better, peaceful world which will be the necessary consequence of victory. The reordering of international society is therefore proclaimed as a war aim of each belligerent. By December 1916, when Lloyd George displaced Asquith, the desirability of establishing a league of nations was already a matter of serious popular and diplomatic discussion. The new administration almost immediately had to state its attitude on questions of post-war international organization. In launching his peace initiative President Wilson called for the establishment after the war of a ‘league of nations to insure peace and justice’. The joint reply of the Entente powers endorsed the setting up of such a body. In a separate commentary, which was given wide publicity in America, the foreign secretary, A. J. Balfour, explained that, as a condition of durable peace, ‘behind international law, and behind all treaty arrangements for preventing or limiting hostilities, some form of international sanction should be devised which would give pause to the hardiest aggressor’.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 1989 , pp. 131 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

1 The most recent and thorough treatments of this topic are to be found in Kernek, Sterling J., ‘Distractions of peace during war: the Lloyd George government's reactions to Woodrow Wilson, December 1916–November 1918’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, LXV, 2 (1975)Google Scholar; Egerton, George W., Great Britain and the creation of the League of Notions, strategy, politics, and international organization, 1914–1919 (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Rothwell, V. H., British war aims and peace diplomacy, 1914–1918 (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar; Mason, Christopher, ‘British policy on the establishment of a league of nations, 1914–1919’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis (Cambridge, 1970)Google Scholar, and Yearwood, P. J., ‘The foreign office and the guarantee of peace through the League of Nations, 1916–1925’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis (Sussex, 1980)Google Scholar.

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3 The phrase ‘collective security’ was not used during or immediately after the First World War. ‘Guarantee of peace’ was the term most often employed to express this idea. The earliest use of ‘collective security’ would appear to have been in the report on the Geneva Protocol of the first and third subcommittees of the fifth assembly of the League of Nations in October 1924 (copy preserved in foreign office files, Public Record Office, Kew, FO 371/10571, W9035/134/98). The phrase did not pass into general use until the 1930s.

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5 Technically Cecil's position was that of parliamentary under-secretary and minister of blockade. Effectively he was a second foreign secretary. He retained this position until July 1918 when he relinquished the ministry of blockade and became assistant foreign secretary. He resigned from the government in November 1918, but was nevertheless chosen to head the league of nations section of the British delegation to the Paris peace conference of 1919.

6 Cecil memorandum, n.d. [Sept.–Oct. 1916], GT 484, CAB 24/10, printed in full in Robert, , Viscount, Cecil, of Chelwood, , A great experiment (London, 1941), pp. 353–7Google Scholar, and marginal note on Crowe (assistant under-secretary, foreign office), memo, 12 Oct. 1916, GT 484A, CAB 24/10.

7 Cecil to Balfour, 20 Nov. 1917, FO 800/207.

8 Egerton, , Creation of the League, pp. 203–4, 124–5, xii–xiii, 109Google Scholar. For a similar analysis, Fry, Michael G., Illusions of security, North Atlantic diplomacy, 1918–1922 (Toronto, 1972), pp. 25–6Google Scholar. Mason, , ‘British policy’, pp. 269–75Google Scholar agrees with this analysis in a number of important points. Sir Maurice Hankey was the secretary to the cabinet, Philip Kerr was private secretary to Lloyd George, G. N. Barnes was brought into the war cabinet as a representative of Labour following the resignation of Arthur Henderson in August 1917.

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16 Crowe memo, 12 Oct. 1916, GT484A, CAB 24/10. The Crowe memorandum has never been published in full. The summary in George, Lloyd, War memoirs, I 1062–5Google Scholar, is inaccurate in that it creates an impression of total rejection rather than qualified approval of Cecil's proposals. This has misled most subsequent historians, with the exception of Mason.

17 Cecil to Colonel House (confidential adviser to President Wilson), 22 July 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 259/253, printed in Seymour, Charles, ed., The intimate papers of Colonel House (Boston, Mass., 1926–8), IV, 39–42Google Scholar.

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19 This was clearly set out by Viscount Milner of the war cabinet at I.W.C. 12, 26 Apr. 1917, CAB 23/20 (detailed summary in George, Lloyd, War memoirs, I, 1037–9)Google Scholar, and was never seriously challenged.

20 Cecil to House, 22 July 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 259/253, printed in Seymour, , ed., Intimate papers, IV 39–42Google Scholar; Birmingham university rectoral address, 12 Nov. 1918, Viscount Cecil of Chelwood papers, British Library, Add. MSS 51195.

21 Grey minute, 11 Dec. 1916, FO 800/109.

22 Cecil to Wiseman, 17 May 1917, FO 371/3439, War 92255/13761.

23 Cecil diary, 20 Jan. 1919, Cecil papers, B.L., Add. MSS 51131.

24 Cecil to Lady Robert Cecil, 13 Aug. 1918, cited by Egerton, , Creation of the League, p. 76Google Scholar, n. 46, from Cecil, Hugh P., ‘The development of Lord Robert Cecil's views on the securing of a lasting peace, 1915–1919’, unpublished D.Phil, thesis (Oxford, 1971), p. 133Google Scholar. Although not formally part of the war cabinet, Balfour and Cecil regularly attended its meetings, and can be considered effectively members. Jan Smuts, the South African minister of defence, was brought into the war cabinet in June 1917.

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26 Egerton, , Creation of the League, pp. 77–9Google Scholar.

27 Interview with New York Times, reprinted in The Times (London), 21 Feb. 1916.

28 W. C. 307 A, 28 Dec. 1917. On the instruction of the prime minister, no formal minutes of this meeting were taken (CAB 23/13); however, Hankey's rough handwritten notes are preserved in CAB 23/44B.

29 I. W. C. 12, 26 Apr. 1917, CAB 23/41, detailed summary in George, Lloyd, War memoirs, I, 1039Google Scholar.

30 Balfour minute on the establishment of the Phillimore committee, n.d. [but c. 20 Nov. 1917], FO 371/3439, W53848/13761; Balfour to Cecil, 6 Dec. 1924, Cecil papers, Add. MSS 51071.

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32 Drummond (private secretary, F.O.) to Marburg (league to enforce peace), 15 May 1917, printed in Latané, , ed., League of nations idea, I, 299Google Scholar.

33 Belfour min., n.d., on Clive (Stockholm), 11 Sept. 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 435/253.

34 House of commons debates, 5 series, cix, col. 714, 1 Aug. 1918.

35 I. W. C. 13, 1 May 1917, CAB 23/41, detailed summary in George, Lloyd, War memoirs, I 1041Google Scholar; account of a meeting with a deputation to the prime minister from members of the British delegation to the Berne Socialist conference, 21 Feb. 1919, Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor papers, House of lords library, F212/3; Tom Jones (assistant secretary to the cabinet) diary 30 Apr. 1917, printed in T. Jones, Whitehall diary, Middlemas, Keith, ed., I, 1916–1925, (London, 1969), 61–2Google Scholar.

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38 House of lords debates, 5 series, XXIV, cols. 394–404, 26 06 1918Google Scholar.

39 I. W. C. 46, 24 Dec. 1918, CAB 23/42, and statement in Birmingham Daily Post, cited in SirPetrie, Charles, The life and letters of the Right Honourable Sir Austen Chamberlain (London, 1940), II, 130Google Scholar.

40 Louis, W. Roger, Great Britain and Germany's lost colonies, 1914–1919 (Oxford, 1967), pp. 121–2, 129–31Google Scholar.

41 I. W. C. 30, 13 Aug., W. C. 481, 2 Oct., I. W. C. 46, 24 Dec. 1918, CAB, 23/43, 8, 42. Moreover, Hughes, the prime minister of a coalition government, was not the only Australian representative on the I.W.C. His colleague, Sir Joseph Cook, the navy minister, is in Lloyd George's list of fervent believers in the league idea. George, Lloyd, Peace treaties, I, 634Google Scholar.

42 George, Lloyd, War memoirs, I, 1049Google Scholar.

43 Minutes of Milner committee, 16–24 Apr. 1917, CAB 21/71; Jones diary, 20 and 24 Apr. 1917, in Jones, , Whitehall diary, Middlemas, , ed., I, 32–4Google Scholar.

44 Frances Stevenson (confidential secretary and mistress of Lloyd George) diary, 17 Feb. 1917, in Stevenson, Frances (Countess Lloyd George of Dwyfor), Lloyd George, a diary by Frances Stevenson, Taylor, A. J. P., ed. (London, 1971), p. 145Google Scholar.

45 I. W. C. 12, 13, 25 Apr., 1 May 1917, CAB 23/40, detailed summary in George, Lloyd, War memoirs, I, 1037–41Google Scholar. It should be noted that Hughes did not attend the 1917 meetings of the I.W.C., while Carson did not become a member of the war cabinet until July. The two persons most likely to have been critical of the league idea therefore did not participate in the discussions in the spring of 1917.

46 Egerton, , Creation of the League, pp. 49–50Google Scholar.

47 Ibid.. pp. 63–5.

48 Mason, , ‘British policy’, pp. 104–5, 254Google Scholar.

49 Grey to Balfour, 7 Apr. 1917, FO 800/211.

50 Wilson's attitude was strikingly displayed when it was suggested that Phillimore might go out to America to attend the convention of the league to enforce peace in 1918. He would have done so if it had been ‘the occasion of a businesslike discussion on the best methods establishing an effective League of Nations….’ Balfour to Reading, telegram, 10 Apr. 1918. After consulting the views of the ‘head authorities’, Reading advised against sending anyone from England. Reading, tel., 22 Apr. 1918, FO 800/209.

51 Account by C. R. Ashbee of conversation with Cecil, Sept. 1915, in C. R. Ashbee, draft memoirs (c. 1938), J. C. C. Davidson papers, House of lords library, League of Nations: various, file 3. Ashbee was a member of the Bryce group which formulated the earliest unofficial plans for a league of nations. In 1915 he went on a lecture tour of America and spoke at the inaugural meeting of the league to enforce peace. For a more detailed treatment of official British attitudes to America and its role in a league of nations prior to April 1917, see Yearwood, , ‘Guarantee of peace’, pp. 4–7Google Scholar.

52 Spring-Rice letters, 28 Oct. 1915, 19 and 30 May, 14 and 31 July, 4 Sept., 24 Nov. 1916, in Gwynn, , ed., Letters and friendships, II, 297, 331–3, 334–6, 338–9, 339, 344, 346–7, 354–7Google Scholar; Spring-Rice tel., 28 May 1916, FO 371/2794, US 102292/63430, despatch, 12 Jan. 1917, FO 371/3076, W17114/2.

53 Cecil to Balfour, 25 Aug. 1917, circulated to cabinet, 18 Sept. 1917, GT 2074, CAB 24/26.

54 Cecil to Balfour, tels., 19 and 20 May 1917: ‘idea of defensive alliance with the U.S. is so attractive to us [the war cabinet] that any step which would lead in that direction we should desire to take…’.

55 Grey to Balfour, 26 Oct. 1917, FO 800/383. See also the discussions in Rothwell, , War aims, p. 102Google Scholar, and Kernek, , ‘Distractions of peace’, pp. 46–7Google Scholar.

56 Mason, , ‘Anglo-American relations’, pp. 481–2Google Scholar.

57 The A. M. T. C. is described in detail by its executive chairman, Salter, J. A., Allied shipping control: an experiment in international administration (Oxford, 1921)Google Scholar.

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59 W. C. 220, 20 Aug. 1917, CAB 23/3. The most subtle exposition of this line of argument was in a memo by Lt. Col. H. A. Wade (military attaché, Copenhagen and propaganda agent for Denmark), 25 Dec. 1917, FO 371/3435. W16409/593. This memo had a wide circulation in the F.O. and was printed for the war cabinet.

60 Mayer, Arno J., Wilson vs Lenin, political origins of the new diplomacy (Cleveland, Ohio, 1964), p. 33Google Scholar, taking the phrase from Ferrero, Guglielmo, Die Tragödie des Friedens von Versailles (Jena, 1923), pp. 6–7Google Scholar.

61 W. C. 220, 20 Aug. 1917, CAB 23/3; Page-Croft memo, 21 Sept. 1917, GT 2113, CAB 24/27; A. H. Stanley (president, board of trade), memo, 16 Oct. 1917, economic offensive committee 3, CAB 27/15; Trachtenberg, Marc, Reparation in world politics, France and European economic diplomacy, 1916–1923 (New York, 1980), pp. 1–7Google Scholar.

62 For a fuller treatment of these points, see Yearwood, , ‘Guarantee of peace’, pp. 78–80, 84–9Google Scholar.

63 Carson memo, 21 Jan. 1918, G 190, CAB 24/4. The change was reflected in the replacement of the economic offensive committee of 1917 by the economic defence and development committee of 1918.

64 E. M. Pollock (controller, foreign trade department, ministry of blockade), memo, 19 Sept. 1917, G 159, CAB 24/4.

65 Hankey diary, 15 Aug. 1917, cited in Roskill, Stephen, Hankey, man of secrets (3 vols., London, 1970–1974), I, 422Google Scholar.

66 Turner, John, Lloyd George's secretariat (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 147, 150CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67 ‘The victory that will end war’, The Round Table, XXX (03. 1918), 221–37Google Scholar (quotation from p. 227); and ‘The unity of civilisation’, ibid., XXXII (Sept. 1918), 661–84 (quotation from p. 681).

68 Jones, , Whitehall diary, Middlemas, , ed., I, 54Google Scholar.

69 Roskill, , Hankey, I, 454, 462Google Scholar; Hankey to Lloyd George, 12 Jan. 1918, Lloyd George papers, F23/2/7; Hankey memo, 16 Jan. 1918, GT 3344, CAB 24/39.

70 Phillimore committee 4, 20 Feb. 1918, FO 371/3483, Miscellaneous General file 214189.

71 Hankey memo, 25 May 1916, Balfour papers, Add. MSS 490704.

72 Kerr to Lloyd George, 5 Dec. 1917, Lloyd George papers, F89/1/10; Roskill, , Hankey, I, 471–2Google Scholar.

73 Hankey diary, 16 Sept. 1917, Baron Hankey papers, Churchill College, Cambridge, 1/3.

74 Lloyd George's speech is printed in George, Lloyd, War memoirs, II, 1510–17Google Scholar; drafts by Smuts, Cecil, and Kerr, 3 Jan. 1918, GT 3180, 3181, 3182, CAB 24/37. The attribution of GT 3182 to Kerr follows Egerton, , Creation of the League, p. 216, n. 49Google Scholar.

75 The term ‘trade warriors’ is taken from Johnson, Paul Barton, Land fit for heroes: the planning of British reconstruction, 1916–1919 (Chicago, 1968), who discusses their views on pp. 242–4Google Scholar. British economic war aims are discussed briefly in Rothwell, , British war aims, pp. 266–81Google Scholar, and their link with thinking about the league is explored in Yearwood, , ‘Guarantee of peace’, pp. 77–109Google Scholar.

76 C. P. E. C. 2, 3, 27 and 31 May 1918, FO 371/4364, PID file 170; Northcliffe to Balfour, 10 June 1918, FO 371/3474, MG 108951/50910.

77 Egerton, , Creation of the League, pp. 72–3Google Scholar; Jones diary, 30 Apr. 1918, in Jones, , Whitehall diary, Middlemas, , ed., I, 61–2Google Scholar.

78 Through Davies the L.F.N.A. had a direct link with Professor G. Adams of Lloyd George's private secretariat, the ‘garden suburb’. Davies to Adams, 5 and 22 July 1918, Lloyd George papers, F82/8/2, 4.

79 GT 3547, 4788, 3939, 3964, CAB 24/41, 43, 45; W.C. 349, 359, CAB 23/5; Warman, Roberta, ‘The erosion of foreign office influence in the making of foreign policy’, Historical Journal, XV (1972), 140–1Google Scholar.

80 Hardinge (permanent under-secretary, F.O.), min., 24 July 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 253/253.

81 Percy and Zimmern had direct links with the cabinet through Tom Jones, with whom they discussed league matters in the autumn of 1918. Jones, , Whitehall diary, Middlemas, , ed., I, 67Google Scholar. They were also members of the Round Table group. Egerton, , Creation of the League, p. 95Google Scholar.

82 Zimmern to Gilbert Murray, 6 July 1918, Gilbert Murray papers, Bodleian library, Oxford.

83 Percy memos, 26 Apr., 16 and 23 May, 22 June, 25 July, and 5 Aug. 1918, FO 371/4360, PID 81, 117, 131, 209, 249, 272/37.

84 A preliminary analysis can be found in Yearwood, , ‘Guarantee of peace’, pp. 72–83, 86–90, 93–7, 99–100, 103–7Google Scholar.

85 For the fourteen points speech see Baker, Ray Stannard and Dodd, William E., eds., The public papers of Woodrow Wilson: war and peace (New York, 1927), V, 155–62Google Scholar.

86 Percy-Zimmern memos, 3 and 13 July, and mins. by Tyrrell (director, political intelligence department), Crowe, Hardinge, and Cecil, FO 371/3474, MG 10895, 125128/50910.

87 Cecil min., n.d., on Percy memo, 6 Sept. 1918, FO 371/4367, PID 364/354.

88 Austen Chamberlain (chairman, E.D.D.C.) to Cecil, 6 Aug., Cecil to Chamberlain, 9 Aug., FO 371/3475, MG 144473/50910; E.D.D.C. 6, 13 Aug. 1918, CAB 27/44; Percy memo., 6 Sept. 1918, FO 371/4367, PID 364/354.

89 Percy min., 15 Aug. 1918, FO 371/4365. PID 309/253.

90 For some particularly striking examples, see Yearwood, , ‘Guarantee of peace’, p. 81, n. 187Google Scholar.

91 W. C. 312, 3 Jan. 1918, CAB 23/5.

92 Alexander Shaw memo, 14 Oct. 1917, E.O.C. 4, CAB 27/15.

93 Carson memo, 17 Oct. 1917, E.O.C. I, ibid..; Percy, Zimmern, and Llewellyn Smith memos, Nov. 1918, FO 371/4353, PID 29, 54/29.

94 Percy memo., 6 Sept. 1918, FO 371/4367, PID 364/354.

95 Percy min., 30 Sept. 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 390/253.

96 Crowe min., 21 Sept. 1918, ibid.., PID 435/253.

97 Crowe min., 17 July 1918, FO 371/3474, MG 125128/50910.

98 Crowe min., 18 June 1918, ibid.., circulated to E.D.D.C., 1 Aug. 1918, E.D.D.C. 31, CAB 27/44.

99 The most important exception was G. N. Barnes, who vigorously opposed the formation of any ‘exclusive’ league among the Entente powers. However, even he wanted an immediate interallied conference to take the initial steps towards the setting up of the league. Lecture delivered at university extension summer meeting, Cambridge, 5 Aug. 1918, GT 5364, CAB 24/62.

100 Egerton, , Creation of the League, pp. 7–13, 14–17, 23, 49–53, 73–5Google Scholar.

101 Wiseman to Cecil, tel., 18 July, to Reading, 16 and 20 Aug. 1918, FO 800/222, 225. Reading was then in London advising the war cabinet.

102 As, for instance, in December 1917 in his speech asking congress to declare war on Austria-Hungary. Baker, and Dodd, , eds., Public papers, I, 128–9Google Scholar. He had let the British know of his willingness to make such threats as early as November 1917. Balfour memo., 8 Nov. 1917, FO 371/3086, W218315/218315.

103 Trachtenberg, , Reparations, pp. 21–2Google Scholar.

104 Wiseman to Reading, 20 Aug. 1918, FO 800/225.

105 Wiseman to Cecil, 18 July 1918, FO 800/222.

106 Mason, , ‘British policy’, pp. 183–4, 202–3Google Scholar.

107 Percy-Zimmern memo, 3 July 1918, FO 371/3474, MG 108951/50910.

108 H.C. debates, 5 series, CIX (1 08 1918), col. 692Google Scholar.

109 Cecil to Balfour, 20 Nov. 1917, FO 800/207.

110 Hurst (assistant legal adviser, F.O.), memo, 16 July 1917, FO 800/249.

111 Crowe min., 18 June 1918, FO 371/3474, MG 125128/50910, circulated to E.D.D.C, 1 Aug. 1918, E.D.D.C. 31, CAB 27/44.

112 Percy-Zimmern memos, 3 and 17 July 1918, FO 371/3474, MG 108951, 125128/50910; Percy memo, n.d. [Nov. 1918], FO 371/4353, PID PC 29/29. For an example of the sort of scheme which the F.O. feared, see the proposals of the central organization for a durable peace printed in Latané, , ed., Development of the league idea, II, 820–2Google Scholar. The F.O. regarded the C.O.D.P. with acute suspicion. Balfour to Bertie (Paris), 13 Apr. 1918, FO 371/3440, W63848/48747.

113 Crowe min., 21 Sept. on Clive (Stockholm), 11 Sept. 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 435/253.

114 Kernek, , ‘Distractions of peace’, pp. 91–3Google Scholar; Egerton, , Creation of the League, pp. 74–7Google Scholar; Mason, , ‘British policy’, pp. 186–207Google Scholar.

115 I. W. C. 30, 13 Aug. 1918, CAB 23/43.

116 Frances Stevenson's diaries display intense dislike of Cecil before the formation of the Lloyd George coalition and after his resignation from it. They ignore him while he was actually a member. Diary entries, 18 Apr. 1915, 7 Dec. 1916, to Feb. 1920, in Stevenson, , Lloyd George, Taylor, , ed., pp. 43–4, 134, 200Google Scholar. For Cecil's dislike of Lloyd George, Cecil to Balfour, 4 Sept. 1917, Balfour papers, Add. MSS 49738.

117 Milner to Cecil and Cecil to Milner, 13 June 1918, Cecil papers, Add. MSS 51093; Cecil to Lloyd George, 7, 10, 21, and 23 June, Lloyd George to Cecil, 7 June 1918, Lloyd George papers, F6/5/28, 31, 32, 33, 29; Warman, , ‘Foreign office influence’, pp. 154–5Google Scholar.

118 Rose, Kenneth, The later Cecils (London, 1975)Google Scholar, citing Viscount and Lady Cecil papers, Hatfield, 92/495.

119 Warman, , ‘Foreign office influence’, p. 155Google Scholar.

120 Cecil to Lloyd George, 23 June 1918, Lloyd George papers, F6/5/33; Cecil to Wiseman, 19 Aug. 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 291/253, printed in Willert, Arthur, The road to safety, a study in Anglo-American relations (London, 1952), pp. 154–5Google Scholar.

121 Cecil's dramatic letter to Wiseman of 19 Aug. 1918 was drafted in the F.O. and shown to Reading. Drummond (private secretary, F.O.) to Montgomery (senior clerk, F.O.), 22 Aug. and Montgomery min., 31 Aug. 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 291/253. It can be seen as an attempt to play on American suspicions of the unregenerate ‘old diplomacy’.

122 W. C. 459 (I. W. C. 35), 15 Aug. 1918, CAB 23/7.

123 Percy mins, 13 and 15 Aug., 20 Sept., Crowe min. 21 Sept, Percy, Tyrrell, Crowe, Cecil mins., 18 Oct. 1918, FO 371/4365, PID 292, 309, 435, 466/253; Crowe min., 5 Oct. Percy min. 12 Oct. 1918, FO 371/4367, PID 408/354.

124 Percy memo, 6 Sept. 1918, and Cecil min., n.d., FO 371/4367, PID 364/354.

125 Johnson, , Land fit for heroes, p. 305Google Scholar; Mayer, Arno J., Politics and diplomacy of peacemaking, containment and counterrevolution at Versailles, 1918–1919 (London, 1967), pp. 121–3, 129, 131–2Google Scholar; Salter, , Allied shipping control, p. 219Google Scholar; Trachtenberg, , Reparation, pp. 22–4Google Scholar.

126 Percy and Zimmern, memos., Nov. 1918, FO 371/4353, PID PC 29/29.

127 Smuts memo, ‘Our policy at the peace conference’, 3 Dec. 1918, P 30, CAB 29/2; I.W.C. 47, 48, 30 and 31 Dec. 1918, CAB 23/42.

128 Smuts' Practical suggestion is reprinted in Miller, Drafting of the Covenant, II, 23–60.

129 Mins. by Headlam Morley (assistant director, P.I.D.), 27 Dec, Crowe and Tyrrell, 31 Dec. 1918, FO 371/4353, PID PC 152/29.

130 I. W. C. 46, 24 Dec. 1918, CAB 23/42.

131 Cecil min., n.d. [ c. 31 Dec. 1918], FO 371/4353, PID PC 152/29.

132 Hankey diary, 24 Dec. 1918, cited in Roskill, , Hankey, II, 38Google Scholar.

133 Cecil diary, 5 Feb. 1919, Cecil papers, Add. MSS 51131.

134 F.O. memo, 17 Dec. 1918, P 79, CAB 29/2, printed with Cecil's draft of 19 Jan. 1919 in Miller, , Drafting of the Covenant, II, 61–4Google Scholar. Mason asserts that the I.W.C. approved this memo on 24 Dec. 1918, ‘British policy’, p. 251. However, it was not one of the papers listed in the minutes as having then been under consideration. It seems to have been circulated only to the British war cabinet. The incoherence of the discussion of 24 Dec. 1918 is not adequately reflected in the summaries by Mason, or by Egerton, , who comes to an entirely different conclusion, Creation of the League, pp. 103–5Google Scholar.

135 Egerton, , Creation of the League, pp. 120–4Google Scholar, citing Kerr memo, ‘The league of nations’, in marquess of Lothian (Philip Kerr) papers, Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, G.D. 40/17/54. See also Hankey to Viscount Esher, 10 Feb. 1919, cited in Roskill, , Hankey, II, 60–1Google Scholar.

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137 Ibid.. p. 128.

138 Roskill, , Hankey, II, 66–7, 79Google Scholar.

114239 Hankey to Lady Hankey, May 1919, in ibid.. p. 88.

140 Mason, , ‘British policy’, p. 273Google Scholar.

141 Yearwood, , ‘Guarantee of peace’, pp. 271–2Google Scholar.

142 Crowe (permanent under-secretary, F.O.), memo, 17 Nov. 1924, FO 371/10571, W9974/134/98.

143 J. M. Troutbeck (central department, F.O.), min., 9 Sept. 1924, FO 371/9819, C14272/2048/18.