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V. Milner's Entry into the War Cabinet, December 19161

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2010

P. A. Lockwood
P. A. Lockwood
Affiliation:
Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick
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Extract

Milner's entry into the War Cabinet in December 1916 is generally treated as one of the most surprising events of the whole strange crisis. Lord Beaverbrook found it ‘most startling’, and believed Milner to be ‘as much surprised as anyone…’. Beaverbrook's account of the events which brought about the downfall of Asquith has never been seriously challenged, but, as Lloyd George pointed out, it is a story told from his own and Bonar Law's point of view; it is an intimate view of the crisis, but a narrow one. And when it came time to make the appointments to the new government Beaverbook found himself ‘translated to the extreme circumference’. Naturally, then, Milner's promotion would appear ‘most startling’. But Milner was neither surprised nor startled: ‘My own disposition is strongly against being in the Government at all’, Milner wrote to Lady Edward Cecil on the evening of Friday, 8 December, ‘most strongly against being in it unless I am part of the Supreme Direction.’ A few hours later he was part of the ‘Supreme Direction’.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1964 , pp. 120 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1964

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References

2 The Rt Beaverbrook, Hon. Lord, Porticiant and the War 1914-16 (1960), 11, 534–5Google Scholar .

3 War Memaert of David Lloyd George (1933), 11, 1916 and 1000Google Scholar.

4 Beaverbrook, , op. cit. II, 506Google Scholar .

5 The Library, New College, Oxford, Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol. v, Milner to Lady Edward Cecil, Extract, 8 December 1916. Wife of Lord Edward Cecil and sister of Leo Maxse, Editor of the National Review. Lord Edward Cecil died in 1918; Milner married his widow in 1921.

6 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol. II, L. S. Amery to Milner, a August 1915.

7 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol. II, Milner to Philip Cell, 20 August 1915.

8 The Times, I November 1915. Official Report, 5th series, Parliamentary Debates, Lords, 1915-16, XX, 186-94, 8 November and 713-81, 20 December.

9 Milner Papers, Diary, aa December 1915.

10 The Times, 27 May 1915.

11 The interim report of Milner's Food Production Committee recommended the payment of a government grant to farmers where the fanner paid decent wages. ‘Big Socialistic experiment, of course, the whole thing’, wrote Milner to Selboume, ‘but we are neither of us opposed to reasonable Socialism’ (Milner Papers, 1915, Private Letters, vol. 11, 7 July). But the scheme was turned down, as Selboume noted, ‘by an extraordinary combination of fanatical Cobdenism and dunderheaded Toryism’ (Milner Papers, 1915, Private Letters, vol. II, Selboume to Milner, 30 October).

12 Milner Papers, Diary, 1915.

13 Tsuzulri, C., H. M. Hyndman and British Socialism, ed. by Pelling, Henry (1961), 225, 227 and 232Google Scholar.

14 Clarion, January 1916.

15 Milner Papers, Diary, 10 and 16 September.

16 Milner Papers, Diary, 1915.

17 Ibid. Private Letters, vol. in, Christopher Tumor to Milner, 33 September 1915.

18 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol. in, Victor Fisher to Milner, 22 November 1915.

19 Milner, Lord, The Nation and the Empire (1913)Google Scholar.

20 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol III, Victor Fisher to Milner, 22 November 1915.

21 Ibid. vol. III, A. Thompson to Milner, 5 December 1915.

22 Wrench, John Evelyn, Geoffrey Damon and Our Times, 123Google Scholar.

23 The Labour Leader and the Clarion, September to November 1915.

24 Lord Riddell's War Diary (1933), 28 November 1915, p. 139.

25 Arthur Steel-Maitland was parliamentary under-wcretary to Bonar Law at the Colonial Office; he accompanied Milner on hit tour of Canada in 1908; in 1911 he became chairman of the Unionist party.

26 Milner Papers, Diary, 1915.

27 The correspondence between Astor, Milner and Victor Fisher making the arrangements for financing the movement is in the Milner Papers, Great War i, Box I, folder a, fos. 233-40 and 242.

28 Milner Papers, Great War I, Box I, folder 2, fo. 234, Waldorf Astor to Milner, 12 January 1916.

29 Ibid. fo. 235, Milner to Waldorf Actor, 12 January 1916.

30 Ibid. Private Letters, vol. IV, Milner to Lady Roberts, 25 February 1916.

31 Ibid. Diary, 18 October 1915.

32 Ibid. Private Letters, vol. HI, Canon to Milner, 13 December 1915.

33 Beaverbrook, , op. cit. II, 376Google Scholar.

34 The Rt Amery, Hon. L. S., My Political Lift (1953), II, 81–2Google Scholar.

35 Milner Papers, Diary, 3 April 1916. Waldorf Astor joined the group on 5 June; Diary, 1916.

36 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol IV, F. S. Oliver to Milner, 6 April 1916.

37 Ibid. Memorandum written by Milner, ‘Some notes on the present war situation, March lath, 1916’.

38 There were six Vice-Presidents, five of them M.P.s: Charles Duncan, John Hodge, James O/Grady, C. B. Stanton and Stephen Walsh. All were Trade Unionists and all were Labour M.P.S although Stanton called himself ‘Independent Labour’. The sixth was Wells, H. G. (the Clarion, 17 03 1916Google Scholar ). Later in the year J. A. Seddon became Chairman of the Organizing Committee, John Hodge, MJ*. became President, and the following Vice-Presidents were added: Rt Hon. W. Abraham, P.C., M.P.. Rt Hon. Will Crooks, P.C.. M.P., David Gilmour, R. B. Cunninghame Graham, Sir Leo Chioxza Money, R. Toothill, M.P., A. Wilkie, M.P., J. Havelock Wilson (the British Citizen and Empirt Worker, passim).

39 Milner Papers, Diary, 1916, and Riddell, , op. cit. 165–6Google Scholar.

40 The Times, II May 1916.

41 It first appeared on 25 August 1916, when it was announced that the contributors, among others, were to be Sir Frederick Milner, Lord Beresford, Sir Leo Chiozza Money, Leslie Scott, Cecil Chesterton and Leo Mazse.

42 The British Citixen and Empire Worker, 4 November 1916. But this seems to have been the limit for 1916. The League did not begin to increase the number of its branches again until after the formation of the Lloyd George government. By December 1917 there were 188 branches.

43 The Times, 6 November 1916.

44 Milner Papers, a bundle of private letters marked ‘Letters to Lord Roberts’. Milner to Canon Glazebrook, 14 June 1913.

45 Ibid. Milner to Chaplin, 10 February 1912.

46 Ibid. Milner to Canon Glazebrook, 14 June 1913.

47 Riddell, , op. cit. 104Google Scholar.

48 Ibid. 28 April 1916, p. 179. See also 3 June 1916, pp. 186-7: ‘L. G. said Chamberlain was never really happy with the Conservative party, and that he had always remained a Radical. He also said that no Radical could ever lead the Conservatives, no doubt thinking of himself, but added, “That is, of course, if it remained the Conservative party”.’

49 Ibid. II June 1916, p. 189.

50 Wrench, John Evelyn, Alfred, Lord Milner (1958), p. 307Google Scholar.

51 Lee's address was a Abbey Gardens, Great College Street, Milner's address waa 17 Great College Street.

52 Major-General SirCallwell, C. E., Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilton, His Life and Diaries (1927), I, 299Google Scholar.

53 Milner Papers, Diary, V) November 1916.

54 Ibid. 30 November 1916.

55 Ibid. I December 1916.

56 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol. V, extract of a letter from Milner to Lady Edward Cecil, 5 December 1916.

57 Bonar Law-Bennett Library, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Bonar Law Papers, Box 53, file 4, fo. 29. One other change which Milner thought was already coming was ‘the creation of a number-not necessarily a large number-of temporary offices, each under a chief with pretty autocratic powers…. These jobs while they last, are really of equal or greater importance than moat Cabinet posts, though not of the same formal rank. The only sort of authority, who could successfully supervise, direct and co-ordinate them is...such a small Supreme Council-as I have aketched.’

In March 1963 the Bonar Law Papers were returned from the University of New Brunswick to the United Kingdom. Enquiries about them may be addressed to Mrs Sheila Elton, M.A., Secretary, Beaverbrook Foundations, iai-8 Fleet St, London, E.C. 4.

58 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol. V, extract of letter from Milner to Lady Edward Cecil, 3 December 1916.

59 Ibid. 8 December 1916.

60 Callwell, , op. cit. 398Google Scholar.

61 Ibid. 299.

62 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol. V. Extract of letter from Milner to Lady Edward Cecil, 3 December 1916.

63 Ibid. 8 December 1916.

64 Beaverbrook, , op. cit. 514Google Scholar.

65 War Memoirs of Lloyd George, op. cit. I, 998 and II, 1043Google Scholar.

66 Bonar Law Papers, op. cit. Box 81, folder i, fo. 32. A. Steel-Maitland to Bonar Law, 10 December 1916. ‘What you said of John Hodge being made Minister of Labour is very, very important for us apropos of the movement about which he came to dine with you that time.’

67 Wrench, John Evelyn, Geoffrey Damson and Our Times (1955), 144Google Scholar.

68 Dugdale, Blanche E. C., Arthur James Balfour, Years 1906-1930 (1936), 121Google Scholar.

69 Lord Curzon, Austen Chamberlain, and Lord Robert Cecil.

70 SirChamberlain, Austen, Down the Year (1935). 128Google Scholar.

71 Beaverbrook, , op. cit. II, 505Google Scholar . Lloyd George in his War Memoir* insists that it was his ‘original intention’ to make Carson a member of die War Cabinet. But he sent him to the Admiralty because the Conservative Ministers ‘resented his promotion to the Cabinet that directed the War, and I reluctantly gave way’ (in, 1077). However, it is clear from Curzon/a memorandum (The Library, Birmingham University, Austen Chamberlain Papers, A.C. 15, Package 45, Memorandum of conversation between Lloyd George, Curzon, Cecil, Chambers lain and Long, Thursday, 7 December, 1916) and Austen Chamberlain's account ( Chamberlain, Austen, op. cit. 128–9Google Scholar ) that after the interview with Lloyd George on Thursday, 7 December, they accepted Carson's presence in the War Cabinet and Milner's exclusion from it. Lloyd George's explanation, while it has a grain of truth in it, has the great advantage of blaming Conservatives in 1933 for Carson's failure in 1917.

72 Milner Papers, Private Letters, vol. V, extract of letter from Milner to Lady Edward Cecil, 8 December 1916.

73 Wrench, , Dawson, 145Google Scholar . Milner Papers, Diary, 8 December 1916.

74 Hyde, H. Montgomery, Canon (1953), 414Google Scholar.

75 Northcliffe is reported to have said that Milner's inclusion in the War Cabinet was due to Geoffrey Robinson (History of the Times, IV, part I, p. 308). Robinson saw Lloyd George during the afternoon of Friday, 8 December, and was told by him that he hoped to get Milner for the Admiralty. There is no indication in the published record of this conversation that Robinson said anything to persuade Lloyd George to change his mind ( Wrench, , Damon, 144Google Scholar ). Certainly if Robinson had said anything about Milner's work with Labour, and Lloyd George had not known it, then such a revelation at this stage would account for a sudden change of mind. But it is too much to believe that Lloyd George did not already know.

76 The Nation, 24 February 1917, ‘Politics and Affiun. The New Bureaucracy.’

77 Mark Sykes dined with the ‘ginger group’ on at leaat one occasion in 1916 (Milner Papers, Diary, 21 February).

78 Hankey, Lord, Supreme Command, 1914-18 (1961), II, 590Google Scholar . Cf. Amery, L. S., op. cit. II, 92Google Scholar.

79 Lord Hankey, Ibid. W. G. S. Adams later Warden of All Souls. Milner had talked over affairs with him a number of times in 1916. Milner Papers, Diary, 1916, 8 and 29 February. 29 April.

80 Jones, Thomas, Lloyd George (1951). 94Google Scholar.

81 The Anvil of War, Letters between F. S. Oliver and His Brother, 1914-1918, Edited with an Introduction by Stephen Gwynn (1936). 31.

82 Riddell, Lord, op. cit., 18 02 1917, p. 243Google Scholar.

83 The Nation and Athenaeum, 23 May 1025, ‘Lord Milner’, by Kerr, Philip, quoted by Butler, J. R. M., Lord Lothian, 1889-1940 (1960)Google Scholar.

84 Chiozza Money became parliamentary secretary to the Shipping Controller and Wilkie Labour Adviser to the Shipping Controller. Later in 1917, Stephen Walsh, another Vtce-President of the B.W.L., became parliamentary secretary to the Minister of National Service.

85 Milner Papers, Diary, 1917, 24 November, 15 and 21 December.

86 Anvil of War, 203.

87 Historical Journal, V (and ), ‘Milnerism’ by Eric StokesGoogle Scholar.