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IV. The Last Years of the Old Foreign Office, 1898–1905

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Zara Steiner
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Extract

Sir Edward Grey presided over the Foreign Office, Lord Salisbury ruled it. While Salisbury's Foreign Office can still be discussed in Palmerstonian terms, Grey's resembled its modern—day counterpart. After 1906, men who had been clerks began acting as true advisers. This change was in part due to the increasing volume of business and to the personalities of the men involved, but it also resulted from a belated administrative revolution which brought the Foreign Office into line with the other great departments of state. The years under Lord Lansdowne were the transitional ones both in terms of policy and of Foreign Office organization.

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Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1963 , pp. 59 - 90
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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References

1 The diplomatic history of the period is to be discussed in a forthcoming book by George Monger, The End of Isolation: British Foreign Policy, 1900–1907. I have had the advantage of reading this book in an unpublished version.

2 Compare G. P. Gooch and H. Temperley. B[ritish] D[ocuments on the Origins of the War 1898–1914], in, Appendix A (p. 409) with Appendix B (p. 422). Sanderson's view is the correct one.

3 Lord Askwith, Lord James of Hereford (London, 1930), 256.Google Scholar

4 Lansdowne MSS. (F.O. 277). Lord Salisbury to Lord Lansdowne, 1 September 1900.

5 B.D. XI, nos. 6, 7, 8, 9. Amery, J., The Life of Joseph Chamberlain (London, 1951), IV, 137–40. F.O. 67/1796, F. Bertie to Lord Salisbury, 8 August 1900.Google Scholar

6 Satow Papers, F. Campbell to Sir E. Satow, 1 June 1899. ‘The Department has become impossible owing to the stress of the China work. However, this was a blessing in disguise as America…has been taken away and constituted a separate department. We got another senior clerk and two juniors out of the Treasury. We now deal with China, Japan, and Siam only, which is quite enough….’

7 The African0 Protectorates were gradually handed over to the Colonial Office during 1904 and 1905. Only Zanzibar continued to be administered by the African Department until 1914.

8 A third secretary was paid only £150 a year. Although the Foreign Office also recruited its members from good families, its members looked on diplomats as social butterflies and amateurs (Cd. 7749, Appendix to the Fifth Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, 1914, Q. 39. 271).Google Scholar

9 Ibid. Q. 40, 992–999.

10 Hardinge MSS. vol. 1, E. Banington to C. Hardinge, 2 February 1892; Hardinge to Barrington, 12 April 1892.

11 Tilley, J. and Gaselee, S., The Foreign Office (London, 1933), 207.Google Scholar

12 Ibid.; Gregory, J. D., On the Edge of Diplomacy, Rambles and Reflections, 1902–28 (London, 1929), 23, 24.Google Scholar

13 Barrington was assisted by a prècis writer and two assistant private secretaries chosen from the regular Foreign Office staff. In 1889, a typist was introduced into the office. There was also a parliamentary private secretary who did not belong to the Foreign Office staff, but who relieved Salisbury of many of his social obligations. For a good description see Gosses, F., The Management of British Foreign Policy before the First World War (Leiden, 1948), 46, 71–2.Google Scholar

14 Parry-Jones, , ‘The Under Secretaries for State for Foreign Affairs, 1782–1855’, E.H.R. XLIX, 308–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tilley and Gaselee, The Foreign Office, 201–3; Cromwell, V., ‘An incident in the development of the Permanent Under Secretaryship at the Foreign Office’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research (May 1960), 99–113Google Scholar. See Fifth Royal Commission Report, Q. 37. 098, for the functions of the chief clerk who, in addition to heading the financial department, supervised the messenger service, the second division clerks and, with the private secretary and an assistant–under–secretary, controlled the consular service. Until the reform of 1903, he had a share in consular appointments.

15 Grey, Lord, Twenty Five Years (London, 1935), I, 30, 32Google Scholar. Earl of Ronaldshay, The Life of Lord Curzon (London, 1928), 1, 235. F. Gosses, Management of British Foreign Policy, 150–1.Google Scholar

16 For exceptions see Grey, Twenty Five Years, I, 18. F. Gosses, Management of British Foreign Policy, 151.

17 Ronaldshay, op. cit. 283–8. Curzon felt the office too unimportant for a man of his position and demanded to be made a Privy Councillor (Salisbury MSS. Curzon unbound letters, G. Curzon to Lord Salisbury, 28 June 1895. For his policy suggestions, G. Curzon to Lord Salisbury, 29 December 1897, 23 November 1897, 27 May 1898).

18 Ibid. Unbound Brodrick correspondence, Brodrick to Lord Salisbury, 2 October 1898.

19 In the case of Brodrick, see B.D. 11, no. 8, and Amery, J., Life of Joseph Chamberlain (London, 1951), IV, 139. For Cranborne's anti–German memorandum, see Lansdowne MSS. vol. 12, 18 November 1901. Cranborne was also later involved in the reform of both the consular service and the Foreign Office.Google Scholar

20 Sanderson supervised the Eastern and Western Departments, the Chief Clerk's and Treaty Departments and the Library.

21 Sanderson, Thomas, Observations on the Use and Abuse of Red Tape for the Juniors in the Eastern, Western and American Departments, 1891. Copy in the British Museum.Google Scholar

22 Salisbury MSS. Sanderson unbound correspondence, T. H. Sanderson to Lord Salisbury, 28 December 1893.

23 Ibid. Lord Salisbury to T. H. Sanderson, 20 August 1892.

24 In later years, Sanderson suffered from a number of physical disabilities which increased his irritability. His letters are quite witty and are far more striking than those of his chief critic, Francis Bertie (Ibid. T. H. Sanderson to Lord Salisbury, 1 April 1898: ‘I am now a sort of standing dish at Arthur Balfour's breakfast…when his attention is divided, as it was this morning, between me and a fresh herring there are alternatively moments of distraction while he is concentrating on the herring, and moments of danger when he is concentrating on foreign affairs’).

25 The Times, 21 March 1923.

26 T. H. Sanderson, op. cit.

27 F.0.64/1507, minute by T. H. Sanderson, Lord Salisbury to Count Hatzfeldt, 4 October 1900; B.D. II, no. 38.

28 See F.O. 65/1551, no. 56b, 26 February 1898; F.O. 65/1552, no. 185, 18 June 1898. ‘Do you wish to modify or supplement this answer?’ ‘No, I think it is quite right.’

29 F.O. 60/601, minute by T. H. Sanderson, 16 May 1898; F.O. 60/630, Sir M. Durand to Lord Salisbury, 19 March 1899; telegram no. 8 to Sir M. Durand, 21 March 1899; Sir E. Hamilton to T. H. Sanderson, 7 July 1899.

30 F.O. 27/3443, T. H. Sanderson to Lord Salisbury, 22 June 1899. Sanderson backed the judgement of Villiers, the under–secretary in charge of Newfoundland against Joseph Chamberlain; Ibid., minute by T, H.Sandèrson, 12 December 1899; F.O. 27/3521, memorandum by T. H. Sanderson, 25 August 1900;Law Officers to Foreign Office, 31 October 1900.

31 Lascelles MSS. (F.O. 627), vol. 3, part 1, T. H. Sanderson to Sir F. Lascelles, 17 October 1900; B.D. 11, no. 98.

32 Lascelles MSS. (F.O. 627), vol. 3, part 1, Sanderson, T. H.to Lascelles, Sir F., 28 March 1900. This corrects the story in The Times, The Twentieth Century Test,III, 268.Google Scholar

33 Hardinge MSS. vol. 3, T. H. Sanderson to C. Hardinge, 10 October 1900.

34 Salisbury MSS. A 95, minute by Eric Barrington, 10 August 1897. Bertie complained that the Reuter's agent put a series of fishing questions to him when he was acting in Sanderson's absence. Lord Salisbury agreed with his assistant–under–secretary. ‘I am sceptical of the advantages of our connexion with Reuters—so is Lord Kimberley to whom I spoke about it.’

35 There is no large collection of Sanderson papers, a peculiar situation considering Sanderson's temperament and long years of service.

36 F.O. 60/648, minute by T. H. Sanderson, 23 April 1899; B.D. II, no. 73.

37 Lascelles MSS. (F.O. 627), vol. 3, part 1, T. H. Sanderson to Sir F. Lascelles, 12 and 29 April 1899.

38 Hardinge MSS. vol. 3, T. H. Sanderson to C. Hardinge, 24 October 1900.

39 Gosses, F., Management of British Foreign Policy, 70.Google Scholar

40 Ward, A. and Gooch, G. P., Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 1923), 111, 587.Google Scholar

41 See the East African delimitation discussions with France (F.O. 27/3411, M. Gosselin to F. Bertie, 1 February 1898; F.O. 27/3716, F. Bertie to M. Gosselin, 1 January 1898; Lord Salisbury to Sir F. Monson, 27 January 1898; F.O. 27/3713, Sir F. Monson to Lord Salisbury, 15 May 1898; F.O. 27/3412, minute by Lord Salisbury, 24 April 1898; F.O. 27/3416, minute by F. Bertie, 23 May 1898; Lord Salisbury to Sir F. Monson, 4 June 1898).

42 F.O. 63/1359, memorandum by F. Bertie, 1 March 1897; F. Bertie to Lord Salisbury, 22 March 1897, 18 January 1898. Bertie's ties with Rothschild were very useful to the Foreign Office at other moments as well.

43 Ibid. Memorandum by F. Bertie, 10 March 1897.

44 B.D. 1, nos. 72, 81.

45 Ibid. no. 81.

46 F.O. 63/1359, memorandum by F. Bertie, 10 July 1898.

47 Ibid. Memorandum by Sanderson, T. H., 1 August 1898. Garvin, Life of Joseph Chamberlain, 111, 317Google Scholar. Dugdale, B., Arthur James Balfour (London, 1937), 1, 268–70.Google Scholar

48 Satow Papers, F. Campbell to Sir E. Satow, 2 January 1900. In fact, the British were wrong in this case. The German vessels were not carrying contraband and damages had to be paid (B.D. 111, Appendix B, p. 423).

49 F.O. 64/1347, F. Bertie to F. Lascelles, 16 March 1898.

50 Like Lord Salisbury, Bertie underestimated the weakness of the Chinese. Satow's Journal, 20 August 1900; F.O. 64/1496, F. Bertie to Lord Salisbury, 8 August 1900.

51 Hardinge Papers, vol. 3, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 15 November 1900. Hardinge congratulated Bertie for his firm stand against the Russians. For Bertie's complaints against Germany: Lascelles MSS. vol. 3, part 1, Sanderson to Lascelles, 7 November 1900, F.O. 64/1495, nos. 271, 275, Lascelles to Salisbury, 26, 31 October 1900.

52 B.D. 11, no. 12, p. 11.

53 F.O. 64/1496, minute by F. Bertie, 17 November 1800.

54 Villiers had been offered and declined an under–secretaryship at the Colonial Office in 1897.

55 F.O. 67/1507, F. Villiers to T. H. Sanderson, 12 August 1900.

56 F.O. 27/3443, F. Villiers to Lord Salisbury, 18 July 1898; F. Villiers to the Colonial Office, 3 October 1898; memorandum by F. Villiers, 6 July 1898.

57 F.O. 27/1324, F. Villiers to Lord Salisbury, 12 January 1899; Lord Salisbury to Sir E Monson, 21 October 1899.

58 F.O. 99/367, no. 63, Nicolson to Salisbury, 5 May 1900; Nicolson to Gosselin, 18 May 1900, 22 May 1900; Nicolson to Salisbury, 26 May 1900. Salisbury vetoed the undersecretary's attempt to support Nicolson's anti–French programme in Morocco.

59 Tilley, and Gaselee, , The Foreign Office, 128–30.Google Scholar

60 Pelcovits, N., Old China Hands and the Foreign Office, 1861–1906 (New York, 1948), 252–.Google Scholar

61 The ‘print boy’ was a clerk of some 15 years’ experience who registered all papers sent to the printers and then distributed the printed copies into pigeon holes for dispatch abroad.

62 Gregory, J., On the Edge of Diplomacy, 18.Google Scholar

63 Fifth Royal Commission on the Civil Service, Q. 39, 397.

64 Lansdowne MSS. T. H. Sanderson to Lord Lansdowne, 10 March 1901.

65 Lascelles MSS. vol. 3, part 2, T. H. Sanderson to Sir F. Lascelles, 27 March 1901.

66 Ibid. 3 April 1901.

67 B.D. 11, no. 85.

68 Lansdowne MSS. T. H. Sanderson to Lord Lansdowne, 20, 27 May 1901.

69 Lascelles MSS. vol. 3, part 2, T. H. Sanderson to Sir F. Lascelles, 12, 15 January, 20 May 1902.

70 F.O. 64/1524, Sir F. Lascelles to Lord Lansdowne, 15 March 1901; minute by Bertie.

71 For an extensive study of Bertie's crucial role during the Anglo–Japanese negotiations, see my article, ‘Great Britain and the Creation of the Anglo–Japanese Alliance’, Journal of Modern History, XXXI, no. 1 (March 1959), 27–36.Google Scholar

72 Lansdowne MSS., memorandum by Lord Cranborne, 18 November 1901. This was sent to Sanderson and to Lansdowne.

73 B.D. 11, no. 91.

74 Ibid.

75 B.D. 11, nos. 92 and 93.

76 Ibid. no. 94.

77 Goodswaard, J., Some Aspects of the End of Britain's Isolation, 1898–1904 (Rotterdam, 1953), 82–3.Google Scholar

78 Lansdowne MSS. Lord Selborne to Lord Lansdowne, 2 January 1902; J. Chamberlain to Lord Lansdowne, 5 January 1902; C. T. Ritchie to Lord Lansdowne, 4, 5 January 1902; Sir Michael Hicks Beach to Lord Lansdowne, 2 January 1902. Dugdale, B., Arthur James Balfour, 1, 371. For Sanderson's view, see B.D. 11, no. 148.Google Scholar

79 Eckardstein, Hermann von, Lebenserinnerungen und Politischedenkwurdigkeiten, 11 (Leipzig, 1920), 310.Google Scholar

80 See Bertie's conversations with Dr Stuebel with regard to German claims for compensation in South Africa, B.D. 11, no. 81.

81 Bertie MSS. Series A, Louis Mallet to Francis Bertie, 2 June 1904. Bertie's papers are being reclassified in the Foreign Office. Citation will be only to series and date.

82 Ibid. F. Bertie to L. Mallet, 11 June 1904.

83 Ibid. F. Bertie to L. Mallet, 31 March 1905.

84 Ibid. L. Mallet to F. Bertie, 25 April 1905.

85 Ibid. F. Bertie to Lord Lansdowne, 1 May 1905; L. Mallet to F. Bertie, 2 March 1906; memorandum by F. Bertie, 4 March 1906.

86 For Crowe's warlike attitude towards Russia during the Dogger Bank incident, see Hardinge MSS. vol. 7, Ronald Graham to Charles Hardinge, 15 November 1904. For his warning about Germany, Lansdowne MSS. memorandum by. Eyre Crowe, 29 March 1905, seen by Lansdowne, Balfour and Lascelles.

87 Eyre Crowe is still without a biographer and his Foreign Office papers do not begin until 1912. His mother was German; his father was the British commercial attaché for the whole of Europe (1882–96) and still had time to become a leading art critic. Except for a final year of study at Wimbledon, Crowe was educated in Germany and spoke both German and French fluently. From 1885 until 1895, he was a resident clerk at the Foreign Office and from that time on became identified with that institution. The future permanent under–secretary had only two diversions, the piano, which he played exceptionally well, and an interest in military tactics which he shared with his brother–in–law, H. Spencer Wilkinson. Crowe combined personality traits which made him an ideal administrator and adviser though a poor negotiator. For the best sketches of Crowe see Gregory, On the Edge of Diplomacy, pp. 256–9, and R. Butler, ‘Beside the Point’, World Review (April–May 1953), 8–13.

88 Lascelles MSS. vol. 3, part 2, T. H. Sanderson to Sir F. Lascelles, 22 January 1902.

89 Ibid. 19 March 1902.

90 Ibid. 5 March 1902.

91 Lansdowne MSS. T. H. Sanderson to Lord Lansdowne, 7 March, 2, 7 September 1901.

92 B.D. VI, no. 213.

93 Hardinge MSS. vol. 7, T. H. Sanderson to C. Hardinge, 19 September, 3 October 1905.

94 Lascelles MSS. vol. 3, Part 4, T. H. Sanderson to F. Lascelles, 3 January 1905.

95 Ibid. 10 October 1905. Lansdowne MSS. T. H. Sanderson to Lord Lansdowne, 9 October 1905.

96 B.D. III, nos. 210 (b), 211,214. See the most important discussion of these conversations in Monger's forthcoming book.

97 Ibid. no. 220.

98 Lansdowne MSS. T. H. Sanderson to Lord Lansdowne, 20 January 1905.

99 Ibid. Underlining by Lansdowne(?).

100 B.D. III, Appendix A.

101 Ibid. Appendix B.

102 Ibid.

103 Lascelles MSS. vol. 3, part 3, T. H. Sanderson to Sir F. Lascelles, 31 December 1902; see also vol. 3, part 2, Sanderson to Lascelles, 10 April 1901.

104 Hardinge, Lord, Old Diplomacy, The Reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst (London, 1947), 4–9, 68–9.Google Scholar

105 Hardinge MSS. vol. 3, F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 6 November 1901.

106 Ibid.. F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 4 June 1902.

107 Ibid. C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 9 June 1902.

108 Ibid. F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 3 July 1902.

109 Ibid. 25 July 1902.

110 Bertie MSS. Series A, F. Knollys to F. Bertie, 14 October, 5, 19 November, 19, 22 December 1902; F. Bertie to F. Knollys, 27 December 1902.

111 Ibid. Series B, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 2 January 1904.

112 Ibid. C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 24 December 1903, 21 February 1904.

113 Lord Hardinge, op. cit. 97.

114 Bertie MSS. Series A, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 25 May 1903.

115 Lascelles MSS. vol. 3, part 4, C. Hardinge to Sir F. Lascelles, 21 October 1905.

116 Hardinge MSS. vol. 3, F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 14 January 1903.

117 Ibid. C. Hardinge to Lord Curzon, 26 October 1903; Lord Curzon to C. Hardinge, 21 November 1903.

118 Hardinge MSS. vol. 7, Valentine Chirol to C. Hardinge, 10 August 1904.

119 Ibid. F. Knollys to C. Hardinge, 1 December 1903.

120 Ibid. 17 December 1903.

121 Bertie MSS. Series A, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 27 December 1903.

122 Ibid. Series A, F. Bertie to Mallet, 11 June 1904.

123 Ibid.

124 Ibid. Series B, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 3 January 1907.

125 Hardinge MSS. vol. 3, F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 14 January 1903.

126 Bertie MSS. C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 21 February, 27 March, 4 April 1904. Bertie's candidate was not selected either but Bertie was pacified by Sanderson's defeat.

127 Hardinge MSS. vol. 7, Valentine Chirol to C. Hardinge, 18 October 1904.

128 Ibid. F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 28 November 1904.

129 Ibid. F. Knollys to C. Hardinge, 15 November 1904. Selborne was particularly bellicose.

130 Ibid. F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 21 September, 11 November 1904.

131 Ibid. F. Bertie to C Hardinge, 28 November 1904.

132 Ibid. F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 5 July, 27 August 1905.

133 Hardinge MSS. F. Bertie to C. Hardinge, 5, 25 July 1905. Bertie MSS. Series B, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 21 June 1905; Series A, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 11 July 1905.

134 Ibid. Series B, L. Mallet to F. Bertie, 10 October 1905.

135 Ibid. Series A, Reginald Lister to F. Bertie, 12 December 1905.

136 In 1907 Mallet succeeded Gorst when the latter went to Egypt and Barrington's under–secretaryship was promised to W. Langley when Maxwell refused it. Mallet never became permanent under–secretary. (Ibid. C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 27 May 1907.)

137 For Hardinge's role in the Anglo–Russian negotiations see B.D. IV, nos. 520, 370, 389, 411, 263, 267, 241, 428.

138 Bertie MSS. Series A, L. Mallet to F. Bertie, 2 March, 26 October 1906.

139 B.D. VI, nos. 78, 81, 87, 88.

140 Bertie MSS. Series B, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 6 October, Bertie to Hardinge, 9 October, Hardinge to Bertie, 12 October, Bertie to Hardinge, 15 October 1906. Bertie was annoyed by the inefficiency of the Western Department and Hardinge answered sarcastically. At a later date, Bertie wrote ‘The young gentlemen at the Foreign Office are too much occupied with la haute politique to attend to departmental duties’, 21 September 1911. Bertie also found Hardinge less anti–German than he had hoped (Ibid. Series A, Mallet to Bertie, 24 August 1906; Bertie to Mallet, 25 August 1906).

141 Fifth Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, Q. 40, 880, 40, 882; 43, 507.

142 Ward and Gooch, Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, 622; Tilley and Gaselee, The Foreign Office, 276. The committee included Sir William Walrond (chairman), Lord Cranborne, Lord Inchcape and Andrew Bonar Law.

143 General 55/3, Miscellaneous Papers, 1885–1907, found in the Foreign Office Library no. 8838, memorandum by Lord Lansdowne, 27 November 1904.

144 Salisbury Papers, A 89, note by Eric Barrington on circulation of telegrams to Cabinet Ministers, 3 March 1897. Sanderson MSS. (taken from photostat in the possession of Dame Lilian Penson), Lord Salisbury to T. H. Sanderson, 14 November 1898; Sanderson to Lord Salisbury, 15 November 1898. All important dispatches were printed at once so that they appeared in dispatch boxes one or two days after arrival.

145 Bertie MSS. Series A, C. Hardinge to F. Bertie, 25 May 1903.

146 General, Librarian's Department, 1890–1918, vol. 5, memorandum by Augustus Oakes, 22 November 1897; minute by T. H. Sanderson, 31 May 1898; minute by T. H. Sanderson, 20 October 1898.

147 Fifth Royal Commission Report, Q. 39, 394–397. In 1902, Sir Arthur Ponsonby presented a memorandum to Sanderson with suggestions for reform. He subsequently left the office.

148 General Volume 55/3, no. 8616, report on Registration and Keeping of Papers in the Foreign Office, 18 May 1904.

149 Ibid. Farnall's name is mentioned specifically in the committee's report. There is no reference to Crowe and he was not an official member of the committee but see, R. Butler, Beside the Point, 9; J. D. Gregory, On the Edge of Diplomacy, 255–6; Tilley and Gaselee, op. cit. 153. Crowe personally testified that he had examined the registries of all government departments before the new system was initiated. (Fifth Royal Commission Report, Q. 37, 046.)

150 Bertie MSS. Series A, C[Cranborne?] to F. Bertie, 31 May 1903.

151 General 55/3, no. 8616, op. cit.

152 Hardinge MSS. vol. 7, R. P. Maxwell to C. Hardinge, 28 November 1904.

153 General 55/3, inquiry to ambassadors in Germany, Italy, Russia, Austria–Hungary and France, 29 November 1904.

154 Ibid. no. 8552, memorandum by T. H. Sanderson, 29 December 1905.

155 For an excellent description of the Registry system, see Fifth Royal Commission Report, Q. 36, 917–931.Google Scholar

156 Butler, R., op. cit. 9; Tilley, J., From London to Tokio (London, 1943), 69.Google Scholar

157 Gosses, F., The Management of British Foreign Policy, 73–4.Google Scholar

158 Grey, , Twenty Five Years, 11, 260.Google Scholar

159 Ibid. 11, 260.

160 Fifth Royal Commission Report, Q. 36, 917.

161 Tilley and Gaselee, op. cit. 160–1.

162 Gwatkin, F. T. Ashton, The British Foreign Service (Syracuse, 1951), 14.Google Scholar

163 Tilley and Gaselee, op. cit. 157.

164 The Board consisted of the private secretary, the permanent under–secretary, the head of one of the political departments, the assistant private secretary and one or two members of the diplomatic service.

165 As under Lord Lansdowne, candidates took only 4000 instead of 6000 points to allow for the necessary concentration on French and German.

166 Fifth Report of the Royal Commission, Q. 40, 878.

167 Ibid. Q. 40, 791, 40, 792. Among the diplomats, 16 out of 21 went to Eton, the same number to Oxford or Cambridge (2), 5 to no university at all.

168 R. Butler, op. cit. 9