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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
Like most Conservatives, by the spring of 1915 Chamberlain was gravely concerned by the Asquith government's conduct of the war. He was also convinced that the situation demanded a radical response. During the May 1915 crisis he played a significant role both in stiffening Law's resolve to join a coalition and in converting those like Carson and Cecil who doubted the wisdom of such a course: a position he defended with the argument that ‘the responsibility of refusing is even greater than that of accepting, and in fact we have no choice’. In the ministerial reshuffle which followed, he lobbied strenuously on behalf of Milner and was prepared to ‘make any personal sacrifice … to secure his inclusion’. Characteristically, however, Chamberlain took no part in the manoeuvring for office personally and declared himself content to ‘go anywhere where I can be useful’. In the event, Milner was excluded and Chamberlain received the India Office. Even with the benefit of a close relationship with the experienced Viceroy, Lord Hardinge, the burdens of this new department soon proved formidable. Chamberlain had no knowledge of India and its problems beyond his brief chairmanship of a Commission on Indian Finance two years before. Moreover, by 1915 India was deeply involved in the Imperial war effort and Chamberlain inherited a campaign in Mesopotamia with the realization that formal constitutional control from London would inevitably be much diluted during wartime. In his first letter to the Viceroy he had thus urged ‘a rigorous concentration of effort on the essential points of the struggle’ because there was ‘always a danger that the General on the spot will see his own needs and opportunities so strongly that they will not take their proper place in the perspective of the whole scheme of the war’. Unfortunately this proved to be an all too prescient apprehension.
1 A. Chamberlain to Law, 17 May 1915, Law MSS 37/2/37.
2 A. Chamberlain to Law, 21 May 1915, Law MSS 50/3/26.
3 Chamberlain, A. to Hardinge, , 27 05 1915Google Scholar, AC 62/1.
4 Chamberlain, A. to Hardinge, , 8 10 1915Google Scholar, AC 46/7/11.
5 Chamberlain, A. to Ivy, , 28 04 1916Google Scholar, AC 6/1/204.
6 Chamberlain, A. to Hardinge, , 3 12 1915Google Scholar, cited Goold, D., ‘Lord Hardinge and the Mesopotamia Expedition and Inquiry, 1914–1917’, Historical Journal, 19.4 (1976), 940.Google Scholar
7 Hankey Diary, 22 September 1915; Curzon, to Churchill, , 30 11 1915Google Scholar, Gilbert, M., Winston S. ChurchillGoogle Scholar, III. Companion 2, 1183, 1297.
8 Grieves, K., The Politics of Manpower, 1914–18, (Manchester, 1988), 41–60.Google Scholar
9 See N. Chamberlain to Hilda, 22 October and to Ida 12 November 1916. NC 18/1/85,88.
10 For his contemporary account of the crisis and his role see Chamberlain, A. to Chelmsford, Lord, 8 12 1916Google Scholar, AC 15/3/8. Reprinted in Chamberlain, A., Down the Years, 115–128.Google Scholar
11 Ibid, 109–10,116. Chamberlain gave vent to some of that suspicion when consulted by Asquith on Lloyd George's appointment to the War Office in June 1916. See Petrie, C., The Life and Letters, II, 50–53.Google Scholar
12 Dutton, D., Austen Chamberlain, 134.Google Scholar
13 Chamberlain, N. to Ida, , 9 12 1916Google Scholar, NC 18/1/92.
14 Postscript to A. Chamberlain to Lord Chelmsford, 8 December 1916, AC 15/3/8.
15 Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 13 and 20 01 1917Google Scholar, AC5/1/7–8; notes copied from an old diary 28 January 1917, AC12/37.
16 Edward Carson (1854–1935) Unionist MP for Dublin University 1892–1918 and Belfast (Duncairn) 1918–1921. Leader of Irish Unionist Party 1910–21. Irish Solicitor-General 1892; Solicitor-General 1900–1905; Attorney-General 1915; 1st Lord of Admiralty 1916–17; Minister without Portfolio 1917–18. Knighted 1900. Created judicial life peer 1921.
17 David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Liberal MP Caernarvon Boroughs 1890–1945. President, Board of Trade 1906–1908; Chancellor of Exchequer 1908–15; Minister of Munitions 1915–16, Secretary for War 1916; Prime Minister 1916–22. Created Earl Lloyd-George of Dwfor 1945.
18 Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874–1965) Conservative MP for Oldham 1900–1904, as a Liberal 1904–1906. Liberal MP for Manchester NW 1906–1908, Dundee 1908–1922. Conservative MP for Epping 1924–45 and Woodford 1945–64. Under-Secretary for the Colonies 1905–1908; President, Board of Trade 1908–1910; Home Secretary 1910–11; 1st Lord of Admiralty 1911–15 and 1939–40; Chancellor Duchy of Lancaster May–November 1915; Minister of Munitions 1917–1919; Secretary for War and Air 1919–21; Colonial Secretary 1921–22; Chancellor of Exchequer 1924–29; Prime Minister 1940–45 and 1951–55. Minister of Defence 1940–45 and 1951–52. Created K.G. 1953.
19 (Arthur) Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Conservative MF for Birmingham Ladywood 1918–29, Edgbaston 1929–40. Director-General of National Service 1916–1917; Postmaster-General 1922–23; Minister of Health 1923, 1924–29, 1931; Chancellor of the Exchequer 1923, 1931–37; Prime Minster 1937–40; Lord President 1940.
20 (Florence) Ida Chamberlain (1870–1942) Fourth child of Joseph Chamberlain and the second by his second wife Florence Kenrick. Active voluntary worker and District and County Councillor. Sister of Neville and half-sister to Austen.
21 Beatrice Chamberlain (1862–1918) Eldest child of Joseph Chamberlain and his first wife Harriet Kenrick. Died during the influenza epidemic of 1918. Sister to Austen and half-sister to Neville.
22 Alfred Milner (1854–1925) High Commissioner for South Africa 1897–1905; member of War Cabinet 1916–1918; Secretary for War 1918–19; Colonial Secretary 1919–21. Created K.C.B. 1895, K.G. 1921, Baron 1901, Viscount 1902. Distinguished Civil and public servant. Imperialist and focus of the Kindergarten of young admirers in South Africa.
23 Archibald Philip Primrose (1847–1929) Succeeded father as 5th Earl of Rosebery 1868. Under-Secretary, Home Office 1881–83; First Commissioner of Works 1884; Foreign Secretary 1886 and 1892–94; Prime Minister 1894–95. Resigned Liberal leadership 1896. Chairman L.C.C. 1889, 1892.
24 Edwin Samuel Montagu (1879–1924) Liberal MP for Cambridgeshire 1906–1922. PUS for India 1910–1914; Financial Secretary to Treasury 1914–February 1915 and May 1915–July 1916; Chancellor of Duchy of Lancaster February–May 1915 and January–July 1916; Minister of Munitions 1916; Secretary for India 1917–22.
25 George Nathaniel Curzon (1859–1925) Conservative MP for Southport 1886–98; Viceroy of India 1898–1905; Lord Privy Seal 1915–16; Lord President 1916–19 and 1924–25; Foreign Secretary 1919–24; Conservative Leader in Lords 1916–24. Created Baron 1898. Earl 1911, Marquess 1921.
26 Arthur Henderson (1863–1935) and John Hodge (1855–1937) The latter Labour MP for SE Lancashire 1906–23. Minister of Labour 1916–1917; Minister of Pensions 1917–1919.
27 Walter Hume Long (1854–1924) Conservative MP for Wilts (North) 1880–85, Wilts (Devizes) 1885–92, Liverpool (West Derby) 1893–1900, Bristol South 1900–1906, County Dublin South 1906–1910, Strand 1910–18, St George's Westminster 1918–21. Parliamentary Secretary to Local Government Board 1886–1892. President, Board of Agriculture 1895–1900; President, Local Government Board 1900–1905 and 1915–16; Chief Secretary for Ireland March–December 1905; Colonial Secretary 1916–1919; 1st Lord of Admiralty 1919–21. Created Viscount 1921.
28 From February 1917 the Germans hoped to force Britain to sue for peace within six months through the use of unrestricted submarine warfare. In January 1917, the last month of the restricted campaign, Britain lost 49 ships (35 to submarines). In February this rose to 105 British ships (86 to U-Boats) soaring to 169 British vessels (all but 14 to submarines) in April, the worst single month.
29 On 23 February Lloyd George told the Commons that it was essential to reduce imports and increase domestic food production as food stocks were ‘alarmingly low’. This was intended to terrify Parliament and the country in order to pave the way for the contentious Corn Production Bill.
30 Andrew Bonar Law (1858–1923) Conservative MP for Glasgow Blackfriars 1900–1906; Camberwell 1906–10, Bootle 1911–18, Glasgow Central 1918–23. Parliamentary Secretary to Board of Trade 1902–1905; Colonial Secretary 1915–16; Chancellor of Exchequer 1916–19; member of War Cabinet 1916–19; Lord Privy Seal 1919–21; Prime Minister October 1922–May 1923. Leader of Conservative Party 1911–21 and 1922–23.
31 Lt-General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough (1870–1963) Served South Africa 1899–1902. Commanded 1st Army Corps 1916 and 5th Army 1916–18. Chief figure in the Curragh incident 1914 when some officers threatened resignation rather than impose Home Rule on Ulster. The War subsequently changed his opinions so much that he declined to stand as a Carsonite in an Ulster constituency in 1918 but ran as an Asquithian in a 1921 by-election.
32 Lt-General Sir (Frederick) Stanley Maude (1864–1917) Military career from 1884. Served Sudan and South Africa 1899–1901. Private Secretary to Secretary of State for War 1905. Chief of General Staff 5th Division, 1912–14. Commander 33rd Division 1915, 13th Division; Tigris Army Corp 1916. C-in-C Mesopotamia 1916.
33 Bryce, Lord to Scott, C.P., 11 03 1917Google Scholar, cited Turner, J., British Politics and the Great War: Coalition and Confilct 1915–1918 (New Haven and London 1992), 189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34 Petrie, C., Life and Letters, II, 77–78.Google Scholar
35 Turner, J., British Politics and the Great War, 188–90Google Scholar. For these events generally see Dewey, C. ‘The End of the Imperialism of Free Trade: The Eclipse of the Lancashire Lobby and the concession of Fiscal Autonomy to India’, in C. Dewey & A.G. Hopkins (eds), The Imperial Impact: Studies in the Economic History of India and Africa, (1978).Google Scholar
36 See Turner, J., Lloyd George's Secretariat, (Cambridge, 1980), 128–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
37 Jan Christian Smuts (1870–1950) Fought against British in South African War 1899–1902. Commanded British forces against Lettow Vorbeck in German East Africa; represented South Africa at Imperial War Conference; appointed to War Cabinet 1917–1919. Prime Minister of South Africa 1919–24 and 1939–48.
38 Sir Charles, Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944) Ambassador to Russia 1904–1906; Permanent Under-Secretary, Foreign Affairs 1906–11 and 1916–20; Viceroy of India 1910–16; Ambassador to France 1920–23.
39 Fredric John Napier Thesiger (1868–1933) Viceroy of India 1916–21; 1st Lord of Admiralty, 1924. Succeeded father as 3rd Baron Chelmsford 1905, created K.C.M.G. 1906, G.S.C.I. 1916 and Viscount Chelmsford 1921.
40 Sir James, Baron Meston (1865–1943) Indian Civil Servant. Financial Secretary, Government of India 1906–1912. Lt-Governor United Provinces of Agra and Oudh 1912–18, Member of Indian delegation to 1917 Imperial Conference and Imperial War Cabinet with Austen Chamberlain, the Maharajah of Bikanes and Sir S.P. Sinha.
41 Sir Satyndra Passano Sinha (1864–1928) Barrister London and Calcutta. Advocate-General Bengal 1907–9, 1915–17; first Indian member of Viceroy's Executive Council 1909–10; President of Indian National Congress 1915; member of Indian delegation to Imperial Conference 1917 and Imperial War Cabinet 1917; member of Indian War Cabinet 1918; Under Secretary of State for India January 1919–September 1920. Governor of Bihar and Orissa 1920–21. Created Baron of Raipur 1919.
42 On 22 May 1917 Chamberlain had circulated papers to the War Cabinet about Indian constitutional reform.
43 Bourne, J.M., Britain and the Great War, 1914–1918 (1989), 131.Google Scholar
44 Cd. 8610 Report of the Commission Appointed …to Enquire into the Operations of War in Mesopotamia, Parliamentary Papers 1917–1918Google Scholar XVI. For the conduct of the Mesopotamia campaign see Barker, A.J., The Neglected War: Mesopotamia, 1914–1918 (1967)Google Scholar; Porter, B. ‘Britain and the Middle East in the Great War’, in P. Liddle (ed), Home Fires and Foreign Fields: British Social and Military Experience in the Great War (1985), 166.Google Scholar
45 Hardinge, Lord, Old Diplomacy: The Reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, (1947), 215Google Scholar; Chamberlain, A. to Hilda, , 7 06 1917Google Scholar, AC5/1/29.
46 Cd. 8610, Report, 101 para 26.
47 A. Chamberlain to Pike Pease, 29 June 1917, Petrie, , Life and Letters, II, 86.Google Scholar
48 A. Chamberlain to Lloyd George, 11 July 1917, Lloyd George MSS F/7/2/6.
49 Sanders Diary, 20 July 1917, Ramsden, J. (ed.) Real Old Tory Politics: The Political Diaries of Robert Sanders, Lord Bayford, 1910–35, (1984), 88Google Scholar. For his speech and reaction to it see Petrie, , Life and Letters, II, 89–93Google Scholar: House of Commons Debates, 95 col 2210–2234, 12 07 1917.Google Scholar
50 General Sir Beauchamp Duff (1855–1918) Military Secretary to C-in-C India 1895–1899, Assistant Military Secretary (India), War Office 1899; served South Africa 1899–1901; Adjutant-General, India 1903–1906; Chief of Staff, India 1906–1909; Military Secretary, India Office 1910. C-in-C of India 1913–1916. A “Kitchener man”. Alleged suicide in 1918.
51 General Sir John Eccles Nixon (1857–1921) Commander Southern Army, India 1912–15 and Northern Army 1915; GOC Mesopotamia Expedition, April 1915–January 1916.
52 Inspector-General Hathaway (Principal Medical Officer) and Surgeon-General Mac-Neese.
53 Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850–1916) Commander Dongola Expeditionary Force 1896 and Khartoum Expedition 1989; Chief of Staff, South Africa 1899–1900; C-in-C, South Africa 1900–1902; India 1902–09; Agent and Consul-General, Egypt 1911–14; Secretary of State for War August 1914–June 1916. Created K.G.M.G. 1894; K.G. 1915; Baron 1898; Viscount 1902 and Earl Kitchener of Khartoum 1914.
54 Sir Alfred Farthing Robbins (1856–1931) Journalist, dramatist, author, prominent Freemason. London correspondent of the Birmingham Daily Post 1888–1923.Google Scholar
55 Chamberlain was tempted by the offer of the Paris Embassy in June but was probably persuaded by Neville's view that it would end his career in domestic politics, Chamberlain, N. to Chamberlain, A., 28 06 1917Google Scholar, AC35/1/25.