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among these self-appointed crusaders for imperial federation but their failure to foresee the impending failure of their grand scheme. The preferred solution to this dilemma was conveniently their failure to foresee the impending failure of their grand explained in the May 1911 issue of The Round Table on the eve scheme. of that year's Imperial Conference: The conclusion is inexorable. Either the nations of the Empire |THE "GREEN MEMORANDUM" must agree to cooperate for foreign policy and defence, or they The task of devising an acceptable model of imperial federation must agree to dissolve the Empire and each assume the responsi - _ fell to Lionel Curtis. Immediately after Plas Newydd, Curtis was bility for its own policy and its own defence... There is no third dispatched to Canada on a fact-finding mission on dominion alternative. The present system cannot continue.'* nationalism. The report of his trip, the Green Memorandum This is, however, the high watermark of what the movement (1910), followed a standard pattern. It identified the growing dan- was prepared to reveal of its ultimate goals, at least in the early ger to the British Empire posed by a militant Germany, and then, years. Most Round Table members agreed that advocating after dispensing with other proposed remedies including "Imperial imperial federation too soon could prove unpopular. These fears Cooperation", it launched into Curtis's preferred solution of were soon proved justified at the 1911 Imperial Conference, when "organic union". the New Zealand prime minister, Sir Curtis called for the creation of an Joseph Ward, proposed forming a "Imperial Government" that woul permanent "Imperial Council of State" have absolute and unfettered contro. consisting of representatives from all over all Empire defence and foreign the dominions. The British and policy matters. It would have the Canadian prime ministers rejected his power to raise taxes, and there woul proposal outright, causing Milner to Most Round Table members be an "Imperial Federal Parliament" despair that the conference outcome A with two chambers to make necessary had been "calculated to dishearten . agreed that advocating legislation. Imperialists everywhere". Opponents imperial federation too soon Britain and the dominions woul of the proposal were somewhat more retain some powers, including setting joyous. "We have destroyed root and could prove unpopular. tariffs, but would still be beholden to branch the proposal for an Imperial the imperial government on other Council of State or Parliament", as matters. It was an ambitious South Africa's new prime minister, document but one that seemed to Louis Botha, cheerfully reported cause more problems than it purported home.'® Within the Round Table, to resolve, spurring a long debate dismay and anger abounded as within the movement over the means suspicions grew that Curtis, who had coincidentally visited the and ends, which would overwhelm even Curtis's "mesmeric hold" New Zealand prime minister just before the conference, must (Rose) over his associates.'"' have encouraged Sir Joseph to make his statement. The According to Quigley, the Round Table "pretended to represent accusation was perhaps unfounded, yet it demonstrated their fear diverse opinions when as a matter of fact it insisted on that Curtis's zeal for federation was such that he would recklessly unanimity...and eliminated diverse points of view very disregard his own propaganda plan. quickly".'” The inaccuracy and illogic of Quigley's charge The other reason for the Round Table's reluctance to provide a become evident when we consider the scope and vehemence of detailed solution in its first few years is that its consensus position the Round Table's internal disagreements. In fact, the facade was on imperial federation had yet to be finalised. The movement's the Round Table's outward image of ideological unity, maintained hope was that it would soon have its own equivalent of the through the anonymous articles in The Round Table—a practice Kindergarten's Selborne Memorandum from which, in the words that merely hid the diversity of views and bitter debates within. of one Round Table member, the "conspiracy would become the These divisions were most evident in Curtis's stormy crusade".'"° Yet the ensuing process of developing this model relationships with his peers, his grandiose schemes on imperial would not be smooth, revealing not only the growing divisions unity leading to frequent clashes with Milner and Amery. While Endnotes 90. See Frederick Scott Oliver, University of Toronto Press, 1975, pp. 86. Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: Alexander Hamilton: An Essay on 16, 20, 57; Deborah Lavin, From Empire A History of the World in Our Time, American Union, MacMillan & Co, to International Commonwealth: A Angriff Press, 1974, pp. 950, 954. 1906. Biography of Lionel Curtis, Clarendon 87. David Icke, The Robots’ Rebellion: 91. Nimocks, Milner's Young Men, pp. Press, 1995, p. 36; and Norman Rose, The Story of the Spiritual Renaissance, 127, 129 (Amery and Curtis quotes). The Cliveden Set: Portrait of an Gateway Books, 1994, p. 154. 92. Quoted in A.M. Gollin, Proconsul in Exclusive Fraternity, Pimlico, 2000, pp. 88. Quoted in Walter Nimocks, Milner’s Politics: A Study of Lord Milner in 59-63. Young Men: the "Kindergarten" in Opposition and in Power, Anthony 95. Quoted in John Marlowe, Milner: Edwardian Imperial Affairs, Duke Blond, 1964, p. 314. Apostle of Empire, Hamish Hamilton, University Press, 1968, p. 130 (emphasis 93. Quoted in Wm Roger Louis, In The 1976, pp. 176-179. in original). Name Of God, Go! Leo Amery and the 96. Carroll Quigley, "The Round Table 89. Quoted in George Louis Beer, "Lord British Empire in the Age of Churchill, Groups in Canada", Canadian Historical Milner and British Imperialism", Political | W.W. Norton & Co., 1992, p. 42. Review, September 1962, p. 204. Science Quarterly, June 1915, p. 306 94. John E. Kendle, The Round Table 97. Nimocks, Milner’s Young Men, pp. (emphasis added). Movement and Imperial Union, 145-146; Marlowe, Milner: Apostle of THE "GREEN MEMORANDUM" The task of devising an acceptable model of imperial federation fell to Lionel Curtis. Immediately after Plas Newydd, Curtis was dispatched to Canada on a fact-finding mission on dominion nationalism. The report of his trip, the Green Memorandum (1910), followed a standard pattern. It identified the growing dan- ger to the British Empire posed by a militant Germany, and then, after dispensing with other proposed remedies including "Imperial Cooperation", it launched into Curtis's preferred solution of "organic union". allad Far tha « agreed that advocating imperial federation too soon 42 = NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2005 THE SOLUTION: IMPERIAL FEDERATION Most Round Table members could prove unpopular. www.nexusmagazine.com