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Kerr acknowledged that joining the League required "the com - conducting the "out of court" negotiations with the French at the plete abandonment of the doctrines of the Fathers of the American Paris Peace Conference.'* He was also chairman of the commis- Republic" and credited the US Senate with expressing "the real sen- sion established at the Peace Conference to draft the mandates timent of all nations with hard-headed truthfulness". Few nations putting him in a "commanding position".'* were genuinely willing to subordinate their "national sovereignty to Kendle suggests that Milner was defying Round Table views on an international code and an international ideal". The United the mandate but this is doubtful for there was no firm consensus. States, Kerr wrote, had "reaffirm[ed] the principle of national sover- Moreover, Milner had always been an imperialist and suddenly eignty as over-riding the ideal of world government enforcing a overcame his previous reluctance to acquire new territory now that world interest. .."'* Germany was defeated. He had advocated American acquisition of Believing popular support for the League was waning, Kerr mandates as a means of establishing a "bond of union. ..between the argued the "proper course" was to "revise and restate" Britain's United States and [Britain]". But he had little time for Wilson's League policy. He suggested three guidelines for Britain's League dreams of "self-determination" and actually opposed giving the US membership. Britain should: (1) avoid any "general obligations"; mandates in East Africa arguing that it would deprive Britain of a (2) not make any commitments beyond its capabilities; and (3) vital line of communication running the length of Africa.'* "definitely denounce the idea" that the League The rewards of this venture were, for could enforce its rules by "military or Britain, France and some other powers, sub- economic pressure on recalcitrant States". For stantial. One obvious result, in the words of Kerr there could be no alternative course Lord Balfour, was "a map of the world with because the "influence of the League of more red on it". Milner seemed untroubled Nations upon British Imperial relations has for by his efforts; but a confused Curtis suffered the moment been misleading and . anervous breakdown and retreated to dangerous".'” The main fronts were the Morocco to recuperate.'® Beer accepted the i position of chairman of the Permanent MANDATE FOR EMPIRE Royal Institute for Mandates Commission, even though he One area where the imperialist faction of International Affairs despised the outcome of the Peace the Round Table did secure a vict as Conf ce. He died suddenly in March the issue of League mandates. The Round | (RIA or Chatham House) | yo50."tn its wibute to him the Round Table Table had a key role in formation of the In Britain admitted that Beer was its "American corre- concept. Curtis had proposed a and the Council on spondent" and praised him as "an inter- trusteeship system for "derelict . . nationally minded man" who was "the territories", arguing that the only hope of Foreign Relations (CFR) centre of a considerable group of men and Institute for Pacific these races who cannot as yet govern whom his criticism and advice had a Relations (IPR) in the US. themselves or ever learning to do so is in powerful influence".'” That influence, tutelage by some great democratic however, clearly had its limits. civilised nation". Through such a Whitney Shepardson, an American system the League would "render Rhodes Scholar and intimate friend of obsolete the old, pernicious idea of Curtis, took his place. empire..."'® Kerr had also been contemplating the issue and was "against handing back the colonies" Britain had seized from Germany. He supported "civilised control over politically Table's world government faction at backward peoples" as Africans and Paris merely followed the severe blows many Asians had "proved unable to govern themselves". The administered to the movement as a whole by the First World War. solution he sought was for European powers to intervene and The war, according to Kendle "had had a disastrous effect on the protect these peoples from "demoralising influences".'” movement". Many members in the dominion branches, especially Additional work was being done by the Round Table's primary in Canada and Australia, had been lost in the war. Added to the US member, George Louis Beer (one of Kerr's recruits), who now public controversy stirred up by publication of Curtis's incendiary THE "INTERNATIONAL ANGLOPHILE NETWORK" The political defeat of the Round served on "The Inquiry" as its colonial expert. Beer's correspon- The Problem of the Commonwealth, more members were lost than dence with Curtis and two other Round Table members had pro- gained causing some groups to collapse. Round Table groups in duced the idea of the US having mandates over former German India and South Africa soon disappeared, while the remaining colonies in East Africa. At the Paris Peace Conference in members in New Zealand succumbed to apathy.'* The movement December 1918, Beer had taken Curtis to meet with senior US rep- _ was not dead, though its members moved off in different directions resentatives Colonel House and General Tasker Bliss to sell the adapting to the changed world of the 1920s and 1930s. idea. Curtis also talked with Milner, Kerr and Lloyd George as According to Quigley, the Round Table was transformed into an well about the proposal. Beer appeared to be successful when "international anglophile network". This process was led by "the Wilson announced on 30 January 1919 that the US would accept mastermind", Curtis—"who established, in England and each mandates.'” dominion, a front organisation to the existing local Round Table This moment of triumph for Beer soon unravelled when it Group". The main fronts were the Royal Institute for International became apparent Britain and France had already secretly divided Affairs (RITA or Chatham House) in Britain and the Council on the spoils of war. According to Kendle, Milner as the newly- Foreign Relations (CFR) and Institute for Pacific Relations (IPR) in appointed Colonial Secretary was "at the heart of things and deeply — the US.'"” Though mocked in some quarters, Quigley's record of involved". This was no understatement: Milner was personally events is accurate on many counts. Royal Institute for _ International Affairs in Britain ; Foreign Relations (CFR) _and Institute for Pacific JUNE — JULY 2005 NEXUS = 35 and the Council on www.nexusmagazine.com