Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War.

by Gerry Docherty

  On his return in June 1909, Lord Milner threw his energies into an Imperial Press Conference arranged and dominated by the Secret Elite. It was a grand affair that brought together over 60 newspaper owners, journalists and writers from across the Empire, both the governed (India) and the self-governing (Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand). Six hundred of their counterparts from the British press, and politicians both in and out of government, mixed with military and naval staff at Shepherd’s Bush Exhibition Hall. Lord Rosebery welcomed the delegates with warmth and dignity. The conference was, very tellingly, designed to rally the support of the Empire for the mother country in time of war and foster imperial cooperation in both defence and communications.

  Rosebery’s keynote address stressed that imperial defence was the most vital topic on the agenda. He warned that never before in the history of the world was there ‘so threatening and overpowering a preparation for war’.18 Though Germany was not mentioned by name, the clear inference was that the kaiser was responsible for the preparations for war. No evidence was presented for the simple reason that none existed. None, that is, beyond the vivid imaginations of the fiction writers encouraged by Northcliffe and his stable of alarmists. The appeal was directed to the delegates’ sense of duty, their loyalty and, of course, their collective responsibility. Rosebery asked them to consider their heritage, their liberties and their race, the source of their language, and the institutions that made every single delegate present an essential part of the Empire. He called on them ‘to take back to your young dominions across the seas’ the message that ‘the personal duty for national defence rests on every man and citizen of the Empire’.19

  Asquith, Haldane, Churchill and Milner all addressed the delegates. Lord Roberts trumpeted his crusade for conscription from the platform. Milner argued that ‘big armies … were a means of preserving peace’.20 No expense was spared to accommodate and influence the journalists. The Australian delegate from The Argus of Melbourne wrote handsomely in admiration of Haldane and the British Army. He witnessed the presentation of colours to the new territorial regiments at Windsor and assured his readers that Germany would never dare invade Great Britain.21 Armaments factories were visited in Manchester. Fairfields shipyard in Glasgow hosted the delegates and proudly displayed the destroyers being built for Australia. Honorary degrees were conferred on several leading newspapermen from Canada, Australia, India and South Africa. Every effort was made to impress – indeed, overawe – the visitors. The pièce de résistance, the grand propaganda coup that could never be trumped, was their visit to the naval review at Spithead, organised by Jacky Fisher himself. Geoffrey Dawson, representing then the Fortnightly Review, recorded his unqualified admiration. Moved by the overwhelming impact of 18 miles of battle-ready warships, he wrote that it was ‘a wonderful sight and made me realise what British seapower is’. One of the journalists present noted that the fleet included seven dreadnoughts, ‘so far the only ones afloat’.22 Consider this last statement: ‘so far the only ones afloat’. How can that square with Rosebery’s assertion that others were engaged in ‘threatening preparations for war’? The message the delegates were given was the same as that being delivered by the Northcliffe press: Britain and the Empire had to be prepared.

  The final session of the Imperial Press Conference on 26 June was chaired by King Edward’s personal advisor, Lord Esher, who examined the role of the colonies in ‘imperial defence’. Delegates were wined and dined at the Waldorf before returning to inspire their readers across the Empire. The Imperial Press Conference was a major public-relations triumph. Northcliffe responded to congratulations on its success by claiming that it was ‘one of the most important gatherings that has ever taken place in England’.23 Replete with Secret Elite members and associates, what was the intended impact of this conference? They met Haldane, saw his new territorial army, Milner, Esher, Roberts, Rosebery, naval shipbuilders, Australian destroyers, the Spithead Review, with the reiterated message that big armies preserve peace. Crucially, these delegates were in position to encourage the young men of the colonies and dominions to sign their lives away in 1914. The success of these preparations should be judged by the level of willing volunteers from the Empire when war was declared.

  Another important message learned from the conference was that bad news undermined efforts to promote the ideal of an empire gathered around a strong motherland that had to be defended at all costs. Delegates were deliberately shielded from reality during their carefully staged visit. The Secret Elite, and Milner in particular, were convinced that some concrete action had to be taken in order to stop the negative news stories of strikes, moral decay, social unrest, parliamentary discord and the general decline in standards that rolled off the British press and undermined confidence overseas. For those few weeks in June, a temporary truce had been called over dreadnoughts and budgets24 because the Secret Elite fully understood that the old image of ‘Merrie England’, the ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, had to be sustained. Geoffrey Dawson advocated an ‘Imperial Press Service’ that pooled the news and was specifically designed to positively influence public opinion in every part of the Empire.25

  While it was vital that the Empire was wholly organised for war, it was equally important that steps be taken to draw the dominions and colonies towards the Secret Elite vision of an all-powerful imperial parliament. The enthusiasm with which the press delegates departed for home was matched by the eagerness of a special breed of imperial zealots whom Milner had schooled in South Africa. The young men from his kindergarten returned to Britain fired with zeal. Guided by their mentor, they conspired to revolutionise the Empire by setting up small influential groups to promote the grand plan of imperial unification.26 They dubbed themselves ‘The Round Table’, a grand Arthurian title which suggested equality of rank and importance, nobility of purpose and fairness in debate. In fact it was an unholy association of Rhodes’ secret society. Milner was the authority to whom all gave recognition and service. His men from South Africa mixed with new adherents including Sir Alfred Zimmern, Sir Reginald Coupland and the American millionaires Waldorf and Nancy Astor, each of whom is named by Carroll Quigley as a member of the Secret Elite.27

  Most members of the Round Table were lifelong friends. It was an intimate fellowship that held a high opinion of itself. They looked on one another with admiration and resolved to do great things together in the ‘national interest’.28

  Alfred Milner acted as both elder statesman and father figure, and his role in the Round Table was described as that of ‘President of an Intellectual Republic’.29 Their objective was to win power and authority in national and imperial affairs. Round Table groups were essentially ‘propaganda vehicles’ comprising a handful of influential people that Quigley believed were created ‘to ensure that the dominions would join with the United Kingdom in a future war with Germany’.30 Closer ties with the United States were also considered of crucial importance, and a Round Table group was established in New York to encourage links between Westminster and Washington, and high finance in the City of London and Wall Street. It was managed in secret, hidden from the electorate and the politicians, and went unreported in the press. Round Table members aimed to gain political influence and set the political agenda, but they were not willing to stand up in public. All was to be carried out in secret. How dangerous are those who believe that they have the capacity to think and plan for the nation’s good, impervious to the will of the people and disdainful of democracy itself?

  Funded originally by the South African gold ‘bug’, Sir Abe Bailey, Round Table groups were established in London, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. They were also supported financially by the Rhodes Trust and wealthy Secret Elite members such as the Beit brothers in South Africa. Other contributors included the Astor family and wealthy individuals, trusts or firms associated with the international banking fraternity, including J.P. Morgan and the Rockefeller dynasty.31


  Round Table members held private meetings, or ‘moots’, and worked out solutions to the national problems that fitted their philosophy.32 Their plan involved the formation of powerful semi-secret groups in the major countries of the Empire to influence colonial governments and newspaper proprietors. It was a logical extension of the aims of the Imperial Press Conference. It advanced the fundamental idea of imperial unity. Once they had a blueprint and a body of supporters in all parts of the Empire, ‘the quiet conspiracy could give way to a great crusade’.33 Their techniques had been refined over the previous century, and Milner above all knew how to manipulate newspapers and influence editorials.

  These individuals considered themselves the intellectual standard-bearers for Secret Elite policies. They promoted their aims anonymously in their periodical, The Round Table: A Quarterly Review of the Politics of the British Empire. The first article in the first issue of November 1910, ‘Anglo-German Rivalry’, was deliberately provocative. It set the tone for all the anti-German rhetoric that was to come. Carroll Quigley confirmed that this was the overriding purpose of the Round Table:

  There can be no doubt that the original inspiration for the Round Table movement was to be found in anti-German feeling. In fact, there are some indications that this was the primary motive and that the stated purpose of working for imperial federation was, to some extent at least, a mask.34

  Unfortunately, he took that analysis no further. Nor can we find evidence, for secrecy surrounds almost everything that the Round Table organised. Indeed, as he put it: ‘the whole group was so secretive that, even today, many close students of the subject are not aware of its significance’.35

  The Round Table editor was Milner’s protégé, Philip Kerr, but no name appeared in the magazine, neither editor nor contributors. Anonymity extended to an un-named secretary at 175 Piccadilly, to whom letters could be sent. The promoters claimed that they did not expect a large circulation but sought to directly influence a select public opinion.36 Why they printed the journal without naming contributors was never explained, though at that level of conceit they probably didn’t feel the need to justify themselves.

  Practical politicians treated the Round Table Quarterly Review with deserved suspicion because it sought to influence power without responsibility. Nevertheless, the publications became an important forum for Secret Elite propaganda, and many of the ideas in later editions were translated into British foreign policy. Between 1910 and 1914, the Round Table exerted a tremendous influence on political thinking in every part of the Empire.37 Essentially, it was an anti-German propaganda vehicle and an advocate of imperial unity.

  Milner sent his most trusted acolytes to organise Round Table groups throughout the Empire. Between 1910 and 1912, Lionel Curtis travelled the world organising in India and Canada. Milner himself, accompanied by Philip Kerr, went back to Canada to inspire Round Table associates.38 Their message, reinforced through articles in the Round Table’s Quarterly Review and bolstered by their friends in the press, so carefully nurtured during the Imperial Press Conference, repeated the mantra of loyalty, duty, unity and the benefits of Empire … Empire … Empire. Members of Round Table groups across the world held influential positions in government, trade, commerce and banking. Theirs was a quasi-Masonic-Jesuit approach that allowed them to prepare the dominions for the coming war, hidden from the public view. It proved a resounding success. The Empire would be ready.

  In the final analysis, Canada sent 641,000 men.39 By 1917, it was delivering more than a quarter of the artillery munitions used by Britain on the Western Front. Over 250,000 Canadians worked in the armaments factories under the British Imperial Munitions Board.40 South Africa provided 136,000 fighting troops as well as enlisting 75,000 non-whites.41 Australia placed its navy under British command, and a total of 332,000 Australians went to war for the Empire. New Zealand provided 112,000 men, while India alone raised 1,477,000, including 138,000 men stationed on the Western Front in 1915.42 In general, the governments that sent colonial troops paid for them.

  SUMMARY: CHAPTER 11 – PREPARING THE EMPIRE – ALFRED MILNER AND THE ROUND TABLE

  Contrary to the belief that Alfred Milner retired from politics in 1905, he was heavily involved behind the scenes promoting imperial unity and preparing the Empire for war.

  He was instrumental in setting up a colonial conference in 1907 at which it became clear that considerable work was required to safeguard Canada’s position within the Empire.

  The Imperial Press Conference in 1909, which was organised and dominated by the Secret Elite, proved an outstanding success. Its major theme concerned the duty and loyalty each dominion and colony owed to the ‘Fatherland’.

  An imperial press service was specifically designed to disseminate good-news stories about Britain and influence public opinion throughout the Empire.

  At the same time, a secretive organisation, the Round Table, was created in London by Milner and his followers to influence governments about imperial unity and the defence of the Empire.

  These imperial ‘think-tank-groups’ were established across the British Empire and were funded by Secret Elite members and sympathisers.

  Their policies were published anonymously in the Round Table magazine.

  The entire organisation, which was hidden from public view, was highly antagonistic to Germany and would prove its worth in the years ahead.

  CHAPTER 12

  Catch a Rising Star and Put it in Your Pocket

  THE SECRET ELITE WERE CONSTANTLY on the lookout for rising stars in politics and the diplomatic corps who might serve them well as agents. They would nurture, groom and fete them, and, if considered sufficiently malleable, draw them into the orbit of the group. None would join the select inner core, and most were not even conscious they were being controlled. Some may have guessed that they were indebted to an invisible force, but they asked no questions.1 As we have seen, determined Revanchists in France, such as Delcassé, were considered particularly useful, as was Isvolsky, who dreamed of Russia’s ‘historic mission’ to control the Straits. The key to compliance was the mutual desire to achieve their aims through the destruction of Germany. Public office, lavish lifestyles and personal gain were attractive by-products; ruthlessness, self-interest and avarice, essential prerequisites.

  David Lloyd George was a politician identified, nurtured and drawn into the Secret Elite fold for several very important reasons. They considered him a potential asset unmatched by anyone else in the Liberal or Conservative parties. With his talent for skilful negotiation, the brilliant orator and audacious radical held sway with the working classes. He talked their language such that even militant trade union leaders accepted him. He had shown courage in taking a stance against jaundiced jingoism during the war in South Africa.2 Lloyd George was so immediately associated with his anti Boer War stance, and his attacks on privilege and wealth, that his was the voice to which the people would listen and in which they could believe. Young, utterly ambitious and popular, he wasn’t simply an orator at a time when the masses came to listen to great speeches, he was the inspirational orator of the age. His gift with words was dramatic, full of sound and fury. Ridicule and righteousness were the hallmarks of his vitriol, burning ambition the driving force behind his absolute determination to make it to the top. While he was determined to promote the social improvement of the lower classes, it was with even greater determination that he promoted David Lloyd George. It is worth repeating that as early as 1886 he had written to Margaret Owen, later his long-suffering wife, that ‘my supreme idea is to get on … I am prepared to thrust even love itself under the wheels of my juggernaut if it obstructs the way.’3

  Anything to get on. In that single phrase Lloyd George revealed his ruthless determination and greatest weakness, ambition. Detractors have called him ‘a man without conviction’,4 claiming that he was shallow and opportunistic in most of his actions and at all times ‘a man who did deals’.5 And so it proved.

  Campbell-B
annerman included Lloyd George in his 1906 cabinet, a radical balance to the Liberal imperialists like Grey and Haldane. The Secret Elite understood both the advantages and disadvantages of his presence there. He was a figurehead around whom men would rally, and his opinion carried great weight amongst many Liberal Members of Parliament. But how would he react to the vital question of war against Germany? Logically, Lloyd George was the man least likely to support their ambitions. If anyone could rally the Liberal Party and the country against war, it was him. Whoever he sided with would have a great advantage, and the Secret Elite set out to ensure that the advantage lay with them. Most crucially, no backbench MP or member of the public would ever suspect that a Cabinet in which Lloyd George sat would secretly be planning war. The Secret Elite’s option was straightforward: he either had to be turned or turned out.

  Lloyd George’s performance as president of the Board of Trade in Campbell-Bannerman’s government of 1905 caught their eye. He successfully steered a Merchant Shipping Act through that first parliamentary session, much to the benefit of the shipowners. His agreement to raise the Plimsoll line allowed ships to carry heavier cargoes but made them less stable. Losses of ships and men increased, but owners saved £8 million on building new ships and were appreciative of Lloyd George’s willingness to act on their behalf.6 It was a strange concession from the radical Liberal that gave rise to accusations that he had been responsible for the deaths of British seamen in the interests of the shipowners. The Social Democratic Forum, led by an old Etonian, described the raising of the Plimsoll line as:

  One of the most shameful things done to the working class of this country … Lloyd George has been officially murdering the seamen of British vessels in the interests of the shipowning class. This man George is an unscrupulous and murdering rascal.7