The RIIA had the right to name three persons to the Coordinating Committee. Two of
these were usually of the Milner Group. In 1933, for example, the three were Lord
Meston, Clement Jones, and Toynbee.
The meetings of the International Studies Conferences were organized in a fashion
identical with that used in other meetings controlled by the Milner Group—for example,
in the unofficial conferences on British Commonwealth relations—and the proceedings
were published by the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation in a similar way to those of the
unofficial conferences just mentioned, except that the various speakers were identified by
name. As examples of the work which the International Studies Conferences handled, we
might mention that at the fourth and fifth sessions (Copenhagen in 1931 and Milan in
1932), they examined the problem of "The State and Economic Life"; at the seventh and
eighth session (Paris in 1934 and London in 1935), they examined the problem of
"Collective Security"; and at the ninth and tenth sessions (Madrid in 1936 and Paris
1937) they examined the problem of "University Teaching of International Relations."
In all of these conferences the Milner Group played a certain part. They could have
monopolized the British delegations at these meetings if they had wished, but, with
typical Milner Group modesty they made no effort to do so. Their influence appeared
most clearly at the London meeting of 1935. Thirty-nine delegates from fourteen
countries assembled at Chatham House to discuss the problem of collective security.
Great Britain had ten delegates. They were Dr. Hugh Dalton, Professor H. Lauterpacht,
Captain Liddell Hart, Lord Lytton, Professor A. D. McNair, Professor C. A. W. Manning,
Dr. David Mitrany, Rear Admiral H. G. Thursfield, Arnold J. Toynbee, and Professor C.
K. Webster. In addition, the Geneva School of International Studies sent two delegates: J.
H. Richardson and A. E. Zimmern. The British delegation presented three memoranda to
the conference. The first, a study of "Sanctions," was prepared by the RIIA and has been
published since. The second, a study of "British Opinion on Collective Security," was
prepared by the British Coordinating Committee. The third, a collection of "British
Views on Collective Security," was prepared by the delegates. It had an introduction by
Meston and nine articles, of which one was by G. M. Gathorne-Hardy and one by H. V.
Hodson. Zimmern also presented a memorandum on behalf of the Geneva School.
Opening speeches were made by Austen Chamberlain, Allen W. Dulles (of the Council
on Foreign Relations), and Louis Eisenmann of the University of Paris. Closing speeches
were made by Lord Meston, Allen Dulles, and Gilbert Murray. Meston acted as president
of the conference, and Dulles as chairman of the study meetings. The proceedings were
edited and published by a committee of two Frenchmen and A. J. Toynbee.
At the sessions on "Peaceful Change" in 1936-37, Australia presented one
memorandum ("The Growth of Australian Population"). It was written by F. W.
Eggleston and G. Packer. The United Kingdom presented fifteen memoranda. Eight of
these were prepared by the RIIA, and seven by individuals. Of the seven individual
works, two were written by members of All Souls who were also members of the Milner
Group (C. A. Macartney and C. R. M. F. Cruttwell). The other five were written by
experts who were not members of the Group (A. M. Carr-Saunders, A. B. Keith, D.
Harwood, H. Lauterpacht, and R. Kuczynski).
In the middle 1930s the Milner Group began to take an interest in the problem of
refugees and stateless persons, as a result of the persecutions of Hitler and the
approaching closing of the Nansen Office of the League of Nations. Sir Neill Malcolm
was made High Commissioner for German Refugees in 1936. The following year the
RIIA began a research program in the problem. This resulted in a massive report, edited
by Sir John Hope Simpson who was not a member of the Group and was notoriously
unsympathetic to Zionism (1939). In 1938 Roger M. Makins was made secretary to the
British delegation to the Evian Conference on Refugees. Mr. Makins' full career will be
examined later. At this point it is merely necessary to note that he was educated at
Winchester School and at Christ Church, Oxford, and was elected to a Fellowship at All
Souls in 1925, when only twenty-one years old. After the Evian Conference (where the
British, for strategic reasons, left all the responsible positions to the Americans), Mr.
Makins was made secretary to the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees. He was
British Minister in Washington from 1945 to 1947 and is now Assistant Under Secretary
in the Foreign Office.
Before leaving the subject of refugees, we might mention that the chief British agent
for Czechoslovakian refugees in 1938-1939 was R. J. Stopford, an associate of the Milner
Group already mentioned.
At the time of the Czechoslovak crisis in September 1938, the RIIA began to act in an