Anglo-American Establishment полностью

Earl Peel, the Marquess of Zetland, Sir Samuel Hoare, Oliver Stanley, the Marquess of

Reading, the Marquess of Lothian, Sir Robert Hamilton, and Isaac Foot. Of these eight,

two were of the Milner Croup (Hoare and Lothian) and two of the Cecil Bloc (Zetland

and Stanley). The chief adviser to the Indian States Delegation was L. F. Rushbrook

Williams of the Milner Group, who was named to his position by the Chamber of Princes

Special Organization. Among the five officials called in for consultation by the

conference, we find the name of Malcolm Hailey (Cmd. 3778).

The membership of delegations at the second session (September-December 1931)

was practically the same, except that thirty-one additional members were added and

Rushbrook Williams became a delegate as the representative of the Maharaja of

Nawanagar (Cmd. 3997).

At the third session (November-December 1932) there were no Labour Party

representatives. The British delegation was reduced to twelve. Four of these were of the

Milner Group ( Hoare, Simon, Lothian, and Irwin, now Halifax). Rushbrook Williams

continued as a delegate of the Indian States (Cmd. 4238).

11. The Joint Select Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform, appointed in April

1933, had sixteen members from the House of Commons and an equal number of Lords.

Among these were such members of the Milner Group as Sir Samuel Hoare, Sir John

Simon, Lord Lothian, and Lord Irwin (Halifax). The Cecil Bloc was also well represented

by Archbishop Lang of Canterbury, Austen Chamberlain, Lord Eustace Percy, Lord

Salisbury, Lord Zetland, Lord Lytton, and Lord Hardinge of Penshurst.

12. The Cripps Mission, 1942, four members, including Reginald Coupland, who

wrote an unofficial but authoritative book on the mission as soon as it returned to

England (Cmd. 6350).

The chief legislative events in this period were five in number: the two Indian

Councils Acts of 1892 and 1909, the two Government of India Acts of 1919 and 1935,

and the achievement of self-government in 1947.

The Indian Councils Act of 1892 was put through the House of Commons by George

Curzon, at that time Under Secretary in the India Office as the protege of Lord Salisbury,

who had discovered him in All Souls nine years earlier. This act was important for two

reasons: (1) it introduced a representative principle into the Indian government by

empowering the Governor-General and Provincial Governors to seek nominations to

the"unofficial" seats in their councils from particular Indian groups and associations; and

(2) it accepted a "communal" basis for this representation by seeking these nominations

separately from Hindus, Moslems, and others. From these two sources flowed ultimately

self-government and partition, although it is perfectly evident that neither of these was

anticipated or desired by the persons who supported the act.

The nominations for "unofficial" members of the councils provided in the Act of 1892

became elections in practice, because the Governor-General always accepted the

suggested nominations as his nominees. This practice became law in the Act of 1909.

The Indian Councils Act of 1909 was passed under a Liberal government and was

only remotely influenced by the Cecil Bloc or Milner Group. The Prime Minister,

Asquith, was practically a member of the Cecil Bloc, being an intimate friend of Balfour

and Rosebery. This relationship had been tightened when he married Margot Tennant, a

member of "the Souls," in 1894. Margot Tennant's sister, Laura, had previously married

Alfred Lyttelton, and both sisters had been intimate friends of Curzon and other members

of "the Souls." Asquith had also been, as we have stated, a close associate of Milner's.

Asquith, however, was never a member of the Milner Group. After 1890, and especially

after 1915, he increasingly became a member of the Cecil Bloc. It was Balfour who

persuaded Asquith to write his Memories and Reflections after he (Balfour) had discussed

the matter with Margot Asquith over a tête-à-tête dinner. These dinners were a not

infrequent occurrence on the evenings when Asquith himself dined at his club, Asquith

usually stopping by later in the evening to get his wife and escort her home. Another

indication of Asquith's feeling toward the Cecil Bloc can be found in his autobiography

under the date 22 December 1919. On that occasion Asquith told Lady Hartington,

daughter of Lord Salisbury, that he "had not expected to live to see the day when the best

safeguard for true liberalism would be found in an unreformed House of Lords and the

Cecil family."

In 1908-1909, however, the situation was somewhat different, and Asquith could

hardly be called a member of the Cecil Bloc. In a somewhat similar situation, although

much closer to the Milner Group (through H. A. L. Fisher and All Souls), was John