Of the others who were mentioned, Brett, Grey, and Balfour can safely be regarded as
members of the society, Brett because of the documentary evidence and the other two
because of their lifelong cooperation with and assistance to Milner and the other
members of the Group.
Brett, who succeeded his father as Viscount Esher in 1899, is one of the most
influential and one of the least-known men in British politics in the last two generations.
His importance could be judged better by the positions he refused than by those he held
during his long life (1852-1930). Educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was a lifelong and
intimate friend of Arthur Balfour, Albert Grey, Lord Rosebery, and Alfred Lyttelton. He
was private secretary to the Marquess of Hartington (Duke of Devonshire) in 1878-1885
and a Liberal M.P. in 1880-1885. In the last year he was defeated in an attempt to capture
the seat for Plymouth, and retired from public life to his country house near Windsor at
the advanced age of thirty-three years. That he emerged from this retirement a decade
later may well be attributed to his membership in the Rhodes secret society. He met Stead
while still in public life and by virtue of his confidential position with the future Duke of
Devonshire was able to relay to Stead much valuable information. These messages were
sent over the signature "XIII."
This assistance was so highly esteemed by Stead that he regarded Brett as an
important part of the
Stead spoke of them, without mentioning their names, as 'two friends, now members of
the Upper House, who were thoroughly in sympathy with the gospel according to the
paper." In return Stead informed Brett of Rhodes's secret schemes as early as February
1890 and brought him into the society when it was organized the following year.
The official positions held by Brett in the period after 1895 were secretary of the
Office of Works (1895-1902), Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Windsor Castle
(1901-1930), member of the Royal Commission on the South African War (1902-1903),
permanent member of the Committee of Imperial Defence (1905-1930), chairman and
later president of the London County Territorial Force Association (1909-1921), and
chief British member of the Temporary Mixed Commission on Disarmament of the
League of Nations (1922-1923). Although some of these posts, especially the one on the
Committee of Imperial Defence, play an important role in the history of the Milner
Group, none of them gives any indication of the significant position which Esher held in
British political life. The same thing could be said of the positions which he refused,
although they, if accepted, would have made him one of the greatest names in recent
British history. Among the positions which he refused we might mention the following:
Permanent Under Secretary in the Colonial Office (1899), Governor of Cape Colony
(1900), Permanent Under Secretary in the War Office (1900), Secretary of State for War
(1903), Director of
unknown). Esher's reasons for refusing these positions were twofold: he wanted to work
behind the scenes rather than in the public view, and his work in secret was so important
and so influential that any public post would have meant a reduction in his power. When
he refused the exalted position of viceroy in 1908, he wrote frankly that, with his
opportunity of influencing vital decisions at the center, India for him "would be (it sounds
vain, but it isn't) parochial."(11) This opportunity for influencing decisions at the center
came from his relationship to the monarchy. For at least twenty-five years (from 1895 to
after 1920) Esher was probably the most important adviser on political matters to Queen
Victoria, King Edward VII, and King George V. This position arose originally from his
personal friendship with Victoria, established in the period 1885-1887, and was solidified
later when, as secretary to the Office of Works and Lieutenant Governor of Windsor
Castle, he was in charge of the physical properties of all the royal residences. These
opportunities were not neglected. He organized the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, the royal
funeral of 1901, and the coronation of the same year. In the latter case he proved to be
indispensable, for in the sixty-four years without a coronation the precedents had been
forgotten. In this way Esher reached a point where he was the chief unofficial
representative of the King and the "liaison between King and ministers." As an example
of the former role, we might mention that in 1908, when a purchaser known only as "X"
acquired control of
quarter" to seek assurance that the policy of the paper would not be changed. Northcliffe,