post he went to South Africa to join the Kindergarten two years after Meston had.
Meston's position in South Africa was adviser to the Cape Colony and the Transvaal
on civil service reform (1904-1906). He remained ever after a member of the Milner
Group, being used especially for advice on Indian affairs. On his return from South
Africa, he was made secretary to the Finance Department of the Government of India
(1906-1912). Two years later he was made Finance Member of the Governor-General's
Council, and, the following year, became a member of the Imperial Legislative Council.
In 1912 he became for five years Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces. During
this period he worked very closely with Lionel Curtis on the projected reforms which
ultimately became the Government of India Act of 1919. In 1917 Meston went to London
as Indian representative to the Imperial War Cabinet and to the Imperial Conference of
that year. On his return to India, he again was Finance Member of the Governor-
General's Council until his retirement in 1919. He then returned to England and, as the
newly created Baron Meston of Agra and Dunottar, continued to act as chief adviser on
Indian affairs to the Milner Group. He was placed on the boards of directors of a score of
corporations in which the Group had influence. On several of these he sat with other
members of the Group. Among these we might mention the English Electric Company
(with Hichens), the Galloway Water Power Company (with Brand), and the British
Portland Cement Manufacturers Association (with the third Lord Selborne). From its
foundation he was an important member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs,
was chairman of its executive committee in 1919-1926, and was a member of the council
for most of the period 1926-1943.
Marris, who replaced Meston in the Transvaal in 1906, was eight years his junior
(born 1873) and, perhaps for this reason, was much closer to the member of the
Kindergarten and became, if possible, an even more intimate member of the Milner
Group. He became Civil Service Commissioner of the Transvaal and deputy chairman of
the Committee on the Central South African Railways. He did not return to India for
several years, going with Curtis instead on a world tour through Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand, organizing the Round Table Groups (1911). It was he who persuaded
Curtis, and through him the Milner Group, that India should be allowed to proceed more
rapidly than had been intended on the path toward self-government.
Back in India in 1912, Marris became a member of the Durbar Executive Committee
and, later, secretary to the Home Department of the Government of India. In 1916 he
became Inspector General of Police for the United Provinces, and the following year
Joint Secretary to the Government of India. During this period he helped Curtis with the
projected reforms plans, and he was made responsible for carrying them out when the act
was passed in 1919, being made Commissioner of Reforms and Home Secretary to the
Government of India (1919-1921). At the same time he was knighted. After a brief period
as Governor of Assam (1921-1922), he was Governor of the United Provinces (1922-
1928) and a member of the Council of India (1928-1929). After his retirement from
active participation in the affairs of India, he embarked upon a career in academic
administration, which brought him additional honors. He was Principal of Armstrong
College in 1929-1937, Vice-Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Durham University
in 1929-1937, a Governor of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester in 1937-1945.
Marris's son, Adam D. Marris, born in the year his father went to the Transvaal, is
today still a member of the Milner Group. After graduating from Winchester School and
Trinity College, Oxford, he went to work with Lazard Brothers. There is no doubt that
this position was obtained through his father's relationship with Brand, at that time
manager of Lazard. Young Marris remained with the banking firm for ten years, but at
the outbreak of war he joined the Ministry of Economic Warfare for a year. Then he
joined the All Souls Group that was monopolizing the British Embassy in Washington,
originally as First Secretary and later as Counselor to the Embassy (1940-1945). After the
war he was British Foreign Office representative on the Emergency Economic
Committee for Europe as secretary-general. In 1946 he returned to Lazard Brothers.
The older Marris brought into the Milner Group from the Indian Civil Service another
member who has assumed increasing importance in recent years. This was Malcolm
Hailey (since 1936 Lord Hailey). Hailey, a year older than Marris, took the Indian Civil
Service examinations with Marris in 1895 and followed in his footsteps thereafter.
Secretary to the Punjab government in 1907 and Deputy Secretary to the Government of
India the following year, he was a member of the Delhi Durbar Committee in 1912 and