Anglo-American Establishment полностью

Kindergarten at New College, was a foreign correspondent of The Times for ten years

(1897-1907) and Chirol's assistant for five (1907-1912), before he became Chirol's

successor in the Foreign Department and Grigg's successor in the Imperial Department,

thus combining the two. He resigned from The Times in 1914 to become editor of the

Daily Telegraph in Sydney, Australia, and was subsequently a very important figure in

Australian newspaper life.

This account, by no means complete, shows clearly that the Milner Group controlled

The Times, indirectly from 1912 if not earlier, and directly from 1922. The importance of

this control should be obvious. The Times, although of a very limited circulation (only

about 35,000 at the beginning of the century, 50,000 at the outbreak of the First World

War, and 187,000 in 1936), was the most influential paper in England. The reason for this

influence is not generally recognized, although the existence of the condition itself is

widely known. The influence depended upon the close relationship between the paper

and the Foreign Office. This relationship, as we are trying to show, was the result of the

Milner Group's influence in both.

This influence was not exercised by acting directly on public opinion, since the Milner

Group never intended to influence events by acting through any instruments of mass

propaganda, but rather hoped to work on the opinions of the small group of "important

people," who in turn could influence wider and wider circles of persons. This was the

basis on which the Milner Group itself was constructed; it was the theory behind the

Rhodes Scholarships; it was the theory behind " The Round Table and the Royal Institute

of International Affairs; it was the theory behind the efforts to control All Souls, New

College, and Balliol and, through these three, to control Oxford University; and it was the

theory behind The Times. No effort was made to win a large circulation for The Times,

for, in order to obtain such a circulation, it would have been necessary to make changes

in the tone of the paper that would have reduced its influence with the elite, to which it

had been so long directed. The theory of "the elite" was accepted by the Milner Group

and by The Times, as it was by Rhodes. The historian of The Times recognizes this and,

after describing the departure from Printing House Square of Bell, Chirol, and Buckle,

says, "It is a valid criticism of the 'Olaf Gang' that they had not realized that they were in

the habit of valuing news according to the demands and interests of a governing class too

narrowly defined for the twentieth century." It was on this issue that the "Old Gang"

disputed with Northcliffe in the period 1908-1912 and that Dawson disputed with

Northcliffe in 1919. Although the new owner protested to all who would listen, in 1908

and later, that he would not try to make The Times into a popular paper, he was, as The

History of The Times shows, incapable of judging the merits of a newspaper by any other

standard than the size of its circulation. After he was replaced as chief proprietor by

Astor, and Dawson re-occupied the editor's chair, the old point of view was reestablished.

The Times was to be a paper for the people who are influential, and not for the masses.

The Times was influential, but the degree of its influence would never be realized by

anyone who examined only the paper itself. The greater part of its influence arose from

its position as one of several branches of a single group, the Milner Group. By the

interaction of these various branches on one another, under the pretense that each branch

was an autonomous power, the influence of each branch was increased through a process

of mutual reinforcement. The unanimity among the various branches was believed by the

outside world to be the result of the influence of a single Truth, while really it was the

result of the existence of a single group. Thus, a statesman (a member of the Group)

announces a policy. About the same time, the Royal Institute of International Affairs

publishes a study on the subject, and an Oxford don, a Fellow of All Souls (and a

member of the Group) also publishes a volume on the subject (probably through a

publishing house, like G. Bell and Sons or Faber and Faber, allied to the Group). The

statesman's policy is subjected to critical analysis and final approval in a "leader" in The Times, while the two books are reviewed (in a single review) in The Times Literary

Supplement. Both the "leader" and the review are anonymous but are written by members

of the Group. And finally, at about the same time, an anonymous article in The Round

Table strongly advocates the same policy. The cumulative effect of such tactics as this,

even if each tactical move influences only a small number of important people, is bound