Anglo-American Establishment полностью

It was during the effort to extend the Round Table organization to Australia that Curtis

first met Lord Chelmsford. He was later Viceroy of India (in 1916-1921), and there can

be little doubt that the Milner Group was influential in this appointment, for Curtis

discussed the plans which eventually became the Government of India Act of 1919 with

him before he went to India and consulted with him in India on the same subject in

1916.(5)

From 1911 to 1913, Curtis remained in England, devoting himself to the reports

coming in from the Round Table Groups on imperial organization, while Kerr devoted

himself to the publication of The Round Table itself. This was an extraordinary magazine.

The first issue appeared with the date 15 November 1910. It had no names in the whole

issue, either of the officers or of the contributors of the five articles. The opening

statement of policy was unsigned, and the only address to which communications could

be sent was "The Secretary, 175 Piccadilly, London, W." This anonymity has been

maintained ever since, and has been defended by the journal itself in advertisements, on

the grounds that anonymity gives the contributors greater independence and freedom. The

real reasons, however, were much more practical than this and included the fact that the

writers were virtually unknown and were so few in numbers, at first at least, as to make

the project appear ridiculous had the articles been signed. For example, Philip Kerr,

during his editorship, always wrote the leading article in every issue. In later years the

anonymity was necessary because of the political prominence of some of the

contributors. In general, the policy of the journal has been such that it has continued to

conceal the identity of its writers until their deaths. Even then, they have never been

connected with any specific article, except in the case of one article (the first one in the

first issue) by Lord Lothian. This article was reprinted in The Round Table after the

author's death in 1940.

The Round Table was essentially the propaganda vehicle of a handful of people and

could not have carried signed articles either originally, when they were too few, or later,

when they were too famous. It was never intended to be either a popular magazine or

self-supporting, but rather was aimed at influencing those in a position to influence public

opinion. As Curtis wrote in 1920, "A large quarterly like The Round Table is not

intended so much for the average reader, as for those who write for the average reader. It

is meant to be a storehouse of information of all kinds upon which publicists can draw.

Its articles must be taken on their merits and as representing nothing beyond the minds

and information of the individual writer of each."(6)

It is perhaps worth mentioning that the first article of the first issue, called "Anglo-

German Rivalry," was very anti-German and forms an interesting bit of evidence when

taken in connection with Curtis's statement that the problem of the Empire was raised in

1909 by the problem of what role South Africa would play in a future war with Germany.

The Group, in the period before 1914, were clearly anti-German. This must be

emphasized because of the mistaken idea which circulated after 1930 that the Cliveden

group, especially men like Lord Lothian, were pro-German. They were neither anti-

German in 1910 nor pro-German in 1938, but pro-Empire all the time, changing there

their attitudes on other problems as these problems affected the Empire. And it should be

realized that their love for the Empire was not mere jingoism or flag-waving (things at

which Kerr mocked within the Group) (7) but was based on the sincere belief that

freedom, civilization, and human decency could best be advanced through the

instrumentality of the British Empire.

In view of the specific and practical purpose of The Round Table—to federate the

Empire in order to ensure that the Dominions would join with the United Kingdom in a

future war with Germany—the paper could not help being a propagandist organ,

propagandist on a high level, it is true, but nonetheless a journal of opinion rather than a

journal of information. Every general article in the paper (excluding the reports from

representatives in the Dominions) was really an editorial—an unsigned editorial speaking

for the group as a whole. By the 1920s these articles were declaring, in true editorial

style, that " The Round Table does not approve of" something or other, or, "It seems to

The Round Table that" something else.

Later the members of the Group denied that the Group were concerned with the

propagation of any single point of view. Instead, they insisted that the purpose of the

Group was to bring together persons of various points of view for purposes of self-

education. This is not quite accurate. The Group did not contain persons of various points

of view but rather persons of unusual unanimity of opinion, especially in regard to goals.