but most urgent phase, but a permanent and far-reaching advance in the constitutional
evolution of the Empire. It met again in 1918, and was continued as the British Empire
Delegation in the peace negotiations at Versailles in 1919. Thus, at the moment of its
greatest need, the Empire was furnished by Milner with a common Executive. For the
Imperial War Cabinet could and did, take executive action, and its decisions bound the
Empire at large.”(3)
It was also Milner who insisted on and made the arrangements for the Imperial
Conference of 1921, acting in his capacity as Colonial Secretary, although he was forced,
by reason of poor health, to resign before the conference assembled. It was in this period
as Colonial Secretary that Milner, assisted by Amery, set up the plans for the new
"dyarchic" constitution for Malta, gave Egypt its full freedom, set Curtis to work on the
Irish problem, and gave Canada permission to establish its own legation in the United
States—the latter post filled only in 1926, and then by the son-in-law of Milner's closest
collaborator in the Rhodes Trust.
The Imperial Conferences of 1921 and 1923 were largely in the control of the Cecil
Bloc, at least so far as the United Kingdom delegation was concerned. Three of the five
members of this delegation in 1921 were from this Bloc (Balfour, Curzon, and Austen
Chamberlain), the other two being Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Of the members
of the other five delegations, only Smuts, from South Africa, is of significance to us. On
the secretarial staff for the United Kingdom delegation, we might point out the presence
of Hankey and Grigg.
In the Imperial Conference of 1923 we find a similar situation. Three of the four
delegates from the United Kingdom were of the Cecil Bloc (Lord Salisbury, Curzon, and
the Duke of Devonshire), the other being Prime Minister Baldwin. Smuts again led the
South African delegation. The secretarial staff was headed by Hankey, while the separate
Indian secretarial group was led by L. F. Rushbrook Williams. The latter, whom we have
already mentioned, had been associated with the Milner Group since he was elected a
Fellow of All Souls in 1914, had done special work in preparation of the Government of
India Act of 1919, and worked under Marris in applying that act after it became law. His
later career carried him to various parts of the Milner Group's extensive system, as can be
seen from the fact that he was a delegate to the Assembly of the League of Nations in
1925, Foreign Minister of Patiala State in 1925-1931, a member of the Indian Round
Table Conference in 1920-1932, a significant figure in the British Broadcasting
Corporation and the Ministry of Information in delegation. There is nothing to indicate
that Mr. Latham (later Sir John) was a member of the Milner Group, but in later years his
son, Richard, clearly was. Sir John had apparently made his first contact with the Milner
Group in 1919, when he, a Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne, was a
member of the staff of the Australian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and, while
there, became an assistant secretary to the British delegation. In 1922, at the age of forty-
five, he began a twelve-year term as an Australian M. P. During that brief period he was
Attorney General in 1925-1929, Minister of Industry in 1928-1929, Leader of the
Opposition in 1929-1931, Deputy Leader of the Majority in 1931-1932, and Deputy
Prime Minister, Attorney General, and Minister for Industry in 1932-1934. In addition, he
was British secretary to the Allied Commission on Czechoslovak Affairs in 1919, first
president of the League of Nations Union, Australian delegate to the League of Nations
in 1926 and 1932, Australian representative to the World Disarmament Conference in
1932, Chancellor of the University of Melbourne in 1939-1941; Australian Minister of
Japan in 1940-1941, and vice-president of the period 1932-1944, and is now a member of
the editorial staff of
At these two conferences, various members of the Cecil Bloc and Milner Group were
called in for consultation on matters within their competence. Of these persons, we might
mention the names of H. A. L. Fisher, Sir Eyre Crowe, Sir Cecil Hurst, Robert Cecil,
Leopold Amery, Samuel Hoare, and Sir Fabian Ware (of the Kindergarten).
The Imperial Conference of 1926 is generally recognized as one of the most important
of the postwar period. The Cecil Bloc and Milner Group again had three out of five
members of the United Kingdom delegation (Balfour, Austen Chamberlain, and Leopold
Amery), with Baldwin and Churchill the other two. Hankey was, as usual, secretary of
the conference. Of the other seven delegations, nothing is germane to our investigation
except that Vincent Massey was an adviser to the Canadian, and John Greig Latham was
a member of the Australian, Australian Red Cross in 1944. Since 1934, he has been Chief
Justice of Australia. In this brilliant, if belated, career, Sir John came into contact with the