Richard Jebb, John S. Ewart and the Round Table, 1898-1926

English Historical Review

Volumn 122, Issue 495, 2007, Pages 105-132

  Potter, Simon J ^a  

^a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND   (Ireland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 41949118583     PISSN: 00138266     EISSN: 14774534     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ehr/cel375     Document Type: Review

References (260)

1. Richard Jebb, Studies in Colonial Nationalism (London, 1905). Contemporaries used the term Dominions to refer to the settler colonies: in 1907 Australia and New Zealand were formally granted the Dominion status enjoyed by Canada since 1867; South Africa achieved Dominion status with Union in 1910; the Irish Free State became a Dominion in 1922. Newfoundland and India remained ambiguous cases.
2. Jebb, Studies in Colonial Nationalism, 291.
3. See also Richard Jebb, 'Colonial Nationalism', Empire Review (Aug. 1902), 12-4.
4. For a useful and perceptive overview of Jebb's political life, see J. D. B. Miller, Richard Jebb and the Problem of Empire (London, 1956).
5. For more on Jebb's work for the Morning Post, s ec S. J. Potter, News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System, 18/6-1922 (Oxford, 2003), 113-18.
6. On Curtis, the Kindergarten and the Round Table, see W. Nimocks, Milner's Young Men: The "Kindergarten" in Edwardian Imperial Affairs (Durham, 1968);
7. J. Kendle, The Round Table Movement and Imperial Union (Toronto, 1975);
8. A. C. May, The Round Table, 1910-66' (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford, 1995);
9. D. Lavin, From Empire to Commonwealth: A Biography of Lionel Curtis (Oxford, 1995);
10. J. Kendle, Federal Britain: A History (London, 1997), 79-104;
11. and I. R. Smith, 'Milner, the "Kindergarten" and South Africa', in A. Bosco and A. May (ed.), The Round Table: The Empire/Commonwealth and British Foreign Policy (London, 1997).
12. Lavin, Empire to Commonwealth, 107, 323.
13. N. Mansergh, The Commonwealth Experience, Volume I, the Durham Report to the Anglo-Irish Treaty (London, 1982 [1969]), 221.
14. A. May discusses the roots of this interpretation in The London "Moot", Dominion Nationalism and Imperial Federation' in Bosco and May (ed.), The Round Table, 223-4.
15. The interpretation is echoed in general textbook accounts such as D. Judd, Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1/65 to the Present (London, 1996), 152-3,
16. and D. Kennedy, Britain and Empire, 1880-1945 (London, 2002), 38-9.
17. For recent attempts to examine this issue using the concept of a 'British world' see P. A. Buckner and C. Bridge, 'Reinventing the British World', Round Table 368 (2003), 77-88,
18. and the essays collected in C. Bridge and K. Fedorowich (ed.), The British World: Diaspora, Culture and Identity (London, 2003),
19. also available as a special number of Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, xxxi, no. 2 (May 2003).
20. Richard Jebb, The Britannic Question: A Survey of Alternatives (London, 1913), 15.
21. For a more general discussion of the issue, see A. S. Thompson, The Language of Imperialism and the Meanings of Empire: Imperial Discourse in British Politics, 1895-1914', Journal of British Studies, xxxvi, no. 2 (Apr. 1997), 147-77.
22. In the case of Canada, see, for example O. D. Skelton, Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (2 vols, Toronto, 1921), especially ii, 284-7. In Australia, a similar trend became apparent in a body of historical and literary work that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s.
23. See here S. Ward, Australia and the British Embrace: The Demise of the Imperial Ideal (Melbourne, 2001), 5-6.
24. N. Penlington, Canada and Imperialism, 1896-1899 (Toronto, 1965),
25. and C. Berger, The Sense of Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism, 186/-1914 (Toronto, 1970).
26. This point was also made by R. Cook in The Politics of John W. Dafoe and the Free Press (Toronto, 1963), 24;
27. in the introduction to his edited version of The Dafoe-Sifton Correspondence, 1919-192/ (Altona, 1966), xiii-xiv,
28. and in 'Nationalism in Canada or Portnoy's Complaint Revisited', South Atlantic Quarterly, LXIX, no. 1 (winter 1970), 1-19, at 10-12.
29. For more recent repetition of the argument, see J. Eddy and D. Schreuder (ed.), The Rise of Colonial Nationalism: Australia, New Zealand Canada and South Africa First Assert Their Nationalities, 1880-1914 (Sydney, 1988), 7-8, 20.
30. To some extent, the same argument can be found in L. Foster, High Hopes: The Men and Motives of the Australian Round Table (Melbourne, 1986).
31. D. L. Cole, The Problem of "Nationalism" and "Imperialism" in British Settlement Colonies', Journal of British Studies, x, no. 2 (May 1971), 160-82.
32. See also Cole's review of Berger's Sense of Power, 'Canada's "Nationalistic" Imperialists', Journal of Canadian Studies, v, no. 3 (Aug. 1971), 44-9,
33. and his article '"The Crimson Thread of Kinship": Ethnic Ideas in Australia, 1870-1914', Historical Studies, xiv, no. 56 (Apr. 1971), 511-25, which looks more closely at race and Australian identity, but nevertheless claims that 'local Australian ethnocentrism could never become full-blown Australian nationalism ... because it was so vitally dependent upon Anglo-Saxonism and Caucasian racialism' (533).
34. N. Meaney, 'Britishness and Australian Identity: The Problem of Nationalism in Australian History and Historiography', Australian Historical Studies, xxxii, no. 116 (Apr. 2001), 76-90;
35. Ward, Australia and the British Embrace, 1-12.
36. Thompson, 'The Language of Imperialism'.
37. Britannic nationalism also appealed, for example, to ideas about religion and progress. See R. J. D. Page, 'Canada and the Imperial Idea in the Boer War Years', Journal of Canadian Studies, v, no. 1 (Feb. 1970), 33-49;
38. T. Cook, 'George R. Parkin and the Concept of Britannic Idealism', Journal of Canadian Studies, x, no. 3 (Aug. 1975), 15-31.
39. The non-racial aspect of Britannic nationalism meant that even non-white groups could claim to be 'British': for example see A. S. Thompson, 'The Languages of Loyalism in Southern Africa', English Historical Review, cxviii, no. 477 (June 2003), 617-50, at 635-9.
40. For a sceptical view of the importance of ideas of race and nationality in English thought, see P. Mandler, '"Race" and "Nation" in Mid-Victorian Thought', in S. Collini, R. Whatmore and B. Young (ed.), History, Religion, and Culture: British Intellectual History, 1750-1950 (Cambridge, 2000).
41. J. M. Ward, Colonial Self-Government: The British Experience, 1759-1856 (London, 1976).
42. John Brewer has defined the state as 'A territorially and jurisdictionally defined political entity in which public authority is distinguished from (although not unconnected to) private power, and which is manned by officials whose primary (though not sole) allegiance is to a set of political institutions under a single, that is sovereign and final, authority' (quoted in P. Harling, The Modern British State: An Historical Introduction [Cambridge, 2001], 1).
43. The division of authority over internal and external affairs makes this definition somewhat problematic in the case of the Dominions. Moreover, the nature of government in the Dominions differed from the 'colonial states' that existed in the Crown colonies. Nevertheless, Mansergh argues that The Dominions in 1909 are justly spoken of as comprising a Commonwealth of states within the British Empire' (The Commonwealth Experience, i, 23). I have thus applied the term to Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the analysis that follows.
44. See, for example J. Belich, Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders from Polynesian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century (Auckland, 1996), 368-75.
45. Kendle, The Round Table, 166-8. Miller also examines this opposition, focussing on the how Jebb and Curtis developed different conceptions of 'organic unity'.
46. See Jebb and the Problem of Empire, esp. 39-43.
47. Jebb also opposed 'home rule all round', the creation of a devolved federal government for the UK, while Curtis supported it. See Jebb, Britannic Question, 114-5
48. and Kendle, The Round Table, 130-55.
49. This current of thought had earlier informed Seeley's argument that as British migrants had taken their nationality with them, the creation of an overarching imperial state could be justified, a claim that Jebb was keen to refute. See J. R. Seeley, The Expansion of England: Two Courses of Lectures (London, 1883),
50. and Jebb, Studies in Colonial Nationalism, viii.
51. Hocken Library, Dunedin, William Downie Stewart papers, MS-0985-019/008 Curtis to W. Downie Stewart, 6 Aug. 1912.
52. In addition to writing on an occasional basis to a wide range of individuals in the Dominions, Jebb kept up a regular and long-running correspondence with a number of public men, including the Toronto lawyer E. E. A. DuVernet; the Canadian military writer and proponent of imperial federation Col. George T. Denison; Sandford Fleming, chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway and proponent of the Pacific Cable scheme; the Toronto financier A. J. Glazebrook and the Australian constitutional expert R. R. Garran. Jebb also maintained contacts with several prominent politicians in the Dominions, including William Lyon Mackenzie King and Alfred Deakin. The latter, as anonymous Australian correspondent for the Morning Post, kept in particularly close touch. Jebb's work for the Morning Post also enabled him to cement his connections with many Dominions journalists, induding John S. Willison (editor of the Toronto News and correspondent for the Morning Post and subsequently The Times and the Round Table);
53. Frank Fox of the Sydney Bulletin (who in 1909 came to work on the London staff of the Morning Post);
54. W. H. Triggs, editor of the Christchurch Press;
55. and A. R. Atkinson, a solicitor who wrote for the Wellington Evening Post and also became the New Zealand correspondent for Jebb's paper. Subscriptions to Dominion newspapers and press-cutting agencies meanwhile allowed Jebb to remain up-to-date with affaits around the empite.
56. See Jebb papers, series A, Garran to Jebb, 26 Feb. 1901 and 15 Feb. 1904: copy of Jebb to Hodgkinson, 2 Dec. 1902;
57. copy of Jebb to Canadian Press Clipping Bureau, 28 Dec. 1906,
58. and copy of Jebb to Australian Press Cutting Agency, 27 Apr. 1911.
59. See Potter, News and the British World, 180.
60. National Library of Australia, Canberra, Alfred Deakin papers, MS 1540/15/1562 Jebb to Alfred Deakin, 19 May 1907.
61. On his disillusionment with British politics, see for example Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to DuVernet, 4 Dec. 1911, and copy of Jebb to Fabian Ware, 30 July 1912.
62. Ibid., copy of Jebb to Arthur Hawkes, 19 June 1911;
63. copy of Jebb to Deakin, 22 June 1911.
64. On the reciprocity debate in Britain and Canada, see S. J. Potter, 'The Imperial Significance of the Canadian-American Reciprocity Proposals of 1911', Historical Journal, xlvii, no. 1 (Mar. 2004), 81-100.
65. Jebb applauded an article in the British News of Canada entitled 'How a Yankee looks at it', which developed this argument. See Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Hawkes, 4 Sept. 1911.
66. North York Central Library, Toronto, John A. Cooper papers, box 5, file 45, leaflet - The Canadian League, Its Growth and Progress-Bulletin No. 1, 18 Mar. 1911'.
67. For a transcript, see P. Stevens, The 1911 General Election: A Study in Canadian Politics (Toronto, 1970), 80-5.
68. For earlier examples of articles by Hawkes published in the British press, see The American Bid for Canadian Trade', The Times (London), 12 Feb. 1910,
69. and The Strength of American Enterprise in Canada', Nineteenth Century and After (July 1910).
70. For an analysis of the 1911 election results, see J. English, The Decline of Politics: The Conservatives and the Party System 1901-20 (Toronto, 1977), 53-69.
71. On the naval debate, see R. A. Preston, Canada and 'Imperial Defense': A Study of the Origins of the British Commonwealth's Defense Organization, 186/-1919 (Durham, 1967),
72. and M. L. Hadley and R. Sarty, Tin-Pots and Pirate Ships: Canadian Naval Forces and German Sea Raiders, 1880-1918 (Ottawa and Kingston, 1991).
73. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Hawkes, 30 July 1912.
74. Ibid., copy of Jebb to C. H. Cahan, 25 Sept. 1912.
75. Ibid., copy of Jebb to Hawkes, 1 Aug. 1913.
76. The Imperial Emigrant and His Political Religion' (Jan. 1912) and 'An Imperial Deadlock and the Way Out: An English Canadian's View' (July 1913).
77. Jebb papers, series A, Richard Feetham to Jebb, 14 Mar. 1906.
78. In Dec. 1908 Philip Kerr, another member of the Kindergarten, replaced Curtis as the Morning Post correspondent.
79. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to 'Victor', 27 May 1898.
80. Ibid., copy of Jebb to Herbert Brookes, 28 Mar. 1921.
81. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to DuVernet, 27 Apr. 1911.
82. Richard Jebb, The Imperial Conference (2 vols, London, 1911), especially the introduction to the first volume.
83. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Atkinson, 22 June 1911 ;
84. copy of Jebb to Garran, 2 Jan. 1912;
85. Richard Jebb, The Empire and Germany', United Empire (Jan. 1912), n-8.
86. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to H. J. Wilson, 1 June 1914.
87. Ibid., copy of Jebb to Deakin, 31 Oct. 1912.
88. Jebb, Britannic Question, 11-7, 34, 82. May, The Round Table, 1910-66', 96.
89. 'Ourselves and Our Purpose', Britannic Review (May 1914).
90. See Potter, News and the British World, 181-3.
91. Jebb papers, series A, Hawkes to Jebb, 31 May 1913.
92. The paper had already used language similar to Jebb, emphasising 'perpetual alliance', 'absolute equality', and 'policies determined upon in free Conference'. See Manitoba Free Press, 3 Sept. 1912,
93. quoted in Cook, Politics of Dafoe, 59.
94. Dafoe would later also talk about the aim of 'Britannic Alliance' - see Dafoe to Borden, 24 Jan. 1923, printed in Cook (ed.), Dafoe-Sifton Correspondence, 148.
95. May, "The Round Table, 1910-66', 123-6.
96. Jebb papers, series A, copies of Jebb to Ware, 2 June and 30 July 1912.
97. On the Round Table and the Canadian naval debate, see J. Eayrs, The Round Table Movement in Canada, 1909-1920', Canadian Historical Review, xxxviii, no. 1 (Mar. 1957), 1-20, at 8-10,
98. and Kendle, The Round Table, 115-24.
99. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Geoffrey Robinson, 27 Sept. 1912.
100. Ibid., Robinson to Jebb, 30 Sept. 1912. Borden's bill was eventually rejected by the Canadian senate.
101. J. S. Ewart, The Kingdom of Canada: Imperial Federation, the Colonial Conferences, the Alaska Boundary and Other Essays (Toronto, 1908), 1-30.
102. In a letter to Lord Knutsford, 18 July 1889, Macdonald had noted that Canada could have formed an 'auxiliary kingdom' instead of a Dominion, although he had not spelt out exactly what this would have meant. See Joseph Pope, Atemoirs of the Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald G.C.B., First Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada (2 vols, Ottawa, 1894), i, 312-3.
103. Ewart, Kingdom of Canada, 28-9.
104. J. S. Ewan, 'No. 1 - Canadian Independence', The Kingdom Papers (Mar. 1911),
105. and 'No. 10 - Difficulties, Dangers, Duties', 291-2, Kingdom Papers (June 1912).
106. D. Cole, 'John S. Ewart and Canadian Nationalism', Historical Papers: Canadian Historical Association (1969), 62-73, at 65.
107. Ellis M. Cook, 'Nationalism versus Imperialism', United Empire (Aug. 1911), 571-3.
108. John S. Ewart, 'Nationalism versus Imperialism', United Empire (Oct. 1911), 713-18.
109. Richard Jebb 'Nationalism versus Imperialism', United Empire (Nov. 1911), 768-73; Cook, ibid., 773-4.
110. 'Editorial Notes and Comments', United Empire (Apr. 1912).
111. Ewart, Kingdom of Canada, 26.
112. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Ewart, 9 Jan. 1913.
113. Ibid.,
114. Ewart to Jebb, 26 Feb. 1913.
115. Jebb defined 'organic' as 'units spontaneously coalescing so that their several functions are exercised reciprocally to a common purpose' - see Jebb, Britannic Question, 192 n.
116. See Miller, Jebb and the Problem of Empire, 43-5.
117. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Ewart, 23 Apr. 1913.
118. 'Ourselves and Our Purpose', Britannic Review (May 1914).
119. Jebb and Ewart also both supported increased practical co-operation through imperial cables, preferential tariffs and improved postal services and transport links. See Ewart, Kingdom of Canada, 137-48, 275-88;
120. Miller, Jebb and the Problem of Empire, 43-5.
121. Jebb, Britannic Question, 23 n.
122. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Hawkes, 28 Aug. 1913;
123. see also copy of Jebb to J. C. Walsh, 20 Feb. 1914.
124. Kendle, The Round Table, 181-205,
125. and Lavin, Empire to Commonwealth, 124-30.
126. The book anticipated a more comprehensive study of the Commonwealth: only the first volume of this projected series appeared, however, published for private circulation as The Project of a Commonwealth (London, 1915), then republished as The Commonwealth of Nations (London, 1916).
127. May, 'The Round Table, 1910-66', 104;
128. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa (henceforth LAC), John S. Willison papers 29/223/21875-8 copy of Milner to Glazebrook, 8 Mar. 1916.
129. May, 'The Round Table, 1910-66', 95-6, 101-6.
130. W. G. Osmond, Frederic Eggleston: An Intellectual in Australian Politics (Sydney, 1975), esp. 59-67, 81-107.
131. In Canada, at least some members saw the Round Table largely as a study group, rather than as a means to encourage imperial federation. See C. R. J. Rickerd, 'Canada and the Elliptical Round Table, 1908-1917'(Hons. thesis, Harvard, 1995), 40-2,
132. and Rickerd, 'Canada, the Round Table and the Idea of Imperial Federation', in May and Bosco (ed.), The Round Table, 198-9.
133. Cooper papers, box 27, file 1, printed copy of memorandum issued by the Round Table in Canada, 10 Feb. 1917.
134. On the Canadian response to Curtis's book, see Kendle, The Round Table, 187-98, 207-13;
135. Rickerd, 'Canada and the Elliptical Round Table', 69-106,
136. and Rickerd, 'Canada and the Round Table', 204-9.
137. University of Melbourne Archives, Melbourne, Sir William Harrison Moore papers, 11/6/2/5 'Notes for memo on history of Round Table to 1935'; 11/6/3/6 minutes of conference of groups, 20-21 Sept. 1919.
138. Foster, High Hopes, 85-6.
139. C. P. Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict: A History of Canadian External Policies (2 vols, Toronto, 1977 and 1981), i, 56, 75, 80-1;
140. J. E. Kendle, The Colonial and Imperial Conferences, 1887-1911: A Study in Imperial Organization (London, 1967), 174-8.
141. Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 204-8.
142. On the inception of the Imperial War Cabinet, see S. Roskill, Hankey: Man of Secrets (3 vols, London, 1970, 1972 and 1974), i, esp. 365-6.
143. See also Thompson, Imperial Britain, 171-5.
144. P. G. Wigley, Canada and the Transition to Commonwealth: British-Canadian Relations, 1917-1926 (Cambridge, 1977), 29.
145. Ibid., 9-15;
146. R. C. Brown, 'Sir Robert Borden, the Great War and Anglo-Canadian Relations', in J. S. Moir (ed.), Character and Circumstance: Essays in Honour of Donald Grant Creighton (Toronto, 1970), 207-17.
147. A. B. Keith, Selected Speeches and Documents on British Colonial Policy, 1/63-191/ (2 vols, London, 1933 [1918]), ii, 380-1,387,398.
148. See also Brown, 'Borden and Anglo-Canadian Relations', 216-20.
149. See Z. A. Lash, Defence and Foreign Affairs: A Suggestion for the Empire (Toronto, 1917).
150. On Lash see Kendle, The Round Table, 188-9,
151. and Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 200.
152. Quoted in Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 210.
153. On the Round Table and the Imperial War Cabinet, see Kendle, The Round Table, 214-17;
154. May, 'The Round Table, 1910-66', 108-9, 169-71,
155. and Willison papers, 29/223/21886-9 copy of Milner to Glazebrook, 21 Apr. 1917. In The Problem of the Commonwealth, for example on 214, Curtis had already stressed the need for an imperial cabinet, albeit in conjunction with an imperial parliament. For the Canadian Round Tabler response, see Eayrs, 'Round Table Movement in Canada', 18-9.
156. Harry Ransom Centre, Austin, Texas, J. L. Garvin papers, Alfred Milner to J. L. Garvin, 27 May 1917.
157. John. S. Ewart, 'No. 21-Imperial Projects and the Republic of Canada', Kingdom Papers (1917).
158. Ewan, 'Canadian Independence'. This was also one of the reasons why he had opposed imperial federation.
159. John S. Ewart, Independence Papers: Reprints Principally from the Canadian Nation and the Statesman (Ottawa, 1921), 3-4.
160. Ewart, 'Canadian Independence'.
161. Ewart, Independence Papers, 51-2.
162. Ewart, 'Imperial Projects and the Republic of Canada', 388-9.
163. For such an interpretation, see, for example M. Donelly, Dafoe of the Free Press (Toronto, 1968),
164. and more subtly Donelly, 'J. W. Dafoe and Lionel Curtis-Two Concepts of the Commonwealth', Political Studies, viii, 2 (June 1960), 170-82.
165. Keith, British Colonial Policy, i, preface.
166. Jebb papers, series A, A. B. Keith to Jebb, 25 May 1921.
167. On Keith, see R. F. Shinn Jr, 'Arthur Berriedale Keith: The Logic of Responsible Government and Closer Union', in Bosco and May (ed.), The Round Table;
168. also more generally R. F. Shinn Jr, Arthur Berriedale Keith, 1879-1944: Chief Ornament of Scottish Learning (Aberdeen, 1990).
169. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Leopold Amery, 22 Oct. 1912.
170. See also Jebb, Britannic Question, 85-6,
171. and Richard Jebb, 'Empire Development Board: Reception of the Proposal by the Royal Commission', United Empire (Dec. 1912), 979-85.
172. Jebb papers, series A, copy of unpublished letter to Morning Post, 17 June 1918.
173. See also copy of unpublished article for National Review, 17 June 1918.
174. Richard Jebb, The Britannic Commonwealth', Overseas (Sept. 1917).
175. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Wilson, 19 May 1918.
176. Richard Jebb, 'Empire Reconstruction: A Proposal to Autonomists', United Empire (May 1917), 341.
177. Cooper papers, box 18, file 24, Cooper to Jebb, 4 Mar. 1921.
178. For Dafoe's views on empire and the Canadian link with Britain, see Cook, Politics of Dafoe, 21-6.
179. Cooper papers, box 18, file 47, Dafoe to Cooper, 22 Feb. 1921.
180. Jebb papers, series A, Cooper to Jebb, 14 Apr. 1919;
181. Cooper papers, box 18, file 47, Jebb to Cooper, 26 Jan. 1921;
182. copy of Cooper to Jebb, 14 Feb. 1921.
183. Jebb papers, series A, J. Vernon McKenzie to Jebb, 18 Apr. 1921.
184. See, for example Richard Jebb, The Imperial Conference - A Retrospect', Production (Sept. 1918),
185. and Jebb, 'Preference At Last', Production (June 1919). Compare this with Ewart's questioning of the practicability of imperial preference: see Jebb papers, series A, Ewart to Jebb, 2 Aug. 1913.
186. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to Tilby, 14 Mar. 1919.
187. Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 207-9, 216;
188. Borden's speech to the Empire Parliamentary Association, 21 June 1918, as reponed in Cmd. 325,
189. reprinted in A. B. Keith, Speeches and Documents on the British Dominions, 1918-1931 (London, 1931), 5.
190. In Australia, the Melbourne Round Table group meanwhile became increasingly disillusioned with Lloyd George's failure to consult the Imperial War Cabinet on important issues. See N. Meaney, 'In History's Page: Identity and Myth', in Deryck Sdireuder and Stuart Ward (ed.), Australia's Empire (Oxford, forthcoming).
191. Jebb papers, series A, Amery to Jebb, 10 Oct. 1918 and 3 Jan. 1917.
192. Ibid., copy of Jebb to Amery, 13 Oct. 1918.
193. Ibid., Amery to Jebb, 22 Oct. 1918.
194. See also Amery to Jebb, 3 Nov. 1920.
195. News International Archive, London (henceforth NIA), Willison collection, Willison to B. K. Long, 14 May 1921.
196. John Willison, 'Canada in the Empire', Nineteenth Century and After (July 1922).
197. NIA, Willison collection, Willison to F. G. R. S. Peterson, 25 Apr. 1923.
198. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to E. Wrench, 26 Nov. 1919.
199. Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 240-51.
200. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to W. S. Fielding, 14 July 1919;
201. unpublished letter to The Times, 25 Mar. 1919.
202. Jebb papers, series A, copy of Jebb to W. C. Bridgeman, 26 Mar. 1919;
203. copy of Jebb to Wilson, 5 Apr. 1919;
204. copy of Jebb to Brookes, 12 May 1923.
205. See Ewart's articles in the Ottawa Citizen, 26 Aug. to 1 Sept. 1919, for his general critique of both.
206. Ewart, Independence Papers, 61.
207. Jebb papers, series A, Cooper to Jebb, 11 Dec. 1919.
208. Ibid., series A, copy of Jebb to Cooper, 7 July 1921.
209. Dafoe thought much the same of Ewart's post-war 'Canada First' movement. See Cook, Politics of Dafoe, 128.
210. A pre-war parallel could also perhaps be drawn between Ewart's idea of a 'Kingdom of Canada' and Arthur Griffith's suggestion that Ireland and Britain could be joined in a dual monarchy along the lines of the Austro-Hungarian model. See Arthur Griffith, The Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland (Dublin, 1904). I am grateful to William O'Reilly for his advice on this issue.
211. For Meighen's views on the importance of Canada's imperial connection, see Roger Graham, Arthur Meighen (2 vols, Toronto, 1960 and 1963), i, 198.
212. Jebb papers, series A, Ewart to Jebb, 28 Feb. 1921.
213. Ibid., copy of Jebb to Cooper, 7 July 1921.
214. On the Conference see Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 334-48,
215. and Wigley, Canada and the Transition to Commonwealth, 117-29.
216. On Canadian representation at Washington, see Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 313-17.
217. Jebb papers, series A, Jebb to Gregory, 16 July 1921.
218. Miller, for example, devoted little attention to Jebb's activities after 1914. See Jebb and the Problem of Empire, 23-4.
219. Jebb, Empire in Eclipse, especially the introduction.
220. Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 299-300;
221. John S. Ewart, The Roots and Causes of the Wan (1914-1918) (2 vols, London, 1925).
222. John S. Ewart, Canada and British Wars (Ottawa, c. 1925-6), 19-20.
223. John S. Ewart, 'No. 1 - Canada and the Next War', Independence Papers (May 1925);
224. John S. Ewart, 'No. 2 - The Next War and Consultation', Independence Papers (June 1925).
225. Cook, Politics of Dafoe, 92-7.
226. Ibid., 139-44, 182;
227. D. J. Hall, Clifford Sifton (2 vols, Vancouver, 1981 and 1985), ii, 294, 311-16.
228. See also Ramsay Cook, 'J. W. Dafoe at the Imperial Conference, 1923', Canadian Historical Review, xli, no. 1 (Mar. 1960), 19-40,
229. and J. W. Dafoe, Clifford Sifton in Relation to His Times (Toronto, 1931), 460-78.
230. Amery denied that pressure from Canada or any other Dominion impelled British policy. See notes by Amery printed in Terence de Vere White, Kevin O'Higgins (Dublin, 1986 [London, 1948]), 247-8.
231. This view is confirmed by Wigley, Canada and the Transition to Commonwealth, 279-83.
232. Indeed, Dafoe himself claimed that it was 'timid, colonially minded Canadians' rather than British attitudes that had earlier blocked change. See Dafoe to Sifton, 12 Feb. 1923, printed in Cook (ed.), Dafoe-Sifton Correspondence, 153.
233. See also Dafoe to Sifton, 20 Nov. 1926, printed in ibid., 254-5.
234. See, for example Dafoe to Sifton, 26 Aug. 1919, printed in Cook (ed.), Dafoe-Sifton Correspondence, 11-2;
235. Dafoe to Sifton, 18 May 1921, printed in ibid., 69-74,
236. and Dafoe to Sifton, 12 Feb. 1923, printed in ibid., 150-3.
237. Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 332.
238. LAC, Mackenzie King Diaries Online, www.collectionscanada.ca/05/0532, entry for 18 Jan. 1924.
239. See also, for example entry for 21 Apr. 1924. On Ewart's death in 1933, Dafoe presented a more positive appraisal than in his earlier private writings.
240. See J. W. Dafoe, The Ideas and Influence of John S. Ewart', Canadian Historical Review, xiv, no. 2 (June 1933), 136-42.
241. Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, i, 238-9, 299-300;
242. Cole, 'Ewart and Canadian Nationalism', 72.
243. Eddy and Schreuder (ed.), Rise of Colonial Nationalism, 65.
244. Miller, Jebb and the Problem of Empire, 47.
245. See also the essays collected in Eddy and Schreuder (ed.), Rise of Colonial Nationalism.
246. See P.J. Marshall, 'Imperial Britain', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, xxiii, no. 3 (Sept. 1995), 379-94.
247. Willison papers, 9/74/6223-4, A. H. U. Colquhoun to Willison, c. 1919. Here Colquhoun, assistant editor of the Toronro News, was adapting Milton.
248. G. Manin, The Idea of "Imperial Federation" ', in R. Hyam and G. Martin (ed.), Reappraisals in British Imperial History (London, 1975), 134.
249. Cole, 'Ewart and Canadian Nationalism', 67-9.
250. May The London "Moot", Dominion Nationalism and Imperial Federation', 229.
251. Kendle, 187-98, 207-14;
252. Rickerd, 'Canada and the Elliptical Round Table' and 'Canada and the Round Table'.
253. Although a Round Tabler who wanted an equal voice in empire foreign policy rather than Canadian autonomy in external affairs, Willison was not convinced by Curtis's book. See NIA, Dawson collection, Willison to Robinson, 31 Jan. 1916,
254. and also Willison, 'Canada in the Empire'. By 1921,
255. he was expressing views that approximated Jebb's - see, for example his speech at the Second Imperial Press Conference, Ottawa, 1921, quoted in R. Donald (ed.), The Imperial Press Conference in Canada (London, 1921), 132-3.
256. In their Rise of Colonial Nationalism Eddy and Schreuder note that the pre-war 'transitional period' was open to 'a range of later developments' (5), but subsequently claim that the Dominions' connection with Britain was becoming 'more conditional with each passing year' (32, emphasis in original) and that the First World War 'cooled imperial ardours', 139 both in Britain and Australia. For a nuanced view of the impact of the war on the relationship between Britain and Australia,
257. see E. M. Andrews, The Anzac Illusion: Anglo-Australian Relations During World War I (Cambridge, 1993), esp. 213-25.
258. Ged Martin and Philip Wigley have also remarked on the continuities between pre- and interwar debates. See G. Martin, The Irish Free State and the Evolution of the Commonwealth', in Hyam and Martin (ed.), Reappraisals, 220-2,
259. and Wigley, Canada and the Transition to Commonwealth, 283.
260. J. Darwin, 'A Third British Empire? The Dominion Idea in Imperial Polities', in Judith Brown and Wm. R. Louis (ed.), The Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume IV, the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 1999).