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VIII. The Erosion of Foreign Office Influence in the Making of Foreign Policy, 1916–1918

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Roberta M. Warman
Roberta M. Warman
Affiliation:
London Scholl of Economics and Political Science
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Extract

Lord Hardinge, returning to the Foreign Office as Permanent Undersecretary in June 1916, after an interval of six years spent as Viceroy of India, remarked that he could scarcely recognize the pre-war Foreign Office in the structure with which he was confronted. Hardinge was thinking of the more obvious changes wrought by the war on the Foreign Office, where the work had increased dramatically since August, 1914 – indeed, by 1918, it was estimated that it had ‘more than quintupled since the outbreak of hostilities’ – and the resulting increase in staff had produced almost insurmountable practical difficulties. Yet there were other, more subtle ways in which the Foreign Office of 1916 differed from that over which Hardinge had presided from 1906 to 1910. Lord Bertie, British Ambassador in Paris, hinted at what was perhaps the most fundamental change when, writing to congratulate Hardinge on his appointment, he commented: ‘I think you will find that the Foreign Office is in great part a “pass-on” department viz. it issues instructions at the instance of other offices often without considering whether such instructions are advisable or feasible…’ Bertie's comment was to prove as relevant to the second as to the first half of the war. Indeed, there were occasions during the 1916–18 period when the Foreign Office might more properly have been described as a ‘passed-over’ department with little influence on the policy-making process.

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 1972 , pp. 133 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 Hardinge to Bertie, 27 June 1916: Hardinge MSS, 1916, vol. 1. I am indebted to the following for permission to quote from MSS: the Dowager Viscountess Hardinge (Hardinge MSS); the First Beaverbrook Foundation (Lloyd George MSS); the Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford (Milner MSS).

2 Memorandum prepared in the Foreign Office for the War Cabinet on the Subject of Accommodation, 15 Mar. 1918: F.O.899/4.

3 In this memorandum, op. cit., ie was calculated that the clerical staff of the Foreign Office had increased from about 130 to over 500 in three and a half years of war. The memorandum stated: ‘Means have hitherto been found to house nearly the whole of this large body within the Foreign Office building… Practically every waiting room has had to be given up and utilized for accommodating staff. Foreign diplomats and other distinguished visitors are perforce compelled to stand about the passages, and the Hall and corridors are encumbered with presses and packing cases.’

4 Bertie to Hardinge, 25 June 1916: Hardinge MSS, 1916, vol. 1.

5 For an account of Hardinge's work as Permanent Under-Secretary from 1906 until 1910, see Steiner, Zara S., ‘Grey, Hardinge and the Foreign Office, 1906–10’, The Historical Journal, 1967, x, 415–40. I am indebted to Mrs Steiner for her information and advice on the subject of the Foreign Office during the First World War.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Avon, Lord, The Reckoning (1965), p. 183.Google Scholar

7 Grey of Falloden, Twenty-Five Years (1925), II, 166.Google Scholar

8 For an account of the Foreign Office during the period 1914–16, see Steiner, Zara S., The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914 (1969), pp. 164–71;Google Scholar see also Collins, Doreen, Aspects of British Politics, 1904–1919 (1965), ch. 4.Google Scholar

9 Bertie to Hardinge, 25 June 1916, op. cit.

10 Lloyd George to Derby, 15 Mar. 1917: Lloyd George MSS F/14/4/27.

11 Memorandum by Headlam-Morley, Sir James, The Origins and Procedure of the Conference (I): F.0.371/14935.Google Scholar This memorandum was a draft of a chapter in a general history of the Peace Settlement which Headlam-Morley was writing, and which was circulated in the Foreign Office as a Confidential Print in 1930.

12 Foreign Office minute on telegram from Clerk, Sir G. (Romanoff) to Hardinge, 26 Jan. 1917: F.O.371/3043.Google Scholar

13 Memorandum by Drogheda, Lord, Italy and the Partition of the Turkish Empire, 15 Jan. 1917: F.O.371/3043.Google Scholar The only dissentient voice in the Foreign Office on the question of Smyrna was that of Sir Eric Drummond (Private Secretary to Balfour) who, in a minute to Balfour of 13 Mar. 1917 (F.O.371/3043) wrote: ‘It seems to me that all the minutes written and proposals made by the Foreign Office start from the thesis that at all costs Smyrna must not be given to Italy, a thesis I believe to be entirely mistaken’.

14 Foreign Office minute on Buchanan's telegram no. 614, 2 May 1917: F.O.371/3010.

15 Hardinge to Bertie, 27 Apr. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 3.

16 War Cabinet, meeting no. 124, 23 Apr. 1917: Cab. 23/2.

17 Hardinge to Bertie, 27 Apr. 1917, op. cit.

18 Davies, Joseph, The Prime Minister's Secretariat (1951), pp. 62–3.Google Scholar

19 Quoted in Craig, G. and Gilbert, F., The Diplomats (1953), p. 19.Google Scholar

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22 For Hankey's activities as Head of the Cabinet Secretariat, 1916–18, sec Roskill, Stephen, Hankey, op. cit. pp. 334–634.Google Scholar

23 Ibid. p. 344 and 349.

24 In a letter to Balfour of 22 Oct. 1917 (F.O.800/207) Long wrote: ‘ … the [Dominions’] Prime Ministers are capable of forming their own “appreciations” … and will lose nothing by not reading them through Captain Amery's spectacles.’ Balfour minuted: ‘I entirely agree with Mr Long …’

25 Minute by Hardinge on Memorandum by the Intelligence Bureau of the Department of Information on the Russian Statement of War Aims, 25 May 1917: F.O.371/3010.

26 Memorandum by Beaverbrook on the Ministry of Information, 13 June 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/4/5/21.

27 See, for example, Rodd to Balfour, 7 Nov. 1918: F.O.800/203.

28 See Northcliffe to Balfour, 24 Feb. 1918; Drummond's minute to Balfour, 25 Feb. 1918; Balfour to Northcliffe, 26 Feb. 1918: F.O.800/213.

29 See Balfour to Lloyd George, 22 Aug. 1918: F.O.800/207.

30 Balfour to Lloyd George, 31 July 1918: F.O.800/207.

31 Beaverbrook to Lloyd George, 24 June 1918, enclosed in Northcliffe to Balfour, 7 July 1918: F.O.800/212.

32 Balfour to Geddes, 11 Apr. 1918: F.O.800/207.

33 Balfour to Northcliffe, 9 July 1918: F.O.800/212.

34 Beaverbrook to Lloyd George, 22 Aug. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/4/5/35.

35 Beaverbrook accused Hardinge of having deliberately and successfully schemed to keep the intelligence officials of the former Department of Information in the employment of the Foreign Office, thus depriving the Ministry of Information of their experience (Memorandum by Beaverbrook, 13 June 1918, op. cit.). For the Foreign Office view of the arrangements made for the transfer to the Foreign Office of the Intelligence Division of the Department of Information, see the statement circulated to the Cabinet by Balfour, 5 Feb. 1918: F.O.899/4.

36 Beaverbrook to Lloyd George, 24 June 1918 (see n. 31).

37 Quoted in Craig and Gilbert, The Diplomats, p. 28.

38 Hankey's minute to Lloyd George, undated but evidently May 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/23/2/34.

39 Memorandum by Drummond on the Sixtus Peace Negotiations, 9 May 1918: F.O.800/200. Sixte was evidently anxious that the Foreign Office should know nothing of his negotiations with the Prime Minister: during his visit to London in May 1917 he had an interview with J. D. Gregory of the War Department of the Foreign Office, whom he knew; he put Gregory on his honour not to reveal what took place at this meeting ‘… as Sixtus said he was carrying on negotiations with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Office must not be made aware of them’ (Drummond's memorandum, op cit.).

40 See Hankey's minute to Lloyd George, May 1918; also Hankey to Lloyd George, 11 May 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/23/2/33.

41 The Emperor gave Sixte a second letter on 9 May, which the Prince showed to Lloyd George on 23 May 1917: see George, David Lloyd, War Memoirs (1938), pp. 1196–8.Google Scholar

42 Hankey to Lloyd George, 11 May 1918, loc cit.

43 This was enclosed in Hankey to Lloyd George, II May 1918, in Hankey's minute to Lloyd George of May 1918, both loc. cit.; and in Hankey to Lloyd George, 15 May 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/23/2/35.

44 Hankey's minute to Lloyd George, May 1918, loc. cit.

45 See Enclosure 2 in Caillard to Lloyd George, 24 Aug. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/1/16.

46 See, for example, Davies to Caillard, 21 Jan. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/6/1/11.

47 See Memorandum dated 27 June 1917, enclosed in Caillard to Lloyd George, 12 Jan. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/6/1/8; see also Caillard to Lloyd George, 1 Aug. 1917: Lloyd George MSS F/6/1/1.

48 See George, Lloyd, War Memoirs, pp. 1504–9.Google Scholar

49 See Enclosure 2 in Caillard to Lloyd George, 24 Aug. 1918, loc. cit.; and Zaharoff to Caillard, 15 Dec. 1917: Lloyd George MSS F/6/1/5.

50 Memorandum dated 27 June 1917; copy of letter to Caillard initialled ‘J.T.D.’, 9 Jan. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/6/1/7; and Davies to Caillard, 21 Jan. 1918, loc. cit.

51 Memorandum by Zaharoff, dated 29 Jan. 1918, enclosed in Caillard to Lloyd George, 4 Feb. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/6/1/13.

52 War Cabinet meeting no. 325(A), 18 Jan. 1918: Cab. 23/16.

53 Milner to Lloyd George, 27 Feb. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/38/3/16.

54 Roskill, Stephen, Hanfey, op. cit. p. 503.Google Scholar

55 War Cabinet meeting no. 357(A), 1 Mar. 1918: Cab. 23/16.

56 Hankey to Lloyd George, 2 Mar. 1918: Cab. 23/16.

57 War Cabinet meeting no. 359(A), 5 Mar. 1918: Cab. 23/16.

58 War Cabinet meeting no. 360(A), 6 Mar. 1918: Cab. 23/16.

59 Hankey to Balfour, 8 Mar. 1918: F.O.800/207.

60 Hardinge to Buchanan, 1 Feb. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 1. The Foreign Office could, in fact, have had complete control of this mission, for Milner was asked to lead it only after both Hardinge and Balfour had refused: see Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, Old Diplomacy (1947), p. 206.Google Scholar

61 See Balfour's telegram to the King and War Cabinet, 28 May 1917 (Balfour MSS 49699), in which he expressed his ‘grave doubts’ about the proposal to send Northcliffe to the United States.

62 War Cabinet meeting no. 151, 31 May 1917: Cab. 23/2.

63 Balfour to Lloyd George, 10 Dec. 1917: F.O.800/199.

64 Memorandum by Smuts on Peace Conversations with Austria-Hungary and Germany, 13 Dec. 1917: F.O.800/214; see also Balfour's Notes on Smuts’ Paper, 15 Dec. 1917: F.O.800/214.

65 See Hamilton, Mary Agnes, Arthur Henderson (1938), pp. 124–5; and nn. 80, 81 below.Google Scholar

66 Pound, R. and Harmsworth, G., Northcliffe (1959), pp. 538–41.Google Scholar

67 Collins, D., Aspects of British Policy …, op. cit. p. 190.Google Scholar

68 Lloyd George to H. Gwynne, 8 Dec. 1916: Lloyd George MSS F/22/4/2.

69 War Cabinet meeting no. 25, 2 Jan. 1917: Cab. 23/1.

70 Carson to Lloyd George, 13 Dec. 1916: Lloyd George MSS F/ 6/2/2, and 10 Dec. 1916: Lloyd George MSS F/6/2/3.

71 Balfour to Lloyd George, 29 Dec. 1916: Lloyd George MSS F/3/2/4.

72 Lloyd George to Balfour, 29 Dec. 1916: Lloyd George MSS F/3/2/6.

73 See Esher to Lloyd George, 6 May 1917: Lloyd George MSS F/16/1/8; Esher to Lloyd George, 9 May 1917: Lloyd George MSS F/16/1/9; Esher to Derby, 9 May 1917: Lloyd George MSS F/14/4/41.

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75 See Churchill, Randolph, Lord Derby, King of Lancashire (1959), pp. 335–52;Google ScholarGollin, A. M., Proconsul in Politics (1964). pp. 508–10.Google Scholar

76 See Balfour to Lloyd George, 15 Apr. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/3/3/7.

77 Derby to Lloyd George, 16 Apr. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/14/5/16.

78 Lloyd George MSS F/29/2/19.

79 On Derby's retirement The Times commented: ‘… when he first came to Paris, [Lord Derby] declared that… the only reasons why he had been offered the post were that he did not speak French and was not a diplomatist… He does now speak French and he has become a diplomatist…’; quoted in Randolph Churchill, op. cit. p. 381.

80 War Cabinet meeting no. 144, minute 1, 23 May 1917: Cab. 23/2.

81 See F.O. telegram to Buchanan, 23 May 1917, original draft by Hardinge, with alterations by Cecil: F.O.371/3012.

82 Henderson to Lloyd George, 14 June 1917: Lloyd George MSS F/27/3/13.

83 War Cabinet meeting no. 289, 3 Dec. 1917: Cab. 23/4: for Buchanan's immediate reaction to this decision, see Ullman, R. H., Intervention and the War (1961), pp. 47–9.Google Scholar

84 Memorandum by Milner and Cecil on suggested policy in Russia, 22 Dec. 1917: F.O.371/3018.

85 War Cabinet meeting no. 306, 26 Dec. 1917: Cecil MSS 51103.

86 Buchanan's private telegram, 22 Dec. 1917: F.O.371/3020.

87 Pound, R. and Harmsworth, G., Northcliffe, op. cit. pp. 528–9.Google Scholar

88 War Cabinet meeting no. 135(A), 9 May 1917: Cab. 23/13.

89 Balfour to Cecil, 20 May 1917: Balfour MSS 49699.

90 War Cabinet meeting no. 140(A), 16 May 1917: Cab. 23/13.

91 Cecil to Balfour, 25 Aug. 1917: G.T. 2074, Cab. 24/26.

92 See F.O. telegram no. 68 to Spring-Rice, 3 Jan. 1918: F.O.371/3427, and Spring-Rice's telegram in reply, 6 Jan. 1918: F.O.371/3427. See also Gwynne, S. (ed.), The Letters and Friendships of Sir Cecil Spring-Rice (1929), II, 426ff.Google Scholar

93 Lloyd George to H. Gwynne, 8 Dec. 1916: Lloyd George MSS F/22/4/2.

94 Salisbury to Milner, II Dec. 1916: Milner MSS, Box 143.

95 George, Frances Lloyd, The Years That Are Past (1967), p. 96.Google Scholar

96 Balfour to Cecil, 12 Sept. 1917: Cecil MSS 51093.

97 Balfour to Lloyd George, 10 Dec. 1917, op. cit.

98 Hardinge to Bertie, 21 Dec. 1916: Hardinge MSS, 1916, vol. 7.

99 Hardinge to Chirol, 4 Jan. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 1.

100 See, for example, F.O. telegram no. 287 to Lockhart, drafted by Balfour, 21 Feb. 1918: F.O.371/3299.

101 Cecil to Milner, 13 June 1918: Cecil MSS 51093.

102 Bertie to Hardinge, 11 Dec. 1916: Hardinge MSS, 1916, vol. 7.

103 Balfour to Cecil, 19 Nov. 1917: Balfour MSS 49738.

104 Dugdale, B., Arthur James Balfour (1936), II, 187.Google Scholar

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106 See Memorandum by Ronald Graham to Hardinge, 11 Sept. 1918: F.O.794/6A.

107 Cecil to Lloyd George, 8 Jan. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/6/5/13.

108 Cecil to Balfour, 8 Jan. 1918, loc. cit. The minutes of the Russian Committee are preserved, in part, in F.O.95/802.

109 War Cabinet meeting no. 144, minute I, 23 May 1917, op. cit.

110 Paris telegram no. 1408, 2 Dec. 1917: F.O.371/3018.

111 War Cabinet meeting no. 289, 3 Dec. 1917, op. cit.

112 Amery to Lloyd George, 14 Apr. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/2/1/17.

113 Amery to Lloyd George, 8 June 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/2/1/24.

114 The Eastern Committee was a committee set up by the War Cabinet in March 1918, as the result of pressure from Milner to co-ordinate Eastern policy; it met under the chairmanship of Lord Curzon, Balfour having stated categorically: “… I do not propose to put in any claim to the doubtful joys of presiding over the new Eastern Committee.’ (Memorandum by Balfour on the Eastern Committee, 15 Mar. 1918: F.O.899/4.)

115 Milner to Lloyd George, 20 Mar. 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/38/3/20.

116 Milner to Cecil, 13 June 1918: Cecil MSS 51093.

117 Cecil to Milner, 13 June 1918: Cecil MSS 51093.

118 Milner to Cecil, 13 June 1918, loc. cit.

119 H. Gwynne to Lloyd George, 8 Dec. 1916: Lloyd George MSS F/22/4/1.

120 Findlay to Hardinge, 18 June 1916: Hardinge MSS, 1916, vol. 1.

121 Hardinge wrote to Graham: ‘There is a general consensus of opinion that there is nobody in the Foreign Office who can properly fill the post [of Permanent Under-Secretary] … I have ascertained that your candidature would be readily welcomed in the Foreign Office … I think you are the only man in the Service capable of running the Foreign Office on the proper lines … I know Grey approves.’ Hardinge to Graham, very private, undated: Hardinge MSS, 1916, vol. I.

122 Memorandum by Bertie on conversation with Hardinge, 16 Aug. 1916: F.0.800/175.

123 Hardinge to George Allen, 31 Jan. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. I.

124 Hardinge to Bertie, 12 Dec. 1916: Hardinge MSS, 1916, vol. 7.

125 Hardinge to Chirol, 31 Jan. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. I.

126 Hardinge to Greene, 10 Mar. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 2.

127 Hardinge to Chirol, 28 Mar. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 2.

128 Hardinge to Rodd, 30 Apr. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 3.

129 Hardinge to Buchanan, 25 June 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 5.

130 Monger, G., The End of Isolation (1963), pp. 100–3.Google Scholar

131 Steiner, Zara S., The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914, p. 182.Google Scholar

132 Hardinge to Spring-Rice, 4 Oct. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 6.

133 Hardinge to Granville, 10 May 1918: Hardinge MSS, 1918, vol. 2.

134 In a letter to Balfour, Lord Stamfordham mentioned: “… the circumstances under which Lord Bertie's services of more than half a century were terminated – circumstances which His Majesty regarded as certainly unusual if not unfortunate.’ Stamfordham to Balfour, 18 July 1918: Lloyd George MSS F/3/2/21.

135 Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, Old Diplomacy, p. 216.

136 Ibid. p. 243.

137 Ibid. p. 216.

138 See Balfour to Lloyd George, 9 July 1917: Lloyd George MSS F/3/2/23.

139 Hardinge to Hill, 4 Oct. 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 6.

140 Hardinge to Buchanan, 25 July 1917: Hardinge MSS, 1917, vol. 5.