The Middle Classes Union was founded in February 1919 to safeguard property after the Reform Act 1918 had increased the number of working-class people eligible to vote. Sir George Ranken Askwith and Conservative MP and Irish landowner J. R. Pretyman Newman were both members.
152-453: Lord Robert Cecil described the MCU as a strike-breaking body designed to encourage "the smaller trading, propertied and professional classes [to] band themselves together to protect their interests ... and secure their property ... from revolution and extreme Labour demands". The group saw the middle classes being squeezed by not only a growing labour movement but also by a government that
304-631: A Grey government. In November, when the Irish situation looked likely to cause the fall of the coalition, Cecil wrote to the King urging him to appoint Grey as prime minister. In April 1922, in another constituency letter, he distanced himself from other anti-coalition Conservatives by insisting on the importance of not being reactionary, and in May, he claimed that the dominant force within the Conservatives
456-682: A belligerent to tell the truth and, to the German mind, they are always belligerent. The Germans take the view that war is only intensified peace". Cecil was a critic of the Munich Agreement , whereby the German-speaking lands of Czechoslovakia were granted to Nazi Germany . He wrote to the Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax on 20 September 1938 that he "had not felt so bitterly on any public question since
608-515: A conference had been called. If a country went to war unilaterally, the signatories would use all the power at their command, economic and military, to defeat the aggressor. Cecil viewed the three months' delay before countries resorted to war as the principal role of the League as that would give public opinion time to exert its peaceful influence. The Cabinet received the paper "respectfully rather than cordially" and made no decision upon it. Cecil used
760-413: A convenient cover for his disinclination to marry; the matter cannot be conclusively proven. In later years mediums claimed to pass on messages from her – see the " Cross-Correspondences ". Balfour remained a lifelong bachelor. Margot Tennant (later Margot Asquith) wished to marry him, but Balfour said: "No, that is not so. I rather think of having a career of my own." His household
912-527: A defender of it, whose service to the organisation saw him awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937. Cecil was born at Cavendish Square , London, the sixth child and third son of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury , three times prime minister , and Georgina , daughter of Sir Edward Hall Alderson . He was the brother of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury , Lord William Cecil , Lord Edward Cecil and Lord Quickswood and
1064-471: A disagreeable irrelevance. Balfour developed a manner known to friends as the Balfourian manner . Harold Begbie , a journalist, attacked him for what Begbie considered Balfour's self-obsession: This Balfourian manner...an attitude of mind—an attitude of convinced superiority which insists in the first place on complete detachment from the enthusiasms of the human race, and in the second place on keeping
1216-530: A knack for negotiation, a taste for intrigue, and care to avoid factionalism. Most importantly, he deepened his close ties with his uncle Lord Salisbury. He also maintained cordial relationships with Disraeli, Gladstone and other national leaders. Released from his duties as private secretary by the 1880 general election , he began to take more part in parliamentary affairs. He was for a time politically associated with Lord Randolph Churchill , Sir Henry Drummond Wolff and John Gorst . This quartet became known as
1368-543: A leader of the WSPU . Balfour argued that he was "not convinced the majority of women actually wanted the vote", in 1907. A rebuttal which meant extending the activist campaign for women's rights. He was reminded by Lytton of a speech he made in 1892, namely that this question "will arise again, menacing and ripe for resolution", she asked him to meet WSPU leader, Christabel Pankhurst, after a series of hunger strikes and suffering by imprisoned suffragettes in 1907. Balfour refused on
1520-548: A letter to The Guardian denouncing Munich: "But supposing there is a German guarantee, of what is its value? It is unnecessary to accuse Germany of perfidy. Not only the Nazi Government but all previous German Governments from the time of Frederick the Great downwards have made their position perfectly clear. To them, an international assurance is no more than a statement of present intention. It has no absolute validity for
1672-523: A letter to The Times by a member of the Tariff Reform League that stated it would oppose free trade candidates, whether Unionist or Liberal. Cecil argued that he had identified at least 25 seats in which such attacks had taken place. At the 1906 general election , Cecil was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament representing Marylebone East . In January 1908, Cecil wrote to fellow Unionist free trader Arthur Elliot : "To me,
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#17327874684301824-646: A month before the Germans left the conference, Cecil said in a broadcast that the "rules governing [German] disarmament" should be "the same in principle as those governing the armaments of any other civilised power" and in a letter to Gilbert Murray he said " Goebbels [had] made rather a favourable impression at Geneva and [was] said to be quite pleased with the League". He deplored the Nazis' education policy, however. In April 1934, Cecil wrote to Philip Noel-Baker that Baldwin had told him that an attempt by Hankey to find
1976-634: A naval conference of 1927 in Geneva, negotiations broke down after the United States refused to agree that Britain needed a minimum of seventy cruisers for adequate defence of the British Empire , its trade and communications. Cutting the number of British cruisers from seventy to fifty was proposed by the US in return for concessions over their size and the calibre of their guns. Cecil, a member of
2128-465: A peace system, "no modern State could ultimately resist its pressure". He hoped that America might be willing to "join in organized economic action to preserve peace". He later said that it was the "first document from which sprang British official advocacy of the League of Nations ". In May 1917 Cecil circulated his Proposals for Maintenance of Future Peace in which the signatories would agree to keep
2280-1087: A personalised account of his relationship to the League of Nations; and All the Way (1949), a more complete autobiography. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria , which began in 1931, was a flagrant breach of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The World Disarmament Conference began in February 1932, and disarmament meant that Britain was powerless to stop Japanese aggression. Baldwin told Thomas Jones on 27 February, "The very people like Bob Cecil who have made us disarm, and quite right too, are now urging us forward to take action. But where will action take us?... If you enforce an economic boycott you will have war declared by Japan and she will seize Singapore and Hong Kong and we cannot, as we are placed, stop her". Cecil wrote to Baldwin in July that he found himself "more and more out of sympathy with modern Conservatism" and he considered
2432-615: A political lightweight. In Parliament he resisted overtures to the Irish Parliamentary Party on Home Rule , which he saw as an expression of superficial or false Irish nationalism . Allied with Joseph Chamberlain 's Liberal Unionists , he encouraged Unionist activism in Ireland. Balfour also helped the poor by creating the Congested Districts Board for Ireland in 1890. Balfour downplayed
2584-522: A practical way of internationalising civil aviation had failed to which Cecil replied that he "did not think Hankey was a very good adviser on such questions as he disapproved of peace and disarmament". Hankey had been an early critic of the feasibility of a League of Nations: in 1919 he complained that the British representatives on the League Commission, Cecil and Smuts, were idealists; Cecil
2736-577: A programme for European Jews to settle in Palestine. However, in 1905 he supported the Aliens Act 1905 , one of whose main objectives was to control and restrict Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe. The budget was certain to show a surplus and taxation could be remitted. Yet as events proved, it was the budget that would sow dissension, override other legislative concerns and signal a new political movement. Charles Thomson Ritchie 's remission of
2888-668: A public funeral was declined, and he was buried on 22 March beside members of his family at Whittingehame in a Church of Scotland service although he also belonged to the Church of England . By special remainder , his title passed to his brother Gerald. His obituaries in The Times , The Guardian and the Daily Herald did not mention the declaration for which he is most famous outside Britain. Early in Balfour's career he
3040-458: A public letter to his constituency association attacking the coalition government. Grey himself was not keen, and his failing eyesight would have been a major handicap to his becoming prime minister. He made, however, a move by speaking in his former constituency in October 1921, to little effect. After Grey's speech, Cecil published a second letter in which he announced he would co-operate with
3192-694: A referendum on food taxes), the Unionist peers split to allow the Parliament Act to pass the House of Lords, to prevent mass creation of Liberal peers by the new King, George V. The exhausted Balfour resigned as party leader after the crisis, and was succeeded in late 1911 by Bonar Law . Balfour remained important in the party, however, and when the Unionists joined Asquith 's coalition government in May 1915, Balfour succeeded Churchill as First Lord of
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#17327874684303344-698: A regular tennis player. Four years previously he had been the first president of the International Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain. At the end of 1928, most of his teeth were removed and he suffered the unremitting circulatory trouble which ended his life. Before that, he had suffered occasional phlebitis and, by late 1929, he was immobilised by it. Following a visit from Chaim Weizmann, Balfour died at his brother Gerald's home, Fishers Hill House in Hook Heath, Woking , where he had lived since January 1929, on 19 March 1930. At his request
3496-456: A reputation as a philosopher. Balfour divided his time between politics and academic pursuits. Biographer Sydney Zebel suggested that Balfour continued to appear an amateur or dabbler in public affairs, devoid of ambition and indifferent to policy issues. However, in fact he actually made a dramatic transition to a deeply involved politician. His assets, according to Zebel, included a strong ambition that he kept hidden, shrewd political judgment,
3648-561: A scheme for a League, including the drafting of the Covenant of the League of Nations . Cecil viewed Wilson's draft for the League and in his diary, he wrote that it was "a very bad document, badly expressed, badly arranged, and very incomplete". On 27 January Cecil and American legal expert David Hunter Miller spent four hours revising Wilson's proposals in what became known as the Cecil-Miller draft. It included granting more powers in
3800-498: A strong government. This was dashed when Campbell-Bannerman faced down an attempt (" The Relugas Compact ") to "kick him upstairs" to the House of Lords. The Conservatives were defeated by the Liberals at the general election the following January (in terms of MPs, a Liberal landslide), with Balfour losing his seat at Manchester East to Thomas Gardner Horridge , a solicitor and King's Counsel . Only 157 Conservatives were returned to
3952-532: A university chancellor which he by then was. In September 1916, he wrote and circulated a Memorandum on Proposals for Diminishing the Occasion of Future Wars in the Cabinet. Cecil noted the suffering and destruction of the war, along with the threat to European civilisation and the likelihood of postwar disputes. He urged an alternative to war as a means of settling international disputes and claimed that neither
4104-557: A vacuum that needed to be filled if disaster was to be averted. The primary solution was the construction of a European order on the basis of Christian morality, with a machinery of legal conciliation by which " Junkerism and Chauvinism" would be destroyed. The Treaty of Versailles had failed to create that. His belief in free trade and the League were part of his Cobdenite vision of a world where trade, self-sacrifice and international cooperation went together, along with international adjudication and mutual guarantees of peace. The League
4256-616: A well-known debater. His first job was as private secretary to his father, when commencing in office as prime minister from 1886 to 1888. In 1887, he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple . He was fond of saying that his marriage to Lady Eleanor Lambton, daughter of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham on 22 January 1889, was the cleverest thing he had ever done. From 1887 to 1906, Cecil practised civil law , including work in Chancery and parliamentary practice. On 15 June 1899, he
4408-582: Is a great revising Chamber, the safeguard of liberty in the country." The issue was forced by the Liberals with Lloyd George's People's Budget , provoking the constitutional crisis that led to the Parliament Act 1911 , which limited the Lords to delaying bills for up to two years. After the Unionists lost the general elections of 1910 (despite softening the tariff reform policy with Balfour's promise of
4560-423: Is beautiful and distinguished––music, literature, philosophy, religious feeling and moral disinterestedness, aloof from all the greed and crying of common human nature. But a strange paradox as Prime Minister of a great empire! I doubt whether even foreign affairs interest him. For all economic and social questions I gather he has an utter loathing, while the machinery of government and administration would seem to him
4712-547: The Cecil Plan at the Paris Peace Conference . The Plan included regular conferences between the signatories, which would be "the pivot of the League" and that they would have to be unanimous. Annual conferences of prime ministers and foreign secretaries would be complemented by quadrennial meetings between the signatories. A great power could summon a conference, with all members being able to do so if there
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4864-556: The Chief Secretary for Ireland , resigned because of illness and Salisbury appointed his nephew in his place. The selection was much criticised. It was received with contemptuous ridicule by the Irish Nationalists , for none suspected Balfour's immense strength of will, his debating power, his ability in attack and his still greater capacity to disregard criticism. Balfour surprised critics by ruthless enforcement of
5016-709: The Committee of Imperial Defence , which provided better long-term coordinated planning between the Army and Navy. Austen Chamberlain said Britain would have been unprepared for the First World War without his Committee of Imperial Defence. He wrote, "It is impossible to overrate the services thus rendered by Balfour to the Country and Empire....[Without the CID] victory would have been impossible." Historians also praised
5168-626: The Crimes Act . The Mitchelstown Massacre occurred on 9 September 1887, when Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) members fired at a crowd protesting against the conviction under the Act of MP William O'Brien and another man. Three were killed by the RIC's gunfire. When Balfour defended the RIC in the Commons, O'Brien dubbed him "Bloody Balfour". His steady administration did much to dispel his reputation as
5320-581: The Entente Cordiale with France, an agreement that paved the way for improved relations between the two states and their predecessors. He cautiously embraced imperial preference as championed by Joseph Chamberlain , but resignations from the Cabinet over the abandonment of free trade left his party divided. He also suffered from public anger at the later stages of the Boer War (counter-insurgency warfare characterised as "methods of barbarism") and
5472-513: The Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881 and this was expanded by the Conservatives in the land purchase scheme of 1885 . However the depression in agriculture kept prices low. Balfour's solution was to keep selling land and in 1887 lowering rents to match the lower prices, and protected more tenants against eviction by their landlords. Balfour greatly expanded the land sales. They culminated in the final Unionist land purchase programme of 1903, when Balfour
5624-587: The Phillimore Report to the American President Woodrow Wilson and his advisor Colonel House . In October 1918, Cecil circulated a paper on League proposals to the Cabinet after their request for advice. He argued that "no very elaborate machinery" would be required as the proposals rejected any form of international government, but the League would be limited to a treaty binding the signatories never to go to war until
5776-634: The Red Cross . He was made Vicar-General to the Archbishop of York on account of his deep religious convictions and commitment to pacifism. Following the formation of the 1915 coalition government, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on 30 May 1915; on 16 June he was sworn of the Privy Council , and was promoted to Assistant Secretary in 1918–19. He served in this post until 10 January 1919, additionally serving in
5928-903: The University of Cambridge , where he read moral sciences at Trinity College (1866–1869), graduating with a second-class honours degree. His younger brother was the Cambridge embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour (1851–1882). Balfour met his cousin May Lyttelton in 1870 when she was 19. After her two previous serious suitors had died, Balfour is said to have declared his love for her in December 1874. She died of typhus on Palm Sunday , 21 March 1875; Balfour arranged for an emerald ring to be buried in her coffin. Lavinia Talbot, May's older sister, believed that an engagement had been imminent, but her recollections of Balfour's distress (he
6080-451: The cabinet as Minister of Blockade between 23 February 1916 and 18 July 1918. He was responsible for devising procedures to bring economic and commercial pressure against the enemy forcing them to choose between feeding their occupying military forces or their civilian population. After the war, in 1919, he was made an Honorary Fellow, and granted his MA of University College, Oxford, as well as an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law , apt for
6232-585: The county of Haddington . In October 1922 he, with most of the Conservative leadership, resigned with Lloyd George's government following the Carlton Club meeting , a Conservative back-bench revolt against continuance of the coalition. Bonar Law became prime minister. Like many Coalition leaders, he did not hold office in the Conservative governments of 1922–1924 , but as an elder statesman, he
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6384-488: The fall of Khartoum " in 1885. The conduct of the government had completely alienated Cecil from the Conservatives. In his memoirs, Cecil wrote that the wife of the Czechoslovak President, Edvard Beneš , telephoned him on behalf of her husband and asked for advice on the crisis: "I felt forced to reply that, much as I sympathized with her country, I could not advise her to rely on any help from mine. It
6536-574: The " Fourth Party " and gained notoriety for leader Lord Randolph Churchill's free criticism of Sir Stafford Northcote , Lord Cross and other prominent members of the Conservative "old gang". In 1885, Lord Salisbury appointed Balfour President of the Local Government Board ; the following year he became Secretary for Scotland with a seat in the cabinet. These offices, while offering few opportunities for distinction, were an apprenticeship. In early 1887, Sir Michael Hicks Beach ,
6688-515: The "economic and financial measures which might be applied to a state endangering peace by the unilateral repudiation of its international obligations". In June 1935, Cecil believed that a "collective threat from the League or a breach of British friendship" would prevent the Italian invasion of Abyssinia of 1935 and 1936. The attempt to prevent it by ceding a part of British Somaliland to Italy met with Cecil's approval. Later that year Cecil used
6840-414: The 1920s, and died in 1930, aged 81, having spent a vast inherited fortune. He never married. Balfour trained as a philosopher – he originated an argument against believing that human reason could determine truth – and was seen as having a detached attitude to life, epitomised by a remark attributed to him: "Nothing matters very much and few things matter at all." Arthur Balfour
6992-588: The Admiralty . When Asquith's government collapsed in December 1916, Balfour, who seemed a potential successor to the premiership, became foreign secretary in Lloyd George's new administration, but not in the small War Cabinet, and was frequently left out of inner workings of government. Balfour's service as foreign secretary was notable for the Balfour Mission , a crucial alliance-building visit to
7144-545: The Anglo-French Convention (1904), which formed the basis of the Entente Cordiale with France that proved decisive in 1914. Balfour may have been personally sympathetic to extending suffrage, with his brother Gerald , Conservative MP for Leeds Central married to women's suffrage activist Constance Lytton 's sister Betty , but he accepted the strength of the political opposition to women's suffrage, as shown in correspondence with Christabel Pankhurst ,
7296-700: The Anglo-Irish landowners. The Education Act 1902 had a major long-term impact in modernising the school system in England and Wales and provided financial support for schools operated by the Church of England and by the Catholic Church. Nonconformists were outraged and mobilised their voters, but were unable to reverse it. In foreign and defence policy, he oversaw reform of British defence policy and supported Jackie Fisher 's naval innovations. He secured
7448-524: The British delegation, resigned from the cabinet because the British government let the conference break down, rather than reduce the number of Royal Navy cruisers. Cecil was very concerned about the increasing social problems and public dangers associated with the growth in popularity of the motor car. In 1929, Cecil accepted the post of president of the newly formed Pedestrians Association who were to campaign successfully to introduce many new measures to benefit pedestrians. Although an official delegate to
7600-552: The British treasury and used them for local improvements. Balfour's introduction of Chinese coolie labour in South Africa enabled the Liberals to counterattack, charging that his measures amounted to "Chinese slavery". Likerwise Liberals energised the Nonconformists when they attacked Balfour's Licensing Act 1904 which paid pub owners to close down. In the long run it did reduce the great oversupply of pubs, while in
7752-550: The Commons, at least two-thirds followers of Chamberlain, who chaired the Conservative MPs until Balfour won a by-election for a safe seat in the City of London . According to historian Robert Ensor , Balfour can be credited with achievement in five major areas: The Education Act lasted four decades and eventually was highly praised. Eugene Rasor states, "Balfour was credited and much praised from many perspectives with
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#17327874684307904-678: The Council . In 1921–22 he represented the British Empire at the Washington Naval Conference and during summer 1922 stood in for the foreign secretary, Lord Curzon , who was ill. He put forward a proposal for the international settlement of war debts and reparations (the Balfour Note ), but it was not accepted. On 5 May 1922, Balfour was created Earl of Balfour and Viscount Traprain, of Whittingehame , in
8056-431: The Covenant. On 21 April, the British Empire delegation met Cecil, who assured them that Dominion criticism of the draft Covenant had been considered and that the new draft avoided "the impression that a super State was being created". The Canadians objected that while the risk of Canada being invaded was unlikely, the risks to France or the Balkans were much more likely but had not been taken into consideration. Furthermore,
8208-446: The French Radicals . In August he wrote to Murray that because Baldwin had quoted the "arch-militarist F. S. Oliver " in declaring that Britain's real frontier was on the Rhine, he was very far from a League frame of mind and that the government "ought to go" in spite of "the intellectual nonentity of the Labour party". He denounced the worldwide spread of nationalism and the outbreak of isolationism in Britain, claiming that isolation
8360-446: The Home Rule crisis, the formation of the Ulster Volunteers and Irish Volunteers, and a period of growing nationalist and unionist radicalisation that culminated in the Easter rebellion of 1916 and the subsequent War of Independence. In 1886–1892 he became one of the most effective public speakers of the age. Impressive in matter rather than delivery, his speeches were logical and convincing, and delighted an ever-wider audience. On
8512-477: The House and First Lord of the Treasury. His management of the abortive education proposals of 1896 showed a disinclination for the drudgery of parliamentary management, yet he saw the passage of a bill providing Ireland with improved local government under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 and joined in debates on foreign and domestic questions between 1895 and 1900. During the illness of Lord Salisbury in 1898, and again in Salisbury's absence abroad, Balfour
8664-427: The House of Commons after his stroke in July 1906, but he was unable to make much headway against the huge Liberal majority in the Commons. An early attempt to score a debating triumph over the government, made in Balfour's usual abstruse, theoretical style, saw Campbell-Bannerman respond with: "Enough of this foolery," to the delight of his supporters. Balfour made the controversial decision, with Lord Lansdowne , to use
8816-573: The House of Lords on 23 April 1953, Cecil reiterated his commitment to world peace. He admitted that it is "the essence of national sovereignty that independent nations cannot be compelled, except by force of arms, to take action of which their Governments disapprove—and that remains true, whatever may be the terms of any general agreement they may have made. No elaborate or ingenious organisation will alter that fact". He added that any plan for international peace must rest on Christian civilisation and "we British especially insist that in our own country, from
8968-418: The League as late as 1932, Cecil worked independently to mobilise public opinion in support of the League. He was joint founder and president, with Pierre Cot , a French jurist, of the International Peace Campaign, known in France as Rassemblement universel pour la paix . Among his publications during this period were The Way of Peace (1928), a collection of lectures on the League; A Great Experiment (1941),
9120-452: The League loaded Canada with more liabilities than it had by being a member of the Empire. Cecil argued that the Council of the League would determine when that obligation would be fulfilled and that its requirement for decisions to be unanimous allowed a Canadian delegate to object, which would cause the end of the matter. George Egerton, in his history of the creation of the League, claimed that Cecil "more than anyone else, deserved credit for
9272-403: The League of Nations at heart". Cecil was disappointed in Lloyd George's lack of enthusiasm for the League and repeatedly threatened resignation because of some of Lloyd George's tactics. Cecil was greatly concerned at Republican opposition to the League and sought to concede some of Wilson's demands to secure American acceptance of the League. That included protecting the Monroe Doctrine in
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#17327874684309424-399: The League of Nations impose sanctions on Japan in 1931, writing: "If it had been stopped by an united League of Nations, it could have had no successors. Above all, it encouraged aggressive Powers in Europe-first in Italy and then Germany-to set at nought the barrier so laboriously erected at Geneva against aggression, and brought us step by step to the present intensely grave position". In
9576-421: The League to the great powers, granting the Dominions their own seats, a revision of Wilson's arbitration proposals and the inclusion of a permanent international court. In further negotiations, Cecil was successful in retaining important parts of the British draft. When Wilson tried to amend it, House warned him against alienating Cecil, as he "was the only man connected with the British Government who really had
9728-470: The League was a "failure", that the Union was "bankrupt" and that collective security was a "farce". Cecil tried to prevent Conservative withdrawal from the Union by presenting the League as "an almost ideal machinery" for the "preservation of the Empire". However, the Union further swung to the left and received complaints from Neville Chamberlain and Conservative Central Office about the left-wing tone of Union propaganda. In May 1938 Cecil complained that
9880-596: The League was being jeopardised by "Hankeyism", the idea that the balance of power and national interests of countries were the only basis of international relations, which was named after the Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence (1912-1938) Sir Maurice Hankey . He admired Anthony Eden , Lord Halifax and Baldwin but regarded MacDonald as an enemy of the League and disliked Lord Londonderry and Lord Hailsham and criticised Sir John Simon as "the worst Foreign Secretary since Derby in 1876". After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Cecil
10032-498: The League. Because of his disagreement with the Conservatives' policy of tariffs, Cecil did not stand in the general election of December 1923 . After the Conservatives lost their majority, he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Cecil of Chelwood , of East Grinstead in the County of Sussex, on 28 December 1923. He remained Lord Privy Seal until 22 February 1924, When Ramsay MacDonald 's minority Labour government took office, MacDonald apologised to Cecil for not retaining him as
10184-413: The Liberal Unionist leader of the 1880s) left Balfour's Cabinet weak. By 1905 few Unionist MPs were still free traders ( Winston Churchill crossed to the Liberals in 1904 when threatened with deselection at Oldham ), but Balfour's act had drained his authority within the government. Balfour resigned as prime minister in December 1905, hoping the Liberal leader Campbell-Bannerman would be unable to form
10336-501: The Member of Parliament for Manchester East . In spring 1878, he became private secretary to his uncle Lord Salisbury . He accompanied Salisbury (then Foreign Secretary) to the Congress of Berlin and gained his first experience in international politics in connection with the settlement of the Russo-Turkish conflict . At the same time he became known in the world of letters; the academic subtlety and literary achievement of his Defence of Philosophic Doubt (1879) suggested he might make
10488-455: The Peace when he was raised the following year as Chairman of the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions . Cecil was a convinced believer in free trade , opposing Joseph Chamberlain 's agitation for Tariff Reform , denouncing it as "a rather sordid attempt to ally Imperialism with State assistance for the rich". In February 1905, he compiled for party leader Arthur Balfour a memorandum on 'The Attack on Unionist Free Trade Seats' in which he quoted
10640-428: The Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith in a 1911 delegation of the women's movements representing the Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Association but it was not until 1918 that (some) women were given the right to vote in elections in the United Kingdom, despite a forty-year campaign. After the general election of 1906 Balfour remained party leader, his position strengthened by Joseph Chamberlain's absence from
10792-455: The US in April 1917, and the Balfour Declaration of 1917, a letter to Lord Rothschild affirming the government's support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine , then part of the Ottoman Empire . Balfour resigned as foreign secretary following the Versailles Conference in 1919, but continued in the government (and the Cabinet after normal peacetime political arrangements resumed) as Lord President of
10944-693: The Union and the British Fascists (as well as the Conservative Party, for which both men sat as MPs). In 1927 the group even appointed as its chairman Colonel A. H. Lane, a man well known for his work with the strongly anti-Semitic Britons . By the late 1930s the group was closely associated with the Militant Christian Patriots , a minor group known for its anti-Semitism and fascist sympathies. It disappeared around
11096-696: The Union pre-empted the policies of the Anti-Waste League , a party formed in 1921 from a similar middle-class basis which briefly threatened the hegemony of the Conservative Party on the political right. George Ranken Askwith did not found the Middle Class Union. He became the president when it was re-organised under the name the National Citizen's Union in 1921 and attempted to attract a wider membership. The Times (6 March 1919) gives no mention of his name or that of his wife at
11248-583: The Union to pressure the government into League action against Italy. He also favoured oil sanctions and the closure of the Suez Canal (even if this breached international law). He became increasingly favourable towards Labour's attitude to foreign policy and in August he contemplated joining that party. At the general election held in November, he favoured the Union's policy of advising electors to vote for
11400-565: The United Kingdom or becoming independent. From 1891 he led the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, serving under his uncle, Lord Salisbury , whose government won large majorities in 1895 and 1900 . An esteemed debater, he was bored by the mundane tasks of party management. In July 1902, he succeeded his uncle as prime minister. In domestic policy he passed the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 , which bought out most of
11552-568: The United States, explaining the League to American audiences. He helped draft the League's 1923 Draft Treaty of Mutual Assistance , which made war of aggression illegal. And one did take place all League members would send troops to defend the victim. His own government opposed the plan and it was never adopted. He believed that "the war ha[d] shattered the prestige of the European governing classes" and that their disappearance had created
11704-503: The activities of the League of Nations Union . Cecil's public life from then on was almost totally devoted to the League; he was its president of the Union from 1923 to 1945. He chaired a reconstruction committee of the Union in July 1919, his primary aim being to ensure that the Union built a powerful pro-League lobby in Britain to make sure that the government put the League at the centre of its foreign policy. Cecil also sought to broaden
11856-531: The bill in the end but not for its progress to the Grand Committee, preventing it becoming law, and extending the activist campaigns as a result again. The following year Lytton and Annie Kenney in person after another reading of the Bill, but again it was not prioritised as government business. His sister-in-law Lady Betty Balfour spoke to Churchill that her brother was to speak for this policy, and also met
12008-466: The cabinet as Lord Privy Seal , a position held by several members of his family. Cecil wrote to Baldwin on 29 October 1923, offering his support on tariff reform if Baldwin would adopt a vigorous pro-League policy in return. He stated that Britain's economic problems could not be solved by tariffs, rather by solving the collapse of European credit, war debts and "international suspicion" and withdrawing support from all international organisations except
12160-586: The candidate most likely to support the League. The Hoare-Laval Pact of December met with Cecil's disapproval because it would mean that "as between the League of Nations and Mussolini, Mussolini ha[d] won" and that Hoare had set back the only hope of showing that aggression did not pay. Cecil believed that France's suspicion of Germany was the main cause of the Pact and that Britain should therefore bargain with France possible British co-operation against Germany in return for French co-operation against Italy. 1935 saw
12312-399: The conference had failed to make a decision. All decisions made by conferences would be enforced by all the signatories, "if necessary by force of arms". If a country resorted to war without submitting the dispute to a conference, the other countries would combine to enforce a commercial and financial blockade. Cecil had originally included proposals for disarmament but these were deleted from
12464-457: The contrary: Balfour's air of detachment was a pose. He was sincere in his conservatism, mistrusting radical political and social change and believing deeply in the Union with Ireland, the Empire and the superiority of the British race....Those who dismissed him as a languid dilettante were wide of the mark. As Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1887 to 1891 he manifested an unflinching commitment to
12616-502: The countryside dramatically declined as some 200,000 peasant proprietors owned about half the land in Ireland. However, the Irish Parliamentary Party recovered after its bitter post-Parnell split was healed and became the dominant political force in Ireland once again, eventually using its position as Westminster kingmaker to secure the passage of a Home Rule Act when the Liberals returned to power. This led in turn to
12768-527: The cousin of Arthur Balfour , with whom he had common grandparents: James Brownlow William Gascoyne-Cecil and Frances Mary Gascoyne (1802–1839), the only daughter and heiress of Bamber Gascoyne (1757–1824) of Childwall, Liverpool, Lancashire, member of Parliament for Liverpool (1780–96). Cecil was educated at home until he was thirteen and then spent four years at Eton College . He claimed in his autobiography to have enjoyed his home education most. He studied law at University College , Oxford , where he became
12920-428: The days of King Alfred to the present time, Christian civilisation has been responsible for every improvement and every advance that has been made". He said that that system had been attacked by Russian dialectical materialism , "its central tenet is that there is no such thing as the spiritual nature of man, or, if there is, it should be ignored or stamped out as speedily as possible". However, "If you ignore or abolish
13072-556: The death of W. H. Smith in 1891, Balfour became First Lord of the Treasury – the last in British history not to have been concurrently prime minister as well – and Leader of the House of Commons . After the fall of the government in 1892 he spent three years in opposition. When the Conservatives returned to power, in coalition with the Liberal Unionists, in 1895, Balfour again became Leader of
13224-488: The destruction of German militarism nor a postwar settlement based on self-determination would guarantee peace. Cecil rejected compulsory arbitration but claimed a regular conference system would be unobjectionable. Peaceful procedures for settling disputes should be compulsory before there was any outbreak of fighting. Sanctions, including blockade, would be necessary to force countries to submit to peaceful procedures. If overwhelming naval and financial power could be combined in
13376-627: The dominions and the colonies, and produce a positive programme that would facilitate reelection. He was vehemently opposed by Conservative free traders who denounced the proposal as economically fallacious, and open to the charge of raising food prices in Britain. Balfour tried to forestall disruption by removing key ministers on each side, and offering a much narrower tariff programme. It was ingenious, but both sides rejected any compromise, and his party's chances for reelection were ruined. Historians generally praised Balfour's achievements in military and foreign policy. Cannon & Crowcroft 2015 stress
13528-556: The embodiment of "justice" which had been Britain's "greatest National asset...in foreign affairs... for the last two generations". The party would not be anti-working class and would include "the best of the Liberal and Labour people" and "some of the old landowning Tories". He supported Asquith in the Paisley by-election of February 1920 and wanted an electoral agreement between Labour and pro-League candidates. In mid-July 1920, Cecil
13680-432: The factor of Irish nationalism, arguing that the real issues were economic. Regarding ownership and control of the land, he believed that once violence was suppressed and land was sold to the tenants, Irish nationalism would no longer threaten the unity of the United Kingdom. The slogan "to kill home rule with kindness" characterised Balfour's new policy toward Ireland. The Liberals had begun land sales to Irish tenants with
13832-499: The fall of the Lloyd George coalition in October and the appointment of Bonar Law as Conservative prime minister, Cecil pledged to support the new government though he was not offered office. In Baldwin's Conservative administrations of 1923 to 1924 and 1924 to 1927, he was the minister responsible, under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Secretary, for British activities in League affairs. On 28 May 1923, Cecil returned to
13984-484: The final draft after a diplomat, Sir Eyre Crowe , submitted them to a "devastating critique" that persuaded Cecil they were impractical. In November 1917, Cecil requested from Balfour the creation of a committee to consider the proposals for a League of Nations. Balfour granted it and in January 1918, a committee, chaired by Lord Phillimore , was established. In May 1918, with the Cabinet's permission, Cecil forwarded
14136-538: The founding meeting in 1919. John Pretyman Newman was one of the founders and became its first chairman, a position he resigned when he was elected vice-president on 9 July 1922. Speaking at the meeting when the MCU was relaunched as the National Citizens Union in 1921 Askwith rather pointedly said "the Union supported the maintenance of representative government and would oppose direct action for political purposes" ( The Times , 19 December 1921). Clearly
14288-553: The future". After the German invasion of the remaining Czechoslovak state in March 1939, Cecil was opposed to Eden rejoining the government because such a strengthening of Chamberlain would be a disaster. He had a low opinion of the Labour Party (except for Sir Stafford Cripps and Noel-Baker), whom he thought were doctrinaire and unpractical. In his view, Clement Attlee was "not a leader" and would have to be removed if Labour
14440-445: The government had "allowed the League to disintegrate" and in August that their "ambiguities and timidities" were failing to ensure that Hitler understood that further aggression would be a breach of international relations. In May 1938, he said in a letter that German diplomacy had never in history been founded on honest dealing: "The Germans really conceive of their country as always under war conditions in this respect. No one expects
14592-597: The government's League minister. But at the period Chelwood was rewarded by being asked to be Rector of Aberdeen University , when they granted him an Honorary Doctorate of Law. The Conservatives returned to power at the October 1924 general election and Cecil was asked by Stanley Baldwin to be Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster . He led the British delegation to the Opium Conference at Geneva in 1925. During
14744-556: The government's disarmament proposals made at Geneva "quite inadequate". In March 1933, he complained to Baldwin that the technical advisers, especially British ones, had sabotaged the prospect of abolishing aircraft and of bombing, particularly from those who wanted to retain it for areas such as the North-West frontier of India. Cecil's experience at the Geneva Disarmament Conference convinced him that
14896-460: The greatest necessity of all is to preserve, if possible, a foothold for Free Trade within the Unionist party. For, if not, I and others who think like me, will be driven to imperil either free trade or other causes such as religious education, the House of Lords, and even the Union, which seem to us of equal importance". In March 1910 Cecil and his brother Lord Hugh, unsuccessfully appealed to Chamberlain that he should postpone advocating food taxes at
15048-493: The grounds of her militancy. Christabel pleaded direct to meet Balfour as Conservative party leader, on their policy manifesto for the General Election of 1909, but he refused again as women's suffrage was "not a party question and his colleagues were divided on the matter". She tried and failed again to get his open support in parliament for women's cause in the 1910 private member's Conciliation Bill . He voted for
15200-409: The heavily Unionist House of Lords as a check on the political programme and legislation of the Liberal party in the Commons. Legislation was vetoed or altered by amendments between 1906 and 1909, leading David Lloyd George to remark that the Lords was "the right hon. Gentleman's poodle. It fetches and carries for him. It barks for him. It bites anybody that he sets it on to. And we are told that this
15352-549: The highest influence that Cecil and the Union had ever possessed. Thereafter, both went into sharp decline. The remilitarization of the Rhineland in March 1936 was to Cecil the "most dangerous crisis since 1914", but it could not be resolved by "letting off Italy" since "the security of France, of Russia and indeed of every country in Europe would now be greater had the League already proved by its defeat of Italian aggression that
15504-566: The hope of glory he still possesses the means of Grace ." Balfour was not initially included in Baldwin's second government in 1924, but in 1925, he returned to the Cabinet, in place of the late Lord Curzon as Lord President of the Council , until the government ended in 1929. With 28 years of government service, Balfour had one of the longest ministerial careers in modern British politics, second only to Winston Churchill. Lord Balfour had generally good health until 1928 and remained until then
15656-577: The importance of the Anglo-French Entente of 1904, and the establishment of the Committee of Imperial Defence. Rasor points to twelve historians who have examined his key role in naval and military reforms. However, there was little political payback at the time. The local Conservative campaigns in 1906 focused mostly on a few domestic issues. Balfour gave strong support for Jackie Fisher 's naval reforms. Balfour created and chaired
15808-501: The importation of Chinese labour to South Africa ("Chinese slavery"). He resigned as prime minister in December 1905 and the following month the Conservatives suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 election , in which he lost his own seat. He soon re-entered Parliament and continued to serve as Leader of the Opposition throughout the crisis over Lloyd George's 1909 budget , the narrow loss of two further General Elections in 1910, and
15960-561: The maintenance of British authority in the face of popular protest. He combined a strong emphasis on law and order with measures aimed at reforming the landowning system and developing Ireland's backward rural economy. Churchill compared Balfour to H. H. Asquith : "The difference between Balfour and Asquith is that Arthur is wicked and moral, while Asquith is good and immoral." Balfour said of himself, "I am more or less happy when being praised, not very comfortable when being abused, but I have moments of uneasiness when being explained." Balfour
16112-520: The membership of the Union, which had largely consisted of Asquithian Liberals, by soliciting the support of Conservatives and Labour. Cecil was an Esperantist , and, in 1921, he proposed that the League of Nations adopt Esperanto as solution to the language problem. From 1920 to 1922, he represented the Union of South Africa in the League Assembly. In 1923, he made a five-week tour of
16264-419: The most insidious form of national disintegration". From 1920, Cecil wanted to bring down Lloyd George and his coalition government by forming a progressive alliance between anti-coalition and anti-socialist forces. He had been an enemy of Lloyd George for longer than any other major politician. He wanted to create an anti-socialist centre party led by former Foreign Secretary Viscount Grey , regarding him as
16416-703: The next election in order to concentrate on opposing Irish Home Rule. He did not contest the Marylebone seat in either general election in 1910 as a result of the tariff reform controversy. Instead he unsuccessfully contested Blackburn in the January election and Wisbech in the December election . In 1911, he won a by-election in Hitchin , Hertfordshire , as an Independent Conservative and served as its MP until 1923. During World War I , Cecil worked for
16568-425: The organised community as a whole could stifle war". In April, Cecil believed that as Italy had to subdue Abyssinia quickly, Britain ought to favour existing sanctions and even increased sanctions against Italy. When Abyssinian resistance collapsed in May, Italy should have been expelled from the League to demonstrate that "an effective system of collective security" was possible. Otherwise, it would become obvious that
16720-473: The outbreak of the Second World War . Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood , CH , PC , QC (14 September 1864 – 24 November 1958), known as Lord Robert Cecil from 1868 to 1923, was a British lawyer, politician and diplomat. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations and
16872-503: The paper as the basis for a speech on the subject of the League delivered at his inauguration as Chancellor of the University of Birmingham on 12 November. On 22 November Cecil resigned from the government due to his opposition to Welsh disestablishment . He wrote to Gilbert Murray afterwards, saying that he hoped to do more for the establishment of a League of Nations outside the government than within it. In late November 1918, Cecil
17024-645: The passage of the Parliament Act 1911 . He resigned as party leader in 1911. Balfour returned as First Lord of the Admiralty in Asquith's Coalition Government (1915–1916). In December 1916, he became foreign secretary in David Lloyd George 's coalition. He was frequently left out of the inner workings of foreign policy, although the Balfour Declaration on a Jewish homeland bore his name. He continued to serve in senior positions throughout
17176-399: The postwar territorial settlement for five years, followed by a conference to consider and, if necessary, to implement necessary or desirable territorial changes. Countries would also agree to submit their international disputes to a conference and they would be forbidden to act until the conference had made a decision. However, states would be allowed to act unilaterally if, after three months,
17328-401: The re-launch of the MCU under a new name had entailed some hard thinking on the part of its council. It changed its name to the National Citizens Union in 1921 and under this name became associated with the emerging strand of British fascism . Pretyman Newman had spoken of his admiration for the ideology while Charles Rosdew Burn and Robert Burton-Chadwick both maintained dual membership of
17480-423: The rift grew in the Unionist ranks. Tariff reform was popular with Unionist supporters, but the threat of higher prices for food imports made the policy an electoral albatross. Hoping to split the difference between the free traders and tariff reformers in his cabinet and party, Balfour favoured retaliatory tariffs to punish others who had tariffs against the British, in the hope of encouraging global free trade. This
17632-414: The shilling import-duty on corn led to Joseph Chamberlain 's crusade in favour of tariff reform. These were taxes on imported goods with trade preference given to the Empire, to protect British industry from competition, strengthen the Empire in the face of growing German and American economic power, and provide revenue, other than raising taxes, for the social welfare legislation. As the session proceeded,
17784-415: The short run Balfour's party was hurt. Balfour failed to solve his greatest political challenge – the debate over tariffs that ripped his party apart. Chamberlain proposed to turn the Empire into a closed trade bloc protected by high tariffs against imports from Germany and the United States. He argued that tariff reform would revive a flagging British economy, strengthen imperial ties with
17936-509: The side of votes was obvious and deterrent....Public money was thus made available for the first time to ensure properly paid teachers and a standardised level of efficiency for all children alike [including the Anglican and Catholic schools]. For most of the 19th century, the very powerful political and economic position of the Church of Ireland (Anglican) landowners opposed the political aspirations of Irish nationalists. Balfour's solution
18088-523: The spiritual nature of man, you destroy the foundation on which rests all truth, justice and freedom, except such as can flow from the love of money or what money can buy". He advocated rearmament to prevent a Marxist attack and claimed that "Christian civilisation is the only real alternative to dialectical materialism". Unless there was a change in the principle of materialism, "I do not see how we can have any permanent security for peace". Cecil's career brought him many honours. In addition to his peerage, he
18240-607: The spring of 1946, he participated in the final meetings of the League at Geneva , ending his speech with the sentence: "The League is dead; long live the United Nations!" He lived for thirteen more years, occasionally occupying his place in the House of Lords , and supporting international efforts for peace through his honorary life presidency of the United Nations Association . In his last speech in
18392-487: The success [of the 1902 education act]. His commitment to education was fundamental and strong." At the time it hurt Balfour because the Liberal party used it to rally their Noncomformist supporters. Ensor said the Act ranked: among the two or three greatest constructive measures of the twentieth century....[He did not write it] but no statesman less dominated than Balfour was by the concept of national efficiency would have taken it up and carried it through, since its cost on
18544-466: The successful outcome of the second phase of the work of the League of Nations Commission". After the Treaty of Versailles was first presented to Germany, Cecil argued strongly that it should be made less harsh on Germany and that Germany should be allowed to join the League. Cecil left Paris on 9 June, his hopes of a revision of the treaty disappointed. Upon returning to Britain, Cecil eagerly planned
18696-484: The suppression of obstruction, yet there was a slight revival of the criticisms of 1896. With Lord Salisbury's resignation on 11 July 1902, Balfour succeeded him as prime minister, with the approval of all the Unionist party. The new prime minister came into power practically at the same moment as the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra and the end of the South African War . The Liberal party
18848-431: The vulgar world at arm's length....To Mr. Arthur Balfour this studied attitude of aloofness has been fatal, both to his character and to his career. He has said nothing, written nothing, done nothing, which lives in the heart of his countrymen....the charming, gracious, and cultured Mr. Balfour is the most egotistical of men, and a man who would make almost any sacrifice to remain in office. However, Graham Goodlad argued to
19000-417: Was "not very practical on this particular question. I am afraid their scheme will prove unworkable for two reasons, first, that it attempts too much, and second, that not enough attention is given to the machine". In 1923 he wrote that Cecil was a "crank". In 1934, Cecil criticised the British government for the missed opportunity of gaining French co-operation at the conference after the electoral victory of
19152-562: Was "staggered") were not written down until thirty years later. Historian R. J. Q. Adams points out that May's letters discuss her love life in detail, but contain no evidence that she was in love with Balfour, nor that he had spoken to her of marriage. He visited her only once during her serious three-month illness, and was soon accepting social invitations again within a month of her death. Adams suggests that, although he may simply have been too shy to express his feelings fully, Balfour may also have encouraged tales of his youthful tragedy as
19304-473: Was a "principle of anarchy" and that in modern conditions countries could "no more live alone than individuals". The British government in Cecil's view was so anti-League that he should sever his connections with the Conservatives and began to favour relations with Labour. The Stresa Front of 1935 between Britain, France and Italy received Cecil's criticism because it appeared to be an alliance in which Germany
19456-782: Was a British statesman and Conservative Party politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the Lloyd George ministry , he issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on behalf of the cabinet, which supported a "home for the Jewish people" in Palestine . Entering Parliament in 1874 , Balfour achieved prominence as Chief Secretary for Ireland , in which position he suppressed agrarian unrest whilst taking measures against absentee landlords . He opposed Irish Home Rule , saying there could be no half-way house between Ireland remaining within
19608-411: Was a danger of war. The great powers would control the League, with the smaller powers exercising little considerable influence. On 17 December, Cecil submitted the Cecil Plan to the Cabinet. The Cabinet discussed the idea of the League on 24 December, with Cecil being the leading pro-League speaker. The Paris Peace Conference included a League of Nations Commission, which was responsible for creating
19760-417: Was a group of men who only cared for "the preservation of its property". He again announced his willingness to serve under Grey in a government based on industrial cooperation and support for the League. However Cecil became disillusioned with the Liberals' opposition to reconstructing the party system and so he declined an invitation to join the Liberals so long as Asquith remained leader, rather than Grey. With
19912-498: Was a sister of the 3rd Marquess , the future prime minister. Arthur's godfather was the Duke of Wellington , after whom he was named. He was the eldest son, third of eight children, and had four brothers and three sisters. Arthur Balfour was educated at Grange Preparatory School at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (1859–1861), and Eton College (1861–1866), where he studied with the influential master, William Johnson Cory . He then went up to
20064-1156: Was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1956, was elected chancellor of the University of Birmingham (1918–1944) and rector of the University of Aberdeen (1924–1927). He was given the Peace Award of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation in 1924. Most significantly, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937. He was presented with honorary degrees by the Universities of Edinburgh , Oxford , Cambridge , Manchester , Liverpool , St Andrews , Aberdeen , Princeton , Columbia , and Athens . Cecil died on 24 November 1958 at his home at Chelwood Gate , Danehill near Haywards Heath . He left no heirs and his Viscountcy became extinct. Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour , ( / ˈ b æ l f ər , - f ɔːr / , 25 July 1848 – 19 March 1930),
20216-693: Was appointed a Queen's Counsel . After the outbreak of the Second Boer War , he enrolled as a recruit in the Inns of Court Rifles in February 1900, but he never saw active service. He also collaborated in writing a book, entitled Principles of Commercial Law . In 1910 he was appointed a member of the General Council of the Bar , and a Bencher of the Inner Temple. He was already a Justice of
20368-564: Was appointed the head of the League of Nations section of the Foreign Office. A. E. Zimmern had written a memorandum elaborating the functions of the League and Cecil selected it as a base to work from. He ordered that a summary of the actual organisation involved in implementing its proposals be written. On 14 December, he was presented with the Brief Conspectus of League of Nations Organization , which would later be called
20520-480: Was born at Whittingehame House , East Lothian, Scotland, the eldest son of James Maitland Balfour and Lady Blanche Gascoyne-Cecil. His father was a Scottish MP, as was his grandfather James ; his mother, a member of the Cecil family descended from Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury , was the daughter of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury and his first wife, Mary Frances Gascoyne (born 1802; m. 1821; died 1839), and she
20672-646: Was consulted by the King in the choice of Stanley Baldwin as Bonar Law's successor as Conservative leader in May 1923. His advice was strongly in favour of Baldwin, ostensibly due to Baldwin's being an MP but in reality motivated by his personal dislike of Curzon. Later that evening, he met a mutual friend who asked 'Will dear George be chosen?' to which he replied with "feline Balfourian satisfaction," "No, dear George will not." His hostess replied, "Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. He will be terribly disappointed." Balfour retorted, "Oh, I don't know. After all, even if he has lost
20824-412: Was excluded and condoned their failure to disarm. Cecil wrote to Baldwin, arguing that Hitler should be given a chance to sign a disarmament treaty, though he doubted whether this would be effective because everything that Hitler had hitherto done, along with Prussian practice of the last two centuries, suggested that it would fail. But after its likely failure, the League would have reason for contemplating
20976-455: Was held on 5 July 1921. Cecil wanted a genuine coalition, rather than a de facto Liberal government, with Grey, rather than Asquith, as prime minister and a formal manifesto by himself and Grey that Asquith and Crewe would then endorse as the official Liberal leaders. Another Conservative, Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland , later joined in the talks, and his views were similar to Cecil's, but Maclean, Runciman and Crewe were hostile. In July Cecil wrote
21128-433: Was homosexual, or, in view of a time during the Boer War when he was seen as he replied to a message while drying himself after his bath, Lord Beaverbrook 's claim that he was "a hermaphrodite " whom no-one saw naked. Balfour was a leading member of the social and intellectual group The Souls . In 1874 Balfour was elected Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Hertford until 1885. From 1885 to 1906 he served as
21280-601: Was in charge of the Foreign Office , and he conducted negotiations with Russia on the question of railways in North China. As a member of the cabinet responsible for the Transvaal negotiations in 1899, he bore his share of controversy and, when the Second Boer War began disastrously, he was first to realise the need to use the country's full military strength. His leadership of the House was marked by firmness in
21432-550: Was maintained by his also unmarried sister, Alice. In middle age, Balfour had a 40-year friendship with Mary Charteris (née Wyndham), Lady Elcho , later Countess of Wemyss and March . Although one biographer writes that "it is difficult to say how far the relationship went", her letters suggest they may have become lovers in 1887 and may have engaged in sado-masochism , a claim echoed by A. N. Wilson . Another biographer believes they had "no direct physical relationship", although he dismisses as "unlikely" suggestions that Balfour
21584-419: Was not just a solution to war but also guaranteed that civilisation would be preserved within each member state, including in Britain where "the League point of view [ran] through all politics - Ireland, Industry, even Economy...[involving] a new way of looking at things political - or rather a reversion" to Victorian morality . Cecil regarded "class war, whether the class attacked be landowners or Labour, [as]
21736-466: Was not sufficient for either the free traders or the extreme tariff reformers in government. With Balfour's agreement, Chamberlain resigned from the Cabinet in late 1903 to campaign for tariff reform. At the same time, Balfour tried to balance the two factions by accepting the resignation of three free-trading ministers, including Chancellor Ritchie, but the almost simultaneous resignation of the free-trader Duke of Devonshire (who as Lord Hartington had been
21888-412: Was prime minister and George Wyndham was the Irish secretary. It encouraged landlords to sell by means of a 12% cash bonus. Tenants were encouraged to buy with a low interest rate, and payments drawn out over 68 years. In 1909, Liberal legislation required compulsory sales in certain cases. As the landlords sold out, they relocated to Great Britain , giving up their political power in Ireland. Tensions in
22040-836: Was still disorganised over the Boers. In foreign affairs, Balfour and his foreign secretary, Lord Lansdowne , improved relations with France, culminating in the Entente Cordiale of 1904. The period also saw the Russo-Japanese War , when Britain, an ally of the Japanese, came close to war with Russia after the Dogger Bank incident . On the whole, Balfour left the conduct of foreign policy to Lansdowne, being busy himself with domestic problems. Balfour, who had known Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann since 1906, opposed Russian mistreatment of Jews and increasingly supported Zionism as
22192-409: Was still hopeful of progress in disarmament. He favoured "the total abolition of naval and military aircraft, plus the creation of an international" civil air force along with German equality in aircraft. Later still in 1933 he advocated "the abolition of aggressive arms" as "the power of the defensive" would mean that "France and the smaller countries would be safer than...in any other way". In October,
22344-595: Was still keen for a realignment under Grey, who was keener on the League of Nations than Asquith, whom Cecil thought still influential in the country but no longer a leader. With his brother Hugh Cecil, he resigned the Conservative whip in February 1921. In 1921 Cecil abandoned his attempt to form a centre party but still wanted Grey to return to active politics. Talks between Grey and Cecil began in June 1921. A wider meeting (Cecil, Asquith, Grey and leading Asquithian Liberals Lord Crewe , Runciman and Sir Donald Maclean )
22496-459: Was taking on an increasing role in economic life and banded together with the aim of protecting middle-class interests against both potential enemies. Its main pre-occupation was its opposition to socialism and in particular strike action , although it also became associated with the policies of eugenics and sterilisation programmes as a means to reduce the population and as a result reduce poverty. In opposing high taxation to pay for social reform
22648-432: Was the only reply that could be made, but I have never felt a more miserable worm than I did when making it. To me and many others the transaction was as shameful as anything in our history". He further lamented, "Nothing was more painful in the whole of these... negotiations than the constant threats of the Germans to enforce by arms any of their demands which were resisted, threats to which we instantly submitted". He wrote
22800-409: Was thought to be merely amusing himself with politics, and it was regarded as doubtful whether his health could withstand the severity of English winters. He was considered a dilettante by his colleagues; regardless, Lord Salisbury gave increasingly powerful posts in his government to his nephew. Beatrice Webb wrote in her diary: A man of extraordinary grace of mind and body, delighting in all that
22952-416: Was to be effective. He wanted a "closer union between European states" against "nationalism" in the postwar settlement. In his 1941 book A Great Experiment , Cecil strongly criticised Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary between 1931-1935 for his weak response to the Japanese seizure of Manchuria region of China in 1931, which he believed had led directly to World War Two. Cecil argued that Simon should had
23104-453: Was to buy them out, not by compulsion, but by offering the owners a full immediate payment and a 12% bonus on the sales price. The British government purchased 13 million acres (53,000 km2) by 1920, and sold farms to the tenants at low payments spread over seven decades. It would cost money, but all sides proved amenable. Starting in 1923 the Irish government bought out most of the remaining landowners, and in 1933 diverted payments being made to
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