Book Review: Commonwealth of Nations: Aspects of British Politics 1904–1919
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200134 |
| Author | D. J. Goodspeed |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
122
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
were
determined
to
go
their
own
way-
and if
the
imperialists
were
defeated,
the
socialists
won
out.
Such
an
analysis
is
apposite
to
the
situation
in
modern
Britain.
Can
a
Labour
Government
now
command
the habit
of
deference,
apparent
in
the
past,
with
a
pragmatic
policy
unlikely
to
"lift
any-
body's
heart"
9
And
in
the
aftermath
of
Empire,
when
the
demise
of
imperialism
has
left
a
"curious
void"
can
the
old
method
succeed?
No
other
Empire
has
gone
with
such
a
run.
There
are
even
those
in
Britain
who would
be
glad
to
pull
out
of
the
Commonwealth
them-
selves.
What
is
to
be
the
new
frontier for
the
British.
Can
it
be
in
Continental
Europe
Professor
Thornton's
account
of
leadership
in
England
is
thus
particularly
useful.
It
ranges
over
the
"colonization"
of
England itself,
through the
development
of
the
Estates
of
the
Realm,
always
the
background
to overseas
expansion; and
he
describes
the
19th
century
dislocation
of
society
and
the
survival
of
the
ascendancy
in
spite
of
it.
In a
very
original
chapter
entitled "Bonar
Law's
Dynasty"
he
depicts
the
deplorable
loss of
nerve
between
the
wars;
but
he
has
not
much
sympathy
with
the
Left,
either-
"How
the
Spanish
peasant
regarded
the foreign
intellectuals
who
came
to
assist
his
cause,
no
Spanish
peasant
has
left
record"
Yet
disaster
again
produced
leadership,
and
today
it
is
evidently
needed. How
far
can
the
present rulers
of
Britain
rise to
the
occasion.
Will
the
realism
and
ability
traditional
in
British
history
again
win
through
No
book
I
know
of
gives
a
better
assessment
of
this
urgent
problem
than
this
able
survey
Indiana
Unsversity
JOHN
BOWLE
ASPECTS
OF
BRITISH
PoLrITcs
1904-1919.
By
Doreen
Collins.
1965.
(London:
New
York:
Pergamon
Press.
372pp.
$5.00)
This
book
is
concerned
with
the
changes
in
British
foreign
policy
between
1904
and
1919
and with
the
results
whuch
these
changes
had
on
the
traditional
Foreign
Service
machinery.
At
the
beginning
of
the
20th
century
Britain
found
herself
faced
with
a
relative
loss
of
power
which
made
her former
policy
of "splendid
isolation"
no
longer
feasible.
World
circumstances had
thus
destroyed
much
of
her
freedom
of
action,
as
can
be
seen
from the
fact
that
the
Anglo-French
entente,
signed
originally
as
a
settlement
of some
limited
colonial
differences,
resulted
within
two
years
in
Britain's
being faced with
the
possibility
of
taking
part
in
a
major
European
war.
The
Foreign
Service
had
long
been
an
aristocratic
preserve,
open
only
to
those
with
substantial
private
means,
the
proper
educational
background and
the
right
connections.
More
serious
was
the
fact
that
neither
the
Cabinet
nor
Parliament
exercised
any
effective
control
over
foreign
policy.
Sir Edward
Grey
was
not
one
to
confide
in
Parliament,
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