Book Review: Commonwealth of Nations: The Irish Struggle 1916–1926

Date01 March 1967
Published date01 March 1967
DOI10.1177/002070206702200135
Subject MatterBook Review
BOOK REVIEWS
123
and
even
so
vital a
matter
as
the
military
staff
talks
between
senior
British
and
French
officers,
which
had
been
initiated
in
1906,
was
not
revealed
to
the
full
Cabinet
until
1912,
when
the majority
of
Ministers
were
"aghast"
at
their
implications.
Miss
Collins
deals
rather
briefly
with
the
important
diplomatic
events
between
1904
and
1914,
although
she
explores
fully
and
con-
vmcmgly
the
development
of
Foreign
Office
organization
during
this
period.
With
the
outbreak
of
war
the
influence
and
status
of
the
Foreign
Service suffered
an inevitable
decline.
This
was
due
to
several
causes
-the
more
restricted
sphere
of
diplomacy
in
wartime,
the
feeling
that
the
war
was
an
indictment
of
British
foreign
policy
the
inability
of
Grey
to
deal
effectively
with
the
Balkans
in
1915
and
the
tendency
for
important
decisions
of
the
Cabinet
War
Council
to
be
made
on
the
sole
responsibility
of
the Prime
Minister,
the
Secretary
of
State
for
War
and the
First
Lord
of
the Admiralty
When Asquith
fell
and
Lloyd George
became
Prime
Minister
the
influence
of
the Foreign
Secretary
was
further
diminished.
Such
matters
as
the
blockade of
Germany,
economic
warfare,
propaganda
and
re-
lations
with
the
United
States
came
more
and
more
to
be
settled
by
new
ad
hoc
organizations
not
under
the
direct
control
of
the
Foreign
Office.
This
led,
of
course,
to
a
sense
of
uncertainty and
loss
of
morale
in
the Foreign
Service.
At
the
end
of
the
long
and
bitter
war
the
critics
of
British
pre-war
foreign
policy
demanded
thorough
democratic
reforms
m
the
Foreign
Service. Many
saw
the
existing
Service
as
one
divorced
from the
real
needs
and
aspirations
of
the
people,
operating
in
discreditable
secrecy
and working towards
goals
which
were
not those
of
the
nation
as
a
whole.
The
reforms
which
were
in
fact
instituted
were
not
as
far-
reaching
as
might have
been
hoped,
but
Miss
Collins
very
sensibly
points out
that
a
real
dilemma
"does
exist
between
the
claims
of
the
people
to
be
consulted
and
the
freedom
of
action necessary
[to
the
Foreign
Service]
to
achieve
their
desires.
The
book
is
a
thorough
and
scholarly
analysis
of
an
interesting
problem,
and although
sometimes discursive,
provides
valuable
insights
into
the
operations,
personalities,
difficulties
and
limitations
of
the
British
Foreign
Service.
Unfortunately the
writing
is
generally
un-
distinguished
and
the
proof-reading
leaves
something
to
be
desired,
a
fact
which
is
the
more
irksome
since-even
in
these
days
of
outrageous
profiteering---$5.00
is
a
considerable price
to
pay
for
an unillustrated
paperback.
Ottawa
D.
J.
GOODSPEED
THE
IRISH
SmuGGLE
1916-1926.
Edited
by
Desmond Williams.
1966.
(Toronto: Umversity
of
Toronto
Press.
vii,
193pp.
$5.00)
That
fine
writer the
late
Frank
MacManus
started
me
off
on
a
literary
career
when,
as
Features
Editor
of
Radio
Eireann,
he
rejected

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