Commonwealth Institutes of International Affairs
| Date | 01 March 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207803300102 |
| Author | T.B. Millar |
| Published date | 01 March 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Opinion and Policy |
T.B.
MILLAR
Commonwealth
institutes
of
international
affairs
Harold
Nicolson wrote
in
his
diary
for
30
May
1919
during
the
Paris
Peace
Conference:
Philip
Kerr'
comes
round
and
we
draft
a telegram
to
Belgrade
to
tell
the
Serbs
they
must
stop fighting
in
Carinthia.
A
dinner
in
the
evening
to
discuss
the
formation
of
an
Anglo-
American
Institute
of
Foreign
Affairs,
with
an
annual
register
or
year-
book.
Lionel
Curtis,
2
who
conceived
the
scheme,
explains
his
purposes
in
a
really
admirable
speech.
A discussion
follows.
General
Bliss,
Bob
Cecil, Crowe,
Eustace
Percy,
Coolidge,
Headlam
Morley,
Latham
are
there.3
Crowe
makes
a
speech
criticizing
the
scheme.
Bob
Cecil
supports
it.
He
said
one
true
thing.
He
said,
'There
is
no
single
person
in
this
room
who
is
not
disappointed
with
the
terms
we
have
drafted.
Yet
Professorial Fellow
in
International
Relations,
Australian
National
University,
and
Director
of
the Australian
Institute
of
International
Affairs
1969-76.
This
article
is
drawn
from
reports
and
publications
of
the
various
institutes,
and the
accounts
and
reminiscences
of
present
and past
officers.
It
does
not
pretend
to
give
a
complete
history
of
the
various
institutes,
about
which
several
volumes
have
already
been
written,
but
to
give
brief
historical detail
and,
as
requested
by
the
editors,
some assessment
of
the
parts
played
by
the
institutes
in
their
respective
countries.
It
would
be remiss
not
to
mention
that
the Cana-
dian
Institute
of
International
Affairs
was
by
far the
most
helpful
in
providing
information. Not
all
institutes
replied
to requests for
information.
i
Later
Lord
Lothian.
2
Founder
of
the
Round
Table
and
advocate
of
imperial
federation.
3
General
Tasker
Bliss,
a
former
United
States
Army
chief of
staff,
who
was
in
the chair;
Lord Robert
Cecil,
later
Viscount
Salisbury; Sir
Eyre
Crowe,
who
became
permanent
under
secretary
of
state for
foreign
affairs
in
192o;
Lord
Eustace
Percy;
Professor
Archibald
C.
Coolidge;
J.W.
(later
Sir
James)
Headlam-
Morley,
later
historical
adviser
to
the
Foreign
Office;
Commander
J.G.
(later
Sir
John) Latham,
subsequently attorney-general,
deputy
prime
minister,
and
chief
justice
of
Australia.
6
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
England
and
America have
got
all
that
they
want, and
more:
far
more.
Our
disappointment
is
an
excellent
symptom:
let
us
perpetuate
it.'
In
the
end
we
decide to
appoint
a
committee
of
six
to
draw
up
a
plan
and
report.
The
general
idea
is
to
create
a
centre
of
authoritative opinion,
in
touch
with
the
League
of
Nations
and
the
permanent
officials,
whose
authority
shall
be
such
as
that
of
the General
Medical
Council.
I
am
deeply
in
favour
of
it.
And
on
12
June
after
a
meeting
of
some
of
the
American
and
Brit-
ish
empire
delegates
to the
conference:
'After
dinner
there
is a
meeting
of
the
newly
formed
Institute
of
International
Affairs.
They
elect
a
Council
and
pass
most
of
the
items
on
the
agenda.
It
certainly
looks
as
if
the
thing
would
materialize
and
prosper.'
4
Lionel Curtis
of
Britain
and
Whitney
H.
Shepardson
of
the
United
States
were
the
joint
honorary
secretaries,
but
Curtis
was
the
mov-
ing
spirit.
He
believed,
as
he
later
recorded,
that
the
issues
of the Conference
would
be
settled
less
by
the
views
of
the
statesmen
assembled
at
Paris
than
by
public
opinion
in
the
countries
from
which
they
came.
And
it
was
clear
that,
as
time
went on,
govern-
ments
in
their
conduct
of
foreign
affairs
would
come
to
rely
more
and
more
on
the
support
of
their
citizens.
The
creation
of an
informed
public
opinion
on
international
affairs
was
thus
one
of
the
prime
needs
of
the
future.
5
The
proposed
institute
was
to
have
initially
a
branch in
Britain
and
one in the
United
States;
branches
in
other
Commonwealth
and
European
countries
were
also
planned.
It
was
agreed
that
the
first
task
should
be
to
write
a
history
of the Paris peacemaking
oper-
ations.
6
When
the
delegates
returned
home
after
the
conference,
the
Americans
found
a
body
already
in
existence which
was
so
simi-
4
Harold
Nicolson,
Peacemaking
1919
(London
1945),
pp
289, 296.
5
On
9
November
1923.
Cited in
Institutes
of
International
Affairs
(New
York:
Carnegie
Endowment
for
International
Peace,
1953),
p
16.
6
Dr
Harold
Temperley,
who
was
on
the
British
organizing committee,
edited
the
six-volume
history
of
the
Peace
Conference,
with
the
active
co-operation
of
the
Council on
Foreign
Relations and
financial
backing
from
Thomas
Lamont,
a
partner
in
the
New
York
banking
firm
of
J.P.
Morgan
and
Company.
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