| Philip Henry Kerr (1882-1940), eleventh Marquess of Lothian from 1930, served as first editor of The Round Table (1910-16), secretary to Prime Minster David Lloyd George (1916-21), secretary to the Rhodes Trustees (1925-39), chairman of the Indian Franchise Committee (1931-32), and British ambassador to the United States (August 1939-December 1940). In these capacities, he worked to democratize the British Empire and achieve an Anglo-American alliance. He hoped in these ways to lay the foundation for a democratic world government. Until 1921, though, he opposed a separate Irish state. He defended German war guilt in the 1919 peace settlement only to become a leading proponent of appeasing Nazi Germany in the 1930s.; This study examines Lothian's thought and influence in order to resolve the sharply contrasting views of him that have resulted from the discordant themes of his life. To this extent, the study also contributes to a better understanding of the larger Round Table circle to which Lothian belonged. Starting as proteges of Lord Milner before 1914, the Round Table fellowship had an influence in interwar debate over British foreign and imperial policy through their access to leading figures and leading newspapers such as The Times. This influence was and still is a subject of controversy.; Lothian foresaw an end to national sovereignty. His failure was to stress the reciprocity of rights and duties in a liberal democracy, when the deeper issue was who belonged to the political community in the first place. He tried to give rights and demand duties from peoples who did not want to belong either to the British Empire or to a larger liberal-democratic world. In the 1930s, his efforts to give Indians more power may have helped avert a more violent clash between Britain and Indian nationalism. His efforts to allow Nazi Germany to strengthen itself helped bring on the Second World War. Lothian persisted in his efforts from a sense that his aims fulfilled a higher moral purpose. |
