The Round Table movement, an exclusive organization centered in London with overseas branches, was set up in 1909 by Milner's “Kindergarten”, which consisted of graduates of New College, Oxford. The “Kindergarten” was devoted to the promotion of the union of South Africa after the Boer War. In 1910, the “Kindergarten” started
The Round Table, which aimed at studying imperial affairs and achieving imperial federation. The intellectual origins of imperial federation were attributed to Milnerism, a policy of imperial reform in response to growing German militarism, and Hamiltonian Federalism, a constitution of the union under federal government. The two eminent Round Tablers, Lionel Curtis and Philip Kerr (later Lord Lothian), took throughout, responsibility for promoting the movement.
For the next 10 years, the movement was looked upon so favorably that an élite class of the British Empire eagerly supported it. During the First World War, some of the Round Tablers rose to decision-making positions in both private and public sectors.
After the Versailles Peace Conference, the Round Table group set about forming another movement to found the Institutes of International Affairs which were later realized respectively as the following; The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, Institute of Pacific Relations. These organizations had the same initiator and promotor, Lionel Curtis, who was called the “prophet”. In addition to Curtis' enlarged plot, Lothian advocated the establishment of the Anglo-American Federation that was encouraged by Streit's
Federal Now.
In 1939, though Lothian was stigmatized as an appeaser, he was appointed Ambassador to the U. S. by N. Chamberlain with Halifax's strong recommendation. Without Lothian's able and persistent mediation between the U. S. government and the U. K., the Destroyers Deal of 1940 could not have been concluded ahd the Lend-Lease Agreement could not have been reached. Anyway, it should be noted that Lothian's successful contributions could not only be found in the solution of the Atlantic defense problem, but also the Pacific defense problem. Lothian was determined to maintain the Status Quo against Japan's New Order policy in Asia and the Pacific. Considering the outbreak of the Anglo-American-Japanese War, 1941, the completion of the Anglo-American alliance that exhausted Lothian until his death, was said to be indispensable to the U. K's victory in the War against Japan.
With the study of the Ideas and History of the Round Table movement, our understanding of the last World War in the Far East Theatre could surely be deepened much more.
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