Round Table movement
 |
The Rhodes-Milner Round Table Groups, were founded in September 1909 in a conference at the Estate of Lord Anglesey, Plas Newydd in Wales. The framework of the organisation was devised by Lionel Curtis, but the overall idea was due to Lord Milner.
They were designed to promulgate the idea of the formation of a World Federal Government, based on the unification of the British Empire and the United States of America. Although they failed in this task, it can be argued that they set the blueprint for future organisations such as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Bildeberg Group and Council on Foreign Relations.
Some people believe that the Round table groups were connected to a secret society called The Society of the Elect, which South African diamond baron Cecil Rhodes is believed to have set up with similar goals. Rhodes, who was connected to the Freemasons, was believed by some to have formed this secret society in his lifetime. Other's believe that his project failed to attract converts, and was still-born at it's inception.
Rhodes first formalised his idea with William T Stead, editor of the Pall Mall Gazzette when he and Stead agreed on the structure of the secret society. Like Weishaupt's Illuminati, this proposed secret society had an elaborate hierarchical structure, based on that of the Jesuits, which comprised: at the top, the position of "General of the Society"—a position modelled on the General of the Jesuits—to be occupied by Rhodes, with Stead and Lord Rothschild as his designated successors; an executive committee called the "Junta of Three", comprising Stead, Milner and Reginald Baliol Brett (Lord Esher); then a "Circle of Initiates", consisting of a number of notables including Cardinal Manning, Lord Arthur Balfour, Lord Albert Grey and Sir Harry Johnston; and outside of this was the "Association of Helpers", the broad mass of the Society. One of the puzzles surrounding this meeting is whether the "Society of the Elect" actually came into being. Carrol Quigley claims in Tragedy and Hope (1966) that Rhodes's "Society of the Elect" was not only "formally established" in 1891, but also that its "outer circle known as the 'Association of Helpers'" was "later organised by Milner as the Round Table".
In several of his wills, Rhodes left money for the continuation of the project. However in his later wills, Rhodes abandons the idea and instead concentrates on what became the Rhodes scholarships, which enabled American, German and English Scholars to study for free at Oxford university.
The groups are a collection of small discussion and lobbying groups in every major capital city of the world coordinated by a headquarters in London. In 1910 the The Round Table Journal:A Quarterly Review of the Politics of the British Empire was founded by Lord Milner and members of Milner's Kindergarten (Lionel Curtis, Philip Kerr and Geoffrey Dawson) to unify the political thinking of the groups internationally. After World War II the journal was renamed The Round Table Journal:A Quarterly Review of British Commonwealth Affairs to reflect changing post war realities.
By 1915 Round Table groups existed in seven countries, including England, South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and a rather loosely organized group in the United States (George Louis Beer, Walter Lippmann, Frank Aydelotte, Whitney Shepardson, Thomas W. Lamont, Erwin D. Canham and others).
Members of the Round table were important in securing the Union of South Africa and this was to be the prototype for the eventual federation of the British Empire. There was much disagreement about how this could best be done, and some historians believe that far from being a force of unification, the groups only served to hasten the breakup of the Empire.
Also there were many members of the round table who achieved high positions in LLoyd George's government in the United Kingdom, this has led Conspiracy theorists of the New World Order believe that the round table was instrumental in the formation and structure of the league of nations. This is only partly true as there was much disagreement as to the nature of the organisation. Philip Kerr for one, was dead set against the idea and tried to influence LLoyd George not to make any concessions to the idea.
Lionel Curtis founded the Royal Institute of International Affairs in June 1919. A year later it's sister organisation the Council of Foreign Relations was formed in America. It is perhaps in such organisations that the legacy of the round table still lives on.
Although the round table still exists today, its position in influencing the policies of World leaders has been much reduced from it's heyday during the First world war