¹ Corp, E. T., ‘The transformation of the Foreign Office, 1900–1907’ (University of Kent at Canterbury Ph.D. thesis, 1976)Google Scholar, chapter 2; Jones, R., The nineteenth-century Foreign Office (London, 1971)Google Scholar, chapter 7; and Steiner, Z. S., The Foreign Office and foreign policy, 1898–1914 (Cambridge, 1969)Google Scholar, chapter 2.

² Steiner, Z. S. and Dockrill, M. L., ‘The Foreign Office reforms, 1919–1921’, Historical Journal, xvii, 2 (1974), 131–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Lamer, C., ‘The amalgamation of the diplomatic service with the Foreign Office’, Journal of Contemporary History, VII, 1–2 (1972), 107–26Google Scholar.

³ Fifth Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service 18 Dec. 1914 (Command Papers 7748 and 7749).

⁴ SirTilley, J. and Gaselee, S., The Foreign Office (London, 1933), p. 156Google Scholar.

⁵ Ibid. p.161.

⁶ P.R.O. T. 1/10369/4480, Foreign Office to Treasury, 6 Mar. 1905; and P.R.O. T. 1/10369/12288, Foreign Office to Treasury, 29 June 1905.

⁷ Nicolson, H., Lord Carnock (London, 1930), p. 326Google Scholar.

⁸ The Foreign Office was staffed by three separate classes of clerks: (1) the clerks on the diplomatic establishment, otherwise known as first or higher division clerks, and ranked as chief, senior, assistant or junior; (2) the intermediary clerks, formerly known as supplementary clerks, and ranked as assistant, first class or second class; and (3) the second division clerks, formerly known as lower division clerks, of whom the most senior were called staff officers. Each department was entrusted to a head (who was generally a senior clerk) and to an assistant (who was generally an assistant clerk on the diplomatic establishment, but who, in the financial, treaty and librarian's departments was an intermediary clerk).

⁹ This point was recognized by the fifth earl of Onslow when he wrote his own memoirs as part of his unpublished History of the Onslow family (viii, 1990: copy in the Guildford Muniment Room), but was omitted from the much shorter and in this instance inaccurate version which he published in Sixty-three years (London, 1942), p. 133Google Scholar. For an account of the changing interpretations of the responsibility for the reorganization see Corp, ‘Transformation of Foreign Office’, pp. 270–5.

¹⁰ P.R.O. F.O. 366/1136, minute by Hardinge (for the assistant under-secretaries), 3 Feb. 1906; and P.R.O. F.O. 366/761/p. 130, minute by Hardinge (for the Office as a whole), 3 Feb. 1906.

¹¹ P.R.O. F.O. 371/166/12374, Foreign Office circular ‘A’, 9 Apr. 1906.

¹² P.R.O. F.O. 371/166/12375, Foreign Office circular ‘B’, 9 Apr. 1906. It also covered ‘Reports on British Claims’.

¹³ P.R.O. F.O. 371/166/12374, Foreign Office circular ‘A’, 9 Apr. 1906. The circular was based on ideas which Crowe had advocated the previous year. See P.R.O. T. 1/10369/4480, memorandum by Crowe, 5 Jan. 1905.

¹⁴ See, for example, Lascelles papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/;13/p. 128, Goschen to Lascelles, 24 Apr. 1906; Lascelles papers P.R.O. F.O. 800/13/p. 271, Egerton to Lascelles, 16 Dec. 1906; P.R.O. F.O. 371/281/1267, Lowther to Crowe, 5 Jan. 1907.

¹⁵ See P.R.O. F.O. 371/166/12374, Hardinge to various heads of missions, 2 Apr. 1907; Lascelles papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/13/p. 369, Crowe to Lascelles, 8 Apr. 1907.

¹⁶ Nicolson papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/341/p. 4, Hardinge to Nicolson, 7 Jan. 1908.

¹⁷ P.R.O. F.O. 371/799/16348, minute by Crowe, 21 Apr. 1909; P.R.O. F.O. 371/799/42335, minute by Crowe, 15 Nov. 1909; P.R.O. F.O. 371/1032/8194, minute by Crowe, 1 Mar. 1910.

¹⁸ P.R.O. F.O. 371/1284/13788, minutes by Crowe, 10 Apr. and 9 June 1911; P.R.O. F.O. 371/1642/10060, Bertie to Grey, no. 544, 31 Dec. 1912, enclosing his annual report for 1911; Nicolson papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/363/p. 145, Goschen to Nicolson, 22 Feb. 1913; P.R.O. F.O. 371/1654/57379, Goschen to Grey, no. 470, 19 Dec. 1913, enclosing his annual report for 1912.

¹⁹ P.R.O. F.O. 371/166/12375, Foreign Office circular ‘B’ 9 Apr. 1906.

²⁰ P.R.O. F.O. 371/1284/13788, minute by Crowe, 10 Apr. 1911.

²¹ Nicolson papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/348/p. 254, Goschen to Nicolson, 19 Apr. 1911.

²² Nicolson papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/348/p. 464, Nicolson to Goschen, 1 May 1911.

²³ P.R.O. F.O. 371/1296/3700, minutes by Crowe, 27 Jan. 1912, and Grey on Cartwright to Grey, tel. no. 9, 26 Jan. 1912.

²⁴ P.R.O. F.O. 371/1296/1204, minutes by Crowe, 10 Jan. 1912, and Nicolson on Grant Duff to Grey, no. 2, 3 Jan. 1912.

²⁵ P.R.O. F.O. 366/1136, minute by Nicolson, 10 Feb. 1912.

²⁶ P.R.O. F.O. 371/1383/8677, minute by Crowe, 29 Feb. 1912, on Rodd to Grey, no. 56, 26 Feb. 1912.

²⁷ See, for example, British documents on the origins of the War, 1898–1914 (ed. Gooch, G. P. and Temperley, H. W. V.) (London, 1926–1938) (hereafter cited as B.D.), VIII, pp. 52–3Google Scholar, minute by Crowe, 23 June 1906, on Villiers to Grey, no. 42, 27 May 1906; B.D. VII, 712, minute by Crowe, 23 Nov. 1911, on Kiderlen-Wächter's statement before the Budget Committee of the Reichstag; P.R.O. F.O. 371/2189/58522, minute by Crowe, 14 Oct. 1914, on H. Rose, 11 Oct. 1914.

²⁸ See, for example, P.R.O. F.O. 371/509/8907, Hardinge to Grey, 12 Mar. 1908; and Nicolson papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/341/p. 173, Hardinge to Nicolson, 11 Nov. 1908.

²⁹ P.R.O. F.O. 371/166/12374, Foreign Office circular ‘A’, 9 Apr. 1906. Fora discussion of the question of private letters, and gaps inthe Foreign Office archives, see Corp, ‘Transformation of the Foreign Office’, pp. 479–504.

³⁰ See, for example, B.D. VI, 208, minute by Crowe, 3 Jan. 1910, on Goschen to Grey, no. 414, 29 Dec. 1909: ‘But what did Sir E. Goschen say? Surely some answer was called for. Presumably H. E. has, according to his habit, told the rest of the story in a private letter, with the result that the official record continuesincomplete, and may even become misleading to future students.’

³¹ P.R.O. F.O. 371/1463/14193, minute by Crowe, 3 Apr. 1912, on A. Hardinge to Crowe, 2 Apr. 1912.

³² There are a considerable number of these letters in the Onslow papers, Guildford Muniment Room, 173/21, 173/22 and 173/29.

³³ Nicolson papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/370/p. 22, Crowe to Grey, 22 Oct. 1913, with minutes by Grey and Crowe; Nicolson papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/370/p. 23, Nicolson to Crowe, undated, with minute by Crowe, 24. Oct. 1913; Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/22/30, minute by Grey on Lamb to Onslow, 18 Oct. 1913; Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/22/34, minute by Grey on Lamb to Onslow, 23 Oct. 1913; Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/22/37, minute by Onslow on Lamb to Onslow, 26 Oct. 1913; P.R.O. F.O. 371/1808/53884, minute by Crowe, 29 Nov. 1913, on Lamb to Onslow, 22 Nov. 1913.

³⁴ See above, note 8.

³⁵ For the controversy caused by this appointment, see Corp, ‘Transformation of the Foreign Office’, pp. 189–92.

³⁶ P.R.O. F.O. 366/782/p. 3, memorandum by Crowe, undated but probably Jan. 1910.

³⁷ Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/24/44, Robertson to Cranley, 4 Mar. 1907; Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/24/47, Robertson to Cranley, 1 July 1907; and Onslow, , Onslow family, 1990–1991Google Scholar.

³⁸ He did not succeed his father as fifth earl of Onslow until October 1911, and was therefore still Lord Cranley when the reforms were first suggested. He wrote in his memoirs that ‘Harold Nicolson in his … life of his father tries to make out that Sir Arthur neglected his duties as head of the Foreign Office and did not trouble himself over details of administration as Hardinge did [Nicolson, Carnock, pp. 326–7]. This is quite untrue, Nicolson was rather bored by them but he was conscientious … He expected me to keep a very sharp eye on everything in the office, to consult Crowe on any point I thought necessary and to keep him informed of anything that might arise. Under Nicolson the development and modernization of the office went on as under Hardinge.’ Onslow, Onslow family, VIII, 2087.

³⁹ Onslow, Onslow family, VIII, 2088.

⁴⁰ See above, p. 444.

⁴¹ Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/20/2, memorandum by Onslow, undated but Jan. 1912.

⁴² Onslow, Onslow family, VIII 2088; and P.R.O. T. 12/31/p. 505, Treasury to Foreign Office, 22 Feb. 1912.

⁴³ He was given the personal title of assistant under-secretary in June 1914.

⁴⁴ Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/21, Onslow to Nicolson, 13 Sept. 1911; with minutes by Nicolson, Campbell, Maxwell, Lister, Tufton, Drogheda, Sperling, and Alston, 16–25 Sept. 1911; and by Mallet and Tyrrell, 4 Oct. 1911. There were five political departments in the Foreign Office (Western, Eastern, Far Eastern, American and African, staffed entirely by the diplomatic establishment), and six non-political departments (commercial, consular, Blue Book, financial, treaty and librarian's, of which the first three were staffed by the diplomatic establishment, and the last three by the intermediary and second-division clerks – with the exception of the financial department, which had the chief clerk as its head). Leaving aside the Blue Book department, the clerks on the diplomatic establishment staffed seven of the departments, and Lord Onslow suggested that ‘the normal staff of each department should be fixed at five – a Senior Clerk, and [sic] Assistant Clerk and three Junior Clerks. This would require a Staff of thirty-five clerks to work the seven departments properly. The work of the Eastern Department, however, is so heavy that the services of a second Assistant, and also of one extra Junior for the work of the Third Room are necessary. This brings up the minimum Staff of the Eastern Department to seven … Thus … it seems to me we require at least thirty-seven men. In addition there are two Clerks required for the Blue-book department and five for private Secretarial work – making a total of forty-four men or forty-five counting the Chief Clerk. At present the paper Staff of the Office consists (according to the Foreign Office List) of eight Senior Clerks, nine Assistant Clerks, and twenty-six Junior Clerks or forty-three Clerks all told.’ At that time the remaining staff of the Foreign Office consisted of six intermediary clerks (superintendent of the treaty department, Librarian, three assistants, one first class clerk, and no second class clerks), and fifty members of the second division (Registrar, eleven staff officers, three second division clerks higher grade, and thirty-five second division clerks).

⁴⁵ Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/21, minute by Crowe, 3 Oct. 1911. Cartwright, the chief clerk, reminded Nicolson that the African department could be abolished, commenting that ‘when the Registries were established there was a serious question of reducing the number of Junior Clerks and for the present at any rate we must be satisfied with having retained the full number besides all the second division clerks who have been added to the establishment’. Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/21, minute by Cartwright, 5 Oct. 1911.

⁴⁶ See Corp, ‘Transformation of the Foreign Office’, pp. 456–9; and Jones, Nineteenth century Foreign Office, pp. 118–19. Fora detailed memorandum by Pearson on the duties of the Cyphering Room, see Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/22.

⁴⁷ Onslow, Onslow family, VIII, 2089.

⁴⁸ Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/21, Onslow to Nicolson, 10 Oct. 1911, with minute by Nicolson. The committee consisted of Mallet, Crowe, Tilley, Pearson and Onslow. The advice given to the committee by Knatchbull-Hugessen, Warner, Stewart, Lampson, Locock, Gregory, Dormer, Seymour, Maxwell, Villiers, Spicer, Onslow and Pearson is in Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/22, 23, 24, 25, and 26.

⁴⁹ The work to be assigned to the reorganized department was: Blue Book work, cyphering and decyphering, paraphrasing of telegrams, custody of confidential archives in missions and consulates, distribution of secret keys and key-boxes, supervision of arrangements for the conveyance of confidential matter, distribution of telegram sections, and circulation of papers to the cabinet.

⁵⁰ Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/27, report of Foreign Office committee, 28 Nov. 1911.

⁵¹ Tilley and Gaselee, Foreign Office, p. 156; P.R.O. T. 12/31/p. 408, Treasury to Foreign Office, 30 Dec. 1911.

⁵² Onslow, Onslow family, VIII, 2094–5.

⁵³ Ibid. At the end of 1911 the Eastern department consisted of one senior clerk, two assistant clerks, and four junior clerks. Under the new arrangement the department had only two junior clerks.

⁵⁴ Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/28, minutes by Norman, Maxwell, Mallet, Tyrrell, Langley, Crowe and Nicolson, 2–8 Feb. 1912; Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/29, Mallet to Onslow, 6 Feb. 1912; Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/23/30, report of Foreign Office committee, 12 Feb. 1912; P.R.O. T. 12/31/p. 704, Treasury to Foreign Office, 11 June 1912; P.R.O. T. 12/32/p. 83, Treasury to Foreign Office, 7 Feb. 1913; and the relevant editions of the Foreign Office List (London, 1912, 1913, and 1914). The Eastern department was temporarily given a Third Secretary in July 1912, and the transfer from the consular department took place in April 1913.

⁵⁵ Nicolson papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/366/p. 57, Crowe to Nicolson, 12 May 1913; P.R.O. F.O. 800/366/p. 126, Nicolson to Maycock, 27 May 1913; P.R.O. F.O. 800/366/p. 133, Maycock to Nicolson, 27 May 1913; P.R.O. F.O. 800/366/p. 128, Nicolson to Grey, 28 May 1913; P.R.O. F.O. 800/366/p. 131, Maycock to Nicolson, 30 May 1913; Onslow papers, G.M.R. 173/20/58, Nicolson to Onslow, 6 June 1913; and P.R.O. T. 12/32/p. 394, Treasury to Foreign Office, 26 June 1913. See also Hardinge papers, Cambridge University Library, vol. 71, p. 259, Maycock to Hardinge, 1 Oct. 1913; and Bertie papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/187/p. 346, Lee to Bertie, received 10 Oct. 1913. Liberia became the responsibility of the American department; Zanzibar was handed over to the Colonial Office, thus completing the process of handing over the African ‘Protectorates’ which had been begun in 1904 and 1905.

⁵⁸ He was also already supervising the Portuguese colonics, which had been the responsibility of the African department.

⁵⁷ Foreign and Commonwealth Office Library, Correspondence and Memoranda vol. 6, p. 135, minute by Crowe, , 16 09 1913Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ See P.R.O. F.O. 366/828/X. 7343, statement of despatches received at the Foreign Office from 1906 to 1924, Jan. 1925.

⁵⁹ For the details, see Steiner and Dockrill, ‘Foreign Office reforms’.

⁶⁰ See above, p. 444.

⁶¹ P.R.O. F.O. 366/786/40089, minute by Crowe, 7 Aug. 1914. For the instructions to the central registry, see F.C.O. Library, Correspondence and Memoranda vol. 5, p. 641, minute by Sperling, , 7 08 1914Google Scholar.

⁶² Bertie papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/163/p. 151, memorandum by Bertie, , 19 12 1914: ‘My prolongation was decided on in September.’Google Scholar

⁶³ He had planned to go on holiday on Monday 27 July (see, for example, P.R.O. F.O. 371/2049/32878, Vansittart to Brunyate, 24 July 1914), and did not change his mind until the text of the Austrian ultimatum was received at the Foreign Office on 24 July.

⁸⁴ Gregory, J. D., On the edge of diplomacy (London, 1928), p. 257Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ SirTilley, J., London to Tokyo (London, 1942), p. 81Google Scholar. He was absent from the Office from 10 September until the weekend of 19–20 September. I am grateful to Miss S. E. Crowe for allowing me to confirm the dates of her father's holiday, both planned and actual, from his engagement diary for 1914.

⁶⁶ P.R.O. F.O. 371/2105/54156, minute by Crowe, 30 Sept. 1914, on Admiralty to Foreign Office, 29 Sept. 1914. Nevertheless Crowe did continue to supervise certain subjects dealt with formerly by the Western and Eastern departments. For example he was responsible for Morocco, Egypt and Turkey until the end of 1914, and Portugal and Persia until the summer of 1915.

⁶⁷ SirO'Malley, O., The phantom caravan (London, 1954), p. 46Google Scholar. Crowe was repeatedly urging Grey to pursue a more positive policy towards Turkey.

⁶⁸ Tilley London to Tokyo, p. 81.

⁶⁹ Steiner, Foreign Office, p. 165. Crowe lost his immediate chance of promotion as the result of three completely separate developments. It had been decided before the war that Nicolson would leave the Foreign Office in September 1914, when he reached the age of sixty-five, and succeed Bertie as ambassador at Paris at the end of the same year. (See, for example, Grey papers, P.R.O. F.0.800/94/p. 403, Grey to Nicolson, 21 Oct. 1913; Hardinge papers, C.U.L. vol. 71, p. 387, Oliphant to Hardinge, 23 Feb. 1914). It was generally assumed that Crowe would therefore become permanent under-secretary in September 1914. The first reason why Crowe lost his chance of promotion was consequently the outbreak of war and the decision to retain Bertie at Paris and Nicolson at the Foreign Office. The second reason, which rests only on indirect evidence, was that Crowe apparently had a disagreement with Grey. Bertie visited London in December and noted that, according to Tyrrell, ‘Crowe has completely lost his head. His Prussian blood came out and he was insubordinate and insolent to Grey who has decided that his appointment to succeed Nicolson is impossible.’ (Bertie papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/163/p. 151, memorandum by Bertie, 19 Dec. 1914. The date of this reported incident is uncertain, and may have been at any time from September to December 1914. Cf. Hardinge, papers, C.U.L. vol. 94, p. 7, no. 6, Hardinge, to Nicolson, , 17 05 1915Google Scholar.) The third reason was that Crowe began to be attacked in the Press in July 1915 because of the government's policy over cotton, and in August 1915 because of his German connections (Daily Mail, 20 July 1915, p. 4Google Scholar; The Suffragette, 6 Aug. 1915, p. 254Google Scholar). These were the first of the many attacks which lasted until the end of the war.

⁷⁰ Sirde Bunsen, Maurice, the former ambassador at Vienna, was appointed an acting assistant under-secretary on 15 03 1915Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Nicolson, Carnock, p. 427.

⁷² Bertie, papers, P.R.O. F.O. 800/163/p. 151, memorandum by Bertie, , 19 12 1914Google Scholar.

⁷³ See, for example, P.R.O. F.O. 371/1911/61935, minute by Crowe, 22 Oct. 1914, on Belgian Legation to Foreign Office, 19 Oct. 1914; P.R.O. F.O. 372/634/68678, minute by Crowe, 9 Nov. 1914, on Howard to Grey, tel no. 24, 8 Nov. 1914; P.R.O. F.O. 372/553/71671, minute by Crowe, 16 Nov. 1914, on Admiralty to Foreign Office, 16 Nov. 1914.

⁷⁴ See Bell, A. C., The blockade of the Central Empires (London, 1937, classified ‘Confidential’ until its release in 1961), pp. v, 35–6, and 62Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ P.R.O. F.O. 368/1192/66930, memorandum by Crowe, 1 Nov. 1914.

⁷⁶ Tilley and Gaselee, Foreign Office, p. 178.

⁷⁷ The Commission had heard evidence from 29 April to 16 July 1914. See Steiner, Foreign Office, pp. 169–70.