A matter of imperial defence : Arthur Balfour and the Anglo-Japanese alliance, 1894-1923
This thesis investigates Arthur Balfour’s policy towards Japan and the Anglo-Japanese alliance from 1894 to 1923. Although Balfour was involved in the Anglo-Japanese alliance from its signing to termination, no comprehensive analysis of his role in the alliance has been carried out. Utilising unpublished materials and academic books, this thesis reveals that Balfour’s policy on the Anglo-Japanese alliance revolved around two vital principles, namely imperial defence and Anglo-American cooperation. From the viewpoint of imperial defence, Balfour emphasised the defence of India and Australasia more than that of China. He opposed the signing of the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902 because it was not useful in the defence of India. The Russo-Japanese War raised the concern of Indian security. Changing his lukewarm attitude, Balfour took the initiative in extending the alliance into India to employ Japanese troops for the defence of India. Moreover, as an advocate of Anglo-American cooperation, Balfour made every effort to maintain good Anglo-American-Japanese relations. However, imperial defence and Anglo-American cooperation began to clash within the alliance during the Great War. Although the Siberian intervention was useful Japanese military assistance in the defence of India, America, who was not interested in India, hesitated to support it due to her suspicion against Japan. After the war, the alliance was still instrumental in defending India and Australasia, but its existence damaged the relations with America. Balfour tried to achieve both imperial defence and Anglo-American cooperation by developing the alliance into an Anglo-American-Japanese trilateral agreement with a military clause to revive a bilateral defensive alliance. But America and Japan did not support Balfour’s plan at the Washington Conference, and he had to accept the Four-Power Treaty without any military commitment.
Whitehall, Washington, and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1919-1921
Imperial Conference of 1921 were crucial in determining whether Britain would remain allied with Japan. J. Bartlett Brebner, J. Chal Vinson, and M. G. Fry have presented different views, however, about the policies and successes of each Dominion at this conference. Did the eloquence of Canadian Prime Minister Arthur Meighen change the minds of British leaders, influencing them to abandon the alliance? Or did the Dominions come to the imperial meeting prepared to drop the Anglo-Japanese tie in order to improve relations with the United States? Or was there a division of opinion about the alliance at the conference, and in Whitehall, which led to a compromise solution: to renew temporarily the bond with Japan and to seek a broader treaty at Washington? The issue is important, for it concerns the genesis of what is viewed generally as a vital "turning point in British Far Eastern policy."1
Zagranichnaia Agentura : The Tsarist Political Police in Europe
Anti-tsarist political emigration, of sufficient size to be a recognized problem, dates from the 1870s, when the struggle against the autocracy was being conducted by the Party of the People's Will (Narodnaia Volia) through an active campaign of terror against Russian officials. During the 1870s, however, political emigres were not given serious attention by the regime, and the Russian police operated abroad only to a very limited extent. Foreign operations were often in the hands of several people, each directly responsible to the Third Section of His Majesty's Personal Chancellery. Their work was generally carried out in secret and consisted mainly of surveillance. An important turning-point in the development of the Russian political police occurred in 1881, in the wake of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II. The police system was reorganized under a newly created Ministry of Internal Affairs, thus effectively centralizing both regular and political police under a single authority. Police functions were centred in the Department of Police in St Petersburg, and, following the tradition of foreign ministries in Europe, came to be known by its location at 17 Ulitsa Fontanka. In common police parlance, the Department of Police became simply 'Fontanka'. The political police were removed from the Tsar's Personal Chancellery and became known as the Political Section of the Police Department. Later, apparently in an attempt to obscure the role and importance of the political police, its name was changed to Osoby Otdel, or Special Section, but its function remained unchanged. The