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To start off with, he makes known that Cecil Rhodes in his first 5 wills wanted to leave his inheritance to start a secret society to preserve and expand the British Empire. Quigley maintains that this society was formed in 1891, consisting of Rhodes, William Stead(influential British columnist), Lord Esher(influential advisor to the royal family), and Alfred Milner(later Commissioner in South Africa). They were to form a sort of 'old boy' network, where they would try to recruit like-minded influential people and bring them on board.
They pioneered the use of study groups to float ideas around and criticize them to anticipate opposition. When they reached sufficient consensus(this was facilitated by participants being all liberal imperialists), they would use their collective influence to get their project implemented. They used their influence at universities as recruiting grounds for people of ability. Using money from trusts such as the Rhodes Trust, Beit Trust, Carnegie Trust, they set up and controlled chairs and lectureships at universities to study foreign relations and Imperial affairs. By using their power of patronage, they filled these posts with fellow liberal imperialists.
They also controlled the Times, the Round Table, and created the Royal Institute for International Affairs. He also claims that they controlled or influenced other publications, such as the Economist. By creating studies and publishing books on foreign affairs, controlling the journals and periodicals that review them, they were in a position to influence or mold public opinion on foreign policy matters. For example, by controlling the Times Literary Supplement, they would give favorable reviews to books supporting their viewpoint. Books not supporting their viewpoint would not get reviewed, or would get rubbished. This practice is going strong today.
He also showed how the Royal Institute of International Affairs became the defacto research branch of the Foreign Office. Thus briefing material and area research to inform Foreign Office officials would originate from this group. The Council on Foreign Relations fulfills this role for the US Government today.
What Quigley describes is the creation of a permanant mandarin class and network, established by wealthy and influential people, a turning point in Western society. The 19th century and the cheapness and availability of weapons tended for more democratic power arrangements. By the late 19th century, industrialization and the rise of big business and big banking, led to less democratic power arrangements. Quigley describes how an influential group in England altered the power arrangements of that country, to effectively control its foreign and imperial policy. Such arrangements, unfortunately, are only too clear to see in the United States as well.
A must read for those who want to see America remain a sovereign nation.
Quigley gives a meticulous account of the history of the Rhodes scholarships, and those that implemented the desires set forth in the wills of Cecil Rhodes, the British diamond king and colonial statesman.
Since 1904, this scholarship has been used to train "men of ability and enthusiasm who find no suitable way to serve their country under the current political system" at Oxford Universary in England. The goal is uniting the world. These Rhodes scholars are now serving in key positions all over the world.
Much of the book is devoted to Sir Alfred Milner and the "Milner Group." Upon Rhodes' death, Milner obtained control of Rhodes' money and was able to use it to lubricate the working of propaganda throughout the world.
Quigley says of the Milner group: "No country that values its safety should allow what the Milner group accomplished - that is, that a small number of men would be able to wield such power in administration and politics, should be given almost complete control over the publication of documents relating to their actions, should be able to exercise such influence over the avenues of information that create public opinion, and should be able to monopolize so completely the writing and the teaching of the history of their own period."
Interestingly, a footnote in the concluding chapter states that the last important public act of the Milner group was the drawing of a Yugoslav boundary in 1946. After this the group, states Quigley, "ground its way to a finish of bitterness and ashes."
Could the present crisis in Yugoslavia and the use of "allied force" be a Phoenix rising from the ashes? Read the book and decide for yourself.