New Commonwealth Society

The New Commonwealth was an international organisation created in London in 1932 with branches in France and Germany. It advocated pacifism, disarmament and multilateral resolution of conflicts through political lobbying and different publications.

Composition and organisation

The New Commonwealth Society was created in October 1932 in London by David Davies (Lord Davies of Llandinam), British liberal millionaire and former secretary to the liberal politician Lloyd George.^[1][2] Its patrons included Lord Gladstone, Lord Robert Cecil, Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee,^[3] and its inaugural executive committee consisted of, in addition to Davies, one member from each of the larger national branches: the former leader of the Labour party George Barnes for Britain, the journalist Henry de Jouvenel for France, the liberal activist Ernst Jäckh for Germany, and the businessman Oscar Terry Crosby for the United States.^[4][5]

Notable members of the organisations also included Eyvind Bratt from Sweden, J. J. van der Leeuw from the Netherlands, and distinguished academic scholars such as the émigré Albert Einstein, Norman Bentwich, Nicholas Murray Butler, George Scelle, Hans Kelsen^[6] and Alfred Verdross, who founded the Austrian branch of the organisation in 1937.^[7]

The German branch of the Society was led by the SA-group leader (SA-Gruppenführer) Friedrich Haselmayr [de]. Their activities were tolerated and on occasions even encouraged by the Nazi regime.^[1]

The Society advocated the creation of an international tribunal and an international police force.^[8] The Society defended the creation of an international air force which would act as a military arm of the League of Nations, promoting disarmament and keeping the world's peace. Those promoting the New Commonwealth included the David Davies, who became its chairman, others who had taken part in building up the League of Nations Union, and Winston Churchill, who was elected as the organization's president. Ernst Jaeckh was appointed as international director.^[2]

In a speech to the Society in May 1937, Churchill said

We are one of the few peace societies that advocates the use of force, if possible overwhelming force, to support public international law.^[9]

Some of the ideas of the New Commonwealth Society were later incorporated into the United Nations Charter.

Publications

To promote its aims, the Society published a monthly, The New Commonwealth, from 1932 to 1950. It also published a quarterly from 1935 to 1943, first named New Commonwealth Quarterly, later renamed the London Quarterly of World Affairs.^[10] Otto Neurath was a member of the editorial committee.

The Society also published many pamphlets and books.

Notes

1. Ashkenazi 2018, p. 209.
2. Anderson, Perry (2011). The New Old World. Verso. p. 497. ISBN 9781844677214.
3. Pugh 1988, p. 335.
4. First Annual Report of The New Commownealth (London, The New Commonwwealth, 1933), internal cover.
5. Klinkert, Wim (2022). Dutch Military Thought, 1919-1939. Brill. p. 251. ISBN 978-90-04-51924-4. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
6. Ashkenazi 2018, p. 211.
7. Busch, Jürgen (2012). "Ein Mann des Widerspruchs? Teil 1. Verdross im Gefüge der Wiener Völkerrechtswissenschaft vor und nach 1938". In Meissel, Franz-Stefan; Reiter-Zatloukal, Ilse; Schima, Stefan (eds.). Vertriebenes Recht - Vertreibendes Recht. Zur Geschichte der Wiener Rechts- und Staatswissenschaftlichen Fakultät zwischen 1938 und 1945 (in German). Wien: Manz. p. 153. ISBN 978-3-214-07405-0.
8. First Annual Report of The New Commownealth, (London, The New Commonwwealth, 1933), p. 5
9. Warren, Spencer (1999). "A Philosophy of International Politics". In Muller, James W. (ed.). Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech fifty years later. University of Missouri Press. p. 101. ISBN 0826212476.
10. Otto Neurath, Empiricism and Sociology (Dordrecht, D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1973)

Bibliography

• Ashkenazi, Ofer (2018-02-26). "Transnational Anti-war Activity in the Third Reich: The Nazi Branch of the New Commonwealth Society*". German History. Oxford University Press (OUP). 36 (2): 207–228. doi:10.1093/gerhis/ghy004. ISSN 0266-3554.
• Ploß, Christoph Johannes (2017). Die "New Commonwealth Society". Ein Ideen-Laboratorium für den supranationalen europäischen Integrationsprozess [The New Commonwealth Society. A laboratory of ideas for the supranational European integration process] (in German). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-515-11799-9.
• Pugh, Michael C. (1988). "An International Police Force: Lord Davies and the British Debate in the 1930s". International Relations. SAGE Publications. 9 (4): 335–351. doi:10.1177/004711788800900405. ISSN 0047-1178.