Retrenchment at Home and Abroad

Abstract

The article argues that, in spite of recurrent contrary perceptions, Britain's political and cultural interest and involvement in Central and South-Eastern Europe was intensive and proactive during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Early in the century, the classic British priorities of economic benefit buttressed by limited diplomacy were gradually expanded to include political overtones when radical Liberal politicians, journalists and intellectuals launched an ‘amateur’ campaign to support popular movements for national self-determination and individual human rights; first in the Balkans, then in Central Europe. During WWI, many such ‘amateurs’ with East-Central European contacts were co-opted by the British government. In return for promises of post-war independence, the oppressed nationalities of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires were enlisted to help the Allied war effort. One important tool in the dissemination of these powerful new ideas was the journal entitled The New Europe, owned and edited by Robert William Seton-Watson. Following the end of the war and the embedding of the peace treaties, official British attitudes began to shift with regard to the new successor states in the east. This, in the long run, distanced Britain from any Eastern or South-East European commitments. Former members of the New Europe group continued to defend the new status quo and were disappointed by the lack of concern with which the Locarno Pact treated Germany's eastern neighbours. The irony is expressed that the creation of a new world order based on a League of Nations should thus be accompanied by disillusionment with pre-war and wartime liberal engagements in foreign relations.