Lord Philip Henry Kerr of Lothian

Nationality

United Kingdom

Date of Birth

1882

Date of Death

1940

Political
Preference

Libeal

Lord Philip Henry Kerr was born in London and studied Modern History at New College, Oxford. Kerr was a British writer, politician, diplomat and was Ambassador to the United States from 1939 until his death.

Kerr was private secretary to Prime Minister David Lloyd George between 1916 and 1921. His influence on Lloyd George’s policy on such matters as war aims, relations with the dominions, and the development of schemes for a League of Nations was considerable.

In the 1930s Lord Lothian argued for closer cooperation between Britain and the United States. In his lecture, Pacifism is not Enough, not Patriotism Either (1935), he suggested that an Anglo-American bloc would prove to be the cornerstone of an eventual world commonwealth. Kerr believed that Britain was not a part of Europe: she had a distinct history and a separate destiny. He thought that Europe should be united, but without Britain.

Kerr became known as leading advocate of appeasement with Germany in the late 1930s. He was participant in the Oxford Conference in 1937, where Kerr was involved in the debates around limitations of national sovereignty and peace. During this conference, Kerr argued that the main reason of the First World War was the anarchy of national sovereignties and that only to combine a common sovereignty policy, peace can be secured. His idea of a World State was heard, but as the Second World War was knocking at the door, the ecumenical movement shifted its focus to first bring peace to the European continent.

Kerr remained vocal. He believed that the Treaty of Versailles did not bring any good to peace in Europe, as well as Stalin’s rising communism. Kerr argued that Nazi repression of domestic enemies, Jews and Social Democrats, was in Lothian’s view “largely the reflex of the external persecution to which Germans have been subjected since the war”. He favoured for British policy to be less pro-French and claimed that the League of Nations could not be restored unless Germany was given “a square deal in Central Europe.”

Neville Chamberlain appointed Lothian as British ambassador in Washington. In his short period as Ambassador do the United States, Kerr was effective in retaining support for British war effort and closed the economic aid programs between the US and Britain, including the Lend Lease Program.