Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Lord Hardinge succeeded Minto as viceroy of India in November 1910, after a distinguished career in the diplomatic service and in the Foreign Office as permanent under-secretary from 1906 to 191 o under Sir Edward Grey. Up to the outbreak of the First World War, he was considered a successful as well as a very popular viceroy. From August 1914 until the end of his viceroyalty in March 1916, the Mesopotamia Expedition was his greatest concern and India's most important undertaking. The expedition and subsequent inquiry had important effects on Britain, India and throughout the East, and had perhaps a more profound impact upon Hardinge's career and personality than any other event during his forty-two years of government service.
1 Despite the importance of Lord Hardinge and the richness and extent of his private papers, he has received very little scholarly attention, and has had no biographers at all. Though his years at the Foreign Office before 191 o have been covered by Zara Steiner in her excellent study The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914 (Cambridge, 1969),Google Scholar no one has written on his six years in India with Hardinge as the focal point. His memoirs of his viceroyalty, entitled My Indian Years, 1910–1916: The Reminiscences of Lord Hardinge of Penshurst (London, 1948),Google Scholar are too brief and superficial to be of much value.
Nothing has been written specifically on his involvement in Mesopotamia. The relevant portion of the official history of the First World War, the four volumes of General Moberly’s, F. J.The Campaign in Mesopotamia, 1914–1918 (London, 1923–1927),Google Scholar and Barker's, A. J.The Neglected War: Mesopotamia, 1914–1918 (London, 1967),Google Scholar are strictly military histories. Busch's, B. C.Britain, India, and the Arabs: 1914–1918 (Berkeley, 1971),Google Scholar does cover India and the Mesopotamia expedition, but makes no claim to affording Hardinge the individual treatment which he deserves.
2 Hardinge (henceforth H) to F. A. Maxwell, i8Aug. 1913, Hardinge Papers, Cambridge University Library (henceforth HP), 93/no. 66. See also diary entries of 20 Aug., 13 and 15 Sep. 1911, Hardinge Papers, Kent County Record Office (henceforth Kent MSS), U. 927/Vp 2.
3 Fleetwood Wilson to Lucas, 15 Jan. 1913, Fleetwood Wilson Collection, India Office Library, MSS Eur. E. 22472b.
4 Crewe to H, 8 May 1913, HP 119/no. 21.
5 See Hardinge's evidence of Dec. 1916 to the Mesopotamia Commission, Cab. 19/8, question 16417. Hardinge, , My Indian Years, p. 31.Google Scholar
6 Crewe to H, 17 Feb. and 3 Mar. 1911, HP 117/nos. 17 and 19.
7 Diary entry for 25 Jan. 1911, Kent MSS U. g27/Vp 2.
8 Memo, of 1 Feb. 1911, enclosed in H to Crewe, 9 Feb., HP 117/no. 17.
9 Haig memo, of 14 July 1911, Mesopotamia Commission Report (henceforth Report), Cmd. 8610 (1917), Xi/D/36; Moberly, , The Campaign in Mesopotamia, i, 73;Google ScholarHardinge, , My Indian Years, pp. 31–2.Google Scholar
10 ’Note by His Excellency the Viceroy’, 30 Aug. 1911, enclosed in H to Crewe, 21 Sept. 1911, HP 117/no. 62. Also see diary entries for 8–9 Aug. igi 1, Kent MSS U. 927/Vp 2.
11 H to Ritchie, 2 Feb. 1911, HP 117/no. 16.
12 Majority Report of the ‘Army in India Committee, 1912’, copy in the Kent MSS U. 927/Va 30.
13 Majority Report, para. 130.
14 Majority Report, para. 639.
15 Minority Report of the ‘Army in India Committee, 1912’, copy in the Kent MSS U. 927/Va 31.
16 Minority Report, paras. 112–13 and 705.
17 H to Crewe, 27 Mar. 1912, HP 118/no. 12; diary entry for 3 May 1912, Kent MSS U. 927/Vp 3. Cf. Wilson to Lucas, 11 Mar. 1912, Fleetwood Wilson Collection, E. 224/2b.
18 H to Crewe, 9 May 1912, HP 118/no. 20. For other improvements, see HP 131, pp. 87–94.
19 For Duff's appointment, see the Crewe Papers, Cambridge University Library, 1/13(9); HP vols. 93, 105 and 119, passim; Kitchener to Butler, Harcourt Buder Collection, India Office Library, MSS Eur. F. 116/33.
20 Seely to Crewe, undated note (probably 15 Oct. 1913), Crewe Papers, I/13 (9).
21 Overall military expenditure actually increased slightly each year between 1910 and 1914. Undated memo, in the Austen Chamberlain Papers, University of Birmingham Library, 48/45. Moberly, , The Campaign in Mesopotamia, i, 59.Google Scholar
22 Hardinge, , My Indian Years, p. 86.Google Scholar The ‘tragic ending’ presumably refers to Duffs (alleged) suicide in 1918.
23 Report, I/C/24. Barker, A. J., The Neglected War, p. 30, agrees.Google Scholar
24 Report, Xi/D and VIII/2.
25 Report, I/C/25, Xi/D/36 and X/77.
26 Moberly, , The Campaign in Mesopotamia, i, 73–4;Google ScholarBusch, B. C., Britain and the Persian Gulf 1894–1914 (Berkeley, 1967), p. 329.Google Scholar
27 Cab. 19/8, question 16419; H to Moberly, 10 June 1922, Kent MSS U. 927/029/73.
28 This is what General Lake (Report, VIII/i) and Barker, (The Neglected War, pp. 30–3)Google Scholar argue, though Philip Mason in A Matter of Honour: An Account of the Indian Army, its Officers and Men (London, 1974), p. 405, disagrees.Google Scholar
29 H to Nicolson, 15 Oct. 1911, HP 92/no. 98.
30 Cab. 19/8, question 16664.
31 H to Crewe, 27 Mar. 1912, HP 118/no. 12; and 17 Sept. 1913, HP 119/no. 47.
32 For praise and criticism of India's war effort see Mehrotra, S. R., India and the Commonwealth 1885–1929 (London, 1965), pp. 61 ff;Google Scholar Chamberlain Papers, 21/1; H.C. Debs., 5th Series, vol. 82, cols. 2044–7, 2051–3.
33 Telegrams of Aug. and Sept. 1914 in HP 101, letters in HP 120.
34 H to Chirol, igAug. 1914, HP 93/no. 205. One prominent Indian figure, V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, compared the decision to send Indian troops to Europe to Cavour's decision at the time of the Crimean War to send Piedmontese forces to fight alongside the English and the French. Mehrotra, , India and the Commonwealth, pp. 66–7.Google Scholar
35 Mason, , A Matter of Honour, p. 409.Google Scholar
36 On these problems see Barrow's India Office (henceforth I.O.) memo, of 20 Nov. 1915, Cab. 42/5/21; Hardinge's statement of Dec. 1916 in Cab. 19/8, pp. 757–8; and the review in the government of India's (henceforth G. of I.) dispatch no. 17 of 24 Nov. 1916, copy in the Crewe Papers, M/15/6.
37 See the Crewe Papers, I/19 (1).
38 H to Crewe, 21 Oct. 1914, HP 120/no. 53.
39 This view was supported in the Report, I/C&D/paras. 26 and 30.
40 Crewe to H, 2 Apr. 1915, HP 121/no. 19.
41 Viceroy tel. no. 262 to the secretary of state (henceforth S. of S.), 17 Aug. 1914, HP 101/no. 82.
42 Churchill minute for Crewe, 14 Sept. 1914, Crewe Papers I/20 (5).
43 Viceroy tel. no. 329 to S. of S., 30 Aug. 1914, HP 101/no. 141.
44 Viceroy tel. no. 360 to S. of S., 4 Sept. 1914, HP 101/no. 179.
45 H to Sanderson, 9 Sept. 1914, HP 93.
46 India Office Library, Political and Secret files, L/P/10/462, Registry no. 3439.
47 Barrow to Crewe, 25 Sept. 1914, Crewe Papers I/20 (2).
48 S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 5 Oct. 1914, HP 101/562D; Moberly, , The Campaign in Mesopotamia, I, 92–3.Google Scholar
49 Viceroy tel. no. 576 to S. of S., 7 Oct. 1914, HP 101/no. 447a.
50 Cf. Cohen, S. A., ‘The Formulation of British Policy Towards Mesopotamia, 1903–14,’ (unpublished Oxford D.Phil, thesis, 1972), pp. 336–57.Google Scholar
51 Crewe to H, 26 Nov. 1914, HP 120/no. 59.
52 L/P&S/11/87, Reg. no. 4796.
53 Crewe to H, 10 Dec. 1914, HP 120/no. 62. Quoted by Crewe in his memo, of 8 Sept. 1916 for the Mesopotamia Commission; copy in the Crewe Papers M/15 (2), p. 3.
54 H to Nicolson, 4 Feb. 1915, HP 93/no. 290.
55 H to Nicolson, 8 Apr. 1915, HP 93/no. 318.
56 S. of S. tel. no. 1812 to viceroy, 24 Apr. 1915, HP 103/no. 1623.
57 H to Allen, 26 May 1915, HP 93/no. 10.
58 Chamberlain to H, 27 May 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/1.
59 H to Chamberlain, 27 May 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/1.
60 Hardinge's term as viceroy was extended in June. See the material in the Crewe Papers, I/21 (2), and Asquith’s statement of the 14th in H.C. Debs., vol. 72, col. 501. ‘I only hope’, Hardinge wrote with an obvious reference to Curzon, ‘it [the extension] will turn out all right, and not prove a fiasco as in the case of some of my predecessors who have had extensions’. H to Chirol, 16 June 1915, HP 94/no. 31.
61 H to Chirol, 9 June 1915, HP 94/no. 23.
62 H to Chamberlain, 24 June 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/1.
63 Chamberlain to H, 25 June 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/1.
64 H to Nixon, 8 Aug. 1915, HP 94/no. 64.
65 HP 94/no. 92.
66 Hardinge's evidence, Cab. 19/8, questions 16431–8; Barrow's statement of 4 Aug. 1916, copy in the Crewe Papers M/15 (3), pp. 6–7.
67 Busch, , Britain, India, and the Arabs, p. 17.Google Scholar
68 See, for example, viceroy tel. no. 240 to S. of S., 28 Feb. 1915, HP 99/no. 134.
69 Curzon Papers, India Office Library, E/6/3.
70 The following section is supplemented by Rothwell's, V. H. article, ‘Mesopotamia in British War Aims, 1914–18’, Historical Journal, xiii (1970), 273–94.Google Scholar
71 H to H. F. B. Lynch, 6 May 1911, HP 92/no. 51.
72 H to Allen, 30 Nov. 1914, HP 93/no. 260.
73 Viceroy tel. no. 891 to S. of S., 7 Dec. 1914, HP 98/no. 620a.
74 S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 9 Dec. 1914, HP 98/no. 647a; Foreign Office (henceforth F.O.) letter of 15 Dec. in L/P/10/513, Reg. no. 4887; S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 16 Dec, HP 98/no. 669a.
75 H to McMahon, 21 Apr. 1915, HP 93/no. 9a.
76 Enclosed in Walton to DuBoulay, 9 Apr. 1915, HP 121/no. 22.
77 See Klieman, A. S., ‘Britain's War Aims in the Middle East in 1915’, Journal of Contemporary History, iii (1968), 237–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
78 H to Curzon, 18 Feb. 1915, Curzon Papers E/6/3. Hardinge gives a full account of his views in H to Nicolson, 8 Apr. 1915, HP 93/no. 318.
79 It should be noted that Hardinge was far from being alone in his imperial aspirations for Mesopotamia. See Hirtzel note of 30 Mar. 1915 and Crewe note of 6 Apr., HP 121/no. 22; Curzon toH, 12 Jan., HP 93/no. 347; the king to H, 1 Apr., HP 105/no.gi. A. T. Wilson of the Indian Political Department urged that India be given its ‘place in the sun’ by the annexation of Mesopotamia, which could be peopled ‘with martial races from the Punjab…’. Wilson to Col. Yates, 28 Nov. 1914, L/P&S/10/463, Reg. no. 4722. Philby and Gertrude Bell also discussed ‘how reasonable it would be for Britain to annex and keep Basra’. Monroe, Elizabeth, Philby of Arabia (London, 1973), p. 55.Google Scholar
80 H to Morley, 17 June 1915, HP 94/no. 33. In view of his hopes, it is scarcely surprising that Hardinge was ‘simply rabid’ over the promises which McMahon made in his famous letter of 24 October 1915 to Hussein. By his ‘fatuous proceedings’, Hardinge lectured Nicolson, the high commissioner had denied India the spoils of her ‘hard earned victories in Mesopotamia’, though, he noted sourly, he had done very well for the French. The McMahon-Hussein correspondence is printed as Cmd. 5957 (1939), while the above remarks may be found in H to Chamberlain, 17 Nov., Chamberlain Papers, 62/1, and H to Nicolson 15 Nov., HP 94/no. 136. The India Office was similarly dismayed; see L/P&S/10/523–24.
81 Cab. 19/8, question 16612.
82 Telegram in full in Moberly, , The Mesopotamia Campaign, i, 133–4.Google Scholar
83 Crewe first consulted Barrow. Barrow minute of 27 Nov. 1914, L/P&S/i 1/87, Reg. no. 4796; S. of S. tel no. 1418 to viceroy, 27 Nov., HP 98/no. 636b.
84 Viceroy tel. no. 849a to S. of S., 28 Nov. 1914, HP 98/no. 606a.
85 H to Crewe, 2 Dec. 1914, HP 120/no. 62.
86 Hardinge's evidence, Cab. 19/8, question 16611.
87 Barrow minute of 9 Dec. 1914, and Hirtzel and Crewe minutes of 1 o Dec, L/P&S/11/87, Reg. no. 4796. The secretary of state not only had to deal with the incumbent viceroy, but also with the most redoubtable of the ex-viceroys, Lord Curzon. Crewe had to compose a courteous though negative reply to a letter which Curzon had written to him on 3 December, in which he advocated the capture of Baghdad since ‘The effect of taking it would be prodigious throughout Asia and it would be a valuable piece when the game of chess begins’. Curzon to Crewe, 3 Dec. 1914, and reply of 4 Dec, Crewe Papers, I/20 (3).
88 H to McMahon, 5 Jan. 1915, HP 93/no. 274.
89 H to Chamberlain, 17 Sept. 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/1.
90 Nixon tel. to Foreign and Political Dept., 3 Oct., HP 103/no. 1915.
91 S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 4 Oct., HP 99/no. 692.
92 Barrow memo, of 4 Oct., Cab. 42/4/12.
93 Minutes of 6 Oct., L/P&S/i 1/87, Reg. no. 276.
94 Viceroy tel. 1128 and tel. P. to S. of S., 6 Oct., HP 99/nos. 645 & 647. Also see viceroy tel. 1137, 7 Oct., HP 99/no. 648.
95 Chamberlain to H, 8 Oct, Chamberlain Papers, 61/1; S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 8 Oct., HP 99/no. 706.
96 Grey note for Chamberlain at cabinet meeting of 8 Oct., Chamberlain Papers, 46/1/6. Cf. Balfour note for Chamberlain, 10 Oct., Balfour Papers, British Museum, Add. MSS 49736.
97 Viceroy tel. no. 1148 to S. of S., 9 Oct., HP 99/no. 655.
98 H to R. H. Benson, 9 Oct., HP 94/no. 110.
99 Cab. 42/4/9.
100 Chamberlain Papers, 46/7/1.
101 H to Allen, 20 Oct., HP 94/no. 119.
102 Cab. 42/4/15. For other expressions of the views of cabinet members, see Chamberlain Papers, 46/1/36–8 and 46/7/11–19.
103 viceroy tel. to S. of S., 21 Oct., HP 99/no. 683.
104 S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 21 Oct., HP 99/no. 738. For Kitchener's complaints that this telegram was misleading, see the correspondence of 22 Oct. in the Chamberlain Papers, 46/7/14–17.
105 viceroy tel. to S. of S., 23 Oct., HP 99/no. 686.
106 H to Chamberlain, 29 Oct., Chamberlain Papers, 62/1.
107 Official sanction was given in S. of S. tel. no. 3099 to viceroy, 23 Oct., HP 99/no. 741.
108 HP94/110. 115.
109 Chamberlain to H, 29 Oct., Chamberlain Papers, 62/1.
110 Copy of letter in Cab. 19/15.
111 H to Chamberlain, 12 Nov., Chamberlain Papers, 62/1.
112 For the controversy on this point, see the Chamberlain Papers, 47/1/1–34.
113 Barker, , The Neglected War, ch. v.Google Scholar
114 Minutes on viceroy tel. to S. of S., 30 Nov., L/P&S/10/524, Reg. no. 4388, and cabinet meeting of 25 Nov., Cab. 42/5/22.
115 H to Duff, and reply, both 17 Dec, enclosed in H to Chamberlain, 24 Dec., Chamberlain Papers, 62/2.
116 H to Chamberlain, 7 Jan. 1916, Chamberlain Papers, 62/2.
117 Chamberlain to H, 2 Dec. 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/2.
118 On this point see Chamberlain to Asquith, 30 Nov. 1915, Lloyd George Papers, D/18/2/14.
119 Chamberlain to H, 9 and 16 Dec. 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/2. Cf. Holderness on Nixon, 25 Nov., in Holderness to Buder, Harcourt Buder Collection, F. 116/45.
120 H to Chamberlain, 31 Dec. 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/2; H to Cox, 28 Dec, HP 94/no. I55.
121 Report, XII/A/8.
122 H to Crewe, 18 Nov. 1914, HP 120/no. 60.
123 Report, XII/A/26.
124 Report, VIII/16.
125 H to Crewe, 5 Dec. 1915, Crewe Papers, C/18.
126 Duff to H, 6 Jan. 1916, and reply of 7 Jan., HP 103/nos. 2075 and 1528.
127 See the Chamberlain Papers, 46/6/1–7, and Lovat Fraser to Curzon, 10 Aug. 1916, Curzon Papers, E/6/3.
128 Robertson's memo, entitled ‘The Control of the Operations in Mesopotamia’, 31 Jan. 1916, Chamberlain Papers, 46/5/1.
129 Copy of proceedings of War Committee meeting of 3 Feb. 1916, Chamberlain Papers, 46/5/2; S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 3 Feb. 1916, HP 100/no. 50; Duff to H, 8 Feb., HP 103/no. 2114; viceroy tel. no. 182 to S. of S., 9 Feb., HP 100/no. 57.
130 H to Chamberlain, 10 Mar. 1916, Chamberlain Papers, 62/2.
131 Viceroy tel. to S. of S., 26 Jan., HP 100/no. 41a.
132 H to Chamberlain, u Feb., Chamberlain Papers, 62/2.
133 H to McMahon, 18 Feb., HP 94/no. 185.
134 HtoCox, 14 Mar., HP 94/no. 197. Cf. Chamberlain to Curzon, 19 Mar., Curzon Papers, E/6/3.
135 H to Chamberlain, 25 Mar. 1916, Chamberlain Papers, 62/2.
136 Hardinge's evidence of Dec. 1916, Cab. 19/8, pp. 753–4, 756–7, and questions 16725, 16730–1.
137 The papers of the secretary of state clearly show his ever-growing anxiety and dismay over the reports which he continuously received from M.P.'s and various private correspondents. Chamberlain Papers, 46/2/1–81. For interesting first-hand accounts of conditions in Mesopotamia, see the unpublished memoirs of officers who served with ‘Force D’. See, for example, the account of Major General Rich and Colonel Spackman; Imperial War Museum, 74/49/1 and 74/70/1.
138 H to Chamberlain, 12 Nov. 1915, Chamberlain Papers, 62/1; H to W. Lawrence, 25 Nov., HP 94/no. 140.
139 Chamberlain to H, 3 Dec, HP 121/no. 70; S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 17 Dec, HP 99/no. 835.
140 H to Duff, 28 Dec, and reply of 30 Dec, enclosed in H to Chamberlain, 7 Jan. 1916, Chamberlain Papers, 62/2. Hardinge later gave the impression that he and Duff had established the Chelmsford/MacNeese mission independent of any prompting from London.
141 H to Chamberlain, 10 Mar. 1916, Chamberlain Papers, 62/2. Chamberlain note of 17 July, Crewe Papers, M/i5(2).
142 S. of S. tel. to viceroy, 22 Feb., HP 100/no. 76.
143 Balfour Papers, Add. MSS 49736.
144 Chamberlain to Robertson and reply, 25 Feb., Chamberlain Papers, 46/2/62–3.
145 Stamfordham to Chamberlain, 28 Feb., and E. W. Wallington to Chamberlain, 29 Feb., Chamberlain Papers, 46/2/65,67.
146 G. Lambert, 14 Mar., and H. Cavendish-Bentinck, 15 Mar., H.C. Debs., vol. 80, cols. 1978–9, 2190–1.
147 Chamberlain, 22 Mar., H.C. Debs., vol. 81, cols. 229–34.
148 Curzon to Chamberlain, 17 Mar., Chamberlain Papers, 23/1/2.
149 Malcolm to Chamberlain, 22 Mar., Chamberlain Papers, 46/2/68.
150 Report, Xi/62.
151 Report, Xi/A & B. Cf. David Dilks, who attributes the failure of the campaign to the breakdown of the military system established by Kitchener after the 1905 controversy which led to Curzon's resignation as viceroy. Dilks, , Curzon in India (2 vols. London, 1969–1970), ii, 252–5.Google Scholar
152 Report, X/E/99 (b). This was an unusual criticism of a man who was often thought to be too peremptory! See Steiner, , Foreign Office, p. 93.Google Scholar
153 Cab. 19/8, questions 16683, 16689 and "6713.
154 Chamberlain note of 14 July 1917, Crewe Papers M/15 (2); Buchanan, , The Tragedyof Mesopotamia (London, 1938), pp. 69, 227; Birdwood to Butler, undated, Harcourt Butler Collection, F. 116/34.Google Scholar
155 Buchanan, , The Tragedy of Mesopotamia, pp. 85–6, 91.Google Scholar
156 Quoted in Barker, , The Neglected War, p. 226.Google Scholar
157 Chirol to Curzon, 10 May 1916, Curzon Papers E/6/3; Chelmsford to H, 18 Aug., and Chirol to H, 24 Aug., HP 24; Birdwood to Butler, undated, Harcourt Butler Collection, F. 116/34.
158 Chirol to H, 11 Oct., 1916, HP 26.
159 The Times for 3 and 24 Apr. 1916 had favourable assessments of Hardinge's viceroyalty.
160 Chirol to Butler, 6 Apr., Harcourt Butler Collection F. 116/37.
161 Kitchener to Lake, 21 Mar. 1916, Chamberlain Papers, 46/4/16.
162 Barker, , The Neglected War, p. 266.Google Scholar
163 See H. C. Debs., 20 June 1916, vol. 84, cols. 1236!!. Murray of Elibank told Lord Bertie on 14 June that ‘There is a feeling against Charlie Hardinge on account of Mesopotamia’. The Diary of Lord Bertie of Thame 1914–1918 (2 vols. London, 1924), i, 361.Google Scholar
164 Wedgwood's Separate Report, para. 3.
165 See, for example, The Times of 27 June 1917.
166 Curzon memo, of 4 June, Cab 1 /24/15; Chamberlain to Curzon, 5 June, Curzon Papers E/6/3.
167 H to Chirol, 21 June, HP 33.
168 H. C.Debs., 2 July, vol. 95, cols. 732–34,881–82, 2098–2100; 12 July, vol. 95, cols. 2i53ff; 13 July, cols. 2309ff. The Times, 14 & 17 July. Balfour-Hardinge correspondence of 10 and 12 July in Balfour Add. MSS 49748. Balfour to Lloyd George, 9 July, Lloyd George Papers, F/3/2/23.
169 Balfour Add. MSS 49748.
170 H to Chirol, 24 July 1917, HP 33.
171 See the unaddressed note or letter by Bertie, 11 July, F.O. 800/175.
172 Hankey, Lord, The Supreme Command 1914–1918 (2 vols. London, 1961), ii, 517–29.Google Scholar