Coefficients (dining club)

The Coefficients was a dining club founded in 1902 at a dinner given by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb. It was a forum for the meeting of British socialist reformers and imperialists of the Edwardian era. The group met monthly.^[1]

The club's membership included:^[2]

• Leopold Stennett Amery, statesman and Conservative politician.
• Richard Burdon Haldane, Liberal politician, lawyer, and philosopher.
• Halford John Mackinder, geographer and politician.
• Leopold Maxse, editor, National Review
• Alfred Milner, statesman and colonial administrator
• Henry Newbolt, author and poet.
• Carlyon Bellairs, naval commander and M.P.
• James Louis Garvin, journalist and editor
• William Pember Reeves, New Zealand statesman, historian and poet
• Bertrand Russell, philosopher, and mathematician
• Sir Clinton Edward Dawkins, businessman and civil servant.
• Sir Henry Birchenough, businessman and civil servant.
• Sir Edward Grey, Liberal politician
• H. G. Wells, novelist

In 1903 Russell resigned from the club after a disagreement on the policy of Entente, promoted in a speech by Edward Grey. Russell claimed Entente would lead to war.^[3] The group was further divided over the issue of Tariff Reform following Joseph Chamberlain's resignation as Secretary of State for the Colonies. Amery would invite those Coefficients supporting reform to form a new club, 'The Compatriots'. ^[4]

The club continued to exist until 1909. Printed minutes of its meetings are held by the British Library of Political and Economic Science.

References

1. ^ Bertrand Russell. The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell. p. 452. ISBN 0415104629. 
2. ^ "Archives Catalogue - Coefficients". LSE Library. http://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=ASSOC+17. 
3. ^ Bertrand Russell. Autobiography. p. 156. ISBN 041522862X. 
4. ^ Walter Nimocks (1970). Milner's young men: The "kindergarten" in Edwardian Imperial affairs. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 145. ISBN 034012931X.