Leopold Maxse

Who was Leopold Maxse?

Leopold "Leo" James Maxse was an English amateur tennis player and journalist and editor of the conservative British publication, National Review, between August 1893 and his death in January 1932. He was succeeded as editor by his sister, Violet Milner.

He was President of the Cambridge Union Society, in 1886, and a member of the Coefficients dining club of social reformers set up in 1902 by the Fabian campaigners Sidney and Beatrice Webb.

Before the Great War, Maxse argued against liberal idealism in foreign policy, Cobdenite pacifism, Radical cosmopolitanism and constantly warned of the German menace.

Maxse argued that the 1918 victory against Germany gave the Allies a fleeting opportunity to destroy German power. He viewed the Treaty of Versailles as ineffectual towards that aim and blamed Allied politicians, Lloyd George especially, for bowing to President Wilson's pressure to make the treaty less harsh. Maxse believed Germany was still able to restore itself as the dominant European power.

The League of Nations was vehemently opposed by Maxse: the League was a "front-bench affair hurriedly adopted and recklessly advocated simply and solely to please President Wilson".