James Arthur Salter, 1st Baron Salter, (15 March 1881 – 27 June 1975) was a British
civil servant
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
,
politician
A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...
, and
academic
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
who was a significant politician behind the concept of European political union, often in conjunction with his close friend and colleague
Jean Monnet.
Background and education
Salter was the eldest son of James Edward Salter (1857–1937) of the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...
boating company
Salters Steamers, and who became Mayor of
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
in 1909. Educated at
Oxford City High School and
Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The l ...
, where he was a scholar, he graduated with first class honours in
Literae Humaniores in 1903.
Career
Salter joined the
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
in 1904 and worked in the transport department of the
Admiralty, on national insurance, and as private secretary, being promoted to
Assistant Secretary grade in 1913. On the outbreak of war, he was recalled to the Admiralty, and became director of ship requisitioning. He was sent to
Washington D.C. to press for a US programme of new construction.
In 1917–18 he was a colleague of
Jean Monnet in the Chartering Committee of the
Allied Maritime Transport Council The Allied Maritime Transport Council (AMTC) was an international agency created during World War I to coordinate shipping between the allied powers of France, Italy, Great Britain, and the United States. The council (based in London) was formed at ...
, and in 1919 appointed secretary of the
Supreme Economic Council in Paris. In 1920 he was appointed the first Secretary General to the
Reparation Commission established by the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
,
a position he held from 1920 to 1922. Salter then joined Monnet at the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...
Secretariat in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
, as head of the
Economic and Financial Section, where he was involved in the stabilization of currencies of
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
and
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
and resettlement of refugees in
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
and
Bulgaria
Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...
.
He returned to
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 1930, and worked as journalist and author. In 1932, he presided over a Conference on Road and Rail Transport tasked with looking at the true costs and benefits of transport, and whose results were known as the
Salter Report. It recommended changes to the way that public roads were funded to account for the growing demands of the motor car and road freight, and to ensure that road and rail were evenly regulated and competed fairly.
Salter was part of the World Conference for International Peace through Religion, which produced a report in 1932 on the
causes of war.
In 1933, he had published the book
The United States of Europe in which he included an essay first published on 2 September 1929, entitled "The 'United States of Europe' Idea", in which he set out the arguments for a Europe-wide Zollverein, stating that this could only be achieved "under the conditions of an overwhelmingly political motive and an extremely close political association between the countries concerned".
In his book, he also set out a template remarkably similar to that adopted by his former colleague Jean Monnet for the structure of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957. To that extent, Salter is regarded by some as co-author, with Jean Monnet, of the supranational structure of what became the European Union.
In 1934, he was appointed Gladstone professor of political theory and institutions at
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, and a fellow of
All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...
. He was Independent
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
from 1937 to 1950.
On outbreak of war in 1939, he resumed his role in shipping, being appointed
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Shipping.
In June 1940, he once more supported Jean Monnet on the short-lived
Franco-British Union proposal to politically unify Britain and France as a bastion against Nazism. Later, Salter headed the British shipping mission to Washington from 1941 to 1943, where he employed Monnet and they worked together on what would become the
Victory Program of military industrial buildup.
He was appointed a
Privy Councillor in 1941. In 1944 he was appointed deputy director-general of the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. He served as
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the prime minister ...
in the short-lived
Churchill caretaker ministry (May–July 1945).
He was elected as Conservative MP for
Ormskirk
Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England. It is located north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, Merseyside, St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. Ormski ...
in 1951. Churchill offered him a new economic department in the Conservative Government formed that November, but he decided to join the Treasury provided he had access to the Cabinet. He served as
Minister of State for Economic Affairs at the Treasury, and as
Minister of Materials in 1952.
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party politici ...
, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
, claimed in his 1971 memoirs that
Churchill called Salter "the greatest economist since Jesus Christ" and drily recorded that “for thirteen months Salter wrote me numberless minutes in green ink with which I did not always agree”. Butler's biographer
Anthony Howard writes that Salter was "never more than a minor, and sometimes visible, irritant to the new Chancellor". Butler called him "
Micawber Salter" because of his opposition to Butler's proposal to let the pound float ("
Operation ROBOT"). However,
Edmund Dell wrote that Salter was "not the figure of fun of Butler’s memoirs".
In the mid-1950s he was
invited by Nuri al-Said to be one of the external members of the Iraqi government's Development Board; while working with this board, he produced what came to be known as the "Salter Report" on industrial development of the Iraqi economy. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Salter, of
Kidlington in the
County of Oxford, on 16 October 1953.
He had received many honours during his career, being first appointed a
Companion of the Bath in 1918, a
Knight Commander of the Bath in 1922, and a
GBE in 1944. His peerage became extinct when he died in 1975, aged 94.
Bibliography
*Sir Arthur Salter, ''Toward a Planned Economy''.
John Day 1934.
References
Sources
List of Ministers
Further reading
*
Aster, Sidney, ''Power, Policy and Personality: The Life and Times of Lord Salter, 1881–1975''. Amazon, 2016. .
*
* Dell, Edmund. ''The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945–90'' (HarperCollins, 1997)
*
Howard, Anthony, ''RAB: The Life of R. A. Butler''. London: Jonathan Cape, 1987. .
*Le Dréau, Christophe, ''Arthur Salter face à la construction européenne (1929–1951), Mémoire de DEA de l'Université Paris I Sorbonne, sous la direction de Robert Frank'', 1999, 232p.
*James Arthur Salter, ''Allied Shipping Control''. Oxford, 1921.
*James Arthur Salter, ''Slave of the Lamp: a Public Servant's Notebook''. London, 1967.
External links
*
*
The Papers of Lord Salterheld at
Churchill Archives Centre
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salter, James Arthur
1881 births
1975 deaths
20th-century Royal Navy personnel
Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford
Civil servants in the Admiralty
Civil servants in the Ministry of National Insurance
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
European integration pioneers
Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford
Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Mayors of Oxford
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for the University of Oxford
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Ministers in the Chamberlain wartime government, 1939–1940
Ministers in the Churchill caretaker government, 1945
Ministers in the Churchill wartime government, 1940–1945
Ministers in the third Churchill government, 1951–1955
People educated at the City of Oxford High School for Boys
Private secretaries in the British Civil Service
UK MPs 1935–1945
UK MPs 1945–1950
UK MPs 1951–1955
UK MPs who were granted peerages
Hereditary barons created by Elizabeth II
Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster
Member of the Mont Pelerin Society