James Arthur Salter, 1st Baron Salter, (15 March 1881 – 27 June 1975) was a British

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

, who played a minor, but important role in the foundations of pan-European government.

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 the R ...

boating company Salters Steamers, and who became Mayor of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1909. Educated at Oxford City High School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was a scholar, he graduated with first class honours in Literae Humaniores in 1903.

Career

Salter joined the Civil Service 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. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

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 The Supreme Economic Council was established at the Paris Peace Conference in February 1919 to advise the conference on economic measures to be taken pending the negotiation of peace. Specialized commissions were appointed to study particular probl ...

in Paris. Salter then worked as head of the economic and financial section of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) 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 that ...

secretariat, and in the League secretariat at

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, where he worked for stabilization of currencies of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning 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 ...

and resettlement of refugees in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

. In the 1920s, having seen the League of Nations fail through the vested interests of individual countries, Monnet and Salter worked together to develop plans for the establishment of a 'United States of Europe', headed by an unelected technocrat government. He returned to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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 The Salter Report was named after Arthur Salter, who chaired an influential conference of road and rail experts in 1932 which reported in 1933. The report directed British government policy for transport funding for decades to follow. Recommen ...

. 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. In 1934, he was appointed Gladstone professor of political theory and institutions at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, and a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was Independent

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

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 summer 1940, he once more worked with Jean Monnet on a proposal to politically unify Britain and France as a bastion against Nazism. Whilst the paper was rejected, it reignited the possibility of pan-European government. Later, Salter headed the British shipping mission to Washington from 1941 to 1943, where he once more came into contact with Monnet, and they worked to interest President Roosevelt in the 'European project'. These seeds would go on to bear fruit, as in 1948, the Americans would establish, and fund, the foundations of pan-European government. He was appointed a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of ei ...

in 1941. In 1944 he was appointed deputy director-general of the

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...

. 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. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...

in the short-lived

Churchill caretaker ministry The Churchill caretaker ministry was a short-term British government in the latter stages of the Second World War, from 23 May to 26 July 1945. The prime minister was Winston Churchill, leader of the Conservative Party. This government succeed ...

(May–July 1945). He was elected as Conservative MP for

Ormskirk Ormskirk is a market town in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England, north of Liverpool, northwest of St Helens, southeast of Southport and southwest of Preston. Ormskirk is known for its gingerbread. Geography and administr ...

from 1951 to 1953, and served as Minister of State for Economic Affairs at the Treasury, and as

Minister of Materials {{short description, UK government ministry The Minister of Materials was a short-lived ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom, in charge of the Ministry of Materials. Created on 6 July 1951, the office was wound up on 16 August ...

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 politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...

, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, claimed that Churchill called Salter "the greatest economist since Jesus Christ". 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 Operation ROBOT was an economic policy devised by HM Treasury in 1952 under Chancellor of the Exchequer Rab Butler, R. A. Butler but which was never implemented. It was named after three of its civil servant advocates, Leslie Rowan, Sir Leslie ROwan ...

"). 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 Kidlington is a major village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England, between the River Cherwell and the Oxford Canal, north of Oxford and 7 miles (12 km) south-west of Bicester. It remains officially a village despite its size. The 20 ...

in the

County of Oxford Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

, on 16 October 1953. He had received many honours during his career, being first appointed a

Companion of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as on ...

in 1918, a

Knight Commander of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as on ...

in 1922, and a GBE in 1944. His peerage became extinct when he died in 1975, aged 94.

Bibliography

* Aster, Sidney, ''Power, Policy and Personality: The Life and Times of Lord Salter, 1881– 1975'', Amazon, 2016. . * * 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. *Sir Arthur Salter, ''Toward a Planned Economy'', John Day 1934. *James Arthur Salter, ''Slave of the Lamp: a Public Servant's Notebook'', London, 1967.

References

List of Ministers

External links

* *
The Papers of Lord Salter
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

, - {{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