success. In 1905 a Continental edition of the Daily Mail was established, with headquarters in France. In the same year Alfred Harmsworth was created a baronet, and in 1005 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Northcliffe. In 1906 he and his brothers acquired for their companies about 3,000 sq. m. of forest land in Newfoundland, with lakes, rivers and water transport, for the manufacture of paper and wood-pulp, the result being the formation of the Newfoundland Development Co., a gigantic enterprise with its works at Grand Falls where 23,000 H.P. turbines produce large quantities of mechanical pulp and 200 tons of paper daily two lines of railway, a port, and Atlantic and other steamers.
In 1908 Lord Northcliffe obtained control of The Times, to own which had always been one of the aims of his life. New machinery was installed, and the size of the paper greatly in- creased; in March 1914 he reduced the price to one penny, with the result of a large increase in circulation, though the enormous rise of 600% in the cost of paper during the World War forced a return to the old price of threepence. Meanwhile Lord North- clifle had acquired the Weekly Dispatch; disposed of the Sunday Observer, which he for some time owned; and sold the Daily Mirror to his brother, Lord Rothermere; so that at the outbreak of the war " the Northcliffe Press," so widely mentioned and abused by contemporaries, consisted of The Times; The Times Weekly Edition; Daily Mail; Overseas Mail; Evening News and Weekly Dispatch.
Among the reforms which Lord Northcliffe introduced into newspaper management were the five-day week for editors, sub- editors and reporters, a more generous payment of journalists and a system of profit-sharing by the chief members of his staffs.
From 1900 onwards, through his newspapers, he had exercised an ever-increasing influence on politics. He had at one time been anxious, like Edward VII. and Cecil Rhodes, to obtain a friendly understanding between England and Germany, but the Boer War caused him to abandon that idea as impracticable. His newspapers consistently pleaded the cause of a strong navy, and as consistently warned the nation for 20 years of the peril from Germany. From 1902 he sought to effect an entente with France, and also to promote agreements with Russia and the United States, whose sentiments and prejudices he had learnt in many visits. He opposed in 1911 the Declaration of London a code of sea law which most naval officers condemned as " made in Germany " and finally assisted in securing its rejection. This rejection enabled the British fleet to blockade with effect in the war. Through the Daily Mail he gave large prizes for airman- ship, in which, from 1906 onwards, he took the warmest interest; the offer of a prize of 10,000 in 1906 for the first aeroplane flight from London to Manchester was received in some quarters with a good deal of derision, which vanished, however, when in 1910 the prize was won. His maiden speech in the House of Lords was devoted to. the pressing claims of aircraft. He was a strong believer in the future of flying and a daily advocate of the value of aircraft in war. He was also interested from the first in submarines, in one of which craft he made an early and hazardous descent. For many years he was a strong supporter of his friend, Lord Roberts, in the campaign for national service.
In the World W T ar he took the lead in advocating almost every measure of reform that was carried through in Great Britain, usually weeks or months before it was introduced. He was indeed described by Mr. L. J. Maxse as " the great driving force in our country during the war" (National Review, July 1917). He aimed at the most vigorous possible conduct of the struggle, and was from the first of opinion that the war would be long and desperately contested. The chief newspaper campaigns which he carried out, always with the aims of victory and close union between the Allies, were: (i) for the removal of Lord Haldane from the War Office in Aug. 1914; (2) for the organization of the munition supply and provision of high-explosive shells in April and May 1915, when he did not hesitate to lay the responsibility for the shortage of ammunition on Lord Kitchener in leading articles written by himself in the Daily Mail of May 19 and 21, the second of which was publicly burned on the London and
other stock exchanges; (3) this campaign was one of the causes of the formation of the Coalition Ministry by Mr. Asquith; (4) throughout 1915 and early 1916, in the teeth of storms of abuse, he urged the necessity of introducing compulsory service as the sole means of winning the war; (5) he protested continuously against the excessive optimism of Mr. Asquith's Government and of its press supporters, and against the whole system of official secretiveness by which grave failure was concealed; (6) he called for the strict enforcement of the blockade and the stoppage of the supplies which were reaching Germany through neutral countries; (7) he pointed out the impossibility of conducting a successful war with a debating society of 23 or 24 persons, such as formed the Cabinet; (8) so far as the censorship would allow, he resisted the " side-shows," such as the Dardanelles and Salonika cam- paigns, which absorbed so large a part of the national forces; (9) he continued his pre-war demand for the construction of aircraft and " the right kind of aircraft " on the largest possible scale, and he called for effective measures against Zeppelins and for warnings in the case of imminent air-attacks; (10) he urged the necessity of creating a strong naval war staff and taking offensive measures against the enemy submarines; (n) he insisted on the need for a system of compulsory food rationing.
While always active with his pen and through his press, he went repeatedly to the various battle-fronts, British, French, Belgian, Italian and American, and kept in close touch with the various staffs. Thus in 1916, at the crisis of the battle of Verdun, he visited Verdun (March 4), conferred with Gen. Petain, watched the struggle, and the same night motored back to Paris and wrote a long dispatch which was reproduced in whole or part by 3,000 Allied or neutral newspapers, giving the welcome and unexpected news that Verdun was " unlikely to be taken." He paid other visits to Spain, whence he sent warning of the activity of the German propaganda, and to Switzerland, where he investigated the condition of the British interned prisoners. With his daily assistance, Sir R. Hudson raised through The Times fund a sum of approximately 21,000,000 for the British Red Cross, while Lady Northcliffe (who in 1918 was created G.B.E.) maintained a private hospital and took a prominent part in the control of Red Cross finance and operations. So wide was Lord North- cliffe's influence and so greatly feared by the Germans that they published a special periodical, the Anti-Norlhcl(ffe Mail, devoted entirely to clumsy attacks upon him as the chief Allied energizer in the war. In 1916 they issued their bronze " hate " medal of him. There is reason to believe that when Broadstairs was shelled on Feb. 24 1917, and Elmwood, his own house (where he was then staying), was hit, and three near-by deaths occurred, he was intentionally one of the targets of this German destroyer attack. In Dec. 1916 he gave his support to Mr. Lloyd George in the political crisis which led to the fall of Mr. Asquith's Govern- ment, and dealt the final thrust which brought that Government down, though after the Armistice, by reason of his objection to the long-drawn-out after-war negotiations with the Germans, he became Mr. Lloyd George's most persistent critic. He was offered office but declined, believing that it was his duty to keep his hands free and hold the Government up to the mark. He did, however, because the office was strictly non-political, accept the chairmanship of the Civil Aerial Transport Committee, on the establishment of that body in 1917.
Before the United States entered the war he was offered and declined the post of British ambassador at Washington. He received, however, an urgent call to go to the United States on May 30 1917. The War Cabinet had greatly desired him, after conference with leading Americans, to go to the United States as chairman of the much-needed British War Mission. He accepted this appointment, though with some reluctance. After an audi- ence with the King, he left England on June 2, arriving in New York on June n, with the understanding that he should not remain more than three months. During the next few months he coordinated the work of the numerous British departmental missions; controlled an expenditure of 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 a week; maintained the closest and most friendly relations with President Wilson and the American Government ; and in a series
