Abstract
This study is an attempt to present as nearly as possible a complete picture of the crisis in the British Cabinet, and the issues involved in it, on the eve of Britain's entry into World War I. There is only one work covering the whole Ministerial controversy, the Memorandum on Resignation by Lord John Morley, who is perhaps the leading character in this story and naturally presents it from his viewpoint alone. |The memoirs of the prominent political figures of that period have, of necessity, been relied upon as primary sources of information. Some of these were disappointing as they dismissed the crisis in a sentence or two. |The Times (London) editions for June through September, 1914 were checked, and although they contained little pertaining to the crisis in the Cabinet, the unwritten news and editorials proved the more significant. Hansard's Parliamentary Debates revealed only one instance, and that during the question period in the House of Commons on August 5, which referred to the crisis and its accompanying resignations of two Ministers.