Toronto Round Table Group

The Round Table movement, founded in 1909, was an association of organisations promoting closer union between Britain and its self-governing colonies.

The Round Table Movement evolved out of Lord Milner's Kindergarten. They held meetings called 'The Moot', named after the Anglo-Saxon meeting. The movement began at a conference at Plas Newydd, Lord Anglesey's estate in Wales, over the weekend of 4–6 September. The framework of the organisation was devised by Lionel Curtis, but the overall idea was due to Lord Milner. Former South Africa administrator Philip Kerr became secretary to the organisation.

In 1910 they would publish a journal The Round Table Journal: A Quarterly Review of the Politics of the British Empire. The aim of the original movement was British imperial federation.

In 1910–1911 Philip Curtis took a tour of the Dominions to set up local Round Table groups. Groups were formed in Canada, the Union of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and a Newfoundland Group was set up in 1912.

The Round Table supported Free Trade despite Milner and Leo Amery's support for imperial preference, and endorsed the White Australia policy, publishing material by Frederic Eggleston on the matter.

With the entry of the United States into the First World War and the promotion of the League of Nations, the movement moderated its conception of the empire as a "Commonwealth of Nations".

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