Wise passed his civil service examinations and became a junior clerk in the
House of Commons in 1907. He was called to the Bar at
Middle Temple in 1911. At this time he was also a Sub Warden of
Toynbee Hall, the University Settlement in
Whitechapel. He and
Clement Attlee were in the cast of
Ali Baba and the Forty Borough Councillors, the Toynbee Hall
Christmas pantomime in December 1909. Wise played Ali Baba and Attlee took the role of
Guava Djelli. Wise was Sub-Warden between 1911 and 1912 and was noted as a vigorous advocate of new social legislation. Wise was one of the Toynbee men who were in key positions in Government Administration during the First World War. His association with
Toynbee Hall continued after the war. He transferred to the Government Insurance Department which introduced the
National Insurance Act 1911 and became acting Principal Clerk to the National Health Insurance Commission in 1912. He was involved in developing the machinery for implementing the Act and was particularly concerned with devising a scheme for the decasualisation of dock labour. He became secretary to the Anglo-Russian Supplies Committee in the
War Office (1914–15), responsible for purchasing munitions for Russia. He was promoted to be assistant director of Army Contracts in charge of clothing and raw materials in late 1915. In this position he created a Raw Materials Section, consciously imitating the work of
Walther Rathenau in the German War Office, introducing state trading and control of Russian flax. introducing control of the meat trade. He was described as an ‘aggressive and impatient spirit', convinced of the ‘danger and impossibility of half-measures' and harshly contemptuous of ‘self-interest, timidity and caution'. He was ‘constantly taking risks, doing unprecedented things, defying the precedents, incurring the disapproval of his colleagues, butting in and suggesting improvements, short-circuiting the established routine and stretching the authority given to him to its extreme limit... he was a thruster; a man of action; an adventurer who took a creative artist's delight in a successful piece of organisation.' He was appointed
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the
1919 New Year Honours for services during the war.
Provisioning Germany and Supreme Economic Council Wise was seconded by the Ministry of Food to advise on food supplies to Germany in February 1919 becoming the Food Controller's delegate on the
Supreme Economic Council in March 1919 as part of the team, involved with supplying food to Germany and other countries leading up to the
Paris Peace Conference 1919. He made an ‘on the ground' inspection and his report on the need to provide food supplies was accepted by the
UK Cabinet and the Supreme Economic Council. He remained in Paris during this period and in September was appointed as a UK representative on the Supreme Economic Council when it moved to London that autumn.
Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement He accompanied
Lloyd George to Paris as a member of the British delegation which intended to finalise the Peace Treaty. Wise's scheme for opening negotiations with the Soviet Union was circulated to the UK Cabinet on 13 January 1920. It argued that the continuance of the
Russian Civil War and the blockade meant that food supplies were not reaching Europe and as a result high prices were being paid for American supplies. Central Europe in particular needed food and only Russia could provide sufficient grain and this would transform the situation. The Cabinet minute confirmed that discussions would begin with the Soviet Representatives on opening trade and negotiations developed over the following months. Wise took a key role as the Chairman of the Interdepartmental Russia Committee, acting as the British Representative on the Supreme Economic Council, which was tasked with the detailed arrangements for concluding the trade negotiations. The
Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was signed on 16 March 1921. The legal significance of
de facto recognition meant that Soviet goods were now protected from claimants with debts incurred through confiscation or nationalisation and the Soviet Mission in London became a permanent, rather than a transient presence.
Genoa Conference (1922) Wise was involved in detailed negotiations about the Russian position and the conditions laid down for their participation in the
Genoa Conference 1922. His role as an adviser to Lloyd George provoked resentment in the Foreign Office, which considered him to have "decidedly left wing views" being an "arch-bolshevist" with little "experience of international politics." He was not allowed by the Foreign Office to sit on conference proceedings. His involvement in the negotiations at the Genoa Conference that culminated in the
Rapallo Treaty between the Soviet Union and Germany, was the subject of much speculation and dispute. The treaty cast a shadow of the remainder of the Conference. It is suggested that it had major consequences since Germany deliberately broke the West's solidarity towards Soviet Russia to gain its own advantage. It was decided to postpone all the difficult issues to a further conference at The Hague in June. He attended this but Lloyd George did not and although it was intended to negotiate with the Russians on debts, property, and credits, it failed to reach agreement and the Russians admitted they had nothing new to offer. == Civil service resignation – appointment to Centrosoyuz ==