QUIBBLING AT THE FORD

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 41, 16 February 1918, Page 6

QUIBBLING AT THE FORD

Negotiations are evidently still in, progress to reconcile the British General Staff and the Supreme War Council. There are four factors to consider: (1) the British War Cabinet; (2) the British General Staff, of which Sir William Robertson is Chief; (3) the Supreme War Council, on which Sir Henry Wilson is British representative j (4) the British Commander-in-Chief in France, Sir Douglas Haig, It seems that the principal conflict is between Nos. 2 and 3, Each- represents a position and a man—the Staff pluß Robertson, and the Council plus Wilson. If the Daily Chronicle is to be believed, the Staff position must inevitably surrender something to the Counoil. But, according to the Daily Telegraph, curtailment of the powers of his present post need not necessarily affect Sir William Robertson, because he has been offered by the Prime Minister Sir Henry Wilson's place on the Council, with the added authority ol Generalissimo, in which case Sir Henry Wilson will become Chief of General Staff in Sir William Robertson's place. This looks like ,a tremendous effort by the. War Cabinet to appease the military heads. If the new and greater office is filled by Sir William Robertson, and if it is Sir Douglas Haig's main object to continue to cooperate with that officer, then there is a fair chance of pleasing everybody. On the political side, Mr. Bonar Law has met the situation with words of candour and evident sincerity.' He told the House of Commons, in effect, that he was no more a Lloyd George man than an Asquith man, and that "if the House were dissatisfied with the Government its duty was to get another in which it Had confidence. Otherwise, destructive criticism should cease.'-''