THE WAR OFFICE SPLIT

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 42, 18 February 1918, Page 6

THE WAR OFFICE SPLIT

j ■ We believe that the trouble between 1 the War Cabinet and the British General Staff is as much a clash of persons as of principles. 'The,main principle at stake is fairly clear; the military advantages of unity of control, the democratic preI judices against it, and the particular significance of the unity policy as applied to the Allied reserves in France, have all | been recently discussed in these columns. But where the, abstract istue is clouded by personal considerations, it is impossible at this distance from the spot, and with the information at command, to attempt a judgment. A perplexed outside world is more inclined to say to the disputants: "A plague on both your houses"; and it is indeed a fact that, whatever the personal merits of the. partisans or. the value of the principles for which they*stand, their domestic battle fought in the half-light is more embarrassing to the national cause than anything that has yet occurred since the New Year was born. Hence there seems to be no reason to modify the conclusion arrived at last week that "if there must be a parting of the ways, the sooner it! comes the better." ft has now arrived to the extent that Sir William, Robertson is 'reported to be no longer Chief of the General Staff; and he himself is credited with saying that he will not accept either position (General Staff or War Council) on the new lines adopted by the Wai 1 Cabinet. The Sunday Times suggests that the split will go, further, that "other Generals will follow Sir William Robertson into retirement—in fact, the Generals have revolted against the Cabinet." Such a statement we may well hesitate to accept. The world is long. familiar with the general strike, but a strike of Generals is a tax uport credulity. In the interests of everybody and everything except the. Hohenzollent ■ dynasty, let us hope that the advocates of united and of separate controls will have sufficient unity to close their ranks before the sound of their domestic clamour is drowned, in the roar of the German guns.. ' .i ■