NEED FOR CO-ORDINATION

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1933, Page 11

NEED FOR CO-ORDINATION

The conviction was borno in upon mo that a much more serious effort must be made to co-ordinate the Allied efforts in East and West; and in thinking this matter over I made up my mind to have a confidential talk with the Prime Minister about the situation, and I accordingly invited him one evening to dinner at my house. This meeting took place on November 3, 1916, and, in anticipation of it, I secured from Sir William Bobertson a statement sotting out his views as to the probable end of the war. It contained the following;—

"We arc not fighting for some comparatively minor object, which we might hopo to attain after giving the enemy a sound beating, but we are to continue the war 'until tho military domination of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed.'

, "The staying power in men counts for very much, but I do not know what men wo ourselves are capable 6f put-

ting into the field, or wh.en they can be put there. ... '

"Russia is corrupt, badly armed and administered, and will not improve her communications. Italy refused to move men from her own country; Rumania is in retreat.

"Finally, Germany' 3 interior position and complete control over the policy and operations of the Central Powers, give her an advantage worth many hundreds of thousands of men.

"Ono thing is quite certain, as I have many times - said during the present year, and that is that we cannot hope for a conclusion in our favour unless, and until we make full and appropriate uso of all our resources."

Basing myself upon this document, I strongly urged the desirability of a.now conference between the statesmen of the Entente Powers, and this soon after was held in Paris. /