13 APRIL 1918, Page 2

Mr. Lloyd George repudiated the suggestion that our forces had

been dissipated in subsidiary enterprises. No division had been sent from France to the East. The divisions in Italy were detaining Austrians who might have been sent to France. Two divisions had been withdrawn from Salonika. In Mesopotamia there was only one white division ; in Palestine there were only three white divisions. These forces were holding the Turks and compelling Germany to send troops to Turkey. The Indian troops were doing magnificent work for the Empire in the Near East.