17 NOVEMBER 1917, Page 13

It is useless for Mr. Lloyd George to say that

the Government at home need not adopt the policy which he and his colleagues, under the advice of the new set of military experts, may propose to them. As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister under the new scheme would have it in his power to force the consent of the War Cabinet. Sup- pose when they objected to some scheme he said : " I warn you that if you do reject the scheme you will have dealt a deadly blow to the Alliance. Our Allies feel very strongly on the matter, and after hearing them I gave my consent, and though you have, of course, a clear right of veto, you must remember that I cannot go on if you exercise that veto." In such circumstances what could the War Cabinet do ? In the same way, if the General Staff hero objected to the proposed military plans, Mr. Lloyd George would only have to say that this was because they had not sufficient know- ledge, and that if the General Staff hero had only had the advantage of hearing what the Versailles experts said on the matter, they would see that their objections were out of date, and so on and SO on.