Mr. Lloyd George went on to blame the Allies for
the fate of Rumania, and to say that they took too little account of the collapse of Russia in preparing their plans for the present year, thus enabling the enemy to menace Italy. To prevent the Italian defeat from developing into a catastrophe would depend upon the completeness with which the Allies could realize in action the essential unity of all their fronts. Mr. Lloyd George quoted unnamed American military experts in favour of the theory that with Allied help the Italians might last summer have forced the road to Vienna. He said that he drew attention to the Italian front at the Rome Con- ference last January, and that arrangements were made to accelerate the despatch of reinforcements to that front, if they should beneeded. Mr. Lloyd George had, he said, made up his mind that, unless some thecae were effected,. lie could no longer remain responsible for a war direction doomed to disaster for lack of unity. " National and professional traditions, prestige, and susceptibilities all conspired to render nugatory our beat resolutions," kit " there was no ono particular to blame." Now that the War Council had been set up, the public must see that the unity for which it stood was a fact and not a fraud. The war had been prolonged by sectionalism : it would be shortened by solidarity.
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