THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
THE PRIME MINISTER
LIFE AND TIMES OF
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
HAROLD SPENDER
From a Photograph 6y Miss Olive Edis. F.R.P.8..
THE
PRIME MINISTER
BY
HAROLD SPENDER
"Who, if he be called upon to face
Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
Great issues, good or bad, for human kind,
Is happy as a Lover; and attired
With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired."
The Happy Warrior.
NEW HiPjy YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
9
LS&A
COPYRIGHT, 1920,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOREWORD
My thanks are due for assistance in writing this
book to Mr. Lloyd George, with regard to whom I
have the privilege of drawing on the memories of
twenty-seven years of unbroken friendship; to Mrs.
Lloyd George; to Mr. William George, the Prime
Minister's only brother; to Mr. Philip Kerr and Miss
Stevenson, C.B.E., his secretaries; and to Mr. Arthur
Rhys Roberts, formerly his professional partner.
For certain chapters I owe particular thanks to Sir
John Stavridi, Consul-General of Greece and Council-
lor of the Greek Legation; to Sir Hubert Llewellyn
Smith, G.C.B., Permanent Secretary of the Board of
Trade; and to Mr. W. T. Layton, C.B.E., formerly
of the Ministry of Munitions.
I wish also to express my gratitude to all the other
numerous persons who have so generously helped me in
this important task.
H. S.
London, 1920.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I CHILDHOOD (1863-1873) n
II SCHOOL DAYS (1873-1877) 26
III YOUTH (1877-1881) 41
IV EARLY MANHOOD (1881-1886) .... 51
V MARRIAGE (1886-1888) . j? . . . . 61
VI ENTERS PARLIAMENT (1888-1891) ... 75
VII FIRST SKIRMISHES (1891-1892) .... 88
VIII PITCHED BATTLES (1892-1899) .... 100
IX SOUTH AFRICA (1899-1902) 114
X FOR WALES AND FOR ENGLAND (1902-1906) 128
XI A MINISTER (1906-1908) 139
XII A GERMAN TOUR (1908) 150
XIII CIVIL STRIFES (1908-1914) 161
XIV A WAR MAN (1914-1915) 172
XV EAST OR WEST? (1915) 183
XVI SERBIA (1915) 195
XVII MUNITIONS (1915) 206
XVIII THE NEW MINISTRY OF MUNITIONS . . 218
XIX PREMIERSHIP (1916) 231
XX THE SAVING OF ITALY 245
XXI THE VERSAILLES COUNCIL 257
XXII VICTORY 269
vii
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XXIII THE PEACE CONFERENCE 285
XXIV THE NEW WORLD 304
XXV THE MAN 319
XXVI HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 331
XXVII THROUGH FOREIGN EYES 345
APPENDIX
A PRINCIPAL DATES IN MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S
LIFE * 359
B THE CRISIS OF DECEMBER, 1916: THE COR-
RESPONDENCE BETWEEN MR. ASQUITH AND
MR. LLOYD GEORGE 361
C THE PEACE CONFERENCE: MINUTE OF THE
CRITICAL RUSSIAN DEBATE OF JANUARY,
1919 369
D THE "FOURTEEN POINTS" 378
INDEX 383
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE RIGHT HON. DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, O.M., M.P.
Frontispiece
PAGE
MR. WILLIAM GEORGE, THE FATHER OF DAVID LLOYD
GEORGE 16
"HIGHGATE" NOW "Ross COTTAGE" THE COTTAGE
AT LLANYSTUMDWY WHERE MR. LLOYD GEORGE
WAS BROUGHT UP AS A BoY l6
"UNCLE LLOYD": MR. RICHARD LLOYD, THE UNCLE
OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 48
THE SMITHY AT LLANYSTUMDWY: THE OLD "VILLAGE
PARLIAMENT" 48
MRS. WILLIAM GEORGE, THE MOTHER OF DAVID
LLOYD GEORGE 80
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN . 80
MRS. LLOYD GEORGE 320
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE AS A YOUNG MAN. . . . 320
THE PRIME MINISTER
THE PRIME MINISTER
CHILDHOOD
"When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the" rain."
SHAKESPEARE'S Twelfth Night, Act v, Sc. i.
EVERY school-child is familiar with that striking
shape taken by North Wales on the map of Britain,
so like to a human being pointing with outstretched
arm down St. George's Channel towards the Atlantic.
In that shape Anglesey is the head, and Carnarvon-
shire is the pointed arm. On the lower side of the
arm, towards the hollow of the armpit, there lie a vil-
lage and two small towns. Naming from west to east
they are Llanystumdwy, Criccieth, and Portmadoc.
In these three places and in the country around
them the childhood and youth of David Lloyd George
was entirely spent. It was there that he was trained
and educated, and there that his mind first formed
vivid impressions of the universe there, on the sea-
limits of Wales between the mountains and the ocean.
It is a fertile country, watered by streams from the
mountains and showers from the Irish Channel, a
country of deep grasses and rich woods right up to the
foot of the mountains and down to the verge of the
ii
12 THE PRIME MINISTER
sea. From every raised point you obtain wide-stretch-
ing views. Facing you along the south-eastern horizon
are the hills of Merionethshire, often shrouded in sea-
mist, but on good days clear to the utmost detail of
field and hedgerow. Still farther away, in the very best
weather, can sometimes be seen even the outline of
St. David's Head and of the Pembrokeshire hills.
Nearer home, the great stretch of Cardigan Bay sweeps
round to the east in many a bend and fold of the coast.
From above Criccieth you can see the famous castle
of Harlech and the golden glitter of the sands at Bar-
mouth, though you cannot hear the "moaning of the
bar." Taking it all in all, there are few finer pros-
pects along the immense and varied sea-board of these
islands.
Turn from the sea and look northwards; and you
will gain glorious glimpses of the great piled mountains
of the Snowdon group, sometimes hidden in cloud,
sometimes clear to every wrinkle of their rugged out-
lines. These are "Eyri" the "Eagle Rocks" black
in storm, blue and green in the sunshine, purple and
crimson in the sunset. There is no mere prettiness in
these mighty views, no soft luxury of Italian back-
grounds, and yet no barren terrors of arctic solitudes.
On all sides there is majesty and power the power
of the height and the storm, the majesty of the winds
and the deeps.
Of these three places in which Mr. Lloyd George
spent his childhood and youth, Portmadoc is the busi-
ness town, Criccieth is the pleasure resort, and Llany-
stumdwy is the village. Portmadoc, with its straight-
set streets of little grey houses, speaks of money and
affairs; Criccieth is a little watering-place of lodging-
CHILDHOOD 18
houses and villas prettily placed in the innermost bend
of Cardigan Bay; Llanystumdwy is just a little Welsh
village drawn back from the sea and cosily hidden away
in the woods, astride a little mountain river which hur-
ries down to the sea with many a rippling murmur and
many a gleam of white foam on its brown waters.
It was to this little village of Llanystumdwy
Welsh of the Welsh in name, situation, and tradition
- that David Lloyd George was brought at the age of
a year and a half.
Up to that time, indeed, life had not gone very well
with the young child. For his father, William George,
had just died in the prime of his life, at forty-four
years of age. Mrs. William George, with David and
his elder sister Mary, had been left but scantily pro-
vided to face an unsmiling world.
David's father, William George, was an able, earn-
est man, very sociable, full of fun and humour, and
very happy in his home life. Brought up on a pros-
perous farm in South Wales, he could easily have fol-
lowed smoothly and serenely in the steps of his thriv-
ing forefathers. For there, on that fertile coast, his
father and grandfather had farmed well and fared
sumptuously, holding their heads high. 1
But William George was not content with farming.
Early in life he fell in love with books and the things
of the mind; and through his short life he wandered
1 Here is his pedigree on the paternal side :
William George (farmer) and his wife (lived to 80 and 90 years re-
| spectively)
David George (farmer, died at 33)
William George (schoolmaster, died at 44)
David Lloyd George.
14 THE PRIME MINISTER
a true "scholar-gipsy" from school to school, try-
ing to kindle the youth of Wales to the passion for
knowledge in those early difficult days before the Edu-
cation Acts had come to make the schoolmaster a power
in the land. He taught in London and Liverpool; he
opened a grammar-school of his own in Haverford-
west; he served the Free Churches and the Unitarians
any and all who felt the fire of knowledge and shared
his passion to extend its power. He became the friend
of that great, pure spirit, Henry Martineau * a fact
alone sufficient to prove his high quality.
The fire of the schoolmaster's zeal burnt him up.
He was never a strong man; and a life of excessive
labour had exhausted him before his time. He re-
solved to lay down his ferule and return to the land
of his forefathers. As his last teaching task, he took
a temporary headmastership at Manchester and lodged
in a little house in York Place, off Oxford Road. A
few years before, when teaching at Pwllheli, he had
loved and wedded Elizabeth, the daughter of a Bap-
tist minister, David Lloyd, who preached and min-
istered in Criccieth and the village of Llanystumdwy.
With fair skin and a wealth of dark hair, Mrs. Wil-
liam George was in youth and early womanhood a
comely and fascinating woman. I saw her only in later
life; and, though sorrows and trials had told on her
frail frame, her troubles had only added to the fine
charm and spirituality of her character. "Happy he
with such a mother!" She proved to William George
1 A large engraving of Dr. Henry Martineau, signed by himself
and set in a massive oak frame, is one of the treasured family heir-
looms to-day.
CHILDHOOD 15
a capital housewife, and helped him to save enough
to leave to her a small property even out of their hard-
earned savings.
To this couple had already been born the daughter
Mary. Now, on January lyth, 1863, a son was born
also and named David, after his two grandfathers
David George and David Lloyd. His admiring father
recorded at the time that the little David was a
"sturdy, healthy little fellow" with curly hair. At any
rate, his father thought so; and thus, as a last flash
of happiness to his dying father, little David came into
the world.
By such a chance twist of events, Manchester can
claim to be the birthplace of David Lloyd George.
Before he went to Manchester, William George had
already decided to give up schoolmastering; and soon
after David's birth, towards the end of 1863, he left
Manchester and entered into occupation of a small
farm named Bwlford, about four miles from Haver-
fordwest in Pembrokeshire.
It was close to the home of his fathers.
But this change came too late to save his life. He
was already a tired man, and he was not equal to the
strain of outdoor labour. On June yth, 1864, he died
of pneumonia, due to a chill caught in gardening.
Thus little David was left fatherless before he had
lived eighteen months on the earth; and on the thres-
hold of life he was robbed of the influence which
ought to be the strongest prop and stay of a young
boy's life. His father left him before the age of mem-
ory. Yet memory is a strange thing; for when Mr.
Lloyd George revisited the home of his infancy some
16 THE PRIME MINISTER
few years ago, he recalled instantly, with surprising
accuracy, some features of his father's farm. 1
The sudden death of William George left David's
mother with two small children on her hands, and
another on the way to this vale of tears. The family
inheritance ought to have left her in comparative se-
curity to bring up this family well. But William
George, with that large-hearted generosity which had
always characterised him, had allowed the family patri-
mony which devolved on him as heir-at-law to be en-
joyed by others whom he thought to be in greater need
than himself. Such savings as they had put together
from a schoolmaster's salary could not suffice to Taring
up a family in comfort or security. Thus to the grief
of her husband's death there was added for Mrs.
William George a grave and acute anxiety for the up-
bringing of her children. It looked as if that little
family would be driven into that wilderness of poverty
which is no easy dwelling-place in these islands.
But far away up in Carnarvonshire, in that little
Welsh village which was her birth-place, Mrs. William
George had a brother named Richard Lloyd. 2 He was
not at all like the wealthy godfather of the story-
books. He was not by any means rich or prosperous.
He was just the village bootmaker at a time when boots
were still made in villages. True, he was also, like his
father before him, a preacher and a minister. But
he possessed no rich living or easy sinecure; on the
contrary, like Paul the tent-maker, he received no
'He noticed that a passage had been widened, and he asked after
a green gate which was found to have been removed. He can still
remember his sister putting stones under the gate to prevent the men
from coming to take away his father's goods.
'At this time thirty years of age. Born in July 1834.
MR. WILLIAM GEOHGE, THE FATHER OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE.
.
c -
- c
CHILDHOOD 17
penny of pay for either his preaching or his ministry.
He belonged to a religious community classed with
the Baptists and called the "Disciples of Christ," who
held a belief, unpopular in ecclesiastical circles, that
a man ought to preach the Gospel of Christ and feed
His flock without pay or reward. 1
In that simple faith he then preached and taught
in the plain, grey little chapel above Criccieth and bap-
tized in the little green basin of fresh spring water
ever renewed by the running stream.
Yet this preaching bootmaker did not seem to have
suffered seriously in his Christianity by this strange
and rare distaste for endowment. If it be still, as an
Apostle once thought, "true religion and undefiled" to
"visit the widow and the fatherless," Richard Lloyd
went straight to the mark. For on receiving his sis-
ter's tragic news he put down his tools, left his work-
shop, and started out to help his bereaved relations.
There was no railway from Criccieth to Carnarvon in
those days; so for some twenty miles he journeyed on
foot. Then from Carnarvon he took the train to
Haverfordwest, and joined his widowed sister on her
farm, a true friend and comforter. He stayed for,
some months helping her with the sale of her farm-lease
and her stock. Then he took back the mother and
the two children, Mary and David, to his own little
home at Llanystumdwy. That is a plain record of a
simple and heroic act.
There, in that little Welsh mountain village, with-
1 The movement had its origin in one of those great efforts after
a return to simple Christianity which have from time to time stirred
the surface of the Welsh Churches. This was led by Mr. J. R.
Jones of Ramoth, who died in 1822. David Lloyd became one of
its elders, and was largely influenced by the writings of the Campbells.
The Campbellites in the United States still number some 2,000,000.
18 THE PRIME MINISTER
out any show or fuss, the sister and her children be-
came part of Richard Lloyd's home. A few months
later the third child was born posthumously a second
boy, William George. The little stranger was wel-
comed in that simple, hospitable home.
So for the next twelve years the little family lived
and throve in the bootmaker's cottage at Llanystum-
dwy; and there, in those village surroundings, little
David grew from infancy to manhood.
Let us see what the surroundings were.
The little cottage stands to-day for all the world
to visit two-storied, four-roomed, creepered, slate-
roofed; then called "Highgate," now "Rose Cottage"
a sweet-smelling name. The front door opens on to
the living-room a warm, cosy chamber with a raf-
tered ceiling, a big fire-place, and a floor of worn slate-
slabs. It was in this room that the family had their
meals and gathered in the evenings when the uncle
read and talked to them. It was there that he cheered
and rebuked those growing boys.
You step round a low screen into a smaller room,
once a storeroom for leather, but in those years used
as the boys' study. Here the boys were "interned"
during the daily hours of home work; for Uncle Lloyd
was as strict as he was kind.
Between the two rooms a small cottage staircase
mounts to the bedrooms now three, in those days
two. The boys slept in the little front room looking
over the street.
Descend again and pass through the back door. You
pass into a fair-sized cottage garden, with several fruit-
trees apple, plum, and gooseberry. Every inch of
CHILDHOOD 19
the soil is filled with vegetables. There are traces of
an old pigsty that once stood against the cottage wall.
Move a few steps to your left, and you can enter a
little stone building that gives the impression of having
been a single-roomed cottage. It is now like a capa-
cious cave. This was Richard Lloyd's workshop.
There is a large fireplace in the corner near the garden.
On the side nearer the road is a space where the
benches of Richard Lloyd's workmen ran along the wall
by the small window. There by the door is the little
hole in the wall where Richard Lloyd kept his papers
and into which the boys pushed their books. It looks
like an old spy-hole, now blocked at the farther end.
This place was not merely a workshop. It was
known as "the village Parliament." Here the "village
Hampdens" poured out their grievances; hither the
evicted farmers and underpaid labourers came to con-
sult the village oracle. On wet days the place was
crowded. For bootmakers are notorious storm-centres
both in town and country; and this bootmaker was a
prophet and priest as well.
It was always both the refuge and the guard-room
of the village children. There, against the corner,
looking into the sad grey wall, stood the children who
had misbehaved, waiting for Richard Lloyd's kindly
word of release. Good boys would often bring bad
boys to be punished; and the good boys did not always
get off without a clearance of soul. Who could tell
whether "Uncle Lloyd" was going to be stern or soft?
It was always a fascinating mystery for children
that workshop ; in any case, there were always the boot-
makers' tools to finger and handle if you were lucky.
The children knew that Uncle Lloyd found it very hard
20 THE PRIME MINISTER
to refuse a thread; and what more fascinating than
beeswax? Sticky, black, and smelly 1 But put out
your hand for the knife then ten to one he would see
you and instantly the stern look would come into his
grey eyes, his eyebrows would contract, and he would
cry in the voice which thrilled you "No I No 1 Not
that! Not that I"
Pass out of this little crumbling old building, with
the slates now sagging down as if the whole thing might
collapse, but for the one upright beam which now
supports the roof, and take a few steps still to your
left along the stone footpath. There you find the gar-
den divided from the street only by a low wall of
rubble. Over that wall, David like that other David,
the sweet-singing psalmist of Israel * would often leap,
and head across the village on some boyish adven-
ture.
In these buildings the Lloyds had lived for several
generations. There is still (1920) living in the vil-
lage of Llanystumdwy an old tailor of ninety-five
years of age whose chief pride it is that he made the
first pair of trousers for the Prime Minister of Eng-
land. The old man can remember David Lloyd, the
grandfather of the Prime Minister, cutting leather in
the little room on the right of the entrance door of
the cottage. He can remember this friend and neigh-
bour, who was also a minister and preacher, breaking
forth into singing verse when moved, as those bardic
preachers of Wales are still wont to do. 2 Bobby Jones,
the son of this old tailor, was one of David's intimate
comrades of boyhood; and they two carved their names
1 See Psalm iviii. verse 29.
* He was ordained on May zoth, 1828, in the Baptist chapel at
Criccieth and died in 1839. This singing habit is known as "hwyl."
CHILDHOOD 1
together on the trees in the woods and on the village
bridge.
Many legends have already grown round Richard
Lloyd's cottage and the life lived in it. There is no
need to exaggerate the poverty of that home. Richard
Lloyd was a master boot-maker and always employed
at least two hands. He must have earned a good week-
ly sum. His chief fault was that he could not collect
his money. It was somewhat distressing to Mrs. Wil-
liam George to hear her brother serenely say to cus-
tomers : "I can wait any time will do." She, being
a woman, well knew that in the matter of collecting
debts there is no time like the present.
At any rate, all that he had was theirs. They were
fed on simple fare more oats and barley, as Mr.
Lloyd George has since told us, than wheat but they
were well fed. Eggs were cheap in the village, and
the garden was full of vegetables. There were doubt-
less hard times. There was little meat perhaps they
were none the worse for that. But these children were
nevertheless always held up in school as models of
neatness and cleanliness. There was little to spare for
pleasure. There was no easy flow of "pocket-money"
for these boys. But they possessed the heart of the
whole matter. They loved one another, and they were
happy. "It was a little paradise," says one who stayed
there often, 1 and when asked to explain she adds:
"there was such high talk."
"Plain living and high thinking," was the note of
that little home. Here, indeed, was
"Fearful innocence,
And pure religion, breathing household laws."
1 Miss Jones, a niece of Richard Lloyd.
22 THE PRIME MINISTER
There was also much kindness and humanity. Rich-
ard Lloyd could not for long be a stern uncle. The
pictures handed down to us are Goldsmithian in their
quaint and simple charm the little David sitting on
one of his uncle's knees and punctuating his infant
periods by beating his fist on the other; or, in later
years, wheedling his uncle with some clever boyish
defence of an indefensible prank; or listening for long
hours, with open mouth and eyes, to the "deep sighing
of the poor," as the farmers and labourers from all the
district round poured their tales of woe into the ears
of the gentle village seer.
I saw much of Richard Lloyd at a later time. He
was a man who always lived on the heights of thought
and feeling; he was one of nature's great men to whom
goodness was a delight: he was one of God's cru-
saders. Tall and bearded, but with a clean-shaven
mouth and dark eyebrows, he was a man of singular
di'gnity and strength both in bearing and expression.
It is difficult to describe the impression of mingled
strength and tenderness which he gave. His face had
some of the vigour of the eagle; and yet with it all
his voice had some of the softness of the dove. He
loved children with all the strength of his large, warm
heart; and yet he was never weak with them, but some-
times very stern, with the strength of those who can
be "cruel only to be kind."
"He was the most selfless man I ever knew," is the
deliberate verdict of one of his foster children to-day.
"Even in illness he never spoke of himself. It was
painful to him even to think of himself."
Such was the high influence that filled that little
cottage and made it a fit nursery for a ruler of men.
CHILDHOOD 23
From the moment that Richard Lloyd took over the
guardianship of his sister's bereaved family he gave to
the task all his resources of money, love, and wisdom.
He was not one of those who know limits to giving
"Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely calculated less or more."
He laboured for these children as if they had been his
own. If money was spared it was only to save it for
their better training in later years.
The only available school at that time in Llandy-
stumdwy was the National School provided by the Es-
tablished Church of England and Wales; and to that
school the children had to go. Many years afterwards,
when the House of Commons was in the midst of one
of its chronic wrangles over religious education, Mr.
Lloyd George startled the High Churchmen by putting
himself forward as a specimen of their chosen educa-
tion. He was well within the letter of the fact; but
I doubt whether the Llanystumdwy Voluntary School
at that time could be called an average Church School ;
for the head master of the school a Welshman named
David Evans was more than an average schoolmas-
ter. 1 He was a good "scholar" and mathematician,
and he taught well. He gave the young boys that thor-
ough grounding in the elements of knowledge which
is really a better gift for the young than all the frills
of a more dainty schooling. Richard Lloyd, at any
rate, showed his confidence in this teaching by keeping
the boys on at school for two years beyond the or-
dinary limited time. From twelve to fourteen years
1 See Mr. Lloyd George's charming sketch of the schoolmaster in his
speech at Llanystumdwy on September 8th, 1917: "He had a genius
for teaching."
24 THE PRIME MINISTER
of age David Lloyd George worked with a small group
of boys also still remaining on at school in what would
now be called an "Ex Vllth" standard. These boys
carried their mathematics on as far as trigonometry,
learned the elements of Latin, and were encouraged
to read widely. David Evans kept a close eye on these
studies, and Richard Lloyd found the fees well worth
his while.
I have talked to one of the boys * who stayed on
at school with David Lloyd George, and his impres-
sions of that time are still very vivid. His recollection
is that David Lloyd George was the quickest boy of this
little group. David could do twice as much work as
any other boy in the same time. He still remembers
the envy and annoyance which this habit used to cause
among David's companions. But little David was espe-
cially quick at higher mathematics. "He was through
trigonometry," says this witness, "b*y the time we
started." He was very rapid at mental arithmetic.
But perhaps the most active part of his growth came
outside his school life. Most of the other boys of their
age had left school and gone out to work, and those
few picked ones that remained were a small company
and hardly numerous enough for games on a large
scale. Thus it was that they took to walking instead
of play; and during these walks David began to de-
velop that habit of keen discussion which he has loved
throughout his life. His favourite subjects in those
days were Baptism and Tithe. Among the little com-
pany were two pupil-teachers who were a little older
than the boys themselves. Both of these teachers were
destined for the Church; one of them became a rector
*Mr. William Williams, who occupies a farm near Llanystumdwy.
CHILDHOOD 25
and another became a canon of St. David's. 1 We can
imagine the debates that took place within this little
company of keen, honest, ardent youths !
Thus, in this varied life of work and play, the young
David grew from infancy to youth, there in that distant
little Welsh village, between the mountains and the
sea.
'The Rev. Owen Owens and Canon Camber- Williams of St.
David's.
CHAPTER II
SCHOOL DAYS
"Ye Presences of Nature in the sky
And on the earth! Ye visions of the hills.
And Souls of lonely places! can I think
A vulgar hope was yours when ye employed
Such ministry?"
WORDSWORTH'S Prelude.
THE training of a little Welsh Nonconformist child
in a village Church School must lead either to sub-
mission or to revolt. In most cases it leads to sub-
mission. In this case it led to revolt. That is what
makes the story of David Lloyd George worth tell-
ing.
To subject children of one faith to the religious
discipline of another in a school subsidised by the State
was, and still is, part of the ordinary machinery of life
in this island; and it is generally acquiesced in by
children, who as a rule suffer from a great fear of
varying from their kind.
But in this case there were influences behind the boy
which suggested the thought of injustice; and there is
no more flaming thought in the mind of a young child.
There was the uncle in the workshop, type of the
heroic and the divine; he was against the system, and
did not hesitate to say so in the presence of the boys.
Then there was the village blacksmith, whose "smithy,"
hard by the school, was a sort of village cave of Adul-
26
SCHOOL DAYS 27
lam; he said so between the clang of the hammer on
the reverberant anvil, and what he said was law. No
wonder that there stirred in the boy's mind the working
wonder whether he should really submit.
There was, for instance, the yearly visit of the rector,
the squire, and the gentry, in full feudal state, to hear
the replies to the Church Catechism a sort of annual
homage to the powers that were, not unusual in vil-
lage schools.
Then there was the visit of the Bishop, who was
willing to confirm as many children, Baptist or other-
wise, as the rector would present for him to lay hands
on.
Now David admired his schoolmaster and worked
hard and steadily in the only school accessible to him.
But when the Church tried to turn his necessity to such
uses he remembered that he was a Nonconformist child
born of Nonconformist parents. Then he became a
rebel.
The tales of these school revolts have already be-
come part of the heroic legends of Wales. They have
been told in many forms. I will try to tell the simple
facts as gathered from contemporary witnesses and
comrades.
The most famous revolt occurred over the Cate-
chism. We can recapture the scene. There were the
three village authorities the Squire, the Rector, and
the Schoolmaster, together with the Diocesan Inspec-
tor and a bevy of fair ladies standing in front of the
little class of Welsh children in the grey little building,
expecting nothing but meekness and docility. Nothing
fierce about these visitors, you may be sure rather an
attitude of smiling expectancy as they waited to hear
28 THE PRIME MINISTER
the children repeat in chorus the comforting assertion
that they were ready to order themselves "lowly and
reverently" to all their "betters."
But look at the children. Their eyes look strangely
bright and their lips are drawn together. There have
been many whisperings on the way to school, and much
flitting to and fro of the small Scotch cap with the
ribbons that David wore. Some look flushed; others
look grave and pale. Fear battles against resolve.
Something big is struggling in those little minds.
The rector puts his questions; the squire affably
awaits the reply; the schoolmaster looks stern. Little
David looks unusually innocent.
There is a dead silence.
The rector raises his eyebrows and repeats the
question :
"What is thy duty towards thy neighbour?"
Still, a dead silence.
And so the question is passed from child to child.
The little heads are shaken. The little faces grow
paler and paler. But still silence.
The rector turns to the schoolmaster questioningly.
The schoolmaster is white with vexation. The squire
smiles indulgently. Little David looks more innocent
than ever.
But farther along the line, behind his little desk,
sits a boy with a little troubled, anxious face, looking
as if he were the centre of guilt in that little company.
He watches with growing trouble the ashen face of the
schoolmaster; for he loves his master with all his soul,
and he cannot bear to see him suffer. For this is little
William George a boy of milder, quieter tempera-
ment, given to love his enemies; and when his much-
SCHOOL DAYS 39
distressed head master appeals to the children to recite
the Apostles' Creed it is William George who suddenly
breaks the silence with a strident "I believe," and all
but two or three "infant" Die-Hards join in the recital
that followed. The schoolmaster turns to the class
with a flush of pleasure; the rector smiles "good
boys" the squire nods approvingly; and the scene ends
as suddenly as it began.
So much for the Catechism revolt. The second
revolt arose over the Church's claim to "confirm." *
It was little William Williams, one of David's inti-
mates, who had been selected as a capture for the
Bishop. His father, a Calvinistic Methodist, but with
a kindly heart for the great, had surrendered the lad to
the rector. William had been duly prepared and in-
structed. Confirmation day had arrived. William
Williams, shining with soap, smart in his best clothes,
was already on the road walking to school to join the
church boys. There the little catechumens, all duly
marshalled, were waiting to be marched off to the
church.
But on the way to school it was fated that William
Williams should meet David Lloyd George. Seeing
his friend so smart, David naturally asked what he was
going to do. Williams told him. David's eyes flashed;
his voice rang out. He argued; he persuaded; he
urged. Not that ! Not that ! His winged words went
home. In a few moments William Williams, aged
fourteen, felt thoroughly ashamed of himself. His
best clothes and his clean collar became garments of
shame. He was willing to follow David anywhere.
1 Implying a belief in Infant Baptism, "Confirmation" is regarded
as inconsistent with the creed of the Baptists.
30
The two boys managed to get out into the school-
yard; and there, in the twinkling of an eye, they were
over the wall. They hid behind the hedge. In a few
moments out came the schoolmaster, hurried and eager ;
he could see no one in sight. He blew his whistle once,
twice, and yet again. There was no reply. Time
pressed. The Bishop could not be kept waiting. There
was nothing for it but to go back and fetch the others.
So David and William Williams stood and watched
while the little procession of children, with their nicely
washed faces, walked across the school-yard to the
church.
Then, when all had passed by, out came the two
rebels. Without a pause they jumped over the wall,
leapt into the road, and made for Richard Lloyd's
workshop. Instantly, when he had heard their story,
the bootmaker dropped his last and patted the boys on
the back. "Well done, my boys!" he cried; "well
done!"
I will suggest to any Anglican reader that he should,
for the moment, try to look at the situation from the
point of view of his Nonconformist neighbour. Sup-
pose that he, an Anglican parent, were obliged by law
to send his boy to a Baptist School because no other
school existed in his village. Suppose then that the
Baptist minister took advantage of this situation to
baptize the boy up to the neck in the village stream.
What would the Anglican parent do? Why, probably
something much more violent than either uncle Lloyd
or nephew David.
Yet the spirit of rebellion is rare, and the act is
slow. Doubtless there were other boys in that school
whose hearts waxed hot within them, and other parents
SCHOOL DAYS 31
whose blood boiled. But they did nothing. Where
David Lloyd George differed from the other boys, and
his uncle from the other parents and guardians, was
just here that they acted while the others merely
raged. That is the startling difference.
They possessed that particular quality which ex-
plodes in deeds. There it was already this care
thing called courage, which was, in process of time,
to become the driving-wheel of the whole machine.
It is not to be thought that a boy thus endowed was
to prove a pattern boy in all directions. David was
sound enough at heart; but he was certainly not a saint.
He was not born with a halo round his curly head. In
that little village he was often the leader of enterprises
of pith and moment. He was not without suspicions
of piracy. "It's that David Lloyd George," was the
sure comment of the village mother when she found her
fences down. Wherever those two ribbons were seen
flying in the wfnd, you might be sure that the other
boys were not far behind. You would scent mischief
in the tainted breeze. There was indeed much to be
done. There were fish to be caught; rabbits to be
snared; dogs to be trained. There was even alas!
at one time a privy "cache" in the woods where pipes
and tobacco were stored to be fearfully tested on uncer-
tain stomachs.
No, certainly David was.no model of the boyish
proprieties; no candidate for a stucco niche. He was
already a Robin Hood of the woods, an adventurer of
that winding, brawling stream. He led others into
the adventures with him ; for he was already gregarious
to the finger-tips. He would draw along with him his
82 THE PRIME MINISTER
more cautious brother; and, somehow, it always seemed
to be the brother who bore the weight of the trouble
that followed.
Not that David ever shirked the penalties of his
youthful sins. He was ever ready to "face the music."
He would bravely stand before his uncle in his sterner
moods; and many an explosive of argument and re-
proof had to be expended on his well-entrenched de-
fences.
Not that his uncle ever took up that relentless atti-
tude which drives so many children faster on the down-
ward path. He remembered the text "Whom He
loveth He chasteneth," or, as it has been rewritten,
"lick 'im and love 'im." But Richard Lloyd never let
the stripes blot out the love. He always believed in
this boy David. That was the real secret of the uncle's
influence. Beneath the rough, dusty ore he already
saw the gleaming gold.
There were indeed some rare features about this
boy's character. His early companions testify to some
features that still shine in memory. "He was the most
kind-hearted boy I ever met," said one who was an
inseparable. "If he ever got a penny he would buy
his sweets, and then divide up the whole among the
other boys." He was very fond of animals a glori-
ous virtue in the young. There was always a dog in
his train and a dog, being ever young, loves youth
and mischief. Then David was ever full of pity for
the weak. Pity and audacity met in his nature. They
made him at school, as in after-life, a terror to the
bully and a trial to the boaster.
His youthful companions cannot remember that he
was notably ambitious. But he was from early days a
SCHOOL DAYS 33
lover of books; and that often held in leash his pas-
sion for adventure. He rarely, for instance, played
truant from school. There is one historic dawn, still
standing out in red letters in the memory of his friends.
On that morning the school-bell sounded to deaf ears;
all that day those spirits from prison scampered by
the river-side testing a new dog. 1 The deed was never
repeated. That day of glowing delight was probably
burnt into his memory by one of those reprimands
from an uncle whose words cut deeper than another's
whips.
There is, indeed, an epic story of a holiday hunt of
a hare down in the Aberkin farm between the village
and the sea. The boys followed the dogs and the dogs
went through the river, but an old ganger on the rail-
way refused to allow the boys to cross the bridge. But
David was not to be daunted. "Come on, boys!" he
cried ; and straight through the river he went almost up
to his shoulders !
As the years went on he became more serious. He
conceived the idea of going to see the world. He spent
weeks with maps and made a plan of a journey. Boys
will do such things, and the difficulty generally comes
when the tickets have to be bought. That was where
David Lloyd George's plan broke down. But 'if he
could not wander in the body, he could at any rate
travel in the spirit. He read more and more as the
years went on. After twelve, remaining on at school
after his friends, he became rather a lonely boy. At
that time he woulcl often go off with a book into the
woods; and he acquired the habit of climbing a tree
1 "Bismarck" a dog snatched from the streets of Hamburg and
brought home by a sailor from the village a bold and unscrupulous
poacher.
34 THE PRIME MINISTER
and there reading for hours in some kindly fork of
the branches far away from his romping friends.
There, alone in the woods, his mind formed; and the
shadowy whims of youth perhaps influenced, like
Wordsworth's, by the surrounding mountains and sea
steeled into firmer stuff. When he was a very small
boy he would say, boy-like, to his uncle, "I am going
to be a giant, like that tree." This infantile yearning
after something larger than his natal fate seemed to
grow upon him. A sense of power seemed to be work-
ing within him. Strange, when you consider the cramp-
ing conditions of his life. Here was a boy living in a
little cottage in a remote Welsh village; talking a de-
spised language; an obscure member of a race scoffed
at by the powerful of this earth. He had already pro-
claimed himself faithful to a religion contemned by
all who wished to rise in life. He was surrounded by
a peasantry long trained to humility; living in houses
that belonged to others; with few rights in their own
land excluded from their own woods and fields by
laws of trespass, and menaced with dire penalties if
they killed the wild animals of their own land. He
found himself born with little freedom beyond the lib-
erty of the village street. There were few adventures
for him that were not crimes in the eye of the law.
In such a life there seemed enough to quell any grow-
ing spirit and to crush any latent ambition. For in
those days the social power of the Welsh squires was
still scarcely challenged; their claims shadowed all the
large spaces in the world around him.
Yet this boy began to look at all this with candid,
unprejudiced eyes. He began to grasp the fact that
what was required was daring, and still daring.
SCHOOL DAYS 35
In this vision he was by no means alone. It was
a perception dimly stirring in the minds of all those
multitudes of youth who were then, during those years,
the first to pass through the new schools of the nation
and to win the franchise of the mind. Again, where
he was alone was in the courage to pursue this vision
the courage to act as well as to see.
At the age of fourteen (1877) it became necessary
to choose a life-calling for David Lloyd George. The
village National School had finished its work for the
boy. The extra two years' schooling had brought him
as far as that training could take him.
Richard Lloyd was not indeed compelled by any law,
human or divine, to carry the boy's education any fur-
ther. He would certainly have achieved as much as
most men consider due to a sister's child if he had now
taken David from school and apprenticed him to his
own honourable handicraft of boot-making.
But Uncle Lloyd knew only too well the carking
cares of a workman's life. He knew what it was to
feel a mind-hunger which cannot be sated. Those who
saw much of the preacher-bootmaker in those days tell
how eager he was for books how in this eagerness he
struck up a very admirable friendship with the kindly
village curate ; how, after his long day's work, he would
read half through the night, and how the village doc-
tor, going on some errand of midnight or dawn, would
still see the light of his candle shining through his bed-
room window.
Such a life is often filled with an aching regret. The
hardly tasked body yearns for a fuller freedom the
86 THE PRIME MINISTER
freedom to follow, undisturbed, the clear call of the
mind.
It was such a life that he dreamed of for his boys
when he decided to send them, at all costs, into one of
those learned professions which Britons hold in so
much honour. His eager aim was to free them, at
any sacrifice, from the great burden of manual drudg-
ery.
That being decided, it was not so easy to make a
choice between the professions. Richard Lloyd was
not one of those men who think it a sign of strength to
force children into careers against their own will.
Above all, he wished to have the following wind of
their free consent and help.
The "ministry" was practically closed to them by
that rule of their uncle's Church which forbade Chris-
tian service as a means of livelihood. The Established
Church, indeed, was an open road for them; there
"Welcome !" was written over the door for every clever
Welsh village boy. If David had consented to follow
the lead of some of his village friends, who can say
that he might not have ended as an Archbishop? The
thought never took serious shape at Highgate Cottage.
I scarcely dare to think of what would have been said
in the village "smithy" or the uncle's workshop if David
had turned his steps towards that primrose path as
both he and his brother were more than once invited
to do.
Richard Lloyd's own desire was that David should
be a doctor. But the lad had an instinctive, physical
shrinking from disease and death. Richard Lloyd, be-
ing a wise man, sorrowfully agreed that David's tern-
SCHOOL DAYS 37
perament was unfitted for the hospital ward and the
sick-room.
His mother, Mrs. William George, pondering the
future in her heart, and watching the boy with a fond
mother's eyes, desired him to be a lawyer.
The mother won.
In those old days when Mrs. William George was
in the depths of sorrow and distress, through the long
agony of her husband's illness, she had received much
help and kindness from an old friend of her husband's,
one of those tender-hearted family lawyers who are the
crown and salvation of their profession Mr. Thomas
Goffey of Liverpool. The boys had heard much of
this man at an impressionable age; and the effect left
on David was a great desire to go and do likewise. "To
be a lawyer like Mr. Goffey!" That was the shining
quest before him.
At this critical moment the memory of this helper
acted as a magnet to them all; and it was this lode-
stone that drew on first David, and then his brother
William.
In such pleasant guise did that useful calling present
itself; in such Christian fashion came to the youth this
summons. The lawyer's gown appeared to him as the
robe of the Samaritan.
So far, so good. But the career of the law requires
a long apprenticeship; and apprenticeship means
money. The examination fees alone for a solicitor
amount to a good sum, and there was a substantial
premium on apprenticeship to a good firm to be paid
in addition. Then there would be over five years
without earnings. Where would they obtain the re-
sources to face the strain?
38 THE PRIME MINISTER
At this point Richard Lloyd turned to the pooled
family savings of himself and his sister, Mrs. William
George, and dipped deep. Little was left when suf-
ficient for this purpose had been drawn, and even so
the supply was precariously meagre. Could they find
enough to start the two boys on their careers?
If was clear, on a survey, that they could not send
the boys either to a higher school or to a University.
How, then, were they to acquire that considerable store
of general knowledge required of the legal appren-
tice?
David had done well under Evans's faithful tuition.
He had advanced into the higher mathematics; he had
read a certain amount of history; he had now mastered
the elements of French and Latin.
But much more was required if he was to pass that
first obstruction in the great obstacle race set before the
novice in the law the Preliminary Examination. He
must, for instance, know more French. He must read
Caesar and Sallust. The village dominie could not carry
David as far as that.
Here seemed a formidable gulf to bridge. Less
formidable barriers have closed careers to others and
driven them back into the workshop.
But human love can leap over great obstacles; and
Richard Lloyd was no ordinary man. He knew neither
French nor Latin. Very well, he would set out to learn
them.
So together the uncle and the nephew started into
the unexplored. Hand in hand, they tackled the Latin
and the French grammars, and thumbed the diction-
aries. For this great-hearted man knew that if both
be ignorant of the way it is better to go together.
SCHOOL DAYS 39
Company gives courage. So in the dark winter even-
ings, with the light of a candle, they together spelt out
the sentences of Caesar and Sallust and laboriously read
JEsop in French. I will warrant that those lessons in
Latin and French were not wasted. I even doubt some-
times whether the class-rooms of Eton or Harrow, with
their picked teachers, can show anything so inspiring as
this little village study the uncle and nephew strug-
gling along that unknown path, lit only by zeal and af-
fection. May it not be, perhaps, that the accident of
this laborious schooling gave a special nourishment to
the boy's instinct of self-confidence, proved more po-
tent than the spoon-feeding of some well-endowed col-
lege?
At any rate, this common struggle for knowledge
gave the uncle a new insight into his nephew's powers.
From this time onward the boy became his very spe-
cial "Di" the darling of his heart the apple of his
eye. He began to perceive that there were few things
impossible for this boy to achieve.
At last this astonishing experiment in coaching came
to an end. But his uncle was determined to stand by
the nephew to the end in the first great trial of his
life.
In December, 1877, he accompanied him to Liver-
pool, where the examination was to take place. Every
morning as he often told in later life Richard Lloyd
accompanied the youth to the examination room in St.
George's Hall ; and every evening, after the day's work,
he met him on the steps of the hall and went home with
him.
The examination lasted a week. Suspense was fol-
lowed by triumph. David passed.
40 THE PRIME MINISTER
The young hopeful who had set out from Llanystum-
dwy with the good wishes and fervent prayers of
friends and neighbours, returned on December 8th with
the first flush of achievement on his cheek.
Nowhere was there a happier Christmas in that
year of 1877 than at "Highgate."
There was only one man as happy as the uncle
and the mother and that was the village schoolmas-
ter. It was a proud day when he could solemnly record
the fact of David's passing in the Log Book of the
Llanystumdwy National School.
CHAPTER III
YOUTH
"Who, with a natural instinct to discern
What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;"
WORDSWORTH'S The Happy Warrior,
PORTMADOC is a little provincial business town lying
on the coast some five miles to the west of Criccieth in
the very heart of Cardigan Bay. It stands at the
mouth of the Glaslyn, one of those little mountain
rivers which flow southward through wild valleys from
the Snowdon range. The river broadens to a port
at its mouth and the town spreads on both banks. A
hundred years ago the land here was below high-water
mark. It was redeemed by an enterprising man who
has given his name to the town and the estate. 1 The
old high-water mark can be seen far up the valley,
and it is an actual fact that every building in Portmadoc
itself stands on land snatched from the sea.
Here in Portmadoc, just east of the Town Hall,
stood the office of Messrs. Breese, Jones, and Casson,
the firm to which David Lloyd George was articled
after he had passed his Preliminary Law Examination.
There the square-built, airy chambers still stand.
Here, in this building, young David Lloyd George,
aged sixteen, took his seat at the window on one of
1 Mr. A. Maddocks. One of the men who was interested in this pro-
ject was the poet Shelley.
41
42 THE PRIME MINISTER
those high stools where the clerks of to-day still sit; and
doubtless the young David's eyes sometimes glanced
anxiously at the same old clock that still measures out
the limits of work and play. The preliminaries of this
articling took some time; but within six months at
the opening of 1879 David had been fully articled
by his uncle as clerk to Mr. Casson, the junior partner.
Portmadoc itself stands in prim straight rows of
slate-roofed houses built at right-angles to the long
main street. The great thing about the town is that
from every corner of its streets you can see the mighty
mountains of Snowdon on the horizon. It was still
under those Eagle Rocks that David's life-work was
to be carried on for the next few years.
It was no longer possible for him to live in the little
cottage at Llanystumdwy, which was over seven miles
from Portmadoc and two miles from Criccieth railway-
station.
So it was arranged that the lad should spend the
week at Portmadoc and go back to his uncle's home
at week-ends.
During the week he lodged with some good people
whose children had gone out into the world 1 and who
looked after him for several years as if he had been
their own child. Like many another young Welsh-
man he was also taken into the kindly fraternity of
the chapel folk, who looked after him on behalf of
his uncle. He soon began to find friends. On Wednes-
days he would attend the little chapel; and he was
especially fond of frequenting the little candle-making
workshop behind the main street, where the workmen
1 Mr. and Mrs. D. Lloyd Owen, Auctioneer, High Street, Port-
madoc.
YOUTH 43
can still be seen ingeniously contriving the special
illuminant candles for the slate quarries of North
Wales. There, as in the smithy at Llanystumdwy, he
found much congenial company for discussion and
debate; for it was a significant fact that in youth David
Lloyd George was always drawn to the places where
men assemble and discuss their affairs.
Here was a youth at the age of sixteen taken out of
his village and thrown into the larger turmoil of the
world's affairs. The solicitors' firm to which he was
articled was an important legal centre in Carnarvon-
shire. The solicitors were Clerks to the Petty Ses-
sional Division, and Mr. Breese was also Clerk to
the Lieutenant of the County, besides being the Liberal
agent for Merionethshire. Finding that the youth was
handy and smart, they soon began to use him as deputy
in their various functions. So David found himself
immersed into all the affairs of a great county, besides
being in constant touch with the stirring life of a little
port. The ships and sailors were ever coming and
going, and all the murmur of larger interests flowed
in from outside. There, in that little corner of Wales,
they could constantly hear "the great wave which
echoes round the world."
From the vantage-post of his firm the boy could
gradually gain an insight into the whole machinery of
county administration.
In law, as in journalism, provincial experience is a
far better school for a young man than that of Lon-
don; for in the provinces work is less specialised, and
the young clerk in a busy lawyer's office has a chance
of such varied work as his powers show him capable of.
David Lloyd George, for instance, now found himself
44 THE PRIME MINISTER
often called upon to undertake responsible tasks; to
watch the interests of his firm in the Police Court or
in the Quarter Session; to collect rates and taxes;
to find his way through that complicated network of
wire entanglements which British wisdom had thrown
around the exercise of the suffrage. The canvassing
work which he did for his firm in their capacity as
Liberal agents stood him in very good stead later on
which he had to do the same work for himself. It
was during this period that he acquired, too, that
intimate mastery of the details of rural rating with
which he afterwards astonished the House of Com-
mons. During the same years he achieved an insight
into the surprising affairs of many county families.
There is no surer way of finding out the secrets of the
English land system than' to look at them through the
peep-holes of a good lawyer's office.
No doubt the young Lloyd George lost much by
being plunged so early in life into the urgencies of prac-
tical work. But he also gained. For it would have
been difficult to devise a training more suitable for a
coming statesman.
For a time the young man was absorbed by his new
work; and, indeed, it was enough to take up his energy.
David Lloyd George was from the beginning a keen
lawyer. He was not content with practical experience;
he read hard at the law; but in his case law did not
take form in his mind as a fixed dead thing, but as a
vital function of growth, with possibilities of perpetual
change and reform.
Thus his apprenticeship began to feed and stimulate
his instinctive interest in public affairs. His daily ex-
perience led him back at every turn into larger public
YOUTH 45
interests and speculations. He had his week evenings
free; and so gradually among the young men of Port-
madoc he was led into that life of debate which has
always been his very life-blood.
In 1880 his uncle, his mother, his brother, and his
sister gave up the little cottage at Llanystumdwy and
moved to "Morvin House" in Criccieth. Richard
Lloyd and Mrs. William George, their mother, had
now saved enough to enable Uncle Lloyd to give up
the bootmaking; and his interest was now so much
centred round David that he decided to make a move
that would enable the youth to live at home. The
little house where David was to live for the next
ten years was just beneath the walls of that shattered
Norman castle which crowns a precipitous cliff on the
very edge of the sea. Now battered and worn by the
assaults of man and the ravages of the ocean, that
castle was once a strong link in that scheme of block-
house fortresses which the Normans built to keep down
North Wales. The ruins typify to-day the valour of
this land of bards, and prove the power of a little
nation over a mighty conqueror. At its strongest, the
rule of the Normans extended very few feet beyond
those castle walls. Now this fortress is in ruins; and
all around the very portals of that ancient blockhouse
you will hear few words of any language except the
very tongue which the Normans tried to ban and to
bar. 1
1 After writing this I came across the following passage in a speech
of Mr. Lloyd George's made in the House of Commons: "Two thou-
sand yearrs ago the great Empire of Rome came with its battalions
and conquered that part of Carnarvonshire in which my constituency
is situated. They built walls and fortifications as the tokens of their
conquest, and they proscribed the use of the Cymric tongue. The other
day I was glancing at the ruins of those walls. Underneath I noted
46 THE PRIME MINISTER
To this house David Lloyd George now came home
every evening and he was able to give up his kindly
lodgings in Portmadoc. This return to the strongest
influence in his youth perhaps explains a certain deep-
ening of purpose which now becomes visible in his
diaries x ; but there emerges also a new independence of
spirit. Somewhat to the alarm of the uncle, the youth
was beginning to exhibit a rambling interest that went
far outside that still lagoon of puritanism which was
the home of that high, simple spirit. There was
already a touch of that defiant self-confidence which
has so often since puzzled and troubled both the fol-
lowers and the counsellors of Mr. Lloyd George. The
young man was reading widely and daringly not
merely sermons, but plays, histories, and novels. He
was going through crises of spiritual doubt unknown
to the securely anchored soul of his foster-father. He
was catching the malady of his age, and finding its
remedy, as so many others of that time found it, in
the vague anodyne of books like Carlyle's Sartor
Resartus.
His growing spirit was finding outlets in every di-
rection. He was attending political meetings and lis-
tening eagerly and critically to such gospel as his
elders preached. He had begun writing regularly for
the newspapers; and over the challenging name of
"Brutus," the North Wales Express was producing a
the children at play, and I could hear them speaking, with undimin-
ished force and vigour, the proscribed language of the conquered
nation. Close by, there was a school where the language of the
Roman conquerors was being taught, but taught as a dead language."
1 These diaries are very fully published in Herbert Du Parcq's ex-
cellent Life of David Lloyd George, London ; Caxton Publishing Com-
pany Limited, 1912.
YOUTH 47
series of articles, 1 vigorous and combative a little
young and flamboyant, but always arresting and stimu-
lating to the audience of young Wales.
Already in the 1880 Election those articles, written
by a boy not yet 18 years of age, played no insignificant
part in North Wales : and now the people of Carnar-
vonshire were beginning to ask of the young David, as
in the old days another people asked of a greater proph-
et "Who art thou? What sayest thou of thyself?"
To these questions the daring youth soon began
to give an answer with both speech and action. In
1 88 1, the third year of his apprenticeship, he was
elected a member of one of those little centres of
intellectual energy which were growing up all over
Wales in the dawn of this new time. The Portmadoc
Debating Society may have meant little to the world;
but it meant a great deal to itself and to the town
of Portmadoc. This little assembly met weekly in a
room over a shop in the Portmadoc High Street.
There came together an eager throng of young Welsh-
men determined to discuss for themselves all the prob-
lems of the day. Their debates covered every great
question of the eighties. David Lloyd George, now
eighteen years of age, did not intend to be a silent
member. He soon began to speak often. He took
part in debates on all the great problems that occupied
his later life Franchise and Free Trade, Trade
Unionism and Irish Land, even the Channel Tunnel.
On all these subjects he expressed bold and progressive
opinions, and in this little school he began to train his
power of speech.
*A large selection of these articles can be read in the pages of
Mr. Du Parcq.
48 THE PRIME MINISTER
Such a passion for debate is a common disease of
youth, and often passes like a fitful fever. But with
the young Lloyd George it was not to be so. It was
soon clear that the power of speech was with him a
very special gift, and he threw into it a great deal of
care and industry. Men at Portmadoc will still de-
scribe how he could be seen walking along the high-
road gesticulating as he practised his speeches; and
there is no doubt that at this moment of his life he
already had some dim perception that he possessed the
magic gift of oratory.
There are those in Portmadoc to-day who can still
remember some of these youthful orations, and espe-
cially remember the wonderful speech which he made
in 1 88 1 on the Egyptian crisis of that year. At that
moment conflicting opinions swirled round the figure of
Arabi Pasha the Egyptian Nationalist leader. Was
he a hero or a villain? History has not even yet quite
decided. 1 But the young Lloyd George was in no
doubt. He saw in Arabi a hero of romance rightly
struggling for the freedom of a small nation. The
impassioned speech in which he defended Arabi gained
for him the first attentions of the Welsh press. It
revealed to his hearers that deep enthusiasm for free-
dom among the little nations which afterwards became
his leading public characteristic. Men who heard the
speech still speak of it as a remarkable event in Port-
madoc.
At that time young Lloyd George was slim of body
and pale of face; the portraits that exist possess none
of that twinkling gaiety which came to him in later
1 Lord Cromer always called him an adventurer. Mr. Wilfrid
Blunt has always regarded him as a great patriot.
"UNCLE LLOYD": MR. RICHABD LLOYD, THE UNCLE
OF DAVID LLOYD GEOHGE.
YOUTH 49
years. Youth with him, as with many, seemed to be
the gravest period of his life; and indeed it happened
that very heavy tasks were laid upon these young
Welshmen at the opening of their lives.
For these were perilous years in Wales. The power
of the old order had been shaken, but not shattered.
The constituencies indeed could no longer be divided
up by the squires at a private meeting in Carnarvon;
it was not quite so easy now to woo a seat through a
Welsh interpreter. The General Election of 1868
had revealed the power of the new order; but the day
of Welsh Nationalism was still to come. The older
men stood aloof; there was much of the old cringing
humility still left in the social life. The squires had
punished the Welsh farmers of Carnarvonshire for
their votes in 1868 by ruthless, widespread evictions,
and a certain fear had been spread through the county.
It was clear to the young Lloyd George that this fear
could only be destroyed by a new dose of daring and
defiance. Thus beneath the shadow of Snowdon the
new spirit of young Wales was working up to a storm.
It is not to be wondered at if his debating achieve-
ments caused in the mind of this eager young man
certain stirrings of ambition that began to belie the
opinion of his old schoolmates. In November, 1881, he
visited London for the first time : and, like most young
men with kindly London friends, he was taken to see
the House of Commons. At this time he was keeping
a fairly full diary; and the entry of this date (Novem-
ber 1 2th) is rather remarkable in view of subsequent
events :
"I will not say but that I eyed the assembly in
a spirit similar to that in which William the Con-
50 THE PRIME MINISTER
queror eyed England on his visit to Edward the
Confessor, as the region of his future domain.
Oh, vanity!"
Perhaps it is scarcely fair to intrude on such self-
communings of early aspiring adolescence easily for-
givable for their naive boyish pride. But in the same
diaries, a year or two later, this young articled clerk
jots down another reflection rather strangely prophetic
of what was to come. A quotation appeared in the
Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald which signified that
David Lloyd George was already in the public eye:
"When first the college rolls receive his name,
The young enthusiast quits his ease for fame,
Resistless burns the fever of renown,
Caught from the strong contagion of the gown." *
Young Lloyd George makes a curiously level-headed
comment on this reference to his thirst for renown:
"Perhaps (?) it will be gratified. I believe
it depends entirely on what forces of pluck and
industry I can muster."
Strangely sober reflection for the eighteenth year!
The desire for fame that "last infirmity of noble
minds" was already there. But it had not turned
the head of the young man. Already he seemed to
have some measure of the task before him, and of
the effort that would be required to achieve it.
1 From Dr. Johnson's "Vanity of Human Wishes" (135-138), an
early poem, based on Juvenal's Tenth Satire. The third and fourth
lines should run
"Thro' all his veins the fever of renown
Burns from the strong contagion of the gown."
The poem was popular with such different judges as Sir Walter Scott,
Byron, Cardinal Newman, and Matthew Arnold.
CHAPTER IV
EARLY MANHOOD
"Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of Noble Mind)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days "
MILTON'S Lycidas.
DURING these years of the early eighties (1880-4)
that great Government of Mr. Gladstone's which
opened so triumphantly in 1880 was rapidly drawing
towards its downfall. Checked in Ireland and stagnant
at home, the Whigs who dominated the Cabinet had
been gradually drawn abroad into enterprises for which
they lacked both heart and capacity. Mr. Gladstone
was losing the middle class, and not winning the
manual workers. Meanwhile that astonishing young
man from Birmingham, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, had
swiftly perceived the decline of the old Liberalism, and
was building up a new and daring programme of social
and political reform. He was speaking with a new
voice. He was uttering his mind in simple language,
and calling things by very plain names.
The heart of the young Lloyd George went out to
this newcomer with a frank enthusiasm. It is quite
clear from his diaries and newspaper-writings during
these years that he was at the beginning a vehement
supporter of Mr. Chamberlain.
In an article on Mr. Chamberlain written by David
Lloyd George for the North Wales Observer of Orto-
51
52 THE PRIME MINISTER
her 1 7th, 1884, there is a remarkable passage which
is worth while recalling to-day as a flashing revelation
of the mind of the young writer:
"Mr. Chamberlain is unquestioningly the future
leader of the people. Any one who reads his
speeches will know the reason why. . . . He
understands the sympathies of his countrymen. It
is therefore that he speaks intelligibly and
straightforwardly, like a man who is proud of the
opinions which he holds. He is a Radical, and
doesn't care who knows it as long as the people
do."
So strongly was he attracted by Mr. Chamberlain's
personality that the young Lloyd George was always
inclined to take his side. He supported him, for in-
stance, in that struggle with the Whigs over his Radi-
cal Programme which, by the strangest possible twist,
led later on to that great misunderstanding over the
tactics of Home Rule and ended in splitting the old
Liberal party. Mr. Lloyd George had perhaps some
temperamental sympathy with that spirit of impatience
which made Mr. Chamberlain resent so deeply the
snubs and checks he received at the hands of the Whigs.
Although a fervent Nationalist and Home Ruler,
Mr. Lloyd George was always inclined to sympathise
with Mr. Chamberlain's methods of approaching the
Home Rule problem. Looking at it from the view-
point of Wales, he liked Mr. Chamberlain's feeling
for federalism. It is a curious fact that if Mr. Lloyd
George had stood for Parliament in 1886, he would
probably have been drawn by his sympathy for Mr.
EARLY MANHOOD 63
Chamberlain into the ranks of that small section of
Radical Unionists who followed Mr. Chamberlain in
his opposition to Gladstonian Home Rule, but after-
wards, recoiling from open reaction, rejoined the
Liberal party men like Sir George Trevelyan and
Mr. W. S. Caine, a small, afflicted, but deeply inter-
esting group.
In 1884 David Lloyd George went up to London to
pass his Final Law Examination in order to enable
him to be admitted on to the roll of practising solicitors.
His comment in his diary on the admission ceremony
shows his growing freshness and independence of out-
look. He was not at all cheered by that atmosphere of
dusty dullness which envelops the ritual of our law:
"The ceremony disappointed me. The Master
of the Rolls, so far from having anything to do
with it, was actually listening to some Q.C. at
the time, and some fellow of a clerk swore us to
a lawyerly demeanour at the back of the court,
and off we shambled to the Petty Bag Office to
sign the Rolls."
On the occasion of this visit to London, he again
attended the House of Commons, and for the first
time listened to a debate. He was fortunate enough
to be present at a lively skirmish between Lord Ran-
dolph Churchill and Mr. Gladstone. "It was a clever
piece of comedy," he said some years afterwards, re-
calling the scene. "I thought Churchill an impudent
puppy, as every Liberal was bound to do but I thor-
oughly enjoyed his speech." Then, as now, he could
54 THE PRIME MINISTER
never sufficiently express his admiration for courage
in any field of life and on any side.
He could now (1884) leave the high desk in the
square room at the office by the Town Hall. He had
served during the past five years ( 18791884) a faith-
ful apprenticeship. He had allowed few diversions to
draw him from his work. In those days the Puritan
tradition of a little Welsh township held the young
people in a fairly tight grip, and there were few
light distractions. Portmadoc held no theatre or opera
within its boundaries. The "Moving Pictures" had
not yet taken Puritanism on the flank. Football was
beginning to seize the Celtic fancy; but David had little
taste or time for violent sports. In 1882 he became
a Volunteer, and went into camp at Conway. But it
is not recorded that he secured any promotion, or at
any time suffered from the pangs of military ambition.
Otherwise his amusements took that sober form of the
Portmadoc debating society speeches, or essays for the
Eisteddfod, for which the two brothers wrote a dis-
course on the "Cash and Credit System." They spoke
of credit with a scorn unhappily rare in young men !
He was no longer any master's man. He could,
if he liked, set up for himself. The firm for which
he had worked all these years had, indeed, a high
opinion of his powers ; and they did not wish to lose him
wholly. Mr. Breese, the head-partner, "a kind master
and a thorough man," as David described him in his
diary, had died in 1881; but the other partners did
their best to give him a start. They secured him an
offer of a managing clerkship in an old county firm
at Dolgelly. It would have been a most attractive
opening for a man who wished to follow the safe course
EARLY MANHOOD 55
in life. But David Lloyd George was one who pre-
ferred risks. He wished to be the ruler of his own fate.
He had now practically no one behind him. The
long period of examination and apprenticeship had
exhausted the slender stores of his mother and his
uncle. He had even to wait for his first cases before he
could purchase the robes required of a Welsh solicitor
before he could plead in the County Court.
But he still preferred a small independence to a big
dependence. Perhaps he was right. Probably he
had ideas as to the way of conducting a legal business
which would not have always gratified any old-fash-
ioned firm of country solicitors.
The young solicitor started quite simply by putting
a brass name-plate on the door of Morvin House, their
little dwelling at Criccieth. He then began to practise
in his uncle's back parlour.
Ft was a daring venture for an unknown village
youth; but after a few months he began to get under
way. His diaries of 1885 punctuate with thrilling
eagerness the opening steps in his professional career
his first case in the Police Court, his first service of
an order, his first plea in the County Court. Pn June
24th he records with glee that he won all his cases.
"Never had a more successful field-day." On July
9th he is attending Penrhyn Sessions for the first
time, opposing the transfer of a license. On Sep-
tember 8th he is in the Revision Courts. "Came off
better than Liberals ever did." In fact, he marches
in these first skirmishes from victory to victory.
So successful was he, in fact, that in this year (1885)
he opened an office in the High Street at Portmadoc,
not far from the building in which he had been ar-
66 THE PRIME MINISTER
tided. He began in a very small house, and remained
there for some years before moving to the corner
house where the legend "Messrs. Lloyd George and
George" is still prominent in the window. This cor-
ner house was previously a public-house known as "The
Fox Inn." There the brothers for now William had
joined David in practice took the end of the lease,
and finally secured the freehold. There, in that dis-
possessed hostelry, William George practises to-day
(1920).
This year and the years that followed in David's
life were crammed with intense activities. The diaries
show that day after day he rose between five and six
o'clock. He devoted the cream of his energies to the
active pursuit of the law. But he could never be a
man of one interest. He was also, during these same
months, fiercely energetic both in religion and politics.
He was constantly reading sermons and listening to
sermons. He often spoke from the pulpit, after that
liberal fashion encouraged in the Free Churches.
But gradually in these diaries the political interest
begins to loom larger. When the autumn General
Election of 1885 comes on, he takes an active part with
pen and voice. On October iyth he goes to the Tory
member's meeting, and is with difficulty restrained from
taking part. On November i8th he makes an impas-
sioned speech in defence of Mr. Chamberlain, and is
tremendously cheered. On November 24th he goes to
a Tory meeting and finds that he is the chief butt of
their attack. He shows his precocious political shrewd-
ness by the satisfaction he feels in thus drawing the
enemy's fire.
Instead of injuring the practice of his profession by
EARLY MANHOOD 57
these public displays of courage, he soon found that
he was really attracting to his house and office a
new class of client, the discontented farmers of the
county. First one and then another began coming to
him, at first privily and then confidently. They came
on tithes, and on rents, and on rates. He took up some
of these cases and scored successes which resounded
through the county. The result was that other men
came who had never before been to lawyers, and he
began to open up a new vein of business. Law, after
all, can sometimes pay, even as a remedy for injustice.
He was, indeed, now becoming a very busy solicitor
of the kind which in the provinces is not easily dis-
tinguished from a barrister. The fact that a solicitor
can address a County Court and a Petty Sessional
Court gives him, outside the great centres of English
life, a practical command of both branches of the law
and abolishes that rather absurd pedantry of divided
function. This power of speech suited young Lloyd
George very well. It gave him a new training in public
address, and it provided him with a new weapon for
asserting public rights. From the time of that great
nation of lawyers the Romans the Law Court has
always been second only to the Senate House as an
instrument of popular power. Mr. Lloyd George
showed to the Welsh people that, in the integrity of the
British law, they had a new resource for the recovery
of their ancient rights.
But never at any time did he allow the call of the
law to divert him from politics. Day by day his
diaries reflect his passionate interest in the struggle
of 1885. When the first results come in he is pro-
foundly disappointed. "There is no cry for the towns,"
58 THE PRIME MINISTER
he writes on November 26th. "Humdrum Liberalism
won't win elections." Then, on December 4th:
"Great Liberal victories in counties. Very glad
of it. Am convinced that this is all due to Cham-
berlain's speeches. Gladstone had no programme
that would draw at all."
Throughout we can see his ardour for the forward
course and the vigour in attack. "Humdrum Liberal-
ism won't win elections" that was to be the gist of
his political teaching in later years : it almost summed
up his political strategy.
Certainly young Lloyd George was not himself in-
clined to be "humdrum." Just at this moment, when
the old and the new Liberalism in Wales, as in Eng-
land, were wrestling for the mastery, he definitely took
the forward side. It was significant of this that he
first came out as a notable public speaker in a sphere
beyond his own district at a great public meeting held
at Festiniog on February I2th, 1886, and addressed
by the famous Irishman, Michael Davitt.
The Liberal Party was not at that moment fully
committed to Home Rule, and among the elder men
there had been grave head-shakings over this invita-
tion to Michael Davitt. Rebellion was more seriously
regarded in those days; and Michael Davitt had both
rebelled and paid the penalty. The law had laid its
finger on him and marked him with its broad arrow;
and respectable people whispered the word "felon."
Young Lloyd George was invited to the Davitt
meeting. There were grave doubts in the family circle
as to whether he ought to go. But he was urged on
EARLY MANHOOD 59
by one who had already a great and growing influence
over him, a certain Maggie Owen living at a farm-
house about a mile from Criccieth and more and more
mentioned in the diaries of this time. This young
lady already had her definite views, and she had no
patience with this attempt to make a pariah of Michael
Davitt. "Of course you must go," she said simply;
"why not?" And that seemed to settle the matter.
The difficulty was to persuade any one to move
a vote of thanks to Michael Davitt at this meeting;
all the prudent people stood aside. But there sat in
a chair a brave and stalwart man Mr. Michael Jones
of Bala and at the last moment he persuaded young
Lloyd George to move the vote of thanks. The young
David rose, and he instantly made a speech which was
largely reported and which electrified North Wales.
In this speech there are already some of those daring,
flashing phrases with which he afterwards familarised
the world. There was already that fearless touch
which has since made the speaker a perpetual storm-
centre.
Michael Davitt, always a shrewd judge of men,
was deeply impressed with the speech. He advised Mr.
Lloyd George to think of Parliament, and the other
Michael Jones of Bala urged the same advice.
From that time forward the young man's thoughts
began to turn towards Westminster.
And yet his first approach to Parliament was not
easy. Some of the young enthusiasts who now gath-
ered round him wanted him to stand for Merioneth-
shire in the General Election that soon followed in
1886. But here there was another son of young Wales
already in the field with stronger local claims. This
60 THE PRIME MINISTER
was none other than the man always known afterwards
as "Tom" Ellis, son of a Merionethshire farmer. Ellis
was four years older than Lloyd George; and young
David readily and instantly stood aside in favour of
the elder man. They met soon after; and a great
friendship struck up between them which lasted until
the premature death of Tom Ellis in 1899. It was a
wonderful friendship between two men of common
aspirations but utterly different character. Tom Ellis
was by no means the "Welsh Parnell" no descrip-
tion could have been further from the truth. He was
a man of high enthusiasms and noble integrity. He
was a real Welsh Nationalist. But, by going to Ox-
ford, he had come within the governing English circle ;
he was touched with that Saxonism which tempers the
native zeal of the Celt. He was no longer "racy of
the soil." It was no mere chance that he was after-
wards drawn before his due season into the circle of
British power, and was fated to stand aloof from his
friend when Lloyd George was asserting the rugged
and relentless claims of Welsh Nationalism.
Thus David Lloyd George was for the moment de-
layed in his progress to Parliament. Perhaps this
was a fortunate accident, because it gave him a breath-
ing time in which to master the needs of his own
people and to train himself more thoroughly for the
public stage.
"A Daniel come to judgment! Yea, a Daniel 1
O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!"
SHAKESPEARE'S Merchant of Venice, Act I, Sc. iv.
CUT off from Parliament for the moment (1886)
David Lloyd George spent no time in vain regrets.
He resumed that life of combined public and private
activity which was rapidly becoming his second nature.
His diaries during the following years show that he
was now absorbed in his growing "practice." But
that did not prevent him from continuing his eager and
active interest in public affairs. Then, as ever after,
the two interests developed together.
From this time forward he steadily directed his
energies to work on behalf of his own beloved little
nation. Perhaps never did he quite lose sight of that
high ambition to command "listening senates" which
had come to him when he first sat in the Gallery at
Westminster and looked down on the combats of the
great parliamentary gladiators. But for the moment
there was urgent work to do nearer to hand; and
David Lloyd George knew the wisdom of Carlyle's
great law of conduct "Do the Duty that lies nearest
thee." *
So he plunged into the great work for Wales which
was already on foot at his own doors.
1 Sartor Resartus, Book II., chapter ix.
61
62
In 1886 he joined eagerly in the great Antitithe cam-
paign which was b,eing carried on throughout North
Wales by those remarkable men, Mr. Thomas Gee
and Mr. John Parry. David Lloyd George became the
Secretary of that League in South Carnarvonshire, and
he addressed meetings throughout the district. He
accompanied Mr. Gee and Mr. Parry on many of their
most daring raids. He drove long distances in a small
governess cart and addressed meetings in little villages
away in remote districts.
It was characteristic of David that he actually pro-
voked and promoted hostility. He would hold his
meetings by preference in the neighbourhood of the
Parish Church or "of the National School. He would
regard it as his greatest triumph if he could draw the
parson or the curate to come out and meet him in open
warfare. One of the visions of him at this period
handed down is that of a day in June 1887, when he
was seen coatless and in his shirt-sleeves arguing
against the curate in the open green at the village fair
of Sarn Melltcyrn. He did not shrink from passive
sympathy with the mild rioting which began to take
place at the tithe sales resulting from the distraints
that followed. His whole heart went out in sympathy
to Welsh farmers compelled by law to contribute from
their pocket to what they regarded as an alien Church.
The "Tithe War" gave David Lloyd George that
best of training for a young public speaker the train-
ing of public controversy in the open air. It made him
quick and resourceful. Here was the best possible
whetstone for his natural gift of courage. These
speeches made him already a rising public champion.
This was a new portent for the Welsh farmer a
MARRIAGE 63
lawyer who was not in league with the rich. It flashed
as a shining light on the eyes of a people who had
always been used to regard the law as the paid servant
of power and property. It brought more of those
farmers flocking to his office : and once more it brought
him forward as the legal friend of the poor and the
oppressed "the poor man's lawyer" of Carnarvon-
shire.
The people gradually learned that here was a man
skilled in the law who was ready on their behalf to
face the tyrants of the Bench and to challenge their
power.
In nothing had this power of the Bench been more
ruthlessly exercised than in the matter of fishing. By
a curious distortion of public rights, the rivers of this
country have been mainly turned into private property.
While fishing on the open sea is as free as the air,
unlicensed fishing in fresh water in England outside
navigable waters is often accounted a crime. 1
This law of private property in fresh water fishing
has fallen with peculiar harshness upon a people like
the Welsh, who inherit a great passion for this par-
ticular sport. The pressure of the law has been made
worse by the fact that the prohibition is perpetually
being extended to waters where a customary right of
fishing has existed.
Here has been a cause of perpetual conflict between
the law and the public a conflict in which the bias
of the law has been mainly against the public.
Such a case occurred in North Wales in May 1889,
when four quarrymen were prosecuted for fishing in a
1 In countries like Japan all fishing is free; and public fishing, of
course, can be "preserved" as easily as private.
64 THE PRIME MINISTER
small mountain quarry lake. 1 The aim of the prose-
cution was to bring the lake within the definition of the
word "river" in the Act of Parliament. It soon became
quite clear from the proceedings that the bias of the
Court was against the quarrymen. Mr. Lloyd George
rapidly determined to bring this out in the most vivid
manner possible. So when the chairman a great
local potentate and sportsman gruffly interrupted his
legal argument by saying that the legal point must be
tried in a higher Court, Mr. Lloyd George swiftly
replied :
"Yes, sir, and in a perfectly just and unbiassed
Court too."
The result of this remark was precisely what Mr.
Lloyd George expected. The chairman rather un-
wisely asked Mr. Lloyd George to what magistrate he
was referring. To this the young advocate immedi-
ately replied:
"I refer to you in particular, sir."
Whereupon the chairman immediately rose with
great pomp and dignity and left the court.
The other magistrates now felt that it laid with
them to take some action. A second magistrate, allied
to sport, protested. A third, noddingly acquainted,
declined to proceed with the case : whereupon Mr.
Lloyd George calmly remarked, "I am glad to hear it."
A fourth rose and left the court. One of the few
left asked Mr. Lloyd George for an apology, where-
upon he replied:
"I shall not withdraw anything, because every
word I have spoken is true."
x The lower Nantlle lake.
MARRIAGE 65
The result was that all the magistrates left the court,
and Mr. Lloyd George's purpose was fully achieved.
Here was an incident by no means the result of
mere thoughtless impertinence on the part of a young
lawyer. Mr. Lloyd George has always regarded this
as one of the proudest incidents of his life. He is still
of opinion that it came at a critical moment to shake
the petty tyranny of the local Bench, and he still quotes,
it as a good example of one of his favourite methods
of public action.
A short time afterwards David Lloyd George was
the chief actor in another famous case which showed
the people of Wales that the spirit of British justice,
if boldly challenged, was capable of maintaining their
cause. This was a case arising from that incredible
ecclesiastical inhumanity which consisted in attempting
to visit ignominy upon a man of another faith even
after he had passed through the gates of death.
Nothing did more to shatter the power of the Estab-
lished Church of Wales than the refusal of the parsons
to bury the dead of other sects within the walls of the
old parish burial-grounds. Those parish "God's
acres" had been in the possession of the people before
the Reformation, and it was only by a chance turn of
English history that they passed away from them.
The growth of the great Free Churches resulting
from the immense religious revival of the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries made this an
acute matter. The hostility of the Established Church
to this revival led to a new use of the power of ex-
clusion from the burial-grounds. Terrible memories
have centred round that struggle. The late President
of the English Divorce Court, Sir Samuel Evans, once
66 THE PRIME MINISTER
told me that he had to carry by stealth the coffin of his
first wife into his parish cemetery before he could ob-
tain burial for her in Christian ground. The Estab-
lished Church in Wales has had to pay heavily for
the luxury of such adherence to a narrow and inhuman
practice:
In 1880 the Welsh members returned to Parliament
since the Liberal Revival of 1868 had succeeded in
passing that famous Burial Act which now enables a
British Nonconformist to be buried in a parish burial-
ground according to the rites of his own religion as
long as due notice is given to the parish priest. In
most of the parishes in Wales this Act was accepted
by decent parsons as a satisfactory settlement of a
prolonged dispute.
But in the little village of Llanfrothen, at the very
foot of Snowdon, there was a rector whose fanatical
religious instinct led him to make one last daring effort
to cheat his parishioners out of their rights of decent
Christian burial. In 1888, an old quarryman died at
Llanfrothen. He left it as his last wish that he should
be buried by the side of his daughter. Now, this
daughter had been buried in a piece of land which had
been added to the churchyard as far back as 1864 by a
certain Mrs. Owen of Dolgelly. The new piece of
land had been enclosed by a wall built out of their own
money by the parishioners. This "acre" had been
recognised up to that time as part of the burial-ground.
But the Rev. Richard Jones cared nothing for walls
and little for precedents. This "churlish priest" raked
up the old records and found that Mrs. Owen had
made no legal conveyance of the land. In 1881, the
year after the new Burial Act had passed into law, he
MARRIAGE 67
persuaded that good lady to make a new conveyance,
with a trust which confined it to those parishioners who
used the rites of the Church of England.
The new grave had actually been dug for the poor
old quarryman to rest by the side of his daughter. A
notice under the new Act was served upon the rector.
Then began the struggle. The rector filled in the
grave and pointed out another spot for the burial of
the old quarryman a spot far from his daughter,
"bleak and sinister," in the words of Mr. Lloyd George
a place reserved for shipwrecked sailors and suicides.
It was at that moment in the struggle that the
relatives of the quarryman went to consult young David
Lloyd George.
Without any hesitation Mr. Lloyd George advised
them to act on their rights. Following his daring
counsel, they entered the graveyard and reopened the
filled-in grave. Then they made a pathetic appeal to
the rector. He still forbade them to act. Then they
made a demand on the rector. He still refused. Mean-
while young David had spent a night in foraging and
rummaging through the church records, and he had
discovered that in 1864 the rector had allowed the
public to enclose the piece of ground without any condi-
tions. He advised the relatives to go on. Let them,
if necessary, break into the churchyard.
They went on. They broke into the churchyard.
They borrowed a bier from the church. They gave
the old man a Christian burial by his daughter. The
Calvinist minister spoke the service, and the relatives
went home happier contented with the feeling that
they had buried the old man where he had wished
to lie.
68 THE PRIME MINISTER
Infuriated by their defiance, the stubborn rector sued
the relatives for damages in Portmadoc County Court.
Mr. Lloyd George took up the defence and asked for
a jury. The jury decided that his facts were correct.
The County Court Judge decided against him on the
point of law. Fortunately for Mr. Lloyd George,
the Judge made an incorrect record of the jury's verdict
and refused to correct it. David Lloyd George ap-
pealed to the Divisional Court. He was heard by Lord
Chief Justice Coleridge and Justice Manisty. In the
middle of the case Lord Chief Justice Coleridge dis-
covered the incorrect record by the County Court
Judge. Result fury of the Lord Chief Justice, anger
of the Court, and, finally, a verdict in favour of the
quarryman.
So that poor old quarryman of Llanfrothen was
after all laid to rest in peace in that little burial-ground
beneath the mighty precipices of Snowdon; and the
fame of Mr. Lloyd George spread wider and wider
throughout North Wales. It was felt that here at
last the people had a man who had the courage to
support them in theif struggles against the powers in
high places.
He now began to act as a popular pleader in cases
of social injustice before the Petty Courts of the
Principality.
It was during this period of dawning thoughts and
powers that David Lloyd George wooed and won the
woman who became his wife. The young man was at
that time a keen-eyed, attractive youth; and the silver
tongue which he was already using in Court and on the
platform was also very social in private life. He was
MARRIAGE 69
from the beginning a sociable, conservative man.
Dowered with welded gifts of wit and wisdom, he had
already the makings of a good talker. Above all, he
had that gift of sympathy with the views of others
which is more popular with women than with men. So
it was that the cottage-born boy of Llanystumdwy, the
promising son of Morvin House, was a prime favourite
with the girls of Criccieth and with one girl in par-
ticular who lived just outside Criccieth.
For about a mile inland from the sea, on a hundred-
acre farm called Mynydd Ednyfed, there lived a farm-
ing family of old lineage and high standing possessing
the proud, historic Welsh name of Owen. They claimed
descent from Owen Glyndwr, and they faced life with
that simple Homeric pride which lends dignity to
worthy living. The yeomen farmers of Wales, like
the "statesmen" of the Cumberland,Dales, inherit the
pride of landed men; and the Owens were no exception
to this rule.
The Owens of Ednyfed had a daughter Maggie
by name whom they loved passing well. She was
the apple of her father's eye; and no man who sought
her hand was likely to have an easy time. That, of
course, was likely to make Maggie not less, but more
desirable to David Lloyd George.
Maggie went to chapel at Criccieth, and the young
people met in that simple but thrilling way when the
heart is at its best and highest as they went to and
from their little chapels. They did not worship to-
gether; for the Owens were Methodists. But love has
leapt higher barriers than that between Baptists and
Methodists.
Then there came those entries in the diaries inno-
70 THE PRIME MINISTER
cent, human entries how David took Maggie home
from meetings how, later on, he began to go to the
farm and talk. Little is said ; but we see the old, old
story developing along its ancient trodden paths. The
son of the land is going back to the land for his
wooing.
Then came those stones in the path without which
the truth of love never was and never shall be proved.
It was after 1885 that the young man began to go
frequently to the farmhouse solely, of course, to
obtain sound political advice and counsel from a very
wise young lady. Fathers have strange illusions, and
at first Mr. Owen thought that David came to talk to
him. Many fathers have often thought the same.
But the day came to Mr. Owen, as it comes to all
parents, when the veil was torn asunder. It became
only too obvious that this young man did not toil out
so often to Ednyfed solely in order to enjoy the society
of Mr. Owen or even of Mrs. Owen.
Then M,r. Owen became less friendly. It is not
Polonius only who thought himself wiser than youth;
and in this case Mr. Owen brought Mrs. Owen over
to his side.
Ah! If this young David could look forward to the
secure tenancy of a good solid farmhouse and a rich,
broad-acred farm, how different it would be ! But
there he was, a struggling limb of the law, scarcely
emerged from articles, given to outrageous public
forays, still under his uncle's roof! Farmers rarely
love lawyers.
Happily the Owen parents had friends and relations,
who took a sounder and longer view. Maggie had one
of those friendly aunts who are the best counsellors of
MARRIAGE 71
our youth. That good lady now urged Maggie to stick
to the young man. "Mark you," she would say, "that
young man has a great future. Don't give him up."
Maggie was perhaps like any other young girl, at first
a little divided and disturbed distracted between the
calls of love and filial duty. But in the end she did
the sound, straight thing she stuck to her man and
won.
Once the victory was established, and bold heart had
won fair lady, then the parental entrenchments sur-
rendered. The white flag became the flag of loyalty;
and Mr. and Mrs. Owen, once won over, became the
devoted friends and worshippers of their son-in-law up
to the close of their lives. I saw something of them
in their home at a later time; and among all those
humble folk who have helped David Lloyd George to
achieve, those two wise elders, Mr. and Mrs. Owen,
held no mean or unworthy place.
The years flew swiftly, and by 1888 it became clear
that Maggie's aunt was the true prophetess, and that
the young Criccieth solicitor was a coming man. The
rumour of him was spreading through the county like
the roar of a "spate" from the hills of Snowdon. What
was more important, he was earning an income. Not
even the thrifty, careful farmer of Ednyfed could doubt
any longer.
So with the opening of that year it was decided that
the marriage should take place.
On January 24th, 1888, just after the twenty-fifth
birthday of the young bridegroom, 1 David Lloyd
George and Maggie Owen were married. The
wedding took place in a romantic spot, in the little
1 He was born on January ijth, 1863.
72 THE PRIME MINISTER
chapel of Pencaenewydd, an inland Carnarvonshire
village, a few miles from Chwilog. Uncle Lloyd
took David over by train on that fateful morn-
ing to Chwilog; there they breakfasted, and walked
over to Pencaenewydd. Uncle Lloyd and the Rev.
John Owen performed the simple ceremony; and there
were present only relations and a few friends. But it
was recorded in the Carnarvon Herald that flags were
to be seen everywhere in Criccieth, and in the evening,
after the young couple had left for London, the people
defied the drizzling rain with a bonfire and fireworks.
Already the people knew their friend.
Twenty-nine years later (1917) a daughter of these
simple spousals was married with the same simplicity
in a little Baptist chapel in London. Only the welling,
pressing crowd outside the chapel showed that the man
who stood by the pulpit giving away his daughter was
Prime Minister of England. One wedding was as
simple as the other.
When they returned to Criccieth from their brief
honeymoon, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd George settled down
at first at Mynydd Ednyfed, in the farmhouse of the
Owens, and there they spent a few happy years under
her parents' roof. There the elder children were born.
It was soon clear that the marriage was not going
to bring any abatement of courageous action on the
part of the young husband. Mrs. Lloyd George was
not the sort of wife who encourages her husband to
uxorious ease. She was, and always has been, on the
side of daring. She faces danger with a simplicity
which is disarming.
One night, for instance, there was to be held at
Criccieth a meeting of the kind known as "Church
Defence" ; a species of gathering not free from offence
to the people of Wales. David was suffering from a
mild attack of tonsillitis. There seemed every reason
why he should not go to the meeting.
But the people of Carnarvonshire had had to stand
a good deal of this sort of thing; and David's blood
was up. He wanted to go. Would his young wife
mind? She? "Why not go?" she said.
So he went off, closely muffled up by a wife who was
tender as well as brave.
He stepped into the meeting with one definite object.
It was his deliberate intention to stop a practice that
was growing into a scandal. It had become a habit
in these gatherings to fend off the eager questionings
of militant Nonconformity by disingenuous postpone-
ment. It is a method well known to the tricksters of
public life. "Questions? Oh! yes, as many as you
like! Only it is more convenient to answer them at
the close of the meeting!" Then at the close "So
sorry! But our friend here has to catch a train his
invaluable time " We all know this sort of thing.
But at the opening of this particular meeting an
important meeting, to be addressed by a very special
Church advocate there arose the young David Lloyd
George, muffled but insistent. Yes, he wanted to ask
some questions. No, he would rather ask them now.
In fact, he intended to ask them now. So he stood,
pale to the lips, but unyielding.
The audience, taking courage, began to clap and
cheer. "To the platform!" shouted some one. So
74 THE PRIME MINISTER
David quite deliberately stepped up to the platform,
mounted it, and began to address the meeting.
In vain did the righteous rage. The chairman or-
dered David down. He held his ground. Nay, he
began to address the people, simply, incisively, thrill-
ingly. The chairman was forgotten. David had be-
come the speaker of the hour.
Then a curious thing happened. Warming to the
task, David began to take off his mufflers. He un-
wound them and cast them aside. His hoarse voice be-
came clear and ringing. The sick throat was forgotten.
He captured the meeting. The platform was
silenced. It was he who made the speech of the eve-
ning; and at the end the enthusiastic Free Churchmen
in the audience took up the young man and carried him
from the hall on their shoulders.
No, certainly, marriage had not pinioned the wings
of this young stormy petrel.
CHAPTER VI
ENTERS PARLIAMENT
"The day of the cottage-bred man has at last dawned."
LLOYD GEORGE.
Now (1888) happily married and well started on
his legal career, Mr. Lloyd George was able to return
to his larger ambition of sitting in Parliament. From
this time forward he definitely aspired to sit at West-
minister as the representative of his own native constit-
uency, the Carnarvon Boroughs. The achievement
was not to be easy. There were many lions in the path.
During the last few years, indeed, he had immensely
increased his reputation. He had travelled through
many parts of Wales and visited many courts, fighting
the cause of the "under-dog." The tenants of Wales,
harried and evicted after 1868 and 1880, had begun to
hold up their heads again. They felt that they had a
new champion on their side.
But the old habit of sending to Westminster only
the powerful and wealthy was not yet dead. Feudalism
always dies slowly. It was a very sudden change in-
deed to pass from the squire and the manufacturer
to the cottage-bred lad of Llanystumdwy.
David Lloyd George, indeed, neglected no oppor-
tunities. Besides being a lawyer and a public speaker,
he was now an active journalist. Working with that
fine spirit, Mr. D. R. Daniel then one of the noblest
75
76 THE PRIME MINISTER
sons of the Young Welsh movement David Lloyd
George founded at Pwllheli in 1888 a paper called
The Trumpet of Freedom a name which certainly did
not lack sound and vigour.
Then, a few months after his marriage, with the
consent and support of his fearless wife, he allowed
his name first to be put forward as possible Liberal
candidate for the Carnarvon Boroughs.
Then followed one of those personal struggles which
test and try a man.
It is right that all claim to rise above our fellows
should be narrowly scrutinised. There is even in
jealousy some element of that instinct for equality
which gives dignity to the meanest man. Here is a
factor that takes multitudinous forms, varying from
fair judgment to sheer malice. The strongest man will
wince under the scorpions of spite; but he will accept
the verdict of a fair jury of his peers. It was to such
a jury that young David Lloyd George now fearlessly
appealed.
Certainly it was scarcely to be expected that his
claims to the seat should pass unchallenged. He was
still (1888) only twenty-five years old. He was ap-
pealing to his own country-side ; and a prophet is re-
corded to have authority anywhere but there. There
was the inevitable question of envious neighbors "Is
not this the bootmaker's boy?" There was the man
who had known "David" with the curls down his back
who had kept a record of his youthful pranks. Then
there was "the County" that fine essence of squire-
dom which had always regarded "the seat" as one of
its own possessions. Above all, there were the little
borough circles the elders in the chapels, the grey-
ENTERS PARLIAMENT 77
beards in the seats of the saints. There were some
such seniors who shook their heads gravely at such
madness. The boy must bide his time. Who was he
to rule over them? For when David, the shepherd's
youngest son, came up to face the Philistine champion,
it was not only the Philistine enemy, but also his own
elder brothers who scoffed and doubted.
Against all these doubts and envies only one thing
could prevail. It was the new wave of Nationalism
which was sweeping over the younger generation
throughout Wales, and especially North Walos. Wales
was tired of those respectable professional members
who were so easily captured by the political machines
at Westminster. They wanted some one endowed with
the courage to revolt; and already they had a percep-
tion that David Lloyd George was such a man. He
had shown this in his defence of the fishermen of
Nantlle, and in his championship of that poor old
quarryman of Llanfrothen. In both cases he had
defied authority; and in both cases he had won. He
had been the first to break the tradition of fear which
brooded over the Welsh people.
He had already roused a new spirit of hope in the
younger generation : and they were determined that he
should carry their banner forward.
At first his candidature progressed very slowly. It
was true that the constituency had fared badly of re-
cent years. In 1886, when Tom Ellis was sweeping
all before him in Merionethshire, the Carnarvon Bor-
oughs had put forward an old-fashioned Liberal who
had lost the seat to an able Tory.
At this time it was still in the possession of that
Tory member Mr. Swetenham, Q.C. Humdrum
78 THE PRIME MINISTER
Liberalism, as David Lloyd George had already proph-
esied, had not proved a winning card in the Bor-
oughs. But such an experience does not always remove
prejudice. There were those who argued that a Q.C.
could only be defeated by another Q.C. or say, a
professor; or perhaps, even better, a millionaire, if he
could be obtained. We all know these dreams that
haunt the minds of local committee-men in difficult and
doubtful constituencies.
The first step towards achievement was taken in the
spring of 1888 when he was adopted as candidate by
the Liberals in the Borough of Carnarvon. 1 But for
some months the other four Boroughs held aloof, and
it was not until later in the year that he was selected as
candidate by the Liberals of Nevin, Pwllheli, and
Criccieth. For several months longer there was a
hesitation among the respectabilities of that eniinent
cathedral city of Bangor, where even Liberalism has a
tinge of blue. But on December 2Oth Bangor sur-
rendered, and he was chosen as Liberal candidate for
the whole constituency.
It is clear from the letters and diaries of the time
that these months marked a period of great stress in his
life. When he was selected at Bangor he wrote to
his family one of those passionate youthful assertions
of "will to win" characteristic of power in the bud:
"Despite all the machinations of my enemies, I
will succeed. I am now sailing before the wind,
and they against it."
*Now (1920) as then a constituency consisting of five Welsh Bor-
oughs Carnarvon, Bangor, Criccieth, Pwllheli, and Nevin. Out of
consideration for the Prime Minister the constitution was left unaltered
by the Act of 1918.
ENTERS PARLIAMENT 79
It is clear from these sentences that there was keen
personal opposition to his candidature. It was a mo-
ment in Welsh Liberalism of fierce tidal struggle be-
tween the old and the new forces. The old forces died
hard. That type of Liberalism, still not rare in Eng-
land, which aims at cashing its seat in Parliament for
money favours or local privileges, was by no means
yet dead in Wales. The strong wind of that great
national spirit which has since swept through the Prin-
cipality had not yet risen to hurricane force. There
were many elements of fear and self-interest which
viewed with horror the challenge to powers in high
places which David Lloyd George set before Wales
as the only sure road to liberty. These men found his
doctrine too hard for them. Mr. Doubting and Mr.
Feeble-mind hoped still to serve two masters and to
get the best of two worlds. It yet required a great
struggle before David Lloyd George could convince
them that his was a sign in which they could conquer.
These great victories are not achieved easily; it is only
through great storm and stress that nations attain to
freedom of soul.
But a great event in this progress was destined to
take place the following year 1889. It was a singu-
lar curiosity of this period of reaction in British home
affairs that there had crept into the Unionist Govern-
ment a man of large and progressive views. Mr. C. T.
Ritchie l had emerged from the British .middle class to
take his seat among the mighty of this land. He had
not lost sight of his own people in the process. Mr.
Ritchie was a bluff man, rugged of speech and ungainly
of appearance. He seemed like a fly in amber in the
1 Afterwards Lord Ritchie.
80 THE PRIME MINISTER
midst of a Tory Government. But he happened to be
very popular with Queen Victoria, and he was a power
in the City of London. It has always been in England
a part of the compromise of the great aristocrats who
dominate the Tory Party that they should promote to
high office a few shining lights of the middle class.
In an earlier time they had to promote Sir Robert Peel
at a great price to their cause. Now they had to
admit Mr. Ritchie; and the penalty was almost as
great. For in 1888, by creating the County Councils,
he struck a blow at the roots of county feudal govern-
ment.
Young Lloyd George saw in a flash the tremendous
opportunity thus given to Wales. He knew by long
experience that the power of the squires was largely
based upon their control of county government in Quar-
ter Sessions. He saw that they would endeavour to
prolong their power by capturing the new County
Councils. He determined to do his utmost to defeat
them. He refused to stand for election himself, al-
though he was offered four seats. His own ambition
was larger. It was to capture the county. He moved
about from place to place speaking everywhere and
trying to rouse the whole of Carnarvonshire to the
great chance now placed in their hands. He succeeded.
He carried the county. Everywhere the candidates
of progress were returned. "It is a revolution!" he
cried. "The day of the squire has now gone!" l So
profound was the conviction of the Welsh Liberals
that he had won their battle for them that he was im-
mediately chosen as county Alderman along with Mr.
1 In a speech at Liverpool on February i8th, 1889. The first men-
tion of Mr. Lloyd George in a leading article was in the Carnarvon
Herald over this speech.
MRS. WILLIAM GEORGE, THE MOTHER OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE.
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEK
ENTERS PARLIAMENT 81
(now Sir) Arthur Acland, who, at that time, had a
house in Carnarvonshire.
"The boy Alderman," as he was called, instantly
threw himself hotly into the new work of the Carnar-
vonshire County Council. He became a conservator
for those native rivers of his which he loved so dearly,
soon winning for them that freedom for which he had
always striven in other ways. He took an active part
in every branch of administration. But his main pur-
pose was directed to using the Welsh County Councils
as a political stepping-stone towards the great goal of
Home Rule for Wales. He was a prime mover in
appointing a Committee to collect evidence for the
Royal Commission on the Sunday Closing Act in
Wales. He pushed forward the idea of an Association
of County Councils for the whole of the Principality.
During those months of 1889 David Lloyd George
created a Home Rule weapon in Wales of which he
was destined to make a mighty use in one of the
greatest struggles of his later years. Perhaps he
"builded better than he knew." But it is a very strik-
ing evidence of his early political instinct that he should
have perceived so soon the full possibilities of the
Welsh County Councils.
The tide of events now began to sweep him rapidly
towards a larger political career. As recognised can-
didate for the Carnarvon Boroughs he already began
to play an important part on the larger political stage.
In October 1889 he had supported a Welsh Disestab-
lishment resolution at a meeting of the Welsh Na-
tional Council. In December he persuaded the Na-
tional Liberal Federation at Manchester to accept the
policy of the Local Veto on the drink traffic. On
82 THE PRIME MINISTER
February 4th, 1890, he made at the South Wales Lib-
eral Federation a brilliant and arresting speech on
Welsh Home Rule a speech which instantly marked
him out as a coming figure in Welsh politics. He
argued with force and power that, as compared with
Ireland, the argument for Welsh Home Rule was
stronger because they lacked the specific difficulty of
Ireland the Ulster problem. The speech made a
deep mark. Already in his own country he stood for
unity and daring, while even in England rumours began
to reach the ears of Radical politicians that a new
and fiery force was arising hard by the rocks of
Snowdon.
It was at this critical moment that Mr. Swetenham,
the Conservative member for the Carnarvon Boroughs,
died ; and suddenly the young David Lloyd George was
faced with a supreme challenge. Probably, if he had
been able to shape events himself, he would have pre-
ferred to wait a few years before standing for Parlia-
ment. But to some men the call of fate comes early
and swiftly, and cannot be denied.
Certainly David Lloyd George showed no sign of
hesitating to meet the call. On March 24th, 1890, he
issued his Address a brief, terse, dignified statement
of his political faith. It was not the Address of an
ordinary Liberal candidate. True, he gave his homage
to Mr. Gladstone and the cause of Irish Home Rule;
but then he passed on rapidly to a strong assertion of
the claims of Wales first and foremost, for religious
liberty and equality; then for sweeping reforms in
land and labour laws; last, but not least, for a liberal
extension to Wales of the principle of self-government.
ENTERS PARLIAMENT 83
In other words, Mr. Lloyd George stoou for Parlia-
ment always before all things as a Welsh Nationalist.
In subsequent years, when he was to be so often accused
of disloyalty to the Liberal Party, that fact might per-
haps have been more often remembered.
The sudden death of the Tory member threw the
Unionist organisers into some confusion. At first they
pushed forward a Liberal Unionist; but Wales has no
liking for the lukewarm in politics. Finally, they se-
lected the local squire, Mr. Ellis Hugh Nanney, 1 a
strong Tory, but a man of considerable local popularity
with those who admired him.
Here, then, was a thrilling contest between the
village boy and the local squire; between the rebel of
the village school and its secular ruler; between the
Robin Hood of the village woods and their lord and
owner.
It was a sharp, keen struggle, fought to all appear-
ances on Irish Home Rule; but the weapons of the
fight were edged and pointed by the new spirit of
freedom that was blowing hard from the Welsh hills.
On Mr. Nanney's side was the old order, with all its
powers and attractions, its graces and its condescen-
sions; on the side of David Lloyd George was the
keen, breezy hope of the future, with all its rough
and rugged possibilities. In the end the veteran Lib-
erals of Wales rallied to the support of the young
David. Both Mr. John Parry and Mr. Thomas Gee
after a searching interrogation came to his help.
We may be sure that in the fierce atmosphere of that
contest there was little effort to spare the humble
origins of the Liberal candidate. It was characteristic
1 Now Sir Ellis Hugh Nanney.
84 THE PRIME MINISTER
of David Lloyd George that he met these attacks, not
with apology, but with bold defiance.
On March 28th, speaking at Carnarvon, he uttered
this ringing reply:
"The Tories have not yet realised that the day
of the cottage-bred man has at last dawned." 1
It is clear that that idea had taken hold of his
mind with mastering power.
We can recover a picture of that little by-election
as the struggle ebbed and flowed in the streets of those
little Welsh townships, far away there between the
mountains and the sea. To the great world it was a
mere episode in Mr. Gladstone's last great struggle. 2
It was only dimly that the shrewd London special corre-
spondents began to perceive that something else was
at stake also something else for Wales, something
else for England also.
We see the slow-moving drama working to a crisis
through that far-away Easter-tide the public still
mainly absorbed in their holiday pleasures the meet-
ings at first feebly attended, and then, as the day of
1 These words are taken from the verbatim report of his speech in
the Carnarvon Herald.
"Mr. Gladstone wrote the following by-election letter:
"DEAR SIR,
"Your sanguine anticipations do not surprise me. My surprise
would be this time, if a Welsh constituency were to return a gentle-
man who, whether Tory or Liberal, would vote against the claims
which Wales is now justly making, that her interests and feelings
should at length be recognised in concerns properly her own. Even
if he reserved or promised you his individual vote, by supporting
the party opposed to you and keeping it in power, he would make
that favourable vote perfectly nugatory.
"I remain,
"Your faithful servant.
"W. E. GLADSTONE."
ENTERS PARLIAMENT 85
election draws near, more and more crowded the
squire-candidate at first amiably confident and aloof,
pleading ill-health, then suddenly appearing constantly
in public, feverishly canvassing, plainly alarmed by
the reports of his agents. All through we can see the
little "hamlet-lad" with the yellow rosette boldly
sporting his colours flitting from town to town, urging
on his supporters, speaking to the Welsh people in that
sweet mellifluous, persuasive tongue of theirs, so magi-
cal to those who know it.
"A dull election," said the correspondents at first.
The result seemed to them doubtful. These Londoners
expected the Welsh to be very excitable ; and they were
surprised to find them so calm. They forgot that deep
waters run still.
Then they began to notice the Liberal candidate.
One who heard him speak in Welsh wrote to London:
"I never heard any one speak Welsh so charmingly as
Mr. Lloyd George. It was the first time I had heard
him ; and though I could not understand a word of it, it
is exceedingly pleasant to listen to him." J Truly, a
remarkable victory for the power of sound !
Then, as the election goes forward, we can see pale
fear gradually creeping through the ranks of Tuscany.
The Welsh Tory agent was hurriedly sent down from
headquarters and wired back that the situation was
serious. Exertions were redoubled. On those last
days this election certainly was not dull. Deep cried
unto deep; and the Welsh crowds began to murmur
like the restless sea which beats on their shores.
Then comes the polling day Friday, April 4th.
'The Daily News, April 2nd, 1890: "He has a flexible, sympathetic
voice, a silvery, mellifluous articulation, and his action is that of an
accomplished orator."
86 THE PRIME MINISTER
Up to the last the issue is doubtful. It is a neck-and-
neck struggle. The poll is very heavy. Carnarvon
votes to a man and Bangor almost to a man. 1 The
shrewd observers are puzzled. They feel like those
who watch the meeting of the tides. The signs are
not clear. One coming from Nevin finds David Lloyd
George in Carnarvon the solitary wearer of his own
favours. He cannot understand it.
Then, the closing scene the counting of the votes
on the polling day in the room beneath the town hall
at Carnarvon. It is midday of a beautiful spring day,
and the street outside is packed with seething, expectant
humanity. How slow they are inside there ! How
wearily the minutes drag on! But far away, over
Criccieth, Snowdon shines, still snow-crowned, beauti-
ful and serene.
Inside the town hall the issue wavers to and fro.
From hour to hour fate oscillates in the balance.
The votes have now been counted. The Nanney
heap is 'one side of the table, and the Lloyd George
heap on the other. The heaps seem almost equal. But
to the trained eyes of close observers the papers on
the Nanney heap rise above his rival's by just a shadow
of a shade. There can be no doubt about it David
Lloyd George is beaten. Better tell him at once.
David Lloyd George smiles bravely. His friends
gather round him with sober solace. "Better luck next
time" when suddenly there is a stir in the throng
which surrounds the ballot papers.
One of David Lloyd George's vigilant agents has
'The Carnarvon Herald records that the Tories polled every possi-
ble man. One voter was brought all the way from Wolverhampton.
Three Carnarvon plasterers were brought by car to Carnarvon from
the beach at Pwllheli, where they were working.
ENTERS PARLIAMENT 87
been better occupied than in uttering words. He stands
eagerly scrutinising the piles of papers: and now his
keen eye has noticed something doubtful about one
of the packets of papers on Mr. Nanney's heap. He
picks it up and glances rapidly through the voting-
papers. Below one or two Nanney votes there is a
little unnoticed series of votes for Lloyd George. It
is enough to make the difference, and to return David
Lloyd George as member by a majority of 20.
Stung by frustrated hope, the Nanney agents insist
on a recount; and one vote is transferred from Lloyd
George to Nanney, reducing the majority to 18.
David Lloyd George is M.P. for the Carnarvon
Boroughs !
The word goes swiftly forth. As soon as he appears,
he is received by that hitherto silent crowd with tu-
multuous acclaim. The still waters break into foam.
He is drawn in a carriage through the town by a tre-
mendous crowd. At Castle Square he addresses them
in Welsh: "My dear fellow-countrymen," he says, "the
county of Carnarvon to-day is free. The banner of
Wales is borne aloft, and the boroughs have wiped
away the stains !"
Eighteen votes 1 not a very large gap between de-
feat and victory. But it is enough. 'Twill serve. The
moving finger has written.
1 The full figures were:
David Lloyd George i>963
Ellis Nanney i>945
Majority , 18
CHAPTER VII
FIRST SKIRMISHES
"And now,
Out of that land where Snowdon night by night
Receives the confidences of lonely stars,
And where Carnarvon's ruthless battlements
Magnificently oppress the daunted tide,
There comes, no fabled Merlin, son of mist,
And brother to the twilight, but a man."
William Watson on Mr. Lloyd George.
ENTERING the House of Commons in April 1890,
David Lloyd George walked straight into one of those
great party struggles which in those days supplied the
British public with an efficient substitute for the Prize
Ring. The subject was a clause in the Budget of 1890
compensating the Drink Trade for abolished licences.
The whole Liberal Party attacked this clause hotly
under the leadership of Mr. Gladstone. The whole
Unionist Party supported it.
On the face of it, the young Lloyd George, hot with
temperance enthusiasm, could not have found a more
congenial theme. But his letters and diaries reveal
that he felt an immediate chill on contact with the
House of Commons. He found the drink question
being used as a great party weapon on both sides.
Shrewd political calculations had annexed one party to
drink and another party to temperance. But the young
Lloyd George, drunk with the temperance faith, de-
tected no real enthusiasm on either side.
88
FIRST SKIRMISHES 89
"The debate," he wrote to his uncle on May i6th,
"was rather an unreal one, no fervour or earnestness
characterising it. The House does not seem at all to
realise or to be impressed with the gigantic evils of
drunkenness."
It was characteristic of young Lloyd George that he
hoped for a great change in the atmosphere when the
country was really aroused; and he proceeded to do
his best to arouse it.
Often in the years that followed the young Lloyd
George felt the same chill in the atmosphere of West-
minster. He often used to say in those days that he
found it necessary to renew his strength by constantly
visiting the constituencies. He was always rather a
platform man than a House of Commons man: he was
never a great lobbyist. Often in those early years he
used to find that he gained more inspiration from great
popular meetings than from a week in the House of
Commons.
He was a little timid of the House of Commons
perhaps wisely so. He saw in a moment that the
House liked to be wooed carefully. "I shan't speak
in the House this side of the Whitsuntide holidays,"
he wrote to his uncle. "Better not appear too eager.
Get a good opportunity and make the best of it
that's the point." There, at any rate, he showed that
he had the first qualification for parliamentary success
respect for his audience.
I can remember the ferment of expectation that gath-
ered round Mr. Lloyd George among those of us who,
in those days, watched the House of Commons from
the gallery. We had heard vaguely of him as a great
"spell-binder" in North Wales. We had been told
90 THE PRIME MINISTER
that no man equalled him in his power of rousing
Welsh crowds in the Welsh tongue. We hard heard
that he had the gift of the "hwyl"; and, not knowing
quite what that meant, we expected to see something
resembling a Druid appear on the floor of 'the House
of Commons. Imagine our surprise, therefore, when
we saw a slim, well-groomed young lawyer in a frock
coat and with side-whiskers. The few questions he
asked in the first week revealed that he had a soft,
rather sweet voice, and was more inclined to speak in
a whisper than a shout. All these things seriously
upset our calculations, and considerably disappointed
the hopes of all fervid sketch-writers.
It was on June I3th, 1890, that he first broke his
parliamentary silence by a speech on the compensation
clauses. He supported Mr. Acland's amendment for
diverting Mr. Goschen's grant from liquor compensa-
tion to technical education.
It was by no means the speech of a fanatical Druid.
It was a soft-spoken, skilful piece of debating expressed
in excellent idiomatic English. It was full of swift
debating thrusts and sharp-edged jests. It was in this
speech that he described Lord Randolph Churchill and
Joseph Chamberlain as "political contortionists who
can perform the great feat of planting their feet in one
direction and setting their faces in another." Here
was just the kind of humour that the House of Com-
mons loves. It came well within the line of that tra-
ditional parliamentary wit which has to be appreciated
even by its victims.
In fine, Mr. Lloyd George's maiden speech seemed
a good start for a promising parliamentary career.
It was approved by Mr. Gladstone, praised by Sir
FIRST SKIRMISHES 91
William Harcourt, and cheered by the House itself.
For the moment the young Welsh victor was a con-
spicuous figure. He stood in the limelight. He re-
ceived from many quarters those purple favours which
have turned the heads of so many young members fresh
from a by-election. For this return, coming after
several defeats of other candidates, was a notable event
in the close and desperate partisan warfare of those
years.
It was an event, indeed, deemed worthy of special
attention from the veteran leader of the Liberal hosts.
Mr. Gladstone smiled on Wales. On May 29th Mr.
Lloyd George was invited to Hawarden with a party
of Wels'h constituents, who sang hymns and folk-songs
on that historic lawn. The young recruit was intro-
duced to the Grand Old Man, who honoured.him with
a special oration. "The Carnarvon Boroughs," he
said in his stately way, "are a formidable place for
the Liberal Party to fight. Penrhyn Castle is an im-
portant centre. But truth, justice, and freedom are
greater than Penrhyn Castle!" Mr. Gladstone was
no doubt thinking of little more than his beloved cause
of Ireland; but the words echoed through Wales with
a meaning that perhaps Mr. Gladstone himself little
dreamed of.
Thus David Lloyd George was initiated into the
sanctities of the Liberal party. But he was not always
to prove an easy and obedient acolyte.
For the House of Commons had not yet had any
taste of Mr. Lloyd George's rebellious humours. The
real test of this quality was yet to come.
It came on August I3th of this year (1890) when
92 THE PRIME MINISTER
he let himself go with a touch of his own native daring
on some of the items of the Estimates. He selected
them from among those decorative payments which are
far too easily granted by an assembly always inclined
to be kind to the great and prosperous. One of the
items was a payment of 439 on the installation of
Prince Henry of Prussia as a Knight of the Garter.
"What service," asked Mr. Lloyd George boldly, "has
Prince Henry of Prussia ever rendered to this country?
He has not yet rendered any service to his own coun-
try, to say nothing of service -to Great Britain."
Then he passed to an item of 2,769 "equipage
money" to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. "The
Lord-Lieutenant," said Mr. Lloyd George, "is simply
a man in buttons who wears silk stockings and has a
coat-of-arms on his carriage." At this he was called
severely .to order by the Chairman, but that did not
prevent him from a ruthless comparison of this ex-
penditure with the recent report of a Sweating Com-
mittee and the terrible revelations of poverty contained
in that document.
Here the House of Commons had a touch of the
real Lloyd George whom they were fro get to know
so well in the future. It was for this that he had come
to Westminster; not for conventional party speeches,
but for plain homely utterance on the pomps and con-
ventions and extravagances of the great world. Here
we get a first hint of his mission: a difficult and even
cruel mission to tell the comfortable and wealthy that
they were living on the poor to tell the decorative
that they must be decorative no longer, but must either
be useful or come down from their high places. He
knew that such talk was not going to be popular in the
FIRST SKIRMISHES 93
House of Commons, but he was looking to another
quarter for approval. Writing in his diary the day
before delivering the speech on Prince Henry of Prus-
sia's Garter he made the following significant entry :
"My audience is the country."
It was to the country, indeed, that he was already
making his chief appeal. His biggest efforts of this
year were made outside the House of Commons. The
first was made on May 7th at the Metropolitan Taber-
nacle, where the Liberal Party appeared in full force
to support Welsh Disestablishment. He prepared his
speech with the utmost care. He sent notes of it down
to his uncle at Criccieth and received the comments and
criticisms of the "Esgob" the "Bishop" as he loved
to call Richard Lloyd.
Mr. Lloyd George was perhaps a little humanly
disappointed when he discovered that, graded by party
officialism, he had been given the lowest place in the
list of speakers at the Tabernacle. But this was soon
forgotten when he once got into his stride. Although
the audience had been dismally thinned by a succession
of dreary orations, they sat out his speech to the end.
He had intended to go on for only five or ten minutes :
but the cheering and laughter of his audience carried
him on for twenty-five. This was the very thing
here was a man to whom Welsh Disestablishment was
an actual life issue, and not a mere new item in a party
programme. When at last he sat down, the audience
seemed surprised. Like a wise man, he left them un-
satisfied, and the result was that the public soon de-
manded more.
After this success he was deluged with requests for
94 THE PRIME MINISTER
speeches in every part of England. But wisely he ac-
cepted few. He decided to stick closely to his Hous
of Commons work, and there is no sounder course for
any young Member of Parliament. The result was
that at the end of this first session of 1890 he had
already secured a good parliamentary footing.
It may be taken that the transition to Parliament
from North Wales was by no means an easy domestic
revolution for a struggling young provincial solicitor
who had only just begun to earn an income.
Politics did not come to him, indeed, with such a
crushing burden as it brings to many young men.
The total expenses of this, his first election,
were little more than 200. He definitely refused the
offer of his political friends to raise a fund to cover
his election expenses. But he accepted gratefully the
unpaid help of several friendly lawyers at Bangor and
Carnarvon as his election agents. In his later elections
the Liberal Association of the Boroughs covered his
expenses. The labourer is worthy of his hire; and
Mr. Lloyd George had wisely accepted the offer. To
that arrangement the Association adhered until the
time when he entered a Ministry (1906) thus creat-
ing one of the finest ties that can exist between a con-
stituency and its member. Here, at any rate, was a
member who was a public servant and not a public
almoner.
But in spite of that great public aid the entrance of
David Lloyd George into Parliament proved a great
and growing strain on the young couple. Their eldest
child Dick 1 was already fifteen months old when Mr.
Lloyd George came into Parliament. The growing
1 Now Major Richard Lloyd George.
FIRST SKIRMISHES 95
practice at Portmadoc had to be left during the Session
to his brother, Mr. William George, whose splendid
self-sacrifice and high public spirit have always fortified
and entrenched the private fortunes of his elder
brother. While profits diminished, new expenses grew.
A domicile had to be secured in London. Mr. and
Mrs. Lloyd George settled down first (1890) in a flat
in Gray's Inn, then (1891) in the Temple, and, later
on, for six years (1893-9) in Palace Mansions, Ken-
sington. There they set up a simple house, always
open to their many friends. For from the beginning
Mr. Lloyd George was .always the most hospitable of
men.
For the first year or two of his parliamentary life
he continued to practice in North Wales during the
recess and to live during the autumn months at Cric-
cieth with Mr. and Mrs. Owen, his parents-in-law. 1
On these returns to his native soil he continued to
use his legal position for those daring assertions of
popular right which had become his passion. At
this time, indeed, occurred -one of the boldest of these
incidents, when he faced Mr. Casson, the very lawyer
to whom he had been .articled. That able provincial
attorney had concentrated in his hands all those secular
offices which combine to make a genuine social tyranny.
He was at once Clerk to the Justices and agent to the
Tremadoc estate, which practically covered the whole
district. As agent to the estate, he had allowed some
of the houses in Portmadoc to fall into grave disrepair.
At last the thing became a scandal. The Urban Dis-
*At first on the farm, and later in Criccieth. Mr. Owen built
there two semi-detached houses, Llys Owen and Brynawel, and there
the Owens and the Lloyd Georges lived for some years next door
to one another.
96 THE PRIME MINISTER
trict Council had to take action ; and they instructed Mr.
William George.
Complaint was in vain; it was soon necessary to
prosecute. But the summons against Mr. Casson the
agent could only be issued by Mr. Casson the Clerk
of the Justices : and Mr. Casson the Clerk of the Jus-
tices refused to issue it. He seemed safely protected
by his own loyalty to himself.
Not an unusual incident in our happy countryside,
in England as well as in Wales; but Mr. David Lloyd
George there and then determined that it should not
occur again in Portmadoc.
Mr. William George reported the situation to his
brother, who said, "Leave this to me." Next day he
went into court. He began by challenging the bench.
For one cause or another he was able to disqualify
all the magistrates except a schoolmaster and a bank
manager, men of open minds. To them Mr. Lloyd
George then began to denounce Mr. Casson with merci-
less vigour for a whole hour. He lashed him ruth-
lessly for his misuse of his powers. He demanded that
he should sit where every other culprit had to sit in
the dock.
Mr. Casson did not remain quiet under these lashes.
He protested and interrupted for a time, but was at
last quelled by Mr. Lloyd George's attack. Then he
subsided into silence until the magistrates sternly or-
dered the issue of the necessary summonses. The re-
sult was that the dangerously crumbling walls com-
plained of by the Urban Council were put in a state of
safety for the public.
I When Mr. Lloyd George opened this scene the court
was almost empty; but in a few minutes the public out-
FIRST SKIRMISHES 97
side had seemed to get wind of what was happening.
Long before the attack ended the court was crowded
with people who made no attempt to conceal their ap-
proval. To this day Portmadoc will tell you that Mr.
Lloyd George never did a more necessary piece of
work, or did it more thoroughly, than on this notable
day.
It is not remarkable that, feeling these powers grow-
ing within him, he should have thought seriously at this
time of being called to the English Bar. His friend
Samuel Evans urged this on him. He put his name
down. But at that point some rare strain of diffidence
held him back some instinctive shrinking. At any
rate, he never carried the matter further; but went on
attempting to combine with his parliamentary duties
the conduct of his solicitor's practice at Portmadoc.
But he could not go on permanently with this double
strain. More and more the public demanded speeches
from him in the autumns ; and he had less and less time
for work at Portmadoc. In May 1897 he sent for his
friend Arthur Rhys Roberts, a solicitor who was prac-
tising at Newport in South Wales. He asked him to
join him in starting an office in London. They took
rooms in 13, Walbrook, E.G., 1 where they opened with
no prospects except the vague promises of friends; and
for the first three years David Lloyd George gave a
great deal of time to this venture. He went to the
office every morning and to the House in the after-
noons. He worked hard for the firm. He wrote all
important letters; he conducted all important inter-
1 In 1900 they shifted to 63, Queen Victoria Street, E.G., which is
now the office of the firm of Rhys Roberts & Co., as it has been called
since Mr. Lloyd George severed his connection with it after taking
Government office.
98 THE PRIME MINISTER
views often at the House of Commons. He was still
a partner at Criccieth, and thus for a time he main-
tained a double position in the law the partner in
two firms. But Criccieth counted less and less, and
gradually passed entirely into the hands of his brother.
He earned a fair income; but it was a hard life, and
he had to supplement it with journalistic work for
Welsh papers and for the Manchester Guardian. He
was quite a vigorous writer in those days. The burden
was heavy. But he had beside him the great courage
and thrift of his wife, and behind him the high and
splendid spirit of his "Uncle Lloyd."
His life in those early days was full and serene,
crowded with work and play. The children began to fill
his quiver Dick, Mair, Olwen, Gwilym those young
voices that speak with our enemies in the gate. He
loved children; and he loved life. He was already sur-
rounded with friends, and especially with that bright
band of young Welshmen who were gathering to West-
minster Tom Ellis, Herbert Lewis, Frank Edwards,
Sam Evans, Llewellyn Williams. So girt, he ever took
life "with a frolic welcome."
His was a spirit welded of laughter and tears,
moulded for great adventures. He learnt even in
those early days the great art of varying grave with
gay. But then, as now, the gay never took the place
first. It was always there as a servant rather than
master a foil to grave endeavour; a background to
serious purposes.
He had, of course, those little weaknesses that re-
quire the forgiveness of affection. He could always,
when he wished, write letters with the best especially
when letters were really required for business or af-
FIRST SKIRMISHES 99
fairs. But he would not write the small letters, or
answer the small letters. He was not very precise over
social engagements. He was always more faithful to
his humble friends than to the great and fashionable;
and he sometimes forgot Gilbert's great discovery
that even Belgrave Square has a heart behind its stucco.
Behind all the colour and zest of his young, eager
life there was always that same quality of courage that
knit his character like an iron girder. He had a serene
confidence in his own star. He did not know the word
"impossible." The greater the obstacle the greater his
security of success. It was this note that dominated his
thought and speech.
But, after all, it was at those gatherings of his
friends, when the pipes were lit and the laughter rang
free, that the true Lloyd George was to be seen and
heard the Lloyd George who has since won the hearts
of nations. Those were wonderful meetings of young
souls at that little flat in Kensington. How that sym-
phony of laughter and speech rings across the years,
the echo of those grave debates of youth in which,
thJough we knew it not, opinions were moulding and a
will forming which, in the coming time, were to fashion
and shake the world!
CHAPTER VIII
PITCHED BATTLES
"Though it appear a little out of fashion,
There is much care and valour in this Welshman."
SHAKESPEARE'S Henry V , Act I, Sc. iv.
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE had gone to Parliament as a
Welsh Nationalist; and, as the months passed, it be-
came clear that the task of moulding and defending the
new national cause in Wales would absorb his main
energies.
It was not a popular task at Westminster, where it
cut right across the party divisions. It was not even yet
wholly an easy task in Wales, where the old spirit of
feudalism had many strongholds and was still "an
unconscionable time in dying."
Throughout the following years (18927) David
Lloyd George had to fight a double battle at West-
minster and in Wales. At Westminster he took the
lead of a small group of Welsh members often only
four who greatly dared to put the cause of Wales
before the cause of party never an easy task in a
House where the party system is the very oxygen of
the political atmosphere. On all great public ques-
tions that arose in those years tithes, free schooling,
local option, clergy discipline he steadily and daringly
pursued the national course and built up a national
policy.
100
PITCHED BATTLES 101
The influence that kept him straight on this course
came ever from his own native soil. For he was in
daily touch with that faithful little family group
those four loyal souls his uncle, his brother, his sister,
and his mother who kept for him, while he battled in
London, the fires burning on the home hearth, helped
his wife by looking after the children in moments of
stress, and steadily aided him with counsel and inspira-
tion. David wrote to that little family party a daily
record of his doings ; and day by day Uncle Lloyd wrote
to his "Di" long letters, partly in Welsh, partly in
English, advising him on every question that arose, al-
ways taking the bold side, always bringing his nephew
back to the goals of his pilgrimage faith and father-
land. "Land of our Fathers" was the key-phrase in
Uncle Lloyd's politics; and, amid the stress and dis-
traction of Westminster, his boy was never allowed, for
a single day, to miss hearing that clear call from the
Eagle mountains.
Here was the source of his strength in the strug-
gles that now lay before him, calling for the utmost
exercise of will and decision. For, if the Welsh cause
was to be kept to the front, it was necessary to fight
continually against the submerging influence of the
party machines.
The most remarkable among these contests of the
early nineties was undoubtedly that memorable fight
undertaken by Mr. Lloyd George and a small band of
Welsh fellow-members against Mr. Gladstone in the
zenith of his power and frame over the Clergy
Discipline Bill.
The Bill seemed a very innocent and reasonable
measure. It aimed at strengthening the control of
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
102 THE PRIME MINISTER
the Anglican Bishops always weak enough over
their clergy. To Englishmen reasonable enough; but
not so to Welshmen, to whom the very word "Bishop"
was almost as hateful a sound as to the Presbyterian
Scotch. Not until the Bishops released their hold on
Wales would they consent to give them a stronger hold
over their own clergy.
Now the Bill happened to be a very special favourite
of Mr. Gladstone, who still loved his Church with a
mighty love, and Mr. Gladstone was at that moment a
very formidable opponent. It is difficult now to realise
the power of his authority at that moment. The Lib-
erals who had remained faithful to him regarded him
with a loyalty that amounted to a passion. To dis-
pute his. word would seem to them the nearest secular
approach to heresy or sacrilege. It was that spirit
that Mr. Lloyd George dared to defy.
It was a sight for the gods to see those young Welsh-
men, night after night, facing the Grand Old Man.
There he sat, almost alone on the Front Opposition
Bench, battling against those eager young members.
He took them very seriously. He argued with them,
pleaded with them, rebuked them. Mr. Lloyd George
thoroughly enjoyed the experience. "Ah! But he is a
great debater!" he would say. But one thing he never
forgot the Grand Old Man's eye. He has often said
that to face that eye in anger was one of the most try-
ing experiences in his parliamentary life. Years after,
when some of us were discussing the points of likeness
between the Grand Old Man and that gallant grandson
who so splendidly gave his life for his country, Mr.
Lloyd George suddenly burst out: "Ah! But he has
not got the Old Man's terrible eye!"
PITCHED BATTLES 103
Mr. Gladstone pursued the matter to the end. He
took a seat on the Grand Committee that was to con-
sider the Bill. He and Mr. Lloyd George fought the
matter out. It was only towards the end that Mr.
Gladstone realised one day that his own speeches were
prolonging the fight; and then the Old Man would sit
glaring at the impudent youngsters in speechless anger.
But Mr. Gladstone bore no grudges against a good
fighter who stood up for his own honest faith ; and some
years afterwards, when he met Mr. Lloyd George at
Sir Edward Watkin's house on the slopes of Snowdon,
he made a special point of singling him out for special
friendly speech.
Such revolts did not make Mr. Lloyd George more
popular with the orthodox English Liberals. But
things were to become worse before they became better.
In the years 18925 came that great and prolonged
contention between the Welsh members and the English
machine over the position of Welsh Disestablishment
among the Liberal fighting measures. In that conten-
tion Mr. Lloyd George took a leading part.
Welsh Disestablishment in Wales, ever since 1868,
had taken the same position and grown to the same
power as the Home Rule Movement in Ireland. The
Welsh was a Nationalist movement in a religious dress.
But English Liberalism had been chilly towards this
movement, and treated it with scant favour. Mr. Glad-
stone opposed it in 1870, and it was only in 1891 that
he first supported it, and allowed it a place in the fa-
mous Newcastle Programme. But so greatly was the
Liberal Party absorbed in the Home Rule struggle
that in 1892-3 the Welsh cause slipped back and the
Liberals showed a definite tendency to shelve it.
104 THE PRIME MINISTER
It was at that moment that that small group of young
Welshmen again stepped forward and definitely de-
manded that Welsh Disestablishment should be carried
through the House of Commons and sent up to the
House of Lords.
Mr. Lloyd George was the leader of this revolt;
and for those two years he conducted it with a ruthless
persistence which galled and embittered the Liberals,
wearied by the great fatigues of the Home Rule strug-
gle. For it was precisely in 1893, just after the great
disappointment of the rejection of the Home Rule
Bill by the House of Lords, that he roused the whole
of Wales to demand the production of the Welsh Dis-
establishment Bill.
There followed one of those intense sectional strug-
gles which in our party system are largely veiled from
public view, but are none the less bitter for that.
Those of us English Liberals who were actual spec-
tators of the battle certainly regarded Mr. Lloyd
George as far from reasonable. We were looking at
the matter from the angle of English Liberalism. His
was the angle of Welsh Nationalism. Those angles
sometimes crossed.
Mr. Gladstone resigned on March ist, 1894; and
Mr. Lloyd George instantly demanded of the new Gov-
ernment that the Welsh Disestablishment Bill should
be carried through the Commons in 1894, unless they
were prepared immediately to take up the struggle with
the Lords, in which case he was prepared to forego
the claim of Wales based on the Newcastle Resolution
to legislative attention immediately after the Home
Rule Bill.
The harassed Liberals sensitive from weakening
PITCHED BATTLES 105
vitality struggled on their bed of torture. Sir Wil-
liam Harcourt, the new leader in the Commons, at first
refused. Mr. Lloyd George pursued his offensive with
a fierce attack at Holywell. Then came Mr. Asquith
with a vague speech at Plymouth; and at last on April
26th, 1894, the Disestablishment Bill was introduced.
Again came delay. But the revolt went steadily for-
ward; and the unhappy Government, with its dwindling
majority, squirmed like some victim under the mediaeval
torture of the peine forte et dure.
At the opening of the Session of 1895 the Rosebery
Government were perforce obliged to push the Dises-
tablishment Bill forward. It was carried by a majority
of 44 on April ist, 1 895. But yielding brought no peace.
The Government was forced to pass the Bill through
Committee; and during that stage Mr. Lloyd George
and his friends fiercely pressed certain nationalist
amendments which the Government reluctantly accept-
ed. These convulsions proved too much for a sick Min-
istry. On August nth, 1895, while the Welshmen were
away in Wales devising new measures of torture, the
Rosebery Administration fell over the "cordite vote."
Mr. Lloyd George was fiercely attacked by orthodox
Liberals for his conduct in this affair. He was roundly
accused of hastening the downfall of the Government.
He answered by saying that the Government was al-
ready doomed from internal dissensions.
But in Wales his attitude was greeted with acclaim;
and in the General Election that followed, he was able
to defeat Mr. Ellis Nanney once more with a majority
practically identical with that of I892. 1
1 194 votes as against 196 in 1892, when he defeated Sir John Pules-
ton, the popular Tory champion.
106 THE PRIME MINISTER
The reason was clear. The Welsh now cared more
for their own causes than for the causes of the Liberal
Party. The spirit of nationalism had spread from
Ireland to Wales. They cared nothing for the Rose-
bery Government. They did not believe that the Com-
mons could any longer legislate not until the Lords
were fought and crushed. What they were looking to
was that the future claims of Wales should be pegged
out as clearly as the claims of Ireland.
It was for that spirit that Mr. Lloyd George stood
now in Wales.
Not that, even in Wales, the victory of Welsh na-
tionalism was achieved without a struggle. During
these years (18937) parallel with his activities at
Westminster, David Lloyd George was engaged in a
great campaign within Wales itself. It was a cam-
paign for unity and concentration.
He found in 1892 the political energies of Wales
divided between a number of purely party organisa-
tions, precisely after the fashion of England. Parlia-
ment Street had carved up the Welsh counties in the
same spirit and method as Canterbury had carved up
the Welsh dioceses. There were the North Wales
Federation and the South Wales Federation, and a
number of other similar bodies, with all the various
staffs and camp-followers who find their meat and malt
in local distinctions and differences. The worst of it
was that these local divisions often blazed up into
national divergences on points of policy.
On the other hand, there were simultaneously grow-
ing up among the younger generation of Wales a vast
number of common national organisations and societies,
PITCHED BATTLES 107
literary, social, and political. There was the same fer-
ment that we have of late years seen in Ireland the
ferment of a new national growth, shown in language,
literature, and even in costume. There was the Cymru
Fydd ("Wales of the Future"), the Cymmrodorion,
and, above all, the revived Eisteddfod, that remarkable
annual Welsh festival of poetry and song which seems
to combine the spirit of classical Greece and of Celtic
Britain.
Mr. Lloyd George aspired to bring into Welsh poli-
tics some of the strength and hope of this new national
rebirth.
His definite aim, in the long series of great orations
which he delivered on this subject between 1889 and
1896, was to bring patriotism to the help of Welsh
politics in place of party
"The spirit of patriotism has been like the
genie of Arabian fable. It has burst asunder
the prison doors and given freedom to them that
were oppressed. It has transformed the wilder-
ness into a garden and the hovel into a home." l
It was his aim that the same spirit should transform
Wales.
A simple aim, it would seem. But no sooner did he
set finger on the various political Arks that had been
set up for worship in the different competing capitals
of Wales than he found himself faced with the fiercest
hostility. Among his bitterest opponents was one of
his own followers in the House, Mr. D. A. Thomas
(afterwards Lord Rhondda). Mr. Thomas set him-
1 October 1894.
108 THE PRIME MINISTER
self up as the champion of the South Wales Federa-,
tion; and he succeeded in maintaining the cause of local
independence.
So tense and prolonged was the struggle that Mr.
Lloyd George was content in the end to achieve his pur-
poses in another way, by way of a Welsh National
Council. "A rose by any other name will smell as
sweet" that is an important thing to^remember in poli-
tics. Mr. Lloyd George has never forgotten it.
Here, in Wales, was evidently a case of nationalism
only slowly struggling into consciousness, with many
forces still to contend against. But if we take a long
survey, and cast our eyes over the last half-century
(1867-1920) how great is the contrast ! Then (1867)
there was a Wales almost entirely subject to its feudal
chiefs, scarcely daring to assert its own language or
nationality. Now (1920) there is a Wales returning
an almost unbroken national party, and a majority of
Welsh-speaking members.
In this great change David Lloyd George played a
leading part.
The division between Welsh Nationalism and British
Liberalism did not last long. British Liberalism, es-
sentially in sympathy with Nationalism, soon forgave
Mr. Lloyd George. Welsh Nationalism, always es-
sentially Liberal, soon made its peace again with Liber-
alism.
It was during the struggles of 18969 that the recon-
ciliation came. Then in the great parliamentary strife
over the Agricultural Rates Bill and the Voluntary
Schools Bill, Mr. Lloyd George first showed his mettle
as a leader of parliamentary guerillas. Nay, more. At
PITCHED BATTLES 109
the moment when British Liberalism was bereft of
leadership he gave it a lead. That was the great point.
Mr. Lloyd George's great fight against the Agricul-
tural Rates Bill in 1896 marked, indeed, his first great
advance towards an assured parliamentary position. It
was the first of the measures put forward by our
Agrarians for the special relief of agriculture from the
misfortunes which had befallen them in the seventies
and the eighties. A small affair as compared with later
proposals; but Mr. Lloyd George conceived against it
an implacable hatred. It was not the relief that he
hated; but he argued that under our land system the
money would all go finally into the pockets of the land-
lords. He believed this sincerely; and he fought a
great fight against the whole proposal.
The struggle went on through the early months of
the Session of 1896. The Unionists at first took it
lightly; then they grew angry. Here, it seemed, was
a man who must really be reckoned with. This little
Welsh attorney, this chapel-trained Nonconformist,
actually seemed to know a thing or two about the sacred
land system of these islands. He could not be ignored.
His pertinacity and resourcefulness seemed to be in-
exhaustible. The fight went on from day to day, and
there seemed no end.
On May 2ist the Government moved and the Chair-
man accepted the "block" closure on the vital clause of
the Bill Clause four.
When the Chairman called the House to go into the
division lobbies it was seen that a little group of mem-
bers were sitting still on their seats, refusing to move.
They were Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Herbert Lewis,
backed by a little group of sympathetic Irishmen Mr.
110 THE PRIME MINISTER
John Dillon, Dr. Tanner, and Mr. Donald Sullivan
and by one Radical Sir John Brunncr.
"I must request honourable members to procetd to
the division lobbies," said the Chairman.
"I decline to go out under the circumstances," said
Mr. Lloyd George, speaking with his hat on, as in duty
bound.
It was a new event. The Chairman was puzzled
what to do. So he called the House back, summoned
the Speaker then Mr. Gully from his repose, and
reported to him what had happened.
"Do I understand," said the Speaker sternly to Mr.
Lloyd George, "that you refuse to clear the House?"
Mr. Lloyd George was quite unshaken by all this
awful panoply of parliamentary terrorism.
"That is so, sir," said he; "as a protest, I declined
to go out."
Then came the turn of that valiant and faithful soul
the Fidus Achates of our ^Eneas Mr. Herbert
Lewis. Did he too so quiet and dutiful refuse to
go out?
"I regard this Bill, sir, as legalised robbery," he
said with a sudden outburst of honest vehemence.
After that there was nothing more to be said. The
sacrilegious word had been spoken, and it was time for
the high-priests of the temple to act. So the Leader of
the House moved the suspension of these wicked men
the House voted. the suspension by 209 to 58 and
the Speaker called on them to withdraw. Mr. Lloyd
George cheerfully rose to obey.
"For how long, sir?" he asked the Speaker, with
the spirit of a schoolboy making sure of his holiday.
PITCHED BATTLES 111
"For a week," said the Speaker; and they all with-
drew. 1
But the week was to be well used. The rebel went
off immediately into Wales and was received with ac-
clamation. The grey veterans of the Welsh Party in
the House had shaken their heads. But the Welsh
people knew better. They realised the value of a
dramatic protest.
There were others who knew better even in the
House of Commons. Sir William Harcourt, always a
great parliamentary leader, recognised in a moment
that there was stuff in this new fighter. "My little
Welsh attorney," he said to me once, "is worth the pack
of them."
"My audience is the country" that was still the
clue to all "Mr. Lloyd George's parliamentary actions.
He and Mr. Herbert Lewis "stumped" through Wales,
rousing the people. That week's holiday bade fair to
cost the Government dear.
The English people were not far behind the Welsh
in their applause. He was now fighting a battle in
which not Wales only but the whole country was con-
cerned. Invitations to speak showered in from all over
England.
It is, indeed, from this period (1896-7) that we
must date a very important and vital development in
Mr. Lloyd George's career. The guerilla warfare
which he opened in this year was carried on by him over
the Voluntary Schools Bill of 1897 and the Tithes Bill
of 1899. But from a "guerilla" he was gradually de-
veloping into a leader of Parliament. Instead of his.
'These details are based on contemporary impressions and verified
from Hansard.
THE PRIME MINISTER
V, following the Front Bench, it was the Front Bench that
began to follow him I
For it was a moment of deplorable strife and weak-
ness in the Liberal leadership. Lord Rosebery had re-
signed over Armenia in 1896, and both Sir William
Harcourt and Mr. Morley resigned over Fashoda in
1898. The throne was constantly being vacated; and
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, who succeeded to the
purple, seemed at that time only a "stop-gap," with
Mr. Asquith as the real and only successor.
The country was weary of these personal issues; and
they turned with refreshment to the little warrior below
the gangway who, at any rate, seemed to care for the
cause more than for himself. During those years it
was he who checked the Tory ascendancy; and it was
largely owing to his vigour and vehemence that in
18978 the tide began to turn in the country and the
by-elections began to go against the Government a
landslide that was only stopped by the outbreak of
the South African War in 1899.
In 18967, then, came the critical new departure in
the career of Mr. Lloyd George. Up to 1895 he had
seemed to be a Welsh Nationalist pure and simple
that and nothing more. It looked then, indeed, as if
he might become the Parnell of Wales a Parnell of
a different kind both in speech and character, but like
him in his sole devotion to a national cause a Parnell
in the sense of a leader of a national revolt.
Mr. Lloyd George gave to Wales the opening call.
But Wales was not ready for such a complete break
with the old order. She was too deeply committed by
sympathy and conviction, both political and religious,
to the British Liberal allegiance. The feud was healed.
PITCHED BATTLES 113
The Welsh Party in the House flinched from electing
the rebel as their Chairman. So they left England to
share his services. They allowed him the freedom of a
wider and more splendid career. They refused to
adopt his policy of an independent Welsh Party; so
they threw him into a larger contest. 1
He still continued, after 1895, to push the Welsh
National cause he has never ceased to push it. In
the new House his enthusiasm was directed to "Home
Rule all Round" ; but he found few supporters.
He began more and more to merge the cause of
Wales in the larger cause of Britain. He began to be-
lieve that the Nonconformists of Britain were in much
the same case as the Nonconformists of Wales. Thus
from being a Welsh Nationalist only he became a Na-
tionalist on a larger scale a Nationalist of Britain.
Wales practically gave him to England.
*At a Welsh Party meeting on May i9th, 1899, an "independence"
resolution moved by Mr. Lloyd George was definitely shelved.
CHAPTER IX
SOUTH AFRICA
"God defend the right!"
WHEN the South African War broke out in early
October, 1899, Mr. Lloyd George was touring in West-
ern Canada. The mutterings of the coming storm had
already reached him in the distant regions of the
Rocky Mountains, and that swift political instinct of his
had warned him of grave events. He turned in his
tracks, abandoned his holiday, and made for home. 1
While crossing the Atlantic he had abundant time to
meditate on the great issue between the South African
Republics and the British Empire.
By the time he arrived in England he had already
a very strong impression that a great wrong was being
perpetrated. But before uttering any decisive word in
public he made a very careful study of the many State
Papers which set forth the case on either side in that
momentous strife, especially the minutes of the negotia-
tions between President Kruger and Lord Milner at
Bloemfontein. For it has always been the habit of
Mr. Lloyd George to study his documents in politics
with fully as much care as a good judge preparing for
the courts.
We all know the conclusion he reached in regard to
*A letter from British Columbia on September i8th, 1899, records
his horror, and his resolution to return (Du Parcg. ii. 216).
114
SOUTH AFRICA 115
the Boer War. 1 He took the view, on the facts of the
case, that the war was by no means inevitable. He held
strongly throughout the following years that the war
was the result of bad statesmanship. He did not deny
the wrongs of the Uitlanders; but he believed that the
results of the war could have been achieved by the
patient pursuit of peaceful diplomacy. This view has
certainly been strengthened since those days by that
very remarkable book, The Autobiography of Sir 'Wil-
liam Butler. 2
Throughout the most bitter period of the contro-
versy that followed Mr. Lloyd George always admitted
that there were two sides to the case. He absolutely
refused to join in the utter damnation of those Lib-
erals, such as Mr. Asquith and Sir Edward Grey, who
supported the war. "We take a different view of the
facts," was his way of putting it; and perhaps this view
explains why he refused to make the quarrel over the
Boer War a dividing issue within the Liberal Party.
There were extremists on both sides who wanted to
part company; and there were pro-Boers who even
rejoiced when that strange creation, the Liberal League,
came into being. Mr. Lloyd George was not one of
these. Sir Edward Grey on the side of the war
Liberals, and Mr. Lloyd George on the side of the
peace Liberals, did their utmost to prevent a perma-
nent split; and they succeeded. When the war was
over the two branches of the party were able to come
together, and found that they still agreed on the main
issues of domestic politics.
1 His first public utterance was on October ayth, just before the
House rose.
* Sir William Butler: An Autobiography. By Lieut-General Sir
W. F. Butler, G.C.B. (London. Constable & Co., Ltd. 1911.)
116 THE PRIME MINISTER
We can now see a little more clearly why it was that
Mr. Lloyd George refused to found a separate party
on the basis of his opposition to the Boer War. It was
not merely his practical perception; that the South
African War was an issue that would pass : it was also
that he was in no sense a "peace at any price" man. Al-
though he found himself in the company of the pacifists,
he never wholly belonged to that faith. He has always
been conscious that the ultimate support of power and
freedom must be force force guided by right, but still
force. 1
His passionate sympathy with wars of freedom is in
itself evidence on this side. His greatest heroes abroad
are men like Garibaldi, and at home those great Welsh
patriots and princes who maintained the forlorn fight of
his own little nation against Saxon and Norman men
like Glendwyr and Llewellyn; fighters like De Wet
often reminded him of those indomitable Welsh gueril-
las. He used to point to the great Norman castles
along the coasts of North Wales and the Welsh bor-
ders as the "block-houses" which the conquerors had
to build to control his own people.
Not, indeed, that he ever maintained the view that
a little nation was a law unto itself. His support of
the Boer cause was not due merely to his belief in little
nations.
Order has to be maintained in the world, and little
nations cannot be allowed to run amuck. That was why
his opposition to the war was mild at first and grew
stronger as time went on. He felt that the Boers had
made a grave mistake in issuing their Ultimatum. As
1 He made a remarkable speech before the war at Manchester, in
January 1899, defending the use of force in cases of defence.
SOUTH AFRICA 117
long as the war was on our part a war of resistance
to the Boer invasion his criticisms were restrained by
that fact. But in his view that phase ended with the
capture of Bloemfontein and the British claim to annex.
From that time forward (1900) Mr. Lloyd George
opposed the war tooth and nail. It was after that date
that he determined to enter upon a campaign against
the war throughout the length and breadth of Great
Britain. Many of his parliamentary friends refused to
join; but Mr. Lloyd George went straight on and faced
the music in every part of the kingdom.
Since John Bright' s great fight against the Crimean
War nothing of the kind had been seen in England.
It is no light thing to meet the war passion full
front.
But none of these fears held back Mr. Lloyd George
at this great moment. He went everywhere and faced
hostile crowds in the very heart of the war country.
He faced a violent mob at Glasgow; he defied Mr.
Chamberlain's own followers at Birmingham; he nar-
rowly escaped death in one of his own Boroughs
Bangor.
Whatever men might think of his views, no one
could deny his courage. It was no easy campaign to
conduct. The charge of treason was always in the air.
"Do you wish the Boers to win?" shouted a heckler
after one of his most eloquent defences of the Dutch
Republicans. He was silent for a moment, then he
said, slowly and impressively: "God defend the
right!"
He has often been severely criticised both then and
since for consenting to put on a constable's coat and
uniform in order to escape from the Town Hall at
118 THE PRIME MINISTER
Birmingham. An armed mob had possession of the
hall itself. They had pinned him and his friends into
a back room: they threatened and partly intended to
achieve both his death and theirs. It is contended
that he was to wait meekly for his doom.
Such criticism is surely the very extravagance of
blame. If an unarmed public man faced with a mob
so organised cannot resort to a "ruse of war" to save
both his friends and himself, then surely the bully
will rule the world. As a matter of fact, the Chief
Constable of Birmingham found it difficult enough to
persuade Mr. Lloyd George to put on the uniform;
and it was only when he had convinced him that his
friends too were in danger that he reluctantly assented.
But if he had actually himself asked for the uniform
he would surely have been fully justified.
To achieve an honourable peace that was the
object of his great campaign in 1901 and 1902 ; and un-
doubtedly he played a great part in an achievement
which saved British South Africa. It is true he had
beside him that brave and honest man, Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman, who helped as far as it was pos-
sible for the official chief of a party deeply divided
by the issue. It is also fair to say that Lord Rosebery
played a great and honourable part in the final settle-
ment. But all the risk was taken by Mr. Lloyd George
at the time when every phrase and word meant
danger.
It is a curious fact that, when the Boers finally agreed
to peace, Mr. Lloyd George seemed for the moment to
lose his interest in them. He afterwards met and made
great friends with General Botha and General Smuts;
SOUTH AFRICA 119
and he has since taken General Smuts into his War Cab-
inet. But I think he had at the time a sentimental
sympathy with General De Wet in his "no surrender"
policy. His reason was with General Botha; but his
heart was with the men in the Back Veldt.
His interest did not revive until that occasion when
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman persuaded the Cab-
inet of 1906 to make the "clean cut" by giving self-
government to the annexed States. Of the speech
which "C. B." then made to the Cabinet, Mr. Lloyd
George always afterwards spoke with a sincere and
passionate admiration. He felt that it was the undoing
of a great wrong.
All through the time of the Boer War (1899-1902).
Mr. Lloyd George would spend his Sundays in that
simple little house by the side of Wandsworth Com-
mon 2, Routh Road. There he could escape from
the tumult and turmoil. On those Sunday afternoons
he would often walk over Wandsworth and Chapham
Commons, and he would play andsing with his children
as if no great shadow overhung the country. He was
especially fond of singing hymns on those Sunday
afternoons. He would always join with tremendous
gusto; and although his voice was untrained, he was
certainly a very hearty singer. But his greatest joy
was when the children brought a book of Welsh hymns
and Welsh folk-songs. He would sing these with a
thrilling delight which made him really for the moment
a singer of power.
Then he would come back to discuss the situation;
for he was never tired of discussion. He would talk
over every detail of the war; he would follow it out
with the greatest precision on large-scale maps. He
120 THE PRIME MINISTER
developed a most uncanny military skill; and he would
prophesy with the most remarkable astuteness the next
move of the Generals on either side. He knew every
battle and skirmish; and, though he had never been to
South Africa, he seemed even to know the lie of the
ground. He appeared to know to what spot a column
was going to move before it got there. He had the
same instinctive military perception with which Botha
himself was gifted. I remember De Wet once saying
in conversation, "The only military training I ever had
was the same as that of Mr. Lloyd George parlia-
mentary tactics." May it not be that there is some
intimate relation between the tactics of Parliament and
the battle-field? Cromwell was a Member of Parlia-
ment before he was a soldier; is it not possible that, if
opportunity had afforded, Mr. Lloyd George might
have become a successful leader of armies? 1
One afternoon especially comes back to my mind
a hot summer afternoon when we sat in the garden of
the Wandsworth house and listened to Miss Emily
Hobhouse as she read to us her diary of her life in the
concentration camps. She had come hot-foot from
South Africa with these bare daily records of her expe-
riences; and her idea was to work them up into a book.
Mr. Lloyd George gave an instant opinion : "No, pub-
lish it as it stands!" was his pronouncement; and so
the diary was published with its fearful record of daily
horror. Simultaneously with its publication Mr. Lloyd
George arranged to move the adjournment of the
House of Commons, and the double event blew up the
whole policy of the concentration camps.
1 See the article by Mr. Herbert Sidebothara in The Atlantic Month-
ly for November 1919, in which he discusses the question.
SOUTH AFRICA
Thus did he ultimately redeem the British name
from the charge of barbarism.
In the midst of the struggle Mr. Lloyd George de-
termined that he must have a London daily newspaper
on his side. Committees had been formed and sub-
scription lists started, but little progress had been made.
At last he concluded that this was not a case for found-
ing a new journal. What was wanted was to buy up
an established Liberal paper. A whisper of trouble in
the Daily News office gave the compass-bearings for*
this venture. Imperialism was not suiting the Daily
News readers; the proprietors were willing to sell.
But a hundred thousand pounds were wanted for the
purchase. Mr. Lloyd George determined to raise the
money. For once in his life he wrote two very careful
letters one to Mr. George Cadbury and the other to
Mr. Thomasson. He placed before them the issues
in very clear and searching language. Those two gen-
erous and large-hearted men replied by offering
25,000 each; and the battle was practically won.
He read me those letters at the time we were din-
ing at Gatti's and he read them over the coffee and
cigars. All I can say is that the letters were fully
worth the money they brought to his cause.
It was not very pleasant for the "prize crew" to
take the places of old colleagues like Sir Edward
Cook and Mr. Saxon Mills, both of whom from their
own point of view had honestly and patriotically main-
tained their faith. Nor was the struggle easy for the
new proprietors. I remember consoling Mr. George
Cadbury by pointing out that he saved at least as many
lives as he lost pounds sterling; and with that reflection
that excellent man was more than satisfied.
122 THE PRIME MINISTER
But the personal crises through which journalists and
proprietors had to pass during that time were dust in
the balance compared with what Mr. Lloyd George and
his family had to endure. His professional work in
the City came almost entirely to a stand. His office
was boycotted; and one day a lump of coal was thrown
through the window. Towards the end of the war
things got so bad that he had to contemplate breaking
up his home. "They shan't starve me," he said to his
wife one day, "even if I have to send you all to Cric-
cieth and live in a garret myself." Peace happily came
before this event; but at every turn in the struggle he
had to look ruin in the face. His boy Richard 1 had
such a bad time at school in London that they found it
necessary to transfer him to Portmadoc County School
when the facts were drawn from the reticent boy.
Throughout these troubles he was as considerate of
those around him as he was regardless of his own
interests. Mr. Arthur Rhys Roberts, his partner in
the city firm, has always given to Mr. Lloyd George
his devotion and loyalty; but he is the first to claim
that Mr. Lloyd George has earned it. At the most
critical moment of the struggle, when threatening no-
tices were coming with every post, old clients vanishing
like melting snow, and companies discarding their ser-
vices, Mr. Lloyd George came to Mr. Roberts. "What
are your views?" he said to him. "I don't mind
smashing up my own business, but I have my qualms
about injuring you. Tell me what I shall do to pro-
tect you." Mr. Roberts, feeling that Mr. Lloyd
George was risking everything, refused to claim any
1 Now (1920) Major Richard Lloyd George. Both Mr. Lloyd
George's sons fought in the war, and both became majors.
SOUTH AFRICA 123
immunity; but these simple touches of consideration
explain the devotion which Mr. Lloyd George has so
often inspired in those who have worked for him.
Down in his own constituency he seemed to have
sacrificed everything. They burnt him in effigy in
three of his Boroughs at Criccieth, Nevin, and Pwll-
heli. When he went to Bangor all his friends warned
him of the grave risks he was running. But he insisted
on speaking there in the Penrhyn Hall. The mob
broke every window. He refused protection, and
walked openly through the crowd out of the hall. In
the High Street he was struck on the head with a
bludgeon and only saved by his hat. He staggered,
half stunned, into a cafe in the High Street, and there
he was besieged for hours by a raging mob. On the
advice of the police, he climbed out at the back of the
house and got away in a cab that was brought round
to him. The crowd waited until two o'clock in the
morning in the hope of being able to "finish" him.
All through the fearful episode Mrs. Lloyd George
shared her husband's danger, and was stoned in her
motor-car as she was waiting for him.
At last he paid a visit to Nevin, his own special
Borotigh, where as a rule the people worshipped him.
But there at first his only friend was a lame old shoe-
maker. The people did not attack him, but they held
absolutely aloof. When he held a meeting, they re-
fused at first to come into the hall. Nothing daunted,
he spoke quietly, and at length, on every subject under
the sun except the Boer War. As they heard him
through the door talking about their favourite subjects
people slowly crept in, man by man, and gradually filled
the hall. Then, when he found himself with a good
THE PRIME MINISTER
audience in front of him, he really approached the sub-
ject. Gently and tentatively he addressed them in their
own Welsh language, and it is very, very difficult for a
Welsh audience not to listen to him in that melodious
tongue. But though they listened they showed no en-
thusiasm; he felt that he was not moving them at all.
Then suddenly he changed his tack. Facing them in his
grimmest way he said to them sternly:
"See here now five years ago you handed me
a strip of blue paper to give to the Speaker as
your accredited representative. If I never again
represent these boroughs in the House of Com-
mons I shall at least have the satisfaction of hand-
ing back to you that blue paper with no single
stain of human blood upon it."
The effect was electrical. The whole audience rose
to their feet with a shout. He had won them back to
his allegiance.
It is a curious historical fact that in another great
struggle another great Celtic orator, fighting a lone
fight against an unjust war-passion in these islands, ut-
tered very much the same proud boast. When Mr.
Edmund Burke sent to the Sheriffs of the City of
Bristol in 1777 that famous letter on the affairs of
America he wrote :
"If you and I find our talents not of the great
and ruling kind, our conduct, at least, is conform-
able to our faculties. No man's life pays the
forfeit of our rashness. No desolate widow
weeps tears of blood over our ignorance."
SOUTH AFRICA 125
"A conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt
in blood." Comparing the two passages, Mr. Lloyd
George's words are a curious unconscious echo of
Edmund Burke's showing how, under similar stress,
great minds will ever leap to the same expression.
Throughout all these storms Mr. Lloyd George
always showed that steady, clear-headed shrewdness
which is perhaps his supreme characteristic.
Never was this more conspicuously shown than in
his contest with Mr. Chamberlain over the connection
with Kynochs. Here was difficult, dangerous ground,
where he had to tread delicately. On one occasion, in
that attack, he was constrained to make use of some
figures published in a newspaper. Shortly before the
debate, he sent to his partner an urgent request that
he should verify his figures at Somerset House. A
clerk was sent along, and after careful checking it was
discovered that there was an error of no mean dimen-
sions an excessive o in one of the statements of share-
holdings. At the last possible moment the error was
telephoned to him at the House of Commons.
As Mr. Lloyd George waded his way through the
figures in the press report, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain,
sitting on the Treasury Bench, leaned forward, waiting
to pounce. He, too, knew of the error, and he was in-
tending to use it for his assailant's destruction. He
well knew the cost of one such slip in the House of
Commons.
But when Mr. Lloyd George came to the figure, he
paused, and passed it by. Mr. Chamberlain leaned
back in his seat pale to the lips, disappointed and baf-
fled. He had met his match.
126 THE PRIME MINISTER
The climax in this crisis in Mr. Lloyd George's career
came when Mr. Chamberlain, in September 1900, sud-
denly dissolved Parliament. In the famous Khaki Elec-
tion that followed certainly Mr. Chamberlain seemed
as if he might look with security to one great triumph,
and that was the final political extinction of Mr. Lloyd
George. It was surely improbable that a constituency
which had just burnt him in effigy would return him to
Parliament. But if Mr. Chemberlain staked much on
that throw it only shows that he did not know Wales.
I happened to be with Mr. Lloyd George through
that election. It was a very astonishing affair. When
he first came down to Carnarvon he seemed to have
few friends in the Boroughs. The people were sullen,
if not hostile. Then he began talking to them in their
own language ; and it was curious to watch, in meeting
after meeting, all their old tribal loyalty gradually
coming back to him. He moved from town to town,
slowly and cautiously recapturing their affections. He
left no stone unturned. In private he calculated his
chances with all the close shrewdness of a business man.
Daily he reckoned up the voting probabilities in his
pocket-book. In public he worked indefatigably. He
had against him a retired military officer, Colonel Platt,
chosen doubtless for the khaki suggestiveness of his
title. All the feudal powers of Wales put forth a
supreme effort to destroy their life-long terror.
We all know how it ended. Mr. Lloyd George was
returned to Parliament on Saturday, October 6th, 1900,
with the largest majority he had yet achieved 296.
Some of the inflammable material which had been
bought for burning him in effigy at Carnarvon was
actually used in the manufacture of the torches which
SOUTH AFRICA 127
lit up his triumphal procession. The same crowd which
had been ready to destroy him a few months before led
him home on the night of the poll with a pomp and
enthusiasm fit for a king returning from his wars. A
few months ago they had stoned him; a few weeks
ago they were still against him: but now with Silver
tongue he had won back their hearts, and his people
were with him again.
Outside his own house, Mr. Lloyd George stood up
in his carriage and bade them sing that great anthem
of Wales, "The Land of our Fathers." The dark-
ness above us gave to the scene a ghostly majesty; the
earnest, melancholy harmonies breathed an undying
hope; the sea of resolute faces gave a sense of vast,
indefinable strength. The great hymn ended, and then
in perfect quiet the great multitude dispersed.
That last scene gave a clue to his hold over his
people. At the critical moment he had recalled their
minds from adventures abroad to the thought of their
own dear land at home. On the very edge of aban-
doning him they had recoiled. They had remembered
him as their own Welsh leader; and their loyalty had
gone back to him.
It marked a great step in his career. For it proved
to the whole world that he had behind him a people
that would support him in his direst need. With such
a support behind him a man can serenely face the
future.
CHAPTER X
FOR WALES AND FOR ENGLAND
"No poor man can afford to be ignorant; leave that to the
rich." Mr. Lloyd George at Hanley (1913).
MR. LLOYD GEORGE was not to remain idle long.
In 1902 the Conservative wing of the Unionist com-
bination once again asserted itself. The war was over.
The Unionists found themselves with that great af-
fair wound up and the whole world before them. It
was a tempting position. They were still in supreme
command of a Parliament which had* five years to
run. The House of Lords was their obedient servant.
They could practically pass what Bills they liked. It
was almost too much strain on human nature to ex-
pect that they should not pass some of the Bills that
they really wanted.
True, there had been certain promises made during
the General Election of 1900 which were rather dif-
ficult to explain. Various Unionist leaders had indis-
creetly laid it down that that Election was for the war
and the war alone. But the Government seemed con-
tent to rely on the humane view once put forward by
an M.P. victorious through the strength of many prom-
ises that promises made in the heat of an Election do
not really count. So in 1902 they took the bit in
their mouths and boldly brought in a Bill throwing
the Voluntary Schools on to the rates. It was the
128
FOR WALES AND FOR ENGLAND 129
very policy which had been openly declared impos-
sible from the front Conservative bench in 1896, and it
was known to be extremely distasteful to Mr. Chamber-
lain.
Mr. Lloyd George took a leading part in the par-
liamentary opposition to this measure. He once more
let "all out" as a guerilla fighter. There he was always
supreme. His knowledge of the law made him extraor-
dinarily resourceful in the invention and discovery of
amendments; while he displayed a skill equally aston-
ishing as an agile draftsman. Night after night he
turned up fresh and smiling; always calm and moderate,
serenely persuasive, and, to his enemies, distressingly
cool. It seemed an outrage to speak of such a humane
fighter as an obstructionist; and yet there is no doubt
that few of the most savage of that tribe succeeded so
well in delaying the progress of Bills.
Now, as in 1896, he became once more the heart
and soul of the Opposition. The Government found
themselves compelled to accept a great many of his
amendments, and in this way very much weakened their
Bill. Mr. Balfour found him a shrewd and agile op-
ponent worthy of his steel.
This time, of course, he was not fighting alone.
He was supported with the full power of the Front
Opposition Bench, now ably led by Sir Henry Camp-
bell-Bannerman with Mr. Asquith as chief lieutenant.
But Mr. Lloyd George always contributed something
peculiarly his own. To the heavy thunder of the
Front Bench guns he added the fret and jar of ma-
chine-gun fire, galling the flanks of the Government
forces, driving them from their chosen positions, often
annihilating their best offensives.
130 THE PRIME MINISTER
There is no doubt that his opposition to the Educa-
tion Bill played an effective part in weakening Mr. Bal-
four's Government, and considerably improved the new
Act when it came to be applied to the schools of the
country.
But his real triumph came after the Bill had passed
through Parliament. On -the main objection of prin-
ciple to that measure he agreed with the Nonconform-
ists of England; but he did not see eye to eye with them
in the policy to be employed to resist the application of
the Bill. He was never a "Passive Resister." The
English problem, indeed, was different. The English
Nonconformists had no certain control of the English
County Councils. But in Wales Mr. Lloyd George had
long ago ensured his hold over those bodies, and he
had deftly amended the Bill so that they should have
a decisive control -over the administration of the Act.
He now laid before the County Councils of Wales
a very ingenious scheme of resistance, destined to be
far more effective than. the heroic but vain martyrdoms
of the English Nonconformists.
In January 1903 he issued to the people of Wales
an Address embodying his policy. 1 It was in appear-
ance a law-abiding policy, with the careful intention of
avoiding any element of offence to legality. It was in-
geniously based on provisions introduced into the Bill
in the course of the long parliamentary fight.
It was laid down in the new Act, for instance, that
all schools must be passed as efficiently equipped before
they received rate-aid from the Councils. That was a
provision already existing in regard to the Parliamen-
1 "Address to the people of Wales," January tyth, 1903.
FOR WALES AND FOR ENGLAND 131
tary Grant; but always more honoured in the breach
than in the observance.
Mr. Lloyd George proposed that this provision of
the law should be carried out. He suggested that all
schools should be inspected and surveyed by the County^
Councils before rate-aid was contemplated; and that
only those which were passed should be capable of re-
ceiving it. Mr. Lloyd George knew enough of the con-
dition of these schools to be sure that few would pass
any honest scrutiny. But none could deny the reason-
ableness of this request. "The sectarian schools," he
said in his Address, "should be properly cleansed and
clothed before they are allowed to associate on equal
terms with more decently clad institutions." It seemed
a fair and proper condition.
That was the first stage. The second was that rate
aid was then to be given only to those schools that
would accept genuine public control by the Councils
and would suspend religious tests for teachers. Other-
wise, nothing was to be handed to the schools except
the Parliamentary Grants.
Meanwhile, it was characteristic of Mr. Lloyd
George that it was part of his policy always to hold
out the olive branch as an alternative to the sword.
He suggested to the Councils that rate-aid should be
given to any schools where the managers would accept
the plan of "facilities" for sectarian teaching on co-
lonial lines the sects, that is to say, to teach after
school hours. This was a plan which had always at-
tracted him. It seemed to him to combine equity with
the least possible interference with education. It was
the part of his proposals which roused least enthusiasm
in Wales on either side.
But, though fighting fiercely, he never at any mo-
ment gave up the hope of peace. All through the hot-
test moments of this strife, through 1903-4-5, he kept
the door open for a settlement. He struck up a re-
markable friendship with that large-hearted man, Dr.
Edwards, the Bishop of St. Asaph, 1 and largely through
the efforts of these two there were frequent meetings
and conferences at Llandrindod and in London but
all to no effect. It always happened that just when
peace seemed in sight the quarrel broke out afresh.
The real fact was, of course, that the two sides never
desired the same object or meant the same things.
"My advice is let us capture the enemy's artillery
and turn his guns against him." That was the heart of
Mr. Lloyd George's policy of resistance to the new Act.
His idea was to defeat the spirit of the Act by obey-
ing the letter.
It was no easy task to swing Wales into line on this
policy. Some authorities wanted to go further and
defy the Act altogether. Some a very few wanted
to carry it out. Many individuals craved for the prison
martyrdom of the English Nonconformists. There is
fascination as well as courage in suffering for a cause.
But Mr. Lloyd George preached his doctrine north
and south, east and west. In the spring of 1904 the
triennial election for the County Councils was due. His
advice was to make this policy the test of those elec-
tions. If the electors decided in his favour, well and
good if not, then they must bow to democratic con-
trol and carry out the Act. At no point did he en-
courage the idea of personal individual resistance.
1 Cousin of Sir Frank Edwards, M.P., one of the most faithful
of the Welsh Nationalists, but himself an Anglican.
FOR WALES AND FOR ENGLAND 133
The elections came; gind the results surpassed his
most sanguine expectations.' Jn every one of the twen-
ty-eight counties the supporters of his "no rate" policy
were returned with a strong majority. In many cases
the supporters of the Act had been almost annihilated.
In Carnarvonshire itself they were reduced to a minor-
ity of six. In Merionethshire there were fifty-two sup-
porters of Mr. Lloyd George's policy as against three
opponents. Even in Brecon, where the Church was at
its strongest, thirty-nine members out of sixty were in
favour of his policy.
Such were the events which completely paralysed-the
exaction of the new Voluntary Rate throughout Wales.
The Government decided to coerce Wales. In April
1904 they brought forward a measure called the De-
faulting Authorities Bill, but instantly nicknamed the
Welsh Coercion Bill. This Bill provided that, where a
Welsh County Council refused rate aid to a Voluntary
School, the Treasury should have the right to pay the
money direct to the Church Schools. They were to de-
duct it from the Parliamentary Grant, thus compelling
the County Councils to make up out of the rates the
loss to their own "provided" schools.
It was an ingenious proposal; but it reckoned with-
out the spirit of Wales under the leadership of Mr.
Lloyd George.
The Bill did not pass through the House until the
close of the Session of 1904. The "Kangaroo" Closure
was called for by Mr. Balfour and granted by Mr.
Lowther from the Chair. There was a scene of pas-
sion. Once more (as in 1896) Mr. Lloyd George
refused to leave the House. Mr. Lowther brought to
bear that invincible good-humour of his, and Mr. As-
134. THE PRIME MINISTER
quith suggested another and a better way. In the re-
sult, the whole Liberal Party, headed by Mr. Asquith,
accompanied Mr. Lloyd George and his Welshmen in
a solemn exodus from the House. Such incidents were
not likely to make Wales more conciliatory.
In October Mr. Lloyd George definitely raised the
flag of defiance against this Coercion Act.
He persuaded a gathering of 600 representatives of
Education Authorities, assembled at Cardiff, to agree
on a refusal to surrender.
In the memorable speech he made on this occasion he
carried the war into the enemy's country. He accused
these law-makers of lawlessness on their side. He
pointed out to them that for years the Board of Edu-
cation had broken the law on behalf of Voluntary
Schools. They had not enforced the efficiency imposed
by law. "They broke the law in order not to levy a
rate." Very well. Wales would not levy a rate until
the law was obeyed. That was their position. He
boldly maintained that the law was on the side of
Wales; and thus most wisely did he avoid that perilous
identification of his policy with the idea and habit of
lawlessness which has needlessly injured so many good
causes.
He defied coercion. If the Defaulting Act were
enforced and the rate-aid deducted from the Parlia-
mentary Grant, he boldly advised that the Welsh Coun-
cils should close their schools. It would be a better
thing that the children should be brought up to rever-
ence freedom of conscience than that they should learn
even the three R's. Besides, they could provide build-
ings where they could teach them that freedom of
conscience was a greater thing even than knowledge.
FOR WALES AND FOR ENGLAND 135
Once more, courage won the day. It was not going
to be an easy thing to dispute Mr. Lloyd George's
reading of the law in those High Courts which know
nothing of politics. Only a very few Welsh Authori-
ties got out of hand, and, going ahead of Mr. Lloyd
George's astute advice, rendered themselves liable to
prosecution. 1
But even then the Government did not venture to
act. They had not enough public opinion behind them.
From 1904 to 1906 there was no moment in the his-
tory of that divided, tempest-tossed Government when
they could safely have entered upon a strife so perilous
and so doubtful. So Mr. Lloyd George was left in
Wales still unassailed and triumphant until the Genr
eral Election of 1906 swept away the Government and
practically killed the Coercion Act.
Meanwhile, during those years David Lloyd George
had been all the time steadily adding to his reputa-
tion as a speaker and debater both in the House of
Commons and in the country. There, after all, we
always come back to his supreme political weapon
the power of public speech. Born in those village
debates within the bootmaker's shop and the smithy
at Llanystumdwy, that power had been sharpened and
developed on the village greens and in the town halls
of Wales, trained to finer uses on the public platforms
of England, and quickened by the quick thrust and
parry in parliamentary debate. It had passed through
the fire of stern combat during the South African strug-
gle, and now it had emerged in swift, keen sword of
combat, at once supple and strong.
1 Carnarvonshire and Merionethshire.
136 THE PRIME MINISTER
That weapon he had used in all the great parliamen-
tary fights of those years, when Mr. Balfour was car-
rying on, like the great Arthur of old, the last great
combat for that pleasant, serene, feudal England which
was already so sorely wounded by the hunters.
Feudalism seemed to win for the time. The Bills
became Acts of Parliament the Schools Bill, even the
Licensing Bill. Mr. Balfour, himself a supreme mas-
ter of the parliamentary arts, seemed to survive. But
all the time David Lloyd George was inflicting mortal
wounds, until at last, like the old defeated royalist
in the Civil Wars, Mr. Arthur Balfour gracefully
yielded his sword. He was actually the first, in that
generous way of his, who recommended to Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman that, in whatever Cabinet he
might be called upon to form, Mr. Lloyd George must
in any case be a Minister.
It was in 1903 that a great diversion occurred in the
development of this drama. Striking across the orbit
of both the great political parties, with some of the
strength and ruthlessness of his old Radical days, Mr.
Joseph Chamberlain put forward his famous Tariff
Reform proposals.
One of the first results of that event was to divert all
political energy for the moment from Bills to debate.
Both in Parliament and on the platform from 1903
to 1906 the energies of public men were mainly ab-
sorbed in that great titanic controversy so absorbing
to the British mind between Free Trade and Protec-
tion.
Mr. Lloyd George shared this diversion with all
the others. He was called from progressive tasks to
the essentially conservative business of defending the
FOR WALES AND FOR ENGLAND 137
existing economic order. He did it well. He proved
himself a faithful Free Trader. But this was not
principally and specifically his especial task. In this
field Mr. Asquith took the lead, and Mr. Lloyd George
was always his faithful "junior."
But Mr. Lloyd George's defence of Free Trade soon
began to develop a character of its own. His tactics
gradually began to take on a note of attack. His de-
fensive became an aggressive.
He had recognised, from the opening of the strug-
gle, that the strength of Mr. Chamberlain's case lay in
his frank recognition of the grim, shameful facts that
lay beneath the smooth surface of English life. He
realised that Mr. Chamberlain was the first great
statesman to recognise fearlessly the existence of that
England which so few statesmen had yet recognised
the England of the poor. Mr. Chamberlain, in fact,
had brought "Darkest England" into the political land-
scape.
As the campaign went on Mr. Chamberlain grew
bolder and bolder along these lines. He contended
that tariffs, and tariffs alone, would provide the money
for Old Age Pensions. He hinted at even vaster boons
which were coming to England if she would only turn
her back on that sour and pinchbeck old lady Free
Trade.
Mr. Lloyd George perceived at once the danger of
this attack. He, at any rate, knew the "deep sighing
of the poor." He realised the black abyss which lay
below the surface of England's wealth. He feared the
appeal to the hungry mouths of our neglected masses.
From that day forward he set out to prove that
Free Trade also could remedy poverty aye ! and
138 THE PRIME MINISTER
remedy it all the more easily because it brought wealth
in its train. The great need was that that wealth
should bear its due burden. That was to be his cure
for the trouble.
At that time his phrasing was large and general.
He had not yet worked out his later plans. Earlier
he had served on the Rothschild Pensions Committee,
and he had thrown all his energies into that inquiry.
He was ever studying the problems of the land. But
he kept a mind open to details. In that year ( 19045)
he was storing impulse and collecting knowledge, pre-
paring for the great moment that lay ahead of him.
That moment was now to come.
In December 1905 Mr. Balfour resigned, and Sir
Henry Campbell-Bannerman immediately undertook
to form a Ministry.
It was already clear that Mr. Lloyd George must
be a member of the new Cabinet. Sir Henry offered
him the Presidency of the Board of Trade, and he ac-
cepted it. To the public the appointment came as a
surprise. It seemed the last post for that brilliant
parliamentary free-lance, that gay leader of forlorn
hopes.
They were to find that, behind that flashing exterior,
there was a cooler personality, well fitted for the con-
trol of the calmer and shrewder side of our national
life.
CHAPTER XI
(1905-1908)
A MINISTER
"If they take part in public life, the effect is never indifferent.
They either appear like ministers of d'Vine vengeance, and their
course through the world is marked by desolation and oppression,
by poverty and servitude, or they are the guardian angels of the
country they inhabit, busy to avert even the most distant evil,
and to maintain and procure peace, plenty, and the greatest of
human blessings, liberty." BOLINGBROKE in The Patriot King on
his "Chosen Men."
THE Department which fell to the control of Mr.
Lloyd George on the formation of the 1905 Liberal
Administration presented no easy or simple task. The
Board of Trade stood at a moment which comes to
every great office of State a moment when it may
either increase or decrease, gather power or lose it. Its
official name gave little clue to the distracting combina-
tion of powers varying from complete control at one
end to vague influence at the other. British Depart-
ments are like wild-flowers they grow and spread
without plan or scheme, just as the chance caprice of
Parliament or some fugitive Ministry may decide. It is
often just a throw of the dice as to what new powers
or functions may be laid upon them.
The Board of Trade had withered under the shadow
of the great fiscal deadlock of the previous three years
( 1903-6) . Poised between two theories of commerce,
139
140 THE PRIME MINISTER
it had lingered in the "doldrums," like a ship waiting
for a wind.
Thus there awaited in the pigeon-holes of the office
a great number of untouched and unfinished projects,
loose ends of legislation, belated steps towards giving
method and authority to the powers of that great
Department.
For the Board of Trade reflected in every branch
of its administrative powers the spirit of the age in
which it had grown up the timid, tentative, apologetic
touch of the nineteenth-century administrator. The
scope of its powers, indeed, bulked vast and tremen-
dous extending from bankrupt firms at one end to
shipping, railways, and labour at the other; but over
all these branches of national life its sway was mild
and illusive. The very Consuls who control our trade
abroad were appointed and controlled by another
Department. 1
The Labour Department, founded in a spasm of
progress, was still mainly advisory. British railways
had to be supplicated rather than controlled. The
great shipping interests had discovered new sea-ways
through obsolete laws.
Mr. Lloyd George soon realised the opportunity
that lay to his hand. The time had come to give to
the Board of Trade a new grasp and stretch of author-
ity. New laws must be passed. But also, and even
more important, there must be a new spirit in the ad-
ministration of the laws that existed.
He did not act in a hurry. He spent his first weeks
in a thorough study of the work of the Board. He ap-
peared little in Parliament. He took the sensible course
1 The Foreign Office, which still (1920) appoints them,
A MINISTER 141
of first learning from the able officials of the Board
the general outlines of its functions and problems.
Then, after some months, he began to legislate ; but,
before bringing in his Bills, he developed what was then
a new system of preparation and anticipation.
It had been too often the custom of Ministers in
such Departments as the Board of Trade to frame
Bills without consulting the interests concerned. Here
was the truly "bureaucratic" spirit of the olden days
to assume that the Civil Service must of necessity
know better than the public about their own business
to enforce on great private interests measures as to
which they had never been asked their opinions, to
wait for the inevitable complaints and grievances until
it was too late to remedy them without public confes-
sions of ignorance and folly. Such methods have been
responsible for many bad laws and for many parlia-
mentary disasters.
Mr. Lloyd George changed all that. Take the first
question in which he decided to legislate the control
of merchant shipping. Here he found things in a very
bad mess. The British merchant sailor was still far
behind most British land-workers both in comfort and
in wages. While fabulous fortunes were being made
by shipowners, sailors were still badly fed, badly
housed, irregularly paid, often cheated of their pay
altogether. The result was that the more prosperous
classes of British wage-earners were refusing to go to
sea or leaving the sea as soon as possible. Our gigantic
merchant fleet, the pride of the British Empire, was
already half manned by foreign seamen, whose ignor-
ance of the English language often put English ships
and lives in grievous peril.
142 THE PRIME MINISTER
Many efforts had been made to remedy these things
one by Mr. Chamberlain, still remembered at the
Board of Trade as the best administrator up to that
time. Mr. Lloyd George proposed to carry Mr. Cham-
berlain's efforts to completion.
What had defeated all efforts up to the present
moment was the powerful resistance of the shipowners
in the House of Commons, where the rights of the
many too often escheat to the bold and flagrant cham-
pionship of the few.
Mr. Lloyd George determined to call the shipowners
together and to consult them before he introduced his
Bill into the House. But, if he was to consult the
shipowners, he must also consult the sailors. So he
ended by consulting both interests outside the House;
and this sensible method proved so successful in the
case of shipping that it soon became his favourite
method in preparing all his Bills, and has now been
adopted by many Ministers as the obvious and neces-
sary preliminary to legislation.
In the Merchant Shipping Act of 1906, indeed, he
carried this process a step further. Not only did he,
by agreement, establish for the British sailor a new
charter of rights, 1 but he also effected a new load-water-
line agreement with foreign Governments. Thereby
he established a new precedent for international legis-
lation.
The working of the famous "Load-line" so dra-
matically secured by that fervent and determined man,
*A fixed standard of food and ship accommodation, a certificated
cook on board ship, a guarantee that distressed seamen should be
looked after and abandoned seamen paid, a restriction on the scandal-
ous practices of overloading and under-manning, and on the employ-
ment of foreign sailors.
A MINISTER 143
Mr. Samuel Plimsoll, a generation before had un-
doubtedly saved thousands of innocent lives. It had
given the seamen a new guarantee of security. There
was always the fact that a ship could not be weighted
down below a certain depth. But meanwhile a new
evil had arisen. Foreign ships, without the British
"Load-line," were using British ports to snatch British
trade. Deeply laden "foreigners" could afford to
carry goods at lower freights; and Great Britain was
penalised for her humanity.
Mr. Lloyd George determined to stop this. He
compromised the "Load-line" raising it slightly for
British ships, but enforcing this modified line on all
ships that came to British ports. There were protests
from foreign Powers. Mr. Lloyd George proceeded to
negotiate. He bargained with the right of entry to
British ports, and finally he came to an agreement with
most of the great seafaring nations which enforced the
new "Load-line" on all ships trading to Great Britain.
Such was the first of the new measures which came
from the Board of Trade under his presidency and
passed through the House of Commons in October of
1906. Now for the first time piloting his own meas-
ures from the Treasury Bench, Mr. Lloyd George
showed new parliamentary powers that astonished the
critics. The wiseacres had shaken their heads. "Too
much of a rebel to govern !" they had said. "So accus-
tomed to obstruction, that he will obstruct himself!"
said others, scoffing. But they were wrong. He de-
veloped new powers of adroit persuasiveness that sur-
prised lookers-on. He was patient and conciliatory.
He could be firm when necessary; but at other times
he seemed all open-mindedness. He had won his way
144 THE PRIME MINISTER
very often just when every one else thought that he had
lost it. He knew when to sacrifice details in order to
win principles.
Now that the Board of Trade found that they had
secured a good law-maker, the progressive officials
who distinguish that Department pressed on him other
tasks. There was, for instance, the question of the
law of patents, crying for consolidation and amend-
ment. There, too, legislation was long overdue.
Consolidation was easy. But, in looking into the
state of the law, Mr. Lloyd George soon discovered
that there was one glaring British grievance which no
Minister had yet dared to touch. Mr. Lloyd George
refused to be paralysed by the terrorism of the Protec-
tion controversy. He has never admitted the view that
Free Trade means discrimination against your own
country.
And yet that was how the existing patent law
worked.
For he found that a custom had grown up by which
foreign firms would employ a British citizen to take
out a British patent with the deliberate intention to
work it abroad. In that case it could not be worked
in Great Britain. For there was actually nothing in
British law to prevent this British privilege from be-
coming a direct cause of loss to British tra'de.
This seemed to him intolerable. Accordingly, he
introduced into the Patents Bill which he brought into
the House in 1907 the following clause: 1
"At any time, not less than four years after
the date of a patent, and not less than one year
1 Clause 27, Patents Act of 1907.
A MINISTER 145
after the passing of this Act, any person may ap-
ply to the Comptroller for the revocation of the
patent on the ground that the patented article 'or
process is manufactured or carried on exclusively
or mainly outside the United Kingdom."
Looking back on this clause now, with all the excel-
lent results that have flowed from it, 1 it is clear that
it represented the merest justice to the British trader.
The Tariff Reformers congratulated Mr, Lloyd George
on conversion; the Free Traders reproached him for
desertion. Neither had any leg to stand on. The
mere fact of granting patents is, in a sense, a form of
protection for the patentee. But to ask that a nation
should grant so great a privilege in order that it should
be used against its own citizens is surely the very
ecstasy of "freedom."
Then, just before leaving the Board of Trade, he
finally settled up the Port of London by buying out
the Dock Companies. There again he arranged the
terms of purchase by bargaining before he brought in
his Bill.
One company stood out. He went straight on with-
out that company. It was awkward; but it would have
been fatal to show weakness. He was just about to
move the Second Reading of the Bill, leaving that com-
pany out, when the announcement of its agreement to
his terms was brought to him in his room at the House
of Commons before he went in to the Committee.
Thus a problem was settled which had defied several
Governments and paralysed London as a port.
'Many patents are now being worked in England which were
previously worked abroad.
146 THE PRIME MINISTER
"Not an ideal way of legislating," it will be said.
Certainly not. Nor was then our Parliament an ideal
legislative machine.
In a speech made at Liverpool on May 24th, 1906,
Mr. Lloyd George described how the menace of the
Lords then threw its shadow over all Liberal policy.
He told how, in framing every Bill, the Cabinet, even
before the Bill was drafted, had to take the attitude
of the Upper Chamber into consideration.
This was, in fact, still his own governing considera-
tion in these Board of Trade measures. He was soon
to show that he was quite ready to fight the Lords
when it seemed to him a necessary stroke of high policy.
But he did not believe in half-defiances. So he mod-
elled* these Board of Trade Bills to pass by agree-
ment.
But, after all, it was not in law-making- so much as
in administration that he was destined to make his
highest reputation at the Board of Trade. It was
not only that he sent into every tentacle of the great
organism a new vigour and intensity of purpose; it
was also that he showed in a very high degree a
genius for conciliation in great labour disputes.
It was in the late autumn of 1907 that there came to
him the great test of the threatened Railway Strike.
He had just achieved in October a very surprising
triumph of peace-making at the Welsh Convention sum-
moned at Cardiff to denounce him for some supposed
weakening on Welsh Disestablishment. They were
just preparing to sacrifice him with his own borrowed
weapons when he appeared in the midst of them,
claimed to speak, and won them over to spare him.
A MINISTER 147
But all Englishmen always took it for granted that
Mr. Lloyd George could manage Welshmen. English
railwaymen and English railway directors seemed a
very different affair. For both parties seemed very
resolute ; and the powers of the Board of Trade seemed
remarkably weak.
But the crisis was too grave to consider legal powers.
The country was faced with a paralysis of transport.
Such an event might prove a national danger.
Mr. Lloyd George swiftly acted for the nation.
With no power to enforce his summons, he boldly
called directors and men to the Board of Trade to
discuss the situation. There he held them for days,
prolonging the discussion by every resource of per-
suasion until the moods of both parties were cooled to
a more reasonable temperature. Then he made his
proposal the famous Conciliation Boards and he
won both parties to agreement.
Those who, like myself, saw much of him from day
to day during that struggle could not but be amazed
at his resourcefulness and persistence. He appeared
never to contemplate the possibility of a breakdown.
He seemed one of that rare band of whom the Roman
poet said "They can because they think they can."
It was impossible to dream of failure in his presence.
Infected by his magic faith, weak men grew strong
and sceptics radiated with faith. He appeared one
of those of whom, in a famous poem, a great English
singer has said l
"Languor is not in your heart,
Weakness is not in your word,
1 Matthew Arnold in "Rugby Chapel."
148 THE PRIME MINISTER
Weariness not on your brow.
Ye alight in our van ! at your voice,
Panic, despair, flee away."
Here was a tangle of time-worn hatreds: the men
were suspicious and resentful, the directors dogged and
prejudiced. How bring together human beings so
divided? How bridge such a gulf?
Well, first he brought into the conferences those men
who stood between the quarrelling parties the railway
managers. Here he found a remarkable body of Eng-
lishmen alert, resourceful, self-made, unprejudiced.
How often he used to praise those railway man-
agers! Ten years after, in a still greater emergency,
his mind went back to those men; and in the gravest
crisis of the Great War he called them in to aid the
hard-pressed British lines in France.
What is it that has made Mr. LloydrGeorge so great
a conciliator?
It is not merely his power of using speech for pur-
poses of persuasion. "Speakers attack too much," he
often used to say. "They ought to aim at persuasion."
That has always been his own central aim in the use
of speech.
There is also in him an even greater power the
power of making two conflicting parties see one an-
other's point of view. That is partly because they
learn to see it through his eyes. It is like some arrange-
ment of looking-glasses in which men see one another's
faces at a new and more attractive angle. There,
again, he works on a theory. "Men quarrel too much,"
A MINISTER 149
I have heard him say. "They become slaves to words
and phrases. They miss the reality."
It was such beliefs and perceptions that have so
often made him persevere in peace-making when all
others have given up hope.
In this case of the Railway Strike of 1907 it earned
him the universal applause of the nation, voiced by
King Edward, who always entertained a keen and
subtle admiration for good peacemaking. For a few
brief months Mr. Lloyd George was the hero of the
nation. He seemed almost a case for the warning
"Beware when all men speak well of thee!"
But in the career of this man of storm it is always
fated that no peaceful interval lasts long. On Novem-
ber 6th he settled the railway strike; on November
3Oth he lost his eldest daughter Mair, the apple of
his eye. While still bowed with that bitter grief, in
December he was called to stop a threatened strike in
the cotton trade. He is wont to say that it was the
only thing that saved him. But there was clearly to
be no peace for him.
Then, four months later, in April 1908, Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman, broken by work and domestic
sorrow, resigned the Premiership, and Mr. Asquith
stepped into his place. Mr. John (now Lord) Morley
was offered the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, but
he refused it, and that high post was now allotted to
Mr. Lloyd George.
CHAPTER XII
A GERMAN TOUR
"In small, truckling States, a timely compromise with power has
often been the means, and the only means, of drawling out their
puny existence: but a great State is too much envied, too much
dreaded to find safety in humiliation. To be secure, it must be
respected. Power, and eminence, and consideration, are things
not to be begged. They must be commanded." EDMUND BURKE,
Letter 1 on A Regicide Peace.
IN the late summer of 1908, at the end of the parlia-
mentary session, Mr. Lloyd George traversed Germany
from west to east and from south to north. It was
a very thorough and systematic motor-tour. He was
the travelling guest of Mr. (now Sir) Charles Henry, 1
a Member of Parliament of great public spirit and
strong Liberal views, who invited me also to accom-
pany the party. It was a journey of profound interest
for us all. The object of the tour was to investigate
the German system of National Insurance. Parlia-
ment had just passed the Old Age Pensions Act; and
Mr. Lloyd George had already publicly promised to
round off the British pension system by a general
scheme of national insurance. Before drafting the
actual Bills he wished to make a complete study of
that very comprehensive system which had been operat-
ing in Germany since 1893. The German Government
gave us access to all their Central State Insurance
Offices, and gave us facilities for interviewing all their
1 Died January, 1920.
ISO
A GERMAN TOUR 151
leading Insurance civil servants. We visited most of
the largest towns of the German Empire, and had con-
versations with employers and workmen Socialists
and trade unionists as well as with officials. Never
was a statesman's holiday spent in a more thorough in-
vestigation of a great problem of the lives of the
people.
We started the motor tour in France. We trained
to Amiens, where the motor met us, and travelled on
the great northern French national roads through the
very region where so much of the fighting has taken
place during the last three years through Compiegne,
Soissons, along the valley of the Aisne to Rheims,
where we visited the Cathedral that great master-
piece of Gothic architecture which has since suffered
such sacrilegious injury. Thence we travelled south
by Chalons-sur-Marne, following the river valley by
Vitry and Bar-le-Duc. We crossed the Meuse and
passed through Nancy, that most lovely of valley fron-
tier towns, which has since so bravely borne such fierce
enemy attacks. Nancy looked very peaceful on that
August day' when we passed through her pretty streets
and pressed on towards the Vosges Mountains, hoping
to reach Strassburg that evening.
At that point we made a happy miscalculation in
our time; and we were benighted in a little French
village just on the edge of the frontier at the very
summit of the Vosges. We found that we could get
supper and beds at one of those clean little auberges
which are scarcely ever lacking in the smallest French
village. As we supped* on the excellent meal of bouillon
and cutlets improvised by the ready hostess, she stood
and talked to us. She spoke to us of the memories of
152 THE PRIME MINISTER
187071, when the tide of war had so swiftly passed
by that little village. She was a school child at that
time, and she had missed two years of her schooling.
For the Germans had remained in occupation of that
part of the country on the Vosges frontier for fully
a year after the end of the war. The withdrawal of
the army took place, Department by Department, as
the indemnity was paid; and this Department was the
last to be evacuated. Before the war she was living
well within France; at the end she found herself on
the edge of the new frontier.
We asked her how she managed to make an inn pay
at such a spot. "Oh, quite easily," she said. "We are
kept going by the people of French birth who come
up on Sundays from Alsace!" "Why?" "Oh, just
to feel the joy of living for a day on French soil !"
Next day we motored down to Strassburg, climbed
the towers, and saw the marks of the German shells
fired nearly forty years before, and spent a pleasant
afternoon in the picturesque streets of that ancient
town. As far as man could do it Alsace had been
painted black, white and red with Teuton colours. No-
where in the streets of Strassburg did we observe any
sign or notice in any language but German. Every-
where were German soldiers, and in the evening we
attended a concert of massed German bands at which
the music was purely Teuton, and Teuton of the most
patriotic kind. But the people seemed to us to listen
with a certain strange dull indifference to all this brazen
wooing; and beneath the surface we seemed to hear the
whisper of a coming storm. Next day, motoring across
the country, we had occasion to ask the way from
an Alsatian peasant. The question was asked in Ger-
A GERMAN TOUR 153
man, but one of the party slipped in with French. The
peasant's face instantly lighted up. "Ah! do the gen-
tlemen speak in French?" he said. "Ah! I prefer to
speak in that language myself." So little had all the
arts of suppression succeeded in crushing the spirit
of that race.
At Stuttgart we were witnesses of a strange event,
which comes now back to memory with a significance
which was then hidden. Count Zeppelin was then ex-
perimenting with his airships, and one of those new
miracles had been advertised to start on a voyage from
a spot near Stuttgart. The whole town had flooded
out in a vast multitude to see the airship make a start;
but at the critical moment there arose a hurricane of
wind. The ship was torn from its moorings and fell
in utter wreckage and confusion in the midst of the
crowd. We arrived on the scene just after this had
happened, and met the people returning from witness-
ing the disaster. What was notable about that multi-
tude was the passion of grief which at that moment was
sweeping over them. It was as if they had all suffered
some acute personal loss. Men and women were ges-
ticulating, some were almost weeping; all their faces
were troubled and perplexed. As the people coming
from the city met those returning we could hear excla-
mations of sorrow and almost of anguish. "Ah!"
they cried, "is the airship down? What a horrible
calamity!" We heard afterwards that the crowd sur-
rounding the airship had just sung that famous na-
tional hymn, "Deutschland iiber alles." They had
been worked up to ecstasy when the airship crashed.
So we motored through that land in that happy
peace time, little foreboding all the great calamities
154 THE PRIME MINISTER
that were to break from that storm-centre on to an
unsuspecting world.
Bethmann-Hollweg was at that time "Home Secre-
tary," a vigorous, amiable Minister of the official kind,
sincerely keen on social reforms; a Junker of the better
type. He treated Mr. Lloyd George with great
courtesy^ He returned from his holiday, and specially
entertained him and his party in the famous restau-
rant at the Zoological Gardens at Berlin. He invited
many eminent members of the German Civil Service
to meet us. Every one was very gracious and polite
almost too polite for comfort. After dinner we went
into a large reception-room, and there we remained
standing all the evening talking and looking at one
another. Towards the end of the evening we began
to feel very fatigued. I ventured to ask one of the
German officials whether it would be the correct thing
to sit down. "Oh!" he said. "We have all been wait-
ing for you to sit down! We, too, are very tired!"
In the middle of this rivalry in fatigue, they brought
round great glasses of foaming beer in Prussian
fashion. Mr. Lloyd George, who is almost a teeto-
taler, looked at the glasses with a scared expression.
Then suddenly his face grew resolute. "We must
show that Great Britain is not to be left behind!"
Bethmann-Hollweg did not talk politics until to-
wards the end of dinner. The conversation drifted
to King Edward's visit to the Russian Czar at Reval.
That visit had caused a great ferment in Germany, and
grave suspicions of British intentions. Bethmann-
Hollweg voiced those suspicions in the frankest man-
ner. "You are trying to encircle us!" he cried to Mr.
A GERMAN TOUR 155
Lloyd George. "You and France and Russia are
attempting to strangle us !"
Mr. Lloyd George assured him of the friendliness
of Great Britain towards all the great Powers; but
for the moment he refused to be appeased. He
thumped the table with his hand. "The Prussian Gov-
ernment has only to lift a finger," he cried, "and every
living Prussian will die for the Fatherland!"
Mr. Lloyd George listened to all this with his char-
acteristic calmness and good-humour. "But what about
the other Germans?" he put in at this point.
A shadow passed over the face of the Prussian
Minister.
"Oh! they?" he said with a gesture. "They, too,
will come along!"
But this was only a flash. On the whole, Bethmann-
Hollweg was very friendly; and the facts of his family
life showed him Anglophile. He had sent his son to
an English University; and admiration for English
education was, curiously enough, just at that moment
almost as much a fashion in Germany as admiration for
German education in England. When we were lunch-
ing with a judge at Frankfort Mr. Lloyd George dis-
covered that the daughter of the house had actually
been at school along with his own daughter at the
famous English girls' school near Brighton Roedean.
Of course, it is always foolish to imagine that social
courtesies seriously affect the grave pursuit of national
interests in any country. But they produce a friendly
atmosphere; and he would be a criminal who, with
all the causes of difference and conflict in the world,
did not always try to improve the human atmos-
phere.
156 THE PRIME MINISTER
The people of Hamburg were remarkably friendly
to us. The merchants trading with England gave us
an especially enthusiastic reception. They feasted us
at a banquet at which sat the Hamburg Prussian Min-
ister for Berlin keeps a Ministry in the "Free
Towns" as a last relic of their former independence.
It was on the occasion of that banquet that Mr.
Lloyd George threw out the idea of regulating arma-
ments by a Plimsoll "Load-line" fixed according to
population. It is strange to-day to remember with
what enthusiasm that suggestion was received by the
Hamburg merchants.
The authorities of Hamburg provided a launch to
take us into every corner of their famous port, so as
to show us all the power and pride of their new
creation with all its marvellous up-to-date devices
for handling ships and cargoes, its wonderful new docks
and elevators, its ingenious and multifarious resources
for expediting sea-traffic. It was good to see that
port; if only to realise the wisdom of the King's advice
to us at home "Wake up, Britain!"
It is difficult to exaggerate the part played by the
personality of the Kaiser in German imperial politics
at that moment. If one probed any great German
question to the bottom, one always came back to that
fact. Take the question of the Navy that vital
Anglo-German problem of the early century. The
Army chiefs were, I think, quite ready to contemplate
a naval "deal," if only to keep England out of the
land-wars of the Continent. The Social Democrats, of
course, were more than willing; they were anti-naval
as well as anti-militarist. But to the Kaiser the Navy
& GERMAN TOUR 157
was always prime favourite ; it was his toy, his darling
dream, his cherished ambition. His sincerest belief
and hopes were expressed in the phrase, "Our future
lies on the ocean." He stimulated the popular zeal
for the Navy in every possible way. The Nord
Deutsche Lloyd Liners had elaborate pictures com-
paring the respective navies, and showing the smallness
of the German in comparison with ours ; the great Ger-
man Navy League was constantly pushed forward; and
no Minister could long remain in power who did not
sympathise with this cult. The curious thing was that
the German populations along the sea-board were not
half so enthusiastic for the Navy as the inland popula-
tions, who seemed enthusiastic in proportion to their
ignorance of the sea.
Many Germans used to put down the Kaiser's pas-
sion for the Navy to his English blood. He was a
very enthusiastic yachtsman; and, as most yachtsmen
are Englishmen, that threw him into constant relations
of intimacy with English sailor-men. The English
yachtsmen on the North Sea found him almost excessive
in his friendliness. I remember an instance given to
me by a famous English yachtsman, fond of cruising
in northern waters. A German tofpedo-boat had acci-
dentally one evening broken the bowsprit of his yacht.
During the night, while the owner was asleep, a body
of carpenters came on board of the English yacht and
mended the bowsprit. In the morning, after break-
fast, the Kaiser arrived himself. He had sent the car-
penters. "Well !" he said, "how do you like your new
bowsprit?" Then he looked at it whimsically. "When
you go back to England," he said, "tell them it was
'made in Germany' !"
158 THE PRIME MINISTER
And yet at that very time this friendliness towards
English yachtsmen of which this was only one ex-
ample was not preventing the Kaiser from regarding
the British naval power with a haunting jealousy that
led him into the constant intrigues against England, of
which we gain a glimpse in the secret correspondence
discovered in the palace of the Russian Czar.
The Kaiser, indeed, was at that time always a great
trouble to all the diplomats. He was like a perpetual
cracker explosively zig-zagging about in all the Foreign
Offices of Europe. Nobody ever knew what he would
do or say to whom he would talk, and with whom he
would correspond. He had a touch of freakish irre-
sponsibility. "I always knew that Willy would come
to no good," sighed an English Princess of the old
school; and she seemed to have an eye for character.
After Agadir, he calmly protested that the British
Government had no right to object, as he had told some
one of his intentions when he was visiting the British
Court! His telegram to President Wilson seems to
show that he carried this view of the British Con-
stitution right up to the eve of the Great War.
"He is a bad neighbour," said an official of the
British Foreign Office at that time; and that really
seemed to sum it up.
His constant changes of mood made German foreign
policy very difficult to forecast, and I do not think that
any one can claim to have foreseen the future.
The German officials told me that they had never
had a visitor with a quicker mind than Mr. Lloyd
George. After a long day spent in the Central In-
surance Office at Berlin, the men who went round with
A GERMAN TOUR 159
us were very enthusiastic. "He grasps the system more
rapidly than any student we have ever had." Mr.
Lloyd George, indeed, made a very exhaustive study
of the German system. But in his Act he improved
upon it and added to it in many important respects. 1
It was a strange visit, curious to look back upon at
this distance of time. Our days were filled with the
insistent calls of a great social inquiry. But we could
not ignore another aspect. After all, there was a
greater problem darkening the air than insurance
against individual sickness and unemployment. What
about insurance against another and greater human
sickness the sickness of war? The thought of that
kept recurring, like a secondary theme in some piece of
music.
The impressions gained during this tour (1908)
partly account, no doubt, for the firmness of Mr. Lloyd
George's language in that famous City speech with
which, after consultation with Sir Edward Grey, he
faced the German Agadir threat in 1911. He himself
always contended at the time that that speech saved
Europe from war. A firm, clear, real attitude an
attitude that would convince Germany that we meant
what we said that is what he always in those days
advocated. He argued that here was the most positive
realistic Power in the world with no regard for sen-
timentalism or even humanity where the interests of
Germany were concerned. Very well; let us treat them
as they treated us. Let them know definitely where we
J He raised the level of the sick benefit; he added several new
benefits; and he paid the doctors better.
160 THE PRIME MINISTER
stood. Let our language to them be plain and frank.
They would respect us all the more for it.
He was very fiercely attacked for this speech by the
pacifists at the time, both in public and private. He
made a characteristic reply to their pin-pricks. "Per-
haps it would have been better if I had not made the
speech! There would have been war, and the Prussian
bully would have got the thrashing he deserves!"
Then, as since, nothing irritated and angered him
more than the attitude of Germany to France. "It is
simply persecution!" he used to say. "The world can-
not be carried on along these lines!"
So he had already a dim perception of the great issue
which was so soon to divide the world.
Between 1908 and 1914 came that "Turtle Dove"
period (1912-1914) during which Germany wooed us.
Never had Germany been more friendly to Great Bri-
tain than she was in the spring of that fatal year,
1914; never had our relations been more smooth ; never
had her protestations of affection been more numerous.
The change from 1911 was almost startling.
Perhaps it ought to have startled us more. It is so
easy to be sages after the accomplished fact. But it is
not often that the architects of suspicion build wisely;
their day comes once in a while, and they rejoice exceed-
ingly. It is, perhaps, the worst crime of Germany that
she has strengthened that sinister creed of doubt, and
lowered faith between man and man.
CHAPTER XIII
CIVIL STRIFES
"It gives me a serious concern to see such a Spirit of Disse.ition
in the Country; not only as it destroys Virtue and Common Sense,
and renders us in a manner Barbarians towards one another, but
as it perpetuates our Animosities, widens our Breaches, and
transmits our present Passions and Prejudices to our Posterity.
For my own Part, I am sometimes afraid that I discover the Seeds
of a Civil War in these our Divisions ; and therefore cannot but
bewail as in their first Principles the Miseries and Calamities of
our Children." ADDISON in the Spectator, July 25th, 1711.
DURING his foreign tour in 1908 Mr. Lloyd George
always carried with him a small pocketbook, in which
he jotted down ideas and suggestions as they came to
him in thought or talk. These were jottings for that
great Budget of which he already perceived the neces-
sity.
For when he took over the Treasury in April 1908,
he found British finance at the parting of the ways.
Old Age Pensions had just been promised; a Bill was
already drafted on non-tributory lines. He quite ap-
proved. But no provision had been made in the Budget
of 1908 to pay for this great social boon. 1
Here was a great opportunity for the Tariff Reform
cause, at that time still languishing from the staggering
blow of 1906. It was up to Free Trade to show that
it could meet the coming deficit.
1 Old Age Pensions were then estimated to cost 9,000,000, but
were found to cost 13,000,000 (now (1920) 28,000,000). There
was also the new Dreadnoughts, and so forth. The deficit for 1909
thus amounted to 16,000,000 even in prospect.
161
162 THE PRIME MINISTER
We all know how Mr. Lloyd George faced that crisis
at the Exchequer by what audacious drafts on the
great reserves of our national wealth by what de-
termined levies on the luxuries of all classes. The
Budget of 1909 is still one of the landmarks of Eng-
lish history. Its rejection by the Lords and its final
triumph in the first General Election of 1910 are thrice
told tales.
How did Mr. Lloyd George bear himself through
the stress of these tremendous evils?
He did not spare himself. He bore the burden of
the midnight sitting as well as of the day labour. He
revolutionised the habits of the Treasury.
He had now left his private house and come to live
in Downing Street. His life was practically lived in
public. It was at about this time that he instituted
his famous habit of breakfast parties at which the
affairs of the nation were discussed. Strenuous gath-
erings were these, opening with merry chaff, but soon
passing to earnest debate and discussion over coffee
and bacon debates always human and thrilling, en-
livened by the swift jest and epigram of the host,
always one of the best of talkers. But he never allowed
these talks to drift into triviality. He always directed
them to moulding and shaping policy. He compelled
his guests to face vital decisions.
Great gatherings! Where the best of the nation
met, not with idle gossip or silly scandal, but with high
converse and swift, eager discourse, ever touched with
hope and light!
He could not have lived this strenuous life without
some relaxation. He found it, like so many other busy
moderns, in golf. It was shortly after the opening of
CIVIL STRIFES 163
the twentieth century that he took to this game, and
found in it his physical salvation. Up to 1900 he had
never been robust. Often he had long periods of ill-
health. But the steady tramps round those wonderful
courses that now surround London made a great
change. Golf has given him a tough physique, equal to
resisting great strains.
Those of us who, during 1909, worked in the
"Budget League" to help forward this great cause saw
something of the energy and resourcefulness which
went to achieve the hardly won victory of the first 1910
General Election.
One of our methods was to cover England with
posters. I remember one glorious poster of an ermined
and coroneted duke. We were very proud of it. But
it passed through great troubles. Mr. Winston
Churchill protested against it because it was too much
like his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough. So we
changed the face and darkened the colouring. The re-
sult was that the new duke came out precisely like our
splendid and energetic chief, Sir Henry Norman, M.P. !
All this poster business was very expensive. We
spent till we were exhausted; we swamped the Budget
Protest League in paste. But, however much money
we spent, we got more money. We only had to send
across to Downing Street. Mr. Lloyd George seemed
to have the key to the treasures of Golconda. He
had the amazing gift of being able to persuade mil-
lionaires to subscribe in order to be taxed.
The Liberal Cabinet, as a whole, refused to believe
that the Lords would throw out the Budget; and it
was steadily set about through the summer of 1909
that Mr. Balfour and Lord Lansdowne were in favour
164 THE PRIME MINISTER
of passing it. But Mr. Lloyd George persisted in be-
lieving the contrary. "They will throw it out all
right!" he would always say cheerfully enough; and the
only shadow that would pass over his face would come
when some one would half convince him to the con-
trary. I believe that up to September there was some
real doubt. But then the Tariff Reform League came
into the fight; the first flush of the Budget popularity
seemed to pass; our street-corner orators were met by
rivals often hired Socialists; and the "Die-hards"
grew more powerful. The Lords determined to face
the great risk. They threw out the Budget in Novem-
ber; Mr. Asquith was forced to dissolve; and in
January 1910 came the General Election.
The Lords nearly won. The Liberals emerged with
a diminished majority of 124 as compared with the
1906 majority of 354, meaning a loss of 115 seats,
and a turn-over of 230 votes.
For a moment this fall in the majority shook the
constancy even of that strong Cabinet. There was
talk of resignation. Even Mr. Lloyd George was bit-
ten for a moment by the idea of substituting House of
Lords Reform for the policy of the Parliament Bill.
In a few weeks they steadied. They found that
if they were disappointed, the other side were more
so. The Lords had staked all; the Tariff Reformers
had assured a win. The Opposition was as much
"down" as the Government.
It was fated that a tragic event should give sudden
pause to this rending strife. Just when the first shadow
of civil war was falling across the nation, on May 6tH,
1910, King Edward died. The presence of death
brought a calmer mood; men saw realities for a mo-
CIVIL STRIFES 165
ment, and shrank from the edge of the abyss. They
were like travellers from whose path the mist sud-
denly clears, and lo ! they find themselves stumbling
along the edge of a precipice.
Mr. Lloyd George made a suggestion to the new
King which was taken up and resulted in the remark-
able conference of party leaders which lasted from
June to November 1910. It was a pause of halcyon
calm in the midst of storm.
Mr. Lloyd George was a member of that conference;
he was always among those who took a sanguine view
of its prospects; and he has always infinitely regretted
its failure. He took a long view. He foresaw the
civil perils that lay ahead of the* country. He was
ready to come to a large and comprehensive settle-
ment. He knew that a settlement could not mean
a victory for either side. ' He was ready to accept
that view; and there were those on the other side
especially one, Mr. Arthur Balfour who were large
enough to accept it also.
But neither of the great parties, organised for com-
bat and victory, could be brought to the height of so
great a treaty. The secrecy of the conference had been
perhaps all too faithfully observed. There had been
no "spade-work" in preparing the parties for a self-
denying ordinance so sweeping. The "Snakes" they
say, "committed suicide to save themselves from
slaughter." But in this case both parties still hoped for
life and victory.
So, in November 1910, the conflict was resumed;
and in December there took place the second General
Election this time, by agreement between the Prime
Minister and the King, a test Election on the Veto
166 THE PRIME MINISTER
Bill. The decision of January was practically re-
peated; and Mr. Lloyd George, again leaving his elec-
tioneering chances in Carnarvonshire to his local
friends, was returned by a second sweeping majority. 1
The second Election proved too much even for the
strength of Mr. Lloyd George. After speaking up
in Scotland with a strong fever actually on him, he was
struck with a touch of serious throat trouble. His
voice was threatened. After many efforts to go on, he
finally accepted the verdict of seclusion, and spent a
prolonged rest in a spacious, restful mansion behind
the Sussex downs, lent to him by Mr. (afterwards Sir
Arthur) Markham. He grew to a genuine love of this
peaceful life; and when he returned to the turmoil,
it was with a certain reluctance.
Driven back on reading as his sole diversion, he
rambled widely through literature and read a great deal
of history.
But his chief occupation during these months was
the preparation of the famous Insurance Bill of 1911.
All who saw much of Mr. Lloyd George at that
time knew that that measure was inspired by nothing
less than a profound compassion for the sick and the
suffering a passion sobered by reflection, but still
burning with an intense fire behind all his cool and
calculated moves.
He was moved by a spirit best expressed in Blake's
golden verse:
1 His majorities in the Carnarvon Boroughs have been rising on
the whole steadily since the first election in 1890. In 1892 he de-
feated Sir John Puleston by 196, as against 18 in 1890. In 1895
he again defeated Mr. Nanney by 194, In 1900 he defeated Colonel
Platt by 296. In 1906 he won by 1,224; ' n January 1910 by 1,078;
in December by 1,208.
CIVIL STRIFES 167
"I will not cease from mental strife,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land."
Before drafting the Bill he took a prolonged and
careful survey of the condition of the people: in Mr.
Charles Booth's books, in. the Poor Law Commission
Reports, and from every possible source of the written
and spoken word. He was appalled; and he expected
every one else to be appalled. Carried forward by his
own emotion, he did not perhaps realise the power of
familiarity, the force of usage, the strength of vested
interest.
He was greatly surprised and disappointed by the
attitude of the doctors. He had always held the medi-
cal profession in the highest admiration l ; and per-
haps he expected more from them than any organised
profession could supply. He had been so absorbed by
conferences with the Friendly Societies that he perhaps
did not sufficiently realise the importance of constant * /
consultations with the doctors in the preparation of his *t^to -3
schemes.
He was also sincerely surprised at the attitude
of the well-to-do classes. He had imagined that the
enforcement of contributions would disarm their hos-
tility. As it was, he lost on both sides; though he
never regretted his decision in favour of contributions.
With all his sympathy perhaps because of it he
entertained a great horror of a pauperised working-
class.
Here, too, he had to face a revolt of the timid with-
in his own party, There arose in the autumn of 1911
1 There is a remarkable and eloquent passage on the doctor's
work in the Limehouse speech.
168 THE PRIME MINISTER
the same cry for "postponement" always the first
step to abandonment. He resisted it steadily; pushed
forward his Bill, this time with the help of the
strongest closures; and in December the House of
Lords, perhaps chastened by events, allowed the In-
surance Act to pass into law.
So ended the first stage of that great scheme of
social reform with which he designed to change the
face of England. Insurance against sickness and kin-
dred ills was combined with an Act for insurance
against unemployment; and for the first time in our
history labour was backed by security.
Then, in 1912, amid the distractions of the growing
crisis in Ireland, Mr. Lloyd George proceeded to
approach the greatest of all fastnesses of privilege
the English Land Laws. Here was a more formidable
enterprise than any he had yet undertaken. He had
to carry out his own inquiries for it had been proved
by experience that the tenants of English land were
in too precarious a position to venture an open dis-
closure of their wrongs to an open Commission. He
appointed an able Land Committee, of which Mr. (now
Sir) Arthur Acland became the Chairman. That Com-
mittee carried out its work with great courage and
ability, and published two books which are still classical
summaries of the main features of our land system,
stated with fairness and thoroughness. 1 In a series of
great speeches, Mr. Lloyd George in 1912 and 1913
announced his intention of making legislative proposals
and carrying out the conclusions of this Committee.
But, in the meantime, across this great endeavour,
1 The Land. The Report of the Land Inquiry Committee, Vol. I.
Rural, and Vol. II, Urban. (Hodder & Stoughton, 1913.)
CIVIL STRIFES 169
there had arisen a hue and cry which had given new
hope to the friends of the existing order. The great
controversy of the Marconi shares seems now very far
away. The whole case fabricated against Mr. Lloyd
George in those days seem very ridiculous now. The
perspective has changed very much since one of the
great English political parties could deliberately set
out to ruin a political opponent on account of one act
of carelessness. 1
But it does not do to throw stones. Party strife is
an ugly business at best; and he would be a bold man
who should say that, in similar circumstances the Lib-
eral Party would have shown a spirit very much better.
In this matter of rushing readily to false accusations
we have all sinned pretty deeply in our public life.
Suspicion is the peculiar vice of democracies; and he
would be bold who should say that the real scandal of
the Marconi affair the scandal of accusation so
poisoned and exaggerated as to amount to calumny
adopted as a policy and a cause will not occur again.
Mr. Lloyd George suffered very much through this
affair. For the moment it achieved its object of hold-
ing up his whole activities in furthering his Land Cam-
paign. But at last the fever of the assault died away,
and men began to return to the light of common reason,
and to see the thing in its real proportions. Then
there succeeded in the public mind a fit of remorse
which worked in Mr. Lloyd George's favour; and both
in London and in Wales he was banqueted and ac-
claimed. For, if the victims survive the rigours of the
"ordeal by torture," then the populace applauds.
1 It is a strange fact that nothing worse was ever distinctly charged
against him by his worst foes, although much was insinuated.
170 THE PRIME MINISTER
From another campaign of the same sort at an
earlier date (1908) Mr. Lloyd George had emerged
victorious in the Courts with damages of 1,000,
which enabled him to adorn his native village of Llany-
stumdwy with a very handsome Institute, where all
his fellow villagers can now read the newspapers and
enjoy the advantages of a well-chosen library. So
out of evil sometimes good proceeds.
In 1914 Mr. Lloyd George resumed the prepara-
tions for his Land Bills. It was his intention to intro-
duce them into the House of Commons during the
Session of this year, thus placing them before the
country witty a view of the General Election already
looming ahead.
But across all these designs there came, in June and
July 1914, a flood of reverberating events the Ulster
crisis, the officers' revolt, the gun-running, first of
Larne and then of Dublin. Like other Ministers, Mr.
Lloyd George was absorbed in a situation which
threatened instant civil war.
Then once more, across the threat of civil war, came
the even greater menace of an even vaster peril
world-war.
In the tremendous crisis that followed Mr. Lloyd
George took the middle course. He was not for war
against Germany at all costs. On Saturday, August
2nd, he was inclined to vote for peace; and if, neces-
sary, to resign for peace.
On that day as he has told the world the biggest
financiers in the City, including the Governor of the
Bank of England, came to him, as Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and urged that peace should be preserved,
CIVIL STRIFES 171
and that we should stand aside from the strifes of
Europe. On Monday it was known that Germany had
invaded Belgium. At once all these men swung over
to the side of war.
Mr. Lloyd George himself, separately and inde-
pendently, followed the same course. Eager as he
had been in the past for peace, he had no hesitation
from the moment that Germany invaded Belgium.
We had pledged our word; and we must keep it.
On Monday he was for war.
He had definitely chosen his part.
CHAPTER XIV
A WAR MAN
"O Statesmen, guard us, guard the eye, the soul
Of Europe, keep our noble England whole."
TENNYSON.
FROM the moment that war was declared (August
4th, 1914), Mr. Lloyd George put aside all his doubts
and hesitations. The perplexities of the previous week
passed away like so many clouds from a summer sky.
He became from that instant a war man, intent on
nothing but achieving victory.
"I can understand a man opposing a war," he used
to say, "but I cannot understand his waging a war with
half a heart." In regard to the attitude of various
friends in political life, he would always express a cer-
tain whimsical tenderness for those who were entirely
opposed to the war. "Ah," he would say, "I was in
that position once myself, and I know how difficult it
is!" Wholly wrong as he thought them, dangerous as
he thought their activities to the country, he could not
shake off a certain admiration for their courage. But
the men for whom he had no tolerance were those who
waged the war with a backward glance over their
shoulder all the time at the lost vision of peace. That
seemed to him a confusing and weakening attitude.
Peace was to be achieved, of course; that must always
be the very aim of war; but once war began peace could
172
A WAR MAN 173
only be retrieved across the gulf of war itself. That
being the situation, he saw nothing for it but to bend
the whole energies of the State to the sole purpose
of conducting the war with the utmost power.
He realised at once that Great Britain was up against
the most terrible danger that had ever faced it in the
whole course of its existence. He knew Germany;
he had a thorough understanding of German efficiency.
Especially did he grasp the full strength and power
given to the German Government by the patriotism of
the German people. In entering upon this mighty en-
terprise, he approached the matter with the utmost
gravity and seriousness. I never saw him so grave-
minded as he was during those first months of the war.
We rallied him one morning at breakfast for refusing
to laugh at some jest. "The times are very serious,"
he said, and once more he seemed lost in his own
thoughts again. He used to describe the moment when
the Western world paused from peace to war as the
most solemn and awful in his whole life. "We sat
waiting for Big Ben to strike the hour when the ulti-
matum expired. We all fell quite silent. As the great
blows of the hammer sounded on the bell we seemed
to be passing into another world."
From the very first he took Lord Kitchener's view
of the seriousness and probable length of the war. He
was not a war "pessimist." He would not accept that
phrase. "I look at the facts," he would say, "I merely
refuse to live in dreamland." When people used to
come to him in that bouncingly cheerful mood which
patriots tried to cultivate in those days, he used to
look at them gravely and say, "Have you read all the
bulletins?" And then he would go on: "Have you
174. THE PRIME MINISTER
read the bulletins on both sides?" Or to another he
would say, "Have you looked at the maps?" For he
always saw the war as a whole: he grasped it in the
East as well as in the West. It was not that he was
particularly disturbed by untoward incidents ; he rarely
discussed any such incident. It was the proportions
of the vast forces at issue which filled his mind and
imagination.
There were several consoling theories popular dur-
ing the first year of the war for which he had little
taste. There was the idea, preached in many powerful
quarters, that German man-power would soon be ex-
hausted. Mr. Lloyd George was an open sceptic on
that point. It was not merely that the Germanic
Powers had far more men than most English people
realised at that time; it was also his fixed imaginative
feeling that the resisting power of a country does not
ultimately depend on numbers. It was the spirit of
Germany that he feared ruthless to others, merciless
to itself. In a public speech he expressed that once
as the "potato-bread" spirit.
Then there was the theory that Germany would soon
be starved into submission. There again his imagina-
tion came to his help. "How do you know?" he would
say. "How can you tell at what point a nation will
cry for mercy? That does not depend upon the amount
of food; it depends upon the spirit of the nation. His-
tory shows that there is little limit to what some nations
will endure before they surrender."
The practical upshot of all this was that he could see
no alternative to a clear and clean military victory.
The only reason, in fact, why he combated such theories
A WAR MAN 175
as "attrition" and "hunger-surrender" was that he re-
garded them as excuses unconsciously put forward to
avoid the strain and stress necessary for that achieve-
ment. He saw men at that period cultivating optimism
as a means of concealing from themselves the stark
realities. He saw others preferring short views to
long preparations. He perceived that too many were
seeking for any or every other means of a softer out-
let; and yet, to his mind, the sole chance of obtaining a
satisfactory close to the war lay along the iron road
of victory. It was in that way that he came to regard
the people he met as too sanguine; for that reason
he set himself to preach a more sombre view.
So much did this view afterwards prevail that it is
difficult to recall now those amazingly cheerful fore-
casts so popular during the first six months of the war.
Public opinion soon recovered from the first shock
of the retreat from Mons. There were even a con-
siderable body of people who persuaded themselves to
regard that valorous series of rear-guard actions as a
crowning victory. When, on September 9th, 1914, the
Germans stopped their advance and began to retire to
the line of the Marne, there were some who talked as
if the war were already ended.
This was not by any means entirely the fault of the
public, for a strict censorship had concealed from us
in Great Britain that gigantic defeat of the Russians
at the end of August known now as the battle of Tan-
nenberg. There the Russian General Samsonoff had
been drawn on to the lakes of East Prussia by Hin-
denburg, and a second Cannae had been achieved. A
vast number of Russians had been killed and captured;
176 THE PRIME MINISTER
90,000 had been taken prisoners, and no less than 516
guns captured. 1
All these things were known to Mr. Lloyd George ;
and he did not possess the faculty, somewhat common
in high places, of persuading himself that an incon-
venient fact must necessarily be untrue. Nor was he
so bemused by the censorship as to believe that you
could make an unpleasant fact untrue simply by keep-
ing it secret. He knew by the beginning of September
that the theory of the Russian "steam-roller" must
be set aside. He had realised already that the main
effort would now lie with England. That was what
gave so much sobriety to his outlook.
As the last months of 1914 passed by, the situation
as a whole certainly did not improve. The Russian
invasion of Eastern Prussia was definitely stayed.
There were indeed certain compensations. In Septem-
ber the Russians seized Eastern Galicia and the Buko-
vina. In those months the Serbians, with heroic valour,
three times drove back the invading Austrians from
their little country. But it became obvious that the
Russians, however daring in combat, lacked the gen-
eralship required for reaping the fruits of their suc-
cesses. At the beginning of October Germany came
to the help of Austria, and there was a great rally of
the Austro-German forces. The Russians were driven
ou? of Western Galicia, and in October a large part
of Western Poland was seized by the Germans. In
November there was another spasmodic recovery of
the Russians; but again in later November they were
driven back to within forty miles of Warsaw, and the
1 See the full account in LudendorfPs War Memories (vol. i. pp.
41-72).
A WAR MAN 177
opening of 1915 saw Russia practically on the de-
fensive.
The meaning of all these events to Mr. Lloyd
George was, that if we were to achieve victory we must
prepare for a very great and prolonged effort; and
he determined to set himself to the task of tuning the
country up to the pitch of the highest endeavour.
It must be remembered that at this time he was still
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and therefore not directly
concerned with war matters. All his arguments and
interventions both in war policy and foreign policy were
liable to be regarded, according to the prevailing tra-
ditions of our Cabinet rule, as trespasses from the
straight and narrow path of direct responsibility.
Still, he felt it his duty, as a citizen and a Minister,
to run all the risks of personal misunderstanding that
might arise from honest and vigorous expressions of
his own mind. For, rightly or wrongly, he took a
very serious view of the situation at the end of 1914.
He felt his responsibility all the heavier for the knowl-
edge which he possessed. The British public were look-
ing only at the splendid achievements of our armies in
the West. What they did not see was the heavy thun-
dercloud in the East the great German armies gather-
ing themselves for a mighty, tigerish spring on to
some of the fairest provinces of our great Eastern
Ally.
Here was the loss side to this account the achieve-
ments in the East of those German divisions which
had been withdrawn from the advance on Paris, and
had left their diminished armies to fall back on the
Marne.
Mr. Lloyd George refused to regard those defeats
178 THE PRIME MINISTER
of the Russian armies as inevitable. He would never
consent to be a fatalist. He represented the vigorous
energy of the Western man eager and insistent to
strive against the shocks of fortune.
Frankly he was not content with the measures taken
to grip the situation. He did not feel that any military
plans were being considered adequate to face the
perils that threatened us. He was unhappy and dis-
satisfied with the plans he knew of; he felt little con-
fidence that others would be devised more fit to avert
these perils.
It was at this time that he first suggested day-to-day
sittings of the War Committee for the conduct of the
war. It was the first appearance of that proposal for
a small War Cabinet which afterwards developed so
stormily from the stress and travail of the war. Not
before three years of trying the old bottles was the
new wine to find a vessel fit for its feverish ferment.
During the Christmas holidays Mr. Lloyd George
carefully surveyed the situation. With the opening
of 1915 this is how he saw it.
Russia was in danger of a blow at the heart. In
the West the military situation had reached a dead-
lock * ; and it was not yet physically possible that the
armies at this time raised by us should drive back the
German invader in any time that then seemed reason-
able from the North of France and Belgium. On those
lines the war seemed certain to last a very long time,
though not even he at that time cast his eyes beyond
the historic three years fixed by Lord Kitchener. He
*See the remarkable survey of the military situation in January
1915, contained on page 19 of the Dardanelles Commission's First
Report (Cd. 8490). That survey confirms Mr. Lloyd George's views
at that time.
A WAR MAN 179
wished, at all possible costs, to avoid a long war.
Looking across Europe, he asked himself Was
there not some alternative way? Some road to a
quicker ending of this world agony?
He found it in the Near East, at that point where
the Teuton power touched the Danube, and was still
at that time held back by the heroic resistance of the
Serbians.
The plan that framed itself in his mind was to com-
bine the Balkan States to revive the Federation to
send a great British army to their help, and attack
with these combined forces perhaps amounting to
1,000,000 men the Eastern flank of the Central
Powers.
This great scheme must not be confused with the
subsequent expeditions to Gallipoli and Salonika. It
was something far larger in conception, and far more
splendid in grasp and sweep of action.
It was a proposal for employing the new British
armies, before they were wearied by being set to the
tasks that break men, for fortifying our Allies, and for
snatching success before the watching neutrals of the
Near East Bulgaria, Greece, and Rumania were di-
vided and distracted by doubt and failure.
It was also an essential part of his larger hope that
such an effort would relieve the pressure on Russia
and finally perhaps draw off the bulk of the German
armies from the West to the help of Austria.
In his view the plan entailed far less risk than shaped
itself in the minds of the timid. A visit to the Western
front had impressed him with the feeling that this was
not then the easiest place for a successful assault on
the Central Powers. Here you would meet them just
180 THE PRIME MINISTER
at the point .where they had the greatest mastery over
their defensive. The West, it seemed to him, was the
proper place for a persistent, concentrated, and even
vigilant defensive. But at that time the spot for a
more prosperous offensive had, in the view strongly
impressed upon him by observation, to be sought else-
where.
His policy was to make the Western line impreg-
nable; but, with the forces that could be spared beyond
that necessary effort, to prepare and execute a great
strategical diversion along the line of the Danube,
striking into territory inhabited by men sympathetic
to the Western Allies, and supporting our own weaker
Allies among the Balkan States. In this way he hoped
to save Serbia, to prevent the German "break-through"
to the East, and in the end to divert the great Ger-
man hosts from their assaults on Great Britain and
Russia.
Such was the "Near Eastern idea" in its large scope
and purpose. Those who held it were necessarily op-
posed to the earlier frontal assaults in the West,
chivalrously and splendidly undertaken before we had
an unquestionable superiority in numbers and guns.
Like Botha in South Africa at the later stage of the
Boer War like every great general when he is out-
numbered and out-gunned they were seeking a "way
round." It was a very big "way round" by Durazzo
or Salonika but the point is that it seemed at the
time the only possible way round.
We must remember that the submarine menace had
not yet developed, that Bulgaria had not yet declared
war, that we were still as much masters of the Medi-
terranean as ever in our long history. Austria had not
A WAR MAN 181
yet stiffened her army with German troops, and Russia
was still uninvaded. All these were governing facts
in this great scheme.
It was characteristic of his buoyant faith that he
firmly believed that the appearance of a great British
army in the Balkans would surely bring in both the
Rumanians and the Greeks to our aid. In his view
those nations were at the moment hypnotised by the
fate of Belgium.
They genuinely feared the military power and terror
of Germany. What they wanted was a convincing
proof of our land strength. They knew us as a naval
power; but that was not enough for this war. Here
was this new thing our growing military potency.
Very well, let us display this side of our strength to
the world. Let us land our new armies in the Near
East.
Such was the large design, boldly schemed and boldly
started, which he set before his political and military
colleagues in the early months of 1915. He firmly be-
lieved that it would inspire our arms with a new force
and vigour. It would give our young soldiers a new
hope. It would confuse and embarrass the German
defence. It would present them for the first time in
this campaign with that dash of the sudden, secret,
and unexpected which was so often their own special
way. It would knock away the German props by
threatening her Allies ; and it would build up new props
for us by heartening ours. Such were the broad and
daring ideas which underlay his thoughts.
We know that this great scheme did not prevail at
the time, although pale ghosts of it lingered on and
182 THE PRIME MINISTER
haunted the stricken fields of war. The flesh and
substance of the plan evaporated in the atmosphere
of doubt. Between all the Allies and the Chancelleries
of the Allies, in the chilling alleys and by-ways
of debate and diplomacy, this great enterprise lost "the
name of action." It was "sicklied o'er with the pale
cast of thought." Tradition, convention, conven-
ience all combined to strangle it.
We cannot say now how it would have prospered.
The fortunes of war are always, after all, on the
knees of the gods. No mortal can command suc-
cess; we can only deserve it.
Such opportunities do not occur twice. The Near
Eastern vision faded. The country set itself grimly
to solve by direct methods the problem of the West.
How heroically, how tenaciously the British race would
set its teeth into that endeavour perhaps no one could
then quite foresee; but, casting our minds back over
these bloodstained years, the question cannot but again
recur Might there not have been a shorter road?
CHAPTER XV
EAST OR WEST?
"For East is East, and West is West,
And never the twain shall meet."
RUDYARD KIPLING.
IT is characteristic of Mr. Lloyd George that, when
his mind once seizes hold of an idea, he is wholly pos-
sessed with it until either he can bring it to accom-
plishment or he is fully convinced of its impracticability.
It was so with regard to this great scheme of out-
flanking the Central Powers by an attack from the
Near East. The more he reflected upon it the more
there seemed to lie in this plan one great chance of
bringing a speedy decision to the war. But, for better
or for worse, the reinforcements were now being di-
rected to the Western Front; and the policy of the
Western Allies was more and more concentrated on
that sphere of offence and defence France, from
absorption in her immediate danger, and Great Bri-
tain for her instinctive military preference for cam-
paigning nearer to her sacred seas.
Out-voted in that larger proposal, Mr. Lloyd George
now fell back on a smaller design. The cautious di-
plomacy of the Allies had shrunk from the large, bold
strokes necessary for combining the Balkan States as
an eastern wing of our offensive against the Central
Powers; their military chiefs had hesitated to supply
183
184 THE PRIME MINISTER
the means. Never at that stage did the Governments
of the Allies fully realise the full proportionate value
of the Balkan States in the vast scheme of the great
European struggle.
But it was soon clear that, if the Western Powers
were inclined to leave the Balkan States to themselves,
the Central Powers had no such intention. Quite
early in the war Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Winston
Churchill scented the danger of German intrigue in the
Balkans, and the vast lure of that easy "corridor" to
the East offered by the trans-Balkan railway system.
In September 1914 they induced the Foreign Office
to send the Buxton brothers to Sofia; and the proposals
which those delegates brought back in January 1915
played an important part in the negotiations of Feb-
ruary. 1
Some time before the end of January 1915, indeed,
the British Government got to know that Germany was
already preparing a large army for the invasion of
Serbia. Mr. Lloyd George instantly realised the
gravity and urgency of this peril. It was largely due
to his initiative that a note was sent to Greece and
Rumania, urging those states to come to the assistance
of Serbia.
No note was sent to Bulgaria. It was already dimly
realised that this State was being drawn into the far-
flung net of the Central Powers. The "Prussia of the
Balkans" presented too rich a field to be left unhar-
vested by the needy gleaners of Germany. The
1 On Sunday, August 26th, 1917, at Athens, M. Venizelos revealed
the details of an earlier entente between Greece and the Allies,
planned by him before the battle of the Marne. It was frustrated
by King Constantine. The Greek White Paper since published fully
confirms this.
EAST OR WEST? 185
anxious and hard-pressed diplomats of Berlin, seeking
eagerly for friends in a world growing more and more
hostile, were already tapping at the doors of Sofia,
offering golden and honeyed gifts to a State which had
fed too long on the east wind.
Rumours of these approaches grew so strong and
convincing that Mr. Lloyd George was moved by them
to take fresh action along his old lines. It was now
no longer a question of a great offensive with a gigantic
army on the Near Eastern flank of the enemy. Fate
does not repeat her opportunities; and the chances of
that great diversion were already slipping away. It
was now rather a question whether we should be in
time even to save our smaller friends in the Near East
whether we should be able to prevent this threatened
gigantic "sortie" of the Central Powers from the siege
of the Entente Allies. Already, in January, Mr.
Lloyd George saw, in that flashing way of his, all the
tragic possibilities that might flow from a German
"break-through" in the Balkans. Already he foresaw
the fearful and disastrous fate of a conquered Serbia.
With this tragedy ever clearly in his mind's eye, Mr.
Lloyd George left no stone unturned to avert it. In
the middle of January he succeeded in persuading his
colleagues to offer a whole army corps to Greece on
condition that she would agree to join us in the war.
Lord Kitchener agreed to spare the troops, and ap-
proved the wording of the offer. But it was necessary
to obtain the approval of the Allies.
France was not for the moment happy at the idea of
sending troops to the Near East. There came from
across the Channel a breath of acute anxiety, the
anxiety of an invaded and ravaged country.
186 THE PRIME MINISTER
The result was that the official note was held back
and somewhat modified. The military offer of help
to Greece and Serbia began to become vaguer. The
army corps began to become a little ghostly. We can
see the great plan still further dwindling into shadows.
Then, on January 26th, a new development occurred.
M. Venizelos sent to London the Greek reply to the
first note of the Allies, asking for help on behalf of
Serbia. The reply was that, on certain conditions,
Greece agreed to join in the war on the side of the
Allies. If those conditions were fulfilled, then Greece
so the answer ran was willing to give its assistance
to Serbia, and to place the whole of its resources at the
service of a "just and liberal cause."
But the chief of the conditions was that Bulgaria
should come in as well on the Allied side. If not, then
Rumania must come in and Bulgaria remain neutral. 1
So far, so good. It now remained to persuade
France.
On February 5th there was to be held in Paris one
of those Allied Conferences on policy and strategy
which have been held periodically throughout the war.
These Conferences were, indeed, orginally Mr.
Lloyd George's own special and favourite plan for
bringing the Allies into a better sympathy of mind and
1 These were the main points. The actual conditions were very
complex:
(a) That England should endeavour to bring about the
collaboration of Bulgaria with Greece, in which case Greece
would withdraw her opposition to Serbia ceding part of Mace-
donia to Bulgaria.
(b) If this condition could not be obtained, then the Powers
should obtain the co-operation of Rumania, and the neutrality
of Bulgaria.
(c) If not, then Greece must be assisted by a substantial
British contingent, or a joint British and French contingent
EAST OR WEST? 187
purpose; and he had always promoted them with zeal
and enthusiasm, which grew with his friendship for
M. Albert Thomas. On this occasion February 5th,
1915 he had been selected to go over himself to
Paris as the British delegate.
He proposed that M. Venizelos should come from
Greece and meet him in Paris. But the domestic crisis
in Greece was now passing into a stage far too acute
for M. Venizelos to leave Athens. That eminent man
was making his last effort to work with King Con-
stantine.
Mr. Lloyd George went to Paris and won his case.
That gallant nation, anxious to help the weak, and
threatened even in the midst of her own agony, con-
sented to join in the expedition. The French Cabinet
were willing to send a French division to work with
the British division to which Lord Kitchener had
already agreed.
Returning to London, he informed the British mili-
tary authorities, who in their turn offered to "go one
better," and to spare two British divisions.
Mr. Lloyd George was now all eager for instant
action.
He urged that the new Joint Note, offering military
aid, should be sent at once. He brushed aside for the
moment the idea of arriving at a general Balkan agree-
ment on the lines of the proposals brought back by
the Buxtons from Sofia. The Bulgarian suggestion that
Serbia should make a considerable surrender of terri-
tory seemed to him impossible for Serbia after their
recent struggles and sufferings. He had already a very
deep perception that Bulgaria was hardening against
the Entente. He saw definite evidence of it in Ger-
188 THE PRIME MINISTER
many's known willingness to lend her money. It did
not seem to him conceivable that Germany should be
advancing money to Bulgaria without some assurance
as to Bulgaria's action in certain contingencies. The
Germans were not such fools.
Besides, Rumania seemed to him now less friendly.
All the more need, then, for prompt and energetic
action to clinch the friendliness of our most probable
ally, Greece.
He felt very acutely at this moment the evil and
harm of a dilatory policy. It was on his mind all the
time that, if they failed to act in time to save Serbia,
their responsibility would be a terrible one. Even
days seemed to him to count in the great issues that
lay before them.
It was a great design, greatly urged. It is impos-
sible to say now whether it would have fulfilled the
hopes of its chief sponsor. He had won over to his
side all the chief forces in the West. The expedition
that was about to start would have probably forestalled
and averted that ill-starred enterprise of the Darda-
nelles-Gallipoli attack which opened on February 25th.
But just on the eve of fruition other forces inter-
vened. While Mr. Lloyd George had been working
in the West of Europe, the Central Powers had been
busy in the Near East. On January 26th had come
the conditional Greek offer to intervene in the war.
On February 6th came their definite refusal.
The crash came suddenly. Russia had just promised
10,000 men towards the new Balkan enterprise. Then,
at that moment of apparent success, M. Venizelos sud-
denly informed the British Minister at Athens that
Greece had decided not to join the Allies in the war.
EAST OR WEST? 189
The refusal was abruptly worded, and the grounds
given were very definite. They were that Greece found
herself unable to obtain the conditions laid down in
the reply of January 26th. One of those conditions
was that Bulgaria should either join Greece in declar-
ing war, or should promise neutrality. She had re-
fused to do either. Another condition had been that
Rumania should join. But Rumania, still hesitating
between the two belligerent groups, would give no de-
cided answer. It was at that moment the fear of
Greece that, if she sent an army northwards to -the help
of Serbia, then Bulgaria would move to the south,
seize Kavalla, and would strike westwards into Mace-
donia to drive a wedge between Greece and Serbia.
In such a case it seemed more than possible that Greece
would be crushed.
It is fair also "to say that Bulgaria's refusal of a
promise of neutrality was for Greece an ominous and
formidable fact. It is inevitable that Greece should
have been looking -rather at her resentful neighbour
than at those larger aims of European interest -which
filled the policies of the Western Powers; it was nat-
ural and human that their first and possessing fear
should be lest the work of the war of 1913 should be
undone. For in that terrible war the price of victory
had been appallingly high for so small a nation. No
less than 30,000 Greek soldiers had been killed within
a few days in that tremendous onslaught which had
driven back the treacherous Bulgarian a-ttack. Greece,
with her small supply of men, could not lightly contem-
plate the repetition of such a sacrifice, or the loss of
the gains which had been so fearfully purchased.
Mr. Lloyd George did not give up hope. He knew
190 THE PRIME MINISTER
enough to foresee, for instance, that the new attack of
Bulgaria was bound to come, and that the most pru-
dent course was to forestall it. It was at this moment
that the suggestion came from Greek sources, 1 that
Mr. Lloyd George should himself go out to the Bal-
kans as a Commissioner to bring together the Balkan
States. Mr. Lloyd George himself consented; and Mr.
Asquith approved. But it was soon found that Mr.
Lloyd George was wanted too urgently at the centre
to be spared for distant missions.
The Greek Government held to its refusal. The
Greek General Staff had pronounced strongly against
Greek military intervention as long as Bulgaria re-
mained even neutral; and M. Venizelos had now grave
cause to believe that Bulgaria was pledged to the
Central Powers. He hesitated to bind himself with
the Army and the Crown against him.
As for the Greek King Constantine, he was already
drifting along that fatal course which led ultimately to
his exile. It was reported to the British Government
that he sa.w the German military Attache every day,
while he refused to see the British Attache at all.
Thus cut off for the moment from effective inter-
vention on the Danube, the British Government drifted
towards that tremendous Dardanelles enterprise 2
which took the place of the Serbian proposal. The first
bombardment of the Dardanelles forts (February 25th
to 26th) seemed to go prosperously; and at the open-
ing of March Russia began to do well. Once more
there was a new twist in the designs of the Greek
Crown Government; and on March 6th the Crown
1 This suggestion actually came from Sir John Stavridi, the Greek
Consul-General.
2 See the Dardanelles Report passim, 1917, Cd. 8490.
EAST OR WEST? 191
Council assembled at Athens offered the whole Greek
fleet and one Greek division for co-operation in the
attack on the Dardanelles.
But already the curt refusal of the previous overtures
had driven the Allies to other designs; and the pro-
Bulgarian influences in Russia were now very strong.
Bulgaria was now astutely offering to lend her armies
for an attack on Constantinople from the north-west
while the fleets were hammering at the Straits. The
old Russian Court Government, always fearful of
Greek designs on Constantinople, leaned towards Bul-
garia, and, now that a choice seemed possible, preferred
Bulgarian help to Greek.
As far as we can peer through the mists of Balkan
intrigue, the success of the earlier bombardments of
the Dardanelles outer forts swung Bulgaria for the
time away from her Teutonic 'bearings. She was for
the moment inclined to join the Entente, if only from
fear of the consequences. 1 Whether she had signed
an agreement with Germany or not, does not seem to
have troubled the statesmen at Sofia, and certainly not
the King. 2 The sanctity of a treaty would probably
not ha-ve affected the policy of a country already
strongly bitten with the virus of Prussia's world-poli-
tics. Bulgaria was, in fact, during that time making
offers to both sides; she was, in vulgar language, wait-
ing to see u how the cat jumped." For the moment,
1 See Dardanelles Commission First Report, p. 39. "It can scarce-
ly be doubted that, had it not been for the Dardanelles Expedition,
Bulgaria would have joined the Central Powers at a far earlier
date than was actually the case. Mr. Asquith was strongly of
this opinion in the extracts quoted from his evidence. 'Yes, I am
certain of it,' he said to the Chairman.'" (Page 40.)
*The Greek White Book has revealed that an understanding
existed between Bulgaria, the Central Powers, and Turkey ever
since August, 1914.
192 THE PRIME MINISTER
therefore, she became "pro-Entente." But immediately
that the failure of the Dardanelles attack became ap-
parent she swung back into the Teutonic orbit. The
diplomatic situation was, as Lord Grey fairly claimed, 1
"overshadowed by the military."
Deeply disappointed with Greece, Mr. Lloyd George
now held aloof from her overtures, and was inclined,
for the moment, to hope something even from the Bul-
garian alternative. During the spring and summer of
1915 the Russian campaign diverted the German re-
sources for a while from the meditated attack on Ser-
bia. The position along the Danube became less
threatening. It became the German design to throw
back Russia from Galicia and Poland before she en-
tered upon her great Near Eastern enterprise. The
result was a temporary lull for Serbia.
The British Government hoped to avail herself of
this lull to bring together the Balkan States. Bulgaria
assumed a willingness to join the Allies on the condition
of certain large concessions of territory from Greece
and Serbia. M. Venizelos even went so far as to im-
peril his position in Greece by suggesting consent. Mr.
Lloyd George was now more hopeful of bringing to-
gether the old Balkan Federation on these lines. His
general idea was that the Allies should occupy the
zone of Macedonia as disputed between Serbia and Bul-
garia, on condition that if they could secure Bosnia and
Herzegovina forSerbia in the final settlementthey should
then hand the disputed territory over to Bulgaria.
But the sacrifices of the Serbian people in the previ-
ous three years had been too great for the Serbian
1 Extract from his evidence in the Dardanelles Report.
EAST OR WEST? 193
Government to be able to bring them to agree to so
large a concession. The Serbians were still filled with
the glow of their triple repulse of Austria; and for the
moment the new danger seemed to have drawn off. The
great European thunderstorm was now echoing far
away in the mountains of Carpathia and the plains of
Poland. It was difficult for the Serbians to realise at
that moment that a time would come when security
would be cheap at a great price.
In April there came another twist in the devious
track of Balkan intrigue. M. Venizelos had tendered
his first resignation, and Constantine was entering upon
his first effort to build up an absolute monarchy in
Athens. On April I5th the Crown Council made a sud-
den offer to bring Greece into the war on the side of the
Allies. The Allies gravely suspected the honesty of
this offer. They knew that Greece was already hand
in glove with Germany ; and there were strong reasons
to believe that the Royalist Government could not be
entrusted with Allied secrets. In any case, the Allies
sent no reply; and it was not until Venizelos regained
power that they resumed friendly negotiations with the
Greek Government.
All through this time Mr. Lloyd George himself
was resolute against having any dealings whatever with
the King's party in Greece. He took the strong line
that the Allies, as guarantors of the Greek constitu-
tion, should refuse to negotiate with any Government
which existed in contradiction to the elementary prin-
ciples of democratic constitutionalism. 1
1 The treachery revealed by the Greek White Paper has since
shown the wisdom of this attitude. King Constantine, it is now
known, was in close and constant communication with the German
Emperor.
194 THE PRIME MINISTER
At long last (1917) this policy prevailed. That an-
cient and historic torch-bearer of freedom, Greece,
swung round to our side. She ended by resisting the
despotisms of the North as she resisted the despotisms
of the East in olden days. King Constantine went into
exile. M. Venizelos became the ruler at Athens. He
threw the sword of Greece into the trembling scales of
the great European struggle, and helped to decide the
issue.
The end justified the hope to which Mr. Lloyd
George clung through the darkest hours of Royal
Greek apostasy.
But who shall say what might have happened if he
had not, through the black years of 1915 and 1916,
kept alive in Western Europe the flickering sparks of
faith in Greece ?
CHAPTER XVI
SERBIA
"We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died
in vain." ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1863.
MR. LLOYD GEORGE now turned from the disap-
pointments and tragedies of the Near East to look
more closely into the situation at home.
The opening of 1915 was a season of hope in Great
Britain. The great effort to force the Dardanelles
filled the public mind with visions. That attempt was
then most lyrically applauded by those who afterwards
rushed to denounce it. The whole outlook was mag-
ically irradiated with the mirage of that golden prom-
ise.
Here was a quick cure for all our troubles.
Men dreamt of a speedy blow that would cut off
the Central Powers from Turkey, and open to Russia
an easy door to the West.
They thought little at that moment, and knew less,
of the blows which Germany was preparing for Rus-
sia.
The story of the Dardanelles expedition has been
fully told. 1 We all know the origin and history of
that expedition, and can apportion with some fairness
the proper spheres of blame and praise. Mr. Lloyd
*In two Reports, 1917 Cd. 8490 6 d and Cmd. 371, 2 s (Part II).
The second, dealing with the military operations, is very sensa-
tional, and has not received enough attention.
195
196 THE PRIME MINISTER
George took little active personal part in the planning
and preparations for it, though he was a member of the
War Council, and later in June, became a member of
the Dardanelles Committee. 1 His own proposal had
been frustrated by events. Here was an alternative,
hatched by other brains, inspired by other hopes. It
was a serious thing to oppose it outright. His attitude
from the beginning was one of suspended judgment.
"Whatever you do, do thoroughly; if you do it at
all, put your full strength into it" that may be summed
up as his constantly reiterated counsel in regard to the
Dardanelles.
If this advice had been adopted perhaps even that
ill-starred enterprise might have met with better for-
tune.
But meanwhile, on other fields of war a situation
was developing even more menacing to Europe as a
whole. The great Teutonic attack on Russia began
to develop with terrible success in the early spring;
and Mr. Lloyd George took from the first a most seri-
ous view of this tremendous onslaught.
In the middle of February vast new armies of Ger-
mans, prepared in the winter, advanced to the invasion
of Courland, Poland, and Galicia. The Russian armies
still in Eastern Prussia had been speedily driven back
across the frontier in wholesale defeat; and the north-,
ern German armies began to advance on to Russian
soil. In the centre of Eastern Europe the Germans
advanced victoriously to within fifty miles of Warsaw
1 The Dardanelles Committee, which took over the control of the
war from the War Council on June 7th, 1915, consisted of eleven
members of the Coalition Government The War Council were
all Liberals. That was superseded on November 3rd, 1915, by
the War Committee, consisting of seven Ministers. Mr. Lloyd
George was a member of all these Committees.
SERBIA 197
before they met with a serious check. In the south the
Austrians drove the Russians from Bukovina. The
whole German-Austrian line was advanced throughout
the length of Europe, from the Baltic Sea to the Car-
pathian Mountains; and the hosts of the Central Em-
pires were preparing for that great dramatic thrust
which in May drove the Russians clean out of Galicia.
Such was the situation which British statesmen had
now to face. It was impossible to regard it with
indifference.
Mr. Lloyd George refused to be deceived by any
rosy hopes either in East or West. His own view
was that a firm grasp of reality was the first step to
success. Unless they looked facts in the face, they
could not grapple with them.
He came to be regarded as the Cassandra of the
war; but, as Lord Morley once remarked, the worst
thing about Cassandra was that she proved to be in
the right!
Surveying the prospects of the great war in Europe
as a whole, Mr. Lloyd George was seriously concerned
about several vital matters.
The most important of these was that, comparing
the available military man-power on both sides in this
great contest, the Entente Allies were at that moment
hopelessly outnumbered.
Germany and Austria at that moment had under
arms or preparing to be armed according to the
intelligence supplied to the Government no less than
8,700,000 men. Turkey had 500,000; she was soon,
indeed, to supply a far greater number of her popula-
tion as mercenaries to Germany.
198 THE PRIME MINISTER
On the other hand were France, Great Britain, Rus-
sia, and Serbia. Italy had not yet come into the war;
and America was still afar off. The trouble with Rus-
sia was that, though she had such an immense popula-
tion, she had many exemptions and few rifles. France
was always doing her very best; but her census figures
spoke for themselves. Great Britain was doing won-
ders with her voluntary system. But the question now
for the first time faced him full front Would our
voluntary system suffice to keep up our armies, much
less to supply the still greater armies that might be
required for victory?
He still, at that moment, clung to the voluntary
system. He thought that the necessary men could be
still obtained by the voluntary system if it were prop-
erly applied. His own idea at that moment was that
the best method of obtaining these men along volun-
tary lines was to follow the quota system. He was in
favour of letting each county and town know clearly
what was the proper proportion of men for them to
supply for the national need, and then to leave the rest
to local pressure and local patriotism. He firmly be-
lieved that if, for instance, it was officially announced
that a particular county ought to supply, say, 10,000
men, and if that county had hitherto supplied 6,000,
the remaining 4,000 would be forced to come in by
the strength of local pride.
That scheme was never really tried. For some rea-
son or other, there were forces at work against the
territorial system of recruiting ever since the begin-
ning of the war; and thus one of the greatest springs
of national energy remained untapped.
It was also his opinion that at that time the Domin-
SERBIA 199
ions would send far larger forces of men if they were
fully informed about the real facts of the situation,
instead of being fed by news from agencies whose chief
motive seemed to be to feed the popular vanity. That
sensible policy was afterwards so strongly urged by
Dominion statesmen that it was to some small extent
adopted.
Such were broadly Mr. Lloyd George's views and
feelings in February, 1915. He was still leaning to the
Eastern field of war and looking out anxiously for any
chance of resuming his Eastern plan if Greece should
become more friendly or Bulgaria repent of her Teu-
tonic affections. But in the British scheme of war the
plan of breaking through in the West had now resumed
its hold on military minds; and in March the new
armies made their first great attempt in the attack
known as the battle of Neuve Chapelle. The valour
and heroism of our troops in that splendid effort broke
against the tangled defences of the German hosts;
and in April and March our armies were once more
fighting for their bare existence in the second battle
'of Ypres. In May came Dunajec, the smashing climax
to the onslaught of the Germans on the Russians in
Galicia.
Tremendously occupied as he was through the spring
and summer with the great national effort to supply
our armies with adequate munitions, Mr. Lloyd George
was never blind or indifferent to the general trend of
what followed.
Events began to succeed one another with fearful
rapidity. In May and June the Russians were cleared
out of Galicia. Then began that great rush forward of
the central German armies which swept over fortress
200 THE PRIME MINISTER
after fortress "like castles of sand," and submerged
all the fairest towns of Western Central Russia. 1
To these disasters there were, indeed, compensa-
tions in other fields of war. On May 23rd Italy de-
clared war against Austria. In July Botha conquered
South-West Africa. In the West the British and
French troops still held on against the overwhelming
forces of Germany attempting to snatch the Channel
coast with every devilish device of gas and flame.
But, on the whole, the balance was against the Al-
lies. The fact that stared Mr. Lloyd George in the
face, wherever he looked at the fields of war, was
that the Allied armies were outnumbered by the stu-
pendous and unexpected man-power of Central Europe.
It was this fact that led him in this autumn to give
to the public the first intimation that he, hitherto a
convinced voluntaryist, was now being converted,
against his will, to compulsory military service. The
intimation was given in the preface written to a col-
lection of his early war speeches. 2
In the burning words of that remarkable address
to the nation he communicated the views which he
had slowly formed from a close and prolonged sfudy
of the facts throughout the summer:
"I know what we are doing: our exertions are
undoubtedly immense. But can we do more,
either in men or material? Nothing but our
best and utmost can pull us through. Are we now
1 Swallowing up Warsaw on August 4th, Ivangorod on August
5th, Siedlce on August i2th, Kovno on August i7th, Novo-Georgievsk
on August ipth, Brest Litovsk on August 25th, and Grodno on
September 2nd.
' Through Terror to Triumph. Arranged by F. L. Stevenson, B.A
(Lond.) (Hodder & Stoughton.)
SERBIA 201
straining every nerve to make up for lost time?
Are we getting all the men we shall want to put
into the fighting line next year to enable us even
to hold our own? Does every man who can help,
whether by fighting or by providing material, un-
derstand clearly that ruin awaits remissness?"
Then came the dramatic climax :
"If the nation hesitates, when the need is clear,
to take the necessary steps to call forth its man-
hood to defend honour and existence; if vital
decisions are postponed until too late ; if we neg-
lect to make ready for all probable eventuali-
ties; if, in fact, we give ground for the accusation
that we are slouching into disaster as if we were
walking along the ordinary paths of peace
without an enemy in sight then I can see no hope.
But if we sacrifice all we own, and all we like for
our native land; if our preparations are charac-
terised by grip, resolution, and a prompt readi-
ness in every sphere then victory is assured."
The meaning of this appeal was obvious. "To call
forth its manhood," could only mean conscription for
the war; and it was to that policy, indeed, that Mr.
Lloyd George had been driven by what seemed to him
the inevitable logic of the terrible events in the fields
of war. In no other way, indeed, did he think that
the effort could be sustained.
There was no man who had thrown himself more
vigorously into the volunteer recruiting campaign; there
was no man who had more sincerely believed in it. His
THE PRIME MINISTER
speech to the young men at the City Temple on No-
vember loth, 1914, is a splendid expression of that
appeal. It is still the best attempt to argue with that
extreme pacifist spirit which he has always treated with
respect with that imaginative sympathy which under-
stands while it condemns. 1
But now he had come reluctantly but irrevocably
with the terrible honesty of a man up against facts
to the conclusion that the voluntary system would not
suffice against this tornado. "You cannot haggle with
an earthquake." Here was a thing that transcended
all theories a convulsion of nature itself.
Having reached this conclusion, he never veered.
He stood by silent through all the experiments of those
days the "Derby scheme," the quarrel between the
married and the single, the "starring" and "unstar-
ring" until slowly the whole of the Ministry swung
round to his point of view. Assailed by old friends
with a hurricane of abuse maligned and misinter-
preted by men whose season peace with venom he
yet held on steadily to his view. There are many
things one has to dare and endure for country and
fatherland. Perhaps the hardest thing of all in this
country is to profess a change of opinion.
"They say let them say." He paid little attention
to these assaults. More terrible things were absorb-
ing his attention.
The failure of the purely naval attack on the Dar-
danelles on March iSth (1915) had been followed by
the military preparations and landing on April 25th,
1 "To precipitate ideals is to retard their advent. . . . The surest
method of establishing the reign of peace on earth is by making the
way of the transgressor of the peace of nations too hard for the
rulers of men to tread."
SERBIA 203
and the subsequent great military offensive on the
heights of Gallipoli. By the end of July that offensive
had failed. At this point in" the development of events
at the end of July Mr. Lloyd George now definitely
again urged on his colleagues in the Government to
consider once more the plan of going to the assistance
of Serbia as alternative to going further forward with
the Gallipoli attack. At this time he was very busy
with his munition campaign in the country. But on the
few occasions when he was able to take part in the
deliberations of the Dardanelles Committee his atti-
tude always was the Germans are going to break
through Serbia as soon as they can; so either make
certain of getting to Constantinople quickly, or con-
sider whether you ought not to go to the assistance
of Serbia with all the strength you can command. The
forces on Gallipoli were obviously the nearest avail-
able for such a rescue. The alternative adopted of a
renewed attack on Gallipoli by way of Suvla Bay in
August only resulted in a more tragic and wasteful
failure.
His forebodings in regard to Serbia were destined
to be very quickly fulfilled, for in October (1915)
began that dastardly combined attack on Serbia which
Mr. Lloyd George had foreseen since the beginning of
the year. The Germans had now finished for the
moment with Russia. With deadly method they turned
to their next victim ; and now the Bulgarians from the
south and the Teutons from the north closed on that
unhappy little country.
Mr. Lloyd George witnessed this assault with an
anguish of soul inevitable to one born and bred in a
little nation himself. Even at this last hour he did
204 THE PRIME MINISTER
his utmost to rescue Serbia from her fate. He racked
his brains to devise some method of saving Serbia. He
pressed the military authorities with a vehemence in-
convenient in a world of steady routine and disciplined
ideas. He agitated, argued, pleaded.
But by this time the facts were too strong even for
him. Between us and Serbia lay a Royalist Greece now
indifferent if not actually hostile, coldly resolved to
abandon her pledged word. Rumania was still hesi-
tating and fearful. Russia was for the moment ex-
hausted. No help was near enough to hand to save
the doomed victim.
So the British Government were compelled to stand
by helpless while the very nation on whose account
the war broke out was conquered and outraged, her
armies scattered, her population enslaved, and her chil-
dren scattered like sheep through the mountains. 1 No
more tragic chapter is recorded in the annals of
Europe.
But the mischief did not end there. Not only did
the conquest of Serbia give to Germany the great link
with the East for which she yearned, but it completely
destroyed all our remaining chances of success on Gal-
lipoli. The very enterprise which had already taken
the place of the Serbian expedition became futile from
the moment of the Serbian disaster. In the beginning
of October the Turks had been running so seriously
short of ammunition that success for our arms seemed
near at hand. By the end of the month they were
fully replenished. The enterprise became plainly im-
possible from the moment that Germany, having now,
1 Some 30,000 Serbian boys were sent across the mountains to the
sea to escape from the invader. Less than half reached the sea.
SERBIA 205
by the conquest of Serbia and the coming in of Bul-
garia, achieved a direct route to Constantinople, could
pour through as much ammunition and as many big
guns as the Turks required for their defence. 1
On December I9th began the withdrawal from that
fatal peninsula, and on January 8th of the following
year not a single British soldier remained on those
bloodstained shores.
Is it not possible that the more chivalrous and vigor-
ous action on behalf of Serbia for which Mr. Lloyd
George had so importunately pressed might have been
also the best policy for the prosperity of the Allies in
the war as a whole?
1 See Lord Kitchener's final telegram of November 22nd, 1915,
which decided the War Cabinet to evacuate (p. 57 of Pt. II, the Final
Report of the Dardanelles Commission).
CHAPTER XVII
MUNITIONS
"Like a rickety, clumsy machine, with a pin loose here, and a
tooth broken there, and a makeshift somewhere else, in which the
force of Hercules may be exhausted in a needless friction, and
obscure hitches before the hands are got to move, so is our
Executive, with the Treasury, the Horse Guards, the War De-
partment, the Medical Department, all out of gear, but all re-
quired to move together before a result can be obtained. He will
be stronger than Hercules who can get out of it the movement
we require " Colonel Lefroy's letter to Miss Florence Night-
ingale, Sir Edward Cook's Life of Miss Florence Nightingale,
vol. i. pp. 322-3.
FROM the early days of the war Mr. Lloyd George
had perceived that there were two great difficulties
ahead of us men and the arming of men and that
perhaps the greater of the two was the arming. 1 For
the first year, at any rate, the question of men seemed
to present little difficulty. England's manhood came
flocking to the banner of Lord Kitchener. The great
multitudes of free citizens who freely poured into the
recruiting offices after the retreat from Mons, will
always be one of the most splendid episodes in our
history. The patience and valour the good-humour
and endurance of those first armies of "Kitcheners"
will always add an imperishable glory to the name of
him who summoned them.
1 "What we stint in materials we squander in life ; that is the
one great lesson of munitions." Mr. Lloyd George in the House of
Commons, December aist, 1915.
206
MUNITIONS 207
So far, indeed, "nought shall make us rue." Eng-
land rested true to herself and her great cause.
But it was not enough to gather the legions. It
was necessary also to arm them. Here it soon be-
came clear that we were up against a new portent.
The stupendous war equipment of the German armies,
both in guns and in munitions, has since become a com-
monplace; at that time it was a wonder and a surprise.
The War Office went into the war still thinking in terms
of the Boer War, when machine-guns were a new mir-
acle and shrapnel was the last word in shells. They
found themselves faced with an army in which machine-
guns had become a multitudinous commonplace and
shrapnel was already the humble servant of the high-
explosive shell.
This was clearly, from the first, a struggle of ma-
chinery. It was riot an old-fashioned war. It was a
war monstrously new a fight against a people im-
mensely modern and scientific, as high in skill as they
were low in ruth, armed cap-a-pie with every device of
destruction, sharpened to the finest edge on the whet-
stone of prepared war.
All this has since become a commonplace; it is Mr.
Lloyd George's distinction that he perceived it clearly
in the autumn of 1914. Then in the Cabinet he already
insisted on the need for increased armaments. He
preached in season and out of season the need for
guns; and in the autumn of 1914 the Cabinet Com-
mittee, of which he was a member, forced the War
Office to order 4,000 guns instead of 600 for the fol-
lowing year (1915).
But as the weeks passed a situation began to arise
which threw even this provision into the shade of in-
208 THE PRIME MINISTER
adequacy. It became clear that we had to help in the
munitioning of our Allies. There was France early
in the war she lost her richest industrial districts. With
splendid promptitude she had organised her factories
for the making of guns, shells, and rifles. But she
required to be supplied with the raw materials now
lacking to her.
A far graver need was soon to arise in Russia. The
German victories of 1915 placed Germany in posses-
sion of 70 per cent, of the Russian steel-producing area.
Her millions from that time required arming, not
merely for victory, but also, it soon became clear, even
for defence. 1
To meet this colossal situation Great Britain was
but poorly provided. The Navy absorbed for her
great needs the principal national engineering resources
of the country. The only British military machine of
munition-supply at the opening of the war was the
Ordnance Department of the War Office. Nothing
could exceed the devotion and zeal of the men at
the head of that office. But it was hopelessly under-
equipped for so great a call. It was wanting in staff,
resources, and ideas. It was perilously detached from
our great civilian industries. It found itself faced with
unparalleled difficulties of material and labour. For
with the opening of the war we were cut off from some
of our most important raw ingredients for explosives;
and the very fervour of our first great recruiting cam-
paign, too little directed and restricted, denuded the
possible workshops of war.
1 The evidence in the Sukhomikoff trial has now brought out the
immensity of this shortcoming, not then fully divulged to the British
Government by the Russian governing power.
MUNITIONS 209
There were many crises in this situation. One of
the gravest occurred in the late autumn of 1914, when
we were faced with a complete inability to supply the
army with explosives for the making of mines. How
that situation was met by a group of civil servants and
public men, and its first acuteness lessened by the for-
mation of an Explosives Committee in the Board of
Trade under Lord Moulton has already been revealed
by Lord Moulton himself. 1 It is one of the great
stories of the war.
But no such departmental devices could long suffice
to meet the terrific call of the situation as a whole. As
the weeks passed, it gradually became clear to Mr.
Lloyd George that, if we were to be saved, a tremen-
dous and radical change was required. This was noth-
ing less than the calling to our aid in this war all those
great manufacturing resources of the nation which had
given us our ascendancy in peace.
The manufacturers, indeed, were quite willing to
come. They needed no call. They were eager to help.
They already clamoured at the door.
But the soldier is not suited by the traditions of his
calling to work easily with the civilian. That very
virtue of iron discipline which is the habit of war mili-
tated against the free play of mind essential to a new
development of industry. There is a story of a great
business man from the North of England who, after
being summoned to the War Office for the transaction
of business, was kept waiting for two hours, and then
told that the officer in command had gone off for his
lunch. He is said to have picked up his hat and said
decisively: "Tell the General that if he wants me again
1 See his evidence in the Mond libel action.
210 THE PRIME MINISTER
he must send a battalion to fetch me." It was a fair
reminder that there are limits to the power of mere
military discipline.
Those who lived in the centre of things during the
spring of 1915 will remember the flood of such nar-
ratives many of them told to the House of Com-
mons 1 which came from the mouths of indignant and
offended manufacturers. Offers were rejected which
afterwards proved essential. Orders were given and
then forgotten. Machinery was set up and then not
used. There was devotion and zeal; but there was no ad-
equate organisation to meet the demands of the present,
and no proper foresight as to the needs of the future.
Lord Kitchener, indeed, had a deserved reputation
for organising capacity; but that eminent man was
hopelessly overwhelmed. It was the fault of those
who expected too much of him who first spoke of him
as a god and finally treated him as a dog. Reluctantly
giving up Egypt for the War Office, Lord Kitchener
found himself in control of a ship unmanned. The
splendid military staff gathered at the War Office had
been scattered to all the fields of war. He found him-
self very much alone. He felt compelled to act as his
own Chief of Staff, his own organiser of recruiting,
his own controller of supplies. Among his great gifts
he did not possess that of easy and swift delegation.
He saw that the War Office required to be built up
afresh; but he did not feel equal to building it up dur-
ing a great war. The result was that he took too much
on himself, and most lamentably diminished his own
splendid utility in the process.
1 See Debate of April 22nd, 1915. Mr. Bonar Law gave some
striking instances.
MUNITIONS 211
Such a method was certain to lead to neglect and
delay in some of the chief functions of war. All were
delayed and many were neglected. But where delay
and neglect met in most disastrous combinations was
in this matter of the supply of the munitions of war.
So grave did this defect become that it threatened
our cause before long with irretrievable disaster. It
was only a great effort of the whole nation, combined in
one common impulse of energy, that saved the cause.
In that effort Mr. Lloyd George took a great and
leading part.
His plea for guns in the autumn of 1914 was fol-
lowed up by a visit to France, where he was enabled
to obtain insight into the great effort of industrial
reorganisation which had enabled France to rearm
after the loss of the North, and the shock of the Ger-
man invasion. He returned with a full report on this
achievement, due to the great energy and splendid
public spirit of that great Frenchman, M. Albert
Thomas.
Mr. Lloyd George proposed to the Cabinet that
Great Britain should follow in the steps of France.
Mr. Asquith was quite willing; and a Cabinet Commit-
tee was set up with advisory powers to work out the
details. The Committee sat at the War Office with
Lord Kitchener in the chair. The matter was fully
discussed. The War Office appeared to agree to adopt
the French scheme. Weeks passed. Then it was dis-
covered that little or no action had been taken. It
was clear that ;t was the executive arm which was at
fault.
The winter months passed, and there was little
THE PRIME MINISTER
quickening of energy. Hundreds of thousands of the
Kitchener recruits were without clothes, arms, rifles,
or guns. Rumours and murmurs began to come from
the front of the tremendous British losses from supe-
rior German guns.
In February a new danger became instantly vital.
The news came from the East of Europe of the definite
breakdown of the Russian armaments. Their gigantic
armies threatened to become unarmed mobs.
In the West things were little better. During Feb-
ruary and March fuller details began to reach London
of one British machine-gun against ten German; of
four British shells against forty German. The sup-
pression of the free and independent War Correspon-
dent had cast a veil of silence over the realities of the
war. The truth was struggling to come through; and
not all the efforts of all the censors could entirely suf-
focate and strangle it. But it meant that any zealous
Minister had to fight hard against a lethal atmosphere
of secrecy that soon bred ignorance.
Against this atmosphere Mr. Lloyd George per-
sistently battled; and in the early weeks of April he
made a fresh appeal for further speeding up. The
Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith) agreed. On April
1 3th (1915) he appointed a strong Munitions Com-
mittee, known as the Treasury Committee, consisting
of Ministers, civil servants and experts, with Mr. Lloyd
George in the chair. 1
That Committee had no executive powers. It could
1 Among the other members of that Committee were Mr. Balfour,
Mr. Montagu, Mr. George Booth, Sir Herbert Llewellyn Smith,
Admiral Tudor, and General Von Donop. Mr. Lloyd George made
on April 22nd, 1915, a statement in the House of Commons as to
the work achieved by this Committee.
MUNITIONS 213
only co-ordinate departments, and make suggestions.
It was no more than a departmental Committee; but,
in spite of this shortcoming it was able to give val-
uable advice, much of which was acted upon. It sup-
plied new ideas. It was often able to meet special
emergencies.
But from the very beginning this Committee suf-
fered from one grave, paralysing defect: it could ob-
tain no full or comprehensive view of the needs and
demands of the war. Perhaps the chiefs of the War
Office did not know themselves. In the hurry and bus-
tle of war perhaps it is not incredible they had no leis-
ure to take the larger and longer view. But in a long
war that view was indispensable to action. The result
of that ignorance, therefore, was fatal to this Commit-
tee. It never knew enough to act or decide with effect.
Lord Kitchener may have had his reasons; but the fact
stands out that he refrained from arming this impor-
tant Munitions Committee of April and May, 1915,
with the full knowledge necessary for real power.
At this point an astonishing thing occurred. The
Western Army took the matter into their own hands.
There are many things that fighting men will en-
dure incredible tortures, surpassing those of the early
martyrs. But there is one thing which always tries
them beyond the limit: that is to be hit without the
power of hitting back to be shelled without being able
to shell. Such was now (in April and May, 1915)
the intolerable situation of the men under General
French's command in France. 1 They decided that it
was not their duty to accept this cruel fate without some
effort to find a cure.
1 See his statement to the Journal correspondent in September 1917.
THE PRIME MINISTER
They found their applications misunderstood, ig-
nored, postponed. They realised that Ministers were
not allowed to know the truth. They gathered from
his public utterance at Newcastle on April 2Oth l that
the truth was being concealed even from the Prime
Minister (Mr. Asquith) himself. They perceived that
the public were blind-folded. They determined to take
steps to open their eyes.
With this design and object, the Headquarters Staff
in France invited certain famous journalists and pub-
licists to the front to witness for themselves the results
of the lack of proper shells in the attack on the Aubers
ridge. 2 Most of those visitors found themselves help-
less in the grip of a double censorship in France and
in England. One of them, however, the famous mili-
tary correspondent of the Times, 3 wrote his despatch
on the spot and sent it through the censorship of the
field of battle, severe indeed, but on this occasion,
perhaps, a little more friendly. In this way, and thanks
to the historic prestige of the great organ which pub-
lished it, there appeared in the Times of May I4th,
1915, that famous message from the front, "mutilated
and twice censored," 4 which itself proved so powerful
a petard.
1 "I saw a statement the other day that the operations, not only
of our Army, but of our Allies were being crippled, or at any rate
hampered, by our failure to provide the necessary ammunition. There
is not a word of truth in that statement." (Loud cheers.) Times
report.
2 See the full account in Lord French's "1914." His statements
have not in substance been affected by the controversies which have
raged round this book.
3 Lieutenant-Colonel Charles A'Court Repington, C.M.G.
4 See the Times leading article. But on May i8th Mr. Asquith
said in the House of Commons that the despatch was censored in
France and Mr. Tennant added that it never came before the British
Censorship. The open official chagrin at its emergence into print
is one of the most significant features of the whole episode.
MUNITIONS 215
"The want of an unlimited supply of high explosive
was a fatal bar to our success" that was the verdict
of the Times correspondent; and it was confirmed by
every observer and every soldier at the front, includ-
ing the soldier members of the House of Commons.
Once the word was uttered in public, the floodgates
were opened. It was in vain that the Government
tried to stem the torrent of evidence. Lord Kitchener
rose on May i8th to make a statement in the House
of Lords; but in that speech he showed that strange
habit of the unexpected which baulked even his friends.
For, instead of denying, he practically admitted the
indictment, and for the first time stated in public what
seemed to contradict the Newcastle utterance of the
Prime Minister that there had been "undoubtedly
considerable delay in producing the material."
This was indeed a mild way of stating the true facts.
These continued now to pour through from the front
with 1 all the indecency of truth emancipated. The
order-paper of the House of Commons began to bristle
with questions and threats of debate; and it was only
on the plea of public emergency that the Government
postponed crisis.
On the following day Mr. Lloyd George received in-
formation which more than confirmed the statement
of the Times correspondent. He realised with amaze-
ment that the Munitions Committee had been kept in
ignorance of essentials; that the mainspring had been
missing from the watch. He determined to resign
from a function so void of power; and on May iQth
he wrote a letter announcing his decision, and giving his
grave and weighty reasons. He refused to remain
216 THE PRIME MINISTER
chairman of a Committee which had no real executive
power.
The situation now moved rapidly.
On the afternoon of that day (May iQth) Mr. As-
quith announced to the House of Commons that the
Liberal Government which had been in power since
1910 had ceased to exist, and that he proposed to re-
construct the Government "on a broader personal and
political basis." In other words, he had decided for
Coalition.
It was a wise and prudent decision. The Opposition
had full grasp of the situation at the front. They had
not yet manoeuvred for battle, but there was already
forming in the minds of their leaders the conviction that
they could no longer accept the responsibility of a si-
lence which would inevitably spell complicity. If they
were to continue silent they must share the govern-
ment. The only alternative was the open scandal of a
bitter party struggle, not without the possibility of
grave injury to national interests.
But a Coalition Government alone was not enough.
It was necessary to have some guarantee that the gen-
eral calamitous shortage of munitions x should not
continue. It is not the habit of England to send her
youth unarmed to face her enemies. At all costs this
grievous peril must cease.
But it was already clear to all parties that the War
Office was far too heavily burdened to continue bear-
ing this responsibility. There must be a division of
function. Lord Kitchener must be left to raise the
1 Of all munitions, not only explosives. It proved subsequently
that the chief want was big guns for the high-explosive shells and
that the smaller guns were better suited with shrapnel.
MUNITIONS 217
armies. Another office must take over the duty of
arming and equipping them. From this conviction
arose the idea of a new Department the Ministry of
Munitions for which Mr. Lloyd George was already,
by the unanimous voice of public opinion, declared
elect.
So on May 25th, 1915, after seven years as Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lloyd George closed
the door of the Treasury behind him and became the
first British Minister of Munitions. It was a great
adventure. He was leaving behind him the secure van-
tage of an old historic Department. He was entering
upon a region unexplored, without map or compass,
without precedent or guide.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE NEW MINISTRY OF MUNITIONS
"Now all the youth of England is on fire,
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;
Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
Reigns solely in the breast of every man."
Henry V , Prologue to Act II.
THE little group of men whom Mr. Lloyd George
assembled round him at No. 6, Whitehall Gardens,
during the Whit-week of 1915, certainly seemed to
have no easy task before them. A new Ministry had
been founded, and a Bill to define its functions was
being drawn up. But the Ministry possessed neither
buildings nor staff, neither furniture nor office paper.
It stepped forth into the world bare as a new-born
babe. 1
Even when its functions had been defined by Act
of Parliament there always hung about this enterprise
an atmosphere of indefinable adventure. Its relations
to other Departments, and especially to the War Of-
fice, were never precisely defined. It was always the
parvenu of Ministries. Throughout the crises of
1915 and 1916 it carried with it the spirit of Esau, its
hand against every man and every man's hand against
it.
1 See Dr. Addison's description (House of Commons, June 28th,
1917) : "There was to be one aim, and one aim only to obtain the
goods and make delivery of them to the Army. No other interests
and no considerations of leisure were to be entertained."
218
After all, that was precisely the kind of office for
which Mr. Lloyd George was best fitted. He was
ever impatient of precedents; here was a case where
he had to make his own precedents. He always loved
trespassing. Here was an office where every move-
ment was practically a raid on the ground sacred to
some other Department.
He was never in the least troubled by the restric-
tions of the situation. He soon found out one vital
fact that our supply of shells had sunk to 75,000.
But he rapidly grasped that there were many other
things required for success besides shells. There were,
for instance, guns to fire them from big guns such as
were entirely lacking at that time. In June of 1915,
finding that he still could obtain no sure or certain
idea of what was needed at the front, he travelled to
Boulogne, and met a little party of officers, many of
them French, in a small cafe. The party consisted
partly of Generals, and partly of regimental officers.
He listened to all; for he wanted to know what was
wanted in the firing line as much as what was thought
to be wanted at Headquarters. He closely questioned
the French artillerists as to the number of guns they
were using. General Du Cane 1 was there from our
Headquarters' Staff; and he brought with him a full
report of what guns were required according to their
views.
Mr. Lloyd George began to realise that the need for
big guns was* the centre of the situation.
After his cross-examination was over, Mr. Lloyd
George turned to General Du Cane:
1 Lieutenant-General Sir John Philip Du Cane, Major-General
R.A., G.H.Q., 1915. Afterwards British representative with Marshal
Foch.
220 THE PRIME MINISTER
"Don't you think you had better go back and revise
your estimates?"
General Du Cane promptly agreed he had him-
self been converted. He went back to Headquarters.
At midday there was a break in these urgent talks.
M. Albert Thomas suggested that in the afternoon they
ought to have a formal meeting to go into the whole
subject.
"I am sorry," said Mr. Lloyd George, "but I must
get back to England."
"Go back already?"
"Yes, already there is not a moment to be lost.
These big guns must be ordered."
He went back. A revived estimate of the munition
requirements in France was sent to Whitehall. Mr.
Lloyd George increased that estimate. He sent it
across to Lord Kitchener. The great man, willing
but doubtful of our resources, sent it back with a com-
ment : "That will take three years." J
Mr. Lloyd George then called together all the heads
of the armament firms. He laid the scheme before
them. They viewed it with grave doubts. They pro-
duced laborious estimates discussed consulted their
chiefs.
Mr. Lloyd George put aside all the papers.
"Gentlemen," he said, "this has to be done if the
country is to be saved. You will do it !"
There was nothing more to be said. They went
away to do it; and they did it.
The high officials responsible for financial control
were a little disturbed at his way of conducting busi-
1 Similarly, to Lord French he said eight years (Journal inter-
view, Sept. 1917).
THE NEW MINISTRY OK MUNITIONS
ness. Later on, yet more guns were ordered, and
official protests from other Departments were car-
ried up to the highest quarters. But before a decision
could be reached the orders had been given out, and
the great guns the guns that saved France and Eng-
land were on the way. 1
That was characteristic of his way of ufcing the new
machinery of the new Ministry.
How this new Department of State was gradually
built up; how picked men from all over the country,
and from the Civil Service, were gathered to the side
of the new Minister; how buildings were secured from
day to day for the work of administration ; how exces-
sive hours were worked and excessive risks were run
by old as well as young, and women as well as men, 7-
this story has already been largely told in the Par-
liamentary statements of the Munition Ministers, 2 and
it is one of the most romantic and thrilling chapters
in the history of the war.
There are one or two features in the history of this
movement which especially illustrate the characteristics
of Mr. Lloyd George and his power of appeal to the
public.
The first of these was the rally of the business men
of England in response to his call. The British com-
mercial classes were not, in the period before the war,
particularly attached to Mr. Lloyd George. They
*Mr. Montagu, in the House of Commons, on August i6th, 1916,
said openly that "Mr. Lloyd George ordered far more guns than
were thought by the War Office to be necessary, and yet received
new requirements showing that he had not ordered enough."
2 Mr. Lloyd George's statement of December 2ist, 1915, Mr. Mon-
tagu's statement of August i6th, 1916, and Dr. Addison's statement
of June 28th, 1917.
222 THE PRIME MINISTER
had some "bones to pick" with him. But it must be
said, to their eternal credit, that when they realised
the need of their country the old hatchet was at once
put underground. They came in hundreds to help him.
Many of them came without price, leaving their own
factories and workshops, putting aside their chance of
personal profit, and content to live on such salaries as
their business could afford them. It is true that
many of them have risen to high honour in this ser-
vice. It is well that it should be so.
Happily there is sufficient soul of good in things to
justify sacrifice and even to reward it. It is no ill thing
that many of these men have risen to high honour and
blazoned their names on the roll of England's noblest
servants.
But it was not only the commercial men that came
forward voluntarily to answer the call. The Civil Ser-
vants also volunteered from all branches of the Ser-
vice to undertake increased responsibility without ad-
ditional gain. It was laid down from the beginning
that none of those Civil Servants who came into the
Munition Service should receive extra pay for extra
work. Second division clerks raised to higher posts
still continued to receive the old salaries; so great was
the eagerness to save the country that men worked
overtime without complaint, and there were in those
early days many men who came suspiciously near to
working night shifts as well as day.
It was precisely the combination of the best Civil
Servants with the best commercial men that gave to
the Ministry of Munitions such a marvellous touch
of efficiency. Manufacturers coming up from the prov-
inces were now pleasantly surprised to find a new
THE NEW MINISTRY OP MUNITIONS 223
swiftness of despatch in the conduct of their business.
Every one brought into touch with the Ministry of
Munitions found a new spirit which seemed to give a
new hope for the government of this country. There
was a certain thrill about the most common affairs
within those walls. Every servant of the Ministry,
down to the very boys and girls who carried the mes-
sages, seemed to feel that they were called to a high
task for a great end. It was in this spirit that this
great effort was undertaken and sustained throughout
the years that followed. At the same time the country
as a whole found itself provided at last with a capable
machinery for using its services. Not only was the
centre quickened and sharpened to new uses, but the
whole of the United Kingdom was mapped out and in
every district there sat a Committee who formed a
careful estimate of the resources of that area. 1
On the basis of that estimate there now began to
grow up, as if by magic, that vast network of new
war factories which saved the armies in France. The
factories grew up chiefly near the iron and coal which
provided the raw material of munitions and handy to
the great supplies of skilled labour. 2
But no adjustment could avoid a great upheaval of
social life. For it was part of this great change that
a vast mass of labour must be transferred from the in-
dustries of peace to the industries of war.
It was also part of the great stress of this crisis
1 Twelve areas: England and Wales, 8; Scotland, 2; Ireland, 2;
40 local Munition Committees in the engineering centres consisting
of local business men. (Mr. Lloyd George, December 2ist, 1915.)
* Within a year the labour employed on munitions had gone up
from 1,635,000 to 2,250,000, and there were 32 national shell factories,
12 for projectiles, 6 for cartridges, etc. (Mr. Montagu, August
224 THE PRIME MINISTER
that the State must be sure of its labour and that it must
be able- to draw from that labour the utmost power of
effort, sustained and continued through a prolonged
period of time.
Here lay the necessity for a new War Labour policy,
difficult and delicate to justify and administer, but indis-
pensable for the safety of the country.
It was clearly impossible to guarantee the adequate
war output of this vast aggregate of factories and
workshops on the- basis of the old peace conditions
with an uncertain supply of skilled labour shifting about
from shop to shop along the ordinary channels of de-
mand and supply. The habit of "stealing" labour by
the offer of higher wages, had already grown to so high
a point in the early days of the war that the Munitions
Committee had had to issue an order under the De-
fence of the Realm Act making it an offence to "en-
tice." 1 Thus the peace freedom of movement had
already been suspended. But now it was necessary to
carry the restrictions further and to guarantee to the
nation at war a hold on its workmen similar in kind,
though not in degree, to the hold on its soldiers.
Mr. Lloyd George characteristically wished to make
the bold appeal, and to say to the workmen: "Submit
to the same discipline as your sons in the trenches.
Place yourselves under the same law, with this only
difference that you are better-paid men." 2 But this
proposal, when laid before the leaders of the Trade
1 There had also been in March an agreement between the Govern-
ment and the Trade Unions called the Treasury Agreement, and
administered by a Labour Advisory Committee. The general line
of that agreement was an understanding to suspend restrictive Trade
Union practices in return for a promise to tax excess profits.
3 He put this appeal very strongly in a speech to the engineers at
Cardiff on June nth, 1915.
THE NEW MINISTRY OF MUNITIONS 225
Unions, met with fierce opposition. The "conscription
of labour," as it was called, was denounced as a "new
slavery." Some degree of national consent to such a
measure was plainly necessary. So that proposal was
dropped, and the Ministry of Munitions set out to
search for a new policy.
The policy finally agreed upon took shape in the first
Munitions Act and the subsequent amending measures.
Round those measures a great strife afterwards arose,
and it may be worth while to say something as to their
origin and justification.
It was absolutely necessary, if the armies were to be
properly supplied with the immense mass of munitions
required, that the workers should both consent to the
limitation of their freedom of movement and should
also suspend a number of those limitations and con-
ditions of toil which had been won in the course of
the long conflict between Capital and Labour.
It was desirable to come to a bargain; and with that
view the Trade Unions were consulted at every point.
If the Government must trust Labour, Labour must
also trust the Government. Labour must have assur-
ance that a temporary suspension of conditions should
not prejudice the position in time of peace. That as-
surance had been already given, and was now formally
embodied in the Munitions Act. 1
On these broad lines had grown up this Concordat,
which, with all its frictions and inevitable misunder-
standings, still carried the country through the mo-
ments of gravest peril. The liberty of Labour was
1 Clause 20 of the main Act: "This Act shall have effect only so
long as the Office of Minister of Munitions and the Ministry of
Munitions exist."
226 THE PRIME MINISTER
gravely restricted; but the great and sufficient reward
for such a sacrifice to every patriotic workman always
was the knowledge that brave lives were being saved
and brave hearts sustained at the front. Another im-
portant thing was that the country was being saved
also.
Certainly the restrictions were very formidable. No
workman or workwoman could leave their employment
in the war factory without a special "leaving certifi-
cate." All rules or customs restricting labour were
suspended; no strikes were allowed; and all questions
of wages and hours were to be settled by compulsory
arbitration. To administer these rules Munition Tri-
bunals were set up in every district; and they had
powers of inflicting heavy fines. Such provisions must
depend largely on the good faith and good-will of em-
ployers; and there must always be some who will not
"play the game." Hence the chronic movements of re-
volt the rise of the shop stewards, the engineers'
strike, the war-weariness of so many industrial districts
in the summer of 1917.
In the autumn of 1917 Mr. Winston Churchill, the
new Minister of Munitions, found it possible to sus-
pend the leaving certificate and to slacken some of these
conditions. But there could be no doubt as to their
necessity up to that time.
The sole and sufficient excuse for these grave restric-
tions of liberty was always the war, and the war alone.
War is a terrible master; and wherever he raises his
head, few escape his tyranny. All that can be said is
that, with all their troubles, the sufferings of the men
in the workshops were as grains in the balance against
the sufferings of the men in the trenches.
THE NEW MINISTRY OF MUNITIONS 227
But, even so, the work of the men alone was not
enough to meet the need. Other sources of labour
must be tapped. It was now necessary to call in the
women to the aid of the men.
Mr. Lloyd George ventured on a bold appeal. He
asked the women to come from their pleasures and
their comforts ; he asked them to save the lives of their
brothers, their sweethearts, and their husbands. They
came in multitudes. They filled the ranks, and they
filled the shells. 1 They silenced their sourest critics,
even in their own sex. They worked by day and they
worked by night. They earned for themselves a new
position in the State. They showed that women could
be patriots themselves,, as well as the wives and moth-
ers of patriots. Not easily will England forget thosre
splendid women of 1915-18.
As for Mr. Lloyd George himself, he worked as
hard as any one in the ranks of this new Labour Army.
He was here, there, and everywhere. All through
the summer of 1915 he travelled over the country,
appealing, stimulating, and even- when necessary rebuk-
ing. He visited all the industrial centres. He spoke
straight to the English working classes; and it was
only their worst friends who resented his honesty. He
told them to suspend their peace weaknesses in this su-
preme hour; and he told them:, as John Stuart Mill
told them once before, where their chief weakness lay.
He set up a Drink Control Board, as well as Munition.
Tribunals ; and all that was best and most loyal among
the artisans acquiesced. Qa Ira; the plan worked; the
machine began to do its duty.
*At Woolwich alone the number of women workers rose from
125 to 25,000.
228 THE PRIME MINISTER
Nothing was left undone. To fill up the ranks, un-
skilled men were trained to do the work of skilled.
The Board of Trade organised a special army of
Munition Volunteers. In the autumn of 1915 there
was a great effort, in conjunction with the War Office,
to bring back from the front some thousands 1 of
those numerous munition workers, iron-workers, and
miners who had been allowed to recruit in the first
fine flush of the recruiting enthusiasm in 1914.
Mr. Lloyd George gave his whole mind to this one
question the making of war material. He had, as we
have seen, "found the Army with only 75,000 shells in
hand in June, 1915 ; when he left the Ministry in June,
1916, he had provided shells in millions. He himself
mastered the technique of shell-making and gun-mak-
ing; he visited the factories and studied the machinery;
he listened to every complaint from the soldiers at the
front; he investigated every defect.
The real secret, indeed, of his work was that he
kept in touch with the armies at the Western Front,
constantly visiting them, studying their needs on the
spot, listening to the actual fighting men. Above all
he studied the German inventions. After a short while,
thanks to the labours of our young scientists from the
Universities, he was able to provide our soldiers with
gas-masks that enabled them to face unshaken the
worst deviltry of the enemy, and with gas that was a
fit reply to theirs. He provided our men with flame-
throwers which made them a fair match when they
faced the flame-throwers of the Teuton.
1 40,000 soldiers were brought back. In addition, there are 38,000
War Munition Volunteers, and 30,000 Army Reserve Munition
Workers. (Dr. Addison's speech.)
THE NEW MINISTRY OP MUNITIONS 229
I remember his taking me, one day in 1915, to see
his little collection of these horrible devices in the
basement of the old Metropole Hotel. He showed me
the model shells, mounting by slow gradations to a
giant's height. He lingered halfway along this row
of shells. He put his hand on one. "When I started
the Ministry," he said, "our shells went only as high
as this. The German shells went to the top of the
range. Was that fair to our soldiers?" It was a vivid
illustration of what they were achieving.
So this gigantic new organisation was built up, and
gradually brought its full weight into the struggle.
Its functions were constantly enlarging. By proved fit-
ness to rule over one city this new Ministry soon
achieved the right to rule over ten. From supplying it
took to making, from making it took to designing, and
to designing after its own ideas. The great net-work
of its new factories gradually spread over the land.
Greatly daring, it built; it housed; it fed. From a ser-
vant it became a master. In August, 1915, it took over
from the War Office the Royal Factory at Woolwich;
and so it became the supreme war-maker of the nation.
Meanwhile, the soldiers at the front grew more con-
fident and serene. They felt the support of the great
working nation behind them. They grew more con-
fident of supremacy. They knew that even the women-
kind were "doing their bit." In each great battle, as
the shells swept over their heads, they felt a new power
at work in their favour. 1 They "went over the top"
1 By August 1916 the high-explosive shells had been increased by
66 per cent; there had been a 14-fold increase of machine-guns; and
a 33-fold increase of bombs. Every month saw as many great guns
manufactured as existed at the beginning of the war. (Mr. Montagu,
August 1916.)
230 THE PRIME MINISTER
with the knowledge that the mailed fist of Prussia was
to be met with the iron hammer of England.
To this new feeling and the confidence born of it we
may largely attribute the great victories of the Somme,
the storming of the Vimy Ridge, and the smashing
onslaught on Messines.
Many Englishmen, great and small, have a right to
share in the glory of this great work. We must not
forget those men who, before the great central crisis
arose, battled alone against a sea of errors and failings
in high places great civil servants like Sir Hubert
Llewellyn Smith, or great public servants like Lord
Moulton. Such men do not labour in the limelight.
We must remember their services.
Nor must we forget loyal political helpers like Dr.
Addison, Mr. Lloyd George's first lieutenant at the
Ministry, and Mr. Montagu, his successor.
But, when all is said and done, the man who did
the deed was Mr. Lloyd George. Without his resolu-
tion and decision England would have fared badly in
that dark hour. It was he who designed, directed,
and completed this noble and stupendous endeavour.
It was he who carried it through. It was he who, when
others failed, armed and strengthened our armies. It
is scarcely too much to say that it was he who, under
Providence, saved England.
CHAPTER XIX
PREMIERSHIP
"Not once or twice in our rough island-story,
The path of duty was the way to glory."
TENNYSON.
THIS great revival in the supply of munitions to
Great Britain and her Allies began, early in 1916, to
show its effects on the fortunes of the war.
There were some things that could not be retrieved
Serbia, Bulgaria, Kut. On the Western fields of war
there was a steady stiffening, and the 1915 peril of
collapse gradually passed away. During the spring
of 1916 guns and shells were accumulated in great
masses for a summer attack.
The new Military Service Act, too, now began to
come into action ; a steady supply of young men began
to fill up the gaps in the armies at the front.
What could be done by men and munitions was be-
ing done; and at any rate it was no longer possible for
the commanders and men to feel that they were not
being properly supported by the civilians at home.
It was not only in regard to the British armies that
this great uplift of power took place. The Russians,
too, now found themselves being supplied with streams
of guns and shells from Great Britain; and Brusiloff
began to prepare for his great thrust forward.
Thus events moved forward to those great battles
231
232 THE PRIME MINISTER
of July and August, 1916, when, by sheer force of
gun-power, we captured positions thought to be im-
pregnable, and brought about the dramatic with-
drawal of the German armies towards the French fron-
tiers in the spring of 1917.
But, in the meantime, Mr. Lloyd George himself
had been called away to other and higher tasks. He
is one of those men whom Nature seems to have
marked out as pioneers; and there seems to be almost
a law by which, when such men have accomplished one
great task, another sphere calls for them. At the
Ministry of Munitions he had now done his work
that work of starting, inspiring, and organising which
is peculiarly his. Other men could now take up the
task and keep it going; they could run the engine once
it was devised and set running; happily, there are many
such men in the world.
It was fated that a tragic event should make it neces-
sary that Mr. Lloyd George should now himself move
forward.
On June 5th, 1916, Lord Kitchener, always the head
and forefront of England's military effort, the great
Captain of those legions to whom he gave his own
name, met an untimely end in H.M.S. Hampshire, off
the western coast of Scotland. The splendid cruiser
which carried his fortunes was met by a fierce gale;
but his mission to Russia w^s urgent, and he was not
the man to delay. The ship altered its course to the
lee side of the Shetland Islands, and there it met with
a mine cast adrift by the storm, and quickly foundered.
Lord Kitchener was last seen on the quarter-deck meet-
ins death as calmly as he had faced life.
PREMIERSHIP 233
Mr. Lloyd George was called to take Lord Kitchen-
er's place, and passed in June, 1916, from the Ministry
of Munitions to the War Office. The effect of this
change was to increase his power of control over the
war, and at the same time t6 deepen his responsibility.
He did not stay long enough in the War Office to
obtain complete grip of the administrative machine, or
to introduce the reforms which were so desirable in that
office. But this period of power was marked by some
of those bold and sweeping strokes which are so char-
acteristic. In the autumn of 1916, on one of his
periodical visits to the Western Front, he realised that
the Army was on the eve of a tragical breakdown of
communications. The French roads were becoming
worn out with the strain of the heavy transport traffic.
We had not enjoyed that immense relief from the struc-
ture of small railways which was common to our Allies
and our enemies. He also grasped the fact that the
fortunes of all future "offensives" were going to depend
on swift and decisive concentrations of guns, shells, and
men, only possible by means of railways. The rail-
ways then at our disposal in France were quite insuf-
ficient to carry the burden of vast armies as well as the
local life of the countryside. He insisted, against
great opposition, both from officials and Press, on plac-
ing the railways under the control of railway men. He
persuaded Sir Douglas Haig to make Sir Eric Geddes
a General at Headquarters in charge of transporta-
tion. Later on, Sir Eric Geddes was given charge of
all transportations in the United Kingdom, as well as
in the British zone in France; and he imposed on the
British civilian population those restrictions of traffic
which have been so cheerfully borne. All this made a
THE PRIME MINISTER
huge difference, both in the smooth working of the
army machine in France, and in the organisation of
those swift, sudden springs forward which played so
great a part in the final victory.
But greater events were soon to claim his attention.
He had not yet obtained full grip of the machinery
at the War Office when there loomed up in the East
another of those great tragedies of the little nations,
which, like Stations of the Cross, marked the stages of
this world-agony.
Rumania had always felt strong sympathy with
the cause of the Entente Allies. In spite of various
cross-currents, the tide of her feelings had set very
steadily towards the cause of the Western democracies.
But she had hitherto been restrained by a very wise
prudence from rushing into a struggle with powerful
Empires close at hand.
But now fortune seemed to be swinging over to the
democracies. The Somme and Verdun seemed to be
the obverse and the reverse sides of the same victorious
shield. The Italians were moving forward. The Rus-
sians were sanguine, and pressed Rumania for her
assistance.
So the Rumanian Government, on August 2yth, took
the great decision and declared war on Austria.
All the world knows the episodes in that tragic story
the premature Rumanian advance into Transylvania,
the sudden, treacherous attack in the rear from Bul-
garia the quick, smashing blows of the gathered Ger-
man armies the passing of that fearful harrow of war
over that beautiful, romantic land.
No one saw this coming cloud more rapidly than Mr.
Lloyd George.- Early in September he read through
PREMIERSHIP 235
the designs of the German commanders. With his
uncanny eye for a military situation, he seemed to know
what Hindenburg was going to do before he did it.
He noticed a weakening in the attack on Verdun. He
realised in a moment that Bulgaria would not be mov-
ing if she were not sure of German help. He saw
straight into the heart of the German eastern ambi-
tions, and he realised that here they had an oppor-
tunity which on no account would they pass by.
He was full of a feverish desire to avert the blow,
even at the eleventh hour. Could not anything still
be done? There was Italy she was at the doors of
the East there was Russia. Was it nothing to them
who passed by this crucifixion of a little nation?
There was always something especially poignant in his
emotions over these tragedies. He was not a man
suited to the part of sitting by and doing nothing.
But Rumania was already beyond the reach of our
help. When Serbia was lost, Rumania was cut off
also from British aid. The British Fleet, as Lord
Salisbury once shrewdly remarked, cannot operate in
the Balkans. Russia, the only possible rescuer, proved
a broken reed. She was already paralysed by the sleep-
ing sickness of internal treachery.
So Rumania went under. But the event had a rever-
berating influence on Mr. Lloyd George's mind. It
brought him to a decision which he had long been
meditating.
He could no longer go on being responsible for these
repeated failures without a supreme effort to make
them cease.
He had for a long time past gravely doubted whether
he would not be more capable of helping in the con-
236 THE PRIME MINISTER
duct of the war if he left the Government. He had
often Been on the verge of resigning on munitions,
on conscription, on the Serbian failure. He had a
growing conviction that the only hope of winning the
war was through the nation; arid he wanted to guide
and to inform the nation. He longed to be "unmuz-
zled" to speak out what he knew, to speak for him-
self alone.
But it had always happened that before he took
action his policy had won; and then it became prac-
tically impossible for him to resign. Ministers cannot
resign on delay alone. Yet these constant delays were
piling up against us a constantly accumulating debt. Or,
as with the proud Roman and the ancient Sibyl, the
reward was diminishing while the price was not less.
The Rumanian disaster brought Mr. Lloyd George
to the parting of the ways. He must either reform the
Government to better uses, or he must gain his free-
dom on that issue he was clear.
Reflecting deeply on the mode and method of re-
form, he saw but one way out a smaller and more
efficient body, wholly devoted to the direction of the
war. That had been his view for a long time past
and every event had confirmed it. What was wanted
was unified, unsleeping control.
He decided at last to place this view definitely and
decisively before Mr. Asquith, the Prime Minister.
He did so in a long conversation on the morning of
Friday, December ist, 1916.
This was the first phase in a crisis into which Mr.
Lloyd George entered with the utmost reluctance. He
was sincerely attached to Mr. Asquith. He had that
PREMIERSHIP 237
regard for him which is often based on an entire differ-
ence of temperament. He fully recognised the great-
ness of those qualities which have given Mr. Asquith so
strong a hold on the esteem and affections of his coun-
trymen. He wished to continue the working partner-
ship. He made in the course of these negotiations every
conceivable suggestion which could make the changed
conditions tolerable to the proper pride and self-respect
of a man who had deserved so well of the nation.
But en the fundamental necessity for a change in
the organisation for control of the war, he remained
throughout as firm as adamant. There could be no
compromise on that point. There are certain questions
on which no man can compromise. One is the safety
and honour of his own country.
He regarded that as involved in his proposal to
reform the machinery of war-control.
He had come to the conclusion that a smaller and
stronger authority was absolutely necessary for the
prosperous conduct of the war. He also held, with
equal strength of conviction, that no man could bear at
the same time the double burden of parliamentary
leadership and of the day-by-day task of Chairmanship
of the new War Council, with its entirely full and de-
tailed responsibility for the conduct of the war. Mr.
Asquith was universally acknowledged as the supreme
parliamentary leader of his generation. He was a
great national figure-head. It seemed a fair and rea-
sonable proposal that he should continue to lead the
Commons and the country, and should allow one of
his colleagues to become the Chairman of the new War
Authority. Mr. Lloyd George did not name himself
as Chairman of that body. Mr. Asquith first named
238 THE PRIME MINISTER
him. But it soon became quite clear to both that he
was the only fit and proper man to carry out his own
scheme.
Mr. Lloyd George, as we all know, laid these views
in writing before the Prime Minister, and discussed
them with him very fully during the two following
days. 1 He laid them in memoranda and in conversa-
tions. As the talk went on the new proposal varied
now and again in detail, but it remained always the
same in essence. Mr. Lloyd George never disputed
the supreme control of the Prime Minister: he even
agreed to the final control of the Cabinet for he had
not yet ventured so far as to propose a supreme War
Cabinet.
It is quite clear that Mr. Lloyd George's proposal
startled and alarmed Mr. Asquith. That great man
is above all things a constitutionalist; profoundly im-
passioned for the traditions of English freedom.
Trained up in parliamentary habits, it seemed abhor-
rent to him that any function of supreme control in
affairs should be divorced from that fount and centre
of power. It was not for his own personal position,
we may be sure, that he resisted Mr. Lloyd George's
proposals. They clashed with all that was deepest in
his nature. The heir and successor of Pym, Selden, and
Pitt could not lightly acquiesce in any derogation to
the authority of Parliament or Cabinet.
What Mr. Asquith did not see was that new needs
call for new measures; and that the needs of a war
such as this, unprecedented in extent and violence, may
also necessitate remedies without precedent on the
parchments of the English statute-books.
1 See the correspondence published in Appendix B.
PREMIERSHIP 239
At one stage Mr. Asquith appears to have agreed
with Mr. Lloyd George, and Mr. Lloyd George was
for some time (on Saturday, December 2nd) under
the impression that the matter was settled on the gen-
eral lines of his policy. He did not fight for details.
He was willing to discuss the membership of the Com-
mittee; but he remained firm on the principle. He
had already determined to resign rather than fail to
carry it out. 1 But at that moment there seemed no
necessity for such a step.
At this stage, however, there stepped into the arena
those busy friends who, since the days of Job, have
never been a man's best counsellors. Energy breeds
foes; and there were men who were inclined to ask the
old question: "Who is this man that he should rule
over us?" These men held up the 'arms of Mr.
Asquith in his resistance to the policy laid down by Mr.
Lloyd George.
On the other side there were also friends friends
of the Press, certainly not inspired by any amiable
feelings towards Mr. Asquith. They belonged to a
section which had always stood honestly and boldly
for a more active prosecution of the war. It was
certainly not the fault of Mr. Lloyd George that this
Press had espoused his cause in all his great efforts
for the nation; and it was preposterous to expect that
he should reject their help. A member of a Coalition
Ministry has no right to keep up old party prejudices
in his dealings with the Press; and it has always been
the role of Mr. Lloyd George to be accessible to the
Press on both sides. It had happened, indeed, that
only a few weeks before Mr. Lloyd George had had
1 He had taken rooms at St. James's Court.
240 THE PRIME MINISTER
a sharp passage of arms with Lord Northcliffe over the
question of communications on the Western Front; and
certainly there was no working alliance between them.
There was nothing more than a fortuitous temporary
agreement in regard to the conduct of the war.
On Monday, December 4th, there appeared in the
Times an article giving a very clear and accurate sum-
mary of the negotiations, supported by a "leader" re-
joicing over the discomfiture of Mr. Asquith. 1 It is
the inveterate habit of British statesmen to listen with
sensitive ears to the oracles from Printing House
Square; and Mr. Asquith was no exception to this
rule. He treated this blow as a thunderbolt. He im-
mediately, on the morning of Monday, December 4th,
wrote to Mr. Lloyd George plainly intimating that
if this was to be the sort of view taken of his agree-
ment he could not go on.
When he received this letter Mr. Lloyd George had
not seen the Times article. He knew nothing about
it. He certainly did not inspire it. He was as sur-
prised as Mr. Asquith when he read it. But he has
always taken a tolerant view as to the acvities of a
democratic Press. He wrote back to Mr. Asquith a
friendly letter deprecating any attention to press at-
tacks of which he had himself had to endure so many,
and strongly urging Mr. Asquith not to play into the
hands of the Times. He Mr. Lloyd George
wanted an agreement. The Times did not.
But it was too late. Mr. Asquith's friends urged
him to act and not to submit to what seemed to him a
deliberate attempt to destroy his personal prestige.
1 "The conversion has been swift, but Mr. Asquith has never
been slow to note political tendencies when they become inevi-
table." Leading article, Times, December 4th, 1916.
PREMIERSHIP
So on the afternoon he resigned and ended his Govern-
ment. He acted with absolute correctness. He re-
ceived authority from the King at once to form a new
Government; and he wrote at once to Mr. Lloyd
George. He could, in his view, start now afresh, un-
hampered by the negotiations of Saturday and Sunday.
His first condition was that he himself, as Prime
Minister, must be Chairman of the new War Com-
mittee.
The former plan was thus now definitely rejected,
and a clear challenge was thrown down to Mr. Lloyd
George not a personal challenge, but a challenge of
principle. For Mr. Asquith sincerely and honestly
held that his was the proper way to control the conduct
of the war.
It was, indeed, now for Mr. Lloyd George to de-
cide, not whether he should resign for he was no
longer Minister but whether he should join the new
Ministry on these terms, which clashed absolutely with
his own plans. It was plainly impossible that he should
do so.
So, still with regret but always quite decisively, on
December 5th he placed his office at the disposal of
Mr. Asquith in the formation of his new Ministry.
He parted from Mr. Asquith with every expression
of personal regret, and offered his complete support
of the new Government for the prosecution of the war.
After that events moved rapidly. On the Sunday
(December 3rd) the Tory rank and file had met and
decided not to follow Mr. Lloyd George. But Mr.
Bonar Law made it clear that in that case they could
not count on his leadership. He and his friends in
the old Ministry refused to join the new Ministry
242 THE PRIME MINISTER
That made it impossible for Mr. Asquith to succeed.
The next step was for the King to send for Mr.
Bonar Law. But the old Liberals, the Labour Party,
and the Irish Nationalists refused to serve under his
Premiership. He did not possess a parliamentary ma-
jority. It was useless for Mr. Bonar Law to take office
with a minority following in the House of Commons.
Mr. Lloyd George, indeed, urged Mr. Bonar Law
to make the attempt, and offered to serve under him.
The King, with a splendid desire for reconciliation,
called a conference at Buckingham Palace, and tried
to form a new Coalition Ministry of all parties under
Mr. Bonar Law. But the thing was impossible.
Asquith and his friends stood out; Mr. Asquith refused
the Woolsack. He was contending for what seemed to
him a definite issue of parliamentary control, and we can
scarcely blame him for refusing to be spirited off the
arena of political conflict, or relegated to a gilded cage.
It only remained for the King to send for Mr.
Lloyd George, for he was now the only possible Pre-
mier. It was clearly his duty to accept the call. It
was not easy for him to form a Ministry. The rank
and file of the Tories, still shadowed by Budget memo-
ries, shrank at first from the idea of serving under
so fervent a Radical; but Mr. Bonar Law was de-
termined to submit all political divisions to the supreme
issue of the war; and most of the powerful men of
the party followed his patriotic lead. Many of the lead-
ing Liberal ex-Ministers plainly intimated, through va-
rious channels, public and private, that they were
anxious to stand aside 1 ; but most of the capable young
1 Mr. Herbert Samuel was offered office, and refused. Mr. Montagu
finally joined as Secretary for Ireland.
PREMIERSHIP 243
men willingly came along, recognising that at this crisis
there was a greater thing involved than personal
loyalty. The Labour Party at first stood aloof. There
were long conferences at the War Office. But at last
Mr. Lloyd George won them over by large and frank
concessions both in policy and share of office.
Such is a simple narrative of the events which made
Mr. Lloyd George Premier. Of course there were
mean and unworthy insinuations of course there were
men who saw, in this great and dramatic clash of
ideas, nothing but the mean and sordid conflict of per-
sonal ambitions, or the still more squalid combat of
rival journals. There will always be men with their
eyes fixed on the ground when great signs are appearing
in the heavens.
But to those who have followed this story the event
will seem to be inevitable. At the given moment Mr.
Lloyd George took the post of leadership, but he
only took that post because for at least a year he had
already been the leader. Great wars always have
electric effects. For the ruling of such thunder-storms
there is required a certain temperament of storm. The
plain fact is that Mr. Lloyd George possessed that
temperament and sooner or later he must have been
called to direct the thunderbolts.
When he really had the power to shape the machine
of war after his own ideas, Mr. Lloyd George put
aside half-measures. He boldly shaped a new instru-
ment of Government the War Cabinet as we after-
wards knew it. That Cabinet was a small body of
experienced administrators, united by the one tie of
zeal for their country, who gave their whole energies
244 THE PRIME MINISTER
entirely to the conduct of the war. Except for brief
holidays, they sat daily, and sometimes twice a day.
Minutes were kept of their proceedings, although their
speeches were not reported. When any Department
was concerned, the Minister affected attended himself,
and took part in the consultations. Thus the Foreign
Minister was there when there was a discussion of for-
eign affairs, the Chancellor of the Exchequer on finance,
and so on. The result was that the departmental
chiefs were more free for their own administrative
work, and less worried with the problems of other De-
partments. On the other hand, there grew up a new
Civil Service attached to the War Cabinet, and a
more active machinery for keeping the offices in touch.
It was confessedly a great experiment but experi-
ments are necessary for war. It was certain that that
other instrument, the old Cabinet already showing
signs of weakness in days of peace had broken down
in war; for every revelation, from the Dardanelles to
Mesopotamia, spoke eloquently of the failure, not so
much of the men, as of that machine. It met too
rarely; its proceedings were too cumbrous; there was
a lack^of concentration; there was a constant scattering
and diversion of energies.
There is no room here for vain regrets over the past.
There is no space left for old party feuds and cer-
tainly not for personal issues. Both of these men are
great, distinguished figures, divided only by small
shadows of honest difference. Those shadows will
pass; in the light of greater events they will appear
trifles; and the common need will knit us together.
The resolution for unity must prevail.
CHAPTER XX
THE SAVING OF ITALY
"Many hot inroads
They make into Italy."
Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Sc. iv.
AT the opening of the year 1917 the general situa-
tion -of the World-war in Europe offered fair promise
for the cause of the Entente Allies. On the Western
front the immense latent resources of the British Em-
pire were now coming effectively into play and were
creating an opportunity for a really serious and formi-
dable offensive. Tremendously reinforced in men and
munitions through the powers of the Munitions and
Military Service Acts, our gigantic armies inspired
every observer with immeasurable hopes of victory.
The soldiers themselves were full of that and fresh
sanguine spirit in which the valour of the British race
has always expressed itself. France was now recover-
ing from the grievous losses of men endured in the first
two years of the war; and the new Generals, men of
the younger school like Nivelle and Petain, were look-
ing forward with no less confidence than ourselves to
the .results of a new Western aggressive on a larger
and more effective scale.
But the Western front was only a portion of that
far-flung line of embattled hosts who were holding back
the great Teutonic armies from desolating the fairest
245
246 THE PRIME MINISTER
regions of Western and Southern Europe. Far away
across the snowy barriers of the Alps and beyond the
interval of neutral Switzerland the Italian armies lay in
caves and trenches stretched from the eastern frontier
of the Swiss Canton Ticino right across the eastern
Alps down to the shores of the Adriatic Sea. On the
west of this hazardous line the Italians still held the
Austrian armies to the edges of the main Alpine ridge.
On the east they had pressed them in a series of heroic
onslaughts through the mountains and across the deep
valley 'of the rushing Isonzo. They had captured the
high and coveted city of Gorizia, and they were threat-
ening the suburbs of Trieste. They seemed on the
eve of momentous conquests. But the very achieve-
ments of their heroic valour, so splendid to the outward
eye, concealed a perilous and precarious military
position.
"No one," said Mr. Lloyd George later on at Paris,
"can look at these frontier mountains without a thrill
of respect for the gallantry that has stormed them in
face of the entrenched legions of Austria." Certainly
no one who, like the present writer, has escaladed those
peaks in days of peace. There are no greater episodes
in this war than those of that titanic, gigantesque con-
flict amid the mighty jagged precipices and the deep
gloomy abysses of the Eastern Alps. 1
But the greater the effort, the greater the exhaustion.
It is written large in letters of fire and blood across the
history of the World-war that any excess of human
loss is in itself one of the gravest of military perils.
Italy poured out her blood without stint. Alone among
1 Signer Philippe Philippi has brought from this phase of the war
a wonderful photographic record which will make its glories lasting.
THE SAVING OF ITALY 247
the Allied nations she possessed one organised party-
the official Socialists genuinely opposed to the war.
Taking advantage of this weakness, the Germans had
made a special effort to weaken her home front. The
great industrial centres of the north of Italy Turin
and Milan had been the objective of perhaps the most
sustained effort of German peace propaganda. The
missionaries of this strange crusade had crossed the
Alps by every mountain path and had mixed them-
selves among the armies, scattering their poisoned
leaflets among the tired troops. Thus every prepara-
tion had been made for an easier assault. Like Hanni-
bal when he crossed the Alps in a greater campaign,
they had melted the rocks with vinegar.
The military position, indeed, was not so strong as
it looked. The right wing of the Italian army was
lunging forward victoriously, while the centre and left
were still entangled in the mountains. These things
were not clear to observers in the west of Europe;
but there were English visitors' with the Italian armies
who became uneasily aware of them.
In the absence o*f any unified control it was impossible
to take any effective steps to avert the coming danger.
The British military chiefs bad their views about the
position of the Italian army; many Italians themselves
had their views. But though these views were platoni-
cally interchanged there was no machinery by which
they could be compared and collated, or produce any
real effect on the course of the campaign. In other
words, there was no central power of vision or action
no active organism that was responsible for the war as
a whole, right from the North Sea to the Adriatic. As
Mr. Lloyd George afterwards pointed out in the House
248 THE PRIME MINISTER
of Commons, "there was a sort of feeling that that
front was not our business." 1
This did not, indeed, prevent Mr. Lloyd George
from using such opportunities as presented themselves
for urging his views. In January of that year (1917)
there was an important Conference at Rome between
the Allied Premiers and Generals; and at that Confer-
ence the whole European situation was surveyed in one
of the most candid and exhaustive discussions that had
taken place up to that time. These conversations ex-
tended over the whole ground, from the political rela-
tions between Italy and her neighbouring Allies to
the question of the proper strategy for the Italian fron-
tier. Mr. Lloyd George boldly placed before that Con-
ference his own views as to the proper campaign to be
adopted in the war between Italy and Austria. He
pointed out the grave dangers to which Italy was ex-
posed; and his own characteristic remedy was a rein-
forced aggressive across the Eastern Alps into the
plains of Austria. . That proposal afterwards tenta-
tively put forward in his Paris speech received much
foolish ridicule from English critics. If those critics
would follow the advice of the late Lord Salisbury,
and study large maps, they would observe that the most
vulnerable flank of the Central Powers was to be found
precisely through that very Alpine door north of
Trieste round which the battle was then raging. While
Berlin is remote from the Teutonic frontiers, Vienna
is dangerously exposed to attack from the south and
east, and every student of European wars knows that
1 November 2oth, 1917. In the same speech Mr. Lloyd George
delicately expressed the fact that we were aware of the Italian
peril but unable to find any effective expression for our views.
THE SAVING OF ITALY
the great captains of war, like Napoleon, have always
availed themselves of that fact.
This proposal was a revival in a more modest form
of Mr. Lloyd George's earlier scheme for seeking a,
military decision on the Eastern front; and subse-
quently in his Paris speech he stoutly maintained that
if there had been in January 1917 a proper unified
machinery for military debate and execution the his-
tory of that year (1917) might have been different. 1
But at that time both the Premiers of the Allied na-
tions and the Generals of the Allied armies were fight-
ing the war in water-tight compartments. It was not
yet realised that the Italian front was actually a back
door to the West. It required more startling events to
convince the Allies that if either side broke through
the line at any point, East or West, the whole line
would be in peril. Until those events occurred there
was not enough political or military driving power be-
hind any proposal for unified control.
So throughout those months from August to October
1917 the military control was practically left to each
set of military chiefs in his own section of the war.
The communications and consultations between them
were casual and uncertain; and naturally each set
played for their own hand. For, other things being
equal, the first duty of a soldier is the care of his own
army. In our country it seemed the wisest course for
the War Cabinet to leave all important military de-
*"I should like to be able to read to you the statement submitted
to the Conference in Rome in January (1917) about the perils and
possibilities of the Italian front this year, so that you might judge
it in the light of subsequent events. I feel confident that nothing
could more convincingly demonstrate the opportunities which the
Allies have lost through lack of combined thought and action" (No-
vember i2th, 1917).
250 THE PRIME MINISTER
cisions to the military chiefs. The previous Govern-
ment, indeed, had fortified the Generals with an Order
in Council which practically gave them strategic con-
trol. It was considered best for the time being to
fall in with that arrangement. There was, indeed, no
alternative. "Never," as Mr. Lloyd George said
afterwards in the House of Commons, "never in the
whole history of war in this country have soldiers got
more consistent and more substantial backing from
politicians than they have had this year (1917). . . .
No soldiers in any war have had their strategical dis-
positions less interfered with by politicians. There has
not been a single battalion, or a single gun, moved
this year except with the advice of the General Staff
not one. There has not been a single attack ordered
in any part of the battlefield by British troops except on
the advice of the General Staff not one. There has
not been a single attack not ordered. The whole cam-
paign of the year has been the result of the advice of
soldiers."
If the sole control of war by military authority was
to be put to a decisive test, the campaign of 1917
supplied a crucial instance.
The vital need revealed by that test on the East-
ern front was unity of control. But the same need was
even earlier revealed on the West also.
There the year opened with smiling auspices. The
retreat of the Germans from the Somme Valley and
the final abandonment of the Verdun attack seemed
to give the greatest hope for a successful Allied move
forward against the foe. As at Waterloo, the moment
seemed to have come to cry "Up Guards and at them !"
Nor can it be said that there was any hesitation or lack
THE SAVING OF ITALY 251
of utmost heroism in the attack when it was delivered.
On the contrary those attacks of 1917 displayed British
and French valour at their highest point. But the want
of co-operative effort and unified control led to a great
reduction of war profits in the final balance-sheet of the
year's efforts.
Sir Douglas Haig has frankly taken the world into
his confidence as to the incidents of divided counsel.
In his published despatches on those great events he
has spoken freely. Sir Douglas Haig himself, a dis-
creet and moderate man, had entertained the highest
hopes, and had even gone so far as to express them
through public channels. He was sanguine of a com-
plete break-through. General Nivelle, the French
Commander-in-Chief, was almost equally hopeful. It
is no small gain to great armies when their chieftains
start out with such high expectations.
Whether those expectations would have been ful-
filled if the efforts of the British and French armies had
been backed by unified control it is now impossible to
say. But it is quite certain that the want of unity placed
every obstacle in the way of victory. There were, in-
deed, shadows of control scattered, intermittent ef-
forts to bring the great armies into some form of com-
bined action. But these efforts lacked authority or
decision. There was a military conference of Allied
Generals at the end of 1916; there was even an agree-
ment to make a combined attack in Flanders. But
the decisions of that conference do not seem to have
carried with them any permanent effect on the Allied
war councils. Probably the swift movement of events
made a mockery of such long-laid schemes. At any
rate, we have the fact that General Nivelle made a
252 THE PRIME MINISTER
separate attack in Champagne in the spring of the
year, with the result that our armies had to delay their
advance until that great effort was brought to a de-
cision.
General Nivelle aimed at a great mark. He, too,
aspired to break the German lines. He succeeded in
part, but at a cost of life too great for France at that
moment. General Nivelle had to pay the price. He
ceased to be Commander-in-Chief of the French armies.
His place was taken by General Petain, with the un-
derstanding that he should adopt a less aggressive
policy. The result was that the British attack was de-
layed, and when it took place was undertaken alone. It
achieved great objects, but not so great as had been
hoped. The August fighting round Lens the Septem-
ber onslaughts of Haig's armies east and north of
Ypres, the assault of Passchendaele all these battles
displayed the valour of British, Canadian, and Austra-
lian troops at their highest point.
But there was no break-through. At the critical mo-
ment the British armies were checked by the mud and
rain of the Flanders autumn. Heroism was literally
choked in slime. The cold and gloom of winter de-
scended on those splendid British stormers before their
great task could be achieved.
Such were the fruits of divided control.
It was fated that there should blaze out a sign in
the heavens even more startlingly blood-red before
the forces of national and army particularism could
be safely and successfully defied.
On October 24th (1917) the Italian eastern front
was suddenly shaken by a hammer-blow from the Ger-
man central command. A new army under the redoubt-
THE SAVING OF ITALY 253
able Mackensen, secretly assembled behind the screen
of the mountain ridges, took over the attack from the
nerveless Austrians. 1 This German force made a sud-
den assault under cover of mist against a weak point in
the Italian line. They attacked and penetrated the
Second Italian Army in the neighbourhood of Tolmino
on the Upper Isonzo. Only one Italian regiment gave
way, probably weakened by enemy influences. But at
such a critical point one was enough. It was like a
small hole in a great dyke. The flood of German inva-
sion swept in, and soon began to submerge the plain of
Venetia. During the following week the Austro-Ger-
man armies advanced by forced marches from the
north-east and captured Cividale and Udine. The
heroic Third Italian Army, conquerors of Gorizia, held
on to the line of the Isonzo for a time. But they were
taken in the rear, and it was necessary to command a
retreat. Those brave regiments the Alpini and the
Bersaglieri suddenly fell back, many of them pre-
ferring annihilation to retirement. The whole host
rallied on the line of the Tagliamento; but in the terri-
ble confusion of the great surprise the Italians lost
300,000 men and 2,000 guns.
Italy was now faced with a fearful peril. It was
already clear that the line of the Tagliamento could
not be held; it was uncertain whether any other line
could be held. For if the Germans and Austrians could
attain mastery of the Alps to the north every one of
those river lines of Venetia would be outflanked; the
whole northern plain of Italy would be invaded; the
exquisite prize of Venice and the great industrial cities
1 Ludendorff's War Memories, Vol. II, pp. 497-99. He reveals that
the attack was undertaken to prevent the collapse of Austria Hungary.
254 THE PRIME MINISTER
of Turin and Milan would fall as victims to the spear
of the enemy. Southern Italy would be cut off from
the Western Allies; and, indeed, the whole peninsula
would be in danger, and with it our own naval hold
on the Mediterranean Sea. None of the Western
Allies could be indifferent to the threat of such
calamities.
Mr. Lloyd George determined in a moment that
Britain could not stand by indifferent. He resolved at
once that he would not be responsible for a repetition of
the calamities which had overwhelmed Serbia and
Rumania. The year 1917 should not close as 1915
and 1916 had closed with the head of a kingdom on
a charger presented to the German Herod.
But it was necessary to act instantly. There was not
a moment to be lost. Mr. Lloyd George decided to
go to Italy; and he resolved to go armed with new
powers of central control for the conduct of the war.
He had made up his mind that it was at last necessary
to relieve the Generals of their divided responsibilities
by establishing a definite organism of central control.
Before starting for Italy he prepared and passed
through the British Cabinet a document drawing up in
a series of resolutions the constitution of a new cen-
tral council for the conduct of the war. With that in
his pocket he started to meet the Allied Premiers and
Generals at the little seaside town of Rapallo, a gem
to the east of Genoa on the Italian Riviera.
At that meeting he passed the resolutions contained
in that document almost without an alteration, so ready
were the French and Italians now to consent to any
THE SAVING OF ITALY 855
scheme for increasing the power of central decision. 1
That was the first step in setting up the Versailles
Council.
From Rapallo Mr. Lloyd George proceeded to
Turin and Milan, everywhere encouraging the Italians
and promising them speedy aid. He went as far as
Peschiera, where he met the young Italian King, whose
heroic devotion to his armies has rightly earned him
the fervent love of true Italy. Mr. Lloyd George dis-
cussed fully with him all the details of the assistance
that should be sent. Then with all speed he proceeded
to organise and expedite the arrival of British and
French reinforcements. Within a few days French
and British infantry and artillery were speeding
through the Monte Cenis tunnel to Italy.
For the moment, indeed, there was no need to bring
the new powers of the Rapallo Conference into force.
It was, at any rate, clear to every mind at this crisis
that the whole front was one. It was apparent to any
one who glanced at the map of Europe that the con-
quest of Italy by Germany would shake the whole
Allied combination. It was obvious to the French, at
any rate, that it might bring Germany to the back
door of France.
Faced with such possibilities, British and French
Generals vied with one another in helping Italy. What
divisions could be spared from the Western front were
spared. The young men of Western Europe marched
through the vineyards and maize-fields of those beauti-
1<( In substance it was the document prepared here, discussed line
by line in the Cabinet, and which I had in my pocket after the last
Cabinet meeting which was held a few hours before I left" (No-
vember aoth, 1917. Mr. Lloyd George's speech in the House of
Commons).
256 THE PRIME MINISTER
ful plains of Northern Italy in the waning autumn to
the help of the Italian armies now pressed back to
the Piave. The coming of this help put new heart
into the Italians. As our British boys advanced
through the little white villages between Milan and
the front they were greeted as crusaders. They were
met by cascades of flowers from the joyful villagers,
now recovering from the terror of a cruel invasion.
For it was known by the Italians that the Germans were
sending even Turkish and Bulgarian soldiery to the
invasion of the fair Italian provinces.
So sustained and fortified with such a sense ' of
comradeship behind and beside them the Italian regi-
ments rallied. Along the line of the Piave they put
up that splendid resistance which redeemed the name
of Italy and inspired their people with a new strength
and unity. To the north, among the mountains, they
were helped by French and English battalions, thus
forging between the peoples of Italy and Western
Europe new links imperishable and without price.
Certainly so far the principle of unified control was
justified by its results.
CHAPTER XXI
THE VERSAILLES" COUNCIL
"Besides, he says, there are two councils held;
And that may be determined at the one
Which may make him and you to rue at the other."
SHAKESPEARE'S Richard III, Act III, Sc. ii.
ITALY was saved for the time; but if it was to be
saved for all time, and if other dangers were to be
averted, it was not enough to pass resolutions at
Allied Conferences. The proceedings at Rapallo must
be followed up by more effective action.
Mr. Lloyd George has always the instinct in his
heart that no public purpose can be thoroughly
achieved without the help of the peoples concerned.
He is above all things a "crowd-compeller." It was
now his imperious instinct that he should appeal from
a secret conference to the great peoples of Western
Europe. It was his powerful conviction that he must
take them into his counsel as to the reasons for a new
centralisation of war control in short, that he must
appeal over the heads of the Governments to the
nations-.
If the new Versailles Council was to be anything
more than an Aulic assembly, forcibly-feeble, strenu-
ously impotent, it was necessary to rally behind it all
the great democratic forces of the Western world. It
was urgent to give it a new authority derived directly
257
258 THE PRIME MINISTER
from the peoples. If this was to be achieved the
peoples must be given a franker explanation of the
strategy of the war, of the reasons for failure, and the
motives for a new policy.
These are the reasons why, quite deliberately, on
the way home from Rapallo, on November I2th, 1917,
Mr. Lloyd George made that remarkable speech at
Paris which was perhaps the frankest utterance of the
war. 1
This Paris speech fluttered all the dovecots of
Europe, and some of the eagles' nests as well. It
seemed to come as a caprice, a child of sudden impulse,
from the brain of the British Premier. And yet the
speech was most carefully prepared; a copy of it was
sent to the War Cabinet in time for correction in case
of need; it was handed over for interpretation before
being uttered. 2
There was nothing sudden about it. For the speech
represented the slowly matured results of two years of
observation, the fruits of prolonged meditation on the
events of the war.
The step towards unity which was the central point
of the speech represented his profoundest conviction
on the strategy of the war.
1 See his House of Commons defence (November
"But I was afraid of this. Here was a beautifully drafted docu-
ment in which you had concerned a considerable number of men,
including a distinguished soldier for a member of the General
Staff was one who was most helpful to me in drafting the document
prepared, carried by the Allies at two or three conferences. Noth-
ing happens, simply an announcement in the papers that at least we
had found some means of co-ordination. There has been too much
of that. I made up my mind to take risks. . . ."
" "I considered it carefully. ... If that speech was wrong I
cannot plead any impulse. I cannot plead that it was something
I said in the heat of the moment. I had considered it, and I did
so for a deliberate purpose." (House of Commons Defence, November
i 9 th).
THE VERSAILLES COUNCIL 259
Ever since the beginning of the war, indeed, Mr.
Lloyd George had been an international as well as a
patriot. As in the war itself, so in the Alliances, he
was always against half-measures. If we were to be
true Allies of France and Russia or later on of Italy
and the United States then we must always work
with them hand in hand, take close counsel with them
as friends, act always together, not as separate States
but as parts of one common organisation; the real be-
ginning of a new "League of Nations." From the
very outset he had no use for national sectarianism;
he could not understand the idea of a tepid alliance, a
Laodicean friendship, timorous of mutual help, suspi-
cious of common counsel, feeble in reciprocal aid.
His reading of history had taught him that this kind
of suspicion, especially strong in island countries, had
been the sleeping sickness, the wasting paralysis, of
all former mixed European Alliances. It was just
this same aloofness, this same separatist pursuit of
national aims, that robbed Marlborough of the fruits
of his victories. It was precisely the same want of
common planning that melted all Pitt's alliances like
wax before the fire of Napoleon's energy. In more
recent days, it was the similar want of understanding
between the British and French Generals that pro-
longed the Crimean War.
Now he determined to strike while the iron was
white hot. The fire burned, and he spake with his
tongue. While the events in Italy were still fresh in
the memory of Europe he pointed the lesson in vivid
and biting language. It was certainly the first time
that such a speech had been uttered at such a half-
private function an official luncheon of the Premiers
260 THE PRIME MINISTER
arranged to give him an interval of relaxation in his
journey back to England. No wonder the orthodox
were alarmed.
Frankly and roughly, like a man in a hurry who has
no time for honeyed speech, Mr. Lloyd George gave
to the world his own innermost reasons for pressing
forward the machinery of central control.
For the Versailles Council was to be a real and not
a shadow control. He made it clear that he intended
it to possess a genuine authority over the national
military staffs. Even so, his proposals did not go sa
far as America and France desired; for France already
wished for a Generalissimo, and the United States, be-
ing too far from the war even to aim at exercising con-
trol, were frankly willing to delegate the entire military
power to the men on the spot.
But, even so, Mr. Lloyd George's plan contained
the heart of the matter. Every one engaged in the
controversy was aware that, once the germ of unified
control was established, it would grow. No local con-
trol could compete with it. On that main principle
Mr. Lloyd George was quite clear and definite. He
stated outright that he would not stay in office unless
his plan was adopted. "Personally," he said, referring
to the Rapallo decision, "I had made up my mind that,
unless some change were effected, I could no longer
remain responsible for a war direction doomed to
disaster for the lack of unity."
Mr. Lloyd George was far too old a bird to have
any doubt as to what troubles this speech would bring
on his head. He was speaking, as he himself said,
"with perhaps brutal frankness at the risk of miscon-
THE VERSAILLES COUNCIL 261
ception here and elsewhere," perhaps even, he ad-
mitted, at the risk of encouraging the enemy.
He knew all that. But he also knew that there
are times when such risks have to be taken. There
are moments when an electric shock is necessary if
men are to be really aroused to the duty of change.
Eyesight, they say, is sometimes restored by a flash
of sudden light. The same method may remove blind-
ness of other kinds.
The new Council, he said, had already started work.
It must have the support of public opinion if it was
to have any genuine power. There must be a new
central strength to resist sectional and national in-
fluences. What they wanted for victory was not sham
unity, but real. 1
The Paris speech was followed by an outcry even
greater perhaps than Mr. Lloyd George had expected.
The clamours of offended tradition and convention
filled the air of London, especially of the London clubs.
The uproar lasted for a full week, and then it found
voice in the House of Commons, where Mr. Lloyd
George was subjected to a kind of impeachment by
Mr. Asquith and the Opposition leaders.
"This animal is wicked," wrote the French fabulist;
"it defends itself." Such seems to be the feeling be-
hind much of the fury provoked by Mr. Lloyd George
on such occasions. Such events must be taken with
tranquillity. The mutual play of criticism and defence
goes to form the strength of our public life, and Mr.
Lloyd George is the last man to appeal for mercy.
Speaking this time in the House of Commons on No-
1 Paris speech. Times, November i3th, 1917. See report in The
Great Crusade, pp. 151-62 (Hodder & Stoughton 1918).
262 THE PRIME MINISTER
vember iqth he apologised for nothing. He manfully
stood his ground in defence of the policy of the Ver-
sailles Council.
He revealed the important fact that Lord Kitchener
was the first war-chief who proposed closer co-opera-
tion between the Allies. Lord Kitchener made that
suggestion as far back as January 1915. It was then
far more difficult to carry out. But the disasters of
1917 had made it easier.
He made even a more startling revelation. It was
that the same proposal had been made in July of that
very year (1917), not by the statesmen, but by the
soldiers at a meeting of the Commanders-in-Chief at
which Sir William Robertson, General Cadorna, and
General Foch had been all present. So it was not
true, as suggested in so many quarters, that this was a
case of civilian^ forcing an idea of their own upon
reluctant soldiers.
Then Mr. Lloyd George passed to that spirited
personal defence of his Paris speech which has since
become famous. It was, in many respects, an apology
which extended to his whole career. It was an expla-
nation of his own favourite political methods.
Briefly put, it was that he deliberately made a dis-
agreeable speech in order to arouse public opinion. It
was not enough to pass resolutions. What he wanted
was public support. To obtain that he had resolutely
and in cold blood set out to give a shock to the public
mind.
"It is not easy to rouse public opinion. I may
know nothing about military strategy, but I do
know something of political strategy. To get
JHE VERSAILLES COUNCIL 263
public opinion interested in a proposal and to con-
vince the public of the desirability of it is an
essential part of political strategy. That is why
I did it. And it has done it."
Here is a precise statement of his favourite method
the method which he has constantly used from the
moment of his early defiance of the magistrates in
North Wales right up to that famous interview of the
"Knock-out Blow." It may be called the application
to politics of the military method of the ''Counter-
attack."
The proof of the pudding is, after all, in the eating.
The result, for instance, of these two speeches the
Paris speech and the Commons defence was so to
familiarise and popularise the idea of central military
control that we now read them with some surprise at
their moderation. We feel some astonishment that
such apologies should have had to be uttered for a
system of unified control which afterwards became a
commonplace of Allied strategy. The hammer-blows
of fate proved even more effective than the power of
words in the House of Commons. But we must re-
member that at the moment Mr. Lloyd George was
beating up against the wind. He had great forces
working against him both within Parliament and with-
out. He had to face a remarkable alliance between
military professional pride, national feeling, and party
tactics. The triumph of these speeches is that such
forces have proved so powerless in the upshot against
the overwhelming case for unity of control.
But the struggle was now only transferred from the
debating-chamber to the council-room. There Mr.
264 THE PRIME MINISTER
Lloyd George was met with a very resolute opposition
from a body of military opinion supported by a very
able and pugnacious Press. The military opinion, at
any rate, was as honest as it was stubborn. The power
of great national traditions was linked to the strength
of professional feeling. It was hard and painful to
come into conflict with men like Sir William Robertson.
But the issue had to be fought through; and no Gov-
ernment would have been worth its salt which allowed
a great political and international issue to be decided
by military opinion. Mr. Lloyd George was fighting
for one of the oldest principles of the British Con-
stitution when he asserted the final supremacy of
civilian control.
Yet it was not remarkable that the debate on this
issue should have puzzled the minds of many honest
men. For it raised the old question should not mat-
ters of war be left entirely to the soldiers? Those
who maintain that view seemed to have a very strong
weight of common sense on their side. For how should
civilians know anything of war?
A simple child,
That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
And is not the civilian a mere child in the fiery matters
of war?
In any ordinary war it would seem to be the right
policy for statesmen to hand purely military matters
to the soldiers and keep negotiations for themselves.
The business of the statesman would appear to be to
stand by as a possible peacemaker; although there have
been wars which have been not only skilfully conducted
THE VERSAILLES COUNCIL 265
but also wisely concluded by soldiers. Lord Kitchener,
for instance, was never greater than in the negotia-
tions which ended the Boer War.
But this World-war was already seen to be no ordi-
nary war. If the European side of the war alone had
been confined to Flanders, then, as in the wars of
Marlborough, both strategy and statesmanship might
have been left to the same man; although in that con-
spicuous case it was the civilian statesman who had
to intervene before peace could be achieved. But,
with operations confined and aims defined, the part of
the civilians often lightly limited to the choice of gen-
erals and the provision of armies.
Here, however, was a war in which operations could
not be confined nor aims defined. Here was a struggle
already (1917) limited to no country and to no con-
tinent; carried on in three elements earth, sea, and
air a conflict enveloping a planet.
In Europe alone the battle-front stretched across
the whole Continent from west to east; and Palestine
and Mesopotamia belonged to the same front as
Belgium. 1
Such a war has multitudinous aspects. It has its
politics as well as its strategy ; its tactics of the council-
room as well as its tactics of the field. Military de-
cisions have often to be based on political considera-
tions; the movements of armies are decided by the
relations of the Allied countries. Even strategy itself
is revolutionised; for in such a war strategy stakes
1 "We have gone on talking of the Eastern front and the Western
front, and the Italian front, and the Salonika front, and the Egypt-
ian front, and the Mesopotamia front, forgetting that there is but
one front with many flanks; that with these colossal armies the
battle-field is continental" (Mr. Lloyd George at Paris, November
izth).
266 THE PRIME MINISTER
many new forms there is the strategy of the air as
well as the strategy of the earth; the strategy of the
sea as well as the strategy of air. There is the strategy
of continents as well as the strategy of countries. But
all through the one distinguishing feature of the whole
war was that nowhere in any aspect could strategy be
wholly divorced from statesmanship.
The Germans recognised this fact throughout. The
direction of their attacks east or west was often
decided by political motives. War offensives were
mingled with peace offensives, and the art of Machiavel
added to the art of Napoleon. The hell's broth at
Berlin was cunningly brewed of the mingled herbs of
war and peace. Perhaps it would have been as well
if sometimes we had given to them the flattery which
consists in imitation.
But in Great Britain there has always been a cruder
division between the soldier and the politician. Just
as the soldier is suppressed during times of peace so
the statesman is allowed little say during times of
war. We have yet to learn from our enemies that
war is a form of politics, and that neither of the two
activities of the State can be wholly divided from the
other. The cry of "Hands off the war!" uttered to
the statesman is equivalent to a cry of dismissal.
Mr. Lloyd George, at any rate, was not at all willing
to accept this impotent conclusion. He was clear that
if the soldiers were to conduct the whole strategy of
the war they must be responsible for the politics of
the war also. The only conclusion of that logic was
a military dictatorship. But, to do them justice, none
of the honest soldiers who contended with him nursed
ambitions of that kind. The only end to the argument,
THE VERSAILLES COUNCIL 267
therefore, was certain to be a vindication of the civil
power. To win the war, the soldier and the states-
man must work hand in hand. That was the sound and
safe line of policy along which Mr. ' Lloyd George
steadily worked.
He tried his best to win over those eminent soldiers
who honestly held the other view and opposed the
Versailles Council on principle. Sir William Robert-
son was offered the high position of British representa-
tive in the Council. From reasons which did him
nothing but credit reasons of honest conviction he
refused the position and took instead the Eastern Com-
mand. Another soldier, Sir Frederick Maurice (Di-
rector of Military Operations on the Army Council)
carried his opposition further on retirement from the
Council. He wrote a letter to the Press openly dis-
puting the accuracy of certain statements made by the
Prime Minister in the House of Commons. Mr. Lloyd
George offered a Court of Judges to try the case ; but,
on Mr. Asquith preferring a Committee of the House
of Commons, Mr. Lloyd George decided to vindicate
his own accuracy before the House of Commons itself.
The result of his defence was that he obtained an over-
whelming majority as a vote of confidence in himself
and his Government. But it was necessary for the
Army Council to vindicate discipline; and Sir Fred-
erick Maurice was retired on half-pay.
Painful as this incident was to all who had regard
for an honourable and high-minded soldier, it was a
necessary and salutary assertion of civilian control over
military.
British opinion, at any rate, steadily supported Mr.
Lloyd George. Events at the front soon bore out
268 THE PRIME MINISTER
only too clearly the soundness of his views. It was
noted that in the battle of St. Quentin the German
armies stuck at the link between the British and the
French forces with the sure instinct that there they
would find the weakest point. The moral was only
too obvious. Control must not be less united, but
more. Without a protest from any responsible quar-
ter in Great Britain the famous Frenchman, General
Foch, was in 1918 appointed Generalissimo on the
Western front.
Thus the policy of Rapallo triumphed, and the unity
of control was attained.
CHAPTER XXII
VICTORY
"O God! Thy arm was here;
And not to us, but to Thy arm alone,
Ascribe we all."
SHAKESPEARE'S Henry V, Act IV, Sc. via.
THE last year of the Great War was undoubtedly
the most critical and momentous year in the modern
history of these islands. By an amazing combination
of events, Western Europe was subject to a sudden re-
vival of extreme peril exceeding in violence the menace
of 1914. Looking back from the security of the
present time (1920) it is easy to underrate the threat
of that great attack by the Central Powers: and, in-
deed, in our present discussions there is an almost
perilous oblivion of the dangers through which we have
passed. But those who study the memoirs of the
German War Leaders, which have poured out since
the close of the war, 1 will realise the complete con-
fidence of the German General Staff in the victory
which seemed to lie ahead of them, as the natural
climax to the series of smashing blows which they
had delivered to their enemies during the two previous
years (1916-17).
*The Memoirs of Von Tirpitz and Falkenhayn, and last, but
not least, the frank and outspoken War Memories of General
LudendorflE.
269
270 THE PRIME MINISTER
General Ludendorff finds the chief reason for the
German defeat in the war spirit which had been
aroused in England under the leadership of Mr. Lloyd
George, and in France by the inspiration of M.
Clemenceau. Neither of those leaders would admit
that they alone could have achieved so great a triumph
for liberty over the menace of militarism. It was
the spirit of the peoples of France and Great Britain
that really achieved resounding victory the peoples
who shrank from no sacrifice and faced every trial
rather than accept defeat. I have in my memory the
spectacle of a regiment of boys of eighteen and nine-
teen London boys, freshly plucked from the counter
and the van whom I met one evening, at the height
of the crisis in the spring of 1918, marching to be en-
trained from Norfolk to Northern France. "Shall
we win the war?" shouted one half of them, and the
other half replied with an echoing shout "Yesl"
Those youths had been cut off from all leave and were
being plunged into the firing-line at a few hours' notice.
They went singing to almost certain death. They were
the fit crusaders of a race that never contemplated
defeat; and no man who had such a people behind
him could vainly boast of his own single achievements.
Yet leadership counts for much, and vainly do the
masses struggle if those at the top weaken and faint.
There is no greater misfortune that can befall a race
than failure of valour and resolution in high places.
It was because Mr. Lloyd George kept, in the utmost
stress of those events, his courage undimmed and his
spirit unshaken, that he has rightly earned so large a
part in the credit of victory.
Another scene comes back to me from those dark
VICTORY 271
days. I was standing in front of one of the large-
scale maps at Downing Street, noting the point reached
by the German legions in one of those tremendous and
determined efforts to drive us into the sea during the
April of 1918. There was the sound of a step behind
us, and suddenly we turned to find the Prime Minister
also observing the map with a close and concentrated
gaze. We knew that things were serious, and that
there were influences at the centre in favour of with-
drawing our armies from France. But of all the com-
pany he was the serenest. "Serious? Yes!" he said.
"But by no means desperate. Look here!" and he
pointed to the north of Calais. "We can flood that
area if necessary. Then, if they drive us south of
Calais, we can still hold on. France is a large place,
and it has many ports. Retire from France? No, we
will stand by our Allies to the last!" And he went
away singing, as undismayed as those boys whom I had
seen marching to France. A worthy leader of a worthy
nation!
On another day I remember him describing to me a
visit he had paid to the fighting line at the most critical
moment of that great peril. He spoke with flashing
eyes. "We motored," he said, "from the coast right
up to the fighting front, and we did not meet a single
British soldier in flight. Not one had turned his back
to the enemy, not one!" Yet during that time the
German guns were enfilading our trenches lined with
English boys, and the chance of survival in that defence
without death or injury had been reduced almost to the
point of zero.
What was the cause of this last and most perilous
phase? It was the collapse of Russia, produced by
272 THE PRIME MINISTER
the Bolshevist coup d'etat in Petrograd on November
yth, 1917. On that day, Lenin achieved the purpose
for which the Germans had given him his passports into
Russia. He destroyed Kerensky, who combined revolu-
tion with national war, and he substituted a policy
of international peace combined with civil war. Both
edges of that policy were sharpened to the destruction
of Russia as a war power, and on December 2Oth Mr.
Lloyd George warned the House of Commons that
the collapse of Russia, following on the Italian defeat,
would require a new and still greater output of man-
power by Great Britain. A Bill for that purpose was
introduced into the House of Commons on January
I4th, abolishing almost the last exemptions from mili-
tary service. Events in Russia moved swiftly. On
November 2ist the Bolshevists made to the Germans
a definite proposal for armistice, and peace negotiations
began at Brest-Litovsk on December 2nd. The Bol-
shevists twice broke up the Constituent Assembly at
Petrograd by force of arms. The Germans put for-
ward peace terms of such severity that even the Bol-
shevists were dismayed, and Trotsky attempted to de-
clare peace without signing the treaty. Thereupon the
Germans advanced their armies into Russia, meeting
with no resistance, and occupying Minsk in the north
and Kieff in the south. Powerless in the face of this
invasion, the Bolshevists signed the peace treaty on
March 2nd, surrendering Lithuania, Finland, the
Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic Provinces, promising
demobilisation of their armies and internment of their
ships. Russia was out of the war. On March 5th the
Germans followed this up by signing peace with Ru-
mania, and on March 6th they signed peace with Fin-
VICTORY 273
land. Their great armies in the East of Europe were
now free to work their will on the West.
Ludendorff has told us that even then there was
some debate among the German military chiefs be-
tween the policy of defence in the West and the policy
of attack. But Mr. Lloyd George saw clearly that the
Germans would be obliged to attack. They were com-
pelled by the logic of the blockade. With all her
feverish triumphs in the East of Europe, Germany was,
at that moment, in a parlous plight. She was in the
position of a besieged city. She had either to break
out or to surrender. The fearful ravage which she
perpetrated in Rumania and the Ukraine, and in the
western provinces of Russia also, were really the meas-
ure of her need. Food and materials were more
necessary for her at that moment than military
triumphs, and she hastened to cash all her victories into
material produce of one kind or another. , Like a hun-
gry tiger, she devoured her prey. But there were other
beasts afoot in Eastern Europe at the same time, and
we know now that the division of the loot caused ex-
treme bitterness between Germany and Austria-
Hungary, and that the resentment of the Ukraine
forced Germany to keep troops in the East of Europe
which might have struck the decisive blow in the West.
Such is the Nemesis of greed.
But still Germany could realise immediately over
2,000,000 new fighting men for the grand sortie now
planned on the Western Front, and Ludendorff has
told us how quickly and strenuously he trained the
troops for thisi gigantic effort. The blow came on
March 2ist, against the Third and Fourth British
Armies between the Scarpe and the Oise. Forty Ger-
274 THE PRIME MINISTER
man divisions attacked, and on the second day, the
22nd, there was a break through west of St. Quentin.
On the following days the British line had to with-
draw nearly fifteen miles, back to the line of the
Somme, losing prisoners all the way, but inflicting very
heavy losses on the attacking division. The British
line was broken, but not the British Army. During
the following days the German divisions steadily
poured through the gap, crossing the Somme, capturing
Albert and Mezieres, some 90,000 British prisoners,
and over 1,300 guns.
The peril opened by this event both to France and
the British Empire lasted for four months, and during
that period there was scarcely a day on which the strain
was relaxed. Colossal issues were at stake, and among
the chief was whether the British Empire should sur-
vive. Mr. Lloyd George rose to the height of the crisis
at once, and kept on the summit until the close. Day
by day he never relaxed his energy or his courage. He
did not abate, in those dark days, one jot of heart or
hope. There was no resource or reserve of national
strength which he did not bring to bear. There was
no device that he left untried. It is easy to speak of
the hurricane and storm when you have reached har-
bour, but there is little doubt that, unless we had had a
good captain on the bridge, the great ship "British
Empire" would have foundered.
He envisaged the problem in two ways strategy
and numbers. He saw the Allied Forces faced by over-
whelming myriads of Teuton troops, combined under
one central command. To resist this assault he was
more than ever of the opinion that the defenders also
must be placed under one command, and he carried his
VICTORY 275
faith to the full logic of his conclusion. In April he
agreed to the appointment of General Foch as supreme
Commander of the Allied Forces. It was a step in-
volving great risks and great faith. Fortunately Sir
Douglas (now Lord) Haig agreed with Mr. Lloyd
George, and played the game to the full, like the great
soldier he was. Otherwise the thing could not have
been done. The trial came for the British when, as
the crisis deepened, Marshal Foch began to exercise
his full powers, and to withdraw from the direction of
the coast great British forces which had been placed
there in reserve for the protection of the British line
and the security of the Channel.
Like all great commanders, Foch himself had to take
risks and to meet the German concentrations by great
concentrations on his own side.- For this purpose he
had to wield full power over both British and French
Armies, and he exercised it to the full in the great
battles of that summer. It was an anxious time for
the British Government. But Mr. Lloyd George had
taken the full measure of Foch as a soldier: he fully
believed in him, and he went to the whole extent of his
faith. A working arrangement was come to by which
Mr. Lloyd George went over to meet Clemenceau and
Foch at Paris periodically, and the supreme conduct of
the war was now in the hands of these three men.
So far for the strategy which governed the great battles
of that summer.
Then for numbers. Mr. Lloyd George saw in a
moment that, unless drastic and exceptional measures
were taken the Allied Forces would simply be snowed
under by the hosts of the enemy. To meet this danger
the natural counter-measure was to throw across the
276 THE PRIME MINISTER
Channel all the troops in England sufficiently trained
to go into the shock of battle. For this purpose he
was obliged to suspend all the usual age limits from
active foreign service and to send across the Channel
the great army of youths enlisted under the Conscrip-
tion Act, and hitherto prepared only for home defence.
These great forces streamed across in the months of
April, May, and June, and did something to fill up the
gaps in the line. But as the weeks went by Mr. Lloyd
George perceived that the British reinforcements alone
would be unequal to the great task. The Germans
were still straining every nerve, and they were fighting
against time. Our Government could not precisely
tell how many reserves the Germans still possessed,
or how many men they could spare from their Eastern
Front. The Germans were working on the calculation
that the Americans could not come across till 1919 or
1920, and their submarines were operating feverishly
to keep up the alarm on the Atlantic Ocean. The
Americans themselves were too far removed from the
scene of danger to realise at once the greatness of the
emergency. But they only required the S.O.S. signal.
Mr. Lloyd George determined to give it.
One morning that spring he made up his mind.
"We have to get 500,000 Americans over in four
months, at the rate of 1 25,000 a month. How can that
be done?" That was the problem as he saw it and
as he expressed it. He began to send a series of tele-
grams to President Wilson through Lord Reading,
explaining to Mr. Wilson the peril and the need of
instant help. President Wilson immediately grasped
the crisis. Mr. Lloyd George organised the Navy and
the Merchant Service for the work of transport on
VICTORY 277
the British side of the Atlantic, and President Wilson
did the same on his side. So began that great Armada
of help from the New World. The American divisions
poured across the Atlantic, overcrowded on their trans-
ports, packed almost to suffocation, but willing to
suffer all things in the great crusade on which they
were bent. The Americans, indeed, did far better
than the British Government had expected. They sent
a million men. It was a magnificent performance, and
must ever be remembered to the credit of that great
nation.
Then President Wilson and Mr. Lloyd George, act-
ing together, went one step further. When the Ameri-
can troops arrived many of them were instantly bri-
gaded with the British and French forces, and so they
learnt with the greatest rapidity possible all the craft
and ruses necessary for modern warfare. They did
their utmost to acquire in a few months all those new
arts of destruction which it had taken Europe years to
evolve. To achieve this, for the time they gave up
America's great dream of a national army. But, after
all, the greatest fact of all was their arrival.
Meanwhile, during these weeks of suspense and
endeavour the German armies had struck again and
again in the last desperate campaign for victory.
Through April, May, and June the issue still hung in
the balance.
The second great attack on April 4th, when
twenty German divisions, advancing towards Amiens,
attempted to divide the British Armies from the
French. That attack came very near to success. We
all know how the Germans arrived at positions from
which they could bombard Amiens and paralyse the
278 THE PRIME MINISTER
communications, and it is blazed on the records of
fame how the armies of the British Empire men from
Australia and Canada held the line at Villers-
Brettoneux, and by their invincible blending of defence
and attack kept the assailing German divisions from
achieving their purpose.
A few days later a new attack developed, this time
farther north, west of Lille. From the British point of
view this was the most menacing attack of all. It was
a determined attempt to drive the British armies into
the sea. On April loth Armentieres was occupied and
the bloodstained Ridge of Messines crossed. On the
1 5th Bailleul was taken, and on the 25th the attack
came to a climax with the capture of Kemmel Hill
under the eyes of the German Emperor. Yet the Ger-
mans could not gain the decision they require. The
British troops gave ground, but always fought on. The
line bent, but it did not break.
But, as the weeks went on, the British Government
replied in stern deeds which the whole British people
supported. Not only did the younger men stream
across the Channel, but the older men lined up to
take their places. It was on March Qth that Mr.
Lloyd George introduced that last and tremendous
Military Service Act, raising the age to fifty, with a
reserve possibility of fifty-five, and threatening to ex-
tend conscription to Ireland. Such extreme measures
became in the result unnecessary: but partly because the
British people showed that they were possible.
Ludendorff has described to us the gradual waning
of his hopes 1 in face of the unbroken resolution of the
1 War Memories (Hutchinson & Co., London), Vol. II, pp. 613-4 for
decline of morale, pp. 643-5 f r effect of our propaganda.
VICTORY 379
British people under Mr. Lloyd George, the swift
dying off in the fire of battle of all their best troops,
and the failing of human morale which took place un-
der the stress of those costly onslaughts. There is no
more dramatic story in history than his account of the
way in which the revolutionary poison which the Ger-
mans had inoculated into Russia by the sending of
Lenin returned back into the German Army and grad-
ually destroyed by its discipline and undermined its de-
sire for victory. 1 But there is another side to that story.
Ludendorff describes, without apparently understand-
ing the significance of his narrative, the way in which
his troops, when they had captured a position, would
spend the precious minutes in overhauling and devour-
ing the stores of food which they found. 2 He seems to
regard that as merely a sign of the weakening of mili-
tary discipline. But the plain fact is that hunger has
no respect for discipline; and it was hunger that was
eating at the vitals of the German nation hunger and
want of all the essentials of war. The blockade was
completing the work of our armies. For our prisoners
found that the Germans were lacking in the most ele-
mentary medical necessities and that their transport had
reached a point of decay which made it almost impossi-
ble for them properly to feed and maintain theirarmies.
Ludendorff blames the German nation for not sup-
porting the German Army, but the fact is that this was
not a war of armies, but a war of nations. The Ger-
man Army was still capable of great deeds, but the
German nation behind was stricken to the heart.
Therefore, the strength of the Army, which drew its
'Vol. II, pp. 642-4, 767-9. 2 Vol. II, p. 611.
280 THE PRIME MINISTER
vitality from the nation, was rapidly waning even in
those moments of victory.
With his instinctive insight for the real facts of the
situation, Mr. Lloyd George saw that even in the
darkest hour here was the governing issue which na-
tion could hold out the longest. So now he set himself,
with all his great powers, to hearten and encourage
both the peoples and the Armies in France and Great
Britain. He kept travelling between London and Paris,
attending the meetings of the Versailles Council, visit-
ing the armies at the front, and exchanging cheerful
messages between the fighting men and the civilians.
On the day Bailleul was captured, April I5th, he boldly
declared that we had lost "nothing vital." On May
3rd he returned from the Versailles Council with a mes-
sage from the troops to the nation at home "Be of
good cheer. We are all right!"
But the crisis was by no means at an end. In May
there came a third German attack, this time towards
Paris, and before it was broken it had driven the British
and French armies across the Aisne and the Marne and
had come within almost thirty miles of Paris. Those
were anxious days. But the lure of Paris was again to
prove fatal to the German Army. Foch withdrew his
armies only to prepare for a fiercer spring. "My left
is driven back, and my right is driven back. I shall
attack with my centre !" was his famous utterance. The
Germans were drawn perilously on, until with a sudden
smashing blow on July i8th Foch crumpled up the right
side of the phalanx which they were driving towards
Paris. Ludendorff tells us that, even after that unex-
pected defeat, the German Staff still cherished hopes
of victory towards the north, although, to all outside
VICTORY 281
observers, their aggressive powers seemed to be ex-
hausted.
It was the attack on August 8th of the British and
French troops together, aided by an army of tanks,
storming the German lines east of Amiens, that came
to Ludendorff as the final blow to his hopes. From
that time onward, until November, is one long story of
unbroken victory for the Allies. But it was victory
dearly purchased by blood and endurance ; for the Ger-
man armies retired sullenly and inflicted heavy casual-
ties. 1 We must not underrate the heroism of those
months. It is no small thing that the armies endured
to the end. It is clear, from the memoirs of the Ger-
man chiefs, that they were still looking eagerly for any
sign of weakness, and that the smallest symptom of
war-weariness would have led to a renewal of German
hopes. Mr. Lloyd George saw this clearly, and never
to the end did he give way to boasting. "The worst
is over," he said at Manchester on September I2th,
"but the end is not yet."
We know now from Ludendorff that suggestions for
an armistice were made by him to the German Govern-
ment immediately after August 8th. But at first the
civilian power, under Count Hertling, the German
Chancellor, and his successor Hintze, was inclined to
hold out. It was not until after the smashing up of
Bulgaria on September i6th, ending with its surrender
on the 3Oth, that Hintze resigned and gave place to
Prince Max of Baden. It was now the turn of the
German military chiefs to resist the civilians in their
1 There were seven distinct great battles after August 8th
Bapaume, Epehy, two battles of Cambrai, Courtrai, Selle, and
Valenciennes.
282 THE PRIME MINISTER
passion for surrender. For Ludendorff was in favour
of a final rally, whilst Prince Max was resolute to make
peace.
It was to President Wilson that Prince Max made
his overtures for an armistice based on the Fourteen
Points, 1 and the negotiations continued all through Oc-
tober. No one who lived through those days will for-
get the high, austere dignity of the American Presi-
dent's replies, which fell on the German Government
and people with all the inexorable force of impartial
justice. He insisted that the Germans should leave all
invaded soil, that they should cease their barbarisms on
land and sea, and that the terms of Armistice must be
such as to make a renewal of hostilities impossible. 2
President Wilson carried the correspondence with
Prince Max as far as he 'could without being in control
of the armies, and then he telegraphed the letters to the
Governments of his Allies in Europe. Mr. Lloyd
George at once saw the practical peril of the new sit-
uation. It was that the German military chiefs might
use the Armistice for a recovery of strength, and
Ludendorff's Memoirs show that he had full justifica-
tion for that fear. 3 He resolved at once that the only
safe armistice would be one of complete disarmament,
and with that policy in his mind he went to Paris to
meet M. Clemenceau and Marshal Foch. There at
Versailles a full historic conference of all the Allies
took place, and lasted a fortnight. The European Al-
lies modified President Wilson's terms on certain essen-
tial points. Great Britain excluded the control of the
1 See Appendix D for the Fourteen Points.
2 American Note of October 23rd, 1918.
3 Page 721. The armistice terms were to permit a "resumption of
hostilities on our own borders."
VICTORY 283
seas from the sphere of negotiations, and France in-
sisted on a wider interpretation of President Wilson's
reparation demand. President Wilson agreed to both
these modifications.
Then the Versailles Council passed to their imme-
diate practical conditions. Marshal Foch insisted that
the Germans must ask for an Armistice in the ordinary
military way from himself, the Allied Commander.
That being agreed, the terms were framed and they
were pretty drastic terms. The German armies must
retire across the Rhine and must be demobilised. Ger-
man guns and ships must be surrendered. 1 In fact,
Germany must be rendered incapable of resuming the
war. Only on those terms was an Armistice possible
with an enemy who had given such dire proofs of ill-
faith.
Faced with these terrible terms, Ludendorff made a
last effort to rally Germany to a final war of defence.
But he was too late. He himself had fatally weakened
the German fighting power when he suggested negotia-
tions in August. Then the civilians had protested. But
now that they had been converted to peace, nothing
could make Germany face the guns again. Their mili-
tary strength suddenly collapsed. Turkey surrendered
on October 3ist, and Austria-Hungary on November
4th. The bell of doom had begun to toll.
On November 4th the German Government made a
final effort to command their fleet on to the high seas.
But the fleet mutinied, and from that mutiny a revolu-
tion began in Hamburg which soon spread over Ger-
many. On November yth the British troops entered
1 Five thousand guns and 30,000 machine guns, 5,000 locomotives,
22 big ships, and 50 destroyers.
284 THE PRIME MINISTER
Valenciennes: on the 8th Prince Max resigned and was
succeeded by Herr Ebert. On the 9th the Kaiser ab-
dicated and fled into Holland. On that day the Ger-
man envoys were received by Foch at his headquarters
and the new German Republic accepted the terms of
Armistice. On the morning of the I ith the Canadians
entered Mons, that little town where firing had opened
more than four years before, and precisely at 1 1 o'clock
on that very morning the Armistice began. There was
a sudden stillness from the North Sea to the frontier
of Switzerland.
"Germany is doomed!" cried Mr. Lloyd George,
speaking at the Mansion House on November 9th;
and he proved a true prophet.
The Allies had won the war. . . .
CHAPTER XXIII
THE PEACE CONFERENCE
"War or peace, or both at once."
SHAKESPEARE'S Henry IV, Act V, Sc. ii.
THE colossal strain of the last year of the Great
War left both Ministers and peoples of the conquering
Allies in a state of profound exhaustion. So near had
been the peril of defeat that for a time it was scarcely
possible to realise the fact of victory. For the first
two weeks after the Armistice of November nth,
1918, London, Paris, and New York were given over
to a delirium of rejoicing such as the world never be-
fore witnessed. Mr. Lloyd George, speaking from the
windows of Downing Street on the day of the Armis-
tice, told the people plainly that they had a right to
rejoice. He rejoiced with them.
But gradually, as the days passed, the world woke
to the fact that the Armistice was only the opening
of a new phase in the crisis of change. The Armistice
terms imposed on Germany by the Allies had left her
prone and helpless. She could not resume the fighting.
Both the Central Empires were beaten and broken.
The Emperors and the Kings were in flight. But the
world could not be left to live in a vacuum. Desolation
is not peace. Europe was like a shattered puzzle which
had to be pieced together again before humanity could
285
286 THE PRIME MINISTER
resume irs normal life. It was urgent that a Confer-
ence should be summoned speedily both to make peace
and to settle the future governance of the world.
There were some necessary delays. President Wil-
son came swiftly to Europe; but before attending the
Conference he wished to consult the Governments of
the Allies and to visit their capitals. He arrived in
Paris on December I3th, and visited both Rome and
London. His presence was acclaimed everywhere by
enthusiastic multitudes, possessed by a great hope that
the New World had truly come to redress the balance
of the Old.
There was also the British General Election, which
Mr. Lloyd George deemed necessary to confirm and
strengthen his position at the Conference as spokesman
for Great Britain. No time was lost. The General
Election was announced immediately after the Armis-
tice. Nominations were taken on December 4th after
a very brief election campaign; the polls were held
on one day, December I4th, under the new electoral
arrangements; and the results were declared on De-
cember 28th. The result was an overwhelming vote
for Mr. Lloyd George as the British representative at
the Conference, and as the mandatory of a strong and
decisive peace. 1
There was some preliminary debate as to the city
that should be chosen for the Conference. President
Wilson and Mr. Lloyd George were at first disposed to
choose a neutral capital; but the claims of France were
strong. She had borne the territorial brunt of the war.
So it was agreed that the Conference should meet in
Paris at first, with the reservation that they should
1 For further particulars of the election see Chapter XXIV.
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 287
afterwards shift to Geneva. But once the huge ma-
chine of counsel was settled in Paris it was found im-
possible to move it. In spite of the preponderant
power thus given to the pressure of the French Press,
it is difficult to see now how any other capital could have
been chosen.
The burden of British responsibility was far too
heavy for the Prime Minister to bear alone. He de-
cided to share it, as far as possible, with his whole
Ministry and Government; and the result was that the
fashioning of the Peace by Great Britain was far less
of a personal affair than in any other of the victorious
countries. Mr. Lloyd George took with him to Paris,
as joint delegates, Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Balfour, Lord
Milner, and Mr. Barnes. Mr. Bonar Law, being
leader of the House of Commons, was soon compelled
to return to his duties in England; but he flew over to
Paris at every serious crisis in the discussions. Mr.
Balfour and Mr. Barnes remained all the time, and
performed great services. Lord Milner went over
when colonial affairs required his counsel and decision;
and Mr. Montagu attended for Indian matters. But
Ministers from all Departments attended in Paris
whenever their advice was required; on critical occa-
sions Mr. Lloyd George summoned meetings of the
War Cabinet so that his decisions might have the full
weight of the Coalition behind them. 1
But besides the men of Great Britain the men of the
Dominions were there too. The whole weight of the
British Empire was behind the decision of the British
1 President Wilson brought with him four delegates, including
Secretary Lansing, Colonel House, and one Republican, Mr. Henry
White. M. Clemenceau was supported by General Foch, M. Pichon,
M. Tardieu, and M. Loucheur.
288 THE PRIME MINISTER
Delegations. Each Dominion sent two delegates, one
of whom in every case was the Prime Minister. The
British Empire Delegation sat every day, and consid-
ered every big decision ; their secretary was a member
of the Secretariat oT the Peace Conference; powerful
men like Mr. Hughes, Mr. Robert Borden and Gen-
eral Botha had their say through this channel; and
thus the whole Empire was kept in touch. There was
here the beginning of a new Imperial organisation.
Behind all these leaders stood the great body of
British officials; cool, experienced, industrious, alert,
no body of men in that great crisis served their country
better.
The first meeting of the Conference was held on
January i8th, 1919, at the Palace of Versailles, and
was an impressive gathering of the representatives of
all the thirty Allied Nations who had taken part in the
defeat of Germany. But as soon as vital decisions
were approached it became obvious that it would be
necessary to narrow the Council-chamber and to throw
a veil over their debates. There was much inflammable
stuff lying about, explosive national hopes and greeds,
incredible aspirations after greatness. There were
Caesars and Malvolios among the Powers, both great
and little. If the discussions had been published, great
popular emotions would have been roused, hatreds
stimulated, passions excited. The Conference might
not have lasted a week. No sane advocate of "open
diplomacy" will ever exclude the right of private de-
bate.
The world watched impatiently while the inner Coun-
cil was gradually narrowed from ten to five, from five
to four, and finally, after Italy's withdrawal, from
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 289
four to three. There was something of a sneer in the
adjective applied "The Big Five," "The Big Four,"
and the "Big Three." And yet the narrowing of the
number was absolutely necessary for decision. Slow
as decision was, it would have been far slower in a
larger Council. It was vital that those who debated
should keep confidence, and should be able to decide.
With ten it was found that no secrets could be kept.
With four confidence was easier, and decisions were
possible.
The defects of this narrowing of the Council-cham-
ber are painfully obvious. The arguments which led to
decisions were known only to a few. Minutes were
kept by the Secretary, Sir Maurice Hankey, and were
distributed to the ten, five, four or three. But the
world outside was fed on gossip, and mostly malicious
gossip. The great concourse of able writers who had
journeyed to Paris from all countries looked up, but
could not be adequately fed. They became angry
and irritated. They spread their spleen against the
Conference through a thousand conduits, daily and
weekly, and ultimately through a vast and growing
literature of discontent. It is notable that the books
published about the Conference since its close have been
almost unanimous in their bitter scorn and condemna-
tion. 1
The Peace Treaty emerged with few friends and
many enemies. That is the chief danger to its vitality
and permanence.
1 See, for instance, Dr. Dillon's very able book The Peace Con-
ference (Hutchinson & Co: London), Peace Making in Paris, by
Sisley Huddleston (Fisher Unwin: London), The Peace in the Making,
by H. Wilson Harris (The Swarthmore Press: London), and The
Economic Consequences of the Peace, by John Maynard Keynes, C.B.
(Macmillan & Co., London.)
290 THE PRIME MINISTER
At the foot of the Falls of Niagara there eddies a
gigantic whirlpool round which objects are driven in
endless fury, the prey of conflicting currents, tossed to
and fro by buffeting waves, now hurled to the surface
and then sucked down into the depths by irresistible
forces. In that whirlpool guidance is nearly impossible.
Man himself becomes a helpless victim; only by yield-
ing could he survive. Resistance to such powers only
increases the peril.
So it was at Paris in 1919. The Great War had
been the Falls of Niagara; the Conference was the
whirlpool. In that tumult of waters it was a miracle
to survive at all, much less to achieve mastery. Not
since Phaethon strove to drive the horses of the sun
had any human being faced a greater task than the
three men who emerged as the leaders in this vast event
Mr. Lloyd George, President Wilson, and M. Cle-
menceau. No man who has looked closely into their
work will be inclined to judge swiftly or harshly. It
was a burden too great for human shoulders. After
six months of it Mr. Lloyd George returned to London
whitened and lined, looking to his friends as if ten
years had been added to his age.
But he fared far better than his colleagues. Presi-
dent Wilson returned to collapse into a grave illness.
M. Clemenceau, the invincible "Tiger," the "Young
old Man," continues his intrepid existence but now
retired with a bullet in his back. Botha returned to
South Africa to die.
They all worked terribly hard, both by day and by
night. They sat in council for two and a half hours
in the mornings and two and a half hours again in the
afternoons. They went out little into society. In the
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 291
evenrngs they read their piles of documents or saw
important witnesses.
Yet no one was satisfied. What is the reason?
The chief reason is that the Conference worked
throughout by process of compromise : and compromise
has no lovers. It was in the main a compromise be-
tween three points of vie\^ the French, the American,
and the British. Hateful to strenuous souls ! To
yield nothing and to gain everything is to them the only
statesmanship. But let us remember the other side.
The war was not won alone; the peace could not be
made alone. The armies had to combine for victory;
the peace had to be combined too. No Great Power
could have a peace entirely of its own, either in ma-
terial gain or ideal aims.
The American aim, as shaped by their remarkable
President and voiced in his splendid oratory, was for
a peace of final world-conciliation. 1 He held up the
"banner of the ideal." The French aim was a peace
of security. The British aim lay somewhere between
the two, a practical peace combining conciliation and
security, punishing Germany without crushing it, im-
proving the world but not seeking all at once to achieve
the Millennium.
Clemenceau was an honest nationalist. But he did
not seek so much to exalt France as to depress Ger-
many. The idea of Foch was to stand guard over
Germany with a flaming sword. The aim of the
French Chauvinists was to break Germany up and dis-
able her permanently. Clemenceau did not share these
extreme views. He rebuked Foch for the interview in
which he claimed that Germany should retire beyond
1 See Appendix D.
292 THE PRIME MINISTER
the Rhine. He was too much of a statesman to believe
that a modern nation could be permanently crushed.
But he sought to weaken her to the ground for the
next fifty years; and then he hoped for security in the
new Alliance with America and Great Britain.
The part that Mr. Lloyd George played at Paris
during those strenuous months was often that of con-
ciliator between these two points of view the French
and the American. Such a conciliator was wanted:
for the clash could not be concealed. "President Wil-
son has Fourteen Points," mocked Clemenceau; "the
good God was content with Ten." "Every morning,"
he said on another occasion, "I repeat to myself 'I
believe in the League of Nations!' " l It was difficult
to achieve harmony between such a spirit and the lofty
faith and austere hopes of the great Crusader from
across the seas.
Here came in Mr. Lloyd George's characteristic
qualities his genius for compromise, his twinkling
good humour, his amazing capacity for finding a middle
way between different points of view. Again and
again, when matters seemed at a deadlock on the Saar
Valley, the Polish Corridor, or even the perplexing
question of Fiume Mr. Lloyd George achieved, or
nearly achieved, a settlement. It is scarcely too much
to say that without him the Conference would have
inevitably broken down, and one of the other two
would have flung out of the Conference like Signor
Orlando.
But Mr. Lloyd George was not only a conciliator
1 Some of these reported speeches are even more mordant, as
for instance "President Wilson talks like the good Christ, but
acts like Lloyd George."
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 293
not merely the middle figure. He had a very definite
view of his own as to the right peace to aim at. He
was the first to formulate a peace ; the first to insist on
a decision. He was out for a peace stern but just. On
Dantzig he took the initiative for moderation. He in-
sisted on a settlement that would not create a new
Baltic question. He was against Poland annexing a
city of Germans against it also for the sake of Po-
land. "We must set up a Poland that can live," he
would say. "If swollen by enemy populations she will
explode from within. Dantzig is outside the real
orbit of Poland. Make it International." President
Wilson supported him; M. Clemenceau was persuaded;
and Mr. Lloyd George got his way.
Poland had good friends at the Conference. Not
only was it the policy of France to aggrandise Poland
as a substitute for Russia, but President Wilson was
enthusiastically pro-Polish. On the general issue Mr.
Lloyd George was entirely with them. He wished
Poland to flourish as a self-governing State, but not to
enter on its existence by inflicting on others the crime
of Partition from which it had so deeply suffered itself.
For that reason, in the last stage, he took a strong
solitary line on the demand for a plebiscite that came
from Silesia. The whole British Cabinet supported
him, and there again in the end he achieved his pur-
pose.
But on other matters the combination varied: Mr.
Lloyd George sometimes took a sterner line than the
other two. He was always for the trial of the Kaiser,
as a supreme lesson to rulers. President Wilson op-
posed; M. Clemenceau was indifferent; Venizelos was
opposed. But Mr. Lloyd George insisted, and per-
294 THE PRIME MINISTER
suaded them to agree to London as the place of
trial.
On the Rhine question and the Saar Valley he sup-
ported President Wilson in opposing the extreme
French claims, and finally achieved the compromise in-
serted in the Peace Treaty. 1 He opposed the French
proposals to separate the Rhine Provinces from Ger-
many and occupy in permanence the bridge-heads. He
looked far ahead. "See here," he said to the French,
"you will create another Alsace-Lorraine: you will
give Germany a great cause."
He saw in such proposals the certain seeds of future
wars, and wars to which he could not summon the
youth of Great Britain. For he kept clearly in view
that, under the League of Nations settlement, we, as a
contracting party, might be called upon (under Clause
10) to defend with arms any detail of the settlement.
It was always his aim to keep British obligations within
the limits of the powers of the British Empire.
He supported President Wilson in the difference with
Italy over Fiume, and Clemenceau supported both.
But he always hoped to effect a settlement by persua-
sion. When President Wilson had made up his mind
to issue an appeal to the Italian nation, Mr. Lloyd
George persuaded him to agree to a postponement of
twenty-four hours. President Wilson kept precisely to
his promise. But it unfortunately happened that, just
as the twenty-four hours expired, delicate negotiations
were proceeding between Orlando and Mr. Lloyd
a The Saar Valley was finally given to the League of Nations for
fifteen years, giving the French the output of the mines. At the close
of that period there is to be a plebiscite, but if the vote goes in
favour of Germany the mines must be bought back by Germany
from France.
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 295
George, and there were still hopes of a settlement.
The appeal was published in the afternoon papers of
Paris, and its immediate effects were to offend the
Italian delegates, throw them back on to the point of
honour, and drive them out of the Peace Conference.
President Wilson acted -with his usual high and simple
honesty; but in this case, at any rate, if the aim was
peace, open diplomacy did not score a conspicuous
triumph.
In regard to Russia, there also Mr. Lloyd George
always craved for a settlement as part of the new
peace of the world. This was not his second, but his
first thought. He started instantly after the Armistice
with the idea of a joint meeting between the Russian
parties. His first proposal was that they should meet
at Paris; and this was laid before the Allied Chiefs
early in the Peace Conference, in a conversation held
at the French Foreign Office on Tuesday, January 2ist,
19 19.* The French Premier objected to the presence
of the Bolshevists of Paris as a danger to French so-
ciety. Mr. Lloyd George then proposed Salonika or
Lemnos, as easily accessible from Russia. It was as
the afterthought of an official that the island of Prin-
kipos was suggested; perhaps it was a measure of the
fear of Bolshevism already existing among the Govern-
ments of Western Europe. The appeal to the Russian
parties was issued as a result of this meeting of Janu-
ary 2 1 st. We all know how it failed. It withered
from sheer lack of support. The Bolshevists refused
1 See pp. 1240-2 of the Bullitt evidence: "Hearings before the
Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate," vol, ii.
The minutes of the meeting are given. I give them in full in Appen-
dix C in order to show Mr. Lloyd George's point of view at this
time
296 THE PRIME MINISTER
to stop fighting. The Russian "loyalists," already di-
vided from the Bolshevist rule by gulfs of hatred and
terror, rejected the very idea of a meeting. The French
official class, always very powerful, was openly hos-
tile, and actively worked against the proposal. The
propertied classes in Great Britain, supported by a
powerful Press, denounced and ridiculed the whole
policy. The time expired for the meeting; and the
policy expired too.
Then in February came the Bullitt Mission originally
devised as a "feeler" by Colonel House. Mr. Bullitt
went to Russia and experienced one of those astounding
conversions which the leading Bolshevists, by showing
only their better side, seem capable of producing. The
American Delegation asked Mr. Lloyd George to see
Mr. Bullitt; and, with his usual accessibility, he invited
the young American to breakfast. The proposal
brought by Mr. Bullitt was not an offer from the Bol-
shevists, but the suggestion of an offer by the Allies
a very different affair. 1 President Wilson himself
refused to meet Mr. Bullitt, a course which seems to
gather some justification from Mr. Bullitt's subsequent
proceedings in America. But the proposals embodied
in the Bolshevist memorandum were not such as, at this
time at any rate, had any chance of serious considera-
tion. The mere proposal to take the whole matter
out of the hands of the Peace Conference was not cal-
culated to conciliate that body. 2
1 See Mr. Bullitt's statement to the Committee of Foreign Relations,
United States Senate. "The Soviets undertook to accept proposals
if made by the Allies not later than April loth, 1919" (Hearings
before the Committee on Foreign Relations, vol. ii. p. 1248). The
proposals were not written down by the Bolshevists but conveyed
through Mr. Bullitt, who placed them on record.
' See Mr. Bullitt's evidence, Hearings Before the Committtee on
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 297
Then in April came the Nansen episode, which
turned out, in Mr. Bullitt's adroit hands, to be yet
another effort to renew the peace negotiations of
February. The gulf still proved impassable. The
Allies would not authorise Nansen to undertake his
intrepid and humane adventure without the power to
distribute food and control the Russian railways: and
the Bolshevists would on no account agree to that
course. Neither side trusted one another. A civil war
was raging, and the issue was still undecided. Neither
side would give way; and once more the time limit
expired. 1
Still eager to attain peace in Russia, and finding that
the hope of conciliation was vain, Mr. Lloyd George
now swung over to the policy of helping Admiral Kolt-
chak and General Denikin on the condition of obtain-
ing democratic and constitutional guarantees. The
guarantees were given, and seemed favourable. Help
was sent. But there was one point on which the
"White" Russians would make no concessions the in-
dependence of the Border States. We all know how
since on that rock of adventures of the "White" Rus-
sians have shipwrecked ; and so the hopes of the Allies
have been disastrously thwarted. It seems at the pres-
ent moment as if an immense mass of human suffering
might have been averted if the original policy of Mr.
Lloyd George in January-February of 1919 had re-
ceived reasonable and friendly consideration in London
and in Paris.
Foreign Relations, United States Senate, vol. ii. p. 1246. Mr. Bullitt's
account of the conditions prevailing in Russia did not, of course,
tally with other and more responsible evidence.
1 See Mr. Bullitt's evidence, Hearings Before the Committee on
Foreign Relations, United States Senate, vol. ii. pp. 1264-71, for full
details.
298 THE PRIME MINISTER
In regard to the League of Nations, Mr. Lloyd
George was never the prime mover, but always a faith-
ful follower of President Wilson. Thus it was that
Mr. Lloyd George never framed a scheme, but took
the schemes of others as the basis for his advice and
counsel. He profoundly believed in the League of Na-
tions as the only way out for the human race. But he
had not a very deep faith in schemes or constitutions.
His idea was rather, in the good old British way, to
evolve a League from the Peace Conference. He had
in mind the precedent of the Imperial Conference, and
he believed that periodical meetings of the Peace Con-
ference, gradually including nations at first excluded,
would lead to a slow growth of understanding between
nations now too ardent for sovereignty to be affected
by any decisions from Paris or Geneva.
President Wilson brought to Paris a scheme which
he had already worked out. He had based it on the
Phillimore Report amended by Colonel House, and
rewritten by himself. 1 He then read General Smuts's
remarkable memorandum, and revised his scheme
again. That scheme was considered at an early meet-
ing of the Conference and referred to a League of
Nations Committee. President Wilson himself sat
on the Committee along with Mr. Lansing, thus giving
up to the creation of the Covenant a large part of his
great energies and genius. Lord Robert Cecil was
placed on the Committee as the British Representative
by Mr. Balfour, and we know what a great part he
played. Lord Robert was in frequent consultation with
*See President Wilson's first scheme in the Bullitt evidence. At
the end of it nothing remained but a few clauses (Hearings before
the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, vol. ii).
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 299
Mr. Lloyd George, who always kept in close touch
with the drafting of the Covenant, and made many
suggestions. When the Covenant was in danger, he
supported President Wilson on his return from Amer-
ica in his insistence that it should be made part of the
Treaty. Still, Mr. Lloyd George perhaps never shook
off his instinctive feeling that there was an element of
unreality in the drafting of a set constitution for the
League. He doubted whether the intense patriotism
created by the war could at once be poured, glowing
hot, into the mould of a new international discipline.
The action of Italy, and still more of the United
States itself, seems since to have given some confirma-
tion to his view.
Throughout all these discussions Mr. Lloyd George
and President Wilson remained close friends. They
were really kindred spirits, with the difference that Mr.
Lloyd George had a longer experience of politics and
diplomacy in the ruse old Europe. But both came from
Puritan stock, and the high idealism and noble integ-
rity of President Wilson's character must have often
recalled to Mr. Lloyd George that splendid uncle who
had taught and nurtured him. Of their relationships
it may be said, as of Carlyle and Sterling, that they
always ended their discussions friends "except in
opinion not disagreeing."
No two honest men, indeed, could expect to agree
on all the questions raised at this multifarious Con-
ference. Take the problems of the Near East. There
Mr. Lloyd George very strongly took the view that the
Turks had forfeited the right to rule over Christians.
He was always disposed to look to the great Prime
300 THE PRIME MINISTER
Minister, Venizelos, as the prop of the Alliance in
the Eastern Mediterranean. That made him lean to
the Greeks. M. Clemenceau followed the traditional
policy of the Qua! D'Orsay in its leniency towards the
Turks. President Wilson, perhaps influenced by the
American professors of the Roberts College at Con-
stantinople, was disposed to advocate clemency to Bul-
garia. This is an instance of minor differences which
never threatened cleavage, but harassed and delayed
the proceedings of the Conference. For Mr. Lloyd
George was never inclined to neglect the Near East.
There was the home and cradle of those little nations
in whose destiny he so profoundly believed.
There were crises in the Conference when he boldly
acknowledged that he had been wrong. Such a mo-
ment came when, in April, he was challenged on the
Indemnity question by a mandatory telegram from 200
members of Parliament. He returned and faced his
critics with defiance. "A good Peace," he said, "is
better than a good Press." He had discovered in Paris
that it was vain to hope for the great indemnities from
Germany which Great Britain deserved, and for which
he himself had hoped. He faced Parliament with reali-
ties; and Parliament bowed to the facts.
Speaking broadly, Mr. Lloyd George and his col-
leagues followed throughout a sound British tradition.
Instinctively they were, in 1919, pursuing in Paris the
same policy that Wellington and Castlereagh pursued
during 1815 in the Congress of Vienna, and the Second
Treaty of Paris after the victory of Waterloo. Just
as they prevented a triumphant Prussia from crushing
France, so Mr. Lloyd George and President Wilson
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 801
prevented a triumphant France from shattering Ger-
many to atoms. 1
On the human side, Mr. Lloyd George lived in
Paris a simple and homely life. He occupied a modest
flat in the 23 Rue Nitot, near the Arc de Triomphe, in
the pleasant neighbourhood of the Champs Elysees.
European observers were surprised at the contrast be-
tween the daily life of the British Prime Minister and
the high state which surrounded the American Presi-
dent, who occupied the Villa Murat over the way. But
when they criticised the posting of sentries both inside
and outside the President's house, and when the French
people objected to being forbidden to walk on the
American side of their own beloved Parisian street,
they perhaps forgot that President Wilson stood in the
place of Royalty as the sovereign head of the country
for which he spoke.
The French, with their genius for affability, pre-
ferred the easy ways of Mr. Lloyd George with his
love for their cafe life and their restaurants, and his
general sociability. He was often received in the cafes
and theatres with an almost embarrassing friendliness
and respect, and sometimes the audience would rise and
sing "God Save the King." At one cafe in the Champs
Elysees the orchestra knew so well his passion for the
"Sambre et Meuse" march, that they would play it
whenever he entered without waiting for his request.
He was, as ever, kindly to the journalists, and would,
whenever possible, take a cup of tea with them at the
Hotel Majestic humorously renamed "Megantic,"
1 In framing the Second Treaty of Paris signed on November
aoth, 1815, it was with the utmost difficulty that Wellington and
Castlereagh prevented the Prussian and Austrian representatives
from annexing Alsace-Lorraine.
302 THE PRIME MINISTER
after his daughter. On Saturdays it was the pleasant
custom of the British exiles to hold dances at this
hotel, and Mr. Lloyd George would often look in and
watch the dancing. He loved to see his youngest
daughter Megan and his son Gwylem enjoying them-
selves at these democratic dances, to which only an
Arctic prudery could find any objection. On Sundays
he would often go touring in his motor-car through the
devastated areas of France, in company with the gen-
eral who commanded that part of the battle-field. In
this way he visited most of the Western Front and had
the chief battles reconstructed for him. He paid a
special visit to Verdun, penetrated the forts where the
blood-stains are still on the walls, and lunched in the
Citadelle. All these things made him popular in
France.
On most week-days he refused to go out in the
evenings, retiring early, but not always to rest. He
kept to his habit of holding his hospitable and homely
breakfasts. He would sometimes take a Sunday off
for a motor-drive to Fontainebleau with his friends.
On such occasions he would talk no politics, but would
indulge that precious capacity of gay and happy recrea-
tion which has so often been his salvation.
The negotiations, after long delay, ended with a
final speed-up. President Wilson, on his return from
his visit to America in February, insisted on the inclu-
sion of the League of Nations in the Peace Treaty,
and there was a rapid process of redrafting. On May
6th the draft was completed, and it was presented at
Versailles to the German Foreign Minister, Count
Brockdorff-Rantzau on May yth. There followed six
weeks of parley with Germany, which led to some im-
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 803
portant modifications in regard to the Saar Valley, the
Polish Corridor, and Silesia. During this final crisis
Mr. Lloyd George played the part of a bold and fear-
less conciliator: and he tried in every permissible way
to make the peace possible for Germany's acceptance.
President Wilson, on the other hand, hardened, and
took the view that he was pledged to support the
Treaty as now framed. But Mr. Lloyd George gained
some important points, and by softening the terms cer-
tainly added to the hope of future peace in Europe.
On June 22nd the German Assembly ratified the
Treaty, and on June 29th it was signed at Versailles
by the German envoys. Mr. Lloyd George returned
to England and eloquently defended the Treaty before
Parliament, which unanimously ratified it on July 3rd.
As far as Great Britain was concerned, Mr. Lloyd
George had now achieved peace.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE NEW WORLD
"With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firm-
ness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive
on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation's wounds;
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his
widow and his orphan ; to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and with all nations."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, March 4th, 1865.
"I DON'T envy the men who have to govern the
world after the war," said M. Clemenceau to Mr.
Lloyd George on one occasion in Paris during the
Peace Conference. His instinct proved true. For
indeed the world, both abroad and in these islands, has
proved far less tractable since the guns have ceased
to fire. There has been less killing, but more quar-
relling. Above all, there has been a great increase of
civil contention within the nations, from the extreme
of civil savagery that has swept over Russia to the
more moderate party contentions which have divided
and weakened American effort, and which have, to some
extent, distracted this country.
From the very beginning Mr. Lloyd George foresaw
these troubles, and decisively made up his mind that,
for his part, he would work to prolong the national
unity achieved during the war. Since November nth,
1918, he never swerved from his belief that the coun-
try could not afford the margin of effort necessary for
304
THE NEW WORLD 305
party contention. Unity has seemed to him as neces-
sary for recovery from the strife as it was for the
strife itself.
For, consider the situation as it presented itself to
the statesmen on the morrow of the Armistice. In
every great belligerent European country trade had
been entirely dislocated by the strain of the war.
Ploughshares had literally been turned into swords.
Vast workshops had been diverted to war. Huge popu-
lations of men and women had been shifted to muni-
tion centres. Now gigantic armies of soldiers and
workers had to be demobilised, and over the whole sit-
uation hung the peril of unemployment. All the coun-
tries were exhausted, physically and mentally; it is not
too much to say they were suffering from a modified
form of shell-shock. In every great community there
were suppressed labour difficulties, the accumulation of
grievances that had been held back from expression
during the four years of war. Then, underground in
both France and Great Britain, there were the fanatics
of Bolshevism, working like moles at the roots of so-
ciety and ready to take advantage of every possible
emergency to forward their terrific designs. In England
the very police had been shaken in their discipline.
Against such dangers it seemed to Mr. Lloyd George
that all reasonable men should combine and follow
the road midway between "the falsehood of extremes."
He was himself sometimes tempted, in some moods,
to agree with the enemies who suggested that his work
was done. Both for him and M. Clemenceau the
achievement of victory seemed to mark the fitting con-
summation of their careers. But if such moods came,
they soon passed. For retirement was impossible. - It
306 THE PRIME MINISTER
was not a time when any patriot could stand aside.
The storm was coming, and it was necessary to ride it.
The thought of retirement never seriously presented
itself to his active and combative mind.
The first step was to secure a new mandate from
the country for the work that lay before him. So he
decided on a General Election. 1
He had every excuse for this step in the situation
of Parliament at that moment. The old Parliament
which saw us through the war had lasted for eight
years, although its statutory existence had been limited
by itself to five years under the Parliament Act of 1911.
Five times the War Parliament prolonged its own life,
a process quite justifiable during the stress of that
mighty struggle, but approaching almost to a scandal
once active fighting had ceased. That Parliament
lived longer than any of its forerunners in the past
century, and, having been elected long before the war,
was notably in many respects out of touch and tune with
the war feeling of the country. Many of its members
had been called upon to resign by their constituents,
and by their attitude during the war had gravely belied
the patriotic unity of the country. That was not all.
A great measure of suffrage reform, far and away
the most extensive since the Reform Act of 1831, had
been passed into law in February, 1918. The new
register had been completed by October ist and con-
tained two and a half times as many electors as the
register compiled before the war. For the first time
women had the vote, and the same right had been ex-
tended to soldiers on active service, to sailors, mer-
chantmen, and fishermen on the sea, besides a vast
* See Chapter XXIII, second page.
THE NEW WORLD 307
population of new home voters. These were the peo-
ple who had won the war. It seemed only fair and
just that they should have a voice in the peace.
It has always been the fixed constitutional rule in this
country that when a new Reform Act has created a
large class of new voters the old Parliament becomes
obsolete. That was the rule pursued in 1831, 1868,
and 1885, and there seemed the more and not the less
reason why at this crisis the country's fate it should
be pursued in 1918. Nor can we be in any doubt that
if Mr. Lloyd George had pursued the alternative policy
of prolonging the life of the old Parliament he would
have been equally blamed.
Mr. Lloyd George desired to carry through the Gen-
eral Election with as little party contention as was pos-
sible, and therefore informal approaches were made to
the Independent Liberals during the autumn with a
view to bringing them back into the Coalition. Those
negotiations broke down, not on any material difference
of political opinion, but mainly on the question of the
date of the General Election. Mr. Lloyd George re-
fused to adopt, as a governing political principle, this
new reluctance to appeal to a new electorate. With
regret he found himself compelled to agree to a division
in the Liberal Party between those who befriended the
Government and those who opposed it, and it is notable
that he carried with him the great majority of the old
party. Many of the Coalition Liberals found, when
they went down to their constituencies, that their Lib-
eral Associations supported them with a practically
unanimous vote. The provinces were less factious than
the London Clubs.
The Labour Party decided to leave the Coalition,
308 THE PRIME MINISTER
to which they had adhered since December, 1916, and
to fight the election as a body independent of all other
parties. But even Labour did not leave the Coalition
as a whole party, for in the process they became divided
into several sections, and some of the ablest members of
the Labour Party, including Mr. G. N. Barnes and Mr.
G. H. Roberts, remained with the Government. The
surprising lack of leadership in the Labour Party since
the General Election, in spite of their notable victories
at the polls, has been largely due to this division of
forces, and to the fact that several members, such as
Mr. Clynes and Mr. Brace, now acting as Independent
leaders, were at heart in favour of remaining within
the Government. The Labour Party, like the Indepen-
dent Liberals, have also paid penalty for the spirit of
faction.
Deserted by the bulk of the Labour Party, and by
the old leaders of the Liberal Party, Mr. Lloyd George
had to form his Coalition out of the combination of
those Liberals who remained faithful to him, and the
undivided forces of the Unionist Party. He and Mr.
Bonar Law issued a joint manifesto, and letters passed
between them which defined the Coalition policy. It
was necessarily a policy displeasing to both extreme
wings. For it is the essence of a coalition that nobody
can get all his own way. At home, as abroad, Mr.
Lloyd George had to compromise. For, after all, it
is the first duty of a Coalition to coalesce. The justifi-
cation of such a policy of compromise on matters of
grave civil moment was indeed to be found only in the
gravity of the civil emergency. It was not from one
party only that Mr. Lloyd George asked the sacrifice,
THE NEW WORLD 309
and it is not by one party only that he has since been
attacked. 1
The General Election took place on December I4th
and Mr. Lloyd George was returned to power with a
majority of 249 over all the independent groups. For
the 602 seats in Great Britain no less than 478 of-
ficial Coalition candidates were elected, while the sui-
cidal policy of the Sinn Feiners resulted in the practical
elimination of the Irish Party as a parliamentary force.
Most of the leading Independent Liberals were de-
feated, and the Coalition was returned with a powerful
and overwhelming mandate to carry out its stated pol-
icy both at home and abroad.
Parliament met to take the oath on February 3rd,
1919, and was opened by the King for business on
Tuesday, February nth. It was emphatically a war-
born Parliament, but there were also signs of the New
World which had emerged from the war. Only 365
of the old members had been re-elected. Labour stood
out as the strongest party in opposition, and its parlia-
mentary leaders took their places on the Front Opposi-
tion Bench. 2 The opening took place under ominous
signs of civil strife. The unrest of labour, restrained
by patriotic motives during the war, had already broken
out into open flame. A general strike on the Under-
ground Railways held London in a grip of paralysis,
made harder by a bitter February frost. Mr. Lloyd
George attended Parliament before going to the Peace
1 By a section in all parties. For instance, the Morning Post, the
Daily News, and the Daily Herald, are all equally vigorous in this
combined attack.
'Sixty-three Labour members were returned out of some 300
candidates.
310 THE PRIME MINISTER
Conference in order to utter a grave warning against
the dangers of those social strifes. "This trouble," he
said, "is impending peace; and peace is the first neces-
sity." He warned the country against certain symp-
toms of anarchy new to British movements ; and he had
grave reason for so doing. But, at the same time, his
attitude towards the real grievances of Labour was
always sympathetic and open-minded. His own life
had taught him too well the reality of those fears which
enshroud the workman's existence: the dread of unem-
ployment; the precariousness of wage; and, above all,
that fearful evil of over-crowding which had been so
seriously aggravated by the war. He promised full
investigation, and within a few days he called together
at the Central Hall, Westminster, a Labour Confer-
ence between employers and employed, to whom he
addressed himself in an earnest and persuasive speech.
All through the labour troubles of this year Mr. Lloyd
George pursued the same consistent policy. He was
firm against anarchy, and yet open to reason in regard
to all real complaints. He had his ears open to the call
of the new order. But he dreaded the complete smash-
up of the old society before the new was ready, and
the events in Russia faced him as a glaring red light.
But he stood firm against coercion and repression as
the only cure for unrest, and he saved his Government
from pursuing the policy which, after Waterloo, led
to the tragic anti-climax of Peterloo.
But there were many impatient men in the world in
1919, and the English mind was apt to demand pay-
ment in immediate cash for all Mr. Lloyd George's
sanguine perorations. The Tube Strike in London
THE NEW WORLD 811
was followed almost instantly by a great crisis in the
mine-fields. The miners rejected the first Cabinet
offer, and instantly went to ballot on the question of a
general strike. The rank and file voted for the strike
by a majority of six to one. 1 The Government replied
by offering a Royal Commission, which the miners ac-
cepted after a candid debate between them and Mr.
Lloyd George, which was certainly a new development
of open diplomacy in civil affairs. Mr. Justice Sankey
was appointed as Chairman of the Commission, and,
after a hot debate in the House of Commons on Feb-
ruary 25th, the Government promised that the Com-
mission should report on the question of wages and
hours by March 2Oth. On those conditions the miners
agreed to appoint representatives to the Royal Com-
mission and to present evidence.
Promptly on March 2Oth Mr. Justice Sankey's Com-
mission reported, recommending an increase of two
shillings a day in wages and an immediate seven-hour
day, to be reduced to six hours in 1921. The revela-
tions before the Commission as to the housing and con-
ditions of labour among the mining population made it
easy for the Government to meet the miners. They
instantly granted them both these concessions, and the
strike was postponed. But the question of nationalisa-
tion of the mines was held over, to become a widening
political issue between the Government and Labour dur-
ing the rest of the year.
The Labour crisis died down for the moment, and
did not recur in an acute form until later in the year
(October) when the railwaymen, whose needs had per-
haps been too little regarded in the stress of the mh>
'For the strike 611,998; against, 104,997,
312 THE PRIME MINISTER
ing crisis, precipitated a struggle by a sudden and al-
most universal strike. For a few days the situation
looked extremely grave, and there is no doubt that
there were extreme forces working on both sides in
the direction of civil war. But after a short period of
natural impatience with the conduct of the railwaymen,
Mr. Lloyd George steadied himself back to his old
combination of firmness and concession. On the side
of the strikers, both the miners and transport workers
were in favour of moderation, and, in the end, the mod-
erate forces won. The threatened revolution was
averted by a quite ordinary compromise on hours and
wages. The whole crisis ended with a friendly and
even enthusiastic meeting of both parties a sort of
"sing-song" in the domestic atmosphere of 10, Down-
ing Street. It was a striking exhibition of Mr. Lloyd
George's characteristic gifts of control and conciliation.
Like Columbus's settlement with the egg, this per-
formance seemed easy enough when it was achieved.
But we must remember that Mr. Lloyd George stood
between two forces both equally violent. On the one
side there were the Direct Actionists, the "parlour
Bolshevists" of the trade unions, fascinated by M.
Sorrel's * opiate dream of dominating the modern
State through its complex organisation of food and
transport. The thing seemed so easy: and it would
have been easy if Mr. Lloyd George had not, for
months before the strike, prepared to prevent it. The
motor-lorries that supplied London with milk were not
organised in a day. They were part of a perfectly
legitimate counter-stroke prepared by the Government
1 The founder of the French Syndicalist movement. See his book
Reflexions sur la Violence.
THE NEW WORLD 313
when they realised the extent of the plot to hold up
the national life. But on the extreme wing of the Gov-
ernment's side there was an equally violent section who
cried, "Let's fight it out to the end! Let's smash Trade
Unionism ! Now's the time to put Labour in the cart 1"
elegant phrases, which we all heard in those days.
To this temper Mr. Lloyd George was vitally opposed.
He was out to fight Bolshevism and "Direct Action-
ism," but not Trade Unionism. Happily, in this mid-
dle policy he was met half-way by several far-sighted
leaders of trade unions, notably Mr. J. H. Thomas,
who, while resolutely upholding the rights of the rail-
waymen, refused to surrender to the revolutionaries.
On the Friday Mr. Lloyd George came to the conclu-
sion that he, too, must resist his own extremists and go
half-way to meet the trades union moderates. We all
remember how, under this new policy of conciliation,
the terrors of that critical week passed away like mists
before the wind, and Sunday brought us a sudden and
welcome peace. It was the triumph of the middle
point of view, the old method of British common
sense which refuses to burn the house in order to build
it better.
Mr. Lloyd George was now called to Paris for the
great work of European settlement, and the task of
reconstruction was left to his Ministers at home. From
February to May Mr. Bonar Law led the House of
Commons and practically acted as Home Prime Min-
ister. He began to develop the programme of recon-
struction promised by the Government at the time of
the General Election. On February 26th Mr. Shortt
introduced a measure to which Mr. Lloyd George had
given a great deal of thought and attention the Min-
314 THE PRIME MINISTER
istry of Transport Bill, constituting a bold claim on
behalf of the State to supreme control of railways,
canals, tramways, roads, harbours, docks, and electric
supply. On March lyth Sir Eric Geddes ably de-
fended the Bill and gained a second reading without
a division.
It was scarcely to be expected that so great a change
should take place without resistance from the vested
interests asked to submit to control. In the course
of the discussions that ensued various claims of the
State had to be modified and some withdrawn, espe-
cially in regard to the docks and roads. But in the
end a powerful measure was passed on to the Statute
Book, and already, with the firmer grip over transport
and traffic which the Ministry of Transport is able
to exercise, the country is feeling the tremendous ad-
vantages of this measure. It is safe to say that no
Party Government could have carried so big a measure
with so little debate within a year of the ending of the
war.
After Transport, Housing a far more difficult
question. The difficulties and troubles which beset the
Government throughout 1918 on this critical question
have become notorious to all men. Dr. Addison took
the first step by introducing, on April yth, a Housing
Bill which was certainly stronger than any hitherto
placed before Parliament. Mr. Lloyd George, before
going to Paris, had taken an active part in pressing
this measure. He had ruthlessly forced a peerage on
Mr. Hayes Fisher and had thus seriously shaken the
old-time resistance of the Local Government Board.
The main policy of the new Housing Act, as Dr. Addi-
son framed and passed it through Parliament, was to
THE NEW WORLD 315
throw the burden of housing on to the local authori-
ties. The local authorities have not proved equal to
the task. The strong wind which was blowing at the
centre had not yet reached Slocum-in-Pogis and Little
Puddleworth. The financial credit of the smaller local
authorities was not equal to the new burden, and they
were not powerful enough to face the great vested in-
terests which control the raw material. Some of the
great municipalities acted with a larger mind, but the
small towns and rural districts held back. There was
much talk and few houses. The result was that at the
end of the year the Government had to make a fresh
appeal to the private interests, adding a bait rising
to 150 for every house built. Certainly no good-will
was absent either on the part of the Government or
the central departments. But this task of 1919 is
handed on to 1920, and may require a vaster combina-
tion of energy and good will than has yet been brought
to bear on it. What seemed to be wanted was that
Mr. Lloyd George should bring to bear on this question
some of the high patriotic enthusiasm which combined
employers and workmen to face the Munition crisis of
1915. He took the first step in this process by meet-
ing the building trades in December, 1919.
After these greatest questions there came a series
of minor measures to round off the Government's
social policy. The Ministry of Health Bill, introduced
in February and passed during the Session, concen-
trated all the authorities responsible for public health
into one great department, which will gradually func-
tion as a new centre for the preventive and curative
measures suggested by the advance of medical science.
The Land Acquisition Act, in spite of the criticism
316 THE PRIME MINISTER
brought to bear on it, is already of immense value in
enabling the new housing authorities to acquire land.
It is now safe to say that the trouble of the land is the
least of the questions involved in the matter of hous-
ing. The Land Settlement Act, passed to help place
ex-soldiers on the land, quickened and extended the
facilities for acquiring land for settlers either on small
holdings or allotments. The Extension of Rents Act,
passed in March, prolonged to one year after the war
the freedom from a rise in rent granted to small house-
holders, and the margin of rents covered by the Act
was considerably raised in the course of the debate. 1
The Industrial Courts Act set up an industrial tribunal
for the settlement of disputes, and, providing good-
will gathers round it, may, in the end, give to us a
good working substitute for compulsory arbitration.
Towards the end of the Session Parliament passed a
bold measure granting yet a further step in the exten-
sion of self-government to India, and in one day it
generously increased the grants to old age pensioners.
Mr. Lloyd George ended the Session by sketching in
outline the bases of a new Irish settlement. Not a bad
record for a Parliament which has been denounced in
all the terms of the political vocabulary as reactionary,
illiberal, profiteering, and even corrupt!
Thus since the Armistice, in domestic crises as in
foreign, Mr. Lloyd George has continued to be for this
country the central figure of hope and hate. He keeps
his old faculty of commanding the interest of men.
Now, as in the boyish scrimmages of his youth, his
flying colours draw others on. For the moment (1920)
1 From 50 per annum to 70 in London, 60 in Scotland and
55 in the counties.
THE NEW WORLD 817
he strives for peace and unity in civil endeavour. But
that is not because his eye is dimmed or his combative
strength abated. He is by nature a partisan leader,
and it has cost him no small effort to continue in his
present part. The defensive on two fronts is not his
characteristic role. His instinct is still for the heart of
the battle : there, at any rate, his spirit is not aged. If
party warfare should become once more the best thing
for the country, he will not shrink from enlisting again
in that service. But events have thrown on him the
mantle of national leadership, and it is a great respon-
sibility to descend again into the party arena. That
is not his present reading of a statesman's duty in these
difficult days. His mind is rather filled with another
vision the vision of a State deliberately consenting to
sink faction in the cause of a larger purpose of a
community which, with all its passion for the healthy
strife of party, can tell when to forego that strife,
and can scent the danger from afar. It is the old
vision of a house not divided against itself, but work-
ing together all parties and .all classes, for the com-
mon good. Is it to fade into the light of common
day? That is the question the vital question before
us all.
Perhaps the habit of party passion, the love of party
contention, is too deeply rooted in this island people.
Perhaps the gulf between the classes has already be-
come too wide to be bridged. There are signs and
omens pointing that way. But, if so, let us not be too
certain that this party habit, because it is our habit, is
necessarily a virtue. Remember Rome and Carthage.
Rome united, and Carthage divided. Rome stood, and
Carthage fell.
818 THE PRIME MINISTER
At any rate, here is this other vision the vision of
a Britain that stands together, shoulder to shoulder,
"foursquare to all the winds that blow," a Britain that
does not wound itself, and therefore does not rue. To
"be of the same mind one towards another" may be a
vain hope and a dream that fades; but, at any rate,
it is not ignoble.
It is for this faith that Mr. Lloyd George now
stands before the world, as a national leader of this
great and victorious British folk, now slowly groping
its way out of the shadow of death into the way of
peace.
CHAPTER XXV
THE MAN
"He, though thus endued with a sense
And faculty of storm and turbulence,
Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
To home-felt pleasures and to gentle scenes."
WORDSWORTH'S The Happy Warrior.
THAT element of tranquillity which Mr. Lloyd
George enjoys in his own home that "happy fireside
clime" which to him is always truly
"The pathos and sublime
Of human life"
perhaps accounts for the serenity of his outlook on
public life.
That serenity is never more conspicuous than in sea-
sons of hurricane. Like some ships, he rides steadiest
in rough seas. When people around him are most dis-
turbed, he is often the most calm.
There is doubtless an element in his nature which
rejoices in conflict and storm. I remember once finding
him in his private room at the House of Commons
when it was urgent to bring him word that Scotland
Yard reported the intention of certain persons to take
his life. His response was to strike up a verse of a
great Welsh hymn which passed beyond my scope of
understanding; but it was clear, from the flash of the
319,
820 THE PRIME MINISTER
eye, that it was a song of rejoicing. "Well," I said,
"aren't you at all disturbed?" "No," he said, "with
the world in storm I rejoice. I love all this smashing
of windows and tumult of nations. I remember the
saying of a great Welsh preacher: 'Such disturbances
of the world always mean some great movement in
the realms above' a reflection on earth of some heav-
enly strife. I believe that is true." I did not attempt
to argue with this mood; but this sympathy with unrest
explains much in his career, and most of all his skill in
riding through tempests and mastering storms. For
it is at such moments that he is at his best. Nothing
seems to frighten or appal him. When the hearts of
others are dismayed he is touched with a new emotion.
It is a kind of exaltation, which seems to work in
some kind of harmony with that universal spirit which
rides the storm and works through the whirlwind.
It is these moods which have most confused his
critics and distorted their judgment of him. Those
who know Mr. Lloyd George only on one side of his
nature have always expected to see him fall over some
political precipice. His zeal, in their opinion, would
eat him up. He would just run the hot course of so
many furious political firebrands. Some rash and hasty
blunder would occur, and he would flare out into the
darkness.
Yet this disaster has never occurred. And why?
Because behind all those flashes of spirit there has been
a steady pursuing purpose; discreet, cautious, shrewd.
"Whenever Mr. Lloyd George seems most rash," said
to me an old friend of his who has seen him in many
situations, "I always know that there is a cold, shrewd
calculation behind it.'*
From a photograph by Aliss Olive Edis. F.R.P.S.
MUS. LLOYD GKOIIC.E
Photo 6j/ Brown, Barnes, and Bell, Liverpool.
DAVID LLOYD GEORGE AS A YOUNG MAN.
THE MAN 321
It was a true judgment. For, with his great power
of words, he combines a tremendous sense of facts. If
he finds himself on the wrong course, he will often
hark back. If he has erred in speech he will apologise.
After the most vehement attack he will make friends
with his victim. It is this combination of the slow
qualities with the swift of judgment with daring, of
mercy with rigour, of slow reflection with swift attack,
of the zeal of the Cambrian with the shrewdness of
the Fleming that marks him off from so many of his
race. For it is not so much the emphasis of one quality
as the combination of several contrasted qualities that
goes to make human greatness.
Like all great stalkers and trappers, Mr. Lloyd
George is very difficult to follow. He has often dou-
bled on his tracks whilst his faithful disciples are still
walking straight into the danger. He talks so freely
and frankly that his paths seem to be those wherein
wayfarers, though fools, may not err. But with all
that frankness he really keeps his own counsel and
forms his own decisions. That is why so many simple
people are so surprised and sometimes even a little
hurt to find that, after they have given him the very
best of their advice, he has just gone on his own way.
Mr. Lloyd George by no means despises the tactics
of public appeal. If necessary, he will use even the
theatrical in order to impress the public mind. Soon
after the Birmingham riot, at the height of the Boer
War, his friends opened the Daily Express to find that
there was a scheme afoot to do him violence at a meet-
ing to be held in Bristol that evening. They wired a
warning to the organisers of the meeting at Bristol.
They need not have troubled; for whatever danger
322 THE PRIME MINISTER
faced him was of Mr. Lloyd George's own fashioning.
He had deliberately gone to the office of the Daily
Express, advertised the place of the meeting, an-
nounced his intention to denounce the war, and prac-
tically challenged them to kill him. The organisers
at Bristol had done their best to conceal the meeting.
This was his way of correcting the discretion of his
own friends. 4
This was immediately after that reverberating event
at Birmingham, when he in fact nearly lost his life.
Late on that stormy evening he rang me up in the
Daily News office from Birmingham. He wished me
to go and inform his wife at Wandsworth that he was
safe. "But," I said, "what I am to tell her? Where
are you?" "That I cannot divulge," he said in a laugh-
ing voice. "At present I am a member of the Bir-
mingham Police Force" and he gave me his number.
Through the telephone I could hear the tinkling of
cups. "Well," I said, "you are having a good sup-
per." "Yes," he said, "we are making merry, and
the mob are making merry outside. We are both
happy!" It was perhaps characteristic of the calmness
of his domestic life that, on reaching Wandsworth late
that night, I found the house closed and the whole
family fast asleep. Mrs. Lloyd George happily had
not heard of the danger through which he was passing
at Birmingham.
Then, as now, this habit of courage was always his
supreme public characteristic. "Of all qualities in pub-
lic Fife," he said to me once, "courage is the rarest."
From the earliest episodes of his career, from that day
when he defied the Bench in North Wales, here in
his courage has always been the conscious centre of
his power. He has always believed that if you want
THE MAN 323
to destroy a popular idol you must learn to face it and
to fight it to put it to open shame if necessary, to
insult.it. Fear rules the minds of men; and against
fear courage alone prevails. This was always the mov-
ing faith at the back of all his great campaigns, whether
of peace or of war. It was with this weapon that
he has fought both Governments at home and Prus-
sians abroad. It was the element of policy that under-
lay that frank directness of speech which offended the
cultured classes of England so profoundly at the time
of his Budget campaign.
For he convinced himself that modern public speak-
ers had, got into the habit of referring too politely to
great national evils. He believed that the jnost effec-
tive weapon to use against these evils was to revive
some of the lost frankness of our* forefathers. His
great aim was to prove that it was safe to speak as
plainly about a duke as about an ordinary citizen. He
had known in his young days how cowed men could
be, how fearful of shadows, how frightened by ghosts.
The thing he had most admired about Mr. Chamber-
lain was his plainness of speech. It was his deliberate
policy to revive that habit. Mr. Lloyd George's ora-
tory of the year 1911 was the direct successor of Mr.
Chamberlain's during the years between 1886 and
1893-
As to the abuse he encountered, he counted that as
a political gain. He was fond of the story of the
workman who had heard a political agent expressing
terror at the fury of a certain class. "Bless my heart !"
said the workman, "we never thinks you mean business
until they squeals." So it was with the avalanches of
calumny which fell upon Mr. Lloyd George between
1911 and 1914. He knew that it was the penalty of
324 THE PRIME MINISTER
challenging the powers in high places. It showed that
his proposals really "meant business." "Their abuse,"
says Sir Fretful Plagiary in The Critic, "is the best
panegyric." So Mr. Lloyd George ploughed the road
to fame through the abuse of those years.
Yet all the time he suffered. He has a heart very
sensitive to the affections of the people. He was puz-
zled at the way men hated him. It was not the dan-
ger of it he minded; for he would scarcely allow the
Scotland Yard men to protect him. It was the pain
of it. He frankly hates dislike; his nature craves the
sun ; he is at his'best among friends. "I cannot imagine
why they detest me so," he said one day during that
time. "I seem to be the best hated man in England."
The reply was obvious. "If one half of England hates
you too much, then surely the other half loves you too
absurdly." He was instantly all smiles. "That is per-
fectly-true," he cried and put the melancholy thoughts
aside.
During the struggle over the Licensing Bill of 1908
he received numerous postcards written in what was
intended to be blood, but looked suspiciously like red
ink. These documents generally threatened him with
instant death, probably combined with torture "some-
thing lingering, with boiling oil." They came, or pro-
fessed to come, from enraged publicans fearful for
their livelihood. These postcards got curiously on his
nerves. "I don't mind so much being killed," he said
one day, "but I should hate being killed by a publican."
There seemed to him something curiously unsatisfac-
tory in such a way of going out.
But in general he has taken little heed of threats.
It was only with great difficulty that the Attorney-
General could persuade him to sanction a prosecution
THE MAN 325
in the famous case of the poisoned arrow conspiracy.
He was always in favour of leniency to the Suffragettes.
It is not merely that he hates excessive punishment.
His haunting sense of humour seems to be offended by
the idea that he is taking up so much room in the world.
He dislikes the attendance of detectives almost as much
as Mr. Gladstone did. "Can you possibly tell me
where Mr. Lloyd George is going?" was the frequent
cry of those unhappy followers of Mr. Lloyd George
to his friends in those perilous days of civil strife.
"He is always giving us the slip," was their complaint.
Sitting one day on one of those little green chairs in
the Green Park for which the Londoner pays his obol
a favourite seat of his in those days of peace at
the end of a long talk he sighed and looked grave. He
inclined his head towards a shabby-looking individual
who was smoking a pipe and sitting not far off under
a tree reading a newspaper with apparent indifference
to the whole world around him. "There is my guardian
angel!" said Mr. Lloyd George.
It is not only in facing hostile audiences that he has
displayed his courage. He has never hesitated to tell
his friends the truth. He has that gift of leadership
which consists of making followers do something which
they do not want to do. He has put aside all fear of
those great influences which overshadow English pub-
lic life birth, money, prestige, caste. He represents
in high places a new freedom from all those bogies
almost the realisation of Robbie Burns's dream :
"For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man, the world o'er,
Shall brithers be for a' that."
Not in his most vehement Limehouse days did he
826 THE PRIME MINISTER
say anything stronger than the Scotch ploughman said
in his famous song:
"Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that."
Mr. Lloyd George, in fact, always tests man by what
is in him; not by the guinea stamp, or by the pedigree.
Why should he not? Birth! What birth can there
be higher than that of a Welshman? "The oldest race
in these islands." Money? "I can always get money
for a cause ; there is no difficulty about money." That
has always been his view; and who q,an wonder that
such should be the belief of a man who has made mil-
lionaires subscribe for their own taxation!
Of prestige he is perhaps more fearful. He was
tremendously impressed with Oxford when he stayed
in that town for some days on his visit to the Pal-
merston Club during the Boer War. "I am glad I
never came here," he said. "I should never have re-
covered from the influence of this place; it would have
been with me all my life." He was indeed strongly
gripped by Oxford and its "dreaming towers." After
two days of it he was, for the moment, half subdued.
"Ah!" he said, "how the past holds you here." All
of which shows what a mistake our forefathers made
when they excluded the Nonconformists from our
ancient universities.
It is indeed quite a mistake to suppose that Mr.
Lloyd George is dead to the voices of the past. There
is no greater delusion than to regard him as an unlet-
tered man. If the best education is to turn a boy loose
in a library, then he has enjoyed to the full that form
of schooling. He started life with the training of a
THE MAN 327
lawyer, which he always claims to be the best mental
discipline to which a human mind can be subjected.
Those laborious explorations of French and the classics
through which he passed with his "Uncle Lloyd" as
companion, were certainly not less useful as a training
than the fugitive crammings of the average University
undergraduate. At any rate, he learnt to read for
himself; and to absorb what he read. Since those
early days he has been a wide reader in all his spare
time. He knows his English historians better than
most Englishmen. He can hold his own with most
classical scholars in discussions on ancient history.
Perhaps, indeed, Rome holds him most of all the coun-
tries. He knows his Mommsen well, and he spent the
long convalescence from the throat illness that came to
him after the Budget in reading some of the latest
Italian historians of ancient Rome. He emerged from
that illness a formidable expert in later Roman his-
tory, especially in the land laws of the Gracchi. In
fact, he has most of the outfit of the scholar except the
scholar's pride.
Parallels from history are dangerous; but they al-
ways haunt the mind of a well-read imaginative man,
Mr. Lloyd George is very fond of them. One eve-
ning in 1908, when we were sitting in the Orangerie
at Stuttgart, in a pause of the German tour of that
year, the conversation began to turn on the possibilities
of a war between Britain and Germany. The parallel
of Rome and Carthage came like a flash from Mr.
Lloyd George ; it brought from him one of those far-
reaching forecasts which, in other days, would have
earned him the mantle of a prophet. "There is the
same commercial rivalry," he said, "the same sea jeal-
ousy, the same abiding quarrel between the soldier and
328 THE PRIME MINISTER
the merchant, the warrior and the shopkeeper, the
civilisation that has arrived and the civilisation that is
still struggling to arrive." He paused, and then he
added: "I wonder if we shall be as unprepared as
Carthage; I wonder if we shall be as torn by faction?"
It is curious to look back now on that conversation,
in that comfortable, well-lighted garden the pride of
that old German town with the vault of stars above
us, and the murmur of a great city around us. We
thought no more of it at the time. But now it comes
back.
In his games, Mr. Lloyd George is a keen sports-
man. Golfers, as a class, have the seriousness of
religious devotees. But no man could pursue the little
white ball round a course with a steadier concentration
than Mr. Lloyd George. No player could be keener
on victory. "Golf is like life," he loves to say, "you
never quite make up for losing a hole." His game has
much improved in recent years; though he never claims
to be a champion. He has not again repeated the
achievement of "holing out in one." That was at
Cannes in the far-off, merry days before the Great
War. It had the beauty of the unexpected. He drove
off: and lo and behold! the ball disappeared. The
caddies hunted everywhere; and it was just being pro-
nounced a "lost ball," when a sharp youth looked into
the hole, and there the ball was quietly reposing I
It is usual on these occasions to present the caddy
with a bottle of whisky. Mr. Lloyd George gave the
lad five francs; and of course there were candid friends
who said that the caddy had put the ball in the hole.
There are always critics, even on the golf-course.
His worst enemies cannot accuse Mr. Lloyd George
of "side" ; so there are some who say that he has not
THE MAN 329
enough. He is, in fact, the simplest of men, fond of
being surrounded with friends, and very faithful to the
humble friends of his youth. He is curiously uncon-
scious of his own position in the world. To one who
congratulated him on his elevation to the Premiership
he merely replied, "Oh! I had forgotten that!" And
I believe that he had.
This simplicity makes him very thorough. He
knows his own ignorance. When he was Chancellor
of the Exchequer he went to Somerset House and went
carefully through the whole system of the old land
taxes and their working. When he was guiding his
Budget through the House of Commons he had a daily
meeting of the Treasury experts, with whom he dis-
cussed every detail. That is always his method to
learn all he can from others. He is a great listener,
and learns rather by the ear than by the eye.
He is very considerate for his secretaries and his
staff; but he works them hard. He has no place for
"slacker^." When he first went to the Treasury, he
astounded that august Department by beginning work
at ten o'clock. They soon caught the habit, for later
on they slaved for him in a way that astonished the
onlooker. He can make others work because he works
himself.
At one time he took a great interest in the organisa-
tion of the Civil Service. On first becoming a Min-
ister, he was astonished to discover the rigidity of the
division between the First and Second Classes of the
Civil Service. He wished the system to be more fluid.
Once he was struck by the ability of a certain civil
servant, and he wished to place him in a position of
trust. "It is impossible!" was the reply; "he is only a
second division clerk." Mr. Lloyd George looked up
330 THE PRIME MINISTER
with a flash of whimsical indignation. "Why!" he
replied, "I am only a second division clerk myself!"
Whenever one tries to discover the secret of his
power over men, one comes back to that supreme gift
of his the gift of the silver tongue the power of
public speech. That is, after all, the thing that has
made him supreme over men. To hear him at his best
one must hear him on a public platform, addressing a
great public audience. There are few fireworks, no
shouting, no declaiming. He opens easily, in a soft,
quiet voice : he always works up to his effects. There
are "purple patches" now and again; but the bulk of it
seems almost conversational, and is often broken by
colloquial phases "Can you hear at the back there?"
"Ah I well, you must listen if you want me to speak to
you." He is almost always very soon on good terms
with his audience; it is only by shouting him down that
his enemies can prevent that. He is never angry on a
public platform; he seems always quite at home, as if
it was his real natural element. He can be scathing at
times withering, scornful, contemptuous. But that
mood rarely lasts long. He generally returns swiftly
to his gentler moods persuasion, appeal, emotion.
He almost always prepares a careful peroration, gen-
erally a memorised piece of prose poetry, very often
drawn from some great phase of nature from the
hills or the sea. Then his speeches end on the high
note; and his audiences go home with a sense of having
been uplifted.
There they are right for it is precisely his power
as a speaker to uplift the hearts of men. He has his
own moods. But from those he carefully selects the
very best, and gives them to the world. No public
man can do more.
CHAPTER XXVI
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS
"Jog, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily hent the stile-a:
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a."
Autolycus in SHAKESPEARE'S The Winter's Tale, Act IV, Sc. ii.
BUT, on the whole, it is the future rather than the
past that rules the mind of David Lloyd George.
To him the future has always been an unexplored
miracle ever in travail with some new birth. To
him, behind the veil of the coming time, there always
lies a possibility of some event such as the world has
never known of some creation such as the world has
never seen. He has moods when he seems "fey" with
his belief. "I am out to abolish slums," he cried one
evening, in 1912, walking across London upon a win-
ter's night beneath a starless sky. He meant it. His
bitterest enemy could not have laughed at that utter-
ance if he had heard it.
In such moods he was at that time ( 1908-12) indeed
"The little Brother of the poor." He was filled with
a certain storming passion of pity, so powerful that it
seemed to destroy all obstacles to bridge all diffi-
culties. All the accumulated memories of his own
childhood all the recollections of the poor cottagers
among whom he had been brought up, all their suffer-
ings and pains, all their oppressions and tragedies,
331
332 THE PRIME MINISTER
seemed to be moving behind him like some great tide
and driving him on. I remember his explaining once
his own consciousness of the mark which such an up-
bringing left on a man's life. He was talking about
the East End Settlement movement, and of its attempt
to bring the leisured classes nearer to the workers. He
was a little doubtful. "It is a gulf which can never be
bridged," he said. "You people can never understand
what it is to be really hungry or out of work. The
difference lies in security. The poor man is always in
danger, and he always knows it."
It was such a knowledge that inspired him with his
enthusiasm for Old Age Pensions and for his Insurance
Schemes. It was just this security that he wanted to
give to the life of the poor. And yet he has never
been a sentimentalist over their troubles. He looks at
them, so to speak, from the inside. The sentimental-
ism of the philanthropic middle classes rather annoys
him. What he always craves for the poor is justice,
and not charity. In the days of the Insurance Act he
was sincerely afraid olf creating a dependent working
class. He was surprised when he received so little
help in his contributory policy. "I will never try to be
good again," he said laughingly one day. "They call
me a demagogue, and next time I will really be one."
Such was his chaff.
In conversation he first expressed the idea of social
insurance by a parallel from the Canadian farmer who
insures his wheat against early winter frosts. That
was the image in which he expressed his sense of the
vast power of the modern State to build up a properly
organised system of individual security. Having once
conceived this idea, the various benefits came to him in
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 335
waves of compassion sickness, invalidity, maternity,
consumption. He worked all these benefits out from
his own experience of the sorrows of the poor. "I
want to make the little stranger welcome," he said one
day, talking about the maternity benefit. "It is hor-
rible to think that he should come trailing clouds of
trouble instead of 'clouds of glory.' ' The story of
the consumptive benefits is interesting. He had not
felt the need of this benefit until one night he read
through a very powerful medical work describing the
ravages of consumption in modern Britain. The extent
of the evil at once fully dawned on him. He came
down in the morning with his mind fully made up. He
went straight to the Treasury, called together his ex-
perts, told them to put aside 1,500,000 to fight con-
sumption, 1 and so created that famous sanatorium
benefit which is still proving only the first step towards
removing a gigantic evil.
He faced all these familiar troubles of modern Itfe
with a "divine discontent" new to modern men. We
all knew these things; but most of us had become so
familiar with them that our anger was blunted. Our
reforming temper had grown tired and stale. But this
Welshman approached the < matter with some of the
ardour of the revivalist. He would not accept the
ordinary excuses ; he believed these evils to be curable.
Fresh from the Welsh hills, he flamed with a new sur-
prise at the power of poverty over modern civilisation.
He showed some of the ingenuous dismay of a sur-
prised Gotama emerging from his garden. He real-
ised that private efforts had been tried and found in-
1 As a capital sum for building, in addition to 1,000,000 a year
for maintenance out of the Insurance Fund. Even these sums have
proved quite inadequate.
334 THE PRIME MINISTER
adequate. What he saw with a flash was that the
State alone could cope with the evils produced by the
State ; the Government must become the parent and no
longer the stepmother of its own children.
Once he realised this idea he was eager to carry it
into effect. He was passing from one great effort to
another from the Insurance Act to the Land Cam-
paign when the Great War burst upon him. Then
the very elements of civilisation had to be defended
against an even greater peril.
It is recorded that the rebuilders of the Temple had
to build every one with "his sword girded by his
side." 1 There must have been times when they had
to lay down the trowel entirely and work with the
sword alone. Such a time came to Mr. Lloyd George
in 1914; the trowel was only laid down. Now it is
being taken up again.
What struck the observer most in his achievements
during those years ( 1908-14) was his daring and orig-
inality. Plenty of clever English minds had been work-
ing on these problems ever since 1886. But how little
had been done! How long we had had to wait for
Pensions and Insurance ! How strangely academic and
remote were all those University and West End specu-
lations on these problems ! How quarrelsome were the
philanthropists! How divided were the English La-
bour leaders! Then from outside came this zealous
Welsh Crusader, and while all these people were still
talking he proceeded to act. When the world had
recovered from its surprise most of the persons con-
cerned turned round and attacked Mr. Lloyd George.
However right he might be in his aim, there was always
*Nehemiah IV, 8.
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 335
sure to be something wrong with his methods. This
attitude frankly puzzled him. "Why! they talk as if
I was trespassing," he used to say. "Is charity, then,
a form of property? Is kindness a monopoly?" The
attitude of the doctors especially surprised him. "I
have made a discovery," he said one day with a twinkle
in his eye. "I have discovered that disease is a vested
interest!"
Throughout all these struggles over social reform
Mr. Lloyd George tempered his enthusiasm with a very
even sense of political tactics. He knew well that, to
carry England with him, he must always have a great
political party at his back. There were times when this
was not easy. Neither of the great political party
machines in this country is exactly impassioned for new
ideas. It is rather typical of the faithful party man
to view a new proposal with actual dislike. "Why not
leave it all alone?" is a common attitude with all
parties.
Then there is the value of a grievance. There is
even a type of party man who actually regrets to see
his cause succeed. "If we pass the Bill we shall lose
the cry!" you hear him say. "Mr. Lloyd George is
passing too many Acts of Parliament," was the com-
mon complaint of the period among the very faithful.
To this type of man the Budget of 1909-10 was
rather a distracting affair. They were always trying
to "dilute" it. The Insurance Bill, too, would cer-
tainly have been thrown over if Mr. Lloyd George
had not staked his fortunes on it; and, as to the Land
Campaign, that was viewed with open disfavour in the
same quarters. For every party has its priesthood;
336 THE PRIME MINISTER
and in politics, as in religion, all priesthoods are con-
servative.
But, in spite of all this trouble within the party, Mr.
Lloyd George was always resolute not to quarrel with
the machine. One of his fixed principles was "Keep
the party machine on your side." He was certainly
not a typical party man far from it. He regarded
the party as the instrument and the cause as the end;
whereas the typical parry view is that the cause is the
instrument and the party the end. But he knew the
power of the machine; he often quoted Mr. Chamber-
lain as an instance showing that in the end the machine
won. "Mr. Chamberlain fought both of the machines
in turn," he used to say, "and, in the end, both com-
bined against him and beat him." Roosevelt was an-
other case which impressed him deeply. "Ah!" he
commented, when that great man was beaten so de-
cisively in 1913, "Roosevelt ought not to have quar-
relled with the machine."
On these grounds he has often accepted the second
best in policy.
He has often allowed himself to be convinced against
his will. After the defeat of the Education Bill in
1906, for instance, he was as eager to go back to the
country as Mr. Gladstone after the Lords' rejection
of Home Rule in 1893. Both these great fighters felt
instinctively that a party which accepts a defeat asks
to be defeated again until it is finally smashed. You
cannot expect a country to vote for ever for a party
that accepts defeat as its proper portion. But in this
case, as in others, rather than quarrel with his party,
he acquiesced in the decision to go on.
Still, he was glad when the split with the Lords
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 337
became irrevocable. It happened that I had the for-
tune of announcing to him the resolution of the Lords
to throw out the Budget. It was down at Lord Ren-
ders beautiful house near Guildford, where Mr. Lloyd
George was staying for the last time with that faithful
Nestor of Welsh Liberalism. Mr. Lloyd George had
been very anxious. He knew that the wiser Unionist
leaders in the Lords had been in favour of accepting
his Bill. He was afraid that the Lords were going to
refuse battle on grounds so favourable to their assail-
ants. When I told him the news his face shone. "The
Lord," he cried, "has delivered them into our hands !"
In the same way, he has always been very slow to
take the step of resignation from high political office.
How often have his friends generally a man's worst
advisers urged him to resign over some failure to
gain his own way! But he well knows that there is
nothing more difficult in politics than the art of resign-
ing opportunely. You must have a great issue and you
must have your people behind you. "You cannot be
always resigning," was one of his favourite sayings
during the critical years of 1909-12. It is true that
he often came near it, but he would generally com-
promise the matter and pass on. He was equally
against Cabinets resigning in a hurry. After the sec-
ond General Election of 1910 there was a meeting
when the Liberal Cabinet, wearied out with a long
struggle, was on the verge of resignation. Every mem-
ber who spoke at this fateful meeting had favoured
resignation. Mr. Lloyd George felt strongly opposed
to it, but he was almost silenced by the unanimity of his
colleagues. At last he scribbled a line and threw it
338 THE PRIME MINISTER
across to Mr. Winston Churchill. "I feel strongly
against resignation," he wrote. "What do you think?"
Mr. Winston Churchill scribbled below: "If you feel
against it, speak against it." Mr. Lloyd George spoke
against it, and spoke so persuasively that the idea of
resignation was dropped.
Even on fundamental issues he would often accept
personal defeat for the time. He had to decide
whether to go out into the wilderness or to work with
men to whom he was attached, and with whose ideas
he broadly and profoundly sympathised. When the
draft of the new Home Rule Bill was before the Cabi-
net in 1910 he moved to exclude Protestant Ulster.
He made the longest speech he had ever addressed to
a Cabinet on that issue. He prophesied what was cer-
tainly coming the resistance of Ulster; the refusal of
Protestant England to join in coercing her; the hesita-
tion of the Government to carry out their Act. He
was in favour of telling the Irish Party straightaway
that the Government of 1910 was not strong enough
to include Ulster in the Home Rule Bill. He would
have left the Irish Party to accept or reject the Bill as
it would have then stood. He himself believed that in
such a case Ulster would come in during the parlia-
mentary discussions on the Bill. He was defeated in
his proposal. Being defeated, he loyally stood by the
Cabinet and steadily supported the Bill. It was not
until long afterwards, when he himself became Prime
Minister and responsible for policy, that he revealed
to the world in that dramatic speech which drove the
Irish Party out of the House, the fact that he had
always been in favour of the exclusion of Ulster.
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 339
In literature and art Mr. Lloyd George does not
pretend to be among the elect. He gives himself no
airs and has no pretensions. He is just himself. He
states, without parley, his own genuine opinions on
books and pictures; and, as that is the rarest habit in
the world, it is always interesting. Nine out of ten
literary and artistic judgments are reflections or echoes
repeated at second-hand from some bolder speaker,
or even vaguely salvaged from the dim abysses of mem-
ory. The most refreshing thing in the world, there-
fore, is an honest, fresh, and original judgment. It is
characteristic of Mr. Lloyd George that he never hesi-
tates to give that in any company.
In literature he votes with both hands for Byron,
perhaps because Byron is the poet of liberty, and also
because that great writer, with all his faults, has the
quality of daring. But he boldly contends that the
Welsh are among the greatest of modern poets; and
he will recite their verses at large, even to English
friends, in order to confirm his claim.
In prose, he is devoted to George Meredith.
In music, he places Handel first among his heroes.
There, again, in great works like the Messiah, he seems
to discover some quality of sublimity which elates and
inspires him.
But there, again, his living passion is really national-
ist and based on national affections. The only music
that profoundly moves him touches his soul is the
music of the old Welsh hymns and folk-songs. Not
long ago he spoke up boldly for the music and litera-
ture of his own nation before all the world. 1 There
*At the Welsh Eisteddfod of 1917.
V
340 THE PRIME MINISTER
he voiced his own deepest conviction on these matters.
The music and songs of his own people strike the deep-
est chord in his nature.
In religion his outlook always seems to be broadly
Christian rather than sectarian. Brought up in his
uncle's creed of the "Disciples of Christ," which is
really an attempt to hark back to the purity of the
early Gospel teaching, he has an inherited hatred for
dogmas. He is very fond of such parables as those of
the Good Samaritan, which he instinctively regards as
the best comment on the claims of priestcraft.
He has a profound interest in all forms of Chris-
tianity. There was a time, many years ago, when he
was fond of going the round of the Churches. He
would also listen in the old days with the closest inter-
est to the discourses of the Salvationist preachers on
Wandsworth Common; and he would often contribute
to their collections, and talk to their officers. And
yet, at the other extreme, he has always had a curious
admiration for Roman Catholicism. He would some-
times argue that the Methodist discipline in Wales was
founded on the Catholic model. I remember going
with him into a London Catholic Church where he lis-
tened with rapt attention to the chanting of the Latin
psalms. There was something in the roll of the lan-
guage which penetrated and held him. But he was
always a great listener. He would never complain at
the length of a sermon. When at Brighton he would
take his friends to listen to the preaching of a young
Nonconformist minister at whose feet he sat with
whole-hearted admiration. He would always argue
that the standard of preaching among the Noncon-
formists had steadily risen and was now higher than
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 341
among the Anglicans. He attributed that fact very
largely to post-graduate colleges like Mansfield. He
was a great admirer of Principal Fairbairn, and would
listen to that great man's hour-long discourses without
moving an eyelid.
Wit is his most sparkling characteristic; and there
are few companies of talkers among whom he is not
the wittiest. His laugh will change the mood of the
gravest men, just as his smile has been known to affect
the attitude of immense multitudes. And yet wit is not
his greatest gift. I should place higher that power of
insight into deep truths which he will display in sym-
pathetic company. Generally the theme of this insight
will be politics ; and there is no subject which he is more
swift to illuminate with telling phrase. In these moods
he will seem to be looking at all parties, and even at
himself, from the outside. It is an extraordinary gift
of detachment, literary and artistic in its nature, and
peculiarly rare in a party politician. It goes with a
Celtic love of whimsical paradox, like the talk of a man
at his ease, a little disturbing to the strait sect of the
faithful party men.
But it will not always be politics that his mind plays
on in this manner. In moments of relaxation he will
take a wider range. Sometimes it will be this very
subject of religion, which is never very far absent from
his thoughts. "Christianity," he said to me once, "is
like a gold-mine. We are always imagining that it is
exhausted, and that no more gold can come out of it.
Then humanity digs a little deeper, and it always comes
across a fresh seam." He always seems to be digging
a little deeper himself.
842 THE PRIME MINISTER
His judgments of great men who came before are
always just a little inclined to severity, perhaps as a
rebound from the snobbery of history. Looking round
at that great gallery of the Englishmen of Napoleonic
days which adorns the breakfast-room at 10, Downing
Street Pitt, Wellington, Nelson, Fox, Burke he said
once: "None of them were very great the greatest
of them all was the man in the little frame in the cor-
ner the man they honoured least the Irishman, Ed
mund Burke." Perhaps it was the orator and the
thinker in Burke that drew him. Or perhaps, even
more, the Celt.
But it would be unfair to take him too seriously in
these judgments. He is above all things a conversa-
tionalist in regard to all such matters. It is only in
politics that he would ask to be taken as an expert.
There he works very gravely and arduously. It is
sometimes said that he does not read much. When he
can, indeed, he prefers, like many very busy men, to
acquire knowledge by the ear; and he likes to meet men
who know, and to learn from them. But he can read
widely and deeply when he thinks it necessary. He
will read steadily through great Blue-books when he is
preparing a parliamentary case; and when he was pre-
paring for the Insurance Act he studied deeply and
widely the whole literature of English social conditions,
and in the parliamentary debates he displayed astonish-
ing mastery.
He is a great newspaper reader. It is his habit to
read practically the chief daily newspapers in bed in
the morning before he comes down to breakfast; and
it is somewhat disconcerting for his breakfast guests
to discover that he already knows all the news of the
HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS 343
day. He never reads either a newspaper or a letter at
any meal. He talks and attends to his guests, as every
civilised host should do.
"He always speaks to me as if I were the only per-
son in the world," said one who met him rarely, and
was opposed to him in politics. That utterance ex-
plains, perhaps, better than any other the secret of his
social power. He has a profound sense of equality,
and will treat the humblest human being*as courteously
as the highest. He is always very popular with humble
people who serve him, such as hall-porters or maid-
servants.
Not, indeed, that he suffers from that inverted snob-
bery which puts its boots on drawing-room sofas and
reserves its insolence for crowned heads. It is well
known that King George V and Mr. Lloyd George are
sincere friends, and bound by mutual respect and ad-
miration. The friendship began after the death of the
King's father, and has deepened ever since. They
have much in common habits of arduous industry, the
love of home and family, the passion for simple things.
In private he constantly expresses his deep esteem and
regard for the King as a man and a father. He is
thoroughly at home in that happy domestic atmosphere
of the present Court.
He is a splendid travelling companion; he loves the
novelty and stimulus of foreign touring. He likes the
friendly open-air life of foreign capitals; and he is
never tired of exploring new cities. They come back
now as radiant memories those travels over Europe
which we took together in earlier, peaceful days in
France and the Tyrol, over plains and mountains,
through villages and cities.
344 THE PRIME MINISTER
One experience comes vividly back. We were stay-
ing in a little Tyrolese village named Vent. Some of
us, Being mountain climbers by election, had set off at
3 a.m., the climber's hour, to mount a high snow-peak,
the Similaun. We returned in the afternoon to find
that Mr. Lloyd George had disappeared from the inn.
He returned later and told us his experience. He
had tired of his reading, looked up at the glistening
peaks and decided that he, too, could and would climb
mountains. He had taken his stick, set off alone, and
proceeded to attack the nearest peak, without ice-axe
or guide. He surmounted a rock-ridge, crossed a
glacier, and reached a distant height. None of us
could comprehend how he managed to return alive.
There it is again, in small matters as in big this
note of daring, of refusal to accept defeat, of assertive
invincibility. It is the key-note of his character. In
every study of David Lloyd George it pursues you
everywhere and all the time.
There never was a time in human history when such
a quality was more needed. Frowning heights lie be-
hind and in front of roaring cataracts of catastrophe
gleaming peaks of suffering and sacrifice frozen
glaciers of death, seamed and crevassed with agony.
May he help us to win through!
CHAPTER XXVII
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES
Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a private man,
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue
And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own.
COWPER.
TRAVELLING about the world before the Great War,
no one could fail to notice that the name of Mr. Lloyd
George had already become an ensign. Men had be-
gun to apply it to that particular type of statesman,
becoming happily less rare, who take risks on behalf
of the "common people." It had become a way of
classifying a statesman to speak of him as "Our Lloyd
George." This was especially the case with little na-
tions. In Norway, for instance, during the winter of
1913-14, I found that that remarkable social reformer,
Mr. Castberg, was generally spoken of as the "Nor-
wegian Lloyd George" ; and on meeting him I was sur-
prised to find how closely he was modelling his policy
on that of the British statesman. His chief aspiration
was to meet Mr. Lloyd George and discuss with him
his own schemes for simplifying and enlarging Nor-
wegian social insurance and reforming their land sys-
tem.
This was but one example of a very general
tendency. There was another remarkable fact. Those
345
346 THE PRIME MINISTER
who met and talked with Socialists either in France or
in Germany during 1912-14, must have been astonished
to discover that, in speaking of Great Britain, their
thoughts were concerned not with any British Socialist
leader, but almost always with Mr. Lloyd George.
The reason of this was simple, but illuminating. Eu-
ropean Socialism had for half a century been hand-
cuffed to an impracticable idealism. Here was a man
who achieved things. He might be an opportunist and
a compromiser. Well, then, there was something to
be said for opportunism and compromise. For the
great thing was that, while all the idealists were still
dreaming, this man was awake and doing. 1
Apart from the Socialists, there was one European
statesman who, long before the war, already realised
Mr. Lloyd George as a possible European force. That
was the great Cretan Greek, M. Venizelos. The in-
stinctive mutual regard and respect of these two men
is one of the most remarkable things in latter-day poli-
tics. There was telepathy in it. Across the length of
Europe they seemed to have caught some message from
one another even before they were acquainted. It was
Mr. Lloyd George who especially urged on the Greek
Government that M. Venizelos should come to the
London Conference of 1912. It was on that visit that
they met at the house of a friend and had a long
conversation. They found much in common a com-
mon hope for the little nations, a common belief in the
unity and federation of the Balkan States as the one
hope of the Near East.
1 A remarkable instance of this comes to hand. Prince Kropotkin,
in addressing the Moscow Conference (August 1917), told the Russian
Socialists that there was more Socialism in Mr. Lloyd George's
speeches than in all their dreams.
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES 347
It was after this that M. Venizelos said to a friend
"Mr. Lloyd George will save Europe."
It was only gradually that Mr. Lloyd George
emerged in Western Europe as a commanding figure
in the world war. It was the French who first among
European nations discovered him as a European. This
was partly, no doubt, from some instinctive sympathy
between the Gaul and the Celt ; for very large numbers
of Frenchmen the Bretons are actually still Celtic
even Welsh both in thought and language.
It was also that Mr. Lloyd George, in his great
munitions campaign, took so many ideas from the
French and realised in a moment, across the gulf of
language, the extraordinary swiftness and power of
the French mind, their amazing courage and capacity
in enterprise and organisation. We have seen how,
early in the war, he sat at the feet of the French Social-
ist Minister, M. Albert Thomas; and how, at the
Boulogne Conference of June, 1915, he learned from
the French gunners. It would be foolish *to pretend
that Mr. Lloyd George talks French very well. But
he has learnt to understand their spoken language when
it is uttered by masters like M. Briand and M. Thomas.
But it was not till 1916 that Mr. Lloyd George stood
out to the French with a bright, particular light of his
own. Amid the doubts and hesitations of their own
politicians they caught a glimpse of a man across the
Channel who dared to lead who ventured to tell, the
people the unpleasant truths, and to direct them to
unpleasant duties.
"A speaker full of free and generous inspira-
tion," says M. Georges Leygues in the Evenement
348 THE PRIME MINISTER
of July yth, 1916, greeting his appointment to the
Ministry of War, "he never fails in his perception
of realities, and he goes straight to the fact. Pas-
sionate interpreter of the soul of his people, which
he knows so well in all its phases living incarna-
tion of the ardent Welsh race, he enjoys a real
ascendency over the masses. He can make them
understand and accept the length of the effort nec-
essary to shake that which most offends the proud
people of the West that boastful and brutal bar-
rack-yard spirit under which the German military
caste designed to bring the free mind of the
world."
In December, 1916, during the great ministerial
crisis which led to the Lloyd George Premiership, these
French writers saw far more clearly than the journal-
ists of London what was at stake. In London, on both
sides, the writers and politicians were too much ab-
sorbed in the personal and party issue they regarded
it too much as a conflict of newspaper "combines." In
France, on the other hand, the journalists all realised
that the difference turned round great issues great
questions of method in the conduct of the war. Here
is what that great journal, Le Temps, wrote on De-
cember 7th, 1917 :
"The English ministerial crisis is just a conflict,
at an acute stage, of two principles and methods
of government. One represents the normal main-
tenance of traditions, or rather of conventions,
which have stood the proof of long administra-
tion the ordinary march of the governmental
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES 349
machine. According to this view, that machine
can give us its full value, if only all its wheels are
strengthened without being modified. The other
view holds that there must be new simplifications
of the machinery. The driving power must be
organised and concentrated in one control and
that a control of energy. The time of good in-
tentions has passed. This is no longer an affair
of 'Wait and see.' Mr. Lloyd George takes his
stand clearly and simply on the side of decisive
action."
The Temps was not alone. Philippe Millet, writing
in L'CEimre on the same day, showed that he had a
glimpse of the same issue :
"It is necessary to look beyond the conflict of
persons. Then one discovers a practically unani-
mous desire to constitute at last a true War Gov-
ernment. What England has in her mind is the
formation of a sort of Committee of Public
Safety."
England, he perceived, had become more revolution-
ary than France.
"Conscription had made a greater change in
England because it was in itself a revolution. Be-
ginning later than ourselves, the English have
taken on the habit of changing their political
organisation at great speed and as fast as the war
compels them; and their acquired pace is probably
in this stage superior to ours. It is in England
rather than in France that one sees at this mo-
ment the spirit of Carnot reviving."
350 THE PRIME MINISTER
Here surely was a very profound political observa-
tion. With the same keenness of insight M. Clemen-
ceau, writing on July ist, 1917, in L'Homme Enchaine,
saw in Mr. Lloyd George a great political experi-
mentalist adapting his course always to the actual
events of the war:
"The English Prime Minister is, above all
things, a man of action one of those who, under
the active impulse of living thought, apply them-
selves to one task only and that is to bring order
and method into the plans and resolves which
come to them from a rigorous scrutiny of reali-
ties."
Other French journalists, still seeing these incidents
more clearly from across the water, rejoiced at the
change on the broadest possible lines. "The state of
war," wrote M. Gustave Tery, "demands that all de-
liberations should be brief and decisions prompt. Now
how can they possibly be so, if all power is exercised
by two dozen Ministers who pass half their time in dis-
cussion and the other half in deploring their impo-
tence?" Gustave Herve was even more outspoken in
La Fictoire (December yth, 1916) :
"Roughly the veils are torn aside in all the
allied countries; and from Petrograd to Paris,
from London to Rome, the whole world turns
anxiously towards their Governments, crying, 'We
want leaders!'
"Lloyd George has been the first in our great
countries of the West to hear the cry of the
people."
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES 351
M. Fitzmaurice, in the Figaro, foresaw how the
crisis would end:
"Perhaps he will not have the support of all
his colleagues of to-day, some of whom are pre-
cisely those whose delays and decisions he was
arraigning, and from whose hands he wished to
take the War Council; but he will have with him
all the men of action of all the parties who recog-
nise in him a true leader because they have seen
him at work and they know that they can count
on him. He will have with him all the English
people and all the Allies."
The Matin on the same day (December 7th) an-
alysed the position as follows:
"In reality the conflict which divides the Eng-
lish political world is nothing new in the history
of peoples. In moments of great gravity, even of
less gravity than the present time, there has often
been felt this imperious necessity to trust the man-
agement of affairs to men of energy. Even revo-
lutions have arisen, in England itself, and several
times, from the discontent created by Ministers
who were excellent in moments of calm but feeble
The Journal wrote thus :
"One element dominates the situation. It Is the
preponderating position of Mr. Lloyd George.
No Prime Minister could govern to-day without
asking not so much for his collaboration as for
his directions. Lloyd George is the soul of Eng-
352 THE PRIME MINISTER
land at war, and the principal combative arm of
Great Britain. Why keep him then in the second
political place? The brain that conceives ought
also to be the will that directs."
It is, indeed, a remarkable proof of the interest
taken by Frenchmen to-day in the personality of Mr.
Lloyd George that perhaps the best of all the shorter
sketches of his career has been written by M. Paul
Louis Hervier and published by that enterprising mag-
azine, Je Sais Tout, in its issue of April I5th, 1917.
To-day, indeed, it is scarcely too much to say that
in France Mr. Lloyd George is the best known and
loved of all European statesmen not even excluding
the statesmen of France itself.
Or turn to another splendid European Ally Italy.
There, too, Mr. Lloyd George is well appreciated as a
leader in the Entente Alliance. Here is a passage
from the Secolo in December, 1916:
Once more we see Lloyd George, the watchful,
the innovator, the inaugurator of new ideas. He
has known how, in the country classic for its in-
dividualism, to strengthen and enlarge the sphere
of State action. His first political experiments
from 1906 to 1914 were all directed to destroy
the laissez-faire system, and to substitute for it
the direct and co-ordinated action of the State,
especially when the action of the State attacked
the privileges of the rich classes. To-day Lloyd
George seeks to bring into being a veritable "War
Socialism."
The Giornale a" Italia took the same line :
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES 353
In comparison with the preceding administra-
tion, the new Government is distinguished for its
firmness of decision. England takes another step
along the path of warlike evolution. . . . Lloyd
George's power is the power of a warrior, who
is determined to subordinate every private inter-
est, that the interest of the whole nation may pre-
vail. . . . He voices the conscience of the whole
British Empire, which fully realises that every
barrier must be overturned, every obstacle over-
come, that stands in the way of the development
of those resources for war without which it is
impossible to beat the enemy.
The Idea Nazlonale echoed the same view:
There is a new feeling among the Governments
of the Entente a new determination to conquer
"without the aid of time." The old Governments
were characterised by their conviction that time
was a substantial ally. This constituted an ele-
ment of weakness. The speech of Lloyd George,
however, is an authentic interpretation of the signs
of the times. . . .
In an interview with the Morning Post in Decem-
ber, 1916, that remarkable Italian, Signer Bissolato,
expressed these views :
"You ask me what I think of Lloyd George?
That is tantamount to asking me what I think of
England. It is rare in history that a nation has
found itself as perfectly identified with one man
as England is to-day with Lloyd George. The
354 THE PRIME MINISTER
world, enemies and friends included, stands
amazed by the energy Lloyd George displays in
dealing with the huge difficulties that the war has
raised. But few know that in the energy of this
one man is apparent the energy of the whole Eng-
lish nation. What is particularly fortunate is his
decisive arrival to power at this juncture. I say
. this because if a nation at such critical times as
these does not find the man who is destined to
lead it, it runs the danger of remaining like the
giant who cannot find a weapon to fight with in a
conflict which is to decide his fate. . . . Eng-
land's good fortune in having found Lloyd
George is the good fortune of the whole Entente."
Let us cross from Europe to our new and splendid
Ally, the United States. There the career of Mr.
Lloyd George has always been followed with the closest
interest. There was a touch of enterprise a salt
savour about his Budget that took the fancy of a
country always in love with daring. The quick and
observant journalists who watch affairs in England on
behalf of the American democracy were already warn-
ing their people that Mr. Lloyd George was putting
them out of date. In a very remarkable sketch of Mr.
Lloyd George's land proposals sent to the American
Press in April of 1912 by Mr. James Creelman, he
told them that England was on the verge of a revolu-
tion that wouToT make America look old-fashioned.
"These are stirring and epoch-making times in
Old England.
"The old and powerful order of things is about
to pass away."
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES 355
And in his bright American way he depicted the
English aristocracy crying out :
"Oh! for a way to get rid of the grey-eyed,
smiling little Welsh demon who sits at the Im-
perial Treasury planning new taxes on wealth and
land; who puts evil ideas of social justice into the
Lead of the calm, keen, adroit Prime Minister and
all the rest of the Cabinet, and who has bewitched
the once humble and contented British-people until
they no longer reverence or respect orthodoxy or
the nobility and upper classes !"
Mr. Lloyd George has always been fully as interest-
ing to the leading men of America. When they visit
England, it is he whom they most desire to see and to
meet. President Wilson looks at the world with a
slower, calmer gaze, and arrives at his conclusions very
much more gradually.
But President Roosevelt always held Mr. Lloyd
George in a fierce admiration, not unmingled with envy
for his success in carrying with him a militant democ-
racy. Mr. Roosevelt wrote shortly before his death as
follows to a public man in his country:
"Give my heartiest regards to Lloyd George.
Do tell him I admire him immensely. I have al-
ways fundamentally agreed with his social pro-
gramme, but I wish it supplemented by Lord
Roberts's external programme. Nevertheless, my
agreement with him in programme is small com-
pared with the fact that I so greatly admire the
character he is now showing in this great crisis.
It is often true that the only way to render great
356 THE PRIME MINISTER
services is by willingness on the part of the states-
man to lose his future, or, at any rate, his present
position in political life, just exactly as the soldier
may have to pay with his physical life in order to
render service in battle."
As to our own far-flung Empire, there never has
been much doubt about their views in regard to Mr.
Lloyd George.
There are enough Welshmen in Canada to see to
that Dominion. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in a letter of
introduction written a year before his death, wrote:
"Mr. M. is one of your most ardent admirers;
and if you do not know it let me tell you that their
number in this country is legion."
There he certainly spoke the truth.
Sir Richard Flavelle, the famous Canadian financier,
was present in London during the great financial crisis.
On returning to Canada, in a speech at Ottawa on
September 26th, 1916, he spoke as follows:
"During those days the men who met the Chan-
cellor (Mr. Lloyd George) in Committee were
struck with one or two personal characteristics.
One of the noted ones was the man's self-efface-
ment. He sought for no glory for himself. He
sought for no recognition for himself. One of the
early evidences of the measure which he had taken
of the situation was found, by the gentlemen who
waited upon him, that Mr. Austen Chamberlain
sat by his side. He crossed over to the other side
of the House, and he said 'I need your assist-
ance.' '
THROUGH FOREIGN EYES 357
Less expected than the praise of Canada is the ad-
miration of India. Mr. Lloyd George has never visited
India, and he would not claim any special knowledge
of India. But India is the country of the poor man;
and the poor man all over the world has heard in his
speeches a new call of hope. To him Mr. Lloyd
George seems a light in great darkness, the glimmering
of a new dawn. Writing before the war, the Indian
Patriot said:
"Of all the statesmen at the head of affairs in
England to-day no one exercises the imagination
of India so much as Mr. Lloyd George. He is
not known as 'Mr.' here, but has gone over to the
ranks of greatness, and is called simply 'Lloyd
George.' His force and his earnestness always
appeal to the imagination. His speech is care-
fully read and treasured up. The cry of India is
'When shall we have a Lloyd George over
here?' and the story of his pensions for the old,
his insurance for the sick has become a legend
from the West.
"When will he come as our Viceroy?" is what
a poor man asked the writer. And he was dis-
appointed to be told that he may not come at all.
'But then Mr. Lloyd George has many followers,
and any one of them, trained as he is, may come !'
And here was consolation 1"
"They all love him, and are ready to lay down life
for him; and all because he has done so much for the
poor." That is the verdict of India, where kindness
to the poor is a first call on all religions, and not a
pious aspiration controlled by the Poor Law.
358 THE PRIME MINISTER
Then there are the little "Neutrals." They ought,
by all the rules, to have seen the best of the game.
There is a remarkable article in the Journal de Geneve
of May 1 5th, 1917, which seems to embody the judg-
ment of the most cautious and level-headed of all the
neutral observers of the war:
"Mr. Lloyd George has been called 'the Prime
Minister of Europe.' There is truth in that utter-
ance. Of all the statesmen who exercise to-day an
influence over the destinies of the world, Mr.
Lloyd George is the most attractive, the most per-
sonal, the most wilful, the most audacious. More
than all the others, he sees the future and prepares
for it.
"He has two talents which complete his outfit.
He knows how to will, and he knows how to
speak."
Finally, there is one tribute that comes from abroad
to Mr. Lloyd George which certainly ought not to be
omitted from this survey :
Of all British statesmen, he was, during the war, the
best abused in the enemy Press.
APPENDIX A
PRINCIPAL DATES IN MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S LIFE
Birth of David Lloyd George .
Death of his father
Is taken to Llanystundwy
Enters the village school
Passes Law Preliminary
Enters solicitor's office at Portmadoc
Family moves to Criccieth
Visits Houses of Parliament .
Speech on Egyptian War at Port-
madoc
Passes Law Finals
Starts practice at Criccieth
Starts practice at Portmadoc .
Speaks at Michael Davitt's meeting
Llanfrothen case ....
Marries Miss Maggie Owen .
Adopted as Liberal candidate in
Carnarvon Boroughs
Elected Alderman for Carnarvon-
shire County Council
Returned M.P. at By-election (ma-
jority, 18)
Fight over Clergy Discipline Bill .
Second election (majority, 196)
Revolt over Welsh Disestablishment
Bill
Third election (General Election
majority, 194)
Opposes Agricultural Rating Bill .
Opposes Voluntary Schools Bill .
Opposes Tithes Bill
359
January 17, 1863.
June 7, 1864.
August 1864.
1869.
1877-
1878.
May 1880.
November 1881.
November 1882.
1884.
1884.
1885.
1886.
1888.
January 24, 1888.
December 1888.
April 10, 1890.
1892.
July 8, 1892.
1895.
1896.
1897-
1899.
360
THE PRIME MINISTER
Speaks against South African War
Opposes South African War .
Fourth election at Carnarvon Bor-
oughs (majority, 296)
Mobbed at Birmingham .
Fights Education Bill
Welsh Education Revolt
Defies Schools Coercion Act .
President of the Board of Trade .
Fifth election at Carnarvon Bor-
oughs (majority, 1224) .
Settles Railway Strike .
Becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer
Passes Old Age Pensions Act
Visits Germany ....
Introduces Budget ....
Thrown out by Lords
Sixth election at Carnarvon Bor-
oughs (majority, 1,078) .
Passes Budget ....
Becomes member of Party Confer-
ence
Seventh election at Carnarvon Bor-
oughs (majority, 1,208) .
Introduces Insurance Bill
Carries Insurance Bill .
Land Campaign ....
Great War opens ....
Becomes Premier ....
Armistice . . .
General Election ....
Peace Conference opens
Peace ratified by Parliament .
Peace ratified at Versailles
October 27, 1899.
1900.
October 6, 1900.
December 18, 1901.
1902.
1903.
1904.
1905.
1906.
1907.
April 12, 1908.
July 1908.
August 1908.
April 29, 1909.
November 1909.
January 1910.
April 28, 1910.
June-November 1910.
December 1910.
May 4, 1911.
December 1911.
1912-1913.
August 4, 1914.
December 1916.
November n, 1918.
December 14, 1918.
January 18, 1919.
July 2ist, 1919.
January 10, 1920.
APPENDIX 361
APPENDIX B
THE CRISIS OF DECEMBER, 1916
Correspondence Between Mr. Asquith and Mr. Lloyd
George
Memorandum of Mr. Lloyd George to Prime Minister,
December 1st, 1916.
WAR OFFICE, WHITEHALL, S.W.
1. THAT the War Committee consist of three members
two of whom must be the First Lord of the Admiralty
and the Secretary of State for War, who should have in
their offices deputies capable of attending to and deciding
all departmental business and a third Minister without
portfolio. One of the three to be Chairman.
2. That the War Committee shall have full powers, sub-
ject to the supreme control of the Prime Minister, to direct
all questions connected with the war.
3. The Prime Minister, in his discretion, to have the
power to refer any question to the Cabinet.
4. Unless the Cabinet, in reference by the Prime Min-
ister, reverses decision of the War Cabinet, that decision
to be carried out by the Department concerned.
5. The War Committee to have the power to invite any
Minister and to summon the expert advisers and officers of
any Department to its meetings.
10 DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL, S.W.
Secret January ist, 1916.
MY DEAR LLOYD GEORGE,
I have now had time to reflect on our conversation
this morning, and to study your memorandum.
Though I do not altogether share your dark estimate and
forecast of the situation, actual and perspective, I am in
complete agreement that we have reached a critical situation
in the war, and that our methods of procedure, with the
362 THE PRIME MINISTER
experience which we have gained during the last few
months, call for reconsideration and revision.
The two main defects of the War Committee, which has
done excellent work, are :
(1) That its numbers are too large.
(2) That there is delay, evasion, and often obstruc-
tion on the part of the Departments in giving effect to
its decisions.
I might with good reason add (3) that it is often kept in
ignorance by the Departments of information, essential and
even vital, of a technical kind, upon the problems that come
before it : and (4) that it is overcharged with duties, many
of which might well be relegated to subordinate bodies.
The result is that I am clearly of opinion that the War
Committee should be reconstituted, and its relation to and
authority over the Departments be more clearly defined and
more effectively asserted.
I come now to your specific proposals.
In my opinion, whatever changes are made in the com-
position and functions of the War Committee, the Prime
Minister must be its Chairman. He cannot be relegated to
the position of an arbiter in the background or a referee to
the Cabinet.
In regard to its composition, I agree that the War Secre-
tary and the First Lord of the Admiralty are necessary
members. I am inclined to add to the same category the
Minister of Munitions. There should be another member,
either without portfolio or charged only with comparatively
light departmental duties. One of "the members should be
appointed Vice-Chairman.
I purposely do not in this letter discuss the delicate and
difficult question of personnel.
The Committee should, as far as possible, sit de die diem,
and have full power to see that its decisions (subject to
appeal to the Cabinet) are carried out promptly and effec-
tively by the Departments.
APPENDIX
The reconstitution of the War Committee should be ac-
companied by the setting up of a Committee of National
Organisation, to deal with the purely domestic side of war
problems. ' It should have executive powers within its own.
domain.
The Cabinet would in all cases have ultimate authority.
Yours very sincerely,
(Sd.) H. H. ASQUITH.
10 DOWNING STREET, S.W.
Secret December 4th, 1916.
MY DEAR LLOYD GEORGE,
Such productions as the first leading article in to-
day's Times, showing the infinite possibilities for misun-
derstanding and misrepresentation of such an arrangement
as we considered yesterday, make me at least doubtful as
to its feasibility. Unless the impression is at once corrected
that I am being relegated to the position of an irresponsible
spectator of the war, I cannot possibly go on.
The suggested arrangement was to the following effect.
The Prime Minister to have supreme and effective control of
War Policy.
The agenda of the War Committee will be submitted to
him; its Chairman will report to him daily; he can direct
it to consider particular topics or proposals; and all its
conclusions will be subject to his approval or veto. He can,
of course, at his own discretion attend meetings of the
Committee.
Yours sincerely,
(Sd.) H. H. ASQUITH.
WAR OFFICE, WHITEHALL, S.W.
December 4th, 1916.
MY DEAR PRIME MINISTER,
I have not seen the Times' article. But I hope you
will not attach undue importance to these effusions. I have
had these misrepresentations to put up with for months.
Northcliffe frankly wants a smash. Derby and I do not.
364. THE PRIME MINISTER
Northcliffe would like to make this and any other rear-
rangement under your Premiership impossible. Derby and
I attach great importance to your retaining your present
position effectively. I cannot restrain, or, I fear, influence
Northcliffe. I fully accept in letter and in spirit your sum-
mary of the suggested arrangement subject, of course, to
personnel. Ever sincerely,
(Sd.) D. LLOYD GEORGE.
10 DOWNING STREET, WHITEHALL, S.W.
Secret December tfh, 1916
MY DEAR LLOYD GEORGE,
Thank you for your letter of this morning.
The King gave me to-day authority to ask and accept the
resignation of all my colleagues, and to form a new Govern-
ment on such lines as I should submit to him. I start there-
fore with a clean slate.
The first question which I have to consider is the constitu-
tion of the new War Committee.
After full consideration of the matter in all its aspects, I
have come decidedly to the conclusion that it is not possible
that such a Committee could be made workable and effective
without the Prime Minister as its Chairman. I quite agree
that it will be necessary for him, in view of the other calls
upon his time and energy, to delegate from time to time the
Chairmanship to another Minister as representative and
locum tenens; but (if he is to retain the authority, which
corresponds to his responsibility as Prime Minister) he must
continue to be, as he always has been, its permanent Presi-
dent. I am satisfied, on reflection, that any other arrange-
ment (such as, for instance, the one which I indicated to you
in my letter of to-day) would be found in experience imprac-
ticable and incompatible with the retention of the Prime
Minister's final and supreme control.
The other question, which you have raised, relates to the
personnel of the Committee. Here again, after deliberate
APPENDIX 865
consideration, I find myself unable to agree with some of
your suggestions. I think we both agree that the First Lord
of the Admiralty must, of necessity, be a member of the
Committee.
I cannot (as I told you yesterday) be a party to any sug-
gestion that Mr. Balfour should be displaced. The technical
side of the Board of Admiralty has been reconstituted, with
Sir John Jellicoe as First Sea Lord. I believe Mr. Balfour
to be, under existing conditions, the necessary head of the
Board.
I must add that Sir Edward Carson (for whom personally
and in every other way I have the greatest regard) is not,
from the only point of view which is significant to me
(namely, the most effective prosecution of the war) the man
best qualified among my colleagues present or past to be a
member of the War Committee.
I have only to say, in conclusion, that I am strongly of
opinion that the War Committee (without any disparage-
ment of the existing Committee, which in my judgment is
a most efficient body, and has done and is doing invaluable
work) ought to be reduced in number: so that it can sit
more frequently, and overtake more easily the daily problems
with which it has to deal. But in any reconstruction of the
Committee, such as I have, and have for some time past had
in view, the governing consideration to my mind is the
special capacity of the men who are to sit on it for the work
which it has to do.
That is a question which I must reserve for myself to
decide. Yours very sincerely,
(Sd.) H. H. ASQUITH.
MY DEAR PRIME MINISTER, December $th, 1916.
I received your letter with some surprise.
On Friday I made proposals which involved not merely
your retention of the Premiership, but the supreme control
of the war, whilst the executive functions, subject to that
366 THE PRIME MINISTER
supreme control, were left to others. I thought you then
received these suggestions favourably. In fact, you yourself
proposed that I should be the Chairman of this Executive
Committee, although, as you know, I never put forward that
demand. On Saturday you wrote me a letter in which you
completely went back on that proposition. You sent for me
on Sunday, and put before me other proposals ; these pro-
posals you embodied in a letter written on Monday :
"The Prime Minister to have supreme and effective
control of war policy.
"The agenda of the War Committee will be submitted
to him; its Chairman will report to him daily; he can
direct it to consider particular topics or proposals ; and
all its conclusions will be subject to his approval or
veto. He can, of course, at his own discretion, attend
meetings of the Committee."
These proposals safeguarded your position and power as
Prime Minister in every particular. I immediately wrote
you accepting them "in letter and in spirit." It is true that
on Sunday I expressed views as to the constitution of the
Committee, but these were for discussion. To-day you have
gone back on your own proposals.
I have, striven my utmost to cure the obvious defects of
the War Committee without overthrowing the Government.
As you are aware, on several occasions during the last two
years I have deemed it my duty to express profound dis-
satisfaction with the Government's method of conducting the
war. Many a time, with the road to victory open in front
of us, we have delayed and hesitated whilst the enemy were
erecting barriers that finally checked the approach. There
has been delay, hesitation, lack of forethought and vision. I
have endeavoured repeatedly to warn the Government of
the dangers, both verbally and in written memoranda and
letters, which I crave your leave now to publish if my
action is challenged ; but I have either failed to secure deci-
sions or I have secured them when it is too late to avert the
APPENDIX 367
evils. The latest illustration is our lamentable failure to give
timely support to Roumania.
I have more than once asked to be released from my
responsibility for a policy with which I was in thorough
disagreement, but at your urgent personal request, I re-
mained in the Government. I realise that when the country
is in the peril of a great war, Ministers have not the same
freedom to resign on disagreement. At the same time I
have always felt and felt deeply that I was in a false
position, inasmuch as I could never defend in a whole-
hearted manner the action of a Government of which I was
a member. We have thrown away opportunity after oppor-
tunity, and I am convinced, after deep and anxious reflec-
tion, that it is my duty to leave the Government in order to
inform the people of the real condition of affairs, and to
give them an opportunity, before it is too late, to save their
native land from a disaster which is inevitable if the present
methods are longer persisted in. As all delay is fatal in
war, I place my office without further parley at your dis-
posal.
It is with great personal regret that I have come to this
conclusion. In spite of mean and unworthy insinuations
to the contrary insinuations which I fear are always in-
evitable in the case of men who hold prominent but not
primary positions in any administration I have felt a strong
personal attachment to you as my Chief. As you yourself
said on Sunday, we have acted together for ten years and
never a quarrel, although we have had many a grave dif-
ference on questions of policy. You have treated me with
great courtesy and kindness : for all that I thank you. Noth-
ing would have induced me to part now except an over-
whelming sense that the course of action which has been
pursued has put the country and not merely the country,
but throughout the world, the principles for which you and
I have always stood throughout our political lives in the
greatest peril that has ever overtaken them.
368 THE PRIME MINISTER
As I am fully conscious of the importance of preserving
national unity, I propose to give your Government complete
support in the vigorous prosecution of the war; but unity
\ without action is nothing but futile carnage, and I cannot be
1 responsible for that. Vigour and vision are the supreme
need of this hour. Yours sincerely,
(Sd.) D. LLOYD GEORGE.
10 DOWNING STREET, S.W.
Private December 5th, 1916.
MY DEAR LLOYD GEORGE,
I need not tell you that I have read your letter of
to-day with much regret.
I do not comment upon it for the moment, except to say
that I cannot wholly accept your account of what passed
between us in regard to my connection with the War Com-
mittee.
In particular, you have omitted to quote the first and most
material part of my letter of yesterday.
Yours very sincerely,
(Sd.) H. H. ASQUITH.
In the meantime, I feel sure that you will see the obvious
necessity, in the public interest, of not publishing, at this
moment, any part of our correspondence.
WAR OFFICE, S.W.
MY DEAR PRIME MINISTER, December sth, 1916.
I cannot announce my resignation without assigning
the reason. Your request that I should not publish the cor-
respondence that led up to and necessitated it places me
therefore in an embarrassing and unfair position. I must
give reasons for the grave step I have taken. If you forbid
publication of the correspondence, do you object to my stat-
ing in another form my version of the causes that led to my
resigning? Yours sincerely,
(Sd.) D. LLOYD GEORGE.
APPENDIX 369
As to the first part of your letter, the publication of the
letter would cover the whole ground.
10 DOWNING STREET, S.W.
MY DEAR LLOYD GEORGE, December 5th, 1916.
It may make a difference to you (in reply to your
last letter) if I tell you at once that I have tendered my
resignation to the King. In any case, I should deprecate in
the public interest the publication in its present form at this
moment of your letter to me of this morning.
Of course, I have neither the power nor the wish to pre-
vent your stating in some other form the causes which led
you to take the step which you have taken.
Yours very sincerely,
(Sd.) H. H. ASQUITH.
APPENDIX C
THE PEACE CONFERENCE
THE CRITICAL RUSSIAN DEBATE OF JANUARY, 1919
BuUitt Exhibit No. 14
McD. I.C. 114. Secretaries' notes of a conversation
held in M. Pichon's room, at the Quai d'Orsay, on Tuesday,
January 2ist, 1919, at 15 hours (3 p.m.).
Present:
United States of America. President Wilson, Mr. R.
Lansing, Mr. A. H. Frazier, Colonel U. S. Grant, Mr. L.
Harrison.
British Empire. The Right Hon. D. Lloyd George, the
Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, Lieut.-Col. Sir M. P. A. Hankey,
K.C.B., Major A. M. Caccia, M.V.O., Mr. E. Phipps.
France. M. Clemenceau, M. Pichon, M. Dutasta, H.
Berthelot, Captain A. Potier.
370 THE PRIME MINISTER
Italy. Signer Orlando, H. E. Baron Sonnino, Count Al-
drovandi, Major A. Jones.
Japan. Baron Makino, H. E. M. Matsui, M. Saburi.
Interpreter. Prof. P. J. Mantoux.
Situation in Russia
M. Clemenceau said they had met together to decide what
could be done in Russia under present circumstances.
President Wilson said that, in order to have something
definite to discuss, he wished to take advantage of a sugges-
tion made by Mr. Lloyd George, and to propose a modifica-
tion of the British proposal. He wished to suggest that the
various organised groups in Russia should be asked to send
representatives, not to Paris, but to some other place, such
as Salonika, convenient of approach, there to meet such
representatives as might be appointed by the Allies, in order
to see if they could draw up a programme upon which agree-
ment could be reached.
Mr. Lloyd George pointed out that the advantage of this
would be that they could be brought there from Russia
through the Black Sea without passing through other coun-
tries.
M. Sonnino said that some of the representatives of the
various Governments were already here in Paris, for exam-
ple, M. Sazonoff. Why should not these be heard?
President Wilson expressed the view that the various
parties should not be heard separately. It would be very
desirable to get all these representatives in one place, and
still better, all in one room, in order to obtain a close com-
parison of views.
Mr. Balfour said that a further objection to M. Son-
nino's plan was that if M. SazonofF was heard in Paris it
would be difficult to hear the others in Paris also, and M.
Clemenceau objected strongly to having some of these
representatives in Paris.
M. Sonnino explained that all the' Russian parties bad
APPENDIX 371
some representatives here, except the Soviets, whom they
did not wish to hear.
Mr. Lloyd George remarked that the Bolshevists were the
very people some of them wished to hear.
M. Sonnino continuing, said that they had heard M.
LitvinofFs statements that morning.
(That was the statement that Litvinoff had made to Buck-
ler, which the President had read to the council of ten that
morning.)
The Allies were now fighting against the Bolshevists,
who were their enemies, and therefore they were not obliged
to hear them with the others.
Mr. Balfour remarked that the essence of President Wil-
son's proposal was that the parties must all be heard at
one and the same time.
Mr. Lloyd George expressed the view that the acceptance
of M. Sonnino's proposals would amount to their hearing a
string of people, all of whom held the same opinion, and
all of whom would strike the same note. But they would
not hear the people who at the present moment were actually
controlling European Russia. In deference to M. Clemen-
ceau's views they had put forward this new proposal. He
thought it would be quite safe to bring the Bolshevist rep-
resentatives to Salonika, or perhaps to Lemnos. It was abso-
lutely necessary to endeavour to make peace. The report
read by President Wilson that morning went to show that
the Bolshevists were not convinced of the error of their
ways, but they apparently realised the folly of their present
methods. Therefore they were endeavouring to come to
terms.
President Wilson asked to be permitted to urge one aspect
of the case. As M. Sonnino had implied, they were all
repelled by Bolshevism, and for that reason they had placed
armed men in opposition to them. One of the things that
was clear in the Russian situation was that, by opposing
Bolshevism with arms, they were in reality serving the
372 THE PRIME MINISTER
cause of Bolshevism. The Allies were making it possible
for the Bolsheviks to argue that Imperialistic and Capitalis-
tic Governments were endeavouring to exploit the country
and to give the land back to the landlords, and so bring
about a reaction. If it could be shown that this was not
true, and that the Allies were prepared to deal with the
rulers of Russia, much of the moral force of this argu-
ment would disappear. The allegations that the Allies were
against the people, and wanted to control their affairs, pro-
vided the argument which enabled them to raise armies. If,
on the other hand, the Allies could swallow their pride and
the natural repulsion which they felt for the Bolshevists, and
see the representatives of all organised groups in one place,
he thought it would bring about a marked reaction against
Bolshevism.
M. Clemenceau said that in principle he did not favour
conversation with the Bolshevists, not because they were
criminals, but because we would be raising them to our level
by saying that they were worthy of entering into conversa-
tion with us. The Bolshevist danger was very great at the
present moment. It had invaded the Baltic provinces and
Pojand, and that very morning they received bad news re-
garding its spread to Buda-Pesth and Vienna. Italy, also,
was in danger. The danger was probably greater there than
in France. If Bolshevism, after spreading to Germany, were
to traverse Austria and Hungary, and so reach Italy, Europe
would be faced with a very great danger. Therefore, some-
thing must be done against Bolshevism. When listening to
the document presented by President Wilson that morning,
he had been struck by the cleverness with which the Bolshe-
vists were attempting to lay a trap for the Allies. When the
Bolshevists first came into power, a breach was made with
the Capitalist Government on questions of principle, but
now they offered funds and concessions as a basis for treat-
ing with them. He need not say how valueless their prom-
ises were, but, if they were listened to, the Bolshevists would
APPENDIX 373
go back to their people and say, "We offered them great
principles of justice, and the Allies would have nothing to
do with us. Now we offer money, and they are ready to
make peace."
He admitted his remarks did not offer a solution. The
great misfortune was that the Allies were in need of a
speedy solution. After four years of war, and the losses
and sufferings they had incurred, their populations could
stand no more. Russia also was in need of immediate peace.
But its necessary evolution must take time. The signing of
the world's peace could not await Russia's final avatar. Had
time been available, he would suggest waiting, for eventually
sound men representing common sense would come to the
top. But when would that be? He could make no fore-
cast. Therefore they must press for an early solution.
To sum up, had he been acting by himself, he would tem-
porise and erect barriers to prevent Bolshevism from spread-
ing. But he was not alone, and in the presence of 'is col-
leagues he felt compelled to make some concession, as it was
essential that there should not be even the appearance of
disagreement amongst them. The concession came easier
after hearing President Wilson's suggestions. He thought
they should make a very clear and convincing appeal to all
reasonable peoples, emphatically stating that they did not
wish in any way to interfere in the internal affairs of Rus-
sia, and especially that they had no intention of restoring
Czardom. The object of the Allies being to hasten the crea-
tion of a strong Government, they proposed to call together
representatives of all parties to a conference. He would
beg President Wilson to draft a paper, fully explaining the
position of the Allies to the whole world, including the Rus-
sians and the Germans.
Mr. Lloyd George agreed, and gave notice that he wished
to withdraw his own motion in favour of President Wil-
son's.
Mr. Balfour said that he understood that all these people
374 THE PRIME MINISTER
were to be asked on an equality. On these terms he thought
the Bolshevists would refuse, and by their refusal they
would put themselves in a very bad position.
M. Sonnino said that he did not agree that the Bolshevists
would not come. He thought they would be the first to
come, because they would be eager to put themselves on an
equality with the others. He would remind his colleagues
that, before the Peace of Brest-Litovsk was signed, the Bol-
shevists promised all sorts of things, such as to refrain from
propaganda, but since that peace had been concluded they
had broken all their promises, their one idea being to spread
revolution in all other countries. His idea was to collect
together all the anti-Bolshevist parties, and help them to
make a strong Government, provided they pledged them-
selves not to serve the forces of reaction, and especially not
to touch the land question, thereby depriving the Bolshevists
of their strongest argument. Should they take these pledges,
he would be prepared to help them.
Mr. Lloyd George enquired how this help would be given.
M. Sonnino replied that help would be given with soldiers
to a reasonable degree or by supplying arms, food and
money. For instance, Poland asked for weapons, and
munitions ; the Ukraine asked for weapons. All the Allies
wanted was to establish a strong Government. The reason
that no strong Government at present existed was that no
party could risk taking the offensive against Bolshevism
without the assistance of the Allies. He would enquire how
the parties of order could possibly succeed without the as-
sistance of the Allies. President Wilson had said that they
should put aside all pride in the matter. He would point
out that for Italy, and probably for France also, as M. Cle-
menceau had stated, it was in reality a question of self-
defence. He thought that even a partial recognition of the
Bolshevists would strengthen their position, and, speaking
for himself, he thought that Bolshevism was already a seri-
ous danger in his country.
APPENDIX 875
Mr. Lloyd George said he wished to put one or two
practical questions to M. Sonnino. The British Empire now
had some 15,000 to 20,000 men in Russia. M. de Scavenius
had estimated that some 150,000 additional men would be
required, in order to keep the anti-Bolshevist Governments
from dissolution. And General Franchet d'Esperey also in-
sisted on the necessity of Allied assistance. Now Canada
had decided to withdraw her troops, because the Canadian
soldiers would not agree to stay and fight against the Rus-
sians. Similar trouble had also occurred amongst the other
Allied troops. And he felt certain that, if the British tried
to send any more troops there, there would be mutiny.
M. Sonnino suggested that volunteers might be called
for.
Mr. Lloyd George, continuing, said that it would be im-
possible to raise 150,000 in that way. He asked, however,
what contributions America, Italy, and France would make
towards the raising of this army.
President Wilson and M. Clemenceau each said none.
M. Orlando agreed that Italy could make no further con-
tributions.
Mr. Lloyd George said that the Bolshevists had an army
of 300,000 men, who would, before long, be good soldiers,
and to fight them at least 400,000 Russian soldiers would be
required. Who would feed, equip, and pay them? Would
Italy, or America, or France do so? If they were unable
to do that, what would be the good of fighting Bolshevism ?
It could not be crushed by speeches. He sincerely trusted
that they would accept President Wilson's proposal as it now
stood.
M. Orlando agreed that the question was a very difficult
one for the reasons that had been fully given. He agreed
that Bolshevism constituted a grave danger to all Europe.
To prevent a contagious epidemic from spreading, the sani-
tarians set up a cordon sanitaire. If similar measures could
be taken against Bolshevism, in order to prevent its spread-
376 THE PRIME MINISTER
ing, it might be overcome, since to isolate it meant vanquish-
ing it. Italy was now passing through a period of depres-
sion, due to war weariness. But Bolshevists could never
triumph there, unless they found a favourable medium, such
as might be produced either by a profound patriotic disap-
pointment in their expectations as to the rewards of the war,
or by an economic crisis. Either might lead to revolution,
which was equivalent to Bolshevism. Therefore, he would
insist that all possible measures should be taken to set up
this cordon. Next, he suggested the consideration of repres-
sive measures. He thought two methods were possible:
either the use of physical force or the use of moral force.
He thought Mr. Lloyd George's objection to the use of
physical force unanswerable. The occupation of Russia
meant the employment of troops for an indefinite period of
time. This meant an apparent prolongation of the war.
There remained the use of moral force. He agreed with
M. Clemenceau that no country could continue in anarchy,
and that an end must eventually come; but they could not
fait they could not proceed to make peace and ignore
ussia. Therefore, Mr. Lloyd George's proposal, with the
modifications introduced after careful consideration by
President Wilson and M. Clemenceau, gave a possible solu-
tion. It did not involve entering into negotiations with the
Bolshevists; the proposal was merely an attempt to bring
together all the parties in Russia with a view to finding a
way out of the present difficulty. He was prepared, there-
fore, to support it.
President Wilson asked for the views of his Japanese
colleagues.
Baron Makino said that after carefully considering the
various points of view put forward, he had no objections to
make regarding the conclusions reached. He thought that
was the best solution under the circumstances. He wished,
however, to enquire what attitude would be taken by the
representatives of the Allied Powers if the Bolshevists
APPENDIX 377
accepted the invitation to the meeting, and there insisted
upon their principles. He thought they should under no
circumstances countenance Bolshevist ideas. The condi-
.tions in Siberia east of the Baikal had greatly improved.
The objects which had necessitated the despatch of troops
to that region had been attained. Bolshevism was no longer
aggressive, though it might still persist in a latent form. In
conclusion, he wished to support the proposal before the
meeting.
President Wilson expressed the view that the emissaries
of the Allied Powers should not be authorised to adopt any
definite attitude towards Bolshevism. They should merely
report back to their Governments the conditions found.
Mr. Lloyd George asked that that question be further
considered. He thought the emissaries of the Allied Powers
should be able to establish an agreement if they were able to
find a solution. For instance, if they succeeded in reaching
an agreement on the subject of the organisation of a Con-
stituent Assembly, they should be authorised to accept such
a compromise without the delay of a reference to the
Governments.
President Wilson suggested that the emissaries might be
furnished with a body of instructions.
Mr. Balfour expressed the view that abstention from hos-
tile action against their neighbours should be made a con-
dition of their sending representatives to this meeting.
President Wilson agreed.
M. Clemenceau suggested that the manifesto to the Rus-
sian parties should be based solely on humanitarian grounds.
They should say to the Russians, "You are threatened by
famine ; we are prompted by humanitarian feelings, we are
making peace ; we do not want people to die. We are pre-
pared to see what can be done to remove the menace of
starvation." He thought the Russians would at once prick
up their ears, and be prepared to hear what the Allies had to
say. They would add that food cannot be sent unless peace
S78 THE PRIME MINISTER
and order were re-established. It should, in fact, be made
quite clear that the representatives of all parties would
merely be brought together for purely humane reasons.
Mr. Lloyd George said that in this connection he wished
to invite attention to a doubt expressed by certain of the
delegates of the British Dominions, namely, whether there
would be enough food and credit to go round, should an
attempt be made to feed all Allied countries, and enemy
countries, and Russia also. The export of so much food
would inevitably have the effect of raising food prices in
Allied countries, and so create discontent and Bolshevism.
As regards grain, Russia had always been an exporting
country, and there was evidence to show that plenty of food
at present existed in the Ukraine.
President Wilson said that his information was that
enough food existed in Russia, but either on account of its
being hoarded or on account of difficulties of transportation,
it could not be made available.
It was agreed that President Wilson should draft a proc-
lamation, for consideration at the next meeting, inviting all
organised parties in Russia to attend a meeting to be held
at some selected place such as Salonika or Lemnos, in
order to discuss with the representatives of the Allied and
Associated Great Powers the means of restoring order and
peace in Russia. Participation in the meeting should be con-
ditional on a cessation of hostilities.
APPENDIX D
THE "FOURTEEN POINTS"
In view of the fact that the Armistice negotiations started
from the acceptance of President Wilson's Fourteen Points
by the Germans, and that the Peace Conference pivoted
round those points as modified by the Allies at the Ver-
APPENDIX 379
sailles Council of October, 1918, it is of interest to attach
a full and complete version of the original Fourteen Points,
as set forth by President Wilson in his great speech of
January 8th, 1918:
I. OPEN COVENANTS of peace openly arrived at, after
which there shall be no private international understandings
of any kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly
and in the public view.
II. ABSOLUTE FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION upon the seas
outside the territorial waters, alike in peace and in war,
except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by
international action for the enforcement of international
covenants.
III. THE REMOVAL, so FAR AS POSSIBLE, of all economic
barriers, and the establishment of an equality of trade
conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace
and associating themselves for its maintenance.
IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that NATIONAL
ARMAMENTS WILL BE REDUCED TO THE LOWEST POINT COH-
sistent with domestic safety.
V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely IMPARTIAL AD-
JUSTMENT OF ALL COLONIAL CLAIMS, based upon a strict
observance of the principle that in determining all such
questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations
concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims
of the Government whose title is to be determined.
VI. THE EVACUATION OF ALL RUSSIAN TERRITORY, AND
SUCH A SETTLEMENT OF ALL QUESTIONS AFFECTING RUSSIA
AS WILL SECURE THE BEST AND FREEST CO-OPERATION OF THE
OTHER NATIONS of the world in obtaining for her an unham-
pered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent
determination of her own political development and national
policy, and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society
of free nations under institutions of her own choosing;
and more than a welcome assistance also of every kind that
she may need and may herself desire. The treatment ac-
380 THE PRIME MINISTER
corded to Russia by her sister nations in the months to
come will be the acid test of their good-will, of their com-
prehension of her needs as distinguished from their own
interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
VII. BELGIUM, THE WHOLE WORLD WILL AGREE, MUST BE
EVACUATED AND RESTORED without any attempt to limit the
sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other
free nations. No other single act will serve as this will
serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws
which they have themselves set and determined for the
government of their relations with one another. Without
this healing act, the whole structure and validity of inter-
national law is for ever impaired.
VIII. ALL FRENCH TERRITORY SHOULD BE FREED, and the
invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by
Prussia in 1871 in the matter of ALSACE-LORRAINE, which
has unsettled the peace of the world for fifty years, SHOULD
BE RIGHTED in order that peace may once more be made
secure in the interests of all.
IX. A READJUSTMENT OF THE FRONTIERS OF ITALY should
be effected along clearly recognisable lines of nationality.
X. THE PEOPLES OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, whose place
among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured,
should be accorded the first opportunity of AUTONOMOUS
DEVELOPMENT.
XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be
evacuated, occupied territories restored, Serbia accorded
free and secure access to the sea, and the relations of the
several Balkan States to one another determined by friendly
counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and
nationality, and international guarantees of the political and
economic independence and territorial integrity of the sev-
eral Balkan States should be entered into.
XII. THE TURKISH PORTIONS of the present Ottoman
Empire should be ASSURED A SECURE SOVEREIGNTY, but the
OTHER NATIONALITIES which are under Turkish rule should
APPENDIX 381
be ASSURED AN UNDOUBTED SECURITY OF LIFE, and an abso-
lutely unmolested opportunity of AUTONOMOUS DEVELOP-
MENT, and the DARDANELLES should be PERMANENTLY
OPENED as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all
nations under international guarantees.
XIII. AN INDEPENDENT POLISH STATE SHOULD BE
ERECTED, which should include the territories inhabited by
INDISPUTABLY POLISH POPULATIONS, which should be as-
sured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political
and economic independence and territorial integrity should
be guaranteed by international covenant.
XIV. A GENERAL ASSOCIATION OF NATIONS ttlUSt be
formed under specific covenant for the purpose of affording
mutual guarantees of politcal independence and territorial
integrity to great and small States alike.
NOTE. Point II was practically cut out of the terms by
the Versailles Council. Note the comprehensiveness of
Point XIII, which explains the largeness of the Polish
claims. Point XIV is the germ of the League of Nations
idea, and is carried out in the famous clause 10 of the
Covenant since rejected by the Senate of the United States.
Note that there is no mention of indemnities; but the
Council of Versailles opened the door by insisting on com-
pensation to civilian populations. The 5,000,000,000
claimed in the Treaty represents an instalment of that
claim which is estimated as likely to amount to 8,000,-
000,000.
INDEX
Acland, Sir Arthur, 81, 168.
Addison, Dr., speech on Munitions,
218; Introduces Housing Bill, 314
Agadir Speech at Mansion House,
159
Agricultural Rates Bill (1896), 108
Aisne, the, 280
Albert, 274
American Army reinforcements,
1918, 276
Amiens, 151; German attempt to
capture, 277, 281
Arabi Pasha, 48
Armentieres, 278
Armistice, conditions of, 283; de-
clared, 284
Arnold, Matthew, 50, 147
Asquith, Mr., and Welsh Disestab-
lishment, 105 ; successor to Camp-
bell-Bannerman, 112; and South
African War, 1 1 5 ; in opposition
(1902), 129, 134; and Tariff Re-
form, 136; Premier, 149; evi-
dence on Bulgaria, 191; munition
speech, Newcastle, 213; recon-
struction of Government (1915),
214; interview of December 1916,
236; negotiations with Mr. Lloyd
George, 237; downfall of Govern-
ment, 242; refuses Woolsack, 242;
and Maurice incident, 267
Athens, 184
Aubers Ridge, attack on, 214
Austria, strength in 1915, 198; Italy
declares war on, 200; surrenders,
283
Bailleul 278
Balfour, Mr., weakening of his Gov-
ernment, 130, 133; Budget (1910),
164; and conference of 1910, 165;
attends Peace Conference, 287, 299
Balkans, the, proposal to combine,
179, 181 ; German intrigue in, 184;
suggestion to send Mr. Lloyd
George, 196; attempt to bring to-
gether, 192
Bangor, part of constituency, 78;
speech during South African War,
117, 123
Bar le Due, 151
Barnes, Mr. G., attends Peace Con-
ference, 287; remains in Govern-
ment, 308
Berlin, 154; visit to Central Insur-
ance Office, 158
Bethmann-Hollweg, Herr, entertained
by, 154, 155
Birmingham, speech on South Afri-
can War, 117, 322
Bissolati, Signer, Morning Post in-
terview, 353
Blunt, Mr. Wilfrid, 48
Board of Education, 134
Board of Trade, Mr. Lloyd George
appointed President, 138; work at,
139
Bolshevists, coup d'etat (1917), 272;
peace with Germany, 272; proposed
Conference, 295
Bonar Law, Mr., unable to form Gov-
ernment, 242; attends Peace Con-
ference, 287; acts as leader of Gov-
ernment, 313
Booth, Mr. Charles, 167
Borden, Sir R., and Peace Confer-
ence, 287
Botha, General, 118, 119, 180; con-
quers South-West Africa, 200; and
Peace Conference, 287
Brace, Mr. W., leaves Coalition, 316
Brecon, 133
Breese, Jones and Casson, Messrs.,
solicitors, 41, 43, 54, 95
Brest Litovsk, 200; peace negotia-
tions, 272
Briand, M., 347
British Columbia, visit to, 1 14
Brockdorff-Rantzau, Herr, Treaty pre-
sented, 302
"Brutus," pen-name (1880), 46
Budget (1890), compensation for
licences, 88; Conference of Party
Leaders, 165; (1909), 162; thrown
out by Lords, 164, 337
Budget League, 163
Bukovina, invasion by Russians, 176;
Russians driven from, 197
Bulgaria, divided in counsel, 179;
Greek conditions of joining war,
186; refuges promise of neutrality,
189; pledged to Central Powers,
190; offers to lend troops, 191;
president Wilson leans towards,
3o
Bullitt, Mr. W. C., evidence before
American Senate, 296; Mission to
Russia, 296
Burial Act (1880), case at Llan-
frothen, 66
Burke, Edmund, 124; Mr. Lloyd
George's opinion of, 342
Butler, Sir Wm., 115
383
384
INDEX
jou:
fror
to
sofia,
IBuxton, the Brothers,
Sofia, 184; proposals
187
Byron, Mr. Lhyd George's admira-
tion of, 339
Cadbury, Mr. George, 121
Cadorna, General, Conference July
(1917), 262
Caine, Mr. W. S., 53
Camber Williams, Canon, 25
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir H., Pre-
mier, 112; self-government for
South Africa, 118; in opposition,
129; Premier (1905), 138; resigna-
tion, 149
Cannes, 328
Carnarvon Boroughs, first aspira-
tions to Parliament, 75 ; adopted
candidate, 78; first election, 84
Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 50,
72, 80, 84
Carpathians, German advance in, 197
Castberg, Mr., Norwegian Prime
Minister, 345
Castlereagh, Lord, 300
Casson, Mr., solicitor, 42, 95
Catechism, revolt against, 271
Cecil, Lord Robert, League of Na-
tions Committee, 298
Central Powers, division amongst, 223
Chalons-sur-Marne, 151
Chamberlain, Mr. Joseph, Radical
programme of, 53; defence of, 56;
liquor compensation, 90; Kynoch
debate, 125; Tariff Reform, 136;
admiration of, 232; party machine
and, 336
Champagne, attack in. 252
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr.
Lloyd George appointed, 149
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 53, 90
Churchill, Mr. Winston, 163; Min-
ister of Munitions, 226
City Temple, speech at, 202
Cividale, 253
Clemenceau, M., 270, 275; discussion
of Armistice terms, 282; and Peace
Conference, 288; leanings to Turk-
ey, 300; after-war problems, 304;
in I'Hontme Enchaine, 350
Clergy Discipline Bill, opposition to,
1 02
Clynes, Mr. J. R., leaves Coalition,
308
Coalition Government formed, 308
Coleridge, Chief Justice, Llanfrothen
case, 68
Compiegne, 151
Conferences, Allied (1913). 186;
Rome (1917), 248; Allied Generals
(1916), 251; Rapallo (1917). 254
Congress of Vienna, _ 300
Conscription, conversion to, 200
Constantine, King, frustration of
Entente, 184; unfriendly to British,
190; attempt to build up absolute
monarchy, 193; exiled, 194
Cook, Sir Edward, 121
County Councils, creation of, 80
Courland, invaded by Russians, 196
Creelman, Mr. J., 354
Criccieth, u, 41, 73, 95, 98, 123
Cromer, Lord, 48
Daily News, 85; transfer of, 121; at-
tacks on Government, 309
Daniel, D. R., 76
Danube, proposed diversion along
line of, 179
Dardanelles Report of Commission,
178; campaign opens, 190; in prog-
ress, 195 ; composition of com-
mittee, 196; failure of naval at-
tack, 202; meetings of committee,
203
Davitt, Michael, 52-3
Derby Scheme, 202
Denikin, General, 297
De Wet, General, 116, 119
Dillon, John, no
Disciples of Christ, religious sect,
3, 412
Disestablishment, Welsh, resolution
at meeting of National Council
(1889), speech at Met. Tabernacle,
93; production of Bill (1893), 82;
speech at Cardiff (1907), 146, 104;
Defaulting Authorities Act (1904),
133
Downing Street, speech on Armis-
tice Day, 285
Du Cane, Lieut.-Gen. Sir J. P.,
Munitions Conference (1915), 219
Dunajec, 199
Durazzo, 180
Eastern Prussia, Russian invasion of,
176
Eastern Galicia, Russian invasion of,
176
Ebert, Herr, appointed German Chan-
cellor, 284
Education Bill (1902), opposition to,
129
Edwards, Sir Frank, 98, 132
Elections, parliamentary, (1885), 56;
financial arrangements for, 94;
(1900), 127; (1910), 164; (2nd
1910), 166; (1918), 286, 306, 309;
figures, 328
Ellis, "Tom," 60, 77, 98
Estimates, criticism of (1890), 92
European War, menace of, 170; de-
clared. 171
Evans, David, schoolmaster of Llany-
stumdwy, 23, 38
Evans, Sir Samuel, 65, 97
Explosives Committee, formation of,
208
Extension of Rents Act, passed, 316
Fairbairn, Principal, 341
Falkenhayn, General, 269
Finland, surrendered to Germany,
292
Fitzmaurice, M., in Figaro, 351
INDEX
385
Fiume, question at Peace Confer-
ence, 292
Flavelle, Sir Richard, 356
Foch, Marshal, Conference (July,
1917), 262; appointed Generalis-
simo, 268; exercises powers of dis-
position, 275; conditions of Armis-
tice, 282
Fontainebleau, 302
Fourteen Points, President Wilson
declares them, 282
Franchise, extension of, 307
French, Viscount, and shell crisis
(1915), 213
Galicia, German preparations, 193;
fighting in, 196
Gallipoli, 179; evacuation of, 205
Geddes, Sir Eric, appointed Director
of Transport, France, 233; defends
Transport Bill, 323
Gee, Thomas, and Anti-Tithe Cam-
paign, 62, 83
George, Right Hon. D. Lloyd, for
principal dates in life see Appen-
dix I
George, Gwilym Lloyd (son), 302
George, Mair Lloyd (daughter), 98;
death of, 149
George, Mary (sister), 13, 18
George, Megan Lloyd (daughter),
302
George, Olwen Lloyd (daughter), 98
George, Richard Lloyd (son), 94, 100,
122
George, William (father), 13, 16
George, Mrs. William (mother), 13,
16, 18, 21, 36
George, William (brother), 18, 29,
55, 56, 94
German Navy League, 156
Germany, tour in, 150; relations with
E_ngland (1908-14), 160; strength
(in 1915), 197; advance (in March,
1918), 274; mutiny of Fleet, 284
Gladstone, Mr., Government of 1880,
51; in debate (1884), 53; letter
at by-election (1890), 84; at Ha-
warden, 90; and Clergy Discipline
Bill, 102; resignation of (1894),
104
Glasgow, speech at, during South
African War, 117
Glyndwr. Owen, 69
Goffey, Thomas, 37
Gorizia, 246, 253
Gray's Inn, first London home, 95
Greece, as neutral, 179; Entente frus-
trated by King, 184; agrees to join
in war, 186; refuses, 197; offers
troops and fleet for Dardanelles,
189; offers again to enter war, 192
Grey, Lord, and South African War,
115; evidence on Dardanelles, 200
Haig, F.-M. Lord, agreement with
Foch, 275
Hamburg, visit to, 156
Handel, 339
Hahkey, Sir M., at Peace Conference,
289
Harcourt, Sir Wm., approval of
maiden speech, 91; leader of House
of Commons, 105
Health Ministry Bill, introduced and
passed 315
Henry, Sir Charles, 150
Henry of Prussia, Prince, criticism
of estimates providing for and ex-
penditure on, 92
Hertling, Count, resignation of, 273
Hervier, Paul Louis, in Je Sais Tout,
352
"Highgate," 18, 36, 40
Hobhouse Miss E. and South African
Concentration Camps, 120
Home Rule (1885-6), 52, 84, 103;
speech to exclude Ulster (1910),
351; for Wales, 82, 101, 106
House, Colonel, 287; and Bullitt Mis-
sion, 296
House of Commons, suspension from,
. in; scene over Defaulting Au-
thorities Bill, 133
Housing Bill introduced and passed,
3U
Hughes, Mr., at Peace Conference,
288
Indemnities, telegram from M.P.'s,
300
India, extension of self-government,
316
Indian Patriot, article in, 357
Industrial Courts Act passed, 316
Insurance, National, investigation of
German system, 150; preparation of
Bill, 167; passing of Bill, 168; in-
spiration of, 332
Ireland, conscription extended to,
279; outline of new proposals, 316
Isonzo, 246, 253
Italian Press, opinions of, 352
Italy, declares war on Austria, 200;
situation (in 1917), 245; German
advance (1917), 252; British rein-
forcements for, 255
Ivangorod, 200
Johnson, Dr., 50
Jones, "Bobby,"
Jones, J. R., of Ramoth, 17
Jones, Miss, niece of Richard Lloyd,
21
Jones, Michael of Bala, 59
Jones, Rev. Richard, Llanfrothen,
68
Journal de Gendve, 358
Kaiser, the, part played in politics
by (1908), 156; abdication of, 284
Kavalla, fear of Bulgarians seizing,
189
Kemmel, 278
Kerensky, M., destroyed by Lenin,
272
Kieff, 272
386
INDEX
King Edward VII, 149; visit to Czar,
154; death of, 164
King George V, Conference of Party
Leaders (1910), 164; formation of
Government of Mr. Lloyd George,
242; friendship of, 343
tion Committee, 213; shell en
(1915), 214; death, 232, 262, 265
Koltchak, Admiral, 297
Kovno, 200
Kropotkin, Prince, 346
Kruger, President, 1 14
Labour Conference, Central Hall, 309
Labour Party, joins Government,
243; leaves Coalition, 307; in op-
position, 309
Land Acquisition Act passed, 316
Land, appointment of Committee of
Inquiry, 168; preparation of Bills
(1914), i?o
Lansdowne, Lord, 163
Lansing, Mr., and Committee of
League of Nations, 298
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 356
League of Nations, conception of
scheme, 298
Lemnos, 295
Lenin, destroys Kerensky Govern-
ment, 272, 279
Lens, 252
Le Journal, 351
L'CEuvre, 349
Le Temps, 349
Lewis, Mr. Herbert, 98, no, in
Leygues, Georges, in Evenement, 347
Licensing Act (1905), 136
Lithuania, surrendered to Germany,
272
Llanystumdwy, n, 20, 23, 39, 42, 169
Llanfrothen, 66
Lloyd, Richard (uncle), 24, 31, 35,
39, 45, 72, 93, ioi
Lloyd, David (grandfather), 20
Local Veto, resolution at meeting of
National Liberal Federation, 81
London, first visit, 49; commence-
ment of practice, 97
Loucheur, M., 287
Lowther, Right Hon. J. W., 133
Ludendorff, General, attack on Italy,
252, 270; waning of hopes of, 278;
suggestion for armistice by, 281
Macedonia, Allies to occupy, 192
Maddocks, A., 41
Manchester, birthplace, 14; meeting
of National Liberal Federation, 81;
speech (1918), 281
Manchester _ Guardian, Mr. Lloyd
George writes for, 98
Manisty, Mr. Justice, and Llan-
frothen, 68
Marconi Controversy, 169
Markham, Sir Arthur, 166
Marlborough, the Duke of, 163
Marne, the, 280
Martineau, Henry, 14
Maurice, Major-General Sir F., Let-
ter to Press and retirement, 267
Max of Baden, Prince, overtures to
President Wilson, 282; resignation
of, 284
Merchant Shipping Act (1906), 142
Meredith, George, admiration of, 3J9
Merionethshire, 133
Messines, 278
Metropolitan Tabernacle, speech on
Wejsh Disestablishment at, 26
Mezieres, 274
Milan, 247, 253
Military control, effect of divided,
249; need for unification, 250;
unity of command decided on, 254;
speech at Paris on (1917), 258
Military Service Acts (1916), effect
of, 231; (1917) introduced, 272;
raising of age, 278
Millet, Philippe, 349
Milner, Lord, 114; attends Peace
Conference, 287
Miners' crisis, Sankey Commission
appointed, 311
Minsk, 272
Mo ns, 175, 284
Montagu, Mr. E., Munition State-
ment (1916), 221, 224, 229; joins
Government (1916), 243; attends
Peace Conference, 287
Morley, Lord, 112, 149, 197
Morning Post, attacks on Govern-
ment, 309; interview with Signor
Bissolati, 353
Morvin House, Criccieth, 45, 55
Moulton, Lord, and Committee on
Munitions, 230
Munitions, need for, 206; committee
appointed, 213; Mr. Lloyd George
becomes Minister of, 216; forma-
tion of Department, 218; trades
unions and "leaving certificates,"
225; organisation of volunteer
workers, 228
Mynydd Ednyfed, home of Mrs.
Lloyd George, 69, 72
Nancy, 151
Nanney, Sir Ellis Hugh, opponent at
election (1890), 83, 87, 105
Nantlle, Lake, prosecution of quarry-
men for fishing, 64
Nansen, Dr., proposed Russian expe-
dition. 297
Neuye Chapelle, 199
Nevin, speech on South African
War, 123 ,
Newcastle Programme (1891), 103
Newman, Cardinal, 50
Nivelle, General, 245; Chamoagne
attack, 252; replaced by Petain,
252
Norman, Sir Henry, 163
Northcliffe, Lord, and communica-
tions on, the Eastern Front, 240
INDEX
387
North Wales Observer, article on
Mr. Chamberlain, 51
Novo-Georgievsk, 200
Old Age Pensions, pacsing of Act,
150, 161; increase in, 316
Orlando, Signor, and question of
Fiume, 294
Owen, D. Lloyd, 42
Owen, Rev. John, 72
Owen, Miss Maggie (Mrs. Lloyd
George), 59; marriage of, 71
Owen, Mrs., of Dolgelly (Llan-
f rot hen), 66
Owens, Rev. Owen, 25
Oxford, impressions of, 326
Palace Mansions, Kensington, second
London home, 95
Paris, speech on unity of control at,
258; German attack towards,
(1918), 280; social life during
Peace Conference in, 300
Parry, John, and Anti-tithe Cam-
paign, 62, 83
Passchendaele, 252
Patents Act, 144
Peace Conference, preliminaries, 286;
first meeting, 288; correspondents
at, 289; proposed Bolshevist Confer-
ence, 295
Peace Treaty, presented and ratified,
3f>3
Pedigree of Mr. Lloyd George, 13
Pencaenewydd, place of marriage,
72
Penrhyn, 55
Petain, General, 245
Phillimore Report, basis of League of
Nations, 298
Philippi, Philippo, 246
Pichon, M., 287
Platt, Colonel, opponent at election
(1900), 95
Poisoned arrow incident, 324
Portmadoc, n, 41, 46, 55, 94, 96, 122;
Debating Society, 47
Poland, surrendered to Germany,
2 73> question of Peace Confer-
ence, 292, 303
Port of London Act, 145
Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George
sent for by the King, 242
Prinkipo, 295
Puleston, Sir John, opponent at sec-
ond election, 105
Pwllheli, 14, 123
Queen Victoria, 80
Railway strikes, threat of (1907),
146; (1919), 3"
Rapallo Conference, 254
Reinforcements, situation, March
(1918), 276
Religious tendencies, 340
Rendel, Lord, 337
Repington, Lieut.-Colonel C. A'C.,
Times shell despatch, 214
Rheims, 151
Ritchie, Lord, and creation of County
Councils, 80
Roberts, A. Rhys, professional part-
ner in London, 97, 122
Roberts, Mr. G. H., remains in Gov-
ernment, 308
Robertson, Sir Wm., Allied Confer-
ence (1917), 262; opposition to
Versailles Council, 264; refuses
position on Versailles Council, 267
Rome, Allied Conference (1917), 248
Roosevelt, President, 336, 355
Rosebery Government, fall of, 105;
resignation, 112
"Rose Cottage," boyhood home, 18
Rothschild Pensions Committee, 138
Routh Road, Wandsworth, London
home, 119
Rue Nitot, residence in Paris during
Peace Conference, 301
Rumania, 179, 184; Greek conditions
of joining war, 186; less friendly,
188; success of Germans, 196; de-
clares war, 235
Russia, situation, opening of (1915),
178; fearful of Greece, 191; diverts
Germans from Serbia, 192; col-
lapse, 272; proposed Bolshevist Con-
ference, 295
Saar Valley, 292, 303
St. Asaph, Bishop of, 132
St. Quentin, 268, 275
Salisbury, Lord, 248
Salonika, 179, 180, 295
Samsonoff, General 175
Samuel, Mr. Herbert, refuses office,
243
Sanitorium benefit, creation, 333
Sankey Commission, inquiry into con-
dition of miners, 311
Sarn Melltcyrn, debate with curate
(1887), 62
Sartor Resartus, 46
Schools Act (1904-6), 136
Scotland Yard, 319
Scott, Sir Walter, 50
Serbia, question of saving, 187; Bos-
nia and Herzegovina to be given
to, 192; plan to assist, 202.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 41
Shortt, Mr., Transport Bill, 313
Sidebotham, Herbert, 120
Siedlce, 200
Silesia, Plebiscite, 293, 303
Smuts General, 119; Memo, on
League of Nations, 298
Sofia, 187
Soissons, 151
Somerset House, investigation of
system of working, 329
Sorel, M., 312
South African War, outbreak, 114;
opposition to, 116, 117
Strassburg, 151
Stavridi, Sir John, suggests Mr.
Lloyd George should go to the Bal-
kans, 190
388
INDEX
Stuttgart, 153; conversation at, 327
Suffragettes, in favour of leniency,
325
Sullivan, Donald, no
Swetenham, Mr. Q.C., M.P., Car-
narvon Boroughs (1886), 77; death,
82
Tagliamento, 253
Tannenberg, 175
Tariff Reform, fight against (1903-
6), 137
Tariff Reform Leajrue, 164
Tardieu, M., 287 ~
Temple, The, London home, 95
Tennant, Mr. H. J., and shell crisis
(1915), 214
Tery, Gustave, in La Victovre, 350
Thomas, M. Albert, friendship with,
187; rearming of France, 211;
Munitions Conference, 220, 347
Thomas, Mr. D. A. (Lord Rhondda),
107
Thomas, Mr. J. H., and railway
strike, 313
Thomasson, Mr. F., Transfer of
Daily News, 121
Ticino, 246
Times, The, attack on Asquith Gov-
ernment (1916), 240
Transport Bill, introduced and
passed, 313
Treasury, habits of work at, 329
Trevelyan, Sir George, 53
Tithes Bill (1899), 112
Trotsky, M., attempts to declare
peace, 272
Trumpet of Freedom (1888), 76
Tube strike, 309
Turkey, strength (in 1915), 198; sur-
renders, 283; forfeited right to rule
over Christians, 300
Turnin, 247, 253
Udine, 253
Ukraine, surrendered to Germans, 273
Ulster, crisis (1914), 170; speech to
exclude (1910), 337
Valenciennes, 284
Venice, 253
Venizelos, M. Greece agrees to join
Allies, 1 86; refuses, 188; Bulgaria
pledged to Central Powers, 190;
resignation of, 193; resumes office,
194; mainstay of alliance in Near
East, 300, 346
Verdun, 302
Versailles Council, set up, 255; func-
tions, and opposition to, 258; de-
fence in House of Commons, 262;
meetings of, 280
Vienna, 248
Villa Murat, Parisian residence of
President Wilson, 301
Villers Bretonneux, 278
Vitry, 151
Voluntary Schools Bill (1897), i9'
in
Voluntary system of recruiting,
doubts as to, 199
Von Below, General, attack on Italy,
252
Von Tirpitz, Admiral, 269
Vosges, The, 151
War, Secretary of State for, Mr.
Lloyd George appointed (1916), 233
War Cabinet, formation (1916), 244
War Committee, suggested daily sit-
tings, 178
Warsaw, 176, 200
Watkins, Sir Edward, 100
White, Mr. Henry, 287
Williams, Llewellyn, 98
Williams, William, boyhood friend,
24, 29
Wilson, President, 158; organises re-
inforcements (1918), 276; overtures
from Prince Max, 282; arrives at
Paris, 286; at Peace Conference,
290; League of Nations scheme,
298, 299; return from America of,
303; contrast, 355
Ypres, 199, 252
Zeppelin, Count, 153
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Spender, Harold.
The Prime minister.