Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1918. UNITY OF ALLIED CONTROL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1827, 16 May 1918, Page 2

Manawatu Herald THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1918. UNITY OF ALLIED CONTROL.

MR. LLOYD GEORGE having announced 1 he decision of! the Versailles Council in favour of unity of control of the allied armies on the 'Western front, was brought about mainly through representations made by the American military and civil delegates, it is permissible Co explain in general terms how the American representatives were able to play such a dominating part, in the Council. Long before the States became a belligerent, Americans had seen the possibility of its doing so, and had considered what in that case would be the role of the United States and what would be required of it. These men were not armchair strategists. They were the best brains of the country, and they had been impressed with the disadvantages from which the allies suffered, because the war was being fought on the theory of separate campaigns instead of a single battlefront. These men did not form their conclusions from long-range deductions, but rather from close observation. Some of them had been at the front and others had the benclit of carefully drawn reports. Knowing these things, knowing what had been so frequently discussed and speculated about in high places, it was easy to determine what the policy of the President would be and the direction in which his influence would he exerted. What was feared, both in the political and military departments of the Government, was that the coming into the war of the United States, instead of simplifying affairs, only created additional machinery for delay, as to the three Governments which were required to take consultative action before a decision eould he reached there would be added a fourth, which made immediate agreement impossible, and in many instances speed meant the difference between success and failure. Colonel House and his associates went to London, and thence to Versailles,. Both in London and in Paris Colonel House, one of the most tactful of men, with a sixth, sense for the feeling and atmosphere of his surroundings, probably said to the Governments of England and France,something to this effect;—“We are not going to interfere in the political affairs of Eu-

rope, because'they are not our eoncorn, and we are not going to try to make you believe that we are so foolish as to think that we know more about military matters than you do; but we are cpming into this war fresh, we are taking a new and outside view of it, and to us it seems necessary that there should be one control with plenary powers instead of an authority so divided that it rests nowhere. From certain political discussions the Americans remained aloof, but the necessity of winning the war by a decisive military action, by unity of a-etioft and co-ordination of effort, was pressed, with the result reached at the Versailles Conference.