UNITY OF ALLIED CONTROL.

Taihape Daily Times, 15 May 1918, Page 5

UNITY OF ALLIED CONTROL.

Mr. Lloyd George having announced that the decision of the Versailles Council in favour of unity of control Of the Allied armies on the western ■front was brought about ..yhainly through representations macfe by the American military and civil delegates, it is permissible to explaii^,,in r ,general terms how the American representatives were able to play such a dominating part in the Council. Long before the United States became a belligerent, Americans had seen the possibility of its doing so and had' con. sidered what in that -Case'wotrld* be the role of the United States and what would be required of it. These men were now armchair strategists. 'They were the best brains of the' country, and they had been impressed with the disadvantage 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 benent of carefully drawn reports. Knowing these things,, knowing what had been so frequently discussed and speculated about in high places, it w T as easy to determine what the policy of the President would be and the direction in which his influence would be exerted. What was feared, both in the political and military departments cf 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 could be reached there would he 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 F'nance something to this effect: “he are not going to interfere in the political affairs of Europe, because they arc not our concern, and w-e arc not going to try to ‘make you .believe that we arc so xooli-h os to think that we know more about military matters than you do; but wo are coming 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 Amerw cans remained aloof, but the necessity of winning the war by a decisive milltary action, by unity of action and 00-ordiation of effect, was,, pressed, with the result reached at the Versailles Conference.