EPISODES OF THE GBEAT WAR [1916

It is probable that for many months the great
majority of the people of Britain had been convinced
that a change was necessary. Mr. Lloyd George,
ever since in the preceding summer he had succeeded
Lord Kitchener at the War Office, had been restless
and uncomfortable. He found himself a secondary
figure at the War Office ; in the Cabinet, too, it
appeared as if his influence was on the wane. His
prestige, still high with the public at large, had
sunk low in official and ministerial circles. Apart
from the personal question, he was honestly con-
vinced that the war was being ill managed both by
the generals in the field and the statesmen at home,
and longed to infuse into its conduct a fierier purpose.
Mr. Lloyd George's scheme was for a very small War
Committee of three members, of which the Prime
Minister should not be one—a scheme not devised,
as might appear at first sight, to compel Mr. Asquith's
resignation, but a quite sincere attempt to get the
actual direction of the war into more vigorous hands.
But the Prime Minister, while agreeing to the small
War Committee, not unnaturally refused thus to
divest himself of the main duty of leadership.

But Mr. Lloyd George, and those in his full con-
fidence, were determined that the Prime Minister's
supremacy should be purely titular. A Press cam-
paign followed. On the morning of Monday, 4th
December, the Times printed a leading article insist-
ing that the Prime Minister had to all intents abdi-
cated from the control of the war. This move had
an instantaneous effect. The Liberal Ministers rose
in arms, and Mr. Asquitib. was compelled to insist
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