Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Maps
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Lloyd George at War
- 1 Setting the Stage
- Part I The Home Front
- Part II Strategy and the War
- 5 The First Attempt at a Unified Command
- 6 Facing the Submarine Menace
- 7 Prelude to Catastrophe
- 8 The Horror of Passchendaele
- 9 The Peripheral War
- 10 The Quest for a Negotiated Peace
- 11 The Creation of the Supreme War Council
- 12 The Plans for 1918
- 13 Before the Storm
- 14 Crisis on the Western Front
- 15 The Maurice Affair
- 16 The Origins of Intervention in Russia
- 17 The German Advance Halted
- 18 The Turn of the Tide
- 19 The Road to the Armistice
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
11 - The Creation of the Supreme War Council
from Part II - Strategy and the War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Maps
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Lloyd George at War
- 1 Setting the Stage
- Part I The Home Front
- Part II Strategy and the War
- 5 The First Attempt at a Unified Command
- 6 Facing the Submarine Menace
- 7 Prelude to Catastrophe
- 8 The Horror of Passchendaele
- 9 The Peripheral War
- 10 The Quest for a Negotiated Peace
- 11 The Creation of the Supreme War Council
- 12 The Plans for 1918
- 13 Before the Storm
- 14 Crisis on the Western Front
- 15 The Maurice Affair
- 16 The Origins of Intervention in Russia
- 17 The German Advance Halted
- 18 The Turn of the Tide
- 19 The Road to the Armistice
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
With the fortunes of the Entente growing bleaker as 1917 wore on, Lloyd George was too shrewd a politician to take popular feeling for granted. He acted as his own minister of morale. Quite apart from adopting measures designed to pacify labor and maintain the amenities of everyday life, he assiduously heeded Bonar Law's dictum that “in war it is necessary not only to be active but to seem active.” During the Second World War, Churchill's voice could reach practically every British household and so his leadership became more personal, but twenty-five years earlier films were silent and the radio was not readily available to the public. The means that Lloyd George used to project an image of a dynamic man of action, singlemindedly committed to winning the war, were not novel, but it is doubtful if anyone else could have combined them to greater effect. With indefatigable energy, he dashed from place to place, addressing crowds, visiting British General Headquarters and attending inter-Allied conferences. Wherever he went, he made certain that a bevy of reporters and photographers were on hand to tout and record his activities. While there were occasions in the darkest of days when he spoke confidentially to his associates that the war was unwinnable, he never gave the least hint of discouragement in public. His vitality and buoyancy were contagious, imbuing the public with determination and confidence in ultimate victory.
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- Information
- Lloyd George at War, 1916–1918 , pp. 171 - 190Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2009