The Washington herald., 1918-12-08
BRITISH ADMIT
AMERICA SAVED
ALLIES CAUSE
Yanks Arrived in Nick of
Time, Lloyd George
Declares.
CASE OF "FIFTY-FlFTY"
Send Your Ships andWe'll
Send Men, Wilson
Cabled.

Leeds. Dec 7.-"Send your ships
across and we will send the 10000
men per month"
President Wilson sent this cable
message to Premier Lloyd George on
March q, 1918, in response to an
urgent S o s message from the Brit
ish premier laying bare the terribly
critical situation of the allied armies.
At dawn that day the Germans had
launched their super-drive toward
Amiens.
1t was Lloyd George himself who.
in a speech here today, disclosed for
the first time this exchange of cable
grams with President Wilson.
1t was an inspired narrdtive. this bit
of insile history of the gravest crisis
for the allied cause in the whole war
inspiring to Americans who heard it,
for 1t was new proof to them from
the lips of Britain's first statesman
of the smashing, decisive part Ameri-
can troops played in the great war;
inspiring also to all Britishers. for it
told them how even Americas help
could not have reached the allies had
II not been for Britain's fleet.
Lands British Navy.
The speech on the whole was indeed
an eloquent tribute to the British
navy.
II shall never forget" said the
premier, that morning March 2D
when l sent a cable to President Will
son telling him what the facts were.
and how 1t was essential that we
should get American hcip at the
speediest possible rate inviting him
to send 10000 infantry and machine
gunners per month to Europe.
'If he did that we should do our
best to carry them. I sent that tele-
gram to Lord Reading and the fol-
lowing day came a telegram from
President Wilson:
Send your ships across and we
will send the 10000 men,
Then I invited Sir Joseph Mackay.
the shipping controller to Downing
street and said to him.
Send every ship you can"
They were all engaged in essential
trades because we were cut down
right to the bones. There was moth
ing that was not essential. We said
This is the time for taking risks
Decided to Risk All.
We ran risks with our food. We
ran risks with our essential war ma
terials. We said:
The thing to do is to get II ese
men across at all hazard"
America sent 100000 men across
and out OF that number I.IOo. 900 Nero
carried by the British mercantile ma
rine.
The good old ships or Britain, the
ships which have saved the liberty
OF the world many times-saved it In
the days of Queen Elizabeth, saved IL
in the days of Louis XIV. saved it in
the days of Napoleon-saved it in the
days of Kaiser Wilhelm III.
1T is strange" continued the Pre-
mier. "a change from December. 1915.
a change from the days when, at the
end of the year. we made our balance
sheet and found Germany had ac-
quired more allied territory than she
had had before new ally had fallen
and that another ally was tottering
to the fall and that Germany was ad-
vancing ruthlessly along from con-
quest to conquest.
That was the story up to the end
of December, 1916. What is the story
today?
Vastly Different Now.
Every German submarine is in a
British port today. The best battle
ships and cruisers and torpedo boats
of Germany are now with lowered
flags under the surveillance of Brit
ish seamen in British harbors.s and
the British army which has fought
so gallantly-which has fought with
a heroism which the world has never
matched. not as in the wars of old,
when you had a great battle and
then another great battle three
months afterward. and in between
marches, and perhaps sieges, and
constant strain upon the nerve, upon
the health, upon endurance. upon
courage. upon the fearlessness of the
heart of men-for four years the
British army went through it and to
victory. That army. after months of
fighting and of suffering, that army
is today at this hour marching
across the Rhine into Germany. into
one of the most famous cities Of
Germany"