Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-02-20
ROBERTSON FORCED
OUT BY PRESIDENT
Lloyd George Ready to Stand or
Fall on Ousting of British Chief
of Staff.
IoNDoN FEu DO

ioNDoNs Il En- LUs
In making his eagerly awaited state
ment to the House of Commons regarding
| recent army changes and the decision
| taken at the Versailles conference of the
| Supreme War Council, Premier LLOYD
| George yesterday afternoon laid great
! stress upon the arguments for the ex-
| pansion of the powers Of the council adj
! vanced with irresistible power and
+, logic" by the American representatives.
| If he could read the document submitted
| by the Americans, he said there would
| be no need to make "A speech
The Premier said the government had
| been anxious TO retain the services of
General Sir William Robertson as Chief
of the Imperial General staff so long as
it was compatible with the policy decided
upon In common with Great Britain's
allies. This policy, he continued, was
! based upon the assumption that the Allies
had suffered in the past through lack of
concerted and co-ordinated efforts. 1t
had been decided to set up a central au-
thority to coordinate the strategy of
the AlIies.
UNANIMOUS FOR EXECUTIVE POWERS.
The general principles laid down ut the
recent session in Versailles of the SUI
prcme War Council were agreed to 10y
all, the Premier told the House II
was also agreed that there should be an
interallicd authority with executive pow
ers The only difference which arose
was rs to it's constitution. The first
proposal at Versailles, he continued,
was that the central authority should
consist Of a council of Chiefs of Staff:
but this was abandoned, inasmuch
rs it was regarded rs unworkablo
The Premier explained that he was
hampercd in discussing the action taken
mt Versailles by resolution passed at
the conference by the military and Ci-
william representatives. and that IT was
not desirable to give any information
regarding the general plan arrived at
Air LLOYD George thought. however,
that he could make clear where the
controversy had arisen, and asked for
the Judgment Of the House on the ac-
tion of the government.
THE general principle laid down at
Versailles was agreed TO whole-heartedly
by everybody" be said There was
no conflict as regarded the policy, bat
only as to the method of giving effect
to 1t. There was agreement rs to the
policy; there was agreement that there
must be central authority to exercise
supreme direction Of that policy; there
was agreement that authority must be
intcrallicd authority and there was
complete agreement that that authority
should have executive power. The only
question that arose was as to how that
central authority should he constituted
That was the only difference
The Premier asserted that tho conclu-
sions reached at Versailles were the
result Of very powerful representations
by the delegates Of other governments,
notably the American government.
HIGH PRAISE FOR AMERICAN ARGUMENT.
Il hcsitatcd for some time, said the
Premier in referring TO the American
representations, whether / should not
read in the House OF Commons the very
cogent document submitted by the
American delegation, which put the case
for the present proposal 1t is one Of
the ablest documents ever submitted to
q military conference. The only reason
why did not read it to the House is that
il IS mixed up with the plan of opera
tlons
The case is presented with irresistible
power and logic" he added. What
happened We altered the proposal
here and there. There was a good deal OF
discussion, which took some hours. There
was not single dlsSentient voice, so
far as the plan was concerned.
The British commander, Field Marshal
Sir Douglas Haig, was present at the
session Of the Supreme War Council,
MIR. Lloyd George went on. He drew
attention to two weak points in the pro-
posal, which were thcreupon adjusted
by the conference. General Robertson
was present when the decision was re-
ported to the War Cabinet and did not
object.
1t was agreed, said Mr. Lilo yd George,
that the permanent military adviser at
Versailles should be a member of the
Army Council 1t was q part of this
arrangement that the Chief OF the Inn
perial Staff was to remain the supreme
military adviser TO the COVER nment.