page_title: Edward Spears
section_title: Reports on French mutinies and resentment
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Spears / First World War / General Staff – liaison between French Ministry of War and War Office in London / Reports on French mutinies and resentment
caption_attribution_description: Henry Hughes Wilson, British general.
context_page_description: Major-General Sir Edward Louis Spears, 1st Baronet, KBE, CB, MC was a British Army officer and Member of Parliament noted for his role as a liaison officer between British and French forces in two world wars. Spears was a retired Brigadier General of the British Army, and served as a Member of the British House of Commons. From 1917 to 1920 he was head of the British Military Mission in Paris.
context_section_description: By 22 May 1917 he had learned of the mutinies in the French Army and travelled to the front to make an assessment. The mutinies had first rumbled during the slaughter at Verdun the previous year (especially during the costly counterattacks by Nivelle and Mangin) and had erupted in earnest after the failure of the Nivelle Offensive in the spring of 1917. Spears was called to London to report on French morale to the War Policy Cabinet Council – a heavy responsibility. Spears recorded in a 1964 BBC interview that Lloyd George asked repeatedly for assurances that the French would recover. At one point Spears said
  “You can shoot me if I am wrong – I know how important it is and will stake my life on it." Lloyd George was still not satisfied: “Will you give me your word of honour as an officer and a gentleman that the French Army will recover?”. Spears was so stung by this that he replied "The fact that you ask me that shows you know the meaning of neither".
  Spears heard of French dissatisfaction which was expressed on 7 July at a secret parliamentary session. Left wing deputies declared that the British had suffered 300,000 casualties as opposed to 1,300,000 by the French. Furthermore, they were holding a front of 138 kilometres (86 mi), whereas the French held 474 kilometres (295 mi).
   In the wake of the Russian revolution, efforts were made to revive the Eastern Front and detach Bulgaria from the Central Powers. In Paris, Spears worked to promote these ends and received the added task of liaising with the Polish army.
caption: General Henry Wilson – within days of taking up his post in Paris, Major Spears was told by General Pétain that he wished Wilson to be replaced. Spears protested but was overruled; thereafter Wilson would bear a grudge against him.
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