Supreme War Council The Supreme War Council was a central command created by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George to coordinate Allied military strategy during World War I . It was founded in 1917 , and was based in Versailles . The council served as a forum for preliminary discussions of potential armistice terms and peace treaty settlement conditions . Formation . Lloyd George had grave concerns regarding the strategy of Sir William Robertson , Chief of the Imperial General Staff , and Sir Douglas Haig , the Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force , in response to the Allied losses at the Somme and at Battle of Passchendaele . Following the Italian defeat at the Battle of Caporetto , in which the Germans and Austro - Hungarians surprised the Italian forces , Lloyd George proposed the formation of the Supreme War Council at the Rapallo Conference of 5 – 7 November 1917 . Japan and Russia were not to be included , and the Italians and French , worried that Salonika might be evacuated , wanted it confined to the Western Front . Permanent Military Representatives . Each Allied nation would also appoint a senior military officer as Permanent Military Representative . The French PMR was Ferdinand Foch , later replaced by Maxime Weygand and Joseph Joffre . The British were represented by Sir Henry Hughes Wilson . Italy was represented by Luigi Cadorna . The USA , which was " Associated " with the Allies , was not involved with the political structures , but sent a Permanent Military Representative , Tasker H . Bliss . Wilson and his staff conducted numerous research projects into offensives against Turkey , culminating in the " Joint Note 12 " . At the Supreme War Council ( 30 January - 1 February ) Hankey recorded that the national Commanders - in - Chief , national Chiefs of Staff and PMRs “ all gave different advice ” creating “ a worse state of chaos than I have ever known in all my wide experience ” . Lloyd George , whose main goal was to thwart Robertson , blocked a suggestion by Foch ( French Chief of Staff ) that the proposed Allied Reserve be controlled by the national Chiefs of Staff , possibly prompted by the notes Wilson was passing him across the table . It was eventually agreed that Foch should command the Reserve , with Wilson as his deputy . The Allied Reserve eventually slipped from the agenda as the Commanders - in - Chief , Haig and Petain refused to hand over sufficient troops . Early in 1918 Wilson replaced Robertson as CIGS and at the end of March Foch became Allied Generalissimo . Without its two main personalities the military machinery at Versailles became less important . Meetings . 14 – 16 January 1920 in Paris , France . This meeting was held four days after the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles . Lloyd George proposed dropping the blockade of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic by starting negotiations with the " Russian people " in the form of the centrosoyuz , which at that time was not controlled by the Bolsheviks . This was agreed , with a communique from the Council being published on 16 January . In the event , the negotiations soon became simply between the United Kingdom and a bolshevised centrosoyuz , known as the Anglo - Soviet Trade Agreement . 6 – 16 July 1920 in Spa , Belgium . This was attended by German delegates to discuss war reparations . Related documents :