at loggerheads with the War Cabinet over the
problem of man-power, and that this question was from the military
point of view giving grounds for grave anxiety.

In one of my drawers there was the first draft of a [p.144] secret paper on
this subject, which expressed the views of the Military Members of the
Council in blunt terms, and which amounted in reality to a crushing
indictment of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. I have a copy of the
draft in my possession, but as it was a secret document it would be
improper to give details of its contents; it, moreover, was somewhat
modified and mellowed in certain particulars before the paper was
actually sent to Downing Street. The final discussion took place at a
full meeting of the Army Council while I was acting as D.C.I.G.S., but
which I did not attend as not being a statutory member of that body.
Parliament ought to call for this paper; it was presented in July
1917; it practically foreshadowed what actually occurred in March
1918. The Military Members of the Council nearly resigned in a body
over this business; but they were not unanimous on the question of
resignation, although perfectly unanimous as regards the seriousness
of the position. It may be mentioned that at a considerably later date
the Army Council did, including its civilian members, threaten
resignation as a body when Sir N. Macready gave up the position of
Adjutant-General to become Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police,
owing to an attempt made from Downing Street to civilianize the
Adjutant-General's department. The Army Council beat Downing Street,
hands down.

The disquieting conditions in respect to man-power were, incidentally,
hampering the development of two important combatant branches at this
time, the Machine-Gun Corps and the Tank Corps. The heavy demands of
these two branches, coupled with the fact that infantry wastage was
practically exceeding the intake of recruits, threatened a gradual
disappearance of the principal arm of the Service. We had by this time
got long past the stage with which, when D.M.O., I had been familiar,
where lack of material and munitions was checking the growth of our
armies in the field. We had arrived at the stage where material and
munitions were ample, but where it was becoming very difficult to
maintain our armies in the field from lack of personnel--a state of
things directly attributable to the Government's opportunist,
hand-to-mouth policy in the mat