d by Mr. Lloyd
George was that there was none of this sort of flapdoodle. At a War
Cabinet meeting the expert never hesitated to express his opinion,
whether he was asked for it or not. The work that I was doing in the
later stages of the war did not involve me in problems of major
importance, but when summoned to a War Cabinet meeting I never boggled
over giving my views as to what concerned my own job. I have heard Sir
W. Robertson, when he thought it necessary to do so, giving his
opinion similarly concerning questions of great moment, and nobody
dreamt of objecting to the intervention.

The Director of Military Intelligence was, more or less _ex officio_,
a member of the Committee of Imperial Defence in pre-war days, and
consequently I attended one meeting of this body shortly after
mobilization. There was a huge gathering--the thing was a regular
duma--and a prolonged discussion, which as far as I could make out led
nowhere and which in any case dealt with matters that nowise concerned
me, took place. Those were busy times, and, seeing that Lord Kitchener
and Sir C. Douglas attended these meetings as a matter of course, I
asked to be excused thenceforward. The Committee of Imperial Defence
was obviously not a suitable assemblage to treat of the conduct of the
war, seeing that it was only invested with consultative and not with
executive functions, and that it bore on its books individuals such as
Mr. Balfour and Lord Esher, who were not members of the Government,
nor yet officials. It therefore at a comparatively early date gave
place to the War Council, which captured its secretariat (a priceless
asset), and which later on became transformed into the Dardanelles
Committee. The Government did not, however, wholly lose the benefit of
Mr. Balfour's experience and counsel. One day--it must have been in
December--there was an informal discussion at the War Office in Lord
Kitchener's room, he being away in France at the time, in which
General Wolfe-Murray and I took part, and besides Mr. Lloyd George,
Mr. Churchill and Sir E. Grey--I do not think that Mr. Asquith was
there--Mr. Balfour was present.

Up till the early days of May, I attended no War Councils. Very soon
after that, the Coalition Government was formed, and thereupon the War
Council, which had been quite big enough goodness knows, developed
into the Dardanelles Committee of twelve members, of whom, excluding
Lord Kitchener, six were members of the former L