WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

100 WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
(b) Continue the advance through Palestine and Syria
to the vicinity of Aleppo, so as permanently to interrupt railway
communication with Mesopotamia.
This request was also passed on by the C.I.G.S. to Allenby
for his comments.
General Allenby sent back word that for the moment he
could do little on account of the rains, which that winter were
particularly heavy in Palestine, and which caused serious
difficulty to the transport. If limited to his existing force, he
expected to have cleared the whole of Palestine and established
his line well on the way to Damascus by June or
July, 1918. To advance to Aleppo, if it were strongly held
by the enemy, would necessitate a force of sixteen divisions
in addition to his cavalry.
The War Office was very much opposed to any such extension
of our Turkish campaign, and mustered all the arguments
it could find against it. On the other hand, the Supreme
War Council at Versailles favoured the plan of acting on the
defensive in the West until the American Army was ready,
while we proceeded to knock out the Turks, and thus make
a breach in the front of the Central Powers. In order to get
an independent view, the War Cabinet decided, on January
28th, 1918, to depute General Smuts to proceed to Egypt
with full power on their behalf to confer with Generals
Allenby and Marshall, or their representatives, the Naval
Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, the Government
of Egypt, and any other authorities, in regard to the military
situation in the Middle East, and to advise the War Cabinet
as soon as possible on the best use and coordination of all our
resources in that theatre, with a view to the most vigorous
prosecution of the War against Turkey.
General Smuts proceeded to the East and after holding
consultations with our leaders there, reported on February
15th in favour of making the Mesopotamia force act on the