WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

154 WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
the anomaly of his doing so while a member of the War
Cabinet was inherent in his dual position. He had accompanied
Mr. Ramsay MacDonald to Paris and on to the subcommittee
there, because he wanted to keep him in order.
"I deemed it of the highest importance that I should go on
the sub-committee to assist in keeping my Hon. Friend the
Member for Leicester right. ... If there had to be a representative
of the Minority, and if that representative was
elected by the Executive of the Party, then I was not going to
demur. I was going to accept the position, and do what I
could, if I found him going astray. . . ." And apart from his
duty of chaperoning Mr. MacDonald and keeping him out of
mischief, Mr. Henderson urged that if there was going to be
a Stockholm Conference, it was his duty to see that it was
held at a date when the Americans could be present if they
wished, and that it was a consultative, not a binding assembly.
He suggested that there might be considerable advantages
in the holding of such a conference, but at the same
time made it clear that his own views on our war aims and
the need of fighting till we could win them were unaltered.
A little later in the debate I myself spoke warmly in
Henderson's defence. I paid a tribute to his war services to
the Government and justified the anomaly of his dual status
as Member of the War Cabinet and Secretary of the Labour
Party on the ground of its proved practical utility. In France,
M. Albert Thomas occupied an analogous position. I promised
that the Government would give this problem its careful
consideration and would consult about it with France.
The Government was not committed to Stockholm. The
Inter-Allied Conference in London was a different matter,
and we thought this very desirable. In conclusion, I begged
the House not to take a line which might increase the
troubles of the Russian Government, which was just then
facing extraordinary difficulties.