WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

22 WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
Secretary of State for India. Shipping and food problems,
finance, the war effort of the Dominions and India and their
capacity for further effort, were dealt with on different days,
as also the relations with Russia and Greece.
As regards peace terms, two sub-committees were set up
under the chairmanship respectively of Lord Curzon and
Lord Milner, to discuss territorial and non-territorial desiderata
of a peace settlement. On each of these committees the
Dominions were represented. They held prolonged sittings.
Ultimately they came to conclusions as to the Peace aims of
the British Empire. (The non-territorial peace terms are embodied
in Appendix D.)
Lord Curzon's Committee dealing with territorial questions,
recommended that so far as the British Empire was
concerned, territorial settlement after the War should leave
in British hands the German colonies and Turkish territory
that we had captured or occupied. This was the first occasion
on which any indication was given that Britain meant as a
condition of peace to retain its conquests in the German
Colonial Empire. So far the British Government had formulated
no such demand. It was mainly due to the insistence of
the Dominion representatives. They made it quite clear that
they had no intention of restoring to Germany after the War
the territories they had conquered. The British members of
the sub-committees took the same view concerning German
East Africa and Mesopotamia. It was agreed that British
delegates to a Peace Conference should take these proposals
as a guide, but it was pointed out that if peace were negotiated
while Allied territory was still held by the Central Powers,
it might prove necessary to hand back some of our gains
to secure satisfactory terms for our Allies.
In its final decision the Imperial War Cabinet, whilst
accepting the Report of the Committee as an indication of
the objects to be sought by the British Representatives at