WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

CAMPAIGN OF THE MUD: PASSCHENDAELE 349
superiors, were never passed on to the Cabinet? And why
was it that it was all omitted in a report, prepared by him
after consultation with Haig, which aimed at inducing the
Cabinet to accept a plan which Wilson thought, in agreement
with Foch, was "futile, fantastic and dangerous?"
How the grave character of the mutinies in the French
Army was deliberately minimised will be demonstrated by
an extract from General Wilson's report to us.
The condition of the Army is still good, wonderfully good
considering all that it has gone through, but there are signs of
unrest here and there which, though not yet serious, makes me
anxious for a long future. . . .
Nothing is said in the Wilson report of the mutinies and
seditious demonstrations. Were they not serious? We only
heard from independent sources vague rumours of what had
happened amongst the troops, and of Petain's promise to the
troops that there would be no more Champagne, Somme or
Chemin des Dames offensives.
General Wilson further states in this report that:
The Committee have received information of a serious case
of disaffection in one regiment of the French Army, though General
Petain is understood to be satisfied that he has the trouble
in hand. The most disturbing symptom, however, of the weakening
of the French Army is that General Petain was reluctantly
compelled to relinquish the offensive operation he agreed to
undertake in concert with the British attack on the Messines
Ridge. . . .
These paragraphs would not give us any idea of the dimensions
and character of the outbreaks, e.g., how the mutinies
were spread over 16 Army Corps. Wilson does say:
. . . nobody who knows the French Army of to-day — that
is, the younger men in it, those who do the most of the fighting,
will say it is as fine an instrument now as it was last autumn.