WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

364 WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
might very well have disastrous effects upon public opinion
in Britain and France.
2. The Cabinet must regard themselves as trustees for the
fine fellows who constitute our army. They are willing to face
any dangers, and they do so without complaint, but they trust to
the leaders of the nation to see that their lives are not needlessly
thrown away, and that they are not sacrificed on mere gambles
which are resorted to merely because those who are directing the
War can think of nothing better to do with the men under their
command.
3. It is therefore imperative that before we embark upon a
gigantic attack which must necessarily entail the loss of scores
of thousands of valuable lives, and produce that sense of discouragement
which might very well rush nations into premature
peace, that we should feel a fair confidence that such an attack has
a reasonable chance of succeeding. A mere gamble would be
both a folly and a crime.
4. What are the chances of success? Our superiority on the
Western Front, even assuming the French put in the whole of
their strength, amounts to 15 per cent, in men. In guns there is an
equality. In ammunition each army has an adequate supply for
the purposes for which it needs ammunition. We have a sufficiency
of ammunition for offensive purposes. There is every reason to
believe that the Germans have an adequate supply for defensive
purposes. In leadership, in discipline, in quality of troops, taking
the armies through and through from Nieuport to Mulhausen,
there is something like equality. But in reserves — and this is
vital — the Germans are this year superior to the Allies. The
Russian Front is not likely to absorb any of their reserves, so that
practically the whole of these are available for the West. The
French have practically no reserves: their reserves are not
adequate even to supply the wastage on a non-fighting basis. The
A.G.'s paper reveals only too clearly what our position is in
respect of reserves. The C.I.G.S. in a speech the other day said
the nation was prepared to do anything as long as it was clearly
told what was expected of it. Unfortunately that is only partially
true. The nation was told that we wanted the young men out of