WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

IMPERIAL WAR CABINET AND CONFERENCE 39
submit to the War Cabinet a document in which he will review
the financial position, and the position in regard to military
assistance and assistance in supplies — a most important
matter for the consideration of this Cabinet. The Shipping
Controller will also furnish us with a paper on the shipping
position — a most vital element when we come to weigh and
estimate the prospects of this country in the War.
I can only give a bare sketch of the task which I conceive
is in front of us, and of the efforts which it will be essential
for us to make in order to accomplish our purpose. We ought,
in my judgment, to have, in the first place, a very frank discussion
as to peace terms — such a discussion as would be impossible
in public, and such a discussion as would not at present
be possible in the first instance even with our Allies —
a free, sincere, candid discussion amongst ourselves of what
we conceive the peace terms ought to be. That is essential,
not merely in order to equip those who will enter the Peace
Conference, which will come sooner or later, with a knowledge
of what the Empire as a whole desires to be achieved at
that Conference. It is more than that. We cannot really measure
the effort which we have still got to put forth until we
have a clear comprehension of what we are aiming at, and
what we conceive to be the essentials of any satisfactory
peace. I think it is too early to lay down in rigid detail even
our minimum demands. The War is not over, and although
things for the moment may be going our way, the enemy is by
no means exhausted. His army is greater than ever; he is in
possession of hundreds of thousands of square miles of Allied
territory; his power is still unbroken; he is still a very formidable,
dangerous, and incalculable foe. And, therefore,
whatever consideration, whatever attention we may give to
the subject, however long we may deliberate, for us now to
lay down, even in our own mind, in any rigid way, even the
outlines of the terms without which we could not assent to