WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

550 WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
ordination to be established between the Allies. To bring about
the collaboration and interlocking of the Allied War Committees,
we proposed to you in particular, in our conversations at the
beginning of October, that each War Committee should delegate
in a permanent manner two of its members, to take part in the
work of War Committees of the other countries. To this conception
would naturally be attached the creation of an Inter-Allied
General Staff.
"Thus the proposals which you are so good as to lay before
us fit in perfectly with those which we were commissioned to
present to you. The events on the Italian Front can only make
their realisation more desirable and more urgent. At the same
time, the scheme which accompanies your letter, and defines
the future supreme war council, seems to us to call for certain
modifications, which will not in any way alter its spirit, but will
define certain details in such a way as to avoid any misunderstandings
in the future.
"I have accordingly the honour to enclose you herewith the
modified scheme, with the certainty that we shall without difficulty
reach a mutual understanding upon an authoritative text
which will express our common ideas.
"Begging you to be assured, Mr. Prime Minister, of my high
regard, and of my feelings of cordial devotion.
PAUL PAINLEVE."
At the Rapallo Conference the final draft for the constitution
of a Supreme Inter-Allied War Council was settled
and agreed to as follows:
I. The representatives of the British, French and Italian
Governments assembled at Rapallo on the 7th of November,
1917, have agreed on the scheme for the organisation of a Supreme
War Council with a Permanent Military Representative
from each Power, contained in the following paragraph.
SCHEME OF ORGANISATION OF A SUPREME WAR COUNCIL
II. (1) With a view to the better coordination of military
action on the Western Front a Supreme War Council is created,