the first duties of statesmanship would be to develop the Empire. The sittings of the Imperial War Cabinet lasted till May 17, and Mr. Lloyd George told Parb'ament that the ex- periment had been a complete success. At the last session, on his proposal, it was agreed that meetings of an Imperial Cabinet
should be held annually, or at any intermediate time imperial when matters of urgent imperial concern had to be ^Cabinet settled. Accordingly another session of the Imperial 1918. War Cabinet was held in the summer of 1918, lasting
from June to August, when there was a full attend- ance. It was decided that for the future the Prime Ministers, as members of this Cabinet, should have the right of direct communication with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; and that each Dominion should have the right to nominate a visiting or resident minister in London to be a member of this Cabinet at meetings, to be held at regular intervals, other than those attended by Prime Ministers.
Each of the two years, simultaneously with the Imperial War Cabinet, an Imperial Conference, of which the membership
embraced other representatives of the various Empire imperial nations besides the Prime Ministers, sat under the Confer- presidency of the Colonial Secretary. In 1917 the /9/7-s. Conference recommended that a special Imperial
Conference should be called to deal with the future constitutional relations of the Empire as soon as possible after the cessation of hostilities, couching its recommendations, however, in such terms as to preclude the setting up of an Imperial Legis- lature or an Imperial Executive. In 1918 the principal recom- mendations all related to economic questions. The Conference endorsed the principle of a Non-Ferrous Metal Industry Act which the British Government, in spite of determined Free Trade opposition, had passed in the winter, in order to eliminate enemy influence in Great Britain from the control of such metals and ores as zinc, copper, tin, lead, nickel and aluminium, and made dealing in such metals without a Board of Trade licence unlawful until five years after the war. The other Governments of the Empire were advised to free themselves in similar fashion from dependence on German controlled organizations in respect of these metals. The Conference also recommended that the Govern- ments should secure the command of essential raw materials produced within the Empire so as to repair the effects of war and safeguard industrial requirements, and should make arrange- ments with Allied Governments in order to utilize the raw materials produced in Allied countries. A further resolution recommended the appointment of a committee to consider the possible methods of obtaining such command of raw materials, and consultation with producers and merchants concerned in each commodity. Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Bonar Law en- dorsed these resolutions in speeches to a deputation of manufac- turers on July 31 1918. The former said that under no conditions must industries essential from the point of view of national de- fence and security be let down in the future; the latter, that an immense move forward had been made in the whole conception of British trade policy, the principles of a common Empire and of preference within the Empire being established.
Outside the submarine menace there were some cheering symptoms in the military situation in the spring and summer of
1917. The retreat in February of the German troops Entry of in France from the lines they had held since the au- fofo'the tumn of 1914 to the Hindenburg line, the consider- War. able captures of prisoners and guns by British troops
in the battles of Arras in April, of Messines in June, and of Third Ypres in July, and Sir Stanley Maude's victorious advance to Bagdad in March, confirmed the confidence of the British people in the efficiency of their new armies. Above all, the entry of America into the war was hailed with welcome and relief in Great Britain. As the Prime Minister said, the advent of the United States made it clear to the world that " this is no struggle for aggrandizement and for conquest, but a great fight for human liberty." Mr. Balfour went across the Atlantic on a mission to arrange for common working; and the services of the British navy were placed at the disposal of the United States
Strikes la 1917.
for the convoy of troops. It was felt that, if the Allies could hold out sufficiently long, which there was no reason to doubt, the numbers and wealth of the United States must finally turn the scale against the Central Powers. One immediate advantage of American belligerency was the removal of the last obstacle to a stringent blockade of Germany, and Lord Robert Cecil could claim this spring that there was now a complete cessation of oversea importation into enemy countries.
The Russian Revolution, which began in March, was also hailed at the time in England as a favourable portent for the Allies. It was, said Mr. Lloyd George, the sure prom- ise that the Prussian military autocracy would, be- ' fore long, be overthrown. But, as a matter of fact, from the first days of the revolution, there was an informal armistice and overtures for fraternization on the eastern front, and an attempt by Gen. Brusilov to renew fighting in July and August came to an end before long through the spread of insubordination. Thenceforward it was realized that the Germans would be able to transfer almost the whole of their forces hitherto in the east to the west, and that in consequence the task before the British army had become appreciably heavier. The revolution had also an unsettling influence on British workmen, already showing symptoms of restlessness under the strain of war. There was in March a serious strike of engineers at Barrow, disapproved by their union, but organized by shop stewards, which collapsed after a fortnight only on the threat of the Government to use their powers under the Defence of the Realm Act. Another unauthor- ized strike of engineers took place in S. Lancashire in May, largely as a protest against dilution; and there was trouble in other trades and in other parts of the country. In August a rail- way strike was threatened, owing to long hours and overwork, but was abandoned on a promise by the Government to continue the control of railways for a time after the cessation of hostilities, and meanwhile to do their best to secure a shorter working-day. A further railway crisis occurred in November, about wages, resulting in an advance estimated to cost the companies 9,500,- ooo a year. To set against these unsatisfactory features, there was published in June the Whitley Report, so called because the chairman of the Reconstruction Committee which compiled it was the then Chairman of Committees of the House of Commons, afterwards Speaker. This recommended the setting up of Joint Industrial Councils of masters and men in each industry, to settle all points of difference and wages and management. Such councils were set up in many trades, with beneficial results.
The features in the Russian Revolution which attracted a section of British working-class opinion were the war aims put forward by the Socialists, " No annexations and no
indemnities," and the power obtained by the Soviets, Ku^sia
, .,*' i . . J . . ' and War
or workmen s committees, culminating in a Soviet Aims.
Government in October. In answer to pacifists in the House of Commons Lord Robert Cecil explained that imperi- alistic aims based on force and conquest were absent from the British programme, but that, in view of Armenia, the German African Colonies, Poland, Alsace-Lorraine, and Italia Irredenta, it was impossible to accept the programme of "no annexations," and in view of the wanton damage in Belgium, Serbia, and north- ern France, and of the destruction of merchant vessels, that of " no indemnities " was equally out of the question. The In- dependent Labour party in a conference at Leeds took up an attitude of sympathy with the Russian position, and advised the formation of Soviets in England. A large section of Labour opinion, comprising both moderates and extremists, desired that, in accordance with the wish of the Russian Socialist Government, English Labour should be represented at a conference, at which German representatives would be present, to be held at Stockholm at the instance of the International Socialist Bureau. But the Seamen's and Firemen's Union, which ence . had suffered heavily through Germany's outrageous policy at sea, refused to carry the delegates; and neither Amer- ican, Belgian nor French representatives would appear. The
