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Catalogue Reference:CAB/23/7
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Printed
for the War Cabinet.
September
1918.
SECRET.
WAR CABINET, 4 7 3 .
Minutes
of a Meeting of the War Cabinet held at 1 0 , Downing
on Tuesday, September
1 7 , 1 9 1 8 , at 1 2 noon.
Street,
S.W.,
Present :
The Right Hon. A. BONAR L A W , M.P. (in the
The Right Hon. the E A R L CURZON OF
KEDLESTON, K . G . , G . C . S . I . , G C . I . E .
Chair).
The Right Hon. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,
M.P.
The following were also present :—
The
Right Hon. A. J . BALFOUR,
The Right Hon. S I R ERIC GEDDES, G . B . E . ,
K . C . B . , M.P., First Lord of the Ad-miralty.
O.M.,
M.P., Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs.
Rear-Admiral G. P. W. HOPE, C . B . , Deputy
First Sea Lord (for Minutes 5 to 7 ) .
Major-General S I R G. M. W. MACDONOGH, Rear-Admiral A. F. EVERETT, C . B . ,
Admiralty (for Minute 1 0 ) .
K.C.M.G., C.B., Adjutant-General to
the Forces (for Minute 1 0 ) .
S I R LEO CHiozza MONEY, M.P., Parlia­
mentary Secretary, Ministry of Shipping
Major-General F. H. SYKES, C.M.G., Chief
(for Minute 1 2 ) .
of the Air Staff (for Minutes 8 and 1 0 ) .
Major-General J . E . B . SEELY, C . B . ,
The Right Hon. H. W. FORSTER, M.P.,
D.S.O., M.P., Deputy Minister of
Financial Secretary, W a r Office (for
Munitions (for Minute 1 0 ) .
Minute 1 1 ) .
General S I R H H. WILSON, K.C.B , D.S.O.,
Chief of the Imperial General Staff.
Mr. H. C. M. LAMBERT, C.B., Colonial
Office (for Minute 1 0 ) .
S I R A. G. BOSCAWEN, M.P., Parliamentary
Secretary, Ministry
Minute 1 1 ) . ­
Lieutenant-Colonel W. DALLY JONES, C.M.G., Acting
Mr. THOMAS JONES, Assistant
Secretary.
Secretary.
Lieutenant-Colonel L. WILSON, C.M.G., D . S . O . , M.P., Assistant
Captain L. F . BURGIS, Assistant
of Pensions (for
Secretary.
Secretary.
The Western
' ­
1. The Chief of the I m p e r i a l General Staff stated that there
w a s no news from the Western front beyond t h a t contained in
the morning's telegrams, with the exception that the French h a d
made a small attack on the Ailette on the previous day, capturing
600 prisoners and a few guns. The Chief of the I m p e r i a l General
Staff stated that, for the A m e r i c a n operations at St. Mihiel,
General Pershing h a d been under General P e t a i n ' s orders, and not
directly under M a r s h a l Foch.
Attention w a s d r a w n to a W a r Office telegram (No. 66437 of
the 16th September, 1918) to the M i l i t a r y Attache at M a d r i d ,
which stated that it w a s probable in the near future that the
position on the Western front would a g a i n become stabilised, a n d
that the enemy's retirement w a s thought to be a t a n end. The
Chief of the I m p e r i a l General Staff said that he had not seen this
telegram, but, i n view of the pessimistic tenour which it w a s
thought to exhibit, would enquire from which department it h a d
emanated.
Salorrica.
2. The Chief of the I m p e r i a l General Staff reported that the
A l l i e d forces at Salonica had advanced on a front of 15 miles to a
depth of 5 miles.
Trans-Caucasia.
3. The Chief of the Imperial General Staff informed the W a r
Cabinet that General Dunsterville had evacuated B a k u a n d
reached Enzeli with a force of some 1,200 men. I t was not known
how m a n y out of this number were B r i t i s h troops.
Control of Allied
Operations in
Siberia.
4. The Chief of the I m p e r i a l General Staff drew attention
to several telegrams which had been received from General Knox,
some of which h a d not been circulated to the W a r Cabinet,
r e g a r d i n g the differences of opinion which existed as to the
responsibility for the formation and control of the new R u s s i a n
A r m y in Siberia. The Chief of the I m p e r i a l General Staff s a i d
that amongst our Allies there seemed to be a general disinclination
to entrust this task to a B r i t i s h officer. The Americans and the
French favoured the idea of a Frenchman being chosen.
The Secretary of S t a t e for Foreign Affairs said that our
relations with the U n i t e d States at the moment were not of the
best. The Americans h a d got into their heads t h a t we wished to
push them into a policy t h a t they did not like, and the unfortunate
mistake recently committed by General Poole at Archangel h a d
rather confirmed them in this impression.
The Chief of the I m p e r i a l General Staff said t h a t the
immediate question on which he desired a W a r Cabinet decision
w a s whether approval should be given to a request put forward
by General Knox t h a t he should be allowed to go ahead with r a i s i n g
3,000 men with the assistance of General Dietrichs. General Knox
h a d also stated that the fact that no one person h a d been appointed
to co-ordinate the efforts of r a i s i n g a Russian a r m y w a s leading
to a certain amount of confusion, and that he himself w a s quite
w i l l i n g to waive his claims, so long as someone was appointed. H e
l a i d stress on the point t h a t it would be for the bad if some steps
were not taken at once.
It was suggested that General Knox should be authorised to
proceed with the r a i s i n g of the 3,000 men, a n d t h a t the ultimate
command could be settled by the Supreme W a r Council. It w a s
pointed out, however, that, as the J a p a n e s e were supplying the
Commander-in-Chief for the whole expedition, they should have
a voice in the question as to who w a s to be charged with the r a i s i n g
of the Russian levies, but they h a d no representative at Versailles.
s
r o n t
Ill
3
WG 473
It w a s agreed that no body other than the Supreme W a r
Council existed which could settle a matter of this nature.
The W a r Cabinet decided that—
( a . ) The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in conjunc­
tion with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff,
should draft a telegram to General Knox, authorising
him to proceed with the raising of 3,000 Russians, but
stating that the ultimate control of collecting Russian
troops for the Siberian A r m y would be settled by the
Versailles Council. The telegram should also w a r n
General Knox to be careful in his relations with the
French and American representatives in S i b e r i a on this
subject.
(&.) I t was advisable that information as to the steps it w a s
proposed to take should be communicated to the French,
and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs should
consider with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff
the form in which this communication should be made.
H.M.S." G-latton."
5. The Deputy First Sea Lord reported that a serious
explosion occurred on board H.M.S. " G l a t t o n " on the 16th
September, in Dover Harbour. After one and a half hours' attempt
to extinguish the fire, and as the magazines could not be flooded,
the ship was sunk by a torpedo in the harbour. It was feared that
there were numerous casualties. A d m i r a l Hope stated that the
loss of this Monitor w a s rather serious, as there was a long-range
gun on board.
Aerial Engagements.
6. The Deputy First Sea Lord reported that two F.A. and
two D.H. machines, whilst on patrol, sighted six hostile a i r c r a f t
about noon on the I6th September, 12 miles East of Shipwash L i g h t
Vessel. The hostile a i r c r a f t were of smaller span than the D.H.
machines. One German seaplane w a s seen to have been set on fire,
but w a s lost sight of by our machines. A d m i r a l Hope also stated
that a report had been received from Dunkirk to the effect that,
in addition to a considerable amount of bombing, eleven enemy
aeroplanes h a d been destroyed and seven driven down out of con­
trol. A balloon at Ostend has also been shot down in flames. Two
of our machines were missing.
Shipping Losses;
7. The First Sea Lord of the A d m i r a l t y stated that he h a d
been asked to give the estimated shipping losses for this month. If
we assumed that the losses for the remainder of September con­
tinued on about the same level as they had done for the first fort­
night, we should have lost for the whole month 217,000 tons through
m a r i n e peril and w a r loss. There was, however, no basis or
reason for this assumption. U p to date we had ourselves lost
76,000 tons out of 98,000 tons which had been lost by the Allies
by enemy action. Sir Eric Geddes stated that the Cabinet must
not look for reduced shipping losses, as the situation w a s likely
to get worse, owing to the fact that we were not sinking so many
submarines a s formerly, mainly in consequence of the require­
ments for convoy of American troops, and t h a t the enemy were
m a k i n g a greater effort in output and in increased activity.
Air Activities.
8. General Sykes s a i d that there were good indications of a
shortage in Germany of a i r c r a f t material and personnel.
There
were also indications that the enemy had diverted several aircraft
units from the West to the East of the Western front.
The
previous day on the Western front w a s one of the most successful
473]
B 2
d a y s we had yet had ; we destroyed 46 enemy machines and drove
down 20 out of control, whilst we ourselves had only lost 16. On
the previous d a y we had dropped 23-^ tons of bombs by day, and
15 tons by night. No report had been received r e g a r d i n g the
operations of the Independent A i r Force for the 16th September.
Horse-Bacing.
9. W i t h reference to W a r Cabinet 434, M i n u t e 5, Lord
Curzon drew the attention of the W a r Cabinet to a letter which
had' been received from Mr. Horatio Bottomley, C h a i r m a n of the
R a c i n g Emergency Committee. I n this letter Mr. Bottomley asked
that, as he w a s most desirous of avoiding any public a g i t a t i o n on
the question of the restriction of winter racing, the W a r Cabinet
should w r i t e h i m a letter, which he might put before his Committee,
saying that they would be prepared to reconsider the question of
winter racing if approached by the National H u n t Committee,
assuming that the r a i l w a y position and other circumstances made
such a course possible.
A f t e r a short discussion, in which it w a s pointed out that the
W a r Cabinet h a d a r r i v e d a t the decisions on the subject of racing,
already announced, on the grounds of interference w i t h essential
w a r traffic on the r a i l w a y s by race meetings, the W a r Cabinet
decided that—
The Secretary should reply to Mr. Bbttomley to the effect that
the W a r Cabinet would, of course, consider any
responsible representations which were made to them on
the subject of winter r a c i n g under National H u n t Rules,
but t h a t they were not justified i n holding out hopes that
the decision of the Government on this question, which
w a s based exclusively on considerations affecting the
prosecution of the war, would be departed from.
Gallipoli
Decorations.
10. The W a r Cabinet h a d under consideration the following
memoranda a n d letters on the question of the a w a r d of a decora­
tion for the operations in Gallipoli:—
Memorandum by Mr. Chamberlain ( P a p e r G.T.-5348).
Memorandum by M r . Barnes ( P a p e r G J T . - 5 3 8 6 ) .
Letter from the National Federation of Demobilised Sailors
a n d Soldiers to the P r i m e Minister ( P a p e r G.T.-5394).
Memorandum by Mr. Montagu ( P a p e r G.T.-5413).
Letter from S i r C. M. Barlow, w i t h memorandum from
Members of P a r l i a m e n t ( P a p e r G.T.-5465).
Memorandum by the Secretary of S t a t e for W a r ( P a p e r
G.T.-5558).
Memorandum by the Minister of Munitions ( P a p e r
G.T.-5614).
Memorandum by the F i r s t Lord of the A d m i r a l t y ( P a p e r
G.T.-5693).
Mr. Chamberlain, alluding to the proposal t h a t a committee
should be constituted to discuss this question, which h a d been put
f o r w a r d by the First Lord of the A d m i r a l t y in his memorandum
( P a p e r G.T.-5693), said t h a t he considered this course w a s desir­
able. A t the same time he w a s of opinion that the committee
should be presided over by someone who had personal knowledge
of the P a r l i a m e n t a r y situation, a n d who w a s in touch w i t h public
opinion on this subject. I t w a s also important t h a t this com­
mittee should have before it all the Cabinet memoranda on the
subject, and the many representations from public bodies and
i n d i v i d u a l s which had been sent to the P r i m e M i n i s t e r a n d the
W^ar Cabinet.
5
WG
4=73
The Adjutant-General also welcomed the proposal to form a
committee to deal with this question, a n d proposed amendments to
the composition of the proposed committee, which were accepted
and are embodied in the decision given below.
S p e a k i n g on behalf of the Secretary of State for India, who
w a s unable to attend, General Macdonogh s a i d that Mr. Montagu
concurred in this proposal, and desired t h a t General Cox, the
M i l i t a r y Secretary for India, should be one of the members of the
committee.
The W a r Cabinet decided that—
(a.) A committee, constituted as under:—
The Deputy Minister of Munitions
(Chairman);
R e a r - A d m i r a l A . F. Everett, C.B. (Naval Secretary to
the F i r s t Lord of the A d m i r a l t y ) ;
S i r Oswyn A . R. M u r r a y , K.C.B. (Permanent Secretary
to the A d m i r a l t y ) ;
The Adjutant-General, or his representative;
S i r R e g i n a l d Ff. Brade, K.C.B. (Secretary of the W a r
Office);
The R i g h t Hon. S i r F. Ponsonbv, K . C . B . ;
Lieutenant-General S i r H. V. Cox, K.C.M.G., C.B.,
C.S.I.;
The Director of A i r Personal Services ( A i r M i n i s t r y ) ,
(b.)
Pensions of
Officers' Widows.
should meet and consider all the problems involved in
g r a n t i n g decorations for operations during the war,
and that a report should be rendered as soon a s possible
to the W a r Cabinet for their consideration on the ques­
tion of the issue of a decoration in connection with the
operations in Gallipoli.
A l l papers i n connection with this question, including
those circulated to the W a r Cabinet, should be referred
to the committee.
11. The W a r Cabinet had under consideration a note by
Mr. Chamberlain ( P a p e r G.T.-5471), and memoranda by the
Minister of Pensions ( P a p e r G.T.-5500), and by the Secretary of
S t a t e for W a r ( P a p e r G.T.-5535), on the subject of pensions of
officers' widows.
The P a r l i a m e n t a r y Secretary to the M i n i s t r y of Pensions
explained that there had been no increase of officers' widows'
pensions granted under the old w a r r a n t , w i t h one exception,
namely, t h a t the pensions of widows of subalterns had been brought
up to the same level as those of the widows of captains. The.
pensions of disabled officers had been raised, but as officers'
widows' pensions had not been raised above the amount g r a n t e d in
former w a r s , with the exception to which he had alluded, there
w a s no case for any alteration in the scale of the pensions for the
widows of officers (above the r a n k of lieutenant) who had fallen
in former w a r s . It w a s true that the pensions of widows of non­
commissioned officers a n d men who had fallen in former w a r s had
been brought up to the same level as the pensions granted for the
present w a r .
M r . Chamberlain pointed out that the children's allowances
for the children of officers killed in the present war had been
increased, and expressed the opinion t h a t at a n y rate it w a s only
f a i r that the amount of pensions a w a r d e d to widows of officers
who had fallen in former w a r s should be brought up to the same
level as t h a t a t present in force. In former days the pension pay­
able to the w i f e of an officer killed in action, who was above the
r a n k of colonel, was not p a i d on any fixed rate, each case being
investigated on its merits. The rates for a l l senior ranks h a d now
been fixed, and Mr. Chamberlain urged that, if any widow of an
officer of senior rank w a s now receiving less t h a n the fixed rate, the
amount of her pension should be raised to that rate. Mr.
Chamberlain also invited the M i n i s t r y of Pensions to investigate
as to whether the scale of pensions now payable to officers'
widows should not be reconsidered as a whole, in view of the fact
that the pensions of widows of non-commissioned officers and men
had been increased, and in view of the g r e a t l y increased cost of
living. He suggested that the sum of 200Z. for the widow of a
colonel, and 140Z. for the widow of a major, was insufficient at the
present time.
The W a r Cabinet decided that—
(a.) The " h i g h e s t r a t e " of the pensions of the widows of
subaltern officers killed in former wars, namely, SOI.,
should be raised to 100Z.
(5.) The pensions of widows of - officers above the r a n k
of colonel killed in action, or whose death was due to
w a r service in former wars, should be p a i d at the fixed
r a t e now payable to widows of officers of similar rank,
provided that no widow's pension should be reduced by
this decision.
(c.) The Minister of Pensions should forward a memorandum
for the consideration of the W a r Cabinet, setting
forth the exact position in r e g a r d to the pensions of the
widows of officers, N.C.O.'s, and men, and the stages
by "which it had been reached.
1
Allied Maritime
Transport Council.
12. The W a r Cabinet took note of the decisions of the A l l i e d
M a r i t i m e Transport Council at meetings held on the 29th and 30th
August, 1918 ( P a p e r G.T.-5621).
Employment of
Indian Army
Personnel with the
Eoyal Air Foree
in Egypt.
13. The W a r Cabinet approved the proposals of the A i r
Council, as approved by the I n d i a Office, to employ I n d i a n A r m y
personnel
w i t h the Eoyal A i r Force i n E g y p t ( P a p e r s A . P . C , 7th
Minutes, G.T.-5653).
t
2, Whitehall
Gardens,
S.W.
September
17, 1918.
o