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(e) Arising out of the above there was the general
failure to understand what the Anglo-French Liaison Section of the War Cabinet
Secretariat's functions were, as distinct from those of the Allied Military Committee itself. In the early days of the war it took some time to disabuse various Ministries of the idea that the Anglo-French Liaison Section was the body through which to pass any minor detail
All which required French co-ordination. sorts of departmental matters were passed to us which, of course, could have been dealt with direct between the Ministry concerned and the French Mission accredited to that Ministry. The War Office maintained this attitude to the bitter end, although there was in London a large French Military Mission. In fact, when they found they could not get their Army matters handled by the Cabinet Secretariat here they resorted to the British Military Representative, who solemnly passed items of a purely Army nature across the table to the French Military Representative, who doubtless in turn solemnly passed it to the man in the French Military Mission who could have been dealt with direct by the War Office in the first instance.
(f) It has never been properly appreciated how close
the British and French Representatives became by virtue of their daily contacts, and the fact that they had offices in the same building.. (It is to be noted that the Allied Military Committee as a body have met 253 times since the outbreak of war). This is a psychologi cal matter, but should not be lightly dismissed. The daily meetings of the Committee, even if only to exchange intelligence, surely and steadily created an atmosphere which was
I do not conducive to straight talking. wish to infer that arguments, and even sharp talk, did not arise from time to time but
in so far as Frenchmen and Englishmen can ever understand each other the Allied Military Committee presented the best field for reaching understandings.
(g) Above all the firm belief was held that we
must run this war, and the French must come In turn to heel and conform to our ideas. this resulted in a procedure in which we thought things out, worked out everything, and then presented the French with fait accompli for their concurrence. With such a procedure as a permanency there would, of course, be no necessity for an Allied Military Committee at all. It would have been perfectly simple for the Secretariat to pass the agreed British papers through the appro- priate channels to the French High Command. With an Allied Military Committee in being the British appreciations, etc., did in fact pass through them, though the British Representatives were in practically every case not in a position, or authorised, to do more than hand
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