CAB80-25 — Page 277

Page 277

231

40 There is little doubt that the French Representatives, and the French High Command, saw the picture in the same way. The French High Command called the Allied Military Committee a "Committee of Study". They emphasised that the Committee could not have any responsibility for direct recommendations a view which was entirely correct and which coincided with that held over here. The French Government nominated as the French Representatives the heads of the three French Service Missions to the British Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry. This was an ideal arrangement. The French Representatives were consequently automatically the senior French officers of their three Services in Great Britain, and the direct representatives of the three French Chiefs of Staff. The three British Representatives were also supposed to be the representatives of their respective Chiefs of Staff. The arrangement at the time seemed admirable, and, as you know, I had the highest hopes that with such an organisation we would be able to go a long way towards avoiding misunder- standings, and that the machine would provide an excellent safely valve for ventilating differences of opinion and finding common ground for the essential agreements on military policy between the two High Commands.

5.

Before proceeding to remark upon the difficulties which arose, I think it is fair to say that the Allied Military Committee did a great deal more good work than is generally appreciated, particularly by certain people in the Service Ministries. My point here is that if it had not been for the existence of the Allied Military Committee, and the opportunity which was thereby presented for the ventilation of subjects, there would have been more trouble between the British and French military organisations than has been the case. It would be difficult to provide a list of definite concrete successes, and even if made it would be lamentably small, but in a negative sense there It is this fact, which were considerable achievements.

is difficult to prove, which has convinced me that if the machine set up had been properly used and fully trusted, we would have been able to save both time and paper, and some

alas, more points of differences of opinion which remained, unresolved until the end might not have been so acute. I hope I shall not be accused of suggesting that a properly employed Allied Military Committee would have settled everything this would have been far from possible, but I do think it could have done a good deal more.

6.

The following factors contributed to the partial ineffectiveness of the Committee:-

(a) The general rush at the beginning of the war

prevented the Chiefs of Staff themselves from grasping the intended functions of the Committee. I do not think they have since fully understood them, or appreciated what might

It is to have been made of the Committee.

be noted that when the terms of reference to the British Military Representatives were revised after some months of war, those terms of reference never came to the Chiefs of Staff themselves, even though the British

-12-

Page 277

Page 277

Page 277

Page 277