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section of the Commitice were individually the direct representatives of the Chiefs of Staff. I do not know exactly what picture the Chiefs of Staff have to-day in their minds of the Allied Military Committee, but I very much suspect that they think the British Representatives are merely their representatives to connect and effect liaison with the heads of the French Missions, and that collectively they can be conveniently used as a body for any particular job of work.

(b) The statue of General Lelong, as representing

in London the principal French military effort, was not fully appreciated. Personalities were largely the cause here.

(c) There was a wide spread suspicion, amounting

almost to a conviction, that the Allied Military Committee, particularly the British Representatives, would sut themselves up as independent planners on a grand plane and commit the British Chiefs of Staff to things which we?? contrary to British military policy. This was a gate unfounded belief. The British Reprocontatives themselves were the first to realise that they must always be careful to conform to the considered opinion of the Staffs. Hence their' continued clamour, through me, to be permitted to see all relevant documents, and the continued attempts they made to establish the closest possible contact with the general staffs of their respective Ministries. However, this belief and suspicion was so doop ruoted that quite an amount of "Fifth Colum activity took place in an endeavour to torpedo the organisation. activity did not succeed in its object, but it bred a considerable amount of distrust and encouraged subordinates to ridicule the organisa- tion and short circuit its work. Moreover, it also encouraged certain administrative officers towards a narrow point of view, and made mutual collaboration on that plane difficult.

This

It

(d) There existed an original misunderstanding

regarding the position and functions of the Secretariat which had been appointed to run the business of the Allied Military Committee. took many months to get it appreciated that the Secretariat in Gwydyr House was a part and parcel of the general Cabinet Secretariat, and not some strange hybrid creation outside the established body. Undoubtedly in part this was brought about by the fact that the Secretariat had of neccssity to be lodged in a separate building from Richmond Terrace, This was unavoidable, but it aid lead to many difficulties of a minor nature which encouraged the idea, already existing elsewhere, that the whole business was something rather strange and amateur, and which nsed not be en seriously.

13.

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