Papers of the War Cabinet's Eastern Committee [‎88r] (175/544)

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a machinery for dealing effectively with these problems. In practice
decisions were taken every day by the Foreign Office, the India
Office, and the War Office, in minor matters on their own respon
sibility, in major matters in consultation with the Chairman. This
procedure had been pursued without the slightest friction and with
no delay in executive action, other than that of an hour or two in
cases of doubt or of exceptional importance. Lord R. Cecil’s pro
posal to establish a formal or informal sub-committee to meet every
day was not therefore required, nor would it, in his opinion, give
relief to the Chairman. On the contrary, it would mean the creation
of an imperium in imperio, which would supersede the action of the
Eastern Committee and would reduce the functions of the latter to
those of a body meeting only occasionally in order to advise,
at the discretion of the Departments, on matters of high
policy on which the Departments were not agreed. The new
sub-committee would become the Eastern Committee under
another name, and his own position as Chairman of the
latter would become impossible. There was, of course, not the
slightest objection to informal departmental consultation. This was
the prerogative of every Department. But if the Committee were,
as a body, in favour of establishing a formal sub-committee which
would—he felt convinced—inevitably, although unconsciously,
assume, sooner or later, practically the full functions of the Com
mittee itself, he could not endorse such a proposal, wdiich he
regarded as unsound, and he would have, in those circumstances, to
ask to be relieved of his present duties.
General Wilson said that he was inclined to agree with Lord
Robert Cecil that the formation of a small formal or informal body
need not necessarily alter the Chairman’s position ; nor need it
change the functions of the Committee, unless that body or sub
committee deliberately set out to usurp those functions. His own
Department had, on one or two occasions, despatched, on its own
initiative, telegrams on subjects which the Chairman had decided
were matters of policy. The establishment of a small body to
discuss question of this nature in the first instance might obviate
such incidents.
(At this point, owing to a summons from the Prime Minister,
General Wilson withdrew.)
General Smuts said that he was much impressed with the case
made out by the Chairman, who had, it was universally admitted,
exceptional qualifications for his present position as President of
their Committee. It would be a very serious matter to set up a
smaller body which might encroach upon the functions of the Com
mittee. It was most important that all possibility of friction or
rivalry should be avoided. The present Committee had passed
through various stages of transformation and development. It
might not be a complete success—no Committee ever was—but
he confessed he was struck with the expeditious way in which, on
the whole, it carried out its duties. If any considerable change
were contemplated he thought the matter would have to go before
the Cabinet. Before they committed themselves to this step a much
closer consideration of the problem in all its aspects would, in his
view, be necessary. As regards the difficulty caused by the
multitudinous papers members received each week, and the variety
of their contents, he suggested that the General Staff might be
asked to submit to them weekly, brief appreciations of the military
situation in the various areas within the Committee’s purview, in
order to assist their deliberations.
Mr. Montagu said that he wished, before the Committee rose,
in view of remarks that had been made by General Smuts and
Lord Curzon, to assure members that he was the first to recognise
the special qualifications of experience and knowledge of the
Chairman to preside over the Committee. Lord Curzon had a