War Cabinet's Official Survey of Military Events and Far-Reaching
Economic Changes
_A report issued by the British War Cabinet on March 18, 1918,
in the form of a Blue Book of 200 pages or more, presents a
historical review of what Great Britain accomplished in 1917,
with a survey of the changes that came over the character of the
war in that year, and of the far-reaching Governmental and
economic developments that took place in the British Nation. As
the introductory chapter is in itself a comprehensive summary,
the main portions of it are here presented._
The year 1917 saw two marked developments. On the one hand there was a
profound change in the character of the war itself. The inauguration of
a general attack upon the sea communications of the Allies through the
unrestricted use of the submarine greatly widened the scope of warlike
operations and forced the people of the British Isles to expend an
immense amount of time and energy on counterpreparations of all kinds.
The Russian revolution completely upset the allied plan for a concerted
offensive against the Central Powers on all fronts during the Spring and
Summer of 1917, and eventually led to such a disintegration of the
Russian Army as enabled the German Government to transfer the greater
part of its military resources from the eastern to the western theatre
of war. Finally, the overthrow of the Russian autocracy, coupled with
the entry of the United States into the war and the adhesion of Greece,
Brazil, China, and other neutrals to the allied cause, widened the war
itself from a battle for the liberty of small nations and the defense of
public right in Europe into a world-wide struggle for the triumph of a
free civilization and democratic government.
The year brought a gradual growth of inter-ally co-operation and
creation of the Imperial War Cabinet. This development and the sessions
of the Imperial War Conference were the natural outcome of the spirit of
unity and self-sacrifice which has enabled the peoples of the British
Commonwealth to produce no less than 7,500,000 men to fight for freedom
in addition to vast quantities of munitions and supplies of all kinds.
So successful was this experiment in the opinion of its members that it
was decided unanimously that there ought to be an annual meeting of the
Imperial Cabinet and that the Prime Ministers of the empire or their
specially delegated representatives, together with the Ministers in
charge of the great imperial offices, should be its _ex officio_
members.