January 1st, 1916.
Secret
My dear Lloyd George,
I have now had time to reflect on our conversation this morning, and to study your memorandum.
Though I do not altogether share your dark estimate and forecast of the situation, actual and perspective, I am in complete agreement that we have reached a critical situation in the war, and that our methods of procedure, with the experience which we have gained during the last few months, call for reconsideration and revision.
The two main defects of the War Committee, which has done excellent work, are:
(1) That its numbers are too large.
(2) That there is delay, evasion, and often obstruction on the part of the Departments in giving effect to its decisions.
I might with good reason add (3) that it is often kept in ignorance by the Departments of information, essential and even vital, of a technical kind, upon the problems that come before it: and (4) that it is overcharged with duties, many of which might well be relegated to subordinate bodies.
The result is that I am clearly of opinion that the War Committee should be reconstituted, and its relation to and authority over the Departments be more clearly defined and more effectively asserted.