Page 60 and 61 of the extracts are dated 7th January 1912. and relate to a conversation with the then Lord Chancellor Loreburn.
“Germany for years has been trying to make friends. ‘Incredible the way she has been repulsed. For 3 years have been pressing for information. Questions constantly evaded sometimes with actual falsehoods. Later read memorandum on the subject – would consult Harcourt (Secretary of State for the Colonies). This would form substance of his statement in the Cabinet (when Foreign Secretary Grey made his statement which he had promised to do) and the concluding words declaring that this country was not under any obligation direct or indirect, expressed or implied, to support France against Germany by force of arms, would form the substance of a statement in which he would ask the Cabinet to move as a resolution to be voted on. He (Loreburn) should resign if it were rejected and explain publicly his reasons for doing so. Probably Harcourt would do the same.”.,,,
………………….Here C.P. Scott tells Loreburn that he had heard from a reliable foreign source on which he (Scott) could rely that at the time of the Morocco dispute (Agadir August 1911), French Minister of War and Foreign Minister and Prime Minister regarded the military force of England as absolutely at their command.
He asked Loreburn to go to Grey and ask him if it was true. Loreburn implied that he knew it was true.
Page 62 is dated 23 October 1914. Scott again dined with Loreburn who told him the whole story of the relations of the Cabinet Foreign Policy since he became a member of it.
“The crisis came at the time of the Agadir Incident in August 2011. Lyttelton (Conservative Colonial Secretary 1903/05) remarked that it was a good thing that at least on foreign affairs that the two parties were united .He then went on to speak of the Unionist leaders being approached and asked if their support could be relied on in the event of war with Germany, assuming that Loreburn as a member of the Cabinet must know all about it. This was the first Loreburn heard of it (although he took care not to let this appear) and it afterwards appeared that everything had been arranged for the landing of 150,000 men on the French coast down to the minutest detail of the time of departure and arrival of the trains and the stations at which they should get refreshments.This had been arranged by the Committee of Imperial Defence………Loreburn was furious and consulted Morley and Harcourt. The same information had reached Harcourt. Neither had been consulted, though Morley was a member of the Committee of Imperial Defence.. It was decided at once to bring the matter up in the Cabinet and Morley as the senior member of the cabinet…
So, in August 1911 arrangements had been perfected for what was put into operation in August 1914.
The Committee of Imperial Defence was established by Tory Prime Minister Arthur Balfour in 1904 to prepare for war on Germany when Germany was becoming a successful trade competitor with Britain and posed no naval threat. When Britain attacked Germany in 1914 most MPs and some Cabinet Ministers had never heard of the Committee and knew nothing of the long laid plans.
The planners thought their war would be all over by Christmas. It still rumbles on, nearly 120 years later.
And the lie is still put about that Foreign Secretary Grey,Prime Minister Asquith, the Admiralty and the War Office sleepwalked into the Great War whose reverberations have been killing hundred of millions of humans for nearly 120 years.
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