Chapter fifty-four: Up to the leads!
The political storm of December 1916 began a month before. If by early 1916 critics had increased their complains about Asquith's lack of vigour over the conduct of the war, after the end of the battle of the Somme the Prime Minister was object of heavier attacks while Lloyd George and Bonar Law kept conspiring to cause his fall with the help of Lord Curzon. Lloyd George campaigned with the support of the press baron Lord Northcliffe to be made chairman of a small ‘war council’, under his chairmanship, that would sideline Asquith. On 25th November, Bonar Law presented the proposal to Asquith, who realized that he was being sidelined and rejected it. On December 1st, Bonar Law presented to Asquith a revised war council proposal which allowed the premier to veto proposals from outside the body, but Asquith rejected it again, as he was incensed by the fact that the proposal had been leaked to Lord Northcliffe's Times. At this point, Lloyd George resigned, deepening the Coalition government’s crisis. Bonar Law also threatened with resigning and Asquith with three senior Conservative ministers (Curzon, Chamberlain and Cecil), who made it clear to Asquith that they would not remain in the government if both Bonar Law and Lloyd George were to resign. Asquith simply had no choice and handed the King the resignation of the cabinet on 5 December 1916.
The former premier, Herbert Asquith, as seen by The Pun.
As Bonar Law and Balfour showed no interest for the premiership, Lloyd George was clearly the candidate to replace Asquith, and, on 7th December, King George V invited David Lloyd George to form a new government. Of course, the new premier was determited that his administration was to be completely different from the one which preceeded him. Thus, he streamlined the War Cabinet, reduced to five members -three of them from the Conservative party- and devoted to deal with the most important decisions regarding the prosecution of the war in a more streamlined manner than had been the case previously. Its members were to be without departmental duties so that they could devote their time and work to the war effort as a whole.
Bonar Law, as depicted by Vanity Fair in 1912
Lord Alfred Milner, the renowned statesman who played an influential leadership role in the formulation of foreign and domestic policy since the mid-1890s, was included as a Minister without Portfolio and joined the War Cabinet. Another Minister without Portfolio and member of the War Cabinet was Arthur Henderson, the leader of the Labour Party. Having served as Munitions Minister, Lloyd George was well aware of the importance of industrial relations, and believed that the inclusion of Henderson would placate the demands of labour leaders. Lloyd George also made Lord Curzon the Leader of the House of Lords and a member of the War Cabinet, while at the same time he relieved Curzon of the responsibilities at the India Office, being replaced in this office by Austen Chamberlain, who left the Almiranty for his new job. Andrew Bonar Law was included in the War Cabinet and was appointed Leader of the House of Commons to go alongside his existing duties as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
To appease the Liberals, as Asquith would not serve under Lloyd George, the new Prime Minister made a surprising move: Lord Rosebery, who had gradually moved further and further from politics since June 1895. Rosebery had spent the war visiting hospitals, appealing for recruits and money, making patriotic addresses and sponsored a "bantam battalion" in 1915. Recognising that Rosebery could be helpful to provide a sense of unity to the Liberal Party and to deflect Asquith's criticism. Reluctantly, the sixty-nine year old Rosebery re-entered politics as Lord President of the Council. The Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey looked with distaste on the machinations that led to Asquith’s downfall and was reluctant to remain in government whilst his ally, Asquith, went into opposition. However, Lloyd George could not persuade Grey and Balfour replaced him in the Foreign Office. Sir Edward Carson, who had helped Lloyd George become Prime Minister, was made First Lord of the Admiralty and Winston Churchill, who had recently returned from France, was fully rehabilitated and appointed Minister of Munitions. Finally, Lloyd George offered Neville Chamberlain the new position of Director of National Service, with responsibility for coordinating conscription and ensuring that essential war industries were able to function with sufficient workforces -1-.
By 10th December, Lloyd George had placed the finishing touches to his government – a War Cabinet of five members, a body which Lloyd George hoped would make the prosecution of the war much more effective, with a multitude of figures outside of it.
Meanwhile, war came to Buckingham Palace. Since the beginning of the Great War the anti-German sentiment amongst the citizens of the British Empire had run high. This feeling of Germanophobia had its origins in the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), which gave a powerful boost to a particular kind of the Victorian literature: the Invasion literature (e. g.
The Battle of Dorking and
The Great War in England in 1897 -2-), many of which focused on the idea that Britain might be Germany's next victim (until then, the majority of these works assumed that the enemy would be France). The Kruger telegram of Kaiser Wilhhelm II during the Boer war just made that fear -and hatred- even deeper.
The Gotha heavy bomber or "That which we call a Saxe-Coburg-Gotha / By any other name would smell as German"?
The violent invasion of neutral Belgium, the harsh German measures applied in the rearguard and the indiscriminate bombing of some Belgian and French cities (Arras, Ypres, Louvaine, Rheims) helped the the Allied Powers propaganda to depict Germans as Huns capable of infinite cruelty and violence. Increasing anti-German hysteria even threw suspicion upon the British monarchy and King George V and his family, as the shameful Battenberg incident proved. Thus, when in late 1916 the German air force began to bomb Britain, this phobia reached its peak. Then, the use of a new heavy bomber, the Gotha G.IV, capable of crossing the English Channel and bombing London directly, had direct consequences to the Royal Family, as the name Gotha was part of the name of the royal family, Gotha-Saxe-Coburg. The bombings and the growing Germanophobia led King George V abandoning all titles held under the German Crown, and changeed German titles and house names to anglicised versions, as the royal proclamation of January 1st, 1917, stated:
Now, therefore, We, out of Our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from the date of this Our Royal Proclamation Our House and Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the male line of Our said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subjects of these Realms, other than female descendants who may marry or may have married, shall bear the said Name of Windsor (3).
"A Good Riddance". Propaganda cartoon from Punch commenting on the King having ordered the relinquishing of the German titles held by members of the royal family.
Upon hearing that his cousin had changed the name of the British royal house to Windsor, German Emperor Wilhelm II remarked jokingly that he planned to see Shakespeare's play
The Merry Wives of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
(1) NeVs, NeVs EveRyWhErE!
I must confess that the changes in the cabinet have been inspired by Allenby's AAR, with some minor touches by myself.
(2) From my point of view, even Stoker's
Dracula could be included in that genre as it deals quite a lot with the English fears and obsessions about seeing foreign forces arriving unopposed on its shores.
(3) From 1917 to 1919, George V and all his British relatives relinquished their German titles and styles, and adopted British-sounding surnames. George V compensated his male relatives by creating them British peers. BTW, I've changed the date of the event.
@SirCliveWolfe: I must admit that, with the German fleet gone, I felt suddenly empty. Crushing the Turkish and the Austrian Navy is not the same...
About the Baltic scheme... Haig had a "better" idea. Guess which one?
@trekaddict:
Errr... don't cry, Trekkie -Pippy, that goes for you, too-. The "QE" battleships will be available... by 1919 or so...
o
@c0d5579: Well, after Midway the Japanese navy still fought, althought it was not the same. I still stick to Trafagar D:.
@trekaddict -2-: Well, let me say that after this battle the Hochseeflotte lingered in the bases, never to sail out again...
@c0d5579: Tue, we still have the problem that the German army is still there, so ready to kick bottoms as usual...
@Enewald: In racing towards Berlin?
@trekaddict: He knows it
@Agent Larkin: I think so
@quaazi: It's curious. When I'm in control of Germany, I have many troubles to keep my fleet alive, as the RN goes around the seas in a Terminator-like attitude that simply crushes every Fritz she founds on her way... And when I control Britain, sometimes the Kriegsmarine goes kamikaze in the first months and sometimes doesn't move a finger.
@c0d5579: That would be too bizarre... even for me.
@Nathan Madien: I can promise you this: before the war, the tanks will be in the battlefield. In fact, their role in the final battles will be quite noticeable.
@MastahCheef117: Well, there is a lot of ships in German harbours, but, after this beating, do you think that any admiral will say: let's make anoter try?
@Faeelin: Now that you mention it, I was tempted to appoint Winnie as the new Foreign Minister.
@SirCliveWolfe: I looooooooooooove it.
