Memorial statue to Prime Minister David Lloyd George in Parliament Square, London, United Kingdom. © 2013 John M. Shea
". . . the real moment to make peace will be reached as soon as the totality of American reinforcements will have landed in Europe. The enemy will then be really anxious. You must make peace when he fears you most, and very often he fears you more before an offensive campaign than after it.Mr. Balfour found that this was a new way of envisaging the end of the war. In common with Mr. Lloyd George, he did not believe a military victory impossible on account of the weariness of Austria and Turkey . . ."
Excerpt from the War Diaries of Albert, King of the Belgians on his July 10, 1918 meeting with the British War Committee in London, a group that included Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour. The Committee wanted victory, expecting it in 1919. The King cannot have endeared himself to them when he declared, 'Those who refuse to show a certain good will towards avoiding a fifth year of war would bear a heavy responsibility in the annals of history. It would be criminal to attempt nothing to avoid the further bloodshed which would result.'
The War Diaries of Albert I King of the Belgians by Albert I, page 218, copyright © 1954, publisher: William Kimber
1918-07-10, 1918, July, David Lloyd George, Peace, Lloyd George
