Controversy of Zion.

http://www.vho.org/aaargh/fran/livres/reeedcontrov.pdf

On March 7, 1918 [British Prime Minister Lloyd-George] gave orders for
"a
decisive campaign" to conquer all Palestine, and sent General Smuts
there to
instruct General Allenby accordingly.

On March 21, 1918 the long-awaited German attack in France began,
embodying
all the men, guns and aircraft released from the Russian front.

The "decisive campaign" in Palestine was immediately suspended and
every man
who could be squeezed out of Palestine was rushed to France. The total
number of men employed in Palestine was 1,192,511 up to October 1918
(General Robertson).

On March 27, 1918 Colonel Repington wrote, "This is the worst defeat in
the
history of the army". By June 6 the Germans claimed 175,000 prisoners
and
over 2,000 guns.

At that point the truth was shown of the last words above quoted from
Sir
William Robertson's letter to Colonel Repington, and they are of
continuing
hopeful augury to men of goodwill today. By keeping on a straight
course he
had saved enough for the line to hold, at breaking point, until the
Americans began to arrive in strength. Therewith the war was virtually
at an
end. Clearly, if Russia had been sustained, the Palestinian excursion
avoided, and strength concentrated in France it could have been
concluded
earlier, and probably without the "entanglement" of America. However,
that
would not have furthered the great plan for "the management of human
affairs".

At this point in the tale I write with the feelings of a participant,
and
they probably influence what I have written of the long earlier story,
because the effects, as I have seen them in my generation, appear to me
to
be bad. I recall the great German attack of March 21, 1918; I saw it
from
the air and on the ground and was in the fighting for the first month,
until
I was removed by stretcher. I remember Sir Douglas Haig's order, that
every
man must fight and die where he stood; it was posted on the walls of my

squadron's mess. I have no complaints about the experience, and would
not
delete it from my life if I could. Now that I have come to see by what
ulterior means and motives it was all brought about, I think coming
generations might be a little better able to keep Sir William
Robertson's
"straight course", and so to ensure that good will eventually come of
what
seems to them to be evil, if they know a little more of what went on
then
and has continued since. This is my reason for writing the present
book.