only result of the movement was that Mr. Henderson, who had been active in its promotion, had to resign his seat in the War Cabinet. Even the Trades Union Congress at its annual meeting in September declared by an overwhelming majority against an International Conference at Stockholm " at the present moment." But befort the end of the year the Labour party, suspicious of militarist or imperialistic designs among the Allies, drafted on its own account a statement of war aims of a somewhat idealistic character, demanding in particular the establishment of a league of nations, a demand which Lord Robert Cecil welcomed on behalf of the Government.
During this autumn the Labour party also busied itself with a reorganization of its constitution, which was to transform it
from a federation of Labour and Socialist societies in- New Coa- to a national democratic political organization open to stitutioa every worker who laboured" by hand or brain." The f abour work was completed during the winter, and the new Party. constitution was adopted in March 1918. Theaimwas,
by forming local associations, and by appealing to middle-class workers and to the newly enfranchised women, to secure sufficient support from the electorate to warrant the hope of a Labour Government in power before many years. The new Labour party, thus constituted, held its first annual meeting in London in June 1918, promulgated a comprehensive socialistic programme, and in spite of the protests of Labour ministers, determined no longer to recognize the political truce, though it did not insist that these ministers should withdraw from office so long as the country was at war.
The increasing detestation of the Germans which was in- spired by their merciless submarine campaign and by their
recurrent air-raids insured a warm welcome for certain The King measures which the King took in the summer of 1917 German ^ or dissociating the royal family from German con- Titles. nexions. In June he decreed that those princes of his
family who were his subjects and bore German names and titles should relinquish those titles and adopt British surnames. Accordingly the family of Teck became that of Cambridge and that of Battenberg Mountbatten; and the follow- ing peerages were conferred: the Duke of Teck, Marquess of Cambridge; Prince Alexander of Teck, Earl of Athlone; Adml. Prince Louis of Battenberg, Marquess of Milford Haven; Prince Alexander of Battenberg, Marquess of Carisbrooke. In July the King abandoned all German titles for himself and family, and issued a proclamation that his house and family should hence- forth be known as the house and family of Windsor. The King also heartened the munition workers of Lancashire and Cheshire and the shipping and engineering workers of the Clyde district by making tours among them, and he paid a visit in the summer, not for the first time, to the Grand Fleet. He instituted, more- over, two new orders the Order of the British Empire, and the Order of Companions of Honour.
The reports of the Dardanelles and Mesopotamia Commis- sions were published, the one in the spring, and the other in the
summer, of the year 1917; and the revelations they teriaT contained of mismanagement and muddle in high Changes, quarters confirmed the public in its satisfaction that
the two War Administrations presided over by Mr. Asquith had given way to Mr. Lloyd George's War Cabinet. The report of the Mesopotamia Commission, with its reflections on the Government of India, brought about Mr. Austen Cham- berlain's resignation of the Secretaryship of State for India. Other ministerial changes took place about the same time: Lord Rhondda succeeded Lord Devonport as Food Controller, Sir Auckland Geddes succeeded Mr. Neville Chamberlain as Director of National Service; Mr. Barnes succeeded Mr. Henderson as Labour representative in the War Cabinet; Sir Edward Carson left the Admiralty to become a member of the War Cabinet without portfolio -a position from which he resigned in Jan. 1918; Sir Eric Geddes became First Lord of the Admiralty, Dr. Addison Minister of Reconstruction without portfolio, Mr. Hayes Fisher (afterwards Lord Downham) President of the Local Government Board, Mr. Hodge Minister of Pensions,
and Mr. G. H. Roberts Minister of Labour. Mr. Lloyd George took the opportunity to bring back into high office his friend Mr. Churchill, and to attract to his banner Mr. Edwin Montagu, one of the ablest of the younger Liberals. Mr. Churchill be- came Minister of Munitions, and Mr. Montagu Secretary of State for India. Mr. Lloyd George also persuaded Gen. Smuts to remain in England as a regular member of the War Cabinet.
Several of these appointments had a special interest. The public looked askance at the return to office of Mr. Churchill, after his responsibility for the Dardanelles fiasco; but Mr. Lloyd George had a high opinion of his friend's Indian energy and capacity in office, and realized the inad- visability of leaving him to become the nucleus of a critical and aggressive opposition. Mr. Montagu took office with a mission to satisfy, so far as might be possible, the aspira- tions of a large body of Indian opinion after a wide measure of self-government. He visited India in the winter of 1917-8, and drew up, in conjunction with Lord Chelmsford, the Viceroy, a report on Indian Constitutional Reform published in the summer of 1918 which was well received in the House of Commons, but which was met with considerable criticism in the Lords, where the appointment of a joint committee to consider it was rejected by a major- ity of only four. Dr. Addison's appointment as Minister of Reconstruction showed a laudable desire on the part of the Government to be prepared for the end of hostilities, which might come with little warning. So zealously did he work that he was ready to announce, the day after the Armistice in Nov. 1918, the plans of the Government for demobilization, for the resettlement of officers and men in civil life, and for the reestablishment of industry on a peace basis. His main expedient for tiding over a difficult time was the establishment of an out-of-work donation to be in operation for six months for civil workers and for twelve months after demobilization for soldiers. The advent of the brothers Geddes to Cabinet rank was due to admirable administrative work done by Sir Auckland under the War Office, and by Sir Eric both under the War Office and in the Admiralty. Sir Auckland changed Mr. Neville Chamberlain's original scheme of national service, which had involved somewhat elaborate office expenses and had produced only moderate results. He saved some 100,000 a month by reducing the expenses of a central office, and worked instead through employment exchanges, trade unions and soci- eties of employers' federations. He effected a drastic comb-out of civilians, card-indexed the whole of the army at home, trans- ferred workers from luxury trades and occupations to essential industries, and recruited a further large supply of female labour.
Sir Eric Geddes went to the Admiralty to complete and work a reorganization which his predecessor (Sir Edward Carson) had initiated, when, in May, a new naval war staff was
constituted. The First Sea Lord, as chief of the staff, Keorgaa- .... . ., . ., . izatloa of
was freed of all administrative detail in order that Admiralty.
he might give his undivided attention to questions of policy and strategy; and he had the assistance of a direc- tor of operations, a director of intelligence, and others. There was also revived the office of Admiralty Controller, who was to organize the whole of the supply of the navy including transport, victualling, manufacture of ordnance, and shipbuilding. Sir Eric had then been brought in from the outside to fill this im- portant post, as a great civil administrator who had just success- fully organized the military railway system behind the lines in France; and in July, when Sir Edward Carson's vigorous counsel was needed in the War Cabinet, he became himself First Lord. The two main tasks of the Admiralty under him were to defeat the submarine menace, and to stimulate shipbuilding. They were more successful in the first than in the second. By provision of various ingenious methods of attacking and destroying under- water vessels they steadily reduced the losses of Brit- ish ships, and they were able to announce the details of some 150 German submarines destroyed. But in spite of obtaining the assistance of Lord Pirrie, the great Bel- fast shipbuilder, as Controller-General of Merchant Shipbuild-
