Extract from a speech by the war secretary
Lord Milner on demobilisation, December 1918.
This speech was one of Milner's last acts as war secretary, before Winston
Churchill replaced him in the Cabinet reshuffle that followed the electoral
victory of the Lloyd George coalition on 14 December 1918. He describes
the hitherto rapid progress of demobilisation in the weeks since the armistice
and urges patience on the servicemen still waiting to come home. Milner
also defends Lord Derby's controversial demobilisation scheme, whose 'guiding
principle was to demobilise in the way most likely to lead to the steady
resumption of industry'. Churchill scrapped it barely a month later.
Catalogue reference: 30/30/8 (undated)
Transcript |