But she had not. There came the desolate day
when the news flashed over England that the "Hampshire" had gone down
and with it Kitchener. Following the shock of this blow, greater than
any that German arms could deliver, arose the faltering question, "Who
is there to take his place?"
It did not falter long. Once more the S.O.S. call of a Nation in
Distress flashed out and again the spark found its man. Lloyd George
went from Ministry of Munitions to sit in Kitchener's seat at the War
Office. Unlike the Hero of Khartoum, he had no service in the field to
his credit. But he knew men and he also knew how to deploy them. Just as
he brought the Veterans of Business to sit around the Munitions Board,
so did he now marshal war-tried campaigners for the Strategy Table. The
Somme blow was struck: the new War Chieftain proved his worth.
In the midst of all these new exactions Lloyd George found time for
other and arduous national labours. Two more episodes will serve to
close this narrative of unprecedented achievement.
When the recent Irish Revolt had registered its tragedy of blood, death
and execution, menacing the very structure of Empire, Lloyd George
became the Emissary of Peace to the Isle of Unrest.
Again, when prying peacemakers sought to intrude themselves upon the
nations engaged in a life and death struggle, it was Lloyd George, in a
remarkable interview, who warned all would-be winners of the Nobel prize
that peace talk was unfriendly, that "there was neither clock nor
calendar in the British Army," that the Allies would make it a finish
fight.
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