Calais Conference (December 1915)
The Calais Conference took place in the French city on 4 December 1915. It was the second Anglo-French political conference in Calais that year, following a conference on war strategy in July. The December conference focussed mainly on the issue of whether to continue the war on the Salonika Front.
Background
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The first Calais Conference had been held on 6 July 1915 as an attempt to improve decision making on war strategy between the French and British governments. The conference was the first face-to-face meeting between the British prime minister H. H. Asquith and his French counterpart René Viviani. It was somewhat chaotic and ended in a misunderstanding over the agreed strategy, with the British favouring increased effort in the Gallipoli campaign and the French a renewed offensive on the Western Front.[1][2]
Since that conference Viviani had resigned and been replaced by Aristide Briand. A new fighting front had also been opened up, the Salonika front, intended to support Serbia against German and Austrian attack. The political objective of that front became irrelevant after the intervention of Bulgaria on the side of the Central Powers and the resultant occupation of Serbia. A secondary objective, to draw Greece to the Allies, was thwarted by opposition from their king Constantine.[3]: 144
French army commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre was opposed to the continuation of the Salonika front but was required publicly to support it as it was a matter of political importance to Briand's government. British foreign secretary Edward Grey and secretary of state for war Lord Kitchener both favoured evacuation of Allied troops from the front and refocussing of efforts elsewhere.[3]: 144
Briand's government refused to accept evacuation and requested British reinforcements to expand the Salonika front.[3]: 144 On 3 December Kitchener informed the British cabinet that he considered evacuation inevitable or else the entire British force was at danger of being lost. He threatened to resign if it did not take place and the cabinet was persuaded to support Kitchener's position.[3]: 146
Conference
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A political conference to discuss war strategy was held at Calais on 4 December 1915.[4] The senior political representatives were Asquith and Briand and the conference was presided over by Kitchener.[5][5] The conference came at a time when Allied armies on all fronts were stalled, with little offensive success. The chief matter for discussion was that of the Salonika front.[3]: 143 Briand spoke for the continuation of efforts in Salonika and Kitchener and Asquith spoke agaunst it. Kitchener repeated his threat to resign and the French were persuaded to accept the British position and agree to evacuation of the front, though Briand continued to insist that this was a mistake.[3]: 149
Aftermath
[edit]Followed by a second Chantilly conference on military strategy on 6 December, which agreed to coordinate Allied attacks to prevent the Germans moving reinforcements in between.[5]
The French government was opposed to any evacuation and almost collapsed over the matter. Their report of the conference was rewritten to indicate that they did not accept the British position and merely took note of it, not agreed with it.[3]: 152
In Britain Lloyd George threatened to resign if the evacuation took place and the British Ambassador to France, Lord Bertie, reported further on the possible collapse of Briand's government if it did so.[3]: 153
The British War Committee granted Kitchener and Grey full authority to meet the French in Paris to decide the matter.[3]: 154
Kitchener and Grey agreed that British troops would stay on and this was confirmed by a British cabinet meeting of 14 December.[3]: 155
led to the establishment of a "standing committee of advisory character" to co-ordinate Allied war strategy, this is considered a forerunner of the Supreme War Council. A permanent secretariat for the body, advocated by Clerk, could not be formed due to oppositon from Aristide Briand and the Quai d'Orsay.[6]
- ^ Smith, Paul (15 July 2010). Government and Armed Forces in Britain, 1856-1990. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-8264-1894-4.
- ^ Protheroe, Gerald J. (1 March 2004). Searching for Security in a New Europe: The Diplomatic Career of Sir George Russell Clerk. Routledge. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-135-77050-1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dutton, D. J. (1978). "The Calais Conference of December 1915". The Historical Journal. 21 (1): 143–156. ISSN 0018-246X.
- ^ Nicolson, Colin (15 July 2014). Longman Companion to the First World War: Europe 1914-1918. Routledge. p. 306. ISBN 978-1-317-88826-0.
- ^ a b c O'Mara, David (30 November 2017). The Somme 1916: Touring the French Sector. Pen and Sword. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-4738-9772-4.
- ^ Protheroe, Gerald J. (1 March 2004). Searching for Security in a New Europe: The Diplomatic Career of Sir George Russell Clerk. Routledge. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-135-77050-1.