Hello, and thank you for listening to The History of World War II podcast, episode

98, once more, unto the trench.

Having been delty death blow to his cause of focusing attention on Kitchner's incompetence

during the Dardanelles campaign by the death of Kitchner, Churchill's quest to clear himself

became all but impossible two weeks later when Prime Minister Asquith announced the altering

of his decision to release the records to the public.

So when Winston charged on 10 Downing Street, demanding to know why the reversal, Asquith

was relatively honest in his reply.

If he were to release these records, future members of the war council would be less likely

to speak their minds when trying to solve whatever conundrum knowing their remarks might one

day afterward be made public.

Achieving nothing here, Winston then made for the new war minister, the promoted David

Lloyd George.

But after Winston laid down his charge that the Prime Minister had promised the people

to release all related documents, one can only imagine the look he received.

Of course the Prime Minister would not follow through.

He would be an idiot to do so, because when the people calmed down, they would realize

that only the Prime Minister had the authority to coordinate army and naval matters on such

a large scale as a second front.

Asquith may have had the authority to thwart Churchill, but not Parliament, especially

if their blood was up, which it wasn't, but the next best thing was their curiosity,

and that was definitely rising day by day.

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