ABSTRACT
Asquith's obstinacy and Bonar Law's abnegation served Lloyd George ill in the long run and planted the seeds of his eventual downfall. The Liberal ministers' boycott also made Lloyd George the prisoner of a Conservative Party whose rank and file never wholeheartedly accepted him. The new Government was notable for certain constitutional innovations not many of which survived the war itself. Lloyd George also invited Dominion Prime Ministers to Cabinet meetings from time to time, and General Smuts of South Africa was a member of the War Cabinet itself from 1917 to 1919. In November 1917, a Supreme War Council, composed of representatives of all the Allies, was established by a conference at Rapallo, largely at Lloyd George's insistence. In January, the Council decided to create a central Allied reserve under an inter-allied Military Committee presided over by Foch.
