ABSTRACT
The fall of the Liberal Government which had come into existence in December 1905 was closely connected with these events, but two circumstances helped to precipitate the change the munitions crisis and, even more immediately, Fishers resignation. The subject of munitions supply was touched on at the War Council incidentally to the examination of the plans and policy to be adopted by the Government. All the nations engaged in the war were more or less in the same quandary, for none of them had anticipated how prodigal would be the expenditure of ammunition, nor how long the war would last. French difficulties were due partly to the mobilization for duty in the field of skilled men who ought to have been retained in the factories, partly to the loss of territory which deprived them of raw material and manufacturing capacity, and partly to lack of preparation for industrial mobilization.
