ABSTRACT
The bearing of United States’ intervention in the war upon the British government’s approach to European territorial questions is only one aspect of the First World War chapter in the history of Anglo-American relations. The difference between British and American official attitudes towards peace terms can be dramatically exaggerated, particularly if it is assumed that each side was monolithic and consistent in its approach to postwar peacemaking. Arthur James Balfour’s position was not radically different from Woodrow Wilson’s although, even publicly, the British Foreign Secretary defended the concept of balance of power and avowed his doubts about the likelihood of a ‘new world’ emerging after the war. Lloyd George’s address to the Trades Union Congress on January 5, 1918, was moderate, ringing, and inspirational in tone. The Imperial War Cabinet had not had an opportunity earlier to assess the implications of developments since mid-1917 for the provisional decisions then made on imperial peace terms.
