4 - War aims, 1916

Summary

During 1915 the relations between the government and the Yugoslavs had centred on the Balkans, those with the Czechoslovaks and Poles on the United States. In the conduct of these relations the nationalities sought support for their war aims while the officials, avoiding the whole question of aims, saw the nationalities only as weapons of war. Throughout 1916, despite increased discussion of war aims, the policy of the government on the future of eastern Europe remained unchanged – the retention of the greatest flexibility for the future formulation of policy by avoidance of open support for any of the basic alternatives and avoidance of all commitments unnecessary to the conduct of the war. As in the Italian negotiations, commitments would be dictated only by strategic necessity. While government policy remained static, however, the situation was evolving, if not towards commitments, at least towards the reduction of Britain's future alternatives in eastern Europe. Contacts between émigrés and officials continued to develop so that while policy did not change, many of the individuals who might later influence policy began to develop, often under the influence of the émigrés and their work for the government, their own personal preferences on the question of national self-determination. More significantly, the co-operation between the government and the émigrés, by its success, began to influence the conditions under which the Entente waged war.