The first meeting of the Policy Committee was held at Crewe House on October 4, 1918, and I presided in the absence, through indisposition, of Lord Northcliffe. After giving a summarised account of the work carried on from Crewe House, I said that whatever results it had been possible to achieve had proceeded mainly from the circumstance that it had in each case been based upon definite policies in regard to the countries concerned. These policies had all been submitted to, and had received the approval of, the British Government. The advantages of this procedure were obvious. It enabled propagandists to work on consistent lines without fear that the representations they made to the enemy would be contradicted by actual occurrences. In this way, propaganda representations had a cumulative effect. If, for instance, enemy troops were at first inclined to regard representations with scepticism, they were gradually convinced by the force of events that they had been told the truth from the outset, and that consequently subsequent representations deserved serious attention. Another advantage had proceeded from the obvious circumstance that as Allied policy must correspond to the aims which the Allies
