David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, (1863 – 1945) from the British Liberal Party was a highly effective leader of the coalition government that took power in late 1916 and managed the British war effort. However his coalition premiership was supported more by Conservatives than by his own Liberals, and the subsequent split was a key factor in the decline of the Liberal Party as a serious political force.
He won a landslide in the election of 1918, held just after the war ended, where he spoke out for harsh terms against Germany. However he was much more moderate at Paris. Unlike Clemenceau and Orlando, Lloyd George did not want to destroy the German economy and political system—as Clemenceau demanded—with massive reparations. Asked how he had done at the peace conference, he commented, "Not badly, considering I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon ".
It has been said that “Lloyd George was the most affable and the most resilient, and he was probably the best at negotiating”. In an article from the New York Times it says that "Lloyd George was a pragmatist determined to protect and expand the interests of the British Empire."
Read more about this topic: The Big Four (World War I)
Famous quotes containing the words lloyd george, david and/or lloyd:
“Diplomats were invented simply to waste time.”
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945)
“The necessity of labor and conversation with many men and things to the scholar is rarely well remembered.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A fully equipped duke costs as much to keep up as two Dreadnoughts, and dukes are just as great a terror—and they last longer.”
—David Lloyd George (1863–1945)