told him that he could no more afford to be seen with him than either of them "could afford to be seen walking down Regent Street with a whore". After a fortnight of argument Robertson's "resignation" was announced. Lloyd George, possibly aware that Robertson was dependent on his army pay, suggested he be given command of an Army in France, but Haig said he "was quite unfitted to command troops". Robertson wrote notes thanking Maurice, Macdonogh and Whigham, ending "now get on with the war". Wilson and Robertson had a very brief handover meeting at the War Office, at which Robertson (by Wilson's account) was "grumpy and ungracious & said he had nothing to say – and indeed said nothing". Wilson later recalled (in his last letter as CIGS, to Rawlinson (13 February 1922)) that he "walked out without handing me over anything in particular; there was indeed a box of matches in the top right-hand drawer and some feathers for pipe-cleaning, or the remains of some of the Staff". After CIGS: the Maurice Affair Robertson was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Command in February 1918. He would hold this post for four months. After the German "Michael" Offensive, the press (8–9 April) blamed Lloyd George for starving the army of men, with the Morning Post and Daily News mentioning that it happened just after Robertson's removal while the Star called for Robertson to be appointed Secretary of State for War. The Star later blamed the Versailles machinery for forcing a depleted Fifth Army to take over more front, while the Globe and Morning Post called for Robertson's restoration as CIGS. Lloyd George was amenable to Haig's suggestion that Robertson be appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, but Robertson wrote to Haig (19 April) "my job is CIGS or nothing". Repington in the Morning Post (20 and 22 April) called this suggestion "a pretext for getting him out of the way of the imbeciles" in London and called for Lloyd George's removal as Prime Minister. On 29 April Robertson met with his former assistant Maj-Gen Maurice to discuss concerns, which Maurice had heard being discussed at Haig's GHQ on 15 April, that Lloyd George had misled the House of Commons on 9 April about the weakness of the BEF prior to the German "Michael" Offensive. From the context (letters from Robertson 29 and 30 April) it is clear that