pointed out that Britain needed her continental allies more than they needed her, and Britain could not, e.g. by reneging on the promise that Russia could have Constantinople, risk them making a compromise peace which left Germany stronger on the continent. Robertson told the War Committee (22 February 1916) that the French desire to transfer more troops to Salonika showed a weakening in their resolve for trench warfare. He scorned the idea that it would bring Greece into the war on the Allied side, and at a late March 1916 conference argued with Briand (French Prime Minister) and Joffre, who thumped the table and shouted that Robertson was "un homme terrible". With characteristic bluntness he said of an Italian officer (12 March 1916), who warned that his country might be invaded by Switzerland, "I'd like to have kicked him in the stomach". The War Committee had only agreed (28 December 1915) with some reluctance to make preparations for the Western Front Offensive agreed at Chantilly, which Haig and Joffre agreed (14 February) should be on the Somme, although Robertson and the War Committee were not pleased at Joffre's suggestion that the British engage in "wearing out" attacks prior to the main offensive. For three months, against a backdrop of Russia planning to attack earlier than agreed, Italy reluctant to attack at all and the scaling-down of the planned French commitment because of Battle of Verdun, Robertson continued to urge the politicians to agree to the offensive. He increasingly believed that France was becoming exhausted and that Britain would carry an ever greater burden. After Robertson promised that Haig "would not make a fool of himself" (he told Repington that Haig was "a shrewd Scot who would not do anything rash"), the War Committee finally agreed (7 April). Robertson lobbied hard with politicians and the press for the extension of conscription. When the Cabinet finally authorised the Somme Offensive, Robertson had the Army Council make a statement in favour of conscripting married men. In the face of protests from Bonar Law that the government might break up, to be followed by a General Election (which he thought would be divisive, even though the Conservatives would probably win) and conscription brought in by martial law, Robertson refused to compromise and encouraged Dawson, editor of The Times, to make his stance public. After poor relations between French and Kitchener had permitted civilian interference