London to show the same documents to Lloyd George and senior Conservatives Bonar Law and Arthur Balfour. The Times headline on 14 May 1915, was: "Need for shells: British attacks checked: Limited supply the cause: A Lesson From France". It commented "We had not sufficient high explosives to lower the enemy's parapets to the ground ... The want of an unlimited supply of high explosives was a fatal bar to our success", blaming the government for the battle's failure. However, due to his reputation, the British public were hesitant to question Kitchener, leading to the subsequent circulation decline of the newspapers despite the growing consensus that the political role was ill-suited. Coalition government As the crisis continued, the immediate catalyst for a change in government was the resignation on 15 May of Admiral Fisher as First Sea Lord, owing to disagreements with his ministerial chief, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, over the naval attack on the Dardanelles (a precursor to the subsequent stalemated landings at Gallipoli). Churchill was detested by the Conservatives as he had defected from their party over a decade earlier. Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George and Conservative Leader Bonar Law visited Asquith on 17 May 1915, and after a very brief meeting Asquith wrote to his ministers demanding their resignations, then formed a new coalition government in which he appointed Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, heading a newly-created government department. The Shells Crisis had allowed Lloyd George to push for a coalition in which the Liberal Party relinquished their full control while the Conservatives remained in a subordinate position. Although Liberal politicians held office in subsequent coalitions, no purely Liberal government has held office in the UK since May 1915. Daily Mail attacks Kitchener Whilst Asquith was still forming his new government, a sensational version of the press criticism was printed in the popular Daily Mail on 21 May, blaming Kitchener, under the headline "The Shells Scandal: Lord Kitchener’s Tragic Blunder". Lloyd George had to warn Northcliffe that the campaign was counterproductive and creating sympathy for Kitchener. Kitchener wanted to let the Shells Scandal drop. Stanley Brenton von Donop, Master-General of the Ordnance, demanded an Inquiry to clear his name but Kitchener persuaded him to withdraw the request as it would have led to French’s dismissal. Kitchener, popular with the public, remained in office as Secretary of State for War, responsible for