In the aftermath of the Boer War, the military was scaled down. A report by Lord Elgin suggested that a body should be set up to manage these changes, and so the Committee of Imperial Defence was established. Part of its role lay in co-ordinating matters of military strategy, but most of its efforts went on research, with sub-committees created as and when needed, to investigate particular issues that might be relevant to the defence of the British Empire. In 1901, for example, one of these investigatory reports, on foreign espionage, let to the establishment of MI5 and MI6.
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Committee of Imperial Defence holds first meeting". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=11704, accessed 23 November 2024.]
