Instead, he was persuaded to agree to appoint a statutory special commission, because '"a Government may… prefer to… appoint… an outside element... less likely to be influenced by party bias.

"[2] The terms of the Act required that at least one naval and one military officer from the retired lists serve on each Commission.

Historian John Grigg writes that the inquiries were “an enormous waste of busy people’s time”.

Coming after the crisis over the extension of conscription to married men in May 1916, which had come close to bringing down the government, and against the backdrop of the costly Somme Offensive (whose results were obviously disappointing, contrary to unconvincing official claims of Allied victory), and the decline in Asquith’s physical stamina and “grip”, the inquiries contributed to the slow decline of the Asquith coalition ministry’s authority.

By the end of the year many politicians – and General Robertson - had come to feel that a change was needed in the management of the war, causing the crisis of November-December 1916 which eventually led to Asquith’s replacement as prime minister by David Lloyd George.