Columbia ^^nitif r^ftp intljeCttpofltfttigark THE LIBRARIES THE ADVENTURES OF THE FOURTEEN POINTS THE ADVENTURES OF THE FOURTEEN POINTS VIVID AND DRAMATIC EPISODES OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE FROM ITS OPENING AT PARIS TO THE SIGNING OF THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES BY HARRY HANSEN **J am doubtful whether any body of men with a difficult task have worked under greater difficulties —stones crackling on the roof and crashing through the windoics, and sometimes wild men screaming through the key-holes."— David Lloyd George, ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS NEW YORK THE CENTURY CO. 191:) Copyright, 1919, by The Century Co. Published, October, 1919 9^1^.'^! ./r' '^ TO RUTH . . . '' Yes, indeed, you may use anything and every- thing you have ever written for us." Victor F. Lawson. Thank you, Mr. Lawson, for this, and for the many other -anusual privileges that have come to me in the service of The Chicago Daily News. Harry Hansen. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE I am admitted to the Hotel de Crillon and visit the sacred precincts of the American mission to nego- tiate peace — I attend a consultation over the Fourteen Points, and learn something about their strange ailment 3 CHAPTER II The Place de la Concorde and the Quai d'Orsay on a sunny January morning — I become interested in the last word of kings and the balance of power . 19 CHAPTER III Concerning the relative importance of a peace confer- ence and a foot-ball game, and how it feels to sur- vey the great of the earth through a doorway . . 32 CHAPTER IV How President Wilson went across the seas with his formula for peace, and found that Europe had a few ideas on the same subject 48 CHAPTER V M. Clemenceau becomes the victim of an assassin's bul- let, and proves that his physique is as strong as his will is firm 71 CHAPTER VI An invitation to tea lures me to the Hotel Lutetia, and I learn how 40,000,000 human beings fare on the other side of the world 84 ix \^ ( V CONTENTS CHAPTER VII PAGE A dip into President Wilson's mail-bag and what I found there — Also throwing light on what hap- pened when the smaller nations heard of self-de- termination 101 CHAPTER VIII How the Prince of the Hedjaz pitched his Arabian tent in the apartments of a Parisian hotel, and how he disconcerted the plans for a Jewish Pales- tine and a French Syria by his modest request for the empire of the calif ate 117 CHAPTER IX The story of a little town called Fiume, and how the amazing unanimity with which all parties con- cerned applied the Fourteen Points almost dis- rupted the Peace Conference 136 CHAPTER X Conference days in Paris — Jottings from a note-book in the year of the great peace 180 CHAPTER XI How Belgium set about to get a brand-new parchment for a tattered scrap of paper, and what came of it 194 CHAPTER XII The eighth point wins a splendid victory, and then comes the Saar basin, and the whole fourteen suf- fer an eclipse 211 CHAPTER XIII The President prepares a garden party at Principe, and the invited guests drag out the family skele- ton 239 COiSTTENTS xi CHAPTER XIV PAGE Walks in the Paris of the conference, and how they led to haunts of another day 270 CHAPTER XV " Nach Paris ! " said the Germans, and how they finally got there. Also showing that the German sometimes not only gets what he wants, but also what is coming to him 284 CHAPTER XVI A pilgrimage to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, and how it recalls the founding of an empire forty- eight years ago 306 CHAPTER XVII How Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau made use of his fifteen days, which were pretty dark, and his fif- teen nights, which were just as dark .... 323 CHAPTER XVIII The story of the twenty-eighth of June, and how Ger- many found peace at the end of a long, long road in Versailles 345 CHAPTER XIX President Wilson leaves France with two treaties of peace, and the United States Senate gets the stage at last 360 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS The American State Department in Paris . Frontispiece FACING PAGE The American Mission to Negotiate Peace .... 24 The Opening of the Peace Conference in Paris, Janu- ary 18, 1919 40 The Commission on the League of Nations .... 52 The Chinese Delegation to the Peace Conference . . 88 The Japanese Delegation to the Peace Conference . 92 Two Leaders of the British Delegation 112 The Emir Feisal, Son of the King of the Hedjaz . . 128 Four Leaders in the Negotiations on Fiume . . . 140 The First American Troops to Enter Fiume . . . 160 The First President of the United States in Paris . 224 Ignace Paderewski 248 The Two White Houses of Paris 272 The Great Windows of the Palace at Versailles . .312 Germany's Eepresentatives in Versailles .... 328 Germany Signs the Treaty of Peace . . .. . .352 xiii THE ADVENTURES OF THE FOURTEEN POINTS THE ADVENTURES OF THE FOURTEEN POINTS CHAPTER I I am admitted to the Hotel de Crillon and visit the sacred precincts of the American mission to negotiate peace — I attend a consultation over the Fourteen Points, and learn something about their strange ailment. The lad in khaki at the entrance to the Hotel de Crillon gave the revolving glass door a shove, and I per- colated inside. Straight ahead were the stairs and two elevators. I headed for the latter. " Stop ! '' ''Arretezf' " Just a moment, please ! '' So there were three of them. Very well. I halted, and looked them over. One was a soldier in O. D. About his left sleeve he wore a broad band of blue on which was embroidered in white the scales of .Justice surrounded by a garland. It was his badge of honor — the insignia of service at the Peace Conference. The second might have stepped off the floor at Field's or Lord & Taylor's. He wore a black cutaway, with a kerchief in the pocket, and striped trousers. The third was a French functionary pure and simple. 'No need to describe him ; he was like the rest of that great tribe whose motto is " Stop ! Sit down ! Wait ! " " What do you want ? " asked the American floor- walker. 3 4 THE ADVENTURES OF ^' I want to see the peace commission," I replied. " The American Mission to Negotiate Peace does n't see any one," began my interrogator; then he hesi- tated, looked me over, and added, " unless — " You never can tell, was his thought. Paris is full of presi- dents, premiers, and princes of the blood in ^' civies." This lanky fellow might be somebody — '^ Unless," he resumed, ^' you have an appointment." ^' I am a newspaper man," I said irrelevantly. The soldier fell back to his place beside the door. The floor-walker executed a half-circle, and then gazed dreamily through the large glass panel. The French- man passed his arm quietly through mine. ''S'il vous plait," he remarked, and deftly piloted me into the carpeted and mirrored anteroom to the left of the door. " S'il vous plait," he repeated, and procured a slip of paper that was evidently to be filled out for the statistical section of the Census Bureau. It was printed in two languages, like this: Pass Paris 1919 Permis No This pass entitles Ce permis est delivr^ k Representing Repr^sentant To visit room Pour se rendre a la chambre And must be surrendered to guard at main entrance on leaving the building. Ce permis doit etre rendu au soldat de garde en quittant I'hotel Officer in charge of building. Officier responsable. THE FOUKTEEN PO^TS 5 After all, it was elementary. It did not ask half so much as did the American passport office in Wash- ington, or the British bureau to retard well-meaning travelers at Southampton, or the French madhouse of statistical information at the prefecture of police in Paris. It did not ask for my mother's maiden name, my wife's birthday, or whether my neighbors kept chickens. It was getting easier every day to see the office boy of the tenth clerk of the fourth secretary. I filled it out. '^ Asseyez vous, s'il vous plait/' said the French- man. I sat down. [N'umerous others were also sitting down. I could tell by the nonchalance with which they studied the hangings, the mirrors, the red carpet, the furniture, and lastly myself that they also were observing the magic formula, " Wait ! " One man was inclined to stoutness. He wore a striped shirt with soft cuffs, a plain bow tie, a watch-chain across his chest, and an Elk emblem in his coat-lapel. Another wore a check suit, a white four-in-hand, and had long, grayish hair that curled up under the brim of his hat. Under his arm he held a packet of manuscript and the year-book of the American Board of Foreign Missions. A third man had a fair skin, a neatly curled Vandyke beard, silk gloves, and a red ribbon in his buttonhole. A fourth — But the Frenchman had returned. He handed me the slip. '' Merci/' he said. '' Le premier etage." " Thank you," I replied. My honest purpose must have shone forth in my countenance. The Triple Al- 6 THE ADVENTURES OF liance had approved me. I was admitted. I started briskly for the first floor. Here was the corridor leading to the rooms of the American mission. It was filled for the most part with rather young-looking Americans, men who aver- aged about thirty years of age. At a table near the head of the stairs sat several doughboys, evidently act- ing as orderlies; before the doors leading to the con- ference-room of the mission stood other orderlies. Potted palms looked sad and forlorn in great vases of glazed white porcelain. The walls were of grayish stone, the doors and woodwork were enameled white, and the door-panels contained mirrors. Presently the door would open to these men and to the world. That, at least, was my thought, for these were newspaper men and they were here to see and hear for the American public. They must be, I judged, men who had reached the pinnacle of their profession. What /they wrote in the morning was carried by the cables to the American people at noon, and soon after the printing presses would be grinding out their stories and the newsboys would be hawking them in the streets. I walked over to a group. There was Paul Scott Mowrer. " Well, I 'm in," I said. " Did you get your pass ? '' asked Mowrer. '' What pass ? " I asked. ^' Your card of identification. You can't come here day after day without a card. Of course I can get you in to-day, but if you came alone, the detectives might not pass you. Go to the top floor of the adjoin- THE FOURTEEN POINTS Y ing building, the Coislen. There you will find the photographers of the signal corps. They will photo- graph you. A day later you will get your card with your photograph from the major of infantry in the press bureau. Then on the card you will put your signa- ture." " And thumb-prints ? " I asked. " Not yet," he replied. A buzzer sounded. " All right, gentlemen," said an orderly. The men turned toward the doors and slowly passed into the ante- chamber. At the door stood a dark-haired, slightly built man wearing a soft felt hat. He had bright, pleasing eyes, and as we passed, they rested for an instant on each face. Some one whispered that he was from the White House. He had a wonderful memory, they said, for faces. The newspaper men filed into the room, and stood about in groups talking and laughing. The members of the peace mission had not yet arrived, so that I had a minute to look about me. We had entered an im- posing room, wide and high, well lighted by great dou- ble windows that opened out on the Place de la Con- corde and through which I could see the columns of the Chamber of Deputies and the lantern over Na- poleon's tomb in the Hotel des Invalides. A wide Per- sian rug, superimposed on a red velvet carpet, covered most of the floor. It was a typically French interior, with the walls done in white enamel on wood and mirrors used liberally, especially in the door-panels. But just like the Bourbon kings who gave this style of decora- 8 THE ADVENTUEES OF tion to the world, the architects had not been satisfied with simplicitj; they had added heavy moldings, rich with gold-leaf, and had brought out in high relief on the ceiling strange figures and garlands and imple- ments of warfare. The eye was drawn at once to the wide gilded cornice that had four eagles at the angles of the room, with wings outstretched as if to hold up the very roof of the w^orld. I would have considered them at least symbols of our republic amid all this imperial splendor, had I not reflected that the eagle is no homing pigeon ; he has served with equanimity on the standards of the Koman legions, the Napoleonic armies, the arms of Hohenzollern and Hapsburg, and yet he appears most contented on the great seal of our own republic across the seas. Of the men who filled the room many had names that were well known in the United States. There was Ray Stannard Baker, for instance, who was the officer of liaison between the American mission and the press and was perhaps closer in touch with the Presi- dent during the conference than any other man. Then there was William Allen White, with his rotund face wreathed in smiles, and Abraham Cahan, oracle of New York's great East Side, the center of an attentive group of young writers. Herbert Bayard Swope of the New York " World " was lifting his voice high above the others in a good-natured effort to down Laurence Hills of the New York " Sun '' in argument ; and others gathered round about included Mark Sullivan of " Col- lier's," Arthur D. Howden Smith, who wrote " The Eeal Colonel House " ; S. S. McClure, John Edwin THE FOUKTEEN P0I:N^TS 9 I^evin, David Lawrence, Richard V. Oulahan, Lincoln Steffens, Simeon Strunsky, and Jay Hayden. There, too, I saw Edward Hood, Washington correspondent of the Associated Press, whom I learned to esteem more and more as the days went on for his quiet manner, his calm speech, his direct, and yet polite, interrogation, and for his unusual knowledge of American affairs, which went back as far as the Alabama case, one of his first assignments. A memorandum blank on a marble-topped table bore the title " The American Mission to Negotiate Peace.'' A bit meticulous, I reflected, and yet probably prompted by the circumstances. I wondered if the same formal style was observed one hundred and thirty-seven years ago by our first peace mission to Paris — by John Jay, John Adams, and plain, blunt old Benjamin Franklin. One of the big mirrored doors at the end of the room swung back, and the members of the American mission entered. First came Robert Lansing, secre- tary of state, well groomed, well poised, nodding in a friendly way, with the end of his mouth curled into a bit of a smile. Since 1892, when he became associate counsel in the Bering Sea arbitration matter, he had been in intimate touch with the foreign relations of the United States. Then came Henry White, a tall, solidly built man with white hair, who walked forward with a bit of stoop and peered sharply through his glasses. Colonel Edward M. House followed, a most unassuming man for the part he had played in American political life. Lastly came General Tasker H. Bliss, with the rugged features of an out-of-doors army man, wearing 10 THE ADVENTURES OF the uniform of liis rank, with a badge of colored ribbon on his breast. General Bliss strode forward with the air of a busy man, sank into a comfortable leather chair, and began to examine a sheaf of papers as if no one else were in the room. Technically, of course, these men were not repre- sentatives of the United States Government at all, but the President of the United States, who alone was empowered to negotiate peace. It was said by his op- ponents that although the American mission had five members, it had in effect only one mind, and that this mind moved the other four as puppets tied to strings. No doubt the President was the dominating member, but it would have been unjust, to say that these men were mere agents. It might have been better expressed by saying that the policy of the United States at the Peace Conference was directed by one man, and that the members of the American mission presented a united front under his leadership. That the President was thoroughly cognizant of his power to assume full responsibility for the United States in the peace negotiations is clear from the fol- lowing paragraph in his book, '^ Constitutional Govern- ment in the United States " : " One of the greatest of the president's powers I have not spoken of at all: his control, which is very absolute, of the for- eign relations of the nation. The initiative in foreign affairs, which the president possesses without any restriction whatever, is virtually the power to control them absolutely. The president cannot conclude a treaty with a foreign power without the con- sent of the senate, but he may guide every step of diplomacy, and to guide diplomacy is to determine what treaties must be THE FOUETEEISr POINTS 11 made if the faith and prestige of the government are to be maintained. He need disclose no step of negotiation until it is complete and when in any critical matter it is completed the gov- ernment is virtually committed, whatever its disinclination, and the senate may feel itself committed also. These, then, were the men who were to make peace with Germany. On my way to Paris I had already be- come convinced that making peace was not likely to be so easy a matter as it seemed on JSTovember 11, 1918. Although I had regarded the basis of peace virtually settled with the adoption of the President's Fourteen Points by the Allies and by the Germans, I was to learn that somebody had sprinkled tacks plentifully on the road to be traversed by the peacemakers. And what opened my eyes more than anything else to the fact that the conference might not have smooth sail- ing was the interrogation of the American mission, which now took place. Secretary Lansing actually invited the deluge. He might have avoided it, poor man, but he did n't. He adopted an easy pose, with his legs slightly apart, and said: " Well, gentlemen, what can I do for you to-day ? " I think it was Herbert Bayard Swope who led the chase, — at least, he was well in the van, — and the first question was something like this : " Is it true that no one is to be admitted to the Peace Conference except the delegates and that all the work is to be done in secret ? " Secretary Lansing replied — At this moment a friend whispered in my ear. ^' You 12 THE ADVENTURES OE know, of course, that you cannot quote the secretary," he said. " Why not ? " I asked. '^ Impossible ; it 's against the agreement," he said. " The mission meets the newspaper men only on condi- tion that its members are not to be quoted." ^' Then what are we here for ? " I asked. " Eor our guidance," he replied. So I am compelled to omit what the secretary said. But nobody was under any obligations not to quote the questions that were asked him. So I give herewith the questions, and leave the secretary's answers blank. Some day in the future, perhaps fifty years from now, the ban may be lifted, and the answers given to a wait- ing world. Who knows ? " Will nobody be admitted to the conference ? " " Won't the newspapers be admitted ? " a ^ ^ » '' Won't the public be admitted ? " *' Who is responsible for this decision, the President ? " " . . " " Did n't the President tell Senator Borah that the treaty would be negotiated in public ? " a )? " What has become of the point about ' open cove- nants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understanding of any THE FOUKTEElSr POINTS 13 kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in public view ? ' " a '> The secretary is a diplomat of the first order. His answers prove it. I made a mental note that the first of the Eourteen Points was limping badly. The George Washington seemed to have had a tempestuous voyage across. At that moment some one wanted to know whether it was true that President Wilson had agreed to let the British protect the freedom of the seas. It was said that Colonel House himself had fathered point two, which dealt with the freedom of the seas, and that at one time he held the view that the high seas should be free for all vessels, neutral or belligerent, during war, and that combats should be limited only to war-ships. The phraseology of this one of the Fourteen Points seemed to bear this out, for it began : ^' Absolute free- dom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war." But there was this qualifying clause, ^' except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforce- ment of international covenants." The President ap- peared to have had in mind action by the League of ^Nations. Secretary Lansing himself was on record with re- gard to the freedom of the seas. In communicating to Germany the decision of the Allies to make peace on the basis of the terms laid down in President Wilson's address to Congress of January 8, 1918, he said that " they [the Allies] must point out, however, that clause 14 THE ADVENTURES OF two, relating to what is usually described as freedom of the seas, is open to various interpretations, some of which they could not accept. They must therefore re- serve to themselves complete freedom on this subject when they enter the Peace Conference." It appeared that none of the correspondents knew just what the President meant to submit to the Peace Conference on the subject of the freedom of the seas; and it also appeared that, whatever it was, the American mission was either not ready or not in a position to define it. The term " freedom of the seas," which had been loosely used by the Germans for anything that would hamper Great Britain's sea power, seemed to have undergone numerous attempts at definition; and now, on the eve of the peace, it appeared to mean, ^' Hands Off ! " At least that was the purport of what M. Clemenceau, Premier of Prance, said he had agreed to in a conversation with Mr. Lloyd George, Prime Minister of England, and before the Chamber of Deputies he related that he had repeated this conver- sation to the American President, who had replied: " I approve what you said to Mr. Lloyd George. What I have to submit to the Allied governments will change nothing in your replies to Mr. Lloyd George. Each one will retain his freedom." ^' By the way, Mr. Secretary," came a voice from another quarter, — the voice of a man who, strange to say, represented an American newspaper that had a German name, — '^ when is the American army going to evacuate Russia ? " At this there was a titter of amusement. I did n't THE rOUETEEN POINTS 15 know why at the time, but I was to learn later that the evacuation of Eussian territory was one of the stock questions. It appeared that the evacuation of all Eus- sian territory also had been agreed to as one of the Fourteen Points, and that in view of landings of En- tente troops in Arkangel and Odessa the evacuation seemed to have become rather crab-like. Paris re- sounded with appeals for and against evacuation. There were members in the Chamber of Deputies who professed to receive reports from soviet Eussia that everything was going well and that the Allied troops might better be withdrawn. There were other groups in Paris, both French and Eussian, who were keeping the printing-presses busy turning out stories of the most horrible atrocities committed by the Bolsheviki, and who demanded that the Allies send a great army against soviet Eussia at once. Meanwhile from across the seas echoed the speeches of senators and congress- men in Washington who wanted to know when the boys were coming home. It was clear that point six of the fourteen was some- what frost-bitten, though there was still time for the application of first-aid measures before the conference opened. Perhaps by then the points we had discussed and any of the rest that might be ailing would be able to sit up and take nourishment. I expressed my views to a friend. '' If the conference does n't make peace on the basis of the Fourteen Points," I said, '' what in the name of Talleyrand will it do ? " " Maybe it will fall back on the ten commandments/' 16 THE ADVENTURES OF he said. " But whatever it does, it will put the rollers under the Germans. That 's what we 're here for.'' The meeting broke up at this moment, and the men prepared to pass out. We stopped for a moment to shake hands with Henry White, one of the members of the mission who found ample opportunity to make use of his powers of diplomacy in Paris. Mr. White was the oldest of the American commissioners, being sixty-eight, but at that only three years the senior of General Bliss. His long service had given him rich backgrounds and a wealth of information that now made him invaluable. He had been ambassador to Paris and Rome and had filled American diplomatic posts in London, Vienna, Buenos Aires, and Valparaiso. Just as Louis XVI asked the representative of the United States in Paris to guard his personal interests when the French Revolution broke out, so Mr. White was one of those who had been called upon during the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune to help represent the diplomatic interests of Prussia and to do kindly acts for France, and I recall the anecdotes of how he and the little staff at the American em- bassy of that day, in humble quarters and under- manned, as always, were besieged by the throngs of German citizens who had been caught in Paris by the war and who clamored for passports and papers giving them a safe conduct home. He was in Paris when France signed the ignominious preliminary peace at Versailles in 1871, at a time when he could hardly have suspected the part he was to play in an- THE FOURTEEN POINTS 17 other peace at Versailles many years later. Mr. White had also represented America at the Algeciras Confer- ence, and this proved an advantage to-day, for it turned out that France asked a revision of the act of Algeciras at the Peace Conference, and this was finally included in the terms -of peace. We passed out of the anteroom and into the corri- dors of the Crillon. We met old friends and made new ones. There was a buzz of talk on all sorts of topics; publicity, the Fourteen Points, what France wants, what Italy w^ants. Already the Peace Conference was tak- ing on the aspect of an American political convention. I felt that the other men, like myself, were having diffi- culty in ^^ orientation," that w^onderful European word. At the foot of the stairs I met John T. McCutcheon. " We were there at the start and now we 're here at the finish," said Mr. McCutcheon. " Is n't it a wonderful time ? " Then we passed out of the Crillon and formed a little group under the dark stone arcades of the ancient man- sion. Some one was imparting more inside informa- tion. An American soldier approached. Unlike the doughboys in Paris, he wore the wide-brimmed felt hat that the boys at the front discarded for the over- seas cap. A big revolver hung loosely from his belt, and there was a blue band around his sleeve bearing the letters " M.P." He was the first military police- man I had seen in Paris. We looked at him curiously, and he looked back at us. Then he made a quick ges- ture. 18 THE FOURTEE:^^ POINTS " Move on 1 " lie said. " Don't stand around here ! " No, this was not New York or Chicago, but Paris in the year of the great peace. CHAPTER II The Place de la Concorde and the Quai d'Orsay on a sunny- January morning — I become interested in the last word of kings and the balance of power. Beyond the arcades of the Hotel de Crillon the Jan- uary sun was shining down on the broad pavements of the Place de la Concorde as if it were a morning in May. A big brown touring-car marked with the nu- merals of the American Army turned a semicircle and drew up before the hotel. A well-groomed man in the long blue ulster of the navy, with a wealth of gold braid on his cap, stepped briskly out and passed into the hotel. " Xot a bad pose," said a voice behind me, and I turned to see a photographer in the uniform of the Signal Corps folding up the tripod of a motion-picture camera. " Who was that ? " I asked. " Grayson," he replied, ^^ Rear-Admiral Grayson. Keeps a man busy watching for the gold braids nowa- days," he added. " Then you do this all the time ? " I asked. " Pretty often," he answered. ^' You see, we hav^ to get all the big boys for the government records. So I 'm working in Paris now. Was up at Coblenz last week and tool^ ^ lot of army pictures. Come on out 18 20 THE ADVENTURES OF to Vincennes some time and see the American plant. We 're with Path-ay Freres," he added. '' Thanks/' I replied. A score or more motor-cars were parked in front of the Crillon like yachts in a harbor. One of them car- ried on its wind-shield a red card with four white stars, the insignia of an American general. Diminutive Paris taxicabs were hooting their way across the 'place. I picked my way carefully among them, and sought refuge on an ^' island." From their mighty seats the eight dowagers in stone who represented the great cities of France looked im- passively down on the place. Strasburg, decorated for well nigh half a century with mourning garlands, sat unadorned, now that she had been gathered back into the fold. Below them, almost wheel to wheel, were ranged hundreds of guns that once had been the pride of the house of Friedrich Krupp. At the first glance they seemed a most impressive proof of the victory of the Allied arms; then the eye tired of these rust-cov- ered breeches and shattered barrels, and the whole collec- tion looked more like a gigantic junk-pile. The obelisk had a cordon of heavy mortars and tall marine rifles; on every available spot stood broken 77's, the German imitation of the French 75's. Rolled back against the stone balustrades were cannon of all caliber, every conceivable kind of formidable weapon, including the tank Elfriede. Some of the guns still bore splotches of green and tan paint for camouflage, but most of them had accumulated a thick coating of rust, and their weight had caused the wheels to sink deep into the as- THE rOUETEEN POINTS 21 phalt pavement. Boys were clambering over the heavier mortars, trying to operate the mechanism; a post-card- vender came forward with his twenty-five inevitable views of Paris. I walked carefully across the place to the obelisk that had come from Egypt in days when self-determination was not yet heard of. Two doughboys on leave were minutely examining a tall marine rifle that had been cast in Essen. One of them wore the colors of the rainbow in the segment of a circle on his left shoulder, the insignia of the 42d Division. The other wore the mark of the T7th, the Statue of Liberty in white on a blue background. " Looks as if they 'd fired that bird for the last time/' said the first doughboy, '' but I guess it did enough damage in its day." ^' There 's some writing on the barrel," said the other ; '^ there 's a crown and a monogram." He scru- tinized it carefully. " W — II," that 's what it is. That must be for William the Second. And then there 's some more. ' U-l-t-i-m-a R-a-t-io R-e-g-u-m/ " he spelled out slowly. A visiting-car d-from the War Lord ! " The last word of kings," the motto that Louis XIV caused to be en- graved upon his guns in the days when war was still the pastime of the autocrat. And here it was encount- ered again in Louis' old capital, but this time as a memento of the last king who had dared use this argument. It was pleasant to speculate that its pres- ence here proved that the word of the people had been of more weight than the last word of the king. It was, so to speak, the conclusive evidence of failure. 22 THE ADVE:NrTURES OF Truly today the Place de la Concorde was the very hub of the great wheel that encompassed all the activi- ties of the conference. It was a strange coincidence that this square, which had witnessed such remarkable scenes in an earlier convulsion of the peoples, should again be the center of a momentous event in the history not only of France, but of the whole world. Both the tragedies of 1792-93 and the deliberations of 1919 had their place in the struggle of the peoples toward m.ore democratic government, and none could say but that this Peace Conference might prove the more sig- nificant event of the two. Certainly it opened most auspiciously; surely both in Europe, in America, and in the more remote parts of the earth men who as- pired to a greater measure of liberty and freedom looked toward it with eager, longing eyes. It is easy to touch hands with the past. Here on January 21, 1793, Louis XVI gave up his life that the wrath of the people might be appeased. Close your eyes as you stand here and you can see the tumbrels laden with the condemned coming slowly toward the 'place. Those very buildings that are so distinctly a feature of the square, the hotels de Crillon and de Coislen, and the ministry of marine, dating from 1770, stood there then as they stand to-day, and the Greek fagade of the Madeleine looked down upon the tum- brels as they turned into the Rue Royale from the Rue St. Honore just as to-day it still completes the picture at the end of this street. N'ear this obelisk, too, was placed the guillotine. Those terraces and gardens to the east are the Tuileries Gardens, where the Bourbon THE FOUETEEN POINTS 23 princes played, and within their confines was the Manege, or riding-school, where met both the Constit- uent Assembly and the National Convention, and where the republic was proclaimed on September 21, 1792. There is not a street or by-path within a stone's throw of this place that cannot tell a tale of the Revolution or of the First Empire or of the Commune of 1871. And to-day the activity of the conference centers here. Follow the Eue de Eivoli, and it is but a step to the Hotel Continental, where the Prince of the Hedjaz lives with his suite; to the Hotel Lotti, on the Eue Castiglione, where the Belgian delegation has its head- quarters ; to the Place Vendome, where the Hotel Bris- tol houses the Japanese delegation, while royalty stops down at the Eitz ; to the Meurice, headquarters of the single, solitary, and unrecognized envoy of Montenegro. The noble Avenue des Champs-Elysees stretches out to the west until it reaches the arch of triumph at the Place de I'Etoile. Great chains that hang across the front of the arch are still unbroken, waiting upon the men who have met here to fashion a treaty of peace, for not until peace is signed may the soldiers of France pass under the arch. This great avenue and its trib- utary streets also bear evidence of conference activities. Close at hand, not far from the Place de la Concorde, are the British embassy and the Elysee Palace, where lives the President of the French Eepublic. Just be- yond the Grand and Petit Palais is the Avenue Mon- taigne. The committee on public information has been occupying ^ house there, and a short distance be- yond, toward the Seine, is the Plaza Athenee hotel, 24 THE ADVENTURES OF which is used by delegations from two distant lands, Brazil and Liberia. At Xo. 77 of the Avenue des Champs-Elysees is the headquarters of the Kumanian delegation; No. 80 is the luxurious Maison Dufayel, built by a picturesque Parisian nouveau-riche merchant for his home, and now leased by the Erench Govern- ment for the use of the newspaper men of the world as a club. The American Army occupies the Hotel des Champs-Ely sees, and close by the arch is the Hotel As- toria, which, with the Hotel Majestic, constitutes the headquarters of the British delegation. Serbia and Portugal have found quarters on the Avenue de Eried- land, not far distant, and the Polish delegation is at 11 Avenue Kleber. It is in this neighborhood, too, in an obscure hotel on a side street, where the rooms have iron beds and old, cast-off furniture, that the spokes- men for Armenia send forth their appeals for the inde- pendence of their martyred homeland. I left the Place de la Concorde and proceeded across the bridge over the Seine to the opposite bank. The river was high this month, the trees along its banks were in water half-way up their trunks, and the swift current rushed with a subdued roar under the arches. Stones of the Bastille are in those arches, which have withstood the ravages of the flood for well over one hundred years. Opposite the bridge is the Chamber of Deputies, where the government orators make re- sounding speeches to the deputies, obscuring rather than elucidating their policies. And this wide street is known the world over as the Quai d'Orsay, a name as familiar as Downing Street and Wilhelmstrasse ; for THE rOUKTEE:^" POINTS 25 one block to the west, in the direction of the bridge of Alexander III, stands the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which gives the quai its significance. In the history of the conference this building wiU always take rank with the Palace of Versailles. Here the great Peace Conference of 1919 began; there it ended. Eor this is the seat of the plenary sessions and of the meetings of the council of ten, and within its walls gather many of the subsidiary commissions, as well as the cabinet of the French Republic. It is here also that M. Stephen Pichon, the adroit minister for foreign affairs, directs the external policies of the French Re- public — policies that have been the most direct and well defined of any of the Allies and have been ad- hered to with hardly a variation. In the course of the conference I came into close con- tact with ^I. Pichon. He was one of the most accessi- ble of men, and in his frequent meetings with corre- spondents I used to watch his clever manoeuvers to hide what he did not wish to disclose, and yet give the ap- pearance that he was -acting with perfect frankness. We used to meet him in his cabinet de travail, close by the hall of the plenary sessions. You entered the room by a door that seemed set into a wall fully two feet thick — rather two doors that were connected by a mechanism and opened simultaneously — and when they closed upon you, not a sound reached you from the room without, nor were voices in M. Pichon's office audible outside. The room itself was decorated sumptuously. On its walls hung reproductions in tapestry of the Rubens series of paintings on the life of Maria de' 26 THE ADVENTURES OF Medici, works of priceless value. The room seemed to belong to an age when a Richelieu held in his hand the affairs of France. But M. Pichon was always the dem- ocrat. He never sought to impress, he rather depre- cated his knowledge of affairs. He described himself as a journalist; in France many men in political office have at one time or another written for, and even edited, a newspaper. At this time he was sixty-two years old and was filling the post of foreign minister for the fourth term. Like his chief, the president of the council, M. Clemenceau, he had long been associated with the public affairs of France, and it was an inter- esting fact, though not at all singular, that he was in Peking as the representative of the French Re- public when Germany laid the basis for obtaining her leasehold of Kiao-chau and her concessions in Shan- tung. These two men, M. Clemenceau, Premier of France — or, as the French call him, president of the council of ministers — and M. Pichon, minister of foreign af- fairs, had sounded the keynote of the French position at the Peace Conference just a few days before my ar- rival in Paris. As I looked over this building and thought of the history that was to be enacted there, my mind ran back to the significance of these two speeches in the Chamber of Deputies. I was in London on De- cember 30, when they were delivered, and I remembered that the newspapers quoted M. Clemenceau in big black type because he had dealt with the question of the freedom of the seas. Later, in Paris, Paul Scott Mow- rer, careful student of French affairs, directed my at- THE fouetee:^ points 2T tention to them again, and one evening at his home he went step by step over them and pointed out their un- usual significance. M. Pichon had spoken before M. Clemenceau, and be- cause he stated the French demands so clearly, I repeat them here in the order that he gave them. They, as much as anything, are a key to the whole French di- plomacy of the Peace Conference. He said : France accepts the idea of the League of Nations. France asks no annexations, except for a rectification of the Lorraine frontier. [This was taken to mean the inclusion of the Saar basin in the French lines.] France asks the disarmament of all German military establish- ments on the left bank of the Rhine and for thirty kilometers east of the right bank. France asks full reparation for damages done, full satisfaction, and penalties for wrongs committed. France actively supports the new states of Poland, Czecho- slovakia, and Jugo Slavia, which she helped to revive. France opposes the union of German Austria with Germany. France declares Bulgaria shall give full satisfaction to Serbia, Greece, and Rumania. France asks recognition of her interests in Syria, Lebanon, Cilicia, Palestine, and Armenia. France asks a share of the German colonies. France asks that she be given a clear field in Morocco and that any hampering conditions of the act of Algeciras be removed. France supports the secret agreement with England of 1916. France supports the policy of anti-Bolshevist elements in Rus- sia, and has landed a division at Odessa and sent General Berthe- lot to reorganize the Rumanian Army. She will endeavor to help organize an offensive with purely Russian troops. France will support full publicity for all agreements reached by the Peace Conference. M. Clemenceau's address was even more significant. It was in reality an answer to an interpellation on the policy of the ministry. M. Franklin Bouillon, chair- man of the foreign affairs commission and leader of the 28 THE ADVENTURES OF radical party, was one of the men who sought informa- tion on the Government's policies at the conference, and because the radical party controlled a majority of the votes in the chamber, his views had weight. Ernest Lafont, socialist leader, was the other speaker, and what he said dealt principally with Russia from the point of view of the Socialist party, which consid- ered the Government to be dealing with reactionaries. To these men M. Clemenceau said in substance : The question of peace is a terrible question, one of the most diflScult which has been submitted to the nation. In a few days there will meet in Paris a conference of political men who are going to settle the fate of nations of all parts of the world. France is in a particularly difficult position. It is the country nearest Germany. America is far away and took time to come in. Great Britain responded immediately to the call of Mr. Asquith. And during this time we toiled and suffered and fought. Our men were mown down, our towns and villages were destroyed. Every one agrees in saying that this must not begin again. France will accept from an international organization, regarding which, however, no light has been shed, additional guaranties for France, especially if they enable us to diminish the sacrifices in- curred by military preparations. There is an old system which seems to be condemned to-day, but to which I remain faithful at this moment. The nations are organizing their defenses and are striving to have good frontiers and armaments and what is called the balance of power. The system seems now to be condemned; but if such a balance of power had preceded the war, if Great Britain, America, France, and Italy had agreed to say that whoever attacked one of them would be attacking the whole world, this atrocious war would not have taken place. This system of alliances, which I do not renounce, shall be my guiding thought at the conference if your confidence sends me to it, so that there can be no separation in peace of the four powers which have fought side by side. The balance of power ! THE FOUKTEEIT POINTS 29 The phrase appealed to me as a historical reference. It evoked images of bygone times. I called up a pic- ture of five men in velvet coats and knee-breeches and powdered wigs sitting with their heads close together in a little room near the palace of the Hofburg in Vienna, cutting up a map of the world with a pair of shears. They were the progenitors of the balance of power. I thought of another picture. It was that of an army of lithe, sinewy young men in khaki, march- ing forward with swinging gait and a song upon their lips. They were crusaders — crusaders against the evil that had been wrought by Europe's makeshift sys- tem of political readjustment. President Wilson had spoken of them in his scathing arraignment of the bal- ance of power at Manchester just a few days before : They fought to do away with an old order aad to establish a new one, and the center and characteristic of the old order was that unstable thing which we used to call "' the balance of power," a thing in which the balance was determined by the sword which was thrown in on the one side or the other, a balance which was determined by the unstable equilibrium of competitive interests, a balance which was maintained by jealous watchfulness and an an- tagonism of interests which, though it was generally latent, was always deep-seated. The men who have fought in this war have been the men from the free nations who are determined that that sort of thing should end now and forever. It is interesting to me to observe how from every quarter, from every sort of mind, from every concert of counsel there comes the suggestion that there must now be not a balance of power, not one powerful group of nations set up against another, but a single overwhelming powerful group of nations who shall be the trustees of the peace of the world. « That was the construction President Wilson placed upon the balance of power. And yet almost at the time that he was speaking in Manchester, Clemenceau, 30 THE ADVENTUEES OF the " tiger " of France, had addressed the Chamber of Deputies in these memorable words : " There is an old system much decried nowadays but to which, I am not afraid to say, I still hold, and that is the system of the balance of power." All Paris was ringing with these w^ords. xVt the Crillon, at the Astoria, at the French foreign office, and in all the numerous and complex bureaus that had sprung up like mushrooms in the night around the Peace Conference, men commented upon these two apparently antagonistic statements and speculated upon their im- port. Did they foreshadow a clash between the ideals of the Kew World and the practices of the Old ? Had the capitulation of Europe to the ideas expressed in President Wilson's Fourteen Points been made with mental reservations, and were the Fourteen Points to be- come an issue at the peace table ? President Wilson had proclaimed them on January 18, 1918, as the basis for making peace ; Great Britain had accepted them with a reservation and France had given her assent. Italy, too, adhered to them; and the other belligerents, and lastly Germany, had acquiesced in their terms. The last point declared that the nations of the earth must join in a league that must guarantee the peace of the world. Like an afterthought it had first been pub- lished to the world; but now, through the assiduous spreading of the gospel by the President both at home and in his speeches throughout the Allied countries, it had become one of the issues of the conference, and for weeks men had looked forward to this new system that should replace the old, THE FOURTEEN POINTS 31 " We have the right," said " Le Temps '' on January 1, ^^ to found peace on something else than a hypothesis. Sureties are required." ^' Peace will not be real," said ^' La Liberte " at the same time, '' if it does not give France tranquillity." Peace and tranquillity — those were the ends men sought, and to attain them they used many different means. What would be the outcome in Paris ? What would the nations of our own time agree upon to keep the peace of the world? I retraced my steps by the way I had come and reached again the Place de la Concorde. The big ma- rine gun arrested my attention. Like a great warning finger it seemed to point skyward. Would the world ever again have recourse to '' the last word of kings " I CHAPTER III Concerning the relative importance of a peace conference and a foot-ball game, and how it feels to survey the great of the earth through a doorway. A COMPANY of buglers was drawn up just inside the tall iron fence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Behind them stood a guard of honor of blue-coated Poilus. A black limousine rolled through the open gates. It contained a man of smooth-shaven counte- nance, wearing a high silk hat, and two women. At the front of the car flew a small blue flag, with the Ameri- can eagle embroidered in white. The man alighted and walked up the steps of the ministry. The buglers put their instruments to their lips and blew a fan- fare. The Poilus stood at salute. A second limousine drew up, containing a man and a woman. The man had a slight, rotund figure, and wore a white Vandyke beard. Their car, too, flew a flag — the tricolor of France. Again the buglers blew ; again the Poilus came to a salute. From the crowd outside the iron fence rose a mild, polite cheer. The President of the United States and the Presi- dent of the French Republic had arrived, and the greatest peace conference in the history of the world was about to open. It was January 18, 1919. I stood outside the tall iron fence and looked not at 32 THE FOURTEE]^ POINTS 33 the notables as they alighted within the inclosure, but at the crowd that waited more or less respectfully before the gates. At most there could not have been more than five hundred persons, men and women, well at- tired, many probably business and professional men. Here and there American doughboys on leave leaned against the plane-trees and smoked cigarettes com- placently. American girls, wearing the long blue capes of the Y.M.C.A., walked by in pairs and stopped to scrutinize the building. A nurse girl pushed her per- ambulator up and down before the fence and peered interestedly inside as if wondering what was interfering with her afternoon's walk on the Quai d'Orsay. There were no demonstrations ; there were no shouted com- mands to keep order; there were no lines of rope or files of gendarmes. I had sat in the rain with thirty thousand persons who became hysterical when one man kicked a foot- ball across an open field. I had waited with countless other thousands in the burning August sun while two aeroplanes performed simple evolutions overhead. I had witnessed one hundred thousand men on parade, and I had forgotten what event it was that called them forth. And 1 had come to this Peace Conference in Paris with the conviction that it was perhaps the most important gathering of influential men in one hundred years, that it would affect the fortune of hundreds of millions of white, black, and yellow men, and lay the foundations for the future development of half a world. 'No wonder that the crowd arrayed on the Quai d'Orsay this January afternoon disappointed me by its size, 34 THE ADVENTURES OE Yet the error in judgment was mine, and the public had followed only its natural impulse. Paris would go to the races at Longchamps by tens of thousands to share in the exhilaration of a contest, but because the plenary session offered nothing more than a glimpse of two score or more men in ulsters and top-hats alighting from automobiles, Paris remained at home, where it could debate the decisions of the conference at leisure. The mental reaction which the conference afforded Paris would get from its newspapers, from the speeches in public, and from the eventual " big scene " — the signing of the treaty of peace. While I was standing outside the ministry Baukhage of the " Stars and Stripes " came up. '^ Going in ? " asked Baukhage. " I think I will," I replied. ^' I hear they are very strict about admitting any one," said Baukhage. " Have you a pass ? " " Nothing but my card of identification," I replied. " Well, maybe I 've got a meal-ticket about me," said Baukhage. " Let 's try it." There are two formal entrances to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one at each end of the f agade that faces the Seine. The entrance toward the west was for the delegates to the conference; the one to the east for the press. We took the latter door. The pleasant young man who had guarded the anteroom of the American mission at the Hotel de Crillon was there; he nodded, and we passed inside. Who should and who should not enter the sacrosanct quarters of the Peace Conference had been debated for THE FOUKTEElSr POINTS 35 several weeks before this session, and this despite the fact that the first of the Fourteen Points on which the Allies, the associated powers, and the enemy had agreed to sign the armistice declared unreservedly for " open covenants openly arrived at." When the conference was about to open and it was learned that the world would be shut out from the deliberations, there was a great wave of protest, but it seemed to have no effect on the leaders of the four great powers. The news- paper men immediately made publicity an issue of their own; the Americans sent resolutions of protest to the President and to the American mission ; the British placed their protests in the hands of Sir George Riddell for action ; Italian, Belgian, French, and Serbian news- paper men took exceptions to the rule. The result was an announcement by the chiefs of the conference that although the detailed work would have to be done in private, plenary sessions would be held from time to time, at which the larger results of the work would be acted upon and to which the press would be admitted. M. Clemenceau, who was pointed out as one of the prin- cipal opponents to publicity, made an explanation of his stand in the Chamber of Deputies the day before the opening session. He said that publicity for debates was generally favored, but that there was one point on which secrecy must be observed. It must not be said that the head of one government had put forward a proposal that was opposed by the head of another government. It was essential that the decisions of the conference as a whole should go forth as agreed upon unanimously, de- spite the " friendly discussion " that might precede 36 THE ADVENTURES OF them. It turned out later that even the leaders were unable to keep the world in ignorance. Delegates with a grievance were only too glad to give interviews and information anonymously in order to influence public opinion in their behalf, so that despite the alleged pre- cautions and the reports of secrecy, everything the con- ference did sooner or later saw the light of day. We passed through several rooms, and then into a long gallery which looked out upon the garden of the ministry through high double windows on one side, and on the other had three large doorways in which hung portieres of heavy, wine-colored damask. The room was already filled with men, and most of them, standing on chairs and tables, were trying to look through the three doorways into the room beyond, a hazardous feat not at all easy, and which led to much jostling and many expressions of disappointment and disgust. These men represented the world outside the Peace Conference ; these three doorways were the windows through which they were to be permitted to view the august personages in session, and through which they were to be allowed to hear, if they could, the discourses that fell from the lips of the rulers. The hall beyond was the Salon de Vhorloge, the hall of the clock, a room of which the imperialists had been unusually proud in the reign of Louis Napoleon, but which went badly with the professed aims of a body of democratic leaders. The ministry was not an old building, — it had been erected in 1853, — but the Bour- bons at Versailles never perpetrated greater decorative banalities than those contained within this room. The THE FOUKTEEN POINTS 37 carpets and hangings were from Gobelin's; there was enough marble and white enamel and gold leaf to sat- isfy the average middle-class appetite for imperial trap- pings. On the large white marble mantel was the mar- ble clock which gave the room its name; above rose a statue of Liberty holding a torch, which bore the signa- ture, " Pollett, I860.'' Amid these gorgeous surround- ings democracy had come to dictate peace. Through one of the doorways I watched the leaders as they took their seats: President Poincare at the head of the big U-shaped table ; President Wilson at his right, in the neat attire of the American business man ; on the other side of the President of Prance, Lloyd George, Balfour, and Bonar Law. The American mis- sion sat at the right of President Wilson, facing the assemblage, with the exception of Colonel House, who was absent through illness. Beyond the Americans, and at right angles to them, came the French delegates, M. Clemenceau, the most powerful member of the group, looking more like a bulldog than a tiger; M. Pichon; Marshal Foch, a man with a handsome, kindly face, and the firm lips of a great leader ; M. Klotz, M. Tardieu, and M. Jules Cambon. Then came the representatives of Italy; Sonnino, Salvago-Kaggi, Premier Orlando, Salandra, and Barzilai ; and corresponding to their posi- tion, on the other side of the hall, the representatives of the British dominions and the delegates from Japan, the latter including the Marquis Saionyi, Baron Makino, Viscount Chinda, M. Matsui, and M. Ijuin. These completed the major powers, for it had been decreed that Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, 38 THE ADVENTURES OF and Japan should have five delegates each, and the British dominions two each for Australia, Canada, South Africa, and India, and one for Xew Zealand. Long hours had been spent in the allocation of seats, and much importance was attached to them, and it might well be said that a nation could gage its own rank and position in the world by the treatment accorded its rep- resentatives at the conference. The result had not been accepted without protests, and I could well imagine that there were heart-burnings even now among many of the able statesmen who had come to Paris as repre- sentatives of nations not classed as major powers. Three seats each had been given to Belgium and Ser- bia for their martyrdom in the war, and to Brazil in recognition of its important place in South America. Two had been given China, Greece, the King of the Hedjaz, Poland, Portugal, Eumania, Siam, Serbia and the Czecho-Slovak republic. One seat each had been given Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, N^ic- aragua, and Panama. The five great powers were des- ignated '' belligerent powers with general interests,'' which were entitled to take part in all sittings and com- missions. The others were called ^^ belligerent powers with special interests," and were expected to take part only in sittings at which questions affecting them were discussed. In addition one seat each was granted to Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and LTruguay, which were called ^' powers in a state of diplomatic rupture with the en- emy," and also were expected to appear only at sittings which specially concerned them. There was definite objection to the allotment of some THE FOURTEEN POINTS 39 of the seats. For instance, the newly organized Jugo Slav kingdom, which professed to have incorporated Montenegro, was not recognized by the conference ; but Serbia was granted seats, and Montenegro was prom- ised one representative, who should take his place when the political situation in Montenegro had been cleared up. King Nicholas, who had been an exile in Paris for the greater part of the war, declared that the Serbs had taken advantage of his absence and occupied his country by force, and Italy sustained his contention. The "French press inquired why seats had not been awarded to Morocco, Tunis, and Algeria, when the Brit- ish dominions were represented by nine delegates. The Russians in Paris were plainly nonplussed because they were not asked to act for the former Russian Empire ; but the heads of the British, American, French, and Italian delegations, who arranged the procedure of the conference, were not convinced that these men possessed a mandate from the Russian people. Despite this, the Russian embassy in Paris became the headquarters of a working committee of the three anti-Bolshevist gov- ernments represented here — that of Omsk, for which Prince Lvoff was the spokesman ; that of Ekaterinodar, for which M. Sazonoif, minister of foreign affairs under the czar, appeared; and that of Archangel, represented by M. Tchaikovsky. Yet Russia was not represented in any of the negotiations leading up to the treaty of peace with Germany. One needed only to glance over this assembly of men to become impressed with the tremendous changes brought about by the upheaval of the World War. 40 THE adve:^tukes of There sat an American President, one of the dominat- ing factors of a European conference. For the first time, too, the self-governing dominions of the British Empire were represented, for the most part by their prime ministers, as Sir Robert Borden for Canada, W. M. Hughes for Australia, and W. F. Massey for jSFew Zealand. The delegates from India, the Maharaja Ganga Singh and Sir S. P. Sinha lent a picturesque touch to the assembly by their colorful costumes. For the first time, too, Hedjaz, the Arabian kingdom ruled by Hussein, Sherif of Mecca, was rep- resented. Near by the quiet, self-possessed Mongolian delegates gave proof of the tremendous changes that had come about in the Orient, while the seat reserved for Liberia indicated that the black man, who had been recognized as a human being only after great argument at the Congress of Vienna, had gained admittance to the most august political body in the world in the course of one hundred years. When the conference was formally opened, it was al- most as if the board of directors of a corporation had agreed to sit down and talk of business affairs, there was so little ostentation about it all. The President of France rose, and read his address from manuscript, naming each of the states represented at the conference by name and speaking of the work that each had ac- complished in the war, giving special attention to the fact that ^' America, the daughter of Europe, crossed the ocean to wrest her mother from the humiliation of thraldom and to save civilization. . . . The interven- tion of the United States was something more, some- tf .5 5 S^ 2 O « M ^^ «*, 0) OT3 fee TO <» THE fouetee:^ poi:n"ts 41 thing greater, than a great political and military event. It was the supreme judgment passed at the bar of his- tory by the lofty conscience of a free people and their chief magistrate on the enormous responsibilities in- curred in the frightful conflict which was lacerating hu- manity." He spoke in a careful, concise Gallic sum- mary of the League of Nations that these men had deter- mined to establish : You do not intend this international association to be directed against anybody in future; it will not of set purpose shut out any- body: but, having been organized by the nations that have sacri- ficed themselves in defense of right, it would receive from them its statutes and fundamental rules; it will lay down conditions to which its present or future adherents will submit, and, as it is to have for its essential aim to prevent so far as possible the renewal of wars, it will, above all, seek to gain respect for the peace which you will have established, and will find it less difficult to maintain in proportion as this peace will in itself imply greater realities of justice and safer guaranties of stability. But perhaps no sentence spoken by the French Pres- ident reached its mark so quickly as this: This very day, forty-eight years ago, on the eighteenth of January, 1871, the German Empire was proclaimed by an army of invasion in the Chateau at Versailles. It was consecrated by the theft of two French provinces. It was thus vitiated from its origin, and by the fault of its founders. Born in injustice, it has ended in opprobrium. You are assembled in order to repair the evil that it has done and to prevent a recurrence of it. You hold in your hands the future of the world. What happened then was another proof of the chang- ing world. President Poincare had spoken in French ; Lieutenant Mantoux now rose and read the president's speech in English. It came about later that men spoke also first in English and that their address was then 42 THE ADVENTUEES OF translated into French. A new language for diplomatic intercourse had won equal honors with that which was recognized as essential throughout centuries. When M. Poincare's speech had been read, the Presi- dent rose and the conference rose with him, and stood until he had left the hall. And then a quick, nervous little man slipped from his place among the French delegates to the chair that M. Poincare had just va- cated. He had bright little eyes that shifted now this way, now that; his head was bent forward as if to get closer to the object of his scrutiny, and the expression on his face led one to think that he had a remarkable witticism in reserve and meant to tell it at the first opportunity. It was M. Clemenceau, come to act as chairman while the Conference effected its organization. Both President Wilson and Mr. Lloyd George spoke extemporaneously on behalf of making M. Clemenceau permanent chairman of the Conference, the former in his quiet, scholarly manner; the latter with a good deal of emphasis, and with a merry twinkle in his eyes, calling the premier " the grand young man of France," a phrase that proved a puzzle even for Lieu- tenant Mantoux when he came to translate it into French, for '*" le grand jeune homme de la France " fails to convey the signification in French that this phrase has in English. When you looked at M. Clem- enceau you felt that he must be a very old man ; in fact, his old-fashioned, round white cuffs and his gray silk gloves seemed to put him back into the seventies and eighties of the last century, but w'hen he laughed and nodded his head vigorously, you knew that he was ex- THE FOUETEEiT POINTS 43 actlj as young in mind and spirit as Mr. Lloyd George said he was. And after Baron Sonnino had seconded the nomination on behalf of Italy, M. Clemenceau rose and put the question, and, hearing no nays, made a short, rattling speech. In fact, it sounded a great deal as if a schoolmaster were admonishing his pupils, for he spoke in short, sharp sentences, flinging his phrases at his audience in a businesslike monotone, refusing to adopt the postures or the inflections of the conventional French orator. M. Clemenceau presided at the elec- tion of a vice-president for each of the five great powers, and announced the order of the day : first, responsibili- ties of the authors of the war; second, punishment of crimes committed during the war; and third, interna- tional legislation on the labor question. Were there any objections ? The chair hears none. Has any mem- ber a question to put to the chair ? We must be in ab- solute accord. Xo member must keep to himself any remark he may have to make. If no one asks for the floor, the session is closed. What was our impression of the conference as we looked through the three big doorways, as we jostled one another for places, and climbed about on the costly damask upholstery of the chairs with the gilded legs? That it was the performance of three men at the most, with two others in the background. As for the repre- sentatives of the smaller powers who sat inside the coun- cil chamber, they were, after all, spectators like our- selves, knowing as little of what was to come about as we who tried to interpret this meeting for the world. ^"0 one raised his voice in opposition to the program; no 44 THE ADVENTURES OF one could have carried his point had he chosen to do so. That became patent at the next plenary session of the Peace Conference only a week later, on January 25, 1919, when the great work of preparing the draft covenant for the League of Nations was formally entered upon. This second session had before it a motion for the creation of a committee on the League of Nations and a resolution which read as follows : The Conference having considered the proposals for the creation of a League of Nations, resolves that: (a) It is essential to the maintenance of the world settlement, which the associated nations are now met to establish, that a League of Nations be created to promote international cooperation to insure the fulfilment of accepted international obligations and to provide safeguards against war. (b) This League should be treated as an integral part of the general Treaty of Peace, and should be open to every civilized nation which can be relied on to promote its objects. (c) The members of the League should periodically meet in in- ternational conference and should have a permanent organization and secretariat to carry on the business of the League in the in- tervals between the conference. The Conference therefore appoints a committee representative of the associated governments to work out the details of the con- stitution and functions of the League. M. Clemenceau declared the resolution to be before the conference. President Wilson made a speech. Mr. Lloyd George made a speech. Signor Orlando made a speech. M. Leon Bourgeois made a speech. The delegates who were not in the sacred circle of the five great powers did what they were expected to do — listened. The exception was Mr. W. M. Hughes of Australia. He impressed one as being a man who be- lieved in getting all that was coming to him. And it THE FOUKTEEN POmTS 45 was not really what he said that made the five great powers look at him with curiosity, but the way he said it ; for his words were simply these : " I assume that we shall have an opportunity to dis- cuss the scheme when it is finished." *^ Without any question/' replied M. Clemenceau in English. M. Hymans of Belgium likewise had something to say that was not on the " agenda/' as the conference called its order of business. M. Hymans asked for an explanation of the concluding paragraph of the resolu- tion. M. Clemenceau replied that it had been de- termined that the five great powers were to name two representatives each on the committee, and the other powers were to elect five representatives in common. " But," objected M. Hymans, " that gives only five delegates to the nineteen powers that are conveniently called ^ powers with special interests.' " And then he drove home his arguments : ^^ The only committee on which Belgium is ade- quately represented is the committee on reparation of damages. ^^ Belgium should be represented on the committee on the League of Nations because of her special inter- national situation and her historical and geographical position. ^' Belgiimi should be represented on the committee on labor legislation because, before the war, Belgium was a very important industrial and commercial coun- try, ranking fifth or sixth in the list of industrial powers. " Belgium should be represented on the Qomiaittee 46 THE ADVENTURES OF on ports, railways, and waterways because Antwerp is the first Allied p^rt on the Continent, and the Bel- gian railways are important. " Belgium should be represented on the committee on crimes and responsibilities because some of the worst crimes were committed on Belgian soil. ^' I appeal to the fair play of the conference and of the chairman." Evidently there were other nations that had objec- tions to make to the prearranged program. One after the other their representatives rose and asked for places on one or more of the committees. Senhor Calogeras spoke for Brazil ; M. Trumbitch for the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes; M. Venizelos for Greece; Senhor Garcia for Portugal; M. Benes for Czecho-Slovakia ; M. Bratiano for Rumania ; M. Lou Tseng Tsiang for China; M. Dmowski for Poland; and finally M. Bidadh Kosha for Siam. It was evident that the representatives of the five great powers had overlooked something. M. Clemenceau allowed each of the delegates from the " powers with special interests " to have his say. Then he rose to reply. There was no mystery, he said, about the fact that the delegates from the five great powers were meeting together by themselves. ^' The five great powers, I am obliged to say, are in a position to do so. At the time of the armistice they had together 12,000,000 men under arms on the battle- fields. Their dead can be counted by millions. " If the idea, that great idea of the society of nations, THE FOURTEEE^ POINTS 47 / was not above the whole of our work here, it would have been possible for us, the five great powers, to con- sult only ourselves in the settlement. That would have been, after all, our right. Well, that has never been our thought. We have asked all the nations interested in the settlement to meet us here." M. Clemenceau said he favored small committees be- cause this expedited the work. He said that any power might be heard at any time, before any committee. But he wanted the great questions of the conference to come before the bureau of the five powers. ^' And to give my reason frankly," said M. Clem- enceau, " it is because I could not, we would not, agree that any committee should have the right to dictate to the five great powers." That closed the incident. It was as if the minor powers had acted on the suggestion that ^' if you want to know who is boss around here, start something." The great powers had 12,000,000 men under arms when the armistice came, M. Clemenceau had said. The five great powers would not have needed to consult any one had they wished. " That would have been, after all, our right." Which was, of course, sufficiently clear to all. The basis of victory was force, and the basis of the negotia- tions was force. The place that each nation took in the conference was determined by its size, its influence, and its military strength. And when the truce with Germany was made permanent, it would again have to be the force mustered by the five great powers that would become the backbone of " a just and lasting peace." CHAPTER IV How President Wilson went across the seas with his formula for peace, and found that Europe had a few ideas on the same subject. LoED Robert Cecil, K.C, ran his long, lean fingers up . and down the seam of the green table-cloth and studied it intently. His figure, too, was long and lean, and when he spoke he bent forward as if to get close to his audience. He was facing a table arranged in the form of a hollow square; there were blotting-pads at regular intervals, and an incandescent-light globe swung down over each of the pads. Lord Robert's class on the League of Nations had transformed the finest salon of the Hotel Astoria into a school-room. " The Monroe Doctrine ? " Lord Robert was saying. " Well, now, the j\Ionroe Doctrine cannot really be in- corporated into the constitution of the League of Na- tions. No, indeed. What will happen is this: when trouble breaks out on the Western Hemisphere, the league will naturally appoint the United States to take care of it, of course." ^' But will the constitution of the league specifically name the United States for this duty ? " asked one of the " pupils." "No, I do not think it will; but of course no one would think of appointing any other nation than the United States to do that work." 48 THE F0URTEE:N^ points 49 " And will the league interfere with immigration^ Lord Robert ? '' " ISTot at all. Immigration is an internal matter. The league will not interfere with any legislation on immigration that the United States sees fit to pass." This was a class in which the pupils did the asking and the schoolmaster did the explaining. " And will there be an international army and navy ? Or will the league be able to order any army and navy to fight ? Will the league be able to order the British Navy to fight ? " ^' The British Navy ? Of course not. I do not con- sider an international army and navy practical. Nor can the league order any army and navy to fight. The league will ask one of its members to apply force where it is needed. But that member directs its own army and navy.'' Lord Robert Cecil was the chief lecturer for the British Empire on the League of Nations. He dis- cussed its constitution, its membership, its powers, its possibilities. He described hypothetical cases and gave practical examples of its administration of world affairs. At the same time M. Andre Tardieu spoke early and often on the attitude of France. In formal interviews M. Leon Bourgeois outlined the absolute essentials for the organization of the league. At the Hotel Lutetia the American Peace Association issued bulletins and manifestos. Lieutenant-General J. C. Smuts had so many thoughts on the subject that he published them in pamphlet form. C. J. Hoherty, Canadian Minister of Justice, prepared a detailed memorandum. Oscar 50 THE ADVENTUEES OF Straus spoke in glowing terms of a roseate future under the league. ]Kornian Angell coached from the side lines. Paris was a veritable Chautauqua. But at the Villa Murat silence, and at the Hotel de ( 'rillon only a whisper now and then from Colonel House — a disconcerting whisper. On IS^ovember 4, 1918, seven days after Colonel House began his conferences with the Allied premiers in Paris on the subject of signing an armistice with Germany, the Allies formally accepted the principles of President Wilson as the basis for peace. America acclaimed them. All Europe was ostensibly in full accord. Germany agreed to them in her correspondence with the President, and in admitting her readiness to sign the terms of the armistice. And one of the fourteen principles of Presi- dent Wilson, the fourteenth, in fact, was this : A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of po- litical independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. Almost like an after-thought it seemed to have been incorporated in the Fourteen Points. But it was not an aftor-thoiight. It had lingered for a long time in his mind. When on April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany, when he said that the world must be made safe for democ- racy, he also declared : A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by a partnership of democratic nations. No autocratic govern- ment could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its covenants. It must be a league of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat its vitals away; the plottings of in- THE FOUETEEN POINTS 51 ner circles who could plan what they would and render account to no one would be a corruption seated at its heart. As time went on, the President elaborated upon his theme. On July 4, 1918, he said that one of the aims of the war was . . . the establishment of an organization of peace which shall make it certain that the combined power of free nations will check every invasion of right, and serve to make peace and justice the more secure by affording a definite tribunal of opinion to which all must submit, and by which every international readjustment that cannot be amicably agreed upon by the peoples directly con- cerned shall be sanctioned. And as every one was agreed, the Peace Conference placed the League of T^ations first in its order of busi- ness. It was inseparable, the President had said, from the treaty of peace itself. On January 25, 1919, the Peace Conference in plenary session voted the nomina- tion of a commission on the League of Nations, to be composed of fifteen members, two from each of the five great powers, and five from the powers with special in- terests. On January 27 the smaller powers chose Bel- gium, Brazil, China, Portugal, and Serbia to name one representative each on the commission, and on Feb- ruary 6 the conference leaders permitted Greece, Po- land, Rumania, and the Czecho-Slovak Republic each to name a member, on recommendation of the commis- sion itself. So that, when its organization was finally completed, the commission included these notable men : President Wilson and Colonel House for the United States ; Lord Robert Cecil and Lieuten ant-General J. C. Smuts for the British Empire ; Leon Bourgeois and M. Larnaude for France; Premier Orlando and Senator 52 THE ADVENTUIIES OF Scialoja for Italy; Baron Makino and Viscount Cliinda for J apan ; Paul Hymans for Belgium ; Epitacio Pessoa for Brazil; V. K. Wellington Koo for China; J. Ba- talha-Reis for Portugal; Milenko Vesnitch for Serbia; Eleutlierios Venizelos for Greece; Roman Dmowski for Poland; M. Diamandj for Rumania, and Karel Kra- marcz for Czecho-Slovakia. The most remarkable thing about the League of Na- tions was the unanimity with which the powers wel- comed the idea. They may have said quietly and with- out emotion that they were in favor of the Fourteen Points, but when it came to the fourteenth, they shouted their approval from the housetops. Their views were unanimous on another matter — that the German col- onies must not go back to Germany. This was in keeping with point five, which provided for " a free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial ad- justment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict ob- servance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be deter- mined." It happened that just before the commission on the League of Xations got under way the representatives of the five great powers — the council of five — took up the subject of the disposition of the German colonies in the far East, the Pacific, and Africa. President Wil- son thereupon suggested that they be " internation- alized," by which he meant that guardianship of the German colonies and the dependent lands of the Otto- THE FOURTEEN^ POINTS 53 man Empire should be vested in the League of Nations. The league might appoint other nations to administer these colonies, but the league would be the final au- thority, and the inhabitants of these lands were to have the right to develop unhampered. The suggestion had the effect of a bombshell. Dele- gates from several nations who had quietly contemplated raising their owa. flags on the German colonies, poured out of the hotels in a frenzy and began dashing madly up and down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in taxi- cabs. European and other statesmen, who were wedded to the principles of democracy, began to talk about a betrayal of their interests. Japan demanded the possession of the Caroline Is- lands, including the Pelew and Mariana islands, a group east of the Philippines and north of New Guinea, be- tween five and ten degrees north latitude. Japan like- wise claimed the Marshall Islands, also known as Mi- cronesia, a group of thirty-three small islands between four and fifteen degrees north latitude. As early as 1917 Japan had obtained the promises of her allies, Great Britain, Erance, Eussia, and Italy, that they would support her claims upon the German islands north of the equator. Australia, through Mr. Hughes, its prime minister, asked for the extensive island possessions of Germany in New Guinea, including the Bismarck archipelago and the Solomon Islands, approximately 94,200 miles in extent. Mr. Hughes objected with great determina- tion to President Wilson's plan, even though the Presi- dent suggested that Australia be given a mandate for 64 THE ADVENTURES OF these islands bv the league. He directed attention to the fact that public opinion in Australia fully expected these possessions as Australia's share in the settlement. The acting prime minister, Watt, sent a cable message to Paris saying that this view was unanimous. The Union of South Africa wished to extend its ad- ministration over the contiguous German territory in German Southwest Africa, and German East Africa also was expected to come under British rule. General Botha, acting for the Union, was particularly opposed to the President's scheme, and spoke at length against it. France looked forward to extending its sovereignty over Kamerun and Togoland. Kamerun was occupied by French and British forces during the war, and an agreement was made with Britain whereby France ad- ministered five sixths of Kamerun, including the port of Duala, and the British held a strip adjoining Ni- geria, including the district of Chad. The two na- tions agreed that in the event the Allies took this col- ony from Germany, this administrative arrangement should become permanent. President Wilson wished the application of his prin- ciple to be general. Lieutenant-General J. C. Smuts, Minister of Defense for the Union of South Africa, had suggested a similar plan in a pamphlet published on January 10 in London, in which he took a stand against annexation of any territory of the Ottoman Empire, Eussia, and Austria-Hungary, saying that if sover- eignty was changed in any part of their holdings, the lands should be administered by the powers under a THE FOURTEEN" POINTS 55 mandate from the league, loyally and justly, with a view of observing the right of the people to dispose of themselves, the form of government to be based on the consent of the governed. But General Smuts was not willing at first to apply this system to German holdings in Africa. Interest centered on the attitude of the delegation from Great Britain. At first its members supported the pretensions of the dominions, although they declared that they were willing to accept a mandate for German East Africa. On January 29 the British Imperial War Cabinet accepted the President's proposal despite the opposition from the dominions. The decision was far- reaching in its consequences. It made victory for President Wilson certain. It swung the dominions over to his idea. It compelled Japan to relinquish reluc- tantly her claims for territory and to support the man- datory principle. Within the next day all gave their adherence. Australia held out the longest, declaring that the possession of New Guinea was necessary for strategic reasons. When the decision was announced, there were delegates who declared that it struck at the very foundations of the British Empire. On the other hand it was also said that Great Britain would be much more able to solve her difficulties in Asia Minor under the system of mandates than by annexation. When the council of five agreed upon the mandatory principle, they took the League of Nations out of the realm of fiction and made it a vital and necessary thing. The league now had its reason for existence. It had extensive territories to supervise, and the well-being 66 THE ADVENTURES OF of millions of human beings, many of them not yet far advanced in civilization, to watch over and protect from exploitation. The commission on the league might now go forward with the conviction that a real business organization must be effected. It is this commission which, sitting under the chair- manship of President Wilson, prepared the document that w^e now know as the covenant of the League of ISTa- tions. The covenant passed through two stages before it was incorporated in the treaty of peace. The first stage w^as from the time of the appointment of the com- mission until February 14, when it reported the first draft of the covenant to the Peace Conference in plenary session. During this time ten meetings were held. The task of receiving suggestions for a revision of the covenant was then taken up, and five more meetings were held. A committee of the commission gave two days to representatives of thirteen neutral states. The outcome was the revised draft of the covenant, which was presented on April 28 to the Peace Conference, and adopted on motion of President Wilson. The neutral nations were heard by Lord Pobert Cecil, Colonel House, M. Bourgeois, M. Hymans, ]\L Vesnitch, and M. Venizelos. The states sending representatives were Argentine, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Nether- lands, Norway, Paraguay, Persia, Salvador, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Venezuela. The discussions brought out some interesting points of view. Denmark proposed that armaments be limited as soon as possible, that the control of the limitation of armaments be as complete as possible, and that the manufacture of war THE FOURTEEN POINTS 57 implements by private firms be prohibited. Switzer- land asked that its neutrality be conserved in the league. Denmark also proposed that no neutral state be expected to furnish military aid, and that its territory be invio- late. Lord Robert Cecil suggested that a neutral be ex- pected to join in restrictive economic measures, if neces- sary. Sweden insisted upon the right to armies of de- fense for small states even under the league. The meet- ings were important because they showed the interest of these nations in the league. The story of what took place in these meetings lays bare all the elements that control the progress or inspire the ambitions of nations. The commission met in a large room in the suite of Colonel House on the third floor of the Hotel de Crillon. The delegates came to- gether whenever they could get the time, morning, after- noon, or night, and there were several occasions when the President toiled until midnight on the league after a hard day with the council of four. The delegates spoke in French or English, as they pleased, and inter- preters translated their remarks as they went along, whispering the words to those who did not understand both languages. Every day the secretaries placed be- fore each delegate a memorandum telling exactly what progress had been made the day before. Amendments were submitted in advance, and were in the hands of every delegate before the discussion began. jSTo de- tailed stenographic records were kept, and the President encouraged an informal flow of conversation, keeping it well within bounds. At one moment when the com- mission had entered upon a discussion of what migiit 68 THE ADVENTURES OF happen far in the future the President remarked: ^' Gentlemen, I have no doubt that the next generation will be made up of men as intelligent as you or I, and 1 think we can trust the league to manage its own af- fairs." The drafting committee was composed of Messrs. Larnaude, Venizelos, Vesnitch, and Lord Rob- ert Cecil. The covenant was set up and printed by American soldiers attached to the mission, to whom President Wilson expressed his thanks in a graceful letter just before he sailed for the United States in February. There were days when it seemed as if the League of Nations would be nothing more than a resolution of good will between the nations. There were reports of stormy debates, of threats to leave the commission, of charges that the vital interests of nations were being trafficked away. Opponents of the league idea began to spring from all sorts of odd places, giving out interviews show- ing that the league was the impracticable dream of an idealist; either that, or the well-calculated scheme of the Anglo-American interests to checkmate the legiti- mate ambitions of all other nations and place the world in bondage. President Wilson was called by turns a crank, a dreamer, an obstructionist, a visionary, an idealist, and the greatest friend of mankind. The na- tions of the world were ready to enter into an agree- ment to keep the peace, but each wanted its own kind of agreement and its own brand of peace. i It is safe to assert that without President Wilson there would have been no covenant of the League of Nations. Day in and day out he held steadfastly to his idea, THE FOUETEEN POINTS 59 which was that of a league as nearly remote from sel- fish aims as could be fashioned in an imperfect world. More and more marked, too, became the adherence of Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Robert Cecil, and the other members of the delegation from Great Britain. Critics of the President's motives found in this fact ample scope for biting invective. The shrewd Britons, they argued, recognized in the league an instrument to preserve the British Empire from external aggression and internal upheavals. The President, they said, had traded off the freedom of the seas for British help to build the league. And yet no one disputed the fact that the President had back of him the great body of public opinion not only of America, but of the European Allies. The American mission proved especially sensitive to suggestions and criticism that came from the United States. Several times its members told me that they would gladly cooperate with leaders of thought in America if the chasm caused by political considerations could be bridged. The remarks of William H. Taft, Elihu Root, and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge were care- fully perused and studied. It was felt that political animus entered more sharply into the speeches of Sen- ator Philander C. Knox and other senators who used the league as an opportunity to attack the President. No doubt the President was much to blame for the gulf that separated him from the Senate, for he had greatly antagonized its members by making the league more a personal than a national matter. His habit of keeping his own counsel, of conferring with no one when he did not consider it necessary, and of making no compromises 60 THE ADVEXTURES OF with public opinion was at the bottom of much of the animus. It was not long, however, before other mem- bers of the mission were in personal touch by cable with leaders in America. It then happened that the United States, which had believed that all nations should make sacrifices to real- ize the great idea of the league, refused to compromise its own interests in view of the experimental character of the international body. The first stumbling-block was the Monroe Doctrine. It was patent that if the world peace was to be guaranteed by a central organiza- tion of all the powers, there would be no need for any one power to set aside any part of the world for its special field. America, which came to Europe and recognized that the oceans no longer effectively separated the con- tinents, could not tell Europe that the Western Hemis- phere was its ward. Obviously, if that could be done, Japan was entitled to set up a Monroe Doctrine for the far East, and Great Britain could assert the same guardianship over most of Africa. But the American people were not convinced that Europe had undergone a change of heart by the mere organization of the league, and although conceptions of the scope and ef- fectiveness of the Monroe Doctrine differed, there was something particularly vital to our national life in President Monroe's declaration that " the American con- tinents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power," and that any attempt to infringe on the independence of American governments would THE FOURTEEN POINTS 61 be viewed as " the manifestation of an unfriendly dis- position toward the United States." The American argument prevailed ; the President accepted the sugges- tion and placed it before the commission ; Europe agreed because it could not afford to antagonize Amer- ica, and Japan assented likewise, and in the final draft of the league covenant was inserted Article XXI, which says that " nothing in this covenant shall be deemed to affect the validity of international engagements, such as treaties of arbitration or regional understandings like the Monroe Doctrine, for securing the maintenance of peace." Another American criticism was that the league might have to decide whether or not the immigration legislation of the United States was justified. The United States felt that the control of immigration was a sovereign right, no matter if it involved discrimina- tion against the people of other nations. This point also affected the wishes of Australia, and for the very same reason, for both the United States and Australia wished to limit the immigration of undesirable Asiatics, and this might well endanger international comity, par- ticularly in view of Japan's assertion that this branded the Japanese people as of an inferior race. Would this become a subject for international investigation? Again the President forced the issue, and a new para- graph in the covenant provided that " if the dispute be- tween the parties is claimed by one of them, and is found by the council to arise out of a matter which by international law is solely within the domestic jur- isdiction of that party, the council shall so report, and 62 THE ADVENTURES OF shall make no recommendation as to its settlement." Withdrawal from the league was another American suggestion, and led to a provision that any member might withdraw after giving two years' notice, provided that it had fulfilled all of its obligations. The charge that the British were able to outvote all other nations in the council was met by the explicit provision that in the council each nation should have one representative and one vote, and that all decisions must be unanimous in both the council and the assembly, with the exception of votes on procedure. This was an improvement, but not yet satisfactory to all interests. Although it made the one vote of the United States equal to the six votes of the British Empire, the British group still had a veto power of six to our one. Besides, although Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa were properly self-governing dominions, this was not true of India, which had its foreign affairs ruled from London. The term " British Empire " for one of the memberships in the league also was misleading, as it would appear to cover the dominions as well as Great Britain, thus giving them double representation. The British, however, felt that the time was near when Lon- don could no longer represent the dominions in foreign relations. The Peace Conference was the first instance of their becoming signatories to an international con- vention on their own behalf, and as Viscount Milner, secretary of state for the colonies, said, it marked the beginning of a new era in the history of the British Empire. Objection to having the United States obligated to ad- THE FOURTEEN POINTS 63 minister the affairs of colonies in other continents when it was not willing to do so was met by the provision that mandataries shall be given to countries that are willing to accept them. A definition of justiciable questions was also added. Nearly all these suggestions came from Mr. Elihu Root and Mr. William H. Taft. The Amer- ican delegates, however, were unable to obtain a clause providing for compulsory arbitration, another of Mr. Root's points. American leaders also objected to having the military and naval forces of the United States placed at the dis- posal of the league, or of abrogating any of the sovereign rights of the United States over its armed forces and their disposition for national defense. There is, how- ever, no provision for ordering out any army and navy without the consent of the nation itself, and it is ex- pressly stated that the council shall " recommend " what effective military and naval force shall be contributed to protect the covenants of the league. There remains, however. Article X, against which much criticism has been directed because it provides that " the members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the terri- torial integrity and existing political independence of all members of the League." It was argued that the nations might be compelled to support a member in putting down the legitimate uprising of a subject peo- ple. The word " external," however, effectively indi- cates that aggression must come from without. At the same time it is believed that in practical operation the other machinery of the league, including investiga- 64 THE ADVENTURES OF tion, arbitration, and hearings before the court of in- ternational justice will force a just consideration of all grievances arising out of misgovernment. It was the contention of President Wilson and the other f ram- ers of the covenant that Article X must be read in con- nection with other articles which safeguard the liberty of action of members of the league. Erance, frankly and openly, visualized the League of Nations as an instrument of protection for France. The members of the French mission made that their sole aim. They became enthusiastically in favor of the league when they believed that it would build a wall against German aggression in the future ; they grew gradually lukewarm when they felt that the safe- guards were insufficient. Over and over again France stated her case: secure boundaries, adequate military protection, instantaneous action against aggression. To bring this about, France, through Leon Bourgeois, submitted to the commission on the league two amend- ments. The first amendment (to Article VIII) read as follows : The high contracting parties being determined to interchange full and frank information as to the scale of armaments, their military and naval programs, and the conditions of such of their industries as are adaptable to warlike purposes, have appointed a committee for the purpose of ascertaining so far as possible the above information. The second amendment (to Article IX) read: A permanent organization shall be constituted for the purpose of considering and providing for naval and military measures to enforce the obligations arising from the high contracting parties THE FOUKTEEN POINTS 65 under this covenant and of making it eflFective in cases of emergency. M. Bourgeois, who had devoted a great part of his life to projects for the maintenance of peace, and who had represented France at the peace conferences at The Hague, fought for these resolutions from the moment the commission began its work. He declared that the mere intention of the governments to give information to one another was not enough, that the ^' instrument of verification " was lacking. Article IX read simply: " A permanent commission shall be constituted to ad- vise the council on the execution of the provisions of Articles I and VIIT and on military and naval ques- tions generally." M. Bourgeois felt that means should be taken to make action effective without long debate. He contended that a system of ^^ mutual control and mutual guarantees " of armaments gives offense to no one, when the system is universally applied. He in- dorsed the views of Mr. Elihu Root on the mutual con- trol of armaments. " What is most important if we are to succeed is not to allow those who are willing to resist the league to have force in their hands. There- fore the most important point to us is the limitation of armaments." The objection to the first amendment is believed to have come principally from the British. The second amendment is the one that became known as the " international general staff " amendment. M. Bourgeois denied that it organized such a staff. The amendments were not adopted, to the great dis- appointment of M. Bourgeois and the French delegates, who thereupon turned to M. Clemenceau's favorite idea 66 THE ADVENTURES OF that, after all, alliances are the best guaranties, and began helping France to form a defensive alliance with Great Britain and the United States, of which more will be said later. Another important amendment to the covenant, which also failed of acceptance, was presented by Baron Ma- kino on behalf of Japan. The presentation of this amendment is one of the important events of the Peace Conference — one which may well have far-reaching consequences in the future. It was meant by Japan to remove the implied stain of inferiority from the Mongolian people. It read: The equality of nations being a basic principle of the League of Nations, the high contracting parties agreed to accord, as soon as possible, to all aliens, nationals of states members of the League, equal and just treatment in every respect, making no distinction, either in law or in fact, on account of their race or nationality. It was common belief in conference circles that this amendment was meant by Japan to pave the way for diplomatic action against the United States and Aus- tralia to end discrimination against Japanese who de- sired to make their home in those countries. Baron Makino first presented this amendment to the commission on February 13, but it was not placed in the covenant in time for the plenary session on Feb- ruary 14. It was said in reply that the very presence of the Japanese at the conference proved that they were given equality of treatment. Baron Makino said that he would bring the subject up again. On April 11 he proposed the amendment to the commission. It re- THE FOUKTEEN POINTS 67 ceived a majority of the votes cast, but President Wil- son ruled that unanimous consent was necessary, and that the amendment had therefore failed of adoption. At the plenary session on April 28 Baron Makino again repeated his effort, without success. The argu- ment of the Japanese representative was clearly and ex- cellently stated. He closed with these words : I feel it my duty to declare clearly on this occasion that the Japanese Government and people feel poignant regret at the fail- ure of the Commission to approve of their just demand for laying down a principle aiming at the adjustment of this long standing grievance, the demand that is based upon a deep-rooted national conviction. They will contiiue in their insistence for the adop- tion of this principle by the League in future. The defeat of this amendment may properly be laid at the door of the United States. Australia and 'New Zealand were strongly against it, but the United States might have forced its passage. It was a strange anomaly that the nation which typified democracy and liberty to most of the oppressed peoples of the earth was not able to countenance a clear statement of principles enunciated in its Declaration of Independence and in its Constitution. Practical considerations intervened. The Japanese amendment, even though Baron Makino said that " the immediate realization of the ideal of equality was not proposed," was so ostensibly intended to lay the basis for what Americans would consider as interference in their right to regulate immigration that its adoption by the league proved inadvisable. More- over, the Japanese made no secret of their ultimate aim. As one of the men associated with the Japanese ?iiission in Paris informed me: "It is not only that 68 THE ADVENTURES OF we object to the fact that our working classes are barred from the United States. Our professional classes would like to go there. They comprise men of culture and training; lawyers, dentists, physicians, scientists, and technicians, who see no reason why they should be barred from the United States when that is a field where they could progress and be happy, and when America places no barrier in the way of Euro- peans who are no better than illiterates." Two interesting proposals were made at this time. One was that French should be the official language of the league. The other was tlwit Brussels should be its seat. President Poincare of France proposed the first. He pointed to the fact that French has been the ac- cepted language of international intercourse and that the qualities of the language make it well fitted for docu- ments of a legal character. He said that French was the official language at the Congress of Vienna; at the negotiations of 1871, when Germany was the victor; at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 ; at the Madrid con- ference on Morocco in 1880 ; at the Algeciras confer- ence and the two peace conferences of The Hague. The choice of the language was finally left to the league itself. The second proposal threw an unusual light on the attitude of European governments toward the league. The movement to win the league for Brussels began early in the year and led to the adoption of resolutions and the writing of numerous letters to Paris. Brussels decided that the Egmont Palace was most suitable for the league, and plans were discussed for its furnishing. THE FOUETEEN POINTS 69 Paul Hymans, Belgian Minister of Eoreign Affairs, on April 11, presented the request that Brussels be named. President Wilson objected strongly to this choice and felt called upon to give his reasons. He said that there could be no reconciliation between the peoples of Eu- rope if the woes of Belgium were to be shown to the Germans every time the league met. The league, which would include Germany as well as Belgium, could not meet in " a city which incarnates the enmity between the races — a city which has been wronged, but which makes reconciliation distant because of these wrongs.'' The two conceptions of the league — American and Eu- ropean ■ — stood in sharp contrast. By a vote of twelve out of eighteen the proposal of M. Hymans was de- feated and Geneva was chosen. Great Britain in this instance, as in that of Japan's amendment, voted with the United States, and Prance voted with Belgium. The remarks of President Wilson led to a bitter attack on him in the Belgian and Parisian newspapers. The second draft of the covenant of the League of Nations was adopted at the plenary session of April 28 and was then ready to be incorporated in the treaty of peace. Although many of the nations had made concessions to the points of view of others, all pledged their adherence to the league. Many of the conces- sions had been made to retain the good will of the American people, for without this all Europe knew that the league would fail. The covenant was now ready for the study of all the world, for the governments of most of the world would need to adopt it to make it effective. And that Europe would approve it was a 70 THE FOURTEEN POINTS foregone conclusion. The eyes of all the nations turned to the country from which this new charter of liberties had come. What would be the verdict of the American people ? CHAPTER V M. Clemenceau becomes the victim of an assassin's bullet, and proves that his physique is as strong as his will is firm. " This morning at 8 :45 o'clock," bes^ins a French news report for February 19, in the year of the great peace, " just after he had entered his automobile and started for his bureau M. Clemenceau was . . . shot ! '' Could any announcement have proved more electrical in its effect on the Peace Conference, Clemenceau, president of the council and minister of war, — " the tiger of France," they called him, — the man who had virtually exercised the powers of dictator since ^N'ovem- ber, 1917, when the French people called for his iron hand and his indomitable will — Clemenceau, the vic- tor, had been shot ! Truly the Peace Conference of Paris was fated to have its share of highly colored, dramatic incidents. When word reached me the deed had only been com- mitted a few minutes before. The day was still young as days go in Paris. The diamond tradesmen on the Rue de la Paix were slowly winding up the great iron window shutters that they put down every night in expectation of riot or revolution. Clerks, stenog- raphers, and salesmen were still pouring out of the " Metro " station at the Opera like a flood, and flowing out into the streets that radiate from the place like spokes of a wheel from the hub. Lieutenant Vallee 71 72 THE ADVENTURES OF Appel of the lOOtli Infantry had just come in to tell me how rotten it feels to be transfen-ed to the faculty of law of the A.E.F. university at Beaune when your division has been ordered to sail. Tough luck ! And then a friendly Y.M.C.A. man rushed in breathlessly with the news. " Let 's go ! " I cried to Appel, and in a jiffy we bolted down the stairs and into our car, and at once the chauf- feur headed for the Ministry of War. Down the Boule- vard des Capucines, down the Rue Royale, across the Place de la Concorde we went at breakneck speed, with just time for a glance at Old Glory flying over there on the roof of the Crillon. And the flags on the ministry of marine were still at full staff. " Thank God ! " I said to myself, '' It 's not a mur- der — yet." Then I reflected that even if it was, the ministry might not yet have heard of it, nor could the news have reached these Parisians on the place, going so unostentatiously about their business. The Ministry of War occupies one of those old formal French homes that was long the domicile of men asso- ciated with the political fortunes of France. Built in 1714, it still retains its ancient paved forecourt and its formal main entrance. Marshal Richelieu, grand- nephew of the famous cardinal, lived here once, as also did Lucien Bonaparte, and now it serves the state equally as well as it served the titled folk of other days. There were soldiers with bayonets fixed standing guard before their little toy-houses on each side of the great gate, and just within gold-braided attendants at- THE rOURTEE:^' POINTS 73 tempted again to exercise their time-honored function of retarding the inquirer; but this time ^^ journalist " proved to be the password. A blue-coated official di- rected me not to the offices of M. Clemenceau in the ministry itself, but to a little one-story building in an adjoining court, just around the corner from the con- cierge's house. It was a little plaster structure, huddled close to its larger neighbor, with tiny windows, and overgrown with vines. The whole group was a sort of military storehouse, but the little house proved to be a bureau^ and within I found half a dozen representa- tives of the newspapers of Paris seated around a long table. They were listening intently to the communica- tion being repeated to them by a man who stood at a telephone at one end of the room and emitted his in- formation in short, sharp barks. It was indeed true: Clemenceau had been shot. At 8 :45, yes. Had left his home in the Rue Frank- lin en route to the ministry. Entered his limousine, as always. The car turned the corner for the Rue Deles- sert. Here was a little raised '' island " in the center of the street. On it stood a man. The chauffeur ob- served him, passed on. The man raised his hand. He pointed a revolver at the car. He fired. Once. Twice. Running after the car, he fired point-blank again and again. Ten times, ten bullets. They lodged: seven in the tonneau; three at the right side, where sat the president of the council. The car turned, sped back to the Rue Franklin. The premier dis- mounted. " It is nothing," he said. '^ It is nothing.'' The examination showed a bullet-wound in the right U THE ADVENTURES OF shoulder-blade, hit from behind; a flesh wound near the lung. There was not a sound in the room but the voice of the man who snapped out his remarks in short, broken phrases. Then came quiet, disturbed only by the sound of pencils moving across the white and yellow pads of paper. Clemenceau — ''' Pere de la Vidoire/' the victim of an assassin, and yet these men, Parisians and French- men, sat quiet and imperturbable at their work. The legend of the excitable Frenchman died there, if it had not already breathed its last in the war. The assassin was a lad of twenty-three, an immature youngster ; Emile- Jules-Henri Cottin, a worker in wood, member of a communist federation, and known to his intimates as " Mildou.'' He was a lad who listened intently and took seriously the whispered words of men who gathered of evenings in a communist club and spoke of the injustices in life, who advocated the abolition of all authority as the remedy for an imperfect dis- tribution of the world's goods, and the destruction of the ruling element in much the same manner that a privileged class had been destroyed in France 120 years before. ^' I am a Frenchman, an anarchist," said Cottin. '^ ^ The animal shoots well,' I thought when I first heard the bullets," M. Clemenceau explained to the President of the Republic, M. Poincare, twenty min- utes after the assault. ^' ' He shoots too well,' I said when I found myself hit. And then I thought, ' At THE FOUETEEN POINTS T5 least my enemies will no longer be able to say that I have n't ballast in my head — lead ballast ! ' " The hatred of men who differ in political thinking from men in public office sometimes urges them to com- mit violence. They see misrule in all authority, in every ruler an oppressor. Too often the blood of po- litical leaders has flowed upon the soil of Erance. Within the memory of living men attempts have been made against the lives of men like M. Germain Casse, deputy of the Seine, who was attacked on December 9, 1886, by the sculptor Baffler, who thought Casse had been unfaithful to his duty as a democratic deputy; Jules Eerry, who was attacked on December 10, 1887, in the Chamber of Deputies by Aubertin on the sup- position that Eerry was allied with Bismarck; Sadi Carnot, President of Erance, who died June 25, 1894, from a wound inflicted by the Italian anarchist Caserio. Presidents Eelix Eaure, Emile Loubet, and Eallieres, were all the objects of attacks that did not prove fatal, and flnally Jean Jaures, the paciflst socialist leader, was shot to death on August 1, 1914, proving that neither conservative nor radical is spared. " The condition of the president of the council is satisfactory," said an official bulletin issued at the bed- side by the physicians, Tuffier, Gosset, and Laubry. The bullets of Cottin had not made a mortal wound. But what if they had ? Did Erance reckon with that contingency ? Was there a leader prepared to carry out the aims for national expansion that M. Clemenceau had advocated so w^ell? Was the delegation of the republic, moved and directed by M. Clemenceau, able to 76 THE ADVENTURES OF continue the far-reaching policy of its leader? Who would fight for Erance at the peace table with that bull- dog tenacity of his — the fight for a strong, independ- ent, fearless, and greater France, a France that should progress without the threat of invasion hanging like a shadow over her national life ? All through his career he had fought with the hitting power of a Eoosevelt. He came to Paris from the Vendee in 1860, in the days of the glory of the Sec- ond Empire. His political life really began with the war in which the Prussian host first trampled upon the fields of France. He had visited the United States as a young man, taught school there, and translated John Stuart Mills's " August Comte and Positivism," and married. Then he returned to France. He gained his first public office in 1870 as mayor of the Montmartre district of Paris. He supported Gambetta, and signed the famous protest of fidelity to Alsace-Lorraine when these provinces were torn from France. He was al- ways a patriot, he spoke always for the integrity of France. He tried to reconcile the government at Ver- sailles with the commune at Paris, and in 1871, as a radical member of the National Assembly from the De- partment of the Seine, he voted against the ignominious peace treaty. He served in the municipal council of Paris, and by 1875 had become its president. In 1876 he became conspicuous by pleading for amnesty for the communards. He was courageous, he was brave, he was sincere. Strange that in these early days this man, now laid low by the bullet of an anarchist, had been the leader of the extreme Left in the chamber! But THE FOUETEEN POIISTTS 77 the Left of those days, radical though it was, was far removed from anarchy. When he reached the age of forty he was a power, and as he grew in years and experience ministries trembled when he mounted the tribune. Grevy, Jules Ferry, Ereycinet felt his tremendous hitting power. Boulanger rose and fell as Clemenceau gave and with- drew his confidence. Through it all he was a con- firmed supporter of the republic. Defeated eventually in 1893 for reelection to the chamber, principally be- cause of his opposition to an alliance with Russia, he decided to devote his whole time to journalism. Many of the great political leaders of France have spoken daily to a large public through a newspaper. Clemenceau reveled in his opportunity. It is signifi- cant to note that associated with him in his earliest ventures were Alexandre Millerand, whom he has just made Governor-General of Alsace-Lorraine; Stephen Pichon, now minister of foreign affairs; and Georges Languerre. In 1880 he had founded his political daily, '' La Justice." In 1900 he founded " Le Bloc " as a weekly, and edited it until 1902. Again elected to the senate, he found himself able to work with the socialist radicals. In 1903 he took charge of ^^ L'Aurore '' and began the two great fights of his ca- reer, one for the revision of the sentence of Dreyfus, whom he believed innocent, and the other for the sep- aration of church and state in France. He succeeded in both. In 1905 he warned France of the German menace in Tangiers in a series of noteworthy articles. In 1906 he became minister of the interior. Taking Y8 THE ADVENTURES OF the responsibility for quelling a strike of miners in the Department of Pas-de-Calais, he showed his determina- tion by calling out the military and putting down dis- order by force. This act caused the enmity of the so- cialists. He was never again a radical leader. In 1907 he became president of the council, Premier of France. For two and a half years he served in this office, and one result was the growing cordiality between France and England, political enemies up to this time. Slowly they came together in that entente that was to prove the salvation of France when the great blow was struck in 1914. That it would come eventually M. Clemenceau saw as well as any one and better than most men. In 1912 he had already begun his fight for the law to enforce three years of military service, in order to give France a larger number of men ready for instant action when the hour struck. There were many w^ho questioned the expediency of his plan, but none his motives. Long before 1914 he had laid down his portfolio. In May, 1913, he was an editor again, " a free lion," as he said once, publishing a daily newspaper entitled ^^L'Homme Libre,"— '^ The Free Man." When the war came, he unlimbered his guns for victory. He de- manded that every inch of the frontier be guarded by a French bayonet. He pounded home the need of a com- prehensive program for the manufacture of munitions. One might have expected him, grown old in public service, to defend antiquated methods, to be a stickler for things as they were. On the contrary, he spoke THE FOUKTEE:Nr POIISTTS 79 for radical changes in military and civil organization. He sacrificed all to an end — victory. 'Not all that he wrote found favor with the heads of the Government. The censor's pencil eradicated much of his excellent argument. His newspaper appeared with large white spaces. Resourceful to the last, he turned the laugh on his critics by calling his journal " L'Homme Enchaine,"— " The Man Enchained." And when all the more moderate and temporizing lead- ers had failed and the discontent that followed the cam- paign of 1917 forced them out of office, the nation turned to M. Clemenceau, whose gifts had been only partly made use of as head of the commission of ex- ternal affairs. Again he became minister of war and president of the council. When he took office they asked him what policy he would pursue. Remember his answer in that memor- able iNTovember, 1917 ? ^' Je fats la guerre," he said. " I make war." It fell to him, redoubtable fighter, seventy-seven years old, not only to make war, but peace. The peace that France wins out of the negotiations is the peace of Clemenceau, the best possible peace from the point of view of a confirmed nationalist, a believer in the ma- terial growth of France, a diplomat of the old order, who demands security against aggression, strong bound- aries, reparation for damages, and who believes that no crime should go unpunished. In the discussions of the modern liberals who believe in the forgiveness of inter- national sins he takes no part; he has felt too deeply 80 THE ADVENTURES OF the suffering of 1870 and 1914, and all the years of German browbeating that lie between. Paul Scott Mowrer once characterized the four great leaders of the Peace Conference in a sentence. Lloyd George, he said, represented the liberal imperialism of Great Britain; Orlando, the anxiety and uncertainty of Italy; Wilson, the idealism of America; and Clemen- ceau, the fear of France. The fear — and the hope. Those "were anxious days in Paris. As the X-ray ex- amination proceeded, and the wounds of the premier were found to be a trifle more serious than the first bulletins had led the public to believe, Paris experienced a sensation that reminded many of those dark days in 1917. At the Hotel de Crillon Americans who had watched the tactics of the aged leader spoke of the ef- fect his absence would have on the conference. To them he represented an antagonist of no mean talents, for he was fighting to gain a position of strategic ad- vantages for France. Americans disagreed to some ex- tent at least with his views on clear, explicit punish- ment of the enemy, and on his theory that Germany should be made to pay a sum to be determined from time to time in the future, as the amount of the damage and the assets of the German nation were more clearly visualized. America disagreed with his view that the armies of the Allies should be ready to come to the aid of France the moment an enemy appeared on the hori- zon. ISTot that America meant to deny aid to an an- cient friend, but because no one in Paris could pledge the American people to a future program that involved the making of war. All these were points of conflict THE FOURTEEN POINTS 81 between the American commissioners and M. Clemen- ceau, and yet they honored the man and expressed hope for his quick recovery^ so that no other hands would need to take up the portfolio that he held. After his first visit to the home in the Eue Eranklin, Secretary Lansing said that the condition of M. Clemen- ceau was so favorable that important questions might easily be referred to him in the event his vote was needed. Besides, he gave his opinion that the work of the conference had been so well organized by M. Clemenceau and had progressed to such an advanced stage that most of it was in the hands of committees who could continue consideration of the problems be- fore them without interruption. M. Clemenceau had been a driving force, seeking to expedite the work. He himself declared after the shooting that he hoped it would act as a spur upon the other members of the conference, so that they might more quickly come to a settlement of all outstanding problems. Heads of states, members of the Conference, went out of their way to show their sympathy for the stricken leader. The American President spoke of his horror at the deed in a wireless message from the U. S. S. George Washington, then nearing New York. King Albert of Belgium, King George of England, King Alphonso of Spain, Sir Robert Borden, prime minister of Canada, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, and Pope Benedict were among the first to send messages of sympathy. The members of the American mission in Paris expressed their resentment at the deed, and added that " they rejoiced in his providential escape and con- 82 THE ADVENTURES OF gratulated the people of France that in the settlement of peace and in the rehabilitation of France thej are to continue to receive the benefit of that valued pa- triotism and seasoned statesmanship which your excel- lency so strenuously and successfully exerted in their interest during the travail of war." Their hopes were to be fulfilled. Two weeks later M. Clemenceau had overcome the dangers of both hemorrhage and infection and was back at his post. As he breezed into the conference-room on the first day back, he met his old friend and diplomatic colleague of other days, Henry White of the American mission. " Well, young fellow," exclaimed Clemenceau, whack- ing the American representative heartily on the back with the flat of his hand, " have you got a bullet in your body ? " It came about that Cottin was duly placed on trial and found guilty, and the verdict of the court was death. And a short time later Villain, who shot Jean Jaures, the famous socialist and pacifist, on the eve of the war in 1914, was acquitted. There was subject matter for socialist demonstrations ! It is true that there were extenuating circumstances in the case of Villain which would have suggested clem- ency. He had been in prison four and one-half years. He was believed to be mentally deficient. But an ac- quittal had not been looked for. ^' How is it possible," commented the '^ Lanterne," " not to make this comparison which stupefies the peo- ple: Cottin for having put M. Clemenceau for three THE FOURTEEI^ POmTS 83 days on the sick list is sentenced to death ; Villain, who lodged a bullet in M. Jaures' head, is absolved." A few weeks later M. Clemenceau addressed the court asking that the sentence of Cottin be mitigated. And it was done. A sentence of imprisonment for life replaced that of death. CHAPTER VI An invitation to tea lures me to the Hotel Lutetia, and I learn how 40,000,000 human beings fare on the other side of the world. After all, it was only an innocent invitation to a tea- party. It came unannounced, an engraved card in pleasing English script, saying that Mr. Lou Tseng Tsiang requested the pleasure of your company at tea on Tuesday, March 4, from 4 to 6 o'clock, and adding, in smaller letters at the lower right hand corner, ^' Chinese delegation. Hotel Lutetia." What could it mean but a cup of fragrant tea and a pleasant chat with the scholarly alumni of American universities who represented in Paris the interests of the Chinese nation ? And yet it might have been said that tea-parties are not without significance. There was that little event in Boston Harbor, for instance, which began with tea, and ended with another treaty of Ver- sailles. And Mr. Lou Tseng Tsiang, China's minister of foreign affairs, and his scholarly delegation were men entirely too valuable to their country, one must admit, to permit them to while away their time at tea- parties. The invitation suggested many possibilities. And so it came about that a goodly company gathered on the designated afternoon in the spacious parlors of Hotel Lutetia, on the Boulevard Raspail. Hardly a Parisian atmosphere this, for there were polished, self- effacing Chinese portiers at the doors, and Chinese 34 THE FOUKTEEN POINTS 85 valets in livery in the corridors and in the anterooms. And in the salons we found those men who, if true inbred courtesy had won kingdoms, would long have ruled the world. Diplomats from the other side of the earth, immaculate in European afternoon attire; gen- erals of the armies of China in their attractive light- blue uniforms; admirals and officers of the Chinese navy — all were a study in correct deportment and bearing. The chroniclers who told of the gaiety of Vienna in 1814 wrote much about the brilliant receptions, the colorful salons, the gay social life that went hand in hand with the gifts of cities and the theft of provinces. The peace-conference side of Paris had developed but little colorful social life so far, and no one had even pretended to settle the fates of kingdoms and empires at a luncheon at the Meurice or a formal dinner at the Eitz. But when the social side of the Paris conference comes to be mentioned in future, no one can well afford to pass by this modest function at the Lutetia. Some of those who " assisted," as the Erench say, will recall it for its unique combination of political and social dis- cussion ; others will remember the wide tables that ex- tended along one entire side of an immense room, loaded down with confections sufficient for a regiment of hun- gry men — confections that in a Paris devoid of pas- tries and bonbons seemed like the cargo of Solomon's ships come from Tarshish. What it should be remembered for is that it was China's first formal plea to the world for release from the fetters that bound her national existence — a plea &6 THE ADVENTURES OF that later was to play an important role in the proceed- ings of the conference. Stepping into the middle of the salon, Mr. Lou Tseng Tsiang, our host, clapped his hands and beamed upon the assembly. In that wide circle he beheld the faces of men who to-morrow would carry his words to the ends of the earth. He rose masterly to his opportunity. It was indeed charming, he said, that his guests had deigned to accept the invitation which went forth in his name to meet the Chinese delegation. He spoke of the friendly relations that existed between China and the nations represented here. He touched lightly on China's position at the Peace Conference, suggesting that perhaps her wants and needs were a sealed book to the nations who dwelt in the West. It was a most happy occasion for the delegates to acquaint their guests with the aims of China. Would they listen a few mo- ments until Mr. Chenting Thomas Wang could speak more in detail on these aims ? The minister bowed, and Mr. Wang, who has held the portfolio of agriculture and commerce, stepped for- ward, a quiet, self-possessed man, with well-defined Western traits, and with the key of Phi Beta Kappa at his watch-chain as ample evidence of where he got them. It was Mr. Wang, versed in the art of saying a great deal in a few words, who placed succinctly before us China's " case." What Mr. Wang told us covered the whole field of the Chinese question. It dealt not alone with the relations of China and Japan, which presumably was close to the heart of a Chinese diplomat; but touched on all the THE FOUETEEi^ POINTS 87 foreign influences in China. Mr. Wang introduced these subjects on the ground that the Chinese question was one of the few great problems that the Peace Con- ference must solve if it aimed to prevent or minimize the chances of war, and that, " stripped of its minor features, the Chinese question may be said to center on the maintenance of the independence and integrity of China, which has been guaranteed in a series of con- ventions and agreements concluded severally by Great Britain, France, Kussia, and the United States with Japan.'' Because China was a peaceful state and not a war-making state, Mr. Wang said that it was, and still is, a prey to the kind of imperialism asserting it- self in territorial aggrandizement and in the creation of preferential rights, interests, and privileges in the great Chinese regions like Shan-tung, Manchuria, Mon- golia, Fu-kien, and elsewhere in the rich mineral areas of the Yang-tse valley. " The solution, therefore, of the Chinese question involves the liberation or re- dress of China from the burdens and conditions im- posed on her in the interests of an aggressive imperial- ism. . . . Within this category of burdens is included the system of imperialistic rights, interests, and priv- ileges which Germany established in the province of Shan-tung in 1898 as compensation for the death of two German missionaries." Shan-tung! Let us here leave Mr. Wang as he continues his discourse on the position of China during the war, and examine more in detail the claims that the Chinese delegation presented to the Peace Conference. For it may well be said that the arguments given to the 88 THE ADVEIS^TURES OF world at this innocent little tea-party continue to be heard in all quarters of the globe, and that out of the presentation of China's claims and the conference ac- tion thereon has arisen a controversy that may easily be the prelude to a larger diplomatic struggle. Germany had long been on the lookout for a naval base on the Pacific coast when the killing of the two missionaries in the prefecture of Tsao-chow-fu, in Shan- tung, in Xovember, 1897, gave her a pretext for forcing her demands on China. The convention of March 6, 1898, signed by Li Hung Chang for China and by Baron von Heyting for Germany, gave the latter: (1) a zone of fifty kilometers around the bay of Kiao-chau for the passage of German troops and a lease of ninety- nine years on both sides of the entrance to the bay of Kiao-chau with certain islands; (2) the concession to construct two lines of railway in Shan-tung and to de- velop mining properties located within fifteen kilo- meters on each side of the railways, both railways and mining enterprise to be developed by Chino-Germap. companies; (3) compelled the Chinese Government to agree to make the first offer to German manufacturers and merchants whenever foreign assistance of whatever nature was needed in the province. This led to the building of the Tsing-tau Tsinan railway, 434 kilo- meters long, opened in June, 1904, and the Yang-tse and Tzechwan collieries and the Chinglingchen iron- mines. The mining interests were transferred to the railway corporation in February, 1913. On Decem- ber 31, 1913, China granted Germany the option to finance, construct, and supply materials for two lines THE FOUKTEEN POINTS 89 of railway, one at Kaomi to a point on the Tientsin- Pukow line at Hanchuan, and tlie other from Tsinan to a point on the Peking-Hankow line between Shunteh and Sinhsiang, and on June 10, 1914, Germany obtained a loan option on any westward extension of the Tsi-nan- Shunteh, the Chiefu-Wehsien and the Tsining-Kaifeng lines. In 1911 Germany relinquished the rights to mines on each side of the railway, retaining only those named heretofore. These concessions gave Germany a sphere of influ- ence with amazing possibilities of development. The Chinese looked on with grim foreboding and despair in their hearts. For Shan-tung represented both material and sentimental interests for the Chinese. It was the birthplace of Confucius. It possessed 38,347,000 in- habitants, entirely Chinese, limited to the resources of agriculture in a province of 35,976 square miles — a population almost as large as that of France in a terri- tory only one fourth as large. Tsing-tau was the best natural harbor in north China, and its natural outlet. Within the zone of the German railway concessions were two immense coal-fields and an iron-mine containing 40,000,000 tons of high-grade ore. Three big bitu- minous coal-fields, with a reserve of at least 1,000,000,- 000 tons, the only fields within economic distance of the Yang-tse iron-mines, were within the zone of the southern extension of the railroad. This sums up the tremendous value contained in the concessions wrested by Germany from China. It gave Germany a great sphere of interest similar to those acquired by the other European powers, for Russia had 9a THE ADVENTURES OF asserted her influence in northern Manchuria, Mon- golia, and the basin of the Hwoangho ; Great Britain was recognized as the predominant power in the valleys of the Yang-tse-Kiang and in the center of China, and France made her power felt near Hainan and Yuma in the south. To offset the German concessions at Kiao- chau, Russia took Port Arthur; England, Wei-hai-wei; and France, Kwang-chow-wan. China asked the Peace Conference for the direct res- titution of all the concessions held by Germany. But it happened that they were now in the hands of another nation — Japan, herself a belligerent and the chief ac- tor in the ousting of the Germans from the far East. Japan early in the war asked Germany to withdraw from China " in the interests of peace in the far East.'' As Germany failed to comply, Japan declared war on August 23, 1914, and began a land attack against Tsing-tau. A small number of English troops also took part. Tsing-tau was garrisoned by 5,250 Ger- man troops and Austrian reservists, and fell Novem- ber 7, 1914. The Chinese Government asserted that Chinese territory was crossed during this operation, and protested that this was a violation of Chinese neutrality. At the conference in Paris Chinese dele- gates informed me that China made an attempt early in August, 1914, to join the Allies in the war against Germany and also to participate in the attack on Tsing- tau, but was advised not to do so, because this action would lead to " complications with a certain power." By reason of the defeat of Germany the territory was occupied by Japan and placed under military control. THE FOUETEEN POINTS 91 Now conies the transaction that has given rise to much controversy and which the Chinese placed before the Peace Conference as an act of wanton aggression. Japan presented to China the proposals for a treaty known as the twenty-one demands, which were handed direct to Yuan Shih Kai, the President of China, by the Japanese minister in Peking, Hioki, on January 18, 1915. The first group of these demands dealt with the province of Shan-tung and virtually made the Japanese the successors to the German rights and concessions. The proposals brought about a series of notes and con- ferences, during which several modifications were per- mitted; but on May 7, 1915, Japan delivered an ulti- matum to China, demanding that they be accepted forth- with. The manner in which these demands were pre- sented has been described as grossly overbearing even by Japanese writers. China, however, was not in a position to reject the demands, and agreed to them on May 8, 1915. An attempt to sound out the European governments and the United States and get their sup- port had brought more or less non-committal replies, the United States alone informing both cabinets that it would not recognize any infringement of the policy of the open door in China. As the Peace Conference did not meet to consider the whole topic of the rights of foreign nations in China and how they were obtained, it is obvious that only that part of the twenty-one demands which deals with Shan- tung actually concerned the conference. The docu- ments presented to the Peace Conference show these to be the following clauses: d2 THE ADVEISTTURES OF In the first group of the treaty we find a provision that " the Chinese Government engages to give full as- sent to all matters upon which the Japanese Govern- ment may hereafter agree with the German Govern- ment relating to the disposition of all rights, interests, and concessions which Germany, by virtue of treaties or otherwise, possesses in relation to the province of Shan- tung." There follow stipulations that China will ap- proach Japanese capitalists for a loan " if Germany abandons the privilege of financing the Chiefou- Wehsien railway line," and that China agrees to open " suitable places in the province of Shan-tung as com- mercial ports." On the same day Japan agreed to restore to China the leased territory of Kiao-chau Bay in the following agreement : When, after the termination of the present war, the leased ter- ritory of Kiao-chau Bay is completely left to the free disposal of Japan, the Japanese Government will restore the said leased territory to China under the following conditions: 1. The whole of Kiao-chau Bay to be opened as a commercial port. 2. A concession under the exclusive jurisdiction of Japan to be established at a place designated by the Japanese Government. 3. If the foreign powers desire it, an international concession may be established. 4. As regards the disposal to be made of the buildings and properties of Germany and the conditions and procedure relating thereto, the Japanese Government and the Chinese Government shall arrange the matter by mutual agreement before the res- toration. Finally, on September 24, 1918, • in an exchange of notes between Baron Goto, Japanese minister for for- eign affairs, and Tsung Hsiang Chang, Chinese minis- THE FOURTEEN POINTS 93 ter at Tokio, the following engagements affecting Shan- tung were entered into: 1. Japanese troops along the Kiao-chaii-Tsinan railway, except a contingent of them to be stationed at Toinanfu, shall be with- drawn to Tsing-tau. 2. The Chinese Government may organize a police force to undertake the policing of the Kiao-chau-Tsinan railway. 3. The Kiao-chau-Tsinan railway is to provide a reasonable amount to defray the expense for the maintenance of the above- mentioned police force. 4. Japanese are to be employed at the headquarters of the above- mentioned police force, at the principal railway stations, and at the police training school. 5. Chinese citizens shall be employed by the Kiao-chau-Tsinan railway administration as part of its staff. 6. The Kiao-chau-Tsinan railway, after its ownership is defi- nitely determined, is to be made a Chino-Japanese joint enterprise. 7. The civil administration established by Japan and existing now is to be abolished. Japan having obtained the rights to the German prop- erties from China, thereupon asked her allies in the war — Great Britain, France, Enssia, and Italy — to sus- tain her in the possession of these properties when the subject came up at the Peace Conference. This the four allies agreed to do. The British ambassador at Tokio gave Japan the assurance that Great Britain would sup- port Japanese pretensions to Shan-tung and to the Ger- man islands north of the equator, in a note dated Feb- ruary 16, 1917. The French ambassador gave the same assurance for his government on March 1, 1917. Eus- sia replied favorably on March 5, 1917, and Italy gave a verbal assurance on March 23, 1917. This action was only slightly different from that taken at the close of the Eusso-Japanese War. Eussia, like Germany, had leaseholds in China which Japan coveted, this time 94 THE ADVENTURES OF in the Liao-timg peninsula. By the Treaty of Ports- mouth, September 5, 1905, Eussia ceded her leases to Japan. China agreed to the transfer by a treaty signed December 22, 1905, which also gave other con- cessions. The Treaty of Portsmouth was recognized by the powers. In the matter of Shan-tung Japan reversed the process, getting China's consent first, and then Germany's consent by her signature of the treaty of peace. There was, however, this fundamental difference in the disposal of the leaseholds: Eussia negotiated her peace with Japan, but Germany did not negotiate her peace with Japan. The terms regarding Shan-tung were forced on Germany by Japan, Great Britain, France, and the United States, sitting as a Peace Con- ference. Italy was not represented at this meeting, but was fully in accord. There was also this difference: At Portsmouth China interposed no objection to the transfer of the Liao-tung lease. At Paris China definitely opposed the transfer of the Shan-tung lease and concessions. This subject was taken up by the Council of Three, Signor Orlando being absent, on April 22. Japan demanded that the terms of her agreement with China he recognized by the Peace Conference as binding ; that is to say, when the question of disposing of Germany's property in Shan-tung came up, Japan presented a prior claim, together with the promises by Great Britain, France, and Italy that they would recognize this claim. There was nothing unusual or new in this action. Leaseholds change hands daily in business life, and the THE FOUKTEEN POINTS 95 owner of the property is frequently coerced, by sucli gentle threats as obtain even in our business practices, to give his unwilling consent. But — The council heard Japan in the morning and China in the afternoon. China emphatically objected to the transfer. China said consent had been wrung from her under duress. She asked that the Peace Confer- ence disregard the treaty of May 8, 1915. Mr. Lloyd George and M. Clemenceau declared they meant to stand by their promises to Japan. They had deviated from these promises in the case of the Pacific islands north of the equator, but were not ready to do so in the case of Shan-tung, for a very good reason. Both Great Britain and France were in the same posi- tion as Japan. They had wrung great concessions out of China. They could not repudiate Japan's lease- holds without repudiating their own. Japan knew this. Japan also knew that she could throw the whole Peace Conference into confusion by either withdrawing or refusing to join the League of Nations. Japan was virtually gaining nothing but manacles for her grasping hands by joining the league. But the league without Japan in it was unthinkable. This was the situation that confronted Woodrow Wil- son on April 22, 1919. China took the position that when she declared war with Germany she abrogated " all treaties of whatever nature between China and Germany. On this ground China contended that the Shan-tung leaseholds reverted to herself. The fact that China had already agreed to their transfer to Japan does not appear to play any 96 THE ADVEl^TUKES OF part in the Chinese argument. Yet China did not formally denounce the treaty with Japan. She was not strong enough to denounce it because none of the Allies was ready to back her up by force if Japan used force. President Wilson faced a treaty that was valid in international practice, as valid as the Belgian treaty of neutrality which Germany violated and Great Brit- ain defended, and Avhich, by the way, was originally forced on Belgium. President Wilson had two courses open to him. They were: first, he could repudiate the China-Japanese treaty of 1915, and denounce Japan's practice. By doing so he would: (a) make an enemy of Japan; (b) denounce also Great Britain and France; (c) lose the League of Nations, and (d) probably see Japan occupy Shan-tung without regard for treaties or leaseholds, with the consent of Great Britain and France. The United States could then protest, but could save nothing for China unless she went to war alone. Second, he could acquiesce in the transfer of the leaseholds, hold Japan to her promises, and eventually, through the League of Xations so educate public opin- ion that it would be considered dishonorable and im- moral for a nation to hold leaseholds, privileges, and concessions gained under duress and against the will of the people concerned. This would (a) bind Japan be- fore the world, (b) save the face of Great Britain and France, (c) save the League of Nations, and (d) pre- vent an open rupture with Japan. THE FOUETEEN POIISTTS 97 President Wilson, being a man of the highest type of courage, chose the second course. After the Peace Conference had agreed to the trans- fer of the Shan-tung leaseholds, Japan consented to join what is known as the four-power consortium to furnish future loans to China. This is an agreement between Great Britain, France, the United States, and Japan that future loans to China shall not be made by any one power, but that all four shall share in the privilege of making the loan. This is believed to be the begin- ning of an important change in the administration of Chinese affairs, as it is understood that Japan has agreed to consider it binding on all loan privileges which were to come to her in Shan-tung as a result of the treaty. This method of making loans to China was advocated by the Government of the United States many months before the consortium was agreed to. It is a constructive, forward-looking step, which will help take China out of financial bondage to Japan. The consortium has been strongly opposed in Japan, and recently certain Japanese groups have declared them- selves for keeping Manchuria and Mongolia out of the zone of operation of the consortium. I have tried to present the question of Shan-tung impartially as it came before the Peace Conference. The whole subject, even in Paris, awakened the most extraordinary recriminations. The campaign of pub- licity for the Chinese case was so well handled that it won numerous friends even among the working classes of France, who heretofore had received little informa- 98 THE ADVENTURES OF tion on the subject. The government-controlled press of Paris had given only meager space to the Chinese argu- ments and had taken it for granted that Japan's de- mands would be sustained. In the more liberal news- papers of England and America, however, the cause of China won vigorous adherents. Japan was pictured as a grasping power, gradually arrogating to herself great strips of Chinese territory, growing to dangerous proportions as the result of a war which enriched her in land and gold, while it left old Europe impoverished. Even among the delegations at the conference there were men who became cool and reserved in the presence of a Japanese diplomat. The fact that Japan had become an adept at the land-grabbing methods which European countries had practised for centuries was resented most by those who unconsciously had been her tutors. Despite the storm of abuse in the liberal press and the wave of criticism that swept the United States, the commissioners of Japan at the Hotel Bristol went about their business unmoved. Their deportment was a model of Old-World diplomacy. They knew the value of silence. On the rare occasions when they spoke it was in keeping with the best traditions of diplomacy. The day after the informal Chinese tea at the Hotel Lutetia, — the one that I described at the opening of this chapter, — the Marquis Saionyi, chief of the Jap- anese delegation at the conference, felt impelled to give his point of view. I recall the sensation I experienced when he gave it — a feeling that this man knew exactly what he was going to get out of the Peace Conference. From that moment I no longer doubted that Japan's THE FOUKTEEJSr POINTS 99 claims would be fully sustained, and yet all lie said was this: Japan adheres with full sympathy to the great project of es- tablishing peace upon just, impartial, and solid foundations. We envisage this question not so much from the point of view of the entire world, as from that of the far East, where we have been obliged to assure the maintenance of peace by arms on three occasions in the last half-century. We are happy that humanity is able to perceive the first rays, rather feeble as yet, of the new era in which right will definitely prevail against force. I have the firm conviction that China will understand our just and legitimate aspirations and that she will join completely with Japan for the maintenance of peace and general security and for the progress of civilization in the far East. The foundation of the League of Nations will help essentially to dissipate the current prejudices of men relative to their true interest. When the decision in the case of Shan-tung was made public, the Council of Four — or, rather, three, for it was attended at this time only by M. Clemenceau, Mr. Lloyd George, and President Wilson, in the absence of Signor Orlando of Italy — was roundly excoriated in the liberal press, and President Wilson was charged even in his own country with betraying the interests of democracy. The Chinese delegation published an able and well-written protest in which it declared that the council " has been bestowing upon Japan the rights not of Germany, but of China ; not of the common enemy, but of a weaker ally." And the delegates pointed to the fact that Japan's new rights jeopardized the safety of Peking, '^ which becomes an enclave in the midst of Japanese influence." The delegation again said that when China declared war all German rights were con- sidered abrogated and that all territory therefore re- verted to China, a claim, however, which was made after 100 THE FOUKTEEN POmTS the rights in Shan-tung already had been signed away. In China itself the news resulted in demonstrations against the Japanese and a boycott against Japanese merchants, which the Chinese Government would have been powerless to stop had it wished. Colleges closed, and street disturbances took place in cities like Canton and Tsientsin. An attempt was made to instruct the Chinese delegation at Paris to sign the treaty of peace with a reservation objecting to the decision affecting China. It was said that this view was advocated by a nimiber of the delegates from other nations, and that even two of the three who made the decision at one time thought this might be a proper parliamentary manoeuver. At the height of the storm the President of China, Hsu Shih Chang, attempted to resign, and it was reported from the Orient that he had refused longer to take orders from the military party, which leaned toward the Japanese and was endeavoring to stop demonstra- tions against the treaty of peace. The resignation, how- ever, was not accepted, but the Chinese delegates in Paris refused to sign the treaty of peace without reser- vation and the Council would not permit signature with a reservation. That is the story of a picturesque controversy at the Peace Conference, which opened with a tea and, as in the case of the tea thrown into Boston Harbor, may yet end with another treaty of peace. CHAPTER VII A dip into President Wilson's mail-bag and what I found there — Also throwing light on what happened when the smaller nations heard of self-determination. " Excuse me/' said a voice at my elbow one morning just when I had become engrossed in the " Matin's " argument that France could accept not a cent less than 320,000,000,000 francs from Germany —'' Excuse me, but have you seen O'Kelly ? " I looked up, and beheld the glowing, smiling face of Van Steen, friend of oppressed nationalities, special advocate for small nations. You have heard of the tracer of lost persons. Van Steen was a tracer of lost causes. At least he seemed to find it a pleasure to plead for a good many unpromising ones. Unknown to fame was his name, obscure even, although the heads of states and members of delegations at the conference read it at the bottom of numerous letters that cluttered up their mail — read it, and straightway forgot it. Eor Van Steen was one of that great body of men who hovered about the tag ends of the conference. There were, in fact, three distinct groups : first, the inner cir- cle of delegates from recognized states; second, the great body of assistants and experts who helped the con- ference machinery to revolve; and third, the fringe of hangers-on. In America the fringe would be called the lobby. Van Steen belonged to the lobby. " Good morning,'' he said, and then repeated his in- quiry, '' Have you seen O'Kelly ? " 101 102 THE ADVENTURES OF Of course lie meant the redoubtable emissary of Eamon de Valera, " president of the republic of Ire- land," who, true to Gaelic tradition, spelled his name, " O'Ceallaigh." 1 confessed that I had not seen him. '^ O'Ceallaigh is in town," said Van Steen. ^' I am trying to find him. I have a grievance to register. Have you read in the ' Times ' how certain Irishmen are desecrating the memorials of Englishmen who fought in the Boer War ? " I had not read the articles. Van Steen turned to a large, bulging portfolio that he always carried — a port- folio that had once been black, but now looked rather gray and worn about the edges. He delved for a mo- ment within its dark recesses and brought out a book- let of his own making, which contained clippings from the ^' Times," neatly arranged in the order of their publication. '^ The Irish who are petitioning this conference for recognition of their republic," said Van Steen, ^' have been perpetrating outrages on memorials to English- men who fought in the Boer War. Xow I want to ask O'Ceallaigh to tell them to stop it. It 's wrong." " No doubt about that," I said. '' But to what shall I ascribe this sympathy of yours for British memo- rials ? " " I am interested in the cause of Boer independ- ence," said Van Steen, with a chuckle that apparently had nothing to do with his statement. ^' When the Irish attack Boer War memorials, the British get the impression that the Boers and the Irish are fighting together, and they begin to see visions of the disinte- THE F0URTEE:N' points 103 gration of the empire. But it is not true. The Irish Sinn Fein party has declared for a republic. The Na- tionalist party of South Africa has declared its read- iness to appoint delegates to visit England and confer with the king on the subject of independence." " Then there is actually a movement for independ- ence in South Africa ? " " Most assuredly, yes/' replied Van Steen. " In fact, it is my hope that the people of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, who lost their independence in a war that the world condemned, but did nothing to stop, in time may come back into their own by grace of President Wilson's statement to Con- gress on January 18, 1918, on ^ the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak.' " His remark sent my memory back a score of years. South Africa ! The Boer War ! Lord Roberts, Kitch- ener, Kruger, Botha, Smuts, Dewet, Milner! The Jamieson Raid ! The Siege of Ladysmith ! Boer parades in the United States, Boer funds and public meetings, Boer petitions to Congress! The stirring animosities of those times had passed quickly from among us, and we now counted the Boers as a happy and contented lot. To-day our minds were occupied with the Balkans, with Germany, with the Letts, the Finns, the Czechs, the Poles, and we had no time to give to people whom we thought had been assimilated years ago. Were not the Boers happy and prosperous under a British administration? Did they not have 104 THE ADVENTURES OE a large measure of self-government in their Parlia- ment of the Union? Did not Botha and Smuts come voluntarily to give their genius to Great Britain, the latter even standing sponsor for a plan for a league of nations which surely radiated confidence in the aims and abilities of the British world empire? Why should South Africa come up again now as a subject of discussion, perhaps controversy ? Was it possible that there was no such thing as a true conquest by the sword ? These thoughts flitted quickly through my mind while Van Steen continued to describe the Boer movement. I remembered that he had told me he was of Dutch descent, and that over a score of years ago he had been associated with a legation in Paris that no longer existed. " The South African nationalists," he said, '^ de- clared that they would send deputations to England to confer with the king on the subject of independence. They received a reply from Lord Buxton, the governor- general, who said that the secretary of state for the colonies informed him that his Majesty's government regarded the South African constitution, the govern- ment, and the parliament of the Union as alone quali- fied to speak for the people of South Africa. There- upon delegates were named to go to Paris and lay the situation before the Peace Conference. The British au- thorities made an objection to one or two of the dele- gates, but on the whole did not oppose the idea. Gen- eral Christian Dewet and Pieter Grobler were, I be- lieve, stopped from sailing; but General Ilertzog, Sen- THE FOURTEEN POINTS 105 ator Wolmarans and Dr. Malan were given credentials." ^^ Then the British were really willing to let men who actually aimed at secession spread their views at large ? " I interrupted. " Yes, they were/' replied Van Steen, with a chuckle that was characteristic of him. " The British have al- ways believed that it 's a good idea to let men with a grievance blow off steam. However, before these men sailed, a number of things happened. When they boarded a British vessel at Cape Town the crew struck, declaring they would not sail with traitors. So they were compelled to take a Dutch ship for New York. Erom New York they will sail eventually for France. Some time this summer they should arrive here.'' " And then ? " I said. " Then they will place before the Peace Conference the aspirations and hopes of the people of South Africa and ask for aid," said Van Steen. ^' They count first of all upon the sympathy and unofficial help of Presi- dent Wilson." President Wilson ! What a beacon light of hope that name had become to all the aspiring, discon- tented, aggrieved, oppressed, and inarticulate peoples of this earth! " Listen," continued Van Steen. '^ I have prepared a letter to the President on the subject. I want you to read it and tell me whether it is the proper thing to send. My experience, as you know, has been entirely with European cabinets." He chuckled again ; in fact, he laughed to himself, as if at a humorous reminiscence. '' If the head of a European cabinet gets a letter that 106 THE ADVENTURES OF does n't quite agree with his ideas of what should be on this earth, he throws it into the waste-basket. I am informed that letters addressed to your American representatives, however, are always read and gener- ally acknowledged." Van Steen handed me his letter to the President. It was simple and to the point. President Wilson may remember it; at least he will find it in his files. It asked the Peace Conference to take up for consideration the subject of recognition of the annexation of the Or- ange Free Sta«te and the South African Eepublic to the South African states of the British Empire. While I read, Van Steen watched me with that curious expres- sion of suppressed mirth that was characteristic of him. ^' That is going back a long way in history," I com- mented. " It concerns a very fine point in diplomacy," said Van Steen. " In the case of both the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, at one time called the Transvaal, the act of annexation of 1900 was never formally reported to the foreign cabinets, so that there is no official recognition by the other nations on record. Technically, therefore, these two states may be said to exist, and therefore entitled to be consid- ered for membership in the League of Nations. Do you think that will interest your President ? " ^^ I think that our President came here to make peace with Germany," I replied, " and it does not seem fair to ask him to sit in judgment over all the lost causes of the earth." THE FOUETEEN POINTS 107 " Your President has spoken with conviction of jus- tice to the small and oppressed," said Van Steen, '' and on that ground I mean to appeal to him for other na- tionalities as well." He tapped his bulging portfolio as he spoke. I had on my desk a great collection of letters, cir- culars, and printed matter that had come in the week's mail. Every morning saw the pile increase; every evening there were more books, maps, pamphlets, and personal pleas than there had been the night before. There could be no unemployment among the printers of Paris. The presses must be running day and night in every attic and basement in Paris, grinding out tons of appeals and propaganda for consideration by the delegates at the conference. As for the letters to the President, copies were freely made and sent to the journalists. I picked up half a dozen letters at random and showed them to Van Steen. " Here are more letters from the President's mail- bag," I said. " Let us see what they are about." Together we perused the first letter. It was signed by E. A. Omar, president of the Egyptian association in Great Britain, and had been sent from the Imperial hotel, London, April 26, 1919. It read: The Egyptian Association in Great Britain beg to record its strong protestation against the recognition by the republic of the United States of the illegal protectorate imposed by Great Britain on the undefended and unarmed nation of Egypt during the course of this war. They beg to remind the president that his act is a complete violation of his well known principles of justice and fair play to the weak as M^ell as to the strong nations. They beg fur- ther to record that the president should, before giving a decision destructive to the legitimate claims of a small nation, have at 108 THE ADVE:tTTURES OF least allowed the Egj'ptian side to be heard. They further most sincerely and humbly desire to impress the fact that the Egj'ptians, having been denied the elementary principles of justice which re- quires a hearing of an aggrie%'ed party before a decision is given against it, cannot be held responsible for whatever developments might further occur. The Egj'ptians cannot still believe that the president has given a final decision to the effect that the case of Egypt would not be heard in an open and just tribunal, and that the mandataries which the whole country have unanimously elected should return home unheard and full of agony and disappoint- ment. Van Steen read it without comment. I picked up another letter. It was in French and signed Sean T. O'Ceallaigh, depute de la conscription du college green, Dublin, representant a Paris du gouvernement pro- visoire de la repuhlique Irlandaise. It was accom- panied by a memorandum in English which began: ^' On behalf of the Irish nation, whose accredited rep- resentative I am — " " Xot entitled, however, to sit at the peace table," commented Van Steen. I read from the memorandum : At the general election last December the issue, and the only issue, placed before the Irish peoples was the independence of their country, and by a majority of more than three to one the rep- resentatives elected by the constitutional machinery of the ballot box are pledged to the abolition of English rule in Ireland. In none of the small nationalities with which the Peace Conference has hitherto occupied itself is the unanimity of the people so great; in none has the national desire for freedom been asserted so unmistakably and with so much emphasis. Following upon the general election an Irish national assembly has met; an Irish re- public has been constituted and proclaimed to the world; a presi- dent has been appointed and with him ministers to direct different departments of state; a program of domestic policy has been issued, and an appeal has been addressed to the nations of the world to recognize the free Irish state that has thus been called to life. But while the national will has been declared and the mechanism of free government is ready, the former is being stifled THE rOUKTEEN POINTS 109 and the latter paralyzed by England's ruthless exercise of military power. The president is a fugitive; the Irish parliament is forced to conduct its business in secret; the most elementary civil rights are abrogated; courts-martial are sitting at every center and the gaols are filled with prisoners, victims of every brutality and indignity, whose only offense is that they have sought the freedom of their native land. It is in these circumstances that the Irish nation, through me, addresses the peace conference. Mr. O'Ceallaigh asked the conference to take up the case of Ireland because that nation " manifestly comes within the scope of the principles that have been in- dorsed by the civilized nations/' and protested ex- plicitly against the adoption of Article X of the covenant of the League of i^ations, by the terms of which members undertake " to preserve and respect as against external aggression the territorial integrity and exist- ing political independence of all states members of the league." Mr. O'Ceallaigh did not wish the nations to guarantee Great Britain in the possession of Ireland. The case of Ireland has become so important a fac- tor in American politics and in Anglo-American rela- tions that the story of what actually took place at the time of the Peace Conference may be recounted here. When the Sinn Fein leaders first announced that they would ask the Peace Conference for a hearing of their claims for independence, a titter of amusement might have been heard in more than one of the delegations in Paris. Ireland was purely a British matter, they argued, and no one would be so foolhardy as to antag- onize the British Government by even suggesting that this was fit for international attention. The British themselves discounted the strength of the Sinn Fein party, and gave little heed to the results of the elec- 110 THE ADVENTURES OF tion, which showed that this party had made a tre- mendous gain in adherents over the nationalists. Then twenty-five members of the Sinn Fein who had been elected to seats in the British House of Commons met on January 21, 1919, in Dublin and formed the '' Dail Eireann," or Irish Parliament. A goodly number of them wandered into jail as a result of their political activities, including Eamon de Valera, " president of the republic." Three men were appointed to go to Paris to present the Irish case, Count Plunkett, Arthur Griffith, and de Valera. On February 3, de Valera made his spectacular escape from the Lincoln jail under circumstances that caused a good deal of amusement at the apparent stupidity of his jailers. The immi- nence of his appearance in Paris was foreshadowed, and O'Ceallaigh attempted to pave the way for his recep- tion at the conference. But the British would have none of it. At this juncture American intervention made an in- ternational matter of the Irish question. A conven- tion of Irish societies of the United States appointed three delegates to visit Paris and try to get aid for the cause of Irish independence — Edward F. Dunne of Chicago, former governor of Illinois ; Michael J. Ryan of Philadelphia, former public service commissioner of Pennsylvania ; and Frank P. Walsh, at one time joint chairman of the War Labor Board. Besides, an at- tempt was made to get a promise from President Wil- son. A group of representatives of the Irish societies called on him at the Metropolitan Opera House in New THE FOUKTEEN POmTS 111 York city on March 4. They reported that they asked the President the following question: " Are you prepared to advocate before the Peace Con- ference the right of Ireland to dispose of herself ac- cording to the principles laid down in your fourteen points ? '' President Wilson is said to have replied : " Surely you do not think that I can answer this now ? " The delegates then told him that they would get his answer in Paris. Then the American House of Rep- resentatives by a vote of 216 to 41 passed a resolution asking the American mission in Paris to consider fav- orably the Irish claims to the right of self-determination — a resolution typical of the influence foreign ele- ments in American politics frequently exert on a body that depends upon the popular vote for its existence. When Messrs. Dunne, Ryan, and Walsh reached Paris they called immediately on President Wilson and Colo- nel House. The British authorities gave them the right to visit Ireland, and their visit became the oc- casion for Sinn Fein demonstrations that caused alarm in British circles. When they returned to France, Sec- retary Lansing informed them that their utterances in Ireland " gave deepest offense to those persons with whom we are seeking to deal. Consequently it has seemed useless to make any further effort in connection with the requests which you desire to make." This letter brought a hot rejoinder from Walsh, who declared that the partj had conducted itself properly 112 THE ADVENTURES OF in Ireland and had violated no promises. An attempt was made to win the consent of men from the British dominions to a hearing of the Irish case before the Peace Conference, and Prime Minister Massey of New Zealand and Prime Minister Hughes of Australia were said to have viewed the matter favorably, but Borden of Canada was reported opposed to the project. On June 11 President Wilson had a conference with Walsh and Dunne, and was said to have agreed to do what he could unofficially. It appeared unlikely, however, that the conference would act officially, for the reason that the so-called Irish republic was not actually performing the functions of a de facto government in Ireland. The three Americans inflamed public feeling still further when they published a report of cruelties and hardships said to have been inflicted on Irish political prisoners in British jails, and the whole subject assumed international proportions because the sympathetic at' titude of Americans of Irish birth or descent in the United States affected the good relations existing be- tween England and America. The success of the League of Nations seemed threatened because the oppon- ents of the league joined hands with the Irish in de- nouncing Great Britain, asserting that the league was merely an attempt on the part of the British to dom- inate the world order through the United States. Groups that had been covertly pro-German during the war also joined in the agitation because it embarrassed Great Britain. It became increasingly clear that no matter whether the Sinn Feiners were justified or not in their demands for independence, the time had come THE FOURTEEN POINTS 113 for the British to set resolutely to work to give Ireland political tranquillity, freedom from exploitation, and a measure of self-government, thereby eliminating a dan- gerous element not only from British politics, but from American affairs as well. " It looks as if there is a lot of work ahead for the British Empire," I told Van Steen when we were con- sidering the case of Ireland. '^ I should n't wonder if several years will elapse before they get around to your nationalists in South Africa." " I hope for the best consideration for my cause," said Van Steen, " but there must be a good many other nations appealing to President Wilson besides the three we have considered." I looked over the letters again. Here was the dupli- cate of another addressed to the President. It was from " La Mission Correene, 38 Eue de Chateaudun, Paris," and began: " Dear Mr. President : I have the honor to submit for your perusal a copy of the claim of the Korean peo- ple and nation for liberation from Japan, which my delegation has filed with the Peace Conference." The letter was signed by J. Kiusic Soho Kimm as repre- sentative of the provisional government of Korea. ^^ On what ground does he base his claim for rec- ognition ? " asked Van Steen. '^ On the ground that one man, the Emperor of Korea, under the coercion of Japan, signed away the independence of his nation by the treaty of August 22, 1910, after Japan had recognized the full and complete independence and autonomy of Korea in the treaty of 114 THE ADVEI^TURES OF Shimonoseki with China on April 17, 1895. He asks that this act be annulled." " I suppose he cites reasons why the delegation seeks this annulment," said Van Steen. ^' Yes." I read the headings quickly. '^ Japaniza- tion and Prussianization." ^^ Expropriation of Korean Landowners." '' Banning the Korean Language and History." " Controlling Korean Education." The argument had been w^ell presented. I picked the fol- lowing sentences at random : Imprisonment, banishment or worse might be the penalty if some Korean should be tempted to recite to the children of the soil a traditional story or song or some folk lore telling how men fought and died for Korea in other days. Korean history cannot be taught and after the student has advanced a little way he must stop school altogether. Nearly every wealthy Korean is obliged to have a Japanese overseer at his house controlling his properties and finances. And it is not a little interesting to note that an American in- vestigator in the course of his inquiries on the state of Korea un- der the Japanese found that no family in some places was per- mitted to own the Korean kitchen knife, which has been in com- mon use from time immemorial. One such knife had to be shared by five or six families, and when not in use had to be hung at a spot in full view of the beat of a Japanese gendarme. Finally this line struck my attention: '' The policy of the prize pig." The paragraph below it read : The ''improvements" loudly advertised in the annual reports of the Korean government general are made either for the en- couragement of the Japanese settlers or in the interests of what may be truly described as the policy of the prize pig — for much the same reason that a breeder fattens his pig for a show. " The man who prepared the Korean memorandum to President Wilson," I said, " knew a great deal about the methods of American publicity. Shall I go on ? " THE FOURTEEN POINTS 115 " I don't think it necessary," said Van Steen. " When I consider that all these people are appealing to President Wilson, I wonder when he will get around to my poor Boers." " And these are not all," I said. ^' His mail-bag is jammed full to the very top every day. I '11 wager that there are a dozen more appeals in this pile of let- ters alone." For curiosity's sake, we ran through them. Van Steen took a pencil and set down the name of the na- tionality, and opposite it something about its wishes. The list looked like this : Albania — Nationalist group seeks autonomy and eventual in- dependence, the country to be placed temporarily under the guardianship of one of the powers. " The Stars and Stripes have appeared in Albania. A new era of approaching peace and hap- piness is dawning on the clouded and blood-stained horizon of the Balkans. The torch of the American goddess of Liberty has been lifted, and we hope it will not be lowered until each and all Balkan races are redeemed and restored within their racial lines in ac- cordance with the dictates of the impartial justice advocated by President Wilson." Armenia — The delegation from the Armenian republic, headed by A. Aharonian, its president, asks recognition of an independ- ent Armenian state formed by the union of the seven vilayets and of Cilicia with the territories of the Armenian republic of the Caucasus, under the special guarantee of the Allies and the United States or under the League of Nations, with a special mandate for twenty years to one of the great powers. Croatia — Dr. Raditch signs a protest against the usurpation of sovereign powers by the Serbian Government over the autono- mous nation of Croatia, and asks the conference to guarantee self- government to the Croats and organize the greater Serbian state along the lines of a federative republic like the LTnited States. Esthonia — A delegation seeks recognition of the independence of Esthonia, the plea having been put personally to President Wilson during his visit to London, and being repeated now before the conference. 116 THE FOURTEEN POINTS Finland — Dr. Adolf Torngren and Dr. Y. Hirn, delegates to the Peace Conference named by General Maniierheim, ask recogni- tion of the independence of Finland and a guarantee of its in- tegrity. Georgia — The delegates Cheidze and Tsertelli present their claims for the recognition of the independence of the republic of Georgia, in southern Russia, and assert that it was never con- quered, but voluntarily entered into a union with the czars and now takes back its ancient rights. Kouban — M. Bytch, president of the legislative assembly of Kouban and head of the delegation in Paris, asks recognition of the independence of Kouban, in Russia, and help in a defensive fight against the Bolsheviki. Kutso Vlachs — Rumanian elements in Albania seek autonomy under the protection of one of the great powers, preferably Italy. Lebanon — Nahoum A. Mokarzel, delegate of the Lebanese League at the Hotel Continental, seeks the reconstitution of Leb- anon in its historic and natural frontiers, with a constitutional and independent government with French collaboration. Lusatia — Serbs living in this ancient margravinate, which was divided between Saxony and Austria by the Congress of Vienna, ask independence and close relations with the Czecho-Slovaks. Persia — M. Mochaverol Mamalek, minister of foreign affairs for Persia, and the Persian mission in Paris, ask the Peace Conference to give back its old frontiers, and its political and economic in- dependence, as well as restoration of the integrity of the country by the evacuation of all foreign troops and reparation for the enormous damage committed by the armies that used Persian terri- tory during the war. Persia submits that it has been a theater of war and that, through distinct declaration, it "joined the protests made by the entente against the violation of international law committed by Germany, especially against the submarine warfare." Ukraine — M. Sydorenko, president of the delegation from the republic of Ukraine and Dr. Paneyko, vice-president, seek recog- nition of the independence of this republic, which they assert is fighting the Bolshevism of Lenin, the reaction of Denikine, and the alleged aggression of the Poles in their territory. " And there are people in this world," said Van Steen, when we had completed the list, " who think - this Peace Conference should have finished its work in six weeks at the most ! " CHAPTER YIII How the Prince of the Hedjaz pitched his Arabian tent in the apartments of a Parisian hotel, and how he disconcerted the plans for a Jewish Palestine and a French Syria by his modest request for the empire of the califate. Feom Mecca, the city of the Kaaba, from the holy sites of western Arabia, which the world of Islam ap- proaches only on its knees, came the Emir Feisal to plead the cause of Hussein, King of the Hedjaz, before the four most powerful Christian judges of the earth. The flavor of the eternal romance of the East is in this story of the rise of Hussein, custodian of the holy temple of the prophet in Mecca. And bound up with this mission of the Emir Eeisal is the intrigue and calculated cunning of the diplomacy of the Western World. The war has obscured the romantic battle waged in the midst of the Arabian desert by the horse- men of the King of the Hedjaz, but in the story of the Peace Conference the mission of the Emir Feisal stands out like a patch of dazzling color against a drab back- ground. Only a few years before the war Hedjaz was a vilayet in western Arabia, known principally for its numerous holy places of Islam, inhabited by Arab traders and groups of wandering Bedouin tribes, with a population at the most of little more than half a million. To-day Hedjaz is spoken of as an independent kingdom, aspir- 117 118 THE ADVENTURES OF ing to the hegemony of all the Arabian-speaking world, seeking trade routes that for decades had been the ob- ject of German intrigues in Constantinople, asking title to seaports with famous names and inland cities of the ancient califate of Bagdad, and offering to be the spokes- man internationally for hundreds of thousands of men of alien race and tongue. Neither the conservative, lib- eral, nor extremist elements of the ancient Empire of Eussia, a world of nearly two hundred million people, had been able to force a way to the peace table. Mon- tenegro, a recognized nation and one of the first victims of the Austro-German avalanche, knocked in vain at the doors on the Quai d'Orsay. But the mission from Hedjaz, coming to Paris in flowing robes and turbans, obtained two delegates to the Peace Conference for little more than a song. To hear why, and to learn the stoiy of the new Ara- bia, I, too, one day joined the pilgrimage to Hedjaz. One might well expect to visit the son of the sherif of Mecca in a tent glowing with brilliant colors, on the fringe of the Arabian desert, there to find him munching figs and dates and surrounded by Arabs in flowing robes of wool. It seemed incongruous that my path should lead to the velvet-carpeted corridors of the Hotel Continental, on the Rue de Rivoli, and that I should be ushered into a suite of rooms immaculate in white enamel, resplendent with red damask hangings and generouely endowed with heavy crystal chandeliers. But there was an Oriental touch that compensated for the lack of Eastern surroundings. In the corridor be- fore the door of the emir stood a coal-black negro, tur- THE FOUETEEN POINTS 119 baned and robed, bis features immobile, but bis eyes flashing. Inside tbe rooms were other turbaned ne- groes, picked men of tbe prince's body-guard, who spoke in low, guttural tones as they bowed and per- formed the slight offices of hospitality for a stranger. The Arabs of the prince's entourage wore European attire, but the moment they donned their long robes of black wool and added the picturesque turban, which was held by a number of gold cords about the brow, they seemed to transfer themselves across the seas into the atmosphere of the land from which they had come. And finally when the emir entered the room, also wear- ing a long, trailing black robe and a gold-colored head- dress, the Parisian surroundings were forgotten, and I was in a land that has been a secret orchard from the days of the Israelites to our own. It was true ; the emissaries of Hedjaz had come out of the desert to Paris to ask for an empire. The emir is a quiet, soft-spoken man of about thirty- five. He has the look of a scholar, the modest demeanor of a man of refinement and cultivated tastes. For six- teen years he lived in Constantinople, a hostage at the Ottoman court for the good behaviour and loyalty of the ruling house of Hedjaz. It is said that he best loves classical and philosophical studies. It was almost with an air of apology that he sketched the claims of Hedjaz on a map of Asia Minor. The greater part of the map, including Arabia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and most of Syria, had been shaded with a lead-pencil. " This is the Arabia for which we are asking the Peace Conference/' said the prince. He pointed on 120 THE ADVENTURES OF the map to a point as far north as Alexandretta, on the coast, and then indicated all the territory south of a line drawn eastward to Diabekr, the Tigris River, Tekrif and Madekik, and stretching some distance beyond Basra. '' In America we think of Arabia as a land of deserts south of Palestine," I said. ^' All who speak Arabian are Arabs," said the emir, modestly, but decisively, ^' and where they live is Arabia." Ahmed Kadry of Damascus, the prince's personal physician, supplemented the statement. ^' In the territory indicated," he explained, ^' most of the inhabitants speak Arabian, although there are populations there that do not speak it. Many foreigners believe the Arabs in the south to be simply Bedouins. But that is not true. The Bedouins are nomadic Arabs. The word ' bedouin ' means ' dweller in a tent.' The Arabs are scattered all over Arabia proper, Mesopo- tamia, and Syria, which of course includes Palestine." The emir nodded vigorously in assent. ^' Then you are asking for sovereignty over this ter- ritory ? " I asked. " Eventually, yes," he replied. '^ At present, how- ever, we seek only the federation of all the Arabian lands. It may be that the conference will see fit to grant autonomy to certain districts in Asia Minor or to extend the protectorates of great powers over wide areas. With that policy we are, of course, in sympathy. We fought with the Allies in the war, and when we threw off the yoke of the Turk and declared Hedjaz inde- THE FOUETEEN POINTS 121 pendent, the British were the first to recognize us and to extend their help." At this moment an English officer in khaki, who wore an Arabian turban like the others, came unobtrusively into the room. He was a man of medium height, with smooth shaven, regular features. He had a fine face, a strong, well-modeled face, with a splendid chin and well-set eyes that took a friendly interest in everything. He was introduced as Colonel Lawrence. I had heard before that he had played an important part in the cam- paign of General Allenby in Palestine, and realized at once that this was the modern English Warwick who had become a topic of conversation, and who was credited with being the principal power behind the mission of the King of the Hedjaz. Wilson, Clemenceau, Eoch, Lloyd George — these were figures that all the world knew and acclaimed ; but the world did not know Colonel Edward Lawrence, who proved to be one of the pic- turesque, versatile men of the conference, and whose name will be met again in the future. I shall never forget the words in which Colonel Law- rence described himself, after the first few pleasantries had been exchanged. " Indeed, I 'm not a diplomat," he said. " I 'm not even a soldier by profession. I 'm a student. I was in Asia Minor on a scientific mission when I became in- terested in Hedjaz. I suppose I was asked to help because I knew something about the country. I should like nothing more than to get out of uniform and back to my studies." Then he told the story of Hedjaz. 122 THE ADVEI^TUKES OF " The King of the Hedjaz was a vassal of the Turks/' said Colonel Lawrence. ^^ By controlling the king, the Turks also controlled Mecca and maintained their hold over Islam. When the British began to invade Tur- key, the King of the Hedjaz came to us and asked that we recognize him as an independent sovereign, feed his army, and equip and pay his troops in a campaign against the Turks. He made no request of a political nature, saying merely that he would come for his reward after the war. We accepted. The moment that Hedjaz rose, the Turks could no longer depend on their Arab troops. They were compelled to turn their Arabian fighting units into labor battalions. From that moment the Turk was doomed. " We landed arms and rations from Egypt and India on the Red Sea and paid the troops of the king. The nucleus of his army was made up of tribesmen who had deserted from the Turks. The king grew stronger as the war progressed. At the time of the armistice he had fifty thousand men in the field. His fighters per- formed brilliantly in battle, and his horsemen led in several charges. And now he asks that all the Arabs be recognized as one people under his sovereignty. When at the end of the war the king went on foot from Medina to Aleppo, he walked every step of the way on Arabian soil." The emir had become a listener. Colonel Lawrence had become the real spokesman of the delegation from Hedjaz. " We do not urge that the King of the Hedjaz should have direct sovereignty over all this territory as yet/' THE FOURTEEN POINTS 123 lie continued. " It would be better to divide it into autonomous zones, forming the beginning of a great Arabian confederation. The zones should be placed un- der a protectorate, named by the League of Nations. This would prevent exploitation by selfish interests." " Does not this plan conflict with the proposed Kingdom of Jerusalem ? " I asked. ^' There is as yet no Kingdom of Jerusalem," re- plied Colonel Lawrence. '^ The country is integrally a part of Arabia, but the King of the Hedjaz has no objection to giving autonomy to the Zionists in the land they ask, from Dan to Beersheba. I think this can be done with success." The remark was translated for the Emir Feisal, who had been listening intently, but who does not speak English. He nodded his head. " We have a certain kinship with the Jews," he ex- plained in French. ^' Both Jews and Arabs are Se- mitic. We are cousins." The face of the prince to some extent bore out this assertion. It was a face of fine lines, a well modeled forehead, a large, sensitive mouth, and a swarthy com- plexion, with a bit of a beard such as might have been worn by the patriarchs of old. But the lines of his nose were straight. ^' What interest, if any, has Great Britain in your plan ? " I asked of Colonel Lawrence. ^' The interest of Great Britain is non-political," he replied. ^' Great Britain is the protector of so many Moslems that it is to our interest to see that Mecca is not exploited. If the Moslem world thought that Great 124 THE ADVENTURES OF Britain had undue influence over Hedjaz, it would make trouble for us with the Moslems in India." " What hope do you have that your plan will suc- ceed ? " ^' We have obtained the support of Great Britain," said Colonel Lawrence. " What we need now is the support of the United States. Once we gain that, I am sure the whole scheme can be put into the hands of the League of Nations." The turbaned black men of the Arabian desert served tea and cakes. Tea is the beverage over which the fate of the world is being determined at this conference. We talked of many things, and it seemed to me that I had opened a new window on a little-known corner of the world. The next day I sought out a friend who possesses an intimate knowledge of French foreign affairs. ^' I have just made an interesting discovery," I said. " It is the story of the rise of the house of Hedjaz, the successor to the ancient califate of Bagdad, destined to rule again in the high places of the medieval calif." " It is an iridescent dream," he remarked briefly and, I thought, not without a touch of bitterness. " How do you explain the phenomenon of the King of the Hedjaz?" I asked. " Great Britain," he answered sharply. "What interest has Great Britain in Hedjaz?" " Well, the ' Temps ' says it cost the BrUish five and one half million francs a month for the expenses of Hedjaz by the end of last summer, and that over two and one half million francs were paid monthly to the THE fouetee:^' poi:n'ts 125 Emir Feisal as chief of the Arab Army of the ISTorth." "And why did Hedjaz, a country without influence, whose help in the war was hardly as important as that of the minor countries of the Continent, get two dele- gates at the Peace Conference ? '^ " Because Great Britain urged it, and France ac- ceded. Confronted with the w^ishes of the two most interested powders, the United States gave its consent," said my informant. " That is all. By the way, as you are interested," he added, '^ I would advise you to consult the secret agreement between France, Eng- land, and Russia, the geography of the Suez Canal and the route to India, and the story of French and German commercial enterprise in Asia Minor. If that does not suffice, come to me again." We go back then to the secret treaties. Truly Trot- zky, commissioner of foreign affairs for soviet Russia, was a friend of the uninformed when he rummaged in the czar's lumber-room and found these little helps to an understanding of secret diplomacy. One of them is a memorandum reporting the result of negotiations at London and Petrograd in the spring of 1916. It out- lines the following zones of influence in Asia Minor: France and Great Britain are disposed to recognize and to pro- tect an independent Arab state or a confederation of Arab states under the suzerainty of an Arab chief, in two zones in Asia Minor. France will have the rijrht of priority of enterprises and loans in its zone, and Great Britain the same privileges in its zone. France and Great Britain in their respective zones alone will furnish foreign counselors and functionaries at the request of the proposed Arab state. In the zones France and Great Britain will be authorized to establish a direct or indirect administration or any control they 126 THE ADVENTURES OF • desire or judge suitable to establish after an understanding with the Arab Government. France is to receive as her zone the coast strip of Syria, the Addansk district, and the territory bounded on the south by a line running through Ajutab-Mardin to the future Russian boundary, and on the north by a line running through Ala Daga, Kosanya, Ak Daga, Yildiz Daga, Zara, Egin and Kharput. Great Britain acquires as her zone the southern part of Meso- potamia with Bagdad, and reserves for herself in Syria the ports of Haifa and St. Jean d'Acre, Haifa to be a free port for French commerce. Alexandretta in the French zone is declared a free port for British commerce. With the aim of conserving the religious interests of the Allied powers, Palestine, with the sacred places, is to be separated from Turkish territory and is to be subject to a special regime by agreement between Russia, France, and England. . I soon found that the French regarded the claims of Hedjaz as decidedly antagonistic to the wishes of France in Asia Minor. Moreover, it was felt that the manner in which Hedjaz had been quietly supported by Great Britain at the conference indicated that Great Britain was trying to gain a wider sphere of influence in Asia Minor than the original secret agreement permitted. Most confusing, however, was the fact that although the Hedjaz delegation expressed the warmest friend- liness for the Zionists who wanted a Jerusalem of their own, the English Zionists repulsed their overtures and declared emphatically that the new Jewish state must be free from all Arab interference, and that no ar- rangement giving them autonomy under the nominal sovereignty of Hedjaz within an Arabian confedera- tion would be countenanced. As early as February 6 the storm broke. From a discussion of the relations of the Czccho-Slovaks and the Poles, the council of the five, including the President THE FOUKTEEN POINTS 127 of the United States, tlie prime ministers of France, Great Britain, and Italy and a representative of Japan, turned to hear the cause of Hedjaz, presented by the Emir Feisal. In his memorandum the Emir Feisal named six di- visions of Arabia in which he was interested: Syria, which he regarded as sufficiently advanced for autono- mous government ; Irak and Djezireh, both parts of Mespotamia, which he said should come under the pro- tectorate of '' one of the great powers " for the early ex- ploitation of their resources; Hedjaz, which was com- pletely independent; Nedjed, in the interior, and Ye- men, on the Red sea, which were considered able to regulate their affairs with the help of Hedjaz and with- out interference from the Peace Conference. As for Palestine, the memorandum set forth that the enor- mous majority of the population was Arabian, but that, not wishing to assume responsibility for regulating the affairs of the many races and religions represented here, Hedjaz was willing that this also should come under the protection of a great power, the dominant position of the Arabs being meanwhile recognized. The hearing aroused considerable French antago- nism. The attitude of the French Government may be guessed partly from the comment in the semi-official newspaper, " Le Temps," which directed attention to the fact that the " great power " which Hedjaz de- sired should be given a mandate in Mesopotamia and Palestine was none other than Great Britain, and that this was hardly in keeping with the declaration of the Arab king that he was under no political obligations to 128 THE ADVEIs^TURES OF the British. The ^' Temps " moreover said of Hedjaz that " its history is brief, but its appetite is very great," and spoke of '' the substitution of a Bedouin imperialism for a Turkish imperialism." Frenchmen said bluntly that if the dream of Hedjaz were realized, Hedjaz would become the center of a great " fictional " empire running from Akabah and perhaps Ma'an on the north as far south as the British protectorate at Aden, including all Arabia, and also all Turkish territory where the Arab tongue is spoken, including Syria, Alexandretta, Kurdistan, and AEesopo- tamia. The French also said that Syria was under the rule of the Bedouin Arabs only from a. d. 635 to 656; so that Hedjaz could not contend that it was re- covering historic rights for itself. A few days after the Emir Feisal appeared before the council another attempt was made by Hedjaz to build up its claim. This occurred at the plenary ses- sion of the Peace Conference on February 14, when Rustem Haida, in commenting on the covenant of the League of Nations, which had just been read by Presi- dent Wilson, contributed this gratuitous kick at the Anglo-French agreement affecting Asia Minor : In clause 19 of the covenant we read propositions particularly applying to the nationalities that have been Fiberated from the Turkish yoke, and there the word "mandate" is used, but the definition of that word is not given. It remains vague and unde- fined. On the interpretation that will be given to that word de- pends the freedom of liberated populations. This will be seen when the discussion which it is not intended to begin to-day will be instituted. P'or the present I wish to say that this article leaves to the nations liberated from the Turkish domination the right to choose the power from which they will ask help and ad- THE FOURTEEN POINTS 129 vice. Now, we know that there is in existence a secret covenant to divide this nation of ours without consulting us. We ask whether such a convention, from the very fact of this covenant, has become null and void. We thank all the powers for the part they have taken for the drafting of an act the result of which will be to give welcome guarantees to all the small nationalities. Now comes the second chapter in this story of near Eastern intrigue. When the Zionists of England re- jected the pretensions of Hedjaz to sovereignty over Palestine, the affair became more confusing than ever to the lay mind. Ostensibly Hedjaz was in Paris with the full consent of the British Government, which had even helped it get a hearing. On the other hand there was no doubt that the Zionist movement, which aimed at autonomous government for the Jews of Jerusalem under a British protectorate, was opposed to the as- pirations of Hedjaz. Moreover, to some extent the Zionists had already obtained the favor of the British Government for their enterprise, for there was on rec- ord a declaration made by the British secretary of state for foreign affairs to Lord Rothschild, which read: " His Majesty's government view with favor t^o estab- lishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jew- ish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly under- stood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights and political status enjoyed by the Jews in any other country." This declaration had won the approval of President Wilson and of most of the governments represented in Paris. To observers at the conference it began to look as if the British 130 THE adve:n'tures of were divided between Hedjaz and Zion, and that one group was evidently striving to extend the sphere of British influence much farther than had ever been contemplated either by the Zionists or the French. On March 1 the case for Zion was placed before the Council of Ten by the representatives of the Jews in Palestine, Dr. !N'ahum Sokolow, Rabbi Weizmann, and M. Ussischkin. They spoke on behalf of a home in Pal- estine for Jews who recognize no nationality but their own, who favor a revival of the Hebrew national con- sciousness and of the Hebrew language. They set forth that the present Jewish population was only 100,000, but that there v^as room for 1,000,000 Jews. They asked that a Jewish state be delimited out of Syria from Dan to Beersheba, and that it be placed under the pro- tection of Great Britain. On the same day the representatives of the American Jews, Julian W. Mack, Louis Marshall, Stephen S. Wise, and Bernard G. Richards, who were instructed to speak for 3,000,000 Jews of the United States at a convention held in Philadelphia in 1918, submitted to President Wilson their views on how this trusteeship of Palestine might be administered to aid the JewS. They suggested that the Jews there be represented in executive and legislative bodies and in public office, that communities be encouraged to become autonomous, that assistance be given from the public funds for the edu- cation of the inhabitants without distinction of race or creed, that Hebrew be made one of the official lan- guages, that the Jewish Sabbath and holy days be pro- claimed days of rest, and that a citizenship of Pales- THE FOURTEElSr POINTS 131 tine be constituted and recognized under the protec- torate of the mandatory power. 'Not all of the arguments advanced on behalf of a Jewish Palestine were based on religious or racial grounds. A part of British opinion declared that such a state would be a bulwark for British rule in the East. The Suez Canal and the British Empire in Asia were considered vulnerable through Mesopotamia and Egypt. There was constant danger of religious agitation that might become anti-British in character. A Jewish Pal- estine would safeguard the canal and the East. The British Palestine conamittee advanced the argument that the organization of a Jewish state would win the favor of the 3,000,000 Jews in the United States for Great Britain, many of whom occupied places of influence and trust, and so help offset the suspicion of Great Britain's motives that is frequently expressed by Americans of Irish and German descent, and which is fed by the his- toric picture of England in American school-books. A few significant sentences from the declaration of this committee may throw light on this argument ; Great Britain must either get into very close association with the United States or run imminent risk of a clash with the United States. ... A war between England and America would prob- ably be the death of both countries. . . . Close association be- tween England and America would be the surest guarantee of world peace. . . . With all these powerful elements arrayed against good relations between England and America it is plain that this country will need to rally in America all the friends she can if the catastrophe of a breach is to be avoided. . . . American Jews have not merely been pro-ally, but specifically pro-English. . . . Any action by the British Government which could be justly interpreted as wanting in fidelity or cordiality to the great Jewish ideal of a Jewish Palestine would be counted \n America by American Jews as a breach of faitf;. 132 THE ADVENTURES OF When tlie Jews in Paris made their plea to the Peace Conference, a letter breathing the spirit of most friendly sjTupathy and interest was written by the Emir Eeisal to Dr. Felix Frankfurter, one of the Americans sup- porting Jewish aims in Paris. The letter declared : We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yester- day by the Zionist organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper. We will do our best, in so far as we are concerned, to help them through: we will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home. . . . The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist; our movement is national and not imperialist; there is room in Syria for us both. The letter further declared that the aims of both the Jews and the Arabs had been misrepresented to the Arab and Jewish peasantry, and closed with the state- ment that there were differences not on principle, but only on matters of detail, and added the hope that these might be adjusted by ^' mutual good will." Throughout the pages of this remarkable letter I seemed to hear the voice of a young and talented diplomat, a man who wore a turban, but had the uniform of an English colonel be- neath his flowing robe. The attitude of the Emir Feisal may have been strongly conciliatory, but the Arabs in Palestine did not seem to agree with him. Reports reached the confer- ence that wide-spread anti-Zionist movements were on foot. Threats of violence against the Jews were re- ported to Paris. The news made a painful impres- sion. The delegates who were not directly interested in the fate of Asia Minor began to feel that Palestine THE FOURTEEN POINTS 133 was far from being a unit on the subject of its future government. The American delegates expressed them- selves at a loss to judge the situation properly. They had not taken a decisive stand on the claims of the King of the Hedjaz, because the United States was not in- timately interested in the disposition of Mesopotamia and Syria except in the general application of the prin- ciples of President Wilson. They preferred that these questions should be settled first by the powers directly concerned. On the other hand, they were disposed to look favorably upon the scheme of Jewish self-govern- ment in Palestine, because of pressure brought to bear by the Jews at home, and because of the American de- sire to aid oppressed minorities to develop unhampered. Paris was the center of several movements against a Jewish Palestine. The Frenc'h Government was luke- warm to the idea at first, and French Jews as a whole showed little interest. An organization called " Les Amis de la Terre Sainte '' be