April 29th

Some of the French writers, and this is natural enough, and some of the American correspondents, and this I think is not as it should be, are making labored jokes over the quick work of the Covenant Commission. They admit that the world, according to Genesis, was created in six days, but they contend in those days supernatural assistance was available. “Things are different now, but all the same Wilson and House have been fast workers. In ten committee meetings they have reshaped the world.”

In view of this intended slur, and more are to be expected from those who are devoted to power politics, and have battened on them in the past, I think I should put down in black and white the calendar of the Committee meetings. The first was held on February 3d at the Crillon, Wilson presiding, with fifteen to nineteen delegates present. After ten meetings, which totaled forty-nine hours, the First Draft of the Covenant was submitted to the Conference on February 14th. In all there were fifteen official sessions of the Commission and the revised Covenant was practically finished on April 5th.

But this is by no means the whole story. Of course, as described elsewhere in my diary, many months of study and discussion had been expended on the new-world Charter long before the Conference assembled. From the moment House arrived the Leaguers and the Covenanters surrounded him. Innumerable committees, official and otherwise, met from time to time at the Crillon and elsewhere. It would be guesswork, a stretching of the imagination, to say how many hours these subconferences ran to; but frequent, long, and somewhat tedious they were.