Bonsal, Stephen
Stories
2
Chapters
256
Words
242.3 K
Comments
0
Reading
20 h, 11 m
After long delay, Faisal and Lawrence were received today by the President. He told House he was struck by the Emir’s noble bearing; but the Arabs are greatly disappointed. Evidently the President was reserved and most certainly noncommittal. Lawrence tells me that the long-delayed interview was a formal conference rather than an exchange of views. “We merely established a ceremonial contact, and that to the Arabs is a great sorrow.” Sir Mark Sykes was one of the strangest and most perplexing…- 113.7 K • Completed
- Lawrence gave me the pleasure of a long visit on Tuesday and filed with me a précis of the Arab demands. He then asked of me what he called a favor which I was only too glad to grant. It seems that his hand-written account of his campaign in Arabia, the triumphal march from Medinah to Damascus that he gave me several days ago, was the first he had written; that Hankey, Secretary of the British Empire delegation, wanted a copy for his files. I let him have it and got it back in twenty-four hours, a very…
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- I have at least one notable advantage over the distinguished delegates to the Conference; over one and all of them without, I believe, a single exception. I enjoyed a slight acquaintance with Lawrence of Arabia before he became the romantic figure of the war in the East. This happy chance came to me in this wise. Hastening back from the Philippines in February, 1915, I embarked at Hong Kong on the Blue Funnel freighter Perseus. I was enticed to this step by the assurance of friends that this fast cargo…
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- Several days ago, a petit mot came from Iswolsky, whom I had known fairly well in other days when he was the ambassador and again when he directed the foreign affairs of Holy Russia. Today he is a refugee from the Reds and when I called, I found him lodged at the Meurice in an attic room, one of the class to which the valets of important visitors were generally assigned. He is recovering from a sharp attack of influenza which has left with him a hacking cough. Fortunately for me he did not choose to…
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- On November 9, in his speech at the Guild Hall, Lloyd George formally abandoned the Russians. “I do not regret the aid we have given,” he announced, “but we cannot continue our intervention in a civil war which seems interminable.” Clemenceau said this was a capitulation to the Soviets and he sent an angry letter to House, then back in America. “If this step was in any way permissible,” he wrote, “he should have given advance notice to his Allies. The little Welshman is a deserter in the face…
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- Yesterday Kerensky, prime minister of the short-lived liberal Provisional government (July-November, 1917), came in, this time bubbling over with optimism. The Colonel let him bubble for about ten minutes and then turned him over to me. “This news is so important,” said the Colonel, “that I shall ask you to draw up a formal memo to be distributed to our delegation and to others.” Well, this is what Kerensky said: “The Bolsheviki are at the end of their rope. Their complete overthrow is more…
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- I have been canny, perhaps even “ca’ canny,” to use Lloyd George’s favorite expression, in my relations with the Russians. The fact is that with the exception of Prince Lvow, in whom I have full confidence that dates back to and was tested by our close relations during the first revolution (1906), I frankly distrust them all. When they came to the Crillon, and they came from the beginning in droves (now they are fighting among themselves and come singly), I would introduce them to House and when he…
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- I have neglected serious Russian affairs hitherto, as far as my diary is concerned at least, and yet the fact is they have been with us from the start of the Conference and I was immersed in their affairs even before the talk fest began. President Wilson never said a truer word than when he announced his belief that the treatment of Russia presented the acid test to the peacemakers. Up to the present the result of the acid test has been negative and the outlook for the future is far from reassuring. At…
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- Today, for perhaps the hundredth time in this catastrophic year, I witnessed an incident which reminded me of how quickly the pomp of power passes, how near to the highest place in the capitol yawns the abyss by the Tarpeian Rock. I saw Count Cassini, so long ambassador extraordinary of Holy Russia, running through the sleet and rain on the Place de la Madeleine to catch a bus to take him to the modest suburban retreat, or refuge, with which the French government has provided him. I grant you that…
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- Prince Lvoff, president of the deposed and fugitive Kerensky government and the founder of the Zemstvos, came in this morning. He brought no encouraging news, only complaints, and that was not news. He stated that the promised arms and ammunition were only reaching the Omsk government with great delay or not at all. I had to tell him this was not surprising as so much of it fell into the hands of the Bolsheviki even when we placed it at points represented as being safely in the possession of his forces.…
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