Bonsal, Stephen
Stories
2
Chapters
255
Words
240.5 K
Comments
0
Reading
20 h, 2 m
However, in the afternoon session the long-gathering storm broke with great intensity. Despite the warning of General Smuts when he submitted the mandate clause that any changes would bring tumbling to the ground the agreement that has been so painfully reached, there are rumblings in many quarters. The French are dissatisfied with it because they say it lacks clarity.” In reality, they fear it will prevent them from raising black troops in Africa which have been so useful in the war. The representatives…- 128.6 K • Completed
- Should they ever fall into critical hands, I owe an explanation of how and why these diaries and these much-too-copious memoranda were scribbled by one who, before the great catastrophe overtook us, was completely immune to the diary contagion. For my deplorable activity I offer this word of explanation. It was enforced—not voluntary. From the first days of our collaboration, which began with the Armistice negotiations, at his request I made full reports on the situation as I saw it to Colonel…
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- Miller’s darling project is to insert in the Covenant a provision for compulsory arbitration; all the minor powers who have heard of it support the idea enthusiastically. However, Lord Robert Cecil came in this afternoon and he made it exceedingly clear to House that England, at least, would have none of it. “I hate to be a stumbling block to the realization of a dream, a world without war, which I confess exerts a strong appeal upon me. But in this present situation it would be far from wise if we…
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- Surrounded by a cortege of the Republican Guard and a squadron of cuirassiers, the President drove yesterday to the Chamber through streets and boulevards thronged with happy, cheering people. It was indeed a wonderful sight. Wilson was pleased and touched, and he showed it. All Paris was at his feet. In his address to the deputies he departed quite a little from the text of the discourse he had proposed to make. He said: “America is paying her debt of gratitude to France in sending her sons to defend…
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- I had been told by the Colonel (who, being a man of one language himself, with generous exaggeration regarded me as a master of many tongues) that I was to act as interpreter for the President and himself in the sessions of the League of Nations Commission; that is, that I was to interpret from French into English for their edification. While by no means eager for the task, I was not greatly afraid; of course I had never done any long-winded verbal interpreting before, but then, in wartime, you have to do…
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- I have made it a rule, of course with an exception now and then, not to confide to my diary any of the spectacular events that have followed upon the ora formidabile of the Armistice. I have omitted all reference to the pageantry with which the cavalcades of kings have been greeted as they came to the City of Light, and I ignore the visits of the President to the capitals of Europe now breathing freely after the tortured agony of war. These events are in the hands of competent remembrancers and assuredly…
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- In accepting the presidency of the Peace Conference today M. Clemenceau gave the delegates assembled from all over the world a taste of his quality. No typescript was in his hand, there was no rustling of papers. He drew his inspiration from the world audience before him. No “releases” came to us or to the representatives of the world press; and I am glad I took down his noble words just as they were spoken, as they came, not from his secretariat, but from his great heart. He said: “I cannot avoid…
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- As I came into his study this morning I found Colonel House, always so calm and composed, visibly—but pleasantly—affected. Before him was the speech which the President delivered in Manchester (England) on the thirtieth—the words which they had so carefully, so prayerfully considered together last week. The substantial paragraph which should be long remembered both at home and abroad reads: “There is a great voice of Humanity abroad in the world just now which he who cannot hear is deaf. There…
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- Now that we have an armistice of sorts a tremendous discussion has arisen as to why Paris has been chosen as the scene of the Great Assizes and why, apparently, President Wilson has decided to take part personally in the discussions which will follow. Many, including Lloyd George, regret the decision that has been made and are quite voluble in expressing the opinion that it is the worst possible choice. Perhaps it is advisable to set down the circumstances that led to the decision, in so far as they are…
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- An interesting if somewhat belated dispatch came today from the Colonel’s mysterious spy; he gives a vivid description of the German collapse. Evidently he was an eyewitness of many of the amazing incidents in Kiel as well as in Berlin. Apparently on October 29th, the very day on which the members of the Supreme War Council were gathered together chez House, listening to the Armistice terms which the Germans might and in the judgment of Marshal Foch should have, in case they asked for them, a desperate…
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