Bonsal, Stephen
Stories
2
Chapters
255
Words
240.5 K
Comments
0
Reading
20 h, 2 m
There came a telephone call this morning from Charles Seignobos, the historian and eminent professor at the Sorbonne. He said he wanted to see me, and breaking several less important engagements I had him in my office within the hour. Probably I had expected to revel in the optimism as to the outcome of the Conference which he displayed, as my diary proves, only two weeks ago. If I did, I counted without the recent depressing developments. Like Professor Denis he is a champion of the little peoples, the…- 113.7 K • Completed
- Some of the President’s “liberal minded” admirers (last year in Washington by many they were denounced as parlor Bolsheviks) are today, I find, criticizing him severely. They assert that he has entirely abandoned his policy of “open covenants, openly arrived at” which endeared him to them and that now in consultation with the three war lords of Britain and France and Italy he is, in “Star-Chamber” proceedings, reshaping the world and that the hundreds of millions of people who are involved…
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- The change for the worse in the President’s physical condition since his return from America is increasingly noticeable and is being generally remarked upon. The tic on his left cheek that is so disfiguring and to me so alarming has become almost chronic. Evidently the President is in a highly nervous condition and the confidence that animated him as he left for Washington is gone. He has been to see House twice since his return, and the subject of these conferences is how best to introduce the Monroe…
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- Our closet philosopher who dreamed a beautiful dream and became President is now at grips with stern realities. They listened to him while the world floundered in the welter of war and the New Jerusalem he pictured as our goal seemed most inviting, but today with the danger passed, or so at least many think, the old selfish desires reassert themselves and apparently with redoubled force. Further, many are convinced that they understand the international situation and the needs of their people better,…
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- I wish it were as easy to refute all the attacks upon the President’s leadership as it is the one that is most often advanced here today. We are told that he threw a monkey wrench into the machinery of the Conference by taking no notice of the French program that was submitted to him in Washington last November by Ambassador Jusserand. While this paper was merely informal and suggestive, I could understand that the French might have been miffed by the way it was ignored; but as a matter of fact the…
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- The effect of the Colonel’s visit has been magical. Every paper in Paris, at least all that have come to our notice, print eulogies of the President this morning and of House, “that loyal friend of France.” What a press it is! With the Colonel’s permission I am destroying the file of recent press attacks, but as I do so I come across the record of the almost delirious praise with which his arrival on these shores but a few short weeks ago was hailed. Excerpts from two of these I place in my diary.…
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- The attacks on the President, and what is more important the misrepresentation of the peace policies which he pursues, have broken out again with vitriolic force in both the provincial and the metropolitan newspapers. There was, it is true, an outbreak of this nature toward the end of January but, with the consent of the President, House put an end to it by announcing in one of his newspaper conferences that as apparently his views were not understood, Mr. Wilson was thinking of making a full statement of…
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- I was told by House to take an early opportunity of calling to Clemenceau’s attention the undoubted fact that the changed attitude of the people of Paris toward Wilson and the more or less unfriendly attitude of the French press was again having an unfortunate, indeed a deplorable, effect in the United States. I had this opportunity today and availed myself of it and fortunately I found the Tiger in a mellow mood. “I agree with House; public opinion in France is not reasonable, but how natural this…
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- In view of certain unpleasant incidents, it is now advisable to turn back the clock, or rather the calendar, to a period some months ago. On December 9, as requested, House radioed the President, then at sea, the tentative program of his reception, for he was due to arrive at Brest three days later. Among the proposed arrangements was this: “The French and Belgian governments are most insistent that you should make a tour of the devastated regions, and accordingly the French government is making…
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- Lloyd George came in and had a long talk with the Colonel. The purpose of his coming was to say that he was willing to state that in case of another invasion of France by Germany Britain would come to her aid. “But,” he added, “I want to say definitely and finally that we are not willing to maintain an army for an indefinite period on the Rhine.” “In that position we are in complete agreement,” said House. Then George began on another task. “House, if you will allow me, I want to…
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