Bonsal, Stephen
Stories
1
Chapters
81
Words
89.4 K
Comments
0
Reading
7 h, 27 m
M. Allize (the French agent), who is always urging, at least unofficially, the union of Austria with Bavaria, handed in a note to Dr. Bauer, secretary of the Government for Foreign Affairs, yesterday, in which he broached a new topic, and also revealed the anxiety, which so many feel, that the present government here is turning very rapidly to the Left. He said: “France, like the other Allies, is seeking to send food here for the distressed population; hitherto this has been scanty because with us at…- 91.2 K • Completed
- The papers here are filled, you might even say ablaze, today, with contradictory reports from western Europe in regard to the proposed war indemnities. Lloyd George is reported as saying that Germany must pay the full amount of war damage, even if it takes fifty years to do so. Wilson is reported as not backing him up very strongly. He thinks the Allies should be content with getting the money to replace what has been actually destroyed, and no more—reparation payments but no indemnities. Also, under…
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- Vienna, always a cave of the winds, with every breeze bearing upon it a fantastic rumor (such certainly was my experience here in my days as a correspondent), is even surpassing itself in this respect now. I shall make a brief record of the news that reaches me from many quarters, but I begin with one that is certainly not fantastic. Here it is in black and white in all the official newspapers. This one explains perhaps why the authorities are so desirous for me to live in one of the palaces and so protect…
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- To escape the hospital smell that pervaded the Bristol, I went to the opera last evening. I was in uniform, and when I presented myself at the ticket window they were opposed to taking my money. “Soldiers, officials, do not pay,” quavered a voice through the little window, but I insisted. I was hardly settled in my stall and was gazing up at the fourth or fifth gallery which was where I sat in my student days, when I was suddenly surrounded by what seemed the whole management. There they were crowding…
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- Evidently the wires are crossed between Archibald Coolidge, of the Enquiry, and the delegation in Paris, and doubtless this is one of the reasons why I am detained here. Coolidge says, in his indignation, that a letter to Santa Claus has a better chance of being answered than an inquiry sent to the delegation! The Peace Commissioners come back with the statement that if you ask Coolidge for facts to aid in an appreciation of the actual situation, he replies with a learned disquisition on the Pragmatic…
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- “Would you like to talk to Paris?” said young Captain Clapp to me the other day. “I should say I would,” was my answer, “but, of course, it is impossible.” (Telegrams were greatly delayed and letters rarely reached me and always many days old. Lacking definite instructions, I was in something of a quandary.) Clapp is a telephone expert attached to the Hoover organization and, as it turned out, something of a miracle worker. “Nothing is easier,” explained young Clapp. “We have a…
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- There came for me today a telegram which put me back in diplomacy, even in secret diplomacy. And yet it was not in code, but open and aboveboard for anybody to read, and it ran: If a complete set of Grillparzer's ‘works, the 1872 edition, is available, secure an option and wire me the price. Signed: Harold Johnson I understood now why I had been detained in Vienna and detached from the Smuts mission. My instructions had nothing to do with the sale of the Viennese dramatic poet’s works, and if,…
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- Vienna—Prague—Belgrade—Budapest Note: General Smuts left on his tour of southeastern Europe on April 1st and the following excerpts are from the diary of Colonel Bonsai, who joined him in Vienna. Generally, but not invariably, they are headed by the day of the week and not by the day of the month. While, as will appear, Colonel Bonsai on this tour covered a good deal of ground, he was back in Paris on the afternoon of April 11th to resume his duties with the Commission engaged in drafting the…
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- Albert, the Tiger’s shadow and valet, is a handsome fellow and a lucky one. He went through the war on the Western Front without receiving a scratch. “He’s lucky, and that is one of the reasons why I like to have him around,” said Clemenceau. “I seem to remember that whenever a ranking officer was suggested for an important post, Napoleon would always ask—is he lucky? Well, Albert is lucky. While he has done many foolish things he always comes out smiling and as plump as a partridge. Ce…
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- At this time, as he said for my personal guidance and for the benefit of the generations to come, the Tiger made a remark which I trust I shall bear in mind when, as I hope, my writing days—for the public, not for sealed archives—begin again. He indeed repeated it so often that it took on the shape of an injunction. “Someday,” he said, “you will put down in writing what you saw at the war and during the course of the Conference and what you think you know about it all. Just as I will,…
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