December 29, 1918

Yesterday Clemenceau came in for what he called a friendly informal talk. Both he and the Colonel asked me to stay, “to keep us old fellows from straying too far afield” was the way the Tiger put it. He began by explaining the expression of noble candeur as applied to the President in his recent speech in the Chamber, to which many ascribe an offensive meaning.

“Nothing was farther from my thoughts than that,” explained the Tiger; “I used the words in their English sense. I was applauding his frankness and his loyalty of spirit, but at the same time I wished to utter a word of warning because we are both in a difficult situation and naturally and inevitably we shall view it from different standpoints.”

Then turning to House: “Let us survey the scene calmly and deliberately, my dear friend, before the battle begins. America is far away, but we are near to the ravening wolves. America came and saved us, but still you remain far away, and while you were coming think of what we suffered! Our homes and our fields have been ravaged and our mines destroyed. Don’t take this as a formal statement, much less a protest. I am simply a tired old man thinking aloud. We are reviving after a world disaster. We in Paris placed our faith in the balance of power and in strong frontiers. Well, as the event has proved, our frontiers were not solid and the political arrangements—well, they were in unbalance. In view of the disaster that followed many today condemn the old system and President Wilson is their prophet. He and he alone can lead us into the pastures of peace and plenty, we are told. Now I admit I am, even in view of the disaster that has involved us all, still a partisan of the old system, at least until something better is offered and, note this, has been tested by experience. I am not an opponent of the proposed League of Nations. Gladly I accept it as a supplementary guarantee, but for today we must have something more practical, something that has been through the furnace of war, even if, as might well be the case, some of the tests have not turned out very successfully.”

[I think this is the first indication that Clemenceau had in mind a joint agreement for the defense of the Rhine frontier.]