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A REVISION OF THE TREATY

CHAP.

Terms by the Allied Council of War on November1, 1918. 1

The first point which emerges is that the reply ofthe Allied Governments to President Wilson (whichafterwards furnished the text of his notification ofNov. 5, 1918, addressed to Germany ), defining theirinterpretation of the references to Reparation in theFourteen Points, was drawn up and approved atthe same session of the Supreme Council (that of

1 The following particulars are taken from Les Negotiations secretes el lesQuatre Armistices avec pieces justificatives by " Mermeix," published at Paris by Ollendorff, 1921. This remarkable volume has not received the attentionit deserves. The greater part of it consists of a verbatim transcript of thesec et proces verbaux of those meetings of the Supreme Council of the Allies which were concerned with the Armistice Terms. On the face of it thisdisclosure is authentic and is corroborated in part by M. Tardieu. Thereare many passages of extraordinary interest on points not connected withmy present topic, as for example the discussion of the question whether theAllies should insist on the surrender of the German fleet if the Germans made trouble about it. Marshal Foch emerges from this record veryhonourably, as determined that nothing unnecessary should be demandedof the enemy, and that no blood should be spilt for a vain or trifling object.Sir Douglas Haig was of the same opinion. In reply to Col. House, Foch spoke thus : "If they accept the terms of the Armistice we are imposingon them, it is a capitulation. Such a capitulation gives us everything wecould get from the greatest victory. In such circumstances I cannot admitthat I have the right to risk the life of a single man more." And again onOctober 31 : " If our conditions are accepted we can wish for nothing better.We make war only to attain our ends, and we do not want to prolongit uselessly." In reply to a proposal by Mr. Balfour that the Germans inevacuating the East should leave one-third of their arms behind them, Foch observed: " The intrusion of all, these clauses makes our documentchimerical, since the greater part of the conditions are incapable of beingexecuted. We should do well to be sparing with these unrealisable in-junctions." Towards Austria also he was humane and feared the prolonga-tion of the blockade which the politicians were proposing. " I intervene,"he said on October 31, 1918, " in a matter which is not a military one strictlyspeaking. We are to maintain the blockade until Peace, that is to say untilwe have made a new Austria. That may take a long time ; which means acountry condemned to famine and perhaps impelled to anarchy."