v LEGALITY OF CLAIM FOR PENSIONS 141

It does not seem to have occurred to any of thosepresent that this text could be deemed of materialimportance or otherwise than as protecting the Allies from the risk of being held to have surrendered anyexisting claims through failure to mention them inthis document; and it was accepted without dis-cussion. M. Klotz afterwards boasted that by thislittle device he had abolished the Fourteen Points,so far as they affected Reparation and Finance(although the very same meeting of the Allies haddespatched a Note to President Wilson acceptingthem), and had secured to the Allies the right todemand from Germany the whole cost of the War.But I think the world will decide that the SupremeCouncil was right in attaching to these words noparticular importance. Personal pride in so smart atrick has led M. Klotz, and his colleague M. Tardieu,to persist too long with a contention which decentpersons have now abandoned.

There was an episode which has lately come to lightconnected with this passage which may be recountedas illustrating the pitfalls of the world. As M. Klotzonly introduced his form of words as the Council wasbreaking up, it is likely that no undue attention wasconcentrated on it. But ill-fortune may dog any one,and the same state of affairs seems to have led toone of the scribes getting the words down wrong.Instead of revendication, which means demand, theword renonciation, which means concession, got written