V

LEGALITY OF CLAIM FOR PENSIONS

that would give an opinion in favour of in-cluding pensions. All the logic was against it.£ Logic ! logic ! ' exclaimed the President, ' Idon't care a damn for logic. I am going toinclude pensions ! ' " 1

Well! perhaps I was too near these things atthe time and have become touched in the emotions,but I cannot " more or less shrug my shoulders."Whether or not that is the appropriate gesture, Ihave here set forth, for the inspection of Englishmenand our Allies, the moral basis on which two-thirdsof our claims against Germany rest.

1 Mr. Lamont adds that " it was not a contempt of logic, but simply animpatience of technicality; a determination to brush aside verbiage and getat the root of things. There was not one of us in the room whose heart didnot beat with a like feeling." These words not merely reflect a little naivelythe modem opportunist's impatience of legality and respect for the faitaccompli, but also recall the atmosphere of exhaustion and the longing ofevery one to be finished, somehow, with this dreadful controversy, whichfor months had outraged at the same time the intellects and the con-sciences of most of the participators. Yet, even so, to their lasting credit,the American Delegation had stood firm for the law, and it was the Presi-dent, and he alone, who capitulated to the lying exigencies of politics.