A PEACE DIARY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 71, 16 December 1933, Page 8

A PEACE DIARY

Lord Riddell’s Inside Story of the Conference Years

Lord Riddell’s Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and Afterwards. (London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd.)

Any journalist’s heart would warm toward the man who tried to have the signing of the Peace Treaty at, Versailles advanced by three hours “so that the correspondents could get their telegrams off in decent time.” In that aim Lord Riddell failed. In almost everything else he attempted for the Press of Great Britain and the world through the troublesome conference years from 1918 to 1923 he succeeded, if not immediately and wholly, at least in part. While the war statesmen stumbled about Europe in their endeavour to lay its foundations anew, he was the liaison officer charged with the difficult task of persuading statesmen that secret diplomacy was dangerous, and of explaining to newshungry journalists that premature publicity was equally so. This diary will take its place alongside the same author’s intimate story of the war as an invaluable personal record, from the inside, of events that reshaped the world. Its chief defect is that it is so loaded with Lloyd Geprgian sayings as to be almost a Boswell to the Welsh Johnson; its chief merit that it reveals the less as well as the more likeable facets of his character.

In the extracts which follow the observations not otherwise credited are Lqrd Riddell’s own:— General Botha (Nov. 1918): I shall support the proposal [for the establishment of the League of Nations], but I do not see how it is to be carried out. . . . Our object must be to bind Britain and America together. That will make for the peace of the world. We must make the Germans pay, but we must take care not to keep an open sore in the middle of Europe.

General Smuts (in a memorandum on the League which Lloyd George thought the ablest thing he had seen in the course of the war): Mankind are on the march. You cannot say whither they are journeying. ♦ » »

LJoyd George: .1 should have been glad to see us enter Germany by force of arms, but the losses entailed on our side would have been too severe. . . .

Haig strongly advised us to make peace at the end of last year, [1917] and was in favour of accepting much less stringent terms in November [l9lB] when the Germans broke down.

Lloyd George: Old Foch does not believe in Leagues of Nations. He wants to make sure that his dear country that he loves so much is going to be safe and sound for all time.

January 30,1919 ( at the Peace Conference) : A great disturbance due to a newspaper article suggesting that the British delegates . . . have been giving away the case of the Colonies [Dominions] ; that the Colonies resent this and that there is serious fear of the British Empire breaking up in consequence. The writer of the article called. He said it was based on information received from three colonial statesmen—-Hughes, Botha and Sir Joseph Ward.

Lloyd George: In certain moods Winston [Churchill] is dangerous. He has Bolshevism on the brain. Now he wants to make a treaty with the Germans to fight the Bolsheviks. He wants to employ German troops, and he is mad for operations in Russia.

Lloyd George: I am one of the few people who think President Wilson honest. I think he has a genuine love of liberty and is genuinely anxious to improve the lot of the underdog. He is against the domination of the rich. Occasionally he has to deviate for political reasons, but every politician has to do that.

June 26, 1919 (in Paris): Hughes last night arrived from London with a magnificent gold fountain pen. “Are you going to sign the Treaty with that?” asked someone. “Yes,” said Hughes. “I bought it for that purpose. I am going to present it to the Commonwealth. It will be put in a museum, and thousands of years hence the people will say, ‘That is what that little devil signed the Treaty with.’ ’’ [This pen is now preserved in the Federal Parliament Building at Canberra.] *• ; ♦ Marshal Foch (at the dinner in London the night of the Allies’ Victory March): Germany is ended! There is no Germany now! There are Germans, but no Germany. Lloyd George: I am not quite sure that he is right. A story of "Billy” Hughes at the Peace Conference: President Wilson (dealing with the mandates question) : Do I understand that Australia, in the face of the wishes of the world, would insist upon having her own way? Hughes, with his hand to his ear (he was even then very deaf): Yes, that’s about it! Which so flabbergasted the President that he did not continue the discussion. * * [Sir Auckland] Geddes (then —1921 —Ambassador to the United States) suggested that the Prince of Wales should become Governor-General of Canada. He thinks that the appointment would be enormously popular and would cement the union. He also thinks it would create a splendid impression in the United States. Canada would become the social centre of the continent, and, by making a few visits to the States, the P.Y.W. would do more to alter American opinion in favour of Great Britain than could be achieved by any other means. ♦ ♦ ♦

Briand told a remarkable story about Kitchener. During one of the conferences in the war they were walking on the seashore. Kitchener turned and said to him, “I hate the sea!” “Are you -a bad sailor?” asked Briand. ‘‘l don’t mean that,” said Kitchener. “I hate the sight of it. I hate its angry roll!” A prophetic dislike, as Briand said.

Lloyd George and' [Sir Maurice] Hankey recalled that when Wilson brought forward the League of Nations he said that Jesus Christ had had the idea but had not put it into practical shape, whereas he, Wilson, was now prepared with a definite plan. “His plan,” said Lloyd George, “was borrowed from Smuts. I gave him Smuts’s plan and begged him to consider it. He intimated that he did not want any assistance, but after reading Smuts’s memorandum swallowed it whole, and the League as propounded was really a British production, although fathered by President Wilson.” * * •

On the eve of the 1921 Imperial Conference.] J had an interesting conyer-

satlon with the overseas Prime Ministers on the subject of newspapers. Hughes said he never read abusive or critical articles. Massey said he read whatever came in his way, but did not nfind what the papers said about him.

In 1924: An alleged t>on mot of our beloved and most efficient King. Someone is said to have asked him, “How are you getting on with your Labour Government?” He is said to have replied, “Very well. My grandmother would have hated it; my father would have tolerated it; but I move with the times.”