PRESIDENT WILSON.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16821, 29 May 1919, Page 5

PRESIDENT WILSON.

A PERSONAL SKETCH. , i Mr Keith Murdoch, the well known Australian correspondent, rerers thus to President Wilson in a recent caaracter sketch: "But lie is no weakling. He nas vanity, and an overwneinung sense or his own power upon popular opinion. He is fond of making the. strange threat ot leading tlie mass of ~u in any country;.against its present Government, tie tmnks the United States stronger tnan Bhe is, and is never tired of ascribing to the American army. great deeds which it never performed, and for which it would have been unfitted until at least another year of Hard war" experience. he believes that he' won the war—even more, that his speeches in Washington put new heart into the European soldiers at the very moment of despair and defeat. He. is convinced that the Tommy and the poilu were inspired to great and victorious efforts by the enunciation of Wilson-* isml That is unbelievable. But it is true. And no European leader dares to undeceive him. The leaders at present play a different game. They wish to make American sympathy permanent. . They wish America and Western Europe to be joined in a definite cooperation for the peaceful rule of the world, and the security of - to-day's victors. And so they do not correct Wilson. They do not tell him what every Allied soldier knows—that the American army muddled its operations; that its broken system of transport at Chateau Thierry delayed and ruined Foch's master-stroke of October; that the real contribution of the TTnited States to the winning- of the war was moral and financial. True, Foch could not have dared his strokes if he had not known that these hundreds of thousands of American soldiers were in Europe, ready to serve as a reserve. Their presence enabled him to throw in British and French and dominion troops to the last man. But America plays an infinitely more important role.in the peace than.she played in the,war.' 3 .