Cary T. Grayson Diary
Title
Cary T. Grayson Diary
Creator
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938
Identifier
WWP17119
Date
1919 March 29
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
There was no session of the Big Four in the morning, because Lloyd-George had asked that the session be deferred in order that he could compile the figures dealing with the British position on the indemnities and claims for reparation. In the afternoon, however, the Council of Four sat for two hours.
Lady Northcliffe was a luncheon guest, her husband, Lord Northcliffe, the publisher of the London TIMES and the London DAILY MAIL, being unable to come to Paris as he is under treatment in the south of France for a severe throat affection. Lady Northcliffe started the conversation by asking the President a number of very pointed questions dealing with the Peace Conference. She particularly wanted to know whether the British and French attitude was one of complete cooperation in the great crisis or whether they were not hindering progress, which she realized was so urgent. However, the President very diplomatically side-stepped direct reply, explaining to her that there were very many difficult and complex details which both the French and the British governments were trying to work out, and he said that these difficlulties were very hard to explain without going into the subject far more fully than would be possible at a luncheon engagement. He also told her that were he to give her details without dealing fully with every subject he might create in her mind an impression that he did not intend. As a matter of fact, the President was suffering from a slight cold, which I was treating, and he explained to Lady Northcliffe that I was in a great sense his guardian and that I would not allow him to dwell too much on business matters during his meals or during such short periods of relaxation as it was possible to secure.
In connection with his slight cold, I had told him when I began treating him for it that he must be very careful; that we had no time to permit a cold to gain a foothold in his system. I told him that it was a ground-hog case. He explained to me the origin of the phrase “ground-hog case, as follows: A man was driving along a country-road when a sm near a small stream, and he saw another man with a spade digging in the ground. He hailed him and asked him what he was doing. The reply was that he was digging for a ground-hog and he had to have one. The man said: “Do you think you are going to get him?” The man withn the spade replied: “I’ve got to get him; there aint any meat at home.”
After we left the luncheon table the President said to Lady Northcliffe: “You must pardon me for seeming to have failed to answer some of your questions, but you know our servants are French and we have discovered that one of them speaks English perfectly, although he only speaks to us in French; therefore, we have made it a rule not to discuss official matters at the table.”
The President said to Lady Northcliffe: “You have asked me questions of various individuals and my impressions of them, and perhaps the following story will convey to you an impression of a sense of humor in some of the men in whom you are interested.” The President then related my Haig and Haig experience at Buckingham Palace. He said: “I tried the story first on Mr. Balfour, and he grasped the point at once; then I told it to Lloyd-George, but he took some seconds before he understood just what it meant.” Here Lady Northcliffe broke in and said: “Doesn’t that show the difference between the two men? Isn’t it typical of the differences between them?” Incidentally, Lady Northcliffe is far from being an admirer of Lloyd-George. The President, continuing, said: “I then told the story to Marshal Haig, but it took some minutes before he grasped what it was all about, because he seemed to think that the story had some connection with himself, and he was trying to figure out just what that was.”
After luncheon Lady Northcliffe said to the President: “Mr. President, we feel that you are the hope of the world. This is such a terrible crisis that I think that but for you we would hardly know what the outcome would be. Do you think, speaking of us, that there is a remedy for Bolshevism? We in England feel that it is an ever-present danger, and we do not think our leaders realize the remedy, if there is one.” The President said that the cure was not force but to redress their grievances. He said he had no desire to bridge preach a sermon but that it must be remembered that after all the spread of Bolshevism has been coincident with a scarcity of food. “A hungry man is not a normal individual,” the President said, and added, “You must remember the Bible supplication: ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’”
The conversation then drifted to the question of the freedom of the seas, which had promised to be one of the big problems when the Peace Conference first started. Lady Northcliffe said: “We do not hear anything about that these days”; and the President replied: “It is true that the whole problem has disappeared, because originally it was suggested that neutral nations be granted the right of free commerce during all wars. However, the League of Nations makes a neutral nation in wartime an impossibility, and therefore, the problem has solved itself.” He then related a story to illustrate the point of view of the British on this very question. It was that of some captured German officers, who were being interrogated on board a British warship. When asked what they thought of the British Empire, one of the officers spit to illustrate his contempt. Asked what he thought of the High Seas Fleet, he did the same thing. Asked what he thought of Admiral Beatty, he did the same thing. Then the British officer, who was addressing him, rather angered over the episode, told him that he could spit as much as he pleased so far as the British Empire or the Admiral of the Fleet was concerned, but he would have to be very careful whose ocean he was spitting into.
After luncheon the President went to the Council of Four meeting at the French War Office. Before he left he told me that he was going down there to talk in very plain language to Clemenceau and Lloyd-George and to tell them that temporizing must cease. He said that a week had practically been wasted th and that he could no longer permit such a situation to continue. The President declared that in a crisis such as now existed it was a time for courage and audacity and that was going to be his position at the afternoon meeting. He said: “I want Mr. Lloyd-George to understand that he is to stay put when he agrees with me on a subject and that he is not going to be permitted to agree with me when he is with me and then to change his position after he leaves me and joins the opposition. And I want Mr. Clemenceau to know also where he gets off. I intend telling both Mr. Clemenceau and Mr. Lloyd-George that this constant shifting of position is entirely without warrant and that so far as I am concerned if they will not deal with the problems as they should, I will reveal the facts and show where I stand, and the world will judge as to the right behind the matter and will place the responsibility where it belongs.” The President did this after at the afternoon session with the result that a shifting of position was reflected in the French official newspapers the next day.
The President in order to relax himself played Canfield during the evening, while Mrs. Wilson sat by knitting. I sat and talked with the President making every possible effort to divert his mind from the difficult task which had confronted him during the day. I also treated his cold before going to bed. I asked him whether he would stay in in bed in the morning and sleep and rest and not go to church. He said: “You are a good physician for the body but not a good one for the soul.”
Lady Northcliffe was a luncheon guest, her husband, Lord Northcliffe, the publisher of the London TIMES and the London DAILY MAIL, being unable to come to Paris as he is under treatment in the south of France for a severe throat affection. Lady Northcliffe started the conversation by asking the President a number of very pointed questions dealing with the Peace Conference. She particularly wanted to know whether the British and French attitude was one of complete cooperation in the great crisis or whether they were not hindering progress, which she realized was so urgent. However, the President very diplomatically side-stepped direct reply, explaining to her that there were very many difficult and complex details which both the French and the British governments were trying to work out, and he said that these difficlulties were very hard to explain without going into the subject far more fully than would be possible at a luncheon engagement. He also told her that were he to give her details without dealing fully with every subject he might create in her mind an impression that he did not intend. As a matter of fact, the President was suffering from a slight cold, which I was treating, and he explained to Lady Northcliffe that I was in a great sense his guardian and that I would not allow him to dwell too much on business matters during his meals or during such short periods of relaxation as it was possible to secure.
In connection with his slight cold, I had told him when I began treating him for it that he must be very careful; that we had no time to permit a cold to gain a foothold in his system. I told him that it was a ground-hog case. He explained to me the origin of the phrase “ground-hog case, as follows: A man was driving along a country-road when a sm near a small stream, and he saw another man with a spade digging in the ground. He hailed him and asked him what he was doing. The reply was that he was digging for a ground-hog and he had to have one. The man said: “Do you think you are going to get him?” The man withn the spade replied: “I’ve got to get him; there aint any meat at home.”
After we left the luncheon table the President said to Lady Northcliffe: “You must pardon me for seeming to have failed to answer some of your questions, but you know our servants are French and we have discovered that one of them speaks English perfectly, although he only speaks to us in French; therefore, we have made it a rule not to discuss official matters at the table.”
The President said to Lady Northcliffe: “You have asked me questions of various individuals and my impressions of them, and perhaps the following story will convey to you an impression of a sense of humor in some of the men in whom you are interested.” The President then related my Haig and Haig experience at Buckingham Palace. He said: “I tried the story first on Mr. Balfour, and he grasped the point at once; then I told it to Lloyd-George, but he took some seconds before he understood just what it meant.” Here Lady Northcliffe broke in and said: “Doesn’t that show the difference between the two men? Isn’t it typical of the differences between them?” Incidentally, Lady Northcliffe is far from being an admirer of Lloyd-George. The President, continuing, said: “I then told the story to Marshal Haig, but it took some minutes before he grasped what it was all about, because he seemed to think that the story had some connection with himself, and he was trying to figure out just what that was.”
After luncheon Lady Northcliffe said to the President: “Mr. President, we feel that you are the hope of the world. This is such a terrible crisis that I think that but for you we would hardly know what the outcome would be. Do you think, speaking of us, that there is a remedy for Bolshevism? We in England feel that it is an ever-present danger, and we do not think our leaders realize the remedy, if there is one.” The President said that the cure was not force but to redress their grievances. He said he had no desire to bridge preach a sermon but that it must be remembered that after all the spread of Bolshevism has been coincident with a scarcity of food. “A hungry man is not a normal individual,” the President said, and added, “You must remember the Bible supplication: ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’”
The conversation then drifted to the question of the freedom of the seas, which had promised to be one of the big problems when the Peace Conference first started. Lady Northcliffe said: “We do not hear anything about that these days”; and the President replied: “It is true that the whole problem has disappeared, because originally it was suggested that neutral nations be granted the right of free commerce during all wars. However, the League of Nations makes a neutral nation in wartime an impossibility, and therefore, the problem has solved itself.” He then related a story to illustrate the point of view of the British on this very question. It was that of some captured German officers, who were being interrogated on board a British warship. When asked what they thought of the British Empire, one of the officers spit to illustrate his contempt. Asked what he thought of the High Seas Fleet, he did the same thing. Asked what he thought of Admiral Beatty, he did the same thing. Then the British officer, who was addressing him, rather angered over the episode, told him that he could spit as much as he pleased so far as the British Empire or the Admiral of the Fleet was concerned, but he would have to be very careful whose ocean he was spitting into.
After luncheon the President went to the Council of Four meeting at the French War Office. Before he left he told me that he was going down there to talk in very plain language to Clemenceau and Lloyd-George and to tell them that temporizing must cease. He said that a week had practically been wasted th and that he could no longer permit such a situation to continue. The President declared that in a crisis such as now existed it was a time for courage and audacity and that was going to be his position at the afternoon meeting. He said: “I want Mr. Lloyd-George to understand that he is to stay put when he agrees with me on a subject and that he is not going to be permitted to agree with me when he is with me and then to change his position after he leaves me and joins the opposition. And I want Mr. Clemenceau to know also where he gets off. I intend telling both Mr. Clemenceau and Mr. Lloyd-George that this constant shifting of position is entirely without warrant and that so far as I am concerned if they will not deal with the problems as they should, I will reveal the facts and show where I stand, and the world will judge as to the right behind the matter and will place the responsibility where it belongs.” The President did this after at the afternoon session with the result that a shifting of position was reflected in the French official newspapers the next day.
The President in order to relax himself played Canfield during the evening, while Mrs. Wilson sat by knitting. I sat and talked with the President making every possible effort to divert his mind from the difficult task which had confronted him during the day. I also treated his cold before going to bed. I asked him whether he would stay in in bed in the morning and sleep and rest and not go to church. He said: “You are a good physician for the body but not a good one for the soul.”
Original Format
Diary
Files
Collection
Citation
Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Cary T. Grayson Diary,” 1919 March 29, WWP17119, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.