Cary T. Grayson Diary

Title

Cary T. Grayson Diary

Creator

Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938

Identifier

WWP17124

Date

1919 April 3

Source

Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia

Language

English

Text

The morning session of the Council of Four was devoted to the consideration of the Hungarian situation and the plans which had been made for the investigations to be conducted by General Smuts, who has gone to the Hungary front for that purpose. Some progress was made at the morning session as a result of the President’s warning to Clemenceau that unless matters were brought to a head within ten days there would be nothing left for the American delegates to do but to withdraw from France and to handle their negotiations separately. No official announcement, however, was made regarding the matter.

At 2:00 o’clock King Albert of Belgium visited the President. The King came in a rather democratic fashion, being accompanied only by a single Aide. The King was garbed in the uniform of a Field Marshal of the Belgian Army, wore tan shoes, with spurs, and wrapped leggings, and carried a light bamboo cane. He also wore tan leather gloves. I met him at the entrance and escorted him to the second floor. The King said to me as we were going up the stairs: “I am glad to meet you. You are the President’s doctor.” I asked him if he didn’t think it was rather risky to come over in an airplane. He said: “No, it took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to make the trip from Brussels. There were no motors on the road and there was plenty of room up above! The air was perfectly smooth and the trip was speedy and very comfortable.”

I ushered the King into the reception room, and a moment later the President came up stairs and entered the room. Addressing the King, the President said: “I am very glad indeed to have this pleasure of meeting you. It is a pleasure that I have been looking forward to.” They shook hands and the President said: “Won’t you be seated?” The King said: “It is a very great honor to me to meet you. I feel that we have had many things in common, and I am glad to have the privilege of telling you so. Every home in Belgium admires your great work for the world, and they have a deep affection for you.” The President then complimented the King on what he had done in the trying situation through which he had passed during the war, and especially in the early days, telling him that the hearts of the American people had gone out to him and the Belgians themselves for their heroic work. He told the King that civilization owed much to what he and his people had personally contributed in the early stages of the world conflict. The conversation between the King and the President was extremely informal and democratic, rather more like the talk of two old friends than of two men who had met now for the first time.

The King had a slight cold and the President sympathized with him. The King said: “Thank you but it is now decreasing.”

After this informal talk the subject matter of the King’s visit was taken up, the King and the President discussing Belgian conditions generally and especially her attitude so far as the Peace Conference was concerned. The President asked the King whether he had come to any conclusion regarding the indemnity which he believed Belgium should exact from Germany. The King gave him the figures, and the President said: “I think your estimates are fair, but they differ considerably from those put forward by your Prime Minister, M. Hymans, who asks a very much larger sum. The President asked the King whether it would not be possible for him to appear before the Big Fourt and personally present to them the claims which he had just suggested to the President. The King in reply said: “I would not like to make a speech; I would be embarrassed to come to make a speech.” The President said: “This meeting is very informal, and you do not have to make a speech; we all sit around; there will only be four besides yourself.” Then the King said that he would be glad to come but that he would not like to come without bringing his Prime Minister with him. This rather pleased the President because of the divergence of views and figures between the King and the Prime Minister, and he told him he would be very glad to have both the King and the Prime Minister appear - and it was agreed that this should be done at 11:00 o’clock tomorrow morning.

With the business disposed of the President and the King resumed their informal talk, and the King, who knows a great deal about the United States, having visited there incognito while he was Crown Prince of Belgium before the death of King Leopold, told the President that he had heard an American call another American a lobster, and he was unable to understand what was meant. He asked the President why that name had been called, and the President said that the practice of calling a man a lobster as a term of derision originated back in the time of the Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, when the colonials affixed that name on the paid Hessian troops that Great Britain had imported to fight the colonials. Their very scarlet uniform coat, with the white face, resembled very much a freshly cooked lobster after it had been pulled out of the pot. The King seemed to get the application.

At this juncture the King said: “We are looking forward anxiously, and with much pleasure, to having you and Mrs. Wilson visit Belgium. We want you to invite whoever you would like to have there at the time. We would be glad to entertain as many guests as you would be pleased to bring.” The King added: “The people of Belgium will give you a heartfelt welcome - every one of them will do this. They admire you, look up to you, and their hope for settling the peace of Europe is centered in you.” The President thanked him for the invitation and told him that he was sorry that he had not been able to visit Belgium before this but he felt it was his duty first to sit on the job here and do what he could to help bring matters to a peaceful adjustment, but that he would certainly give himself this pleasure to visit Brussels at the very first available opportunity.

The President expressed the hope that the Queen was in good health, and said that she was very much admired in America, especially for her noble work during the war.

The King then asked if he could have the pleasure of calling on Mrs. Wilson. He bade good-afternoon to the President and went down to Mrs. Wilson’s sitting-room, where they enjoyed about a five minutes’ conversation. He told Mrs. Wilson that: “We and Belgium are looking forward to a visit to Belgium from you and the President. We think that your husband is a very great man and we have respect and great admiration for him. We will always be grateful to him for the interest and help which he gave Belgium in the terribly trying days of the war.” He said the President’s help and counsel gave Belgium optimism when she was much depressed. Mrs. Wilson was very much pleased with the compliment and explained to the King that while she might be partial as the wife of the President, still she agreed in full with all that the King had said about him. She said: “It pleases me very much to hear the people say about him what I think.”

The King said to me as he was leaving: “I hope that you are going to come to Brussels. We want you to know that we will give you a warm welcome. We know you as the President’s doctor.”

After the King left the Big Four meeting was resumed, with Orlando absent, he having to attend a council of the Italian peace delegation. However, he had made it plain that he would not consent to sit when the Jugo-Slav delegations were admitted to present their claims dealing with Fiume and the Dalmatian Coast. Therefore, his absence was more in the nature of an excuse than because of necessity. The Jugo-Slav delegation presented their statistics designed to show that Italy had no right to any part of the lower eastern Adriatic Coast.

Before they completed the presentation of their case the President was taken violently ill. The conference had to adjourn summarily, and the President went to his room. He sent for me and said: “I am feeling terribly bad. My equatorial zone was considerably upset soon after lunch but I was anxious to proceed with the afternoon conference, which I was barely able to do owing to intense pains in my back and stomach and head. It has now turned into a very severe coughing spell and I can’t control this cough, which is very distressing and harassing.” I immediately got him to bed, and in the course of an hour I got him comfortably relieved. He said: “I don’t think I have any fever”; but upon taking his temperature I found he had 103 degrees.

The President developed several violent coughing spells during the night, and it was necessary for me to use every possible remedy in order to relieve his condition and end the paroxysms, which were very seriously weakening him. The President passed a very restless night - and so did I.

Original Format

Diary

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PCST19190403.pdf

Citation

Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938, “Cary T. Grayson Diary,” 1919 April 3, WWP17124, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.