Cary T. Grayson Diary

Cary T. Grayson Diary

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

WWP17149

1919 April 28

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

English

The President had breakfast at 8:15 o’clock. He then went to his study to dispose of his correspondence. At 11:00 o’clock he met with the Big Three. The Japanese situation was discussed. Immediately after lunch he conferred with Mr. Balfour. The Plenary Session then followed at three o’clock, adjourning at 5:45 o’clock. The League of Nations Constitution, as originally agreed upon by the special committee, was adopted debated and adopted unanimously, the Japanese delegates reserving the right to bring up the question of “the equality of nations” after the League actually has been constituted. The President made a speech in moving the adoption of the League Constitution. (SEE SPEECH).

The Agenda for this Session had provided for three topics to be passed upon: First, the League of Nations constitution; second, the labor suggestions for insertion in the Peace Treaty; and, third, the report of the Committee on Responsibilities, which declared that the Kaiser and his officers should be placed upon trial before a high tribunal, to be composed of one member of each of the Big Five Nations, the crime to be not crimes during the war but for violation of solemn treaty obligations and interference with the morality of the world. At the last moment Clemenceau adjourned the Session without taking up the Responsibilities Report, and this caused very considerable speculation. The actual fact, as I later ascertained, was that General Botha, the Premier of British South Africa, had gone directly to Lloyd-George and told him that under no circumstances would he (Botha) and his associates sign any treaty which carried with it any such poposal. General Botha pointed out to that during the Boer War the proposal had been made in British circles that he (Botha), Paul Kruger and General Smuts should be placed upon trial for high crimes and misdemeanors in bringing about the war, and that as a result of this proposal the Beers Boers went on with the war and fought for eighteen months at a cost of many thousdaands of pounds and valuable human lives. Botha was extremely emphatic in his position declaring that if he countenanced any such proposal he never could show his face in his own republic again. As a result, Lloyd-George had the Responsibilities Report quietly laid aside.

The President, Mrs. Wilson and I went for a motor ride in the Bois.

In referring to Mr. Bourgeois, one of the French Delegates, who is a long-winded and tiresome speaker, and who gives the impression of a man of mediocre ability, I said to the President: “I wonder how that man ever became Prime Minister of France.” He replied: “I asked that question of Mr. Clemenceau, and Mr. Clemenceau laughingly replied: ‘Those were the days when I was out tearing down French Cabinets. Bourgeois did not amount to much - I put him off towards the last - but before I got to him, he was about the only available one left, so they elected him Prime Minister.’” Mr. Clemenceau is not very complimentary about a number of his French colleagues. In referring to Mr. Klotz, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Clemenceau repeated a statement previously made by him that he (Klotz) was the only Jew that he had ever known who did not know anything about finance.

After dinner the President signed some mail and read some important papers he had on his desk concerning the Japanese claims.

Diary