The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-03-21
FRENCH PRESS TALKS PLAIN
TO PRESIDENT WILSON

The French press has discarded the
policy of suave and considerate polite
ness in speaking of our president and
has dropped the mask and now discus
ses his determination to make the fl
nal peace settlement secondary con-
sideration to his league of nations
scheme without gloves, much in the
same manner that it is discussed by
many American journals. Much of
the comment is more pointed than po-
lite. In recent comment on the cause
of the delay in announcing the peace
terms the Echo de Paris says:
"Much of what is now being done or
projected at the conference, especially
the linking of the covenant with the
peace treaty, is regarded as the direct
consequence of homogeneous subordi
ination. If the American senate and
the president had been of one mind
the peace treaty, it is asserted, might
have been drafted, accepted and rati-
fiend long since"
The editor of the Gaulois writes:
"The unrest produced by the uncerti
tude, unduly protracted, which is man
ifesting itself in all spheres of our So
cial life and national activity, challen-
ges serious consideration, for it tends
to neutralize in certain measure the
advantages we are entitled to antici-
pate from victory"
The prestige and moral force of the
great conference is sinking perceptibly
and continuously, and unhappily moth
ing that the delegates can now do is
likely to restore confidence.
LIE Journal expresses this in a car
toon representing Mr. Wilson giving
his hat and overcoat to a liveried SER
want of the conference, after having
declared he would not quit Europe I'M
til he has discharged the mission con-
fided to him by America and estab-
lished a permanent peace, and under
meath the cartoon stands the question:
as that not tantamount to saying
that Mr.. President is resolved never to
leave US more?"
Apprehension is freely expressed in
Paris that President Wilson's zeal for
the league of nations project may
spur him to include it not merely in
the final treaty, but in the preliminary
peace terms, and those tactics, many
contend may damage the cause they
have been devised to promote. If it
was doubtful wisdom to push the COW
enant thru in a couple of weeks in
order to enable the president to take
home something tangible with him to
the senate, it would be more impolitic
still to improvise definite charter for
the world in time to insert it in the
treaty with Germany. The masses
are grateful to Mr.. Wilson for con-
tributing an abstract idea and a res
olute will to the pacifist movement
whereby the scattered forces were
gathered and focused, and they
would be greatly grieved if, by undue
persistence he nullified this valuable
service.
NJ. Pinchon the French foreign min
lister, declares that, as the charter of
the league cannot be put into finished
shape before signing the preliminary
peace treaty, it would be superfluous
to insert mere principle about which
there is no divergence of view. He
implied that the preliminary treaty
should embody peace terms alone, and
the covenant should be reserved for
the definitive treaty, which should be
signed and ratified as soon as possible
after, in order to allow diplomatic re-
lations to be resumed with former
enemies, but President Wilson APP
pears determined to have the covenant
inserted in the peace preliminaries.
The French press deprecates this in