The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-16
ONLY INFORMATION OF PEACE MEETING BE RESTRICTED ID
 JOINT STATEMENT
First Joint Official Com. munique Prepared by Sec retaries of Delegates of Five Great Powers
 Was Issued Yes
 terday
By Associated Press

Paris, January 15. - The question of whether the peace conference is to be secret or wholly open to the eyes and ears of the world, the settle ment of which has been long awaited, was brought to a focus today when it was announced that an agreement had been made to confine the informa- tion glen to the public to a daily official communique, and that a gentleman's agreement prevailed among the delegates not to discuss, or in any way glve informatiin of the meet ings in the foreign office.
 No written official announce
 ment of this purpose was issued.
 but word was passed out to this
 effect, and 1t was followed by nm
 explosion of protests which quite
 drowned out the dOings of the
 peace commissioners. The understanding is that the Ameri- can and British delegates opposed this decision, but that the French, Italian ard Japanese, voting together, pre- vailed.
 The British newspaper correspond ents immediately joined in memorial of protest, which they put before Pre- mier Lloyd George
 AMERICANS PROTEST
 The American newspaper correspond ents united in what is virtually round robin to President Wilson. in which they protested in measured terms against the decision and remind ed the President of that one of his II points which specifies 'open covenants of peace openly arrived at"
 The memorial was before the Presi- dent tonight, and there is every reason to believe that such a storm has been raised as will force the question before the meeting again before the actual sessions of the peace conference be- gin Saturday morning.
 The question of whether the meetings are to be open or closed has been smouldering for several days. It is as- sociated with conditions which have surrounded the lack of method in mak- ing public what has actually been go- ing on in conference for the past month. The American newspaper cor respondents, of whom there are about 100 here to report the peace proceed ings, have been received in daily au- dience by the American commissioners under the stipuated conditions that what was developed was solely for their guidance and not to be reported as bearing the stamp of authority or coming from the mission.
 The President himself has rarely seen any of the American correspond ents and the newspaper men who have expressed themselves at a meeting of the organization they have formed as considering themselves trustees obli- gated to inform public opinion at home < of the moves which are being made here in Paris, have been chafing at what they have characterized as being kept out of touch with the fountain heads of official information, having been confined to information dissemi- mated by an official publicity agent. k Meanwhile the French newspapers and the British newspapers having Paris editions have been appearing each day with inside information of the conferences and in some cases have ac- tually quoted American officials in q manner from which the American cor respondents were requested to refrain.
 FIRST COMMUNIQUE
 Hitherto it has been the practice of the governments taking part in the plenipotentiary peace conversation. says a statement given by the official press bureau today, to issue separate
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