Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-02-17

| fact that he must go to the head
quarters of the Polish national COM
nittee, at No II Avenue Kleber, and
try to interview the Polish patriot,
who has come to Paris to smooth
out the row between, the two Polish
delegations here; also to get from
him the latest authentic news of the
progress of the bolshevists in their
march westward. The latter item is
transformations news for the con-
FERENCE. Greater news, in fact, than
people in America have come to re-
alize.
The Newsless Confab.
At l0:15 a. m. Van Bibbtr joins
the other correspondents atythe Ho-
tel Crillon for the daily conference
with the American peace commits
sioners-a conference whereat Mr..
Lansing smiles and smiles, but drops
very little information. Remember,
too that whatever information the
commissioners give is in confidence
and only for the guidance of the
nwes writer's; not for publication.
That is the hard and fast rule.
After the conference there are the
whole four mysterious floors of
the Hotel Crillon inviting explora-
ton on the news hunt. For here, no
less than at score of places in Par
is, the machinery of the conference
is purring and humming. In room
No. 2l5, foTI one finds Ed
ward M Hurley, head of the United
States shipping board, who can tell
something of the cooperation of the
four great powers, America, Eng
! land, France and Italy, in the gigan-
tic shipping problem of moving
troops home and moving food from
America, Australia, and Canada. to
the starving millions in the war
swept districts. And down the hall
way is Hoover's Office.
When Hoover Gives Up:
But to pass those portals and to
CLEAN from the newly appointed
chief of the supreme food council
anything but curt Nothing doing"
is in itself one days complete
achievement. On very rare ocea-
sions the taciturn Mr.. Hoover calls
the correspondents into session, and
when he does he gives something
that makes the cables sag with their
weight of big news.
In the Crillon, too, our friend
Van tracks to his lair DR.. S. E.
Mezes, formerly of the College of
the City Of New York, but now the
economic expert adviser to the
American commission. He is
kindly gentleman with thick glasses
and an academic beard, who gives
Van Bibber thoroughly scholarly
outline of the relation between star
walton and bolshevism. That is
news of the conference, remember.
Then, if the president is irR town,
6ne must see Macmillan Foster,
who acts as official herald of the
executive program and events at
the Murat Palace, which is called
the white House" temporarily.
Foster says the president will re-
ceive Clemenceau at o'clock,
which means that from S o'clock
onward for all indefinite time Van
BibberN and his fellow correspond
ents must haunt the press room to
wait for Foster-who comes when
he can.
OF course, there's the visit to the
Maison de Ia Presse to arrange for
the interview with the French min
ister of reyictuaIing. The Maison de
Ia Presse is government bureau
created to assist foreign correspond
ents in establishing liaison-to use
as apt military term-with French
news centers. 1t works with kindly
efficiency.
Little Peoples Freedom Call.
If Van Bibber's day is not COM
pletelv filed he goes to one or more
Of the various so-called headquarters
Of the little peoples-the Jugoslavs,
the Armenians, the Serbians or the
Firms, and there CLEANS morsels of
fact about aspirations for freedom of