New-York tribune., 1919-09-10
The Leagues Seat
By Frank H. Simonds

lutely and unhestatingly insisted upon
Geneva What his reasons were the public
do not know. 1t was conjectured that he
felt that it would be unwise to establish
the league of nations in any country which
had been belligerent during the war. 1t
is probable that he believed that the Ger
mans would be more willing to go to a
neutral than to an enemy nation, that they
would be more kindly received in Swtzer
land than in Belgium, and that neutral
atmosphere would be more advantageous for
the league itself.
In thus opposing Belgium, however, Mr..
Wilson once more affronted a friendly
tion in the pursuit Of abstract ideal.
He had lost the support Of the French pub
lie because he had refused steadily to visit
the devastated regions of Northern France,
believing that he should avoid even
seeming to be influenced in the conference
by any circumstances appealing to emo
tion rather than passion. France well
coined Mr. Wilson as friend, champion,
and asked him to see her wounds that
he might know what she had suffered
in making up his mind what recompense
should be hers. Mr.. Wilson took the
ground that in the peace conference he was
to play the part not Of friend and
ally, but of judge. The result was the
swift and complete loss of French sympathy
and French support.
The Belgians appealed TO Mr.. Wilson,
whose advice would be decisive to come to
Belgium and see what the country had suf-
fered But Mr.. Wilson refused to go to
Belgium in advance of the completion of
@l,
again as that of the world peace maker
rather than that of the ally. He believed
that Geneva was more satisfactory as the
place of residence Of his league of nations,
and he was deaf to any Belgian appeal
based friendship, common participation
in the or sentiment
The circumstances under which the dec-
sion made to go to Geneva were such
that the decision itself was Enthusiastically
triumph for Mr. Wilson in the conference,
achieved only by the exercise of every bit
of influence re possessed. Actually he
forced reluctant or frankly hostile con
ference, clear majority of which favored
the Belgians, to accept his will. AS re-
suit, not only was Belgian affection and
gratitude for the United States cooled but
Belgium very nearly left the peace confer
ence, as Mr.. Wilson's Paris spokesman, Mr..
Ray Stannard Baker, has recently told US,
at the moment when the Italians had gone
home, the Japanese were threatening TO go
and the Rumanians were on the eve of de-
parture
The loss of the friendship Of the Belgian
people, like the loss of the friendship of the
Italians, has been a direct consequence of
Mr. Wilson's Interpretation of his mission
at Paris He opposed the French in the
matter Of the Rhine barrier and circum-
scribed their part of the Sarre Basin, after
having refused to visit their ruined regions
His appeal to the Italian people over the
heads of their government in the matter
of Fiume alienated the vast mass of Ital-
ians. Opposition to the Rumanians, the
Greeks, we'll to Belgium, deprived
America Of the liking of these small coun-
tries as we'll. In the Of Italy no fair
minded man can question the Presidents
correctness of view. In the case of France
it is less simple to pass judgment, but in
the case of Belgium it is difficult to under
stand the Presidents course, which made
enemies out of grateful friends, succeeded
only by the use Of force in coercing ma
jority into a decision against their judg-
ment or their will, and in the end reached
decision in favor Of an unsuitable place
Of residence.
1t is to be hoped that the American sup
port will now go to the Belgian claim re-
pairing the mistake made in Paris, and that
the effect of this change in position will re-
move the bitternesses created by that
earlier course.
NCopyright' 1919 by The Mcclure Newspa per
Syndicae)