The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-17
NOTE sTARTLEs LONDON

London, February 16.-President Will son's note to the peace conference on the Adriatic question has furnished London political and newspaper circles with surprise and interest surpassing that evoked by the Wilson-Lansing core spondence. The Lansing incident was re- garded as an American family affair, to- ward which foreigners should be merely disinterested spectators. The President reappearauce as a determined party in the peace negotiations was construed as almost as threatening as his order for the George Washington to be prepared to take him home from France.
 The first versions of the event gave 1t the aspect of an industrial ultimatum which meant that the council of the al lies must stand by the terms which President Wilson accepted in December or America would shake the dust of Eu- ropean affairs off her feet altogether and also that the council had framed stifly worded reply adhering to it's Janu- ary offer to the Jugoslavs.
 Later information appeared to sotteh the stiff-necked positions credited to both parties. This consisted of messages rom Washington that too sweeping a con- struction had been given to the Presi- dents words, fortified by news rom Downing street that the council had not
 
 less Premier Millerand's cheerful obserVa- tion to the reporters on Friday: There IS not A cloud ahead" is taken as purely diplomatic optimism.
 The afternoon papers displayed stirring headlines, in which "Bombshelr' was the favorite word. If not a bombshell, it was an entirely unexpected ruffling Of the waters about the Parliament houses, where it appears to have been assumed ha a representative at the conference tan'e' her voice would not be heard in the de- bates.
 The general spirit. of the conference shown in the results of it's first week 1 London session seems. to be concfiatory and to tend toward scompromises Tha same spirit may aninhte it's correspond ence with Washington. This tendency iS displayed in the midness of the secono note to Holland regarding the former Emperor's status, in the unexpected con leession to Germany of permitting her tc try her so~called war criminal and tht favor given to the proposal to keep the sultan on his throne in Constantinople. r Some writers cannect the new era o mildness with the disappearance |"
 Frances grand old man, Clemenceau
 from the stage.
 ''The shifting of the conference iron | Paris to London sees d feNlNdl oi t'i
 former misunderstanding between tn British anl French over newspaper dues tions While the meetings were held il Paris there were constant charges tha the French papers knew more of tn conference secrets than the other allie
 and that the Paris press made stroni campaign for French interests, supported
 by superior knowledge of what was goini
 on.
 The London meetings began with tn
 customary agreement with the conferee
 that secrecy be observed and that tn
 newspaper be given daily official re
 port only.
 The French correspondents in Londo
 have had the first news of all importan decisions thus far while the British ot
 tained only guarded and vague officia
 bulletins. The other allied camps mai lurally look toward the French delesatio
 as the source of the leakages to th
 French papers.
 Lord Robert Cecil asked questions l the House of Commons as to the truth the various reports, and Andrew Bona Law, the government spokesman, req 1, q brief lecture on the necessity of s' crecy. He replied to other quesnonel that peace negotiations could not |
 carried on by Parliament