Great Falls tribune., 1921-11-02
CHAPTER XVII.
The Beginning of the Peace.

What remains of the fiction believed
by so many of an armistice secretly
determined upon by an American die
tator: submitted to by the European
governments; imposed by their weak
ness upon the victorious armies despite
the opposition of the generals? The
arlnistice was discussed in the open
light of day. President Wilson only
consented to communicate it to his
associates ON the triple condition that
its principle be approved by the mill
tary authorities and its clauses would
be drawn up by them; that it be imposed
upon the enemy and not discussed with
him; that it be such as to prevent all
resumption of hestilities and assure the
submission of the vanquis1ed to- she
terms of peace. So it was that the dis
eussion went on with Berlin till Oc-
tober %. and in Paris from that date
till November 5. 1t was to the COM
mander-in-chie that final decision was
armistice but upon its application. He
it was who drew up the text. And it
was his draft that was adopted. The
action of the governments was limited
to endorsing it and making it more Sc
we're. That is the truth-it is perhaps
less picturesque, but certainly more in
accord with common sense.
May it in truth be said. after what
have just written of the. German
crisis in October, that Marshal Foch
made mistake in not exarting more
than he did-that no matter what we
had asked the people in Berlin would
accepted the surrender of their navy?
Of course. this can always be asserted.
would point out however. that crit
icism fortelling the past is not hard
to level against action which had to
take the future into account. To pass
Judgment on the decisions taken in Oc
tober, 1918. by the commander in
chief of the armies of the entente. and
approved afterwards by the govern
ments. it is necessary to place ones
self in his position of knowledge. The
official German documents which l am
able to insert in this work had not
then been published. The facts they
relate were not then known. Nothing
was known of the extraordinary panic
which on October / had seized the
known either of its unavoidable conse-
iuences.
Sure Of Success
md he said so. He added that the con-
litions fixed by him on October 26
we're the very conditionss which we
'hould have been able to dictate after
he success of further operations. But
.aving done that. he fulfilled his duty
II refusing to fix an exact date as to
he duration of German resistance. the
trength of which in critical junctures
continued to be shown-contrary to the
of Ludendorff--up to the
cry day of the armistice. He also full
Jnl J., HYtkSy raj, - AL,
hances with the morale of the troops
nd of the peoples. by confining hm-
elf to what he considered to be neces-
AIRY and sufficient. 1t is easy two
ears afterwards to decide that the war
would only have lasted a week longer.
larshal Foch could not guarantee that.
sobody even today could guarantee it
bsolutely. A few days before the
rmistice one of our army commanders
aid to public man:
I'VE are going to take up our posi-
ions for another winter -
The responsible chief would have
ZONE Of another winter which he did
lot consider essential to the achieve
nent of victory. The governments de-
to impose everything that
he commander-in-c chief exacted but did
lot feel justified in demanding more.
borrower, the problem was to place
Germany in position in which she
'ould not begin the war again-she
ras not able to begin it again: the
problem was to force Germany to sign
he peace--she signed it. Events have
hus shown that Marshal Foch was
light. The armistice marked the cap
tulation of the enemy, a capituation
which was an unconditional surrender.
The work which awaited the trainers
f the peace was as great and as an
as the war which was to
Q brought to a close.
Great and unprecedented in its
cope: for the first time in history en-
ire nations had fought Seventy mill
on men had been mobilized. thirty
,illion had been wounded and nearly
en- million had died Nothing in the
ast could compare with it. The dead
lone outnumbered all the armies OF
'apoleon. Great and unprecedented
it's complexity; nation having fought
alton. there {aad been brought into
lay the sum total of all natioKAl
rces: AGRICULTURAL industrial, colA-
s4fss s~va~AA-..-A sssi