Evening star., 1924-02-10
PACT SPLIT BLAMED
UPON LLOYD GEORGE
British Premier Held Responsible
for Present Allied
Discord.
By ANDRE TARDIEU.

By Radio to The Star.
PARIS, February 9.-Woodrow Will
sons death takes France back five
years to the time when the victors
still realized that victory had not re-
moved all reason for solidarity.
And Mr.. Lloyd Georges interview,
already half disavowed, concerning
the alleged separate agreements be-
tween Mr.. Wilson and NJ. Clemenceau
during the peace conference comes
to prove that agents of
division and selfiShnesS were already
hard at work even during that con-
ference.
AS NJ. Clemenceau'S collaboration
and confidant, the writer can solemn
1y declare that the supreme need for
never absent from his thoughts. NJ.
Clemenceau did not believe-and -
this he differed with Mr.. Wilson
that the league of nations pact, writ.
ten into the treaty, would establish
permanent peace among men: He had &C
this institution and was willing to
carry it further than Wilson by
placing a military force at its dis
posal. But he considered that period
sisted that during this period France
must have guarantees of security OF
another kind. whence the long debate
of 1919 on the control of German
ornaments and occupation of the
Rhineland.
Lack of Understanding.
BY reopening this debate with
rather questionable taste on the NOR
row of Wilson's death, Mr.. Lloyd
George merely resumed his 1919 po-
sition. This position was one of selfish
insularity, which the negotiators, anx-
ious to avoid an open break, did not
reveal to the public, but which they
all saw clearly. Mr.. Lloyd George
never understood nor wanted to un-
derstand the French viewpoint, name
ly, that in case of another conf1agra-
tion France desired not only to be
protected from defeat but also from
invasion which she had experienced
three times within century.
The more Mr.. Wilson sympathized
with this just principle of French
policy, the more Mr.. Lloyd George
showed Indifference and even hostiii
ty to it.
When on March II, 1919, on Mr..
Lloyd Georges initiative he and Mr..
Wilson proposed that France re-
nounce all occupation of the Rhine
land in exchange for treaties of
writer replied that such pacts could
not take the place Of material guaran-
tees and Furthermore France must
consider the possibilities on nom
ratification Of such pacts-
Approved BY Lloyd George.
This question was discussed for six
weeks and only on April 20 did Mr..
and approve articles 42S-429. Two
days later though, with bad grace,
Mr.. Lloyd George also approved these
clauses. The text Of these clauses
had been in the hands of Wilson and
for two weeks, Morever
all details of these negotiations were
in 1921 in the writer's book,
The Truth About the Treaty"
In attempting to make this per-
secret Wilson CT lemenceau agreement
Mr.. Lloyd George has placed himself
in a false situation, from which he
has been obliged to escape by en-
barrassed explanations which look
like a retraction. Since he reopened
of his colleagues methods, it is the
writer's duty to recall that the only
blameworthy step in the whole at
fair was Mr.: Lloyd Georges, when
submitted to Brockdorff and Frantzau
for signature. Mr.. Lloyd George again
called in question all he had signed
in the previous month concerning oc-
cupation Of the Rhine, reparations.
Polish frontiers and everything else.
Tried to Revise Treaty.
; At that time. between May 25 and
June 16. 1919, Mr.: Lloyd George. de-
spite the fact that he had signed the
final draft with other plenipoten-
tiaries, tried to have it fundamen-
tally revised. NJ. Clemenceau was
obliged to threaten to resign and in
form the French parliament of Mr..
Lloyd Georges failure to keep his
word.
During this period Mr.. Wilson,
chafhng under the pressure Lloyd
George was attempting to bring upon
him, had to break OF the discussion
one day by saying to his British
colleague:
You make me sick"
All these facts belong to history
and should be known by all who be-
lfeve today that the world would be
happier IL the victors had maintained
in peace one-fourth of the solida ritv
they maintained in war.
The writer does not like retrospec-
tive polemics, but since others start
them, he must say, as a witness to
the whole proceedings, that two men.
even when they disagreed most heart,
lily, never lost sight of this need for
solidarity-they were Wilson and
Clemenceau.
But Mr.. Lloyd George, who rem
dered such magnificent services dur
ing the war, became the agent of dis
cord and self1shness. The writer re-
grets to say this. but the truth COM
pels it.
Copyright, 1924.)