Evening star., 1925-09-30
WILSON HAD THOUGHT
OF WAR MOVE IN 1916,
GREY'S MEMOIRS REVEAL
Continued from Third Page.

Foreign Office. Gnitialed) E.G
! February %, 1915.
"At present there was no use to
he made of it" NiScount Grey writes
and although he held it as a personal
| confidence, he LETT il in a way to be
| revealed to MS associates in the for
eign Office should il become necessary
! while he was away Tor a month.
shortly thereafter. however. the AS
quith coalition government resigned
and Earl Grey left the foreign Office
but placed his successors in possession
Of the document.
| MY impression now is" the Wis
| count writes, that for rea sons which
I did not knoN at the time the mem.
ora ndum was already out OF date.
| What these rc2sors We're 7 can only
infer from what has since been dis
:. closed in Germany"
Disclosures in Germany.
| Viscount Grey does not refer tur-
, ther TO what was since disclosed IN
Ge-n4ny," bus it is proba nle that he
! had IL mind the fact that later, De
cen>ber IS, 1916. President Wilson
addressed an Identical note 10 all the
| belligerents asking them TO State more
specifically than they had therefore
| the terms on which they were pre-
pared 10 make peace. The war Presi-
dent disclosed this step 10 Congress
on January 80, 1917. in his celebrated
peace without victory" address,
which in effect embraced in principle
all the fundamental proposals which
had been outlined in the menlora ndunl
which Viscount Grey records as con-
| tanning the substance of his conver.
| ation with House.
AS the world knows, nothing came
of the Presidents proposal for a peace
! conference AT that time, and whether
he was then considering throwing the
/ United States into the war Is not dis
| closed by any Of the late President 3
! shorthand notes. memoranda or off,
| cial documents which so tar have
| been revealed TO the public.
One Word Altered.
! Wscount Grey, in his memoirs. says
| House cabled him that President VII.
son cons rmed the memorandum with
| the alteration OF only one word He
does not disclose what the one word
was but conhdants OF the late Presi-
dent who have read Fiscount Grey's
work believe it undoubtedly was the
word probably, making the docu-
ment read. the United States prob
! ably would enter the war against
Germany" in the event that peace
! proposals failed.
Much support for this supposiuon
| is TO be found in recollectionS or con-
| fdential conversations with the late
| President by those very few men
with whom he intimately discussed
the war and revealed the drift OF his
mind. AS late as the Winter Of 1913
in fact, while he was on his way
10 the peace conference.-the disclosed
| to one Of his confldantes that for
| MANY months before the United
! States entered the war he was not
sure that the dra site application OF
the British naval blockade would not
! so shape public opinion in America 50
! 8 TO make it diff1cult to avoid an open
rupture with the allies and Great
Britain in particular.
Choice of Evils.
| For a long time" President VIII
son told this confidante, Il was unable
! TO make up my mind whom we might
have to fight, after all. 1t was dlfl'
cult to determine which the American
| public regarded as worst-Brtsn
nayalism or Prussisn militar1snn. MY
decision finally turned on this point
| to-wit: Seized ships and cargoes coulo
be paid for in money. leaving every
| lives which the Prussian government
was sacrificing in It's submarine cam
naie.n never could be paid for or re
stored. and in making a choice OF two
evils 7 had to come TO the conclusion
that Prussian militarism was the
worse
From that the war President turn
cd to the frantic efforts the allied
mowers had made TO hasten the enec-
tive forces of the United States 10
the battle line.
1T was after Coughs ftth army
had been annihilated before Amiens,
said Mr. Wilson. and the German
armies were pouring through the gar
| toward the English Channel. piercing
tho allied resistance like the Prov OF
= poverful ship pushing through still
water They came to me with tears
in their eves-these Ambassadors IN
Washington. 7 do not use this term
frurativelv but literally. The tears
actually rolled down the cheeks or
these Ambassadors as they told me all
was lost unless we hurried our fcrces
Ind won the war for them. The Brit
ish Ambassador IN particular tine late
Sir Cecil Sprins-Rice, threw out his
arms in despairing gesture and
moaned:
..If you are coming at all. for God s
sake come quickly We came, contin-
ned the President to his confidante.
and now they want to discuss who
won the war. I shall make this plain
to LLOYD George and Clemenceau.
America won this war for them, but
America doesn't necessarily need to
helm them make an old-fashioned peace.
I already hear that they want to make
an Old World peace on the basis Of
balances of power and then later at
tempt pcace to insure the peace OF
the world for the future. In other
words. thew want 10 make a peace to
suit their own selfish ends, and then
having done that rise from the table
and and say Now, gentlemen, we will
discuss this League Of Nations busi-
ness at some later time And that
time. OF course. will never come. They
will understand from the first that !
will have no part in that business.
They will make guarantees for the
peace Of the future or they will make
their peace without America. And II
We make this peace. I will so inter
twine the principle Of the League Of
Nations with its terms that no man
will be able to accept one without
the other
The Presidents friend asked him
what he proposed TO do II he failed
TO have his viewpoint accepted.
II can always take my peace mis-
sion and go home" Mr.. Wilson re-
piled with a gesture OF tnality.
The succeeding events proved that
Mr.. Wilson carried out his intentions
as he outlined them to his friend.
He did intertwine the peace terms
with the League OF Nations, and he
did at one time eHectually threaten
to take his peace mission and 60
home.
Labor Is a good cure for melancholy.
We Seldo,,, hear cf a Ia bcror rrN yeJio n