Evening star., 1928-11-11

| EHe UTSL- bbHtc cL0CeAS .~fSHt f1HHPC"S1s
se'ss stanne me of f'f' the artistic : espsetey
between ssnS nO'cta ctenenceSn Gad FoeR. he. ras
ore Of the three men . rho n a, dictated tt the
Of the CEN srss aoraeo to sf e bet rroen
as a sDritcT on military subjects a tao
tcsg and tse Srg Wdrs weq s1GTss5 he Commanded
successfully a regiment, a BRIGADE and
di.isto. nnt ~ he mis,,f9a ,sGs fGlied BY war M
Fnse'fqs buring SIS seTvtee ' at he front he
| ir5ared three times .oEd .obtGired s.r
etSsG"'6 ehoss1 6y CremeSesan MeSe@1s' aon9 @ al ali tie
| generals. Of the French Arry' a. me
Gasisor as o. Thsn s por tro Years he did Fot
quit the side OF Clemcnceau.
The Day of November 8, 1918.
A S the days and the years go by
~ the eyewitnesscs of the grea;
~ events Of the World War Q914.
19l6) realize, not without stupe-
faction. that the strangest, often
weirdest, legends have sprung up, and
little by little, end by replacing ths
truth. The armistice in particular has
given birth in the press as well as II
the histories to really fantastical stories
For that reason it becomes apparent
10 O1 us WklO csSSAobG4 AA4 SS- -AAt%AAA 49,
the outstanding events of the war that
it is a duty to furnish to history and to
posteritv truthful account Of what
really happened, and that is what
prompted me to write this series OF
articles.
One of the questions which most
troubles pubic opinion is that II thu
date of the signing of the erni3tice
Many. very many in fact, are those who
express 2stonishmont that on Eovem-
Der IL. 1918, the allies should have con-
c!uded an armistice with the Gerrons
at a moment when Germany was In The
throes Of revolution and especially that
the allies strategic maneuver in Lor-
raine, making use of the Germans own
lines of communication, promised to
give incalculable results, not only Stra-
tegic but political as we'll.
In fact, it is certainty that II the
allies had continued the war few weeks
longer they could have obtained. cspe-
cially from the moral point OF view.
more considerable results. But, as we
shall see in these articles. it had to be
known that Germany was seized in a
revolution which would change her
political character and that The German
soldiers no longer wanted to fight. The
therein lies the reason.
Status on November s.
Before starting any recriminaticns
and any accusations, it is best to refer
to the actualities-that is, to go back to
the epoch. to November s, 1918, and
assume the roles of those statesmen and
generals who at that time, conducted
the war.
In a word, it is indispensable, If we
are to judge their acts fairly, to con-
slider, before everything else. the reali-
ties and to give great consideration to
the psychology of the situation.
1t appears to me that the best way
to arrive at a fair conclusion is to live
over again the few days preceding No.
gotten date of the signing of the arm
istice.
I will not refer to the preliminaries
of the arlnistice, which are well estab-
lished and known. / recall only that
the Germans after having exchanged
various notes with MIR. Wilson sent him
another October q, 1918, with the view
of obtaining an armistice. President
Wilson, after obtaining the opinion of
his allies, replied to the Germans that
they had but to conform to the laws
of war and. consequently, to address
themselves to the commander-in -chief
of the allies at the front, which they
did. R-4 Il
Meanwhile the allies among them
selves had drafted the definite terms of
an arnistice which was to be imposed
upon the Germans On this subject,
new legends are still being heard every
day. What do they not say now about
fhM AfgnlcCinF7c fhAf nrNIfPrnH hnfUnAy1
the allies on this subject? The day
will come when I shall bring to this
question also all the light of truth.
For the present, confine myself to
the statement that during all these dis
cusSions-and as long as there will be
allies in wars the discussions will be
long and numerous-there were but two
men who arose to protest against this
armistice and urged continuation of
the war. The men were Gen. TaSker
Bliss, one of the generals Of the World
War, who had the clearest insight In
matters pertaining to war. and myself.
Gen. Bliss was always convinced
that, despite the weakened condition of
the British and French armies. we
should and must continue the fighting
because the German army was even
more weakened and. on the other hand,
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asked only to fight.
For myself, after having insisted as
much as dared that we start the
strategic attack in Lorraine, would
not accept that we speak of an armi-
stice before having obtained the results
Of that Lorraine offensive. which should
have been considerable. This is an
other question that I shall take up
some day to show that, even by sign
ing the armistice on November IL, 1918,
it would have been possible to have
launched the Lorraine attack earlier.
Clemenceau and Foch.
Once the terms of the armistice were
fixed, however, there remained only the
necessity to make them known to the
Germans. Two men were charged with
, this task. M. Clemenceau, the political
director Of the war, and Marshal Foch
as commander in chief Of the allied
armies.
That is why Marshal Foch went to
Rethondes to negotiate, at first hand,
! with the German plenipotentiaries, and
remained in Paris to maintain liason
between Foch and the office of the
president of the council, NJ Clemen-
! ceau. -
/ To live over those historic days of
November Q, 8, 10 and II, 1t is my plan
| to tell, hour by hour. just what hap
pened In Paris as a result of q series
OF telephone calls from Marshal Foch
and then to tell just what happened at
Rethondes, using as Recommendation O