Foreign News: Posthumous Onslaughts

COMMONWEALTH (British Commonwealth of Nations)

Than the late Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, assassinated on the steps of his London home by two Sinn Feiners on July 22, 1922, there has rarely been a soldier whose sarcasm has been so biting, whose criticism so penetrative, whose mind so outspoken, whose ego so self-exalted.

Last week, through the medium of Major General Sir C. E. Caldwell, two volumes were published in London entitled Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, His Life and Diaries. As was to be expected, their contents were plentifully interlarded with vigorous attacks on the statesmen of the War and armistice periods, most of whom are still celebrities living in shadow of fame.

But his criticisms might have been worse; for General Caldwell admits that it was found advisable “to omit some passages” because the Field Marshal was “so outspoken.” And this capacity for plain, frank statements was occompanied by a no less marked habit of blunt, crude speech, so much so that General Caldwell says that “it has been thought desirable to exclude some forcible expressions concerning individuals which find a place in these records.”

Nevertheless, Sir Henry said much. Said he of the late U. S. President Woodrow Wilson, whom he facetiously called “my cousin,” and often referred to as “that ass”: “That ass President Wilson has barged in and asked all belligerents for their terms.

“At War Cabinet we considered Wilson’s answer to the Boche. It really is a complete usurpation of the power of negotiation. He practically ignores us and the French. He won’t treat with the Hohenzollerns—thus making sure of Bolshevism. He won’t treat as long as the Boches sink ships and have other frightfulness. And he is sending a separate letter to Austria. And all this without consultation with his allies. We discussed all this, and I was strongly of opinion that we should go over to Paris at once and register a note to Wilson putting him in his proper place; but I was not able to persuade Lloyd George, and after lunch he went off to Walton Heath. Either he is seedy or meditating a speech. I am certain we (British, French, Italians) ought to get together and put the truth baldly to Wilson. He is now taking charge in a way that terrifies me, as he is only a super-Gladstone—and a dangerous visionary at that. . . .

“I was introduced to the President and had a ten minutes talk. He did not impress me in the least. He told me his grandfather and grandmother both come from Ulster, but met for the first time in America. He said he had a keen sense of humor. He has not yet been for his trip around the devastated country and he is so angry with the Italians that he has given up his Italian trip. No. He did not impress me in the least. But my conversation was too short, and our subjects too general, to allow me to form an opinion yet. . . .

“It appears that President Wilson wants to form a League of Nations first and then refer everything to it. He has no clear idea of what is meant by such a League. His position in America becomes increasingly difficult, and he will probably have to go back soon and is desperately anxious to take something back.”

Referring to his “cousin” being “pained” because the then Premier David Lloyd George thought the presence of the Italians in the Caucasus would create “hell” and urged President Wilson to send troops to occupy Constantinople, Sir Henry noted:

“My cousin was much pushed about over all this. I suppose he knows quite well he cannot supply the troops. However, he asked me how many he would require. I suggested one big American division for Constantinople and the Straits, and anything up to five for Armenia. This terrified him, and he asked me to see Bliss and Benson, and himself telephoned to them to come to my office. Tiger amused and listening.”

Referring to a note despatched to the Sultan by the President, the Field Marshal wrote: “We discussed a note sent by President Wilson to the Sultan, threatening the Turks with all sorts of penalties, if there are any more Armenian massacres. A piece of impotent impudence. The Americans are not at war with the Turks.”

And later: “A long and impudent wire from President Wilson, saying he disapproved of the Sultan being allowed to remain in Constantinople, he disapproved of the allied terms as regards Armenia, Cilicia, etc. I would like the job of answering.”

Concerning “the miserable Versailles Treaty,” he remarked that it was “built on three false bases of:

“1) Great empires are a danger, and therefore, Balkanize Europe.

“2) All ‘peoples’ love each other, and therefore have a League of Nations.

“3) My cousin represents America, therefore let him lead us by the nose. The peace treaty was bound to crash. But WHAT a mess!”

Other celebrities rapped:

David Lloyd George was “for the most part asleep” (at an Allied meeting at the Quai d’Orsay— French Foreign Office). The one-time Prime Minister is quoted as having said that the League of Nations covenant was “a most ridiculous and preposterous docu-ment,” and that he later said to Sir Henry that he would not make any speeches in favor of the League because he at last realizes “what rubbish all that is.” Mr. Lloyd George is also described as having been bent on the capture of Jerusalem because it would please the Welsh people.

Herbert Henry Asquith (now Lord Oxford and Asquith) whom he referred to as a “demented fool:” “Premier Asquith said he would summon great soldiers at the earliest possible moment. Then he said a lot of platitudes on the situation and strategy generally.”

Recording a remark made by Mr. Asquith to Field Marshal Sir John French: “It is a curious thing, Field Marshal, that this War has produced no great generals.” Sir Henry Wilson, butting in: “No Prime Minister, nor has it produced a statesman.”

Marshal Joffre in a conversation with Raymond Poincare, then President of France: “If you take away one single man that I can use on my front I will resign.”

Poincare: “On the contrary, you will obey orders.”

Joffre: “M. Le President, if you order me to go to the trenches and get shot, I will go, but if you order me to uncover the heart of France I shall disobey.”

This is quoted by Sir Henry to show how Marshal Joffre got temporary carte blanche for the prosecution of the War.

Georges Clemenceau, “Tiger” War Premier of France: “He told me he was going to get rid of Joffre, who was too old and too slow and who had taken no precautions to safeguard Verdun.”

On another occasion said he to the venerable French statesman: “Tiger, you really are a wonderful old boy.”

Clemenceau: “Why old?”

“The old man was difficult. He raged against the English, then fastened on Haig.”

“Clemenceau said Lloyd George was a fool.”

Field Marshal Lord Kitchener: “His ridiculous and preposterous army of 25 corps is the laughing stock of every soldier in Europe,” adding that it took the Germans 40 years to make an army of 25 corps.

Referring to a quarrel he had with Lord Kitchener: “I answered Kitchener back, as I have no intention of being bullied by him, especially when he talks such non-sense as he did today.”

General Pershing: “Pershing was very open in ridiculing the League of Nations, and he evidently looks forward to the President being unable to get a ratification.”

The last entry in the diary was made on July 21, 1922, the day before he was murdered:

“A lovely day.”

He was buried beside two other famous Field Marshals, Lord Wolseley and Lord Roberts (“Little Bobs”) in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Onetime Prime Minister Lloyd George, stung by the revelations in the Wilson diary, made haste to reply by publishing “reluctantly” two letters addressed to him by Sir Henry Wilson.

The first:

“I can’t tell you how pleased I am about your O. M. [Order of Merit]. Of course it in no way represents your services in this War, for, let me tell you in case you don’t know it, you, more than any other man, living or dead, you almost alone, won this war. That is the bare truth, the whole truth.”

The second: “My last day as Chief of the Imperial General Staff brings you very much to my mind and those glorious days when together, in rough and boisterous times, we fought for our country. I cannot therefore let the day die without a word of admiration for the part you then played and for the many kindnesses I received from you.”

Concluded Mr. Lloyd George: “I need hardly add that I never uttered many of the observations, some of them extremely foolish, attributed to me in these diaries. But that is the way of most diarists, and I have suffered a good deal in the last few years from a variety of them. Words used in jest are treated as if in earnest; words seriously used are torn from their context and therefore having a different meaning, the essentially qualifying phrases invariably being omitted; and then in the inevitable defects of human memory when sentences taken from conversations which lasted an hour or two are casually recorded by men more or less prejudiced.”