exceedingly at the prospect of seeing him.  Orders were issued for the troops to come out and line the principal routes along which the monarch would pass.  The French naturally had the best places, but the Place de l’Etoile was reserved for the Allied forces.  G——­, delighted, went to his superior officer and inquired where the Russians were to stand.  The general did not know, but promised to ascertain.  Accordingly he put the question to the French commander, who replied:  “Russian troops?  There is no place for any Russian troops.”  With tears in his eyes G——­ recounted this episode, adding:  “We, who fought and bled, and lost our lives or were crippled, had to swallow this humiliation, while Poles and Czechoslovaks, who had only just arrived from America in their brand-new uniforms, and had never been under fire, had places allotted to them in the pageant.  Is that fair to the troops without whose exploits there would have been no Polish or Czechoslovak officers, no French victory, no triumphal entry of King George V into Paris?”

FOOTNOTE: 

[287] It is right to say that during the summer months a considerable section of the anti-Bolshevists modified their view of Britain’s policy, and expressed gratitude for the aid bestowed on Kolchak, Denikin, and Yudenitch, without which their armies would have collapsed.

XIII

SIDELIGHTS ON THE TREATY

From the opening of the Conference fundamental differences sprang up which split the delegates into two main parties, of which one was solicitous mainly about the resettlement of the world and its future mainstay, the League of Nations, and the other about the furtherance of national interests, which, it maintained, was equally indispensable to an enduring peace.  The latter were ready to welcome the League on condition that it was utilized in the service of their national purposes, but not if it countered them.  To bridge the chasm between the two was the task to which President Wilson courageously set his hand.  Unluckily, by way of qualifying for the experiment, he receded from his own strong position, and having cut his moorings from one shove, failed to reach the other.  His pristine idea was worthy of a world-leader; had, in fact, been entertained and advocated by some of the foremost spirits of modern times.  He purposed bringing about conditions under which the pacific progress of the world might be safeguarded in a very large measure and for an indefinite time.  But being very imperfectly acquainted with the concrete conditions of European and Asiatic peoples—­he had never before felt the pulsation of international life—­his ideas about the ways and means were hazy, and his calculations bore no real reference to the elements of the problem.  Consequently, with what seemed a wide horizon and a generous ambition, his grasp was neither firm nor