flock round it like birds of prey round a corpse on the field of battle.  Take Silesia, for example.  The Poles are clamoring for it as if the very existence of their country depended on their annexing it.  The Germans are still more crazy about it.  But for their eagerness I suppose there is some solid foundation.  But how in Heaven’s name do the Armenians come to claim it?  Just think of it, the Armenians!  The world has gone mad.  No wonder France has set her foot down and warned them off the ground.  But what does France herself want with it?  What is the clue to the mystery?” My acquaintance, in reply, pointed out as considerately as he could that Silesia was the province for which Poles and Germans were contending, whereas the Armenians were pleading for Cilicia, which is farther east, and were, therefore, frowned upon by the French, who conceive that they have a civilizing mission there and men enough to accomplish it.

It is characteristic of the epoch, and therefore worthy of the historian’s attention, that not only the members of the Conference, but also other leading statesmen of Anglo-Saxon countries, were wont to make a very little knowledge of peoples and countries go quite a far way.  Two examples may serve to familiarize the reader with the phenomenon and to moderate his surprise at the defects of the world-dictators in Paris.  One English-speaking statesman, dealing with the Italian government[61] and casting around for some effective way of helping the Italian people out of their pitiable economic plight, fancied he hit upon a felicitous expedient, which he unfolded as follows.  “I venture,” he said, “to promise that if you will largely increase your cultivation of bananas the people of my country will take them all.  No matter how great the quantities, our market will absorb them, and that will surely make a considerable addition to your balance on the right side.”  At first the Italians believed he was joking.  But finding that he really meant what he said, they ruthlessly revealed his idea to the nation under the heading, “Italian bananas!”

Here is the other instance.  During the war the Polish people was undergoing unprecedented hardships.  Many of the poorer classes were literally perishing of hunger.  A Polish commission was sent to an English-speaking country to interest the government and people in the condition of the sufferers and obtain relief.  The envoys had an interview with a Secretary of State, who inquired to what port they intended to have the foodstuffs conveyed for distribution in the interior of Poland.  They answered:  “We shall have them taken to Dantzig.  There is no other way.”  The statesman reflected a little and then said:  “You may meet with difficulties.  If you have them shipped to Dantzig you must of course first obtain Italy’s permission.  Have you got it?” “No.  We had not thought of that.  In fact, we don’t yet see why Italy need be approached.”  “Because it is Italy who has command of the Mediterranean, and if you want the transport taken to Dantzig it is the Italian government that you must ask!"[62]