Paris Peace Conf. 811.001/213: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Sharp) to the Acting Secretary of State29
7701. That I might have before me Press comments upon the significance of his return and what his presence again at the Conference will mean, I have delayed reporting upon the reception of President Wilson on his arrival in Paris yesterday. I believe his coming has been at heart more wished for by the real lovers of France than one can see from the surface. The large crowd assembled at the station gave him a hearty welcome. I get this view from the talks I have had with a number of prominent Frenchmen who with a clear vision have come to understand the importance if not the necessity of having Mr. Wilson’s counsels in determining the great problems which now demand the most prompt solution. The Marquis de Chambrun, member of the Chamber of Deputies who as member of the Foreign Affairs Committee is in a position to know the frame of mind of his colleagues, voiced this sentiment very strongly the other day. He told me in a long and frank talk that he was glad to see the evidence of a better understanding of Wilson’s plan for helping France. He explained quite fully the reasons for his belief. Having expressed a desire for an appointment several days ago, this morning M. Leygues Minister of Marine, who is one of the most high minded and able men in public life came to the Chancery to see me. His encomiums of Mr. Wilson were as sincere as they were generous, for I have known M. Leygues as a warm friend almost since I came here. He told me that I might rely on the fact that the French people as well as the Government had entire confidence in the wisdom of President Wilson and his unselfish plans for maintaining peace among all nations. What has been my own conviction for a long time past that a number of the French papers were printing partisan and distorted despatches from their Washington correspondents [Page 527] who were influenced by Republican partisans in Washington, there being evidence that there was a studied political campaign being carried on by such means to be exerted over here, was corroborated by M. Leygues.
I stated in a former recent telegram that I had observed evidences which I rather sensed than being actually told that the President was coming to be understood as quite as good a friend of France in times of peace as he had been in war. That this feeling has a very substantial foundation, I believe more firmly than ever. Much has been done to remove the scales from the eyes of those over here who had not before understood the real difference between the position of the President and that of his opponents by the open declaration of his opponents at home in favor of isolation of the United States from European Affairs. I do not expect any serious opposition over here from now on, as one was so evidently for their interests and the other against them.
Like the Petit Parisien and the Gaulois, some of the papers of the largest circulation and of the greatest influence display a genuine welcome toward his coming that betokens a feeling that he is greatly needed. The following quotation from the journal L’Avenir of this morning perhaps bears out this view as succinctly as could be stated:
“It must be admitted even by those who regarded Mr. Wilson as a rather embarrassing person that things have stagnated since his departure. When Mr. Wilson is not here there is no society of Nations and nothing can be done without this society. This stagnation of things is due largely to the fact that the solution of pressing difficulties can only be approached from a point of view which he alone knows how to defend with conviction and authority.
France must state the problem as it really is. The society should at first consist of a moral and material alliance between the great Entente countries.”
- Paraphrase of telegram furnished by the Embassy in Paris to the Commission to Negotiate Peace.↩