Wilson: Signor Orlando, you don’t laugh.
Orlando: No, sare.
Wilson: I’m sorry. The point of my story was somewhat directed to you. I feel rather like that Confederate soldier. I took the American people into war; but I don’t mean to have them dragged into another by a bad territorial settlement in the Adriatic!
Orlando: Well, Fiume can be waiting.
Wilson: All things can wait. But don’t, I beg you, fall into error. My view of that matter will never change. Monsieur Clemenceau, Gentlemen, be with me in this I entreat you. (A brief silence.) And now, Part I of the Treaty. We are agreed to incorporate the Covenant of the League of Nations there? (There is still silence.) Gentlemen, I can’t think that you hesitate——
Clemenceau: Sur cette question de la Société des Nations. Il est bien entendu, n’est ce pas, que la Traité de Garantie, La Pacte, entre La France, Les Etats Unis, et la Grande Bretagne——?
Wilson: Why, Mr. Lloyd George will answer for England, but I guess there’s no doubt at all concerning America.
Lloyd George: As the President says, I answer for Great Britain. I have agreed in her name that, in certain conditions, she shall be bound to act with France. On the fulfilment of those conditions, she will so act.
Clemenceau: Alors, en principe je suis d’accord.
Wilson: In principle. Yes, Monsieur. In principle we have never differed. But on the concrete proposition that this Covenant as drafted be embodied in the Treaty——?