eling when Wilson returned to Paris March 14. That very
afternoon he met Lloyd George and Clemenceau. The French argument was
set forth again at length and with great skill. The fact was again
pointed out that the destruction of the German fleet had relieved
England from all fear of German invasion, and that the Atlantic Ocean
lay between Germany and the United States, while France, which had
suffered two German invasions in half a century, had no safeguard but
the League of Nations, which she did not deem as good a guarantee as
the Rhine bridges. Finally Wilson and Lloyd George offered the
guarantee treaties, and Clemenceau agreed to take the proposal under
consideration. Three days later he came back with a counter
proposition and a compromise was reached. France gave up her demand
for a separate Rhineland, but secured occupation of the Left Bank,
including the bridge-heads, for a period of fifteen years as a
guarantee of the execution of the treaty. In return the United States
and Great Britain pledged themselves to come to the immediate aid of
France, in case of an unprovoked attack, by an agreement which was to
be binding only if ratified by both countries. This treaty the United
States Senate refused to ratify. Foch was opposed to this compromise,
and adopted a course of action which was very embarrassing to
Clemenceau. Fierce attacks on the French Government and on the
representatives of Great Britain and the United States, inspired by
him, appeared in the papers. When the treaty was finally completed, he
even went so far as to refuse to transmit the note summoning the German
delegates to Versailles to receive it. Wilson and Lloyd George finally
protested so vigorously to Clemenceau that Foch had to give way.

In view of the promises of Clemenceau and Lloyd George that Germany
should pay the cost of the war, the question of reparations was an
exceedingly difficult one to adjust. President Wilson stoutly opposed
the inclusion of war costs as contrary to the pre-Armistice agreement,
and Lloyd George and Clemenceau finally had to give in. The entire
American delegation and their corps of experts endeavored to limit the
charges imposed on Germany rigidly to reparation for damage done to
civilians in the occupied areas and on land and sea. Lloyd George,
remembering the promises which he had made prior to the December
elections, insisted that pensions paid by the Allied governments should
be included as