air service which made it difficult for American troops to
work as a separate unit without English or French cooperation. He pled
for American troops at the earliest possible moment and offered more
transportation facilities--even though England had already transported
not only her own men but many of ours across the Atlantic.

General Sir William Robertson stated in January that there was an
impending crisis coming in the early spring; that Germany would make
an immensely powerful drive toward Paris or the channel ports or both;
and that in his opinion the Allied lines would hold until the
Americans {241} got into the war with full strength. But he made no
concealment of the fact that the next six months would be very
critical ones.

Marshal Joffre held similar views. Both officers expressed the opinion
that the summer of 1918 would be the crisis and deciding point of the
war. They, too, felt the French and English lines would hold, but they
laid heavy stress upon the importance of more troops from America.

On the French front Wood lunched and had a long talk with General
Gouraud and another at Paris later with General Petain whom he knew
and who knew well the history of Wood's career in organization and
administration. Petain is said to have expressed the hope that Wood
might soon be in France on active duty and to have said that when he
did come he would put him in command of an army of French and American
troops.

As Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, next to the highest rank in
that order--General Wood was naturally received by all French officers
and statesmen. This order having been conferred upon him some years
before because of his record in Cuba and the Philippines placed him in
a small {242} group of men, most of them, naturally, French, who are
the distinguished men of Europe. His reception by the President of
France, by the premier, Georges Clemenceau, and other French statesmen
came as a matter of course. But the conversations which took place
between the American soldier and these men have never, naturally, been
made public except in some of their bare essentials. Nor will any one
ever know just what was said unless one or another of the parties to
them shall some time disclose it himself.

There seems to be no doubt, however, of the very warm reception which
this senior officer of the American army was given. His record in
preparedness work, his record in administrative and organization work
w