Foreign News: Posthumous Onslaughts

COMMONWEALTH (British Commonwealth of Nations)

Than the late Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, assassinated on the steps of his London home by two Sinn Feiners on July 22, 1922, there has rarely been a soldier whose sarcasm has been so biting, whose criticism so penetrative, whose mind so outspoken, whose ego so self-exalted.

Last week, through the medium of Major General Sir C. E. Caldwell, two volumes were published in London entitled Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, His Life and Diaries. As was to be expected, their contents were plentifully interlarded with vigorous attacks on the statesmen of the War and armistice periods, most of whom are still celebrities living in shadow of fame.

But his criticisms might have been worse; for General Caldwell admits that it was found advisable "to omit some passages" because the Field Marshal was "so outspoken." And this capacity for plain, frank statements was occompanied by a no less marked habit of blunt, crude speech, so much so that General Caldwell says that "it has been thought desirable to exclude some forcible expressions concerning individuals which find a place in these records."

Nevertheless, Sir Henry said much. Said he of the late U. S. President Woodrow Wilson, whom he facetiously called "my cousin," and often referred to as "that ass": "That ass President Wilson has barged in and asked all belligerents for their terms.

"At War Cabinet we considered Wilson's answer to the Boche. It really is a complete usurpation of the power of negotiation. He practically ignores us and the French. He won't treat with the Hohenzollerns—thus making sure of Bolshevism. He won't treat as long as the Boches sink ships and have other frightfulness. And he is sending a separate letter to Austria. And all this without consultation with his allies. We discussed all this, and I was strongly of opinion that we should go over to Paris at once and register a note to Wilson putting him in his proper place; but I was not able to persuade Lloyd George, and after lunch he went off to Walton Heath. Either he is seedy or meditating a speech. I am certain we (British, French, Italians) ought to get together and put the truth baldly to Wilson. He is now taking charge in a way that terrifies me, as he is only a super-Gladstone—and a dangerous visionary at that. . . .

"I was introduced to the President and had a ten minutes talk. He did not impress me in the least. He told me his grandfather and grandmother both come from Ulster, but met for the first time in America. He said he had a keen sense of humor. He has not yet been for his trip around the devastated country and he is so angry with the Italians that he has given up his Italian trip. No. He did not impress me in the least. But my conversation was too short, and our subjects too general, to allow me to form an opinion yet. . . .

"It appears that President Wilson wants to form a League of Nations first and then refer everything to it. He has no clear idea of what is meant by such a League. His position in America becomes increasingly difficult, and he will probably have to go back soon and is desperately anxious to take something back."