tors of these crimes the aversion with which civilization regards their present wanton acts.

The reason officially assigned for the continuance of Allied forces in Russia during the armistice with Germany was the necessity of not deserting the Russians who had supported the Allies and who would be in danger of execution from the Bolsheviki after the withdrawal of Allied troops. However, opposition to the continued maintenance of Allied armies in Russia was so strong in most of the Allied countries, especially among the Labor and Socialist ranks, that by the summer of 1919 most of those armies were withdrawn, with the exception of the Japanese.

During the Peace Conference at Paris, the Allied representatives officially projected a conference of all Russian groups at the Prinkipo Islands, in order to evolve a definite policy for the sadly-harassed land of the Bolsheviki; but most of the anti-Bolshevist elements refused to meet with the Bolshevist representatives, and it was claimed that the Bolsheviki also laid down as preliminary to such a conference conditions which could not be met by the Allies, with the result that the plan for the conference came to naught. In June, 1919, the Allies announced that they had decided to grant aid in every possible way to Admiral Kolchak and to furnish him with supplies. This announcement was not tantamount to a recognition of Kolchak, but it was evident that such recognition waited chiefly upon the latter's success in overthrowing the Bolsheviki. But many influential sections of public opinion in the Allied countries were bitter in denouncing Kolchak as a ruthless Tsarist type of ruler and in charging that he was supported chiefly by previous henchmen of the Tsar, and in addition Kolchak suffered soon afterward a series of decisive military defeats at the hands of the Bolshevist armies; so that toward the end of the armistice with Germany the Allied policy toward Russia was again in doubt.

THE PEACE CONFERENCE

On December 4, 1918, the President of the United States set sail for France to share in the deliberations at Paris out of which were to take shape the terms of the peace which sealed the Great War. This was the first time that a president was to enter a European country during his incumbency of office, although previous presidents had left the borders of the states which comprise the Union. President Wilson arrived at Brest, France, on December 13 and immediately found himself greeted with almost unparalleled enthusiasm by the great mass of Europeans.

Even the bitterest opponents of President Wilson admit that, at the time of his arrival in Europe, among the statesmen of the world he was the one great popular idol. Clemenceau was the idol of France, and was not without his following in the other Allied countries; and the December general election in Great Britain had shown that LloydGeorge was to England as Clemenceau to France. But the great mass of the common people of Europe had looked upon Clemenceau and Lloyd-George chiefly as the men to win the war-they were looking upon the American President as the man to win the peace. It was believed that President Wilson had devoted more effort to analyses of the essential organization of the world after the war than had the other Allied statesmen; and the processes of his thought, as evidenced in his papers and addresses on the War, had found a spontaneous echo in the hearts of the European masses. Even in the enemy countries Wilson had finally come to be regarded with more faith and less cynicism than any of the other delegates to the Allies' conferences at Paris. The warmth of the President's reception in France, in England and in Italy passed far beyond the bounds of convention.

But even the warmest supporters of President Wilson were forced

to admit that his popularity sadly waned before the end of the Peace Conference. There were a number of reasons for this slackening of the President's hold upon the heart of Europe. In the first place, there was the psychological fickleness of the crowd, which in the twentieth century is no less prone than the populace of ancient Athens to become weary at hearing a leader constantly called “just.”

In the second place, at its very inception the Peace Conference decided to surround most of its meetings with secrecy. This secrecy may or may not have been necessary, even desirable; and it may or may not have been in violation of the first of the "Fourteen Points”— Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at; the fact remains that greater publicity for the deliberations at Paris had been expected, and the procedure of the Peace Conference gave rise to a cry that the President had abandoned the first plank in his platform and could not be counted upon not to abandon the remainder of it.

In the third place, it was soon apparent that Wilson found himself in opposition to Clemenceau; and the inevitable spirit of nationalistic rivalry which ensued turned most of Clemenceau's admirers against the President.

In the fourth place, President Wilson steered in the peace deliberations a moderate course. He sided with neither the radicals nor the conservatives. But by the end of the war most of Europe was either radical or conservative-there were few moderates. The conservatives rallied behind Clemenceau and the radicals abandoned Wilson, claiming that Wilson had abandoned them. Especially hostile to Wilson was the later attitude of such radical groups as the British Labor Party and the French syndicalists and Socialists. And the patent fact that the final results of the peace deliberations, outside of the covenant of the League of Nations, showed plainly the hand of Clemenceau rather than the hand of Wilson gave rise to violent and widespread charges that President Wilson had been defeated in his stand at Paris.

Finally, President Wilson at no time-except possibly in his public statement regarding Fiume-appealed to the people over the heads of their rulers. It had been predicted that, if confronted by unjust demands, he would turn from the decision of the diplomats to the

verdict of the people; and his determination to gain his ends by his private conferences at Paris weakened him in much of his European popular following. Early in April, the President sent suddenly for his transport, the George Washington, but his failure to leave the Peace Conference on the arrival of the George Washington indicated that he had been appeased sufficiently to avoid an open break. Possibly Wilson was fearsome that if any of the Governments of the great Powers were overthrown, not another Government, but Bolshevism, would replace it; but his course cost him much support.