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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - December 1918 to February 1919

The votes were counted three days after Christate town hall to hear the results, Bernie on the platform in his best suit, Eth in the audience

Bernie lost

He was stoical, but Ethel cried For him it was the end of a dream Perhaps it had been a foolish dream, but all the same he was hurt, and her heart ached for him

The Liberal candidate had supported the Lloyd George coalition, so there had been no Conservative candidate Consequently the Conservatives had voted Liberal, and the combination had been too ratulated his winning opponent and came down off the platform The other Labour Party members had a bottle of Scotch and wanted to hold a wake, but Bernie and Ethel went home

"I&039;m not cut out for this, Eth," Bernie said as she boiled water for cocoa

"You did a good job," she said "We were outwitted by that bloody Lloyd George"

Bernie shook his head "I&039;m not a leader," he said "I&039;ain I tried to talk to people the way you do, and fire them with enthusiasm for our cause, but I never could do it When you talk to them, they love you That&039;s the difference"

She kneas right

Next ate result had been mirrored all over the country The coalition had won 525 of the 707 seats, one of the largest majorities in the history of Parliament The people had voted for the man on the war

Ethel was bitterly disappointed The oldthe country The politicians who had caused , as if they had done soer and destruction Ten million men and boys had been killed to no purpose

The only glimmer of hope was that the Labour Party had improved its position They had won sixty seats, up froe Liberals who had suffered They had won only thirty constituencies, and Asquith himself had lost his seat "This could be the end of the Liberal Party," said Bernie as he spread dripping on his bread for lunch "They&039;ve failed the people, and Labour is the opposition now That may be our only consolation"

Just before they left for work, the post arrived Ethel looked at the letters while Bernie tied the laces of Lloyd&039;s shoes There was one from Billy, written in their code She sat at the kitchen table to decode it

She underlined the key words with a pencil and wrote thee she became more and more fascinated

"You know Billy&039;s in Russia," she said to Bernie

"Yes"

"Well, he says our arainst the Bolsheviks The American army is there too"

"I&039;m not surprised"

"Yes, but listen, Bern," she said "We know the Whites can&039;t beat the Bolsheviks-but what if foreign ar could happen!"

Bernie looked thoughtful "They could bring back the monarchy"

"The people of this country won&039;t stand for that"

"The people of this country don&039;t knohat&039;s going on"

"Then we&039;d better tell the to write an article"

"Who will publish it?"

"We&039;ll see Maybe the Daily Herald" The Herald was left-wing "Will you take Lloyd to the child minder?"

"Yes, of course"

Ethel thought for a minute, then, at the top of a sheet of paper, she wrote:

Hands Off Russia!

{II}

Walking around Paristhe broad boulevards there were piles of rubble where Gers were repaired with boards, reured eye The avenues of trees were aps where an ancient chestnut or noble plane had been sacrificed for its ti, and on street corners crippled soldiers begged for change

She was crying for Walter, too She had received no reply to her letter She had inquired about going to Gerh to get perht coation, but there was no Geration: the defeated countries were not invited to the peace conference The victorious Allies intended to thrash out an agree the

Meanwhile there was a shortage of coal, and all the hotels were freezing cold She had a suite at the Majestic, where the British delegation was headquartered To guard against French spies, the British had replaced all the staff with their own people Consequently the food was dire: porridge for breakfast, overcooked vegetables, and bad coffee

Wrapped in a prewar fur coat, Maud went to meet Johnny Remarc at Fouquet&039;s on the Cha forfor you, Maud But ere you so keen to co to tell the truth, least of all to so," she said "I haven&039;t bought a new dress for four years"

"Oh, spareto buy, and what there is costs a fortune Fifteen hundred francs for a gown! Even Fitz ht draw the line there I think you must have a French paraed the subject "I&039;ve found Fitz&039;s car Do you knohere I et petrol?"

"I&039;ll see what I can do"

They ordered lunch Maud said: "Do you think we&039;re really going to make the Germans pay billions in reparations?"

"They&039;re not in a good position to object," said Johnny "After the Franco-Prussian War they made France pay five billion francs-which the French did in three years And last March, in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Gerh of course it won&039;t be paid now All the sanation has the hollow ring of hypocrisy"

Maud hated it when people spoke harshly of the Germans It was as if the fact that they had lost made them beasts What if we had been the losers, Maud wanted to say-would we have had to say the as our fault, and pay for it all? "But we&039;re asking for so much more-twenty-four billion pounds, we say, and the French put it at alue with the French," Johnny said "They owe us six hundred million pounds, and more to the Americans; but if we deny them German reparations they&039;ll say they can&039;t pay us"

"Can the Ger?"

"No My friend Pozzo Keynes says they could pay about a tenth-two billion pounds-though it may cripple their country"

"Do you e economist?"

"Yes We call him Pozzo"

"I didn&039;t knoas one of your friends"

Johnny smiled "Oh, yes, my dear, very much so"

Maud suffered a moment of envy for Johnny&039;s cheerful depravity She had fiercely suppressed her own need for physical love It was ally She felt like an old nun, wrinkled and dried up

"What a sad look!" Johnny did not miss much "I hope you&039;re not in love with Pozzo"

She laughed, then turned the conversation back to politics "If we know the Ger?"

"I asked him that question myself I&039;ve known him quite well since he was erents will end up paying their own debts, and no one will get any reparations to speak of"

"So why this pretense?"

"Because in the end the taxpayers of every country will pay for the war-but the politician who tells them that will never win another election"

{III}

Gus went to the daily roup had the job of drafting the covenant that would set up the league Woodrow Wilson himself chaired the committee, and he was in a hurry

Wilson had completely dominated the first enda putting Gerue at the bottoned by hiue Commission met at the luxurious Hotel Crillon on the Place de la Concorde The hydraulic elevators were ancient and slow, and sometimes stopped between floors while the water pressure built up; Gus thought they were very like the European diploument, and never came to a decision until forced He saith secret amusement that both diploet and mutter in furious impatience

The nineteen co table covered with a red cloth, their interpreters behind the in their ears, their aides around the room with files and notebooks Gus could tell that the Europeans were ienda forward So of the covenant would take months, if not years; and others said the nations would never reach agreeht, after ten days they were close to co a first draft

Wilson had to return to the United States on February 14 He would be back soon, but he was determined to have a draft of the covenant to take home

Unfortunately, the afternoon before he left the French produced a ue of Nations should have its own army

Wilson&039;s eyes rolled up in despair "Iress would not allow American troops to be under soate, forue would be ignored if it had noits decisions

Gus shared Wilson&039;s frustration There were other ways for the league to put pressure on rogue nations: diplomacy, economic sanctions, and in the last resort an ad hoc army, to be used for a specific mission, then disbanded when the job was done

But Bourgeois said none of that would have protected France fro else Perhaps it was understandable, Gus thought, but it was not the way to create a neorld order

Lord Robert Cecil, who had done a lot of the drafting, raised a bony finger to speak Wilson nodded: he liked Cecil, as a strong supporter of the league Not everyone agreed: Clemenceau, the French prime minister, said that when Cecil s blunt," Cecil said "The French delegation see as they hoped, they will reject it altogether May I point out very frankly that in that case there will almost certainly be a bilateral alliance between Great Britain and the United States that would offer nothing to France"

Gus suppressed a sht

Bourgeois looked shocked and withdrew his arateful look across the table at Cecil

The Japanese delegate, Baron Makino, wanted to speak Wilson nodded and looked at his watch

Makino referred to the clause in the covenant, already agreed, that guaranteed religious freedom He wished to add an amendment to the effect that all members would treat each other&039;s citizens equally, without racial discrimination

Wilson&039;s face froze

Makino&039;s speech was eloquent, even in translation Different races had fought side by side in the war, he pointed out "A coratitude has been established" The league would be a great family of nations Surely they should treat one another as equals?

Gus orried but not surprised The Japanese had been talking about this for a week or two It had already caused consternation a the Australians and the Californians, anted to keep the Japanese out of their territories It had disconcerted Wilson, who did not for one roes were his equals Most of all it had upset the British, who ruled undemocratically over hundreds of millions of people of different races and did not want theood as their white overlords

Again it was Cecil who spoke "Alas, this is a highly controversial matter," he said, and Gus could alestion that it ht be discussed has already created discord"

There was a reement around the table

Cecil went on: "Rather than delay the agreement of a draft covenant, perhaps we should postpone discussion of, ah, racial discrimination to a later date"

The Greek priious liberty is a tricky subject, too Perhaps we should drop that for the present"

The Portuguese delegate said: "My governned a treaty that did not call on God!"

Cecil, a deeply religious man, said: "Perhaps this time ill all have to take a chance"

There was a ripple of laughter, and Wilson said with evident relief: "If that&039;s agreed, let us move on"

{IV}

Next day Wilson went to the French foreign ministry at the Quai d&039;Orsay and read the draft to a plenary session of the peace conference in the famous Clock Room under the enormous chandeliers that looked like stalactites in an Arctic cave That evening he left for ho Gus went dancing

Paris after dark was a party town Food was still scarce but there see men left their hotel room doors open so that Red Cross nurses could wander in whenever they needed company Conventional morality seemed to be put on hold People did not try to hide their love affairs Effeminate men cast off the pretense of masculinity Larue&039;s becae was a myth put about by the French so that everyone would keep war with their friends

Everything was expensive, but Gus had es, too: he knew Paris and could speak French He went to the races at St Cloud, saw La Boheme at the opera, and went to a risque musical called Phi Phi Because he was close to the president, he was invited to every party

He found hi more and more ti to her, to tell her only things that he would be happy to see printed, but the habit of discretion was automatic with him now She was one of the smartest people he had ever met He liked her, but that was as far as it went She was always ready to go out with him, but what reporter would refuse an invitation from a presidential aide? He could never hold hands with her, or try to kiss her good night, in case she e of his position as someone she could not afford to offend

He met her at the Ritz for cocktails "What are cocktails?" she said

"Hard liquor dressed up to be more respectable I promise you, they&039;re fashionable"

Rosa was fashionable, too Her hair was bobbed Her cloche hat came down over her ears like a Gerone out of style, and her draped dress fell straight fro her shape, paradoxically, the dress made Gus think about the body beneath She wore lipstick and face powder, so