[96] The following particulars are taken from _Les Négociations Secrètes et les Quatre Armistices avec pièces justificatives_ by “Mermeix,” published at Paris by Ollendorff, 1921. This remarkable volume has not received the attention it deserves. The greater part of it consists of a verbatim transcript of the secret _Procès Verbaux_ of those meetings of the Supreme Council of the Allies which were concerned with the Armistice Terms. On the face of it this disclosure is authentic and is corroborated in part by M. Tardieu. There are many passages of extraordinary interest on points not connected with my present topic, as for example the discussion of the question whether the Allies should insist on the surrender of the German fleet if the Germans made trouble about it. Marshal Foch emerges from this record very honorably, as determined that nothing unnecessary should be demanded of the enemy, and that no blood should be spilt for a vain or trifling object. Sir Douglas Haig was of the same opinion. In reply to Col. House, Foch spoke thus: “If they accept the terms of the Armistice we are imposing on them, it is a capitulation. Such a capitulation gives us everything we could get from the greatest victory. In such circumstances I cannot admit that I have the right to risk the life of a single man more.” And again on October 31: “If our conditions are accepted we can wish for nothing better. We make war only to attain our ends, and we do not want to prolong it uselessly.” In reply to a proposal by Mr. Balfour that the Germans in evacuating the East should leave one–third of their arms behind them, Foch observed: “The intrusion of all these clauses makes our document chimerical, since the greater part of the conditions are incapable of being executed. We should do well to be sparing with these unrealizable injunctions.” Towards Austria also he was humane and feared the prolongation of the blockade which the politicians were proposing. “I intervene,” he said on October 31, 1918, “in a matter which is not a military one strictly speaking. We are to maintain the blockade until Peace, that is to say until we have made a new Austria. That may take a long time; which means a country condemned to famine and perhaps impelled to anarchy.” [97] This is corroborated by M. Tardieu, _op. cit._, p. 71. [98] See Mermeix, _op. cit._, pp. 226–250. [99] This very important remark by Mr. Bonar Law is also quoted by M. Tardieu (_op. cit._, p. 70) and is therefore of undoubted authenticity. [100] “Il serait prudent de mettre en tête des questions financières une clause réservant les revendications futures des Alliés et je vous propose le texte suivant: ‘Sous réserve de toutes revendications et réclamations ultérieures de la part des Alliés.’” [101] That is to say, this text ran, “Sous réserve de toute renonciation et réclamation ultérieure,” instead of “Sous réserve de toutes revendications et réclamations ultérieures.”