maintaining that the captured German ships should be restored to the various Allies upon a basis dividing the ships _pro rata_ to the losses sustained by submarines, and contending against the American claim that the United States should have all the German ships finding lodgment in American harbors. Or it might be Herbert Hoover, that brilliant American, come to describe to the Big Four starvation conditions in Vienna, and to emphasize his belief that, enemy or no enemy, those conditions must be relieved or Bolshevism would march into Austria and directly on west until it reached France--and beyond. THE PLACE OF MEETING The stage for this world drama was originally set at the Ministry of War, behind the Chamber of Deputies and across the Seine; and here Premier Clemenceau--who, it will be remembered, was Minister of War as well as President of the Council of French Ministers--was the presiding genius. But eventually, as the result of an interesting trend of circumstances, the all important conferences took place at President Wilson's house. [Illustration: Copyright Walter Adams & Sons =David Lloyd George= Ray Standard Baker, who attended the Peace Conference, wrote in his book, "What Wilson Did at Paris": "Lloyd George personally was one of the most charming and amiable figures at Paris, full of Celtic quicksilver, a torrential talker in the conference, but no one was ever quite sure, having heard him express an unalterable determination on one day, that he would not be unalterably determined some other way the day following."] The original theatre of operations at the War Ministry had been so large, and there was such an enormous chorus brought into play, that progress was interminably slow. There were usually present all five of the plenipotentiaries of each of the five great powers, including Japan, and very frequently Marshal Foch as well. His presence automatically commanded the attendance of the chief military experts of the other delegates. With the innumerable secretaries who had to attend the plenipotentiaries, with the interpreters and whatnot, the Supreme Council came to look like a legislative chamber, in the midst of which sat Clemenceau, presiding with his usual incisiveness. At such meetings progress could be made only upon rather formal matters which had been threshed out beforehand. When it came to a point of great delicacy, where the discussions could be only on a most intimate basis, it became quite impossible to "carry on." Nobody would feel like speaking out in meeting and calling the other fellow names--as was necessary at times in order to clear the atmosphere--if there were half a hundred other people around, to hear those names, and promptly to babble them to an expectant throng outside.