[81] The argument is not invalidated in the least by sporadic instances of liberal activity here--an isolated article or two. For iteration is the essence of propaganda as an opinion forming factor. [82] In an article in the _North American Review_, just before America's entrance into the War, I attempted to indicate the danger by making one character in an imaginary symposium say: 'One talks of "Wilson's programme," "Wilson's policy." There will be only one programme and one policy possible as soon as the first American soldier sets foot on European soil: Victory. Bottomley and Maxse will be milk and water to what we shall see America producing. We shall have a settlement so monstrous that Germany will offer any price to Russia and Japan for their future help.... America's part in the War will absorb about all the attention and interest that busy people can give to public affairs. They will forget about these international arrangements concerning the sea, the League of Peace--the things for which the country entered the War. In fact if Wilson so much as tries to remind them of the objects of the War he will be accused of pro-Germanism, and you will have their ginger Press demanding that the "old gang" be "combed out."' [83] 'If we take the extremist possibility, and suppose a revolution in Germany or in South Germany, and the replacement of the Hohenzollerns in all or part of Germany by a Republic, then I am convinced that for republican Germany there would be not simply forgiveness, but a warm welcome back to the comity of nations. The French, British, Belgians, and Italians, and every civilised force in Russia would tumble over one another in their eager greeting of this return to sanity.' (_What is coming?_ p. 198). [84] See the memoranda published in _The Secrets of Crewe House_. [85] Mr Keynes is not alone in declaring that the Treaty makes of our armistice engagements a 'scrap of paper.' _The Round Table_, in an article which aims at justifying the Treaty as a whole, says: 'Opinions may differ as to the actual letter of the engagements which we made at the Armistice, but the spirit of them is undoubtedly strained in some of the detailed provisions of the peace. There is some honest ground for the feeling manifested in Germany that the terms on which she laid down her arms have not been observed in all respects.' A very unwilling witness to our obligations is Mr Leo Maxse, who writes (_National Review_, February, 1921):-- 'Thanks to the American revelations we are in a better position to appreciate the trickery and treachery of the pre-Armistice negotiations, as well as the hideous imposture of the Paris Peace Conference, which, we now learn for the first time, was governed by the self-denying ordinance of the previous November, when, unbeknown to the countries betrayed, the Fourteen Points had been inextricably woven into the Armistice. Thus was John Bull effectively 'dished' of every farthing of his war costs.'