20 SEPTEMBER 1919, Page 22

Peace Making at Paris. By Sisley Huddleston. (T. Fisher Unwin.

7s. 6d. net.)—The author of this book was one of the many journalists who attended the Peace Conference. He prides himself on an interview which he reported for the West- minster Gazette early in April, reflecting the pessimism of some delegate in regard to indemnities. He says that its appearance coincided with a message from Lord Northcliffe to Colonel Lowther, and caused some commotion. Afterwards Mr. Lloyd George attacked Lord Northcliffe in the House and " diverted attention from the subject." Mr. Huddleston deals freely in personalities and criticisms. He regards President Wilson as a good man perverted by the company of European statesmen. After reading Mr. Huddleston's book attentively, we are unable to imagine how he would ever have made a peace, for he is just as much prejudiced against France and Italy and our own official class as most people are against Germany and the Bolsheviks. He trounces the Allied statesmen for not adopting the advice of an irresponsible young American who went to see Lenin and wanted to recognize him, and who had the audacity to declare that the famine in Russia was due to the Allied blockade rather than to Bolshevik dishonesty and incompetence. " The Turks are not savages," says Mr. Huddleston ; but, two sentences later, he declares that " we had to take steps to preserve the Armenians from Turkish savagery.'? As a "scandalous chronicle " the book is amusing, but it is a very untrustworthy guide to European politica.