Monday's papers contained the "official statement" that Presi- dent Wilson
had telegraphed to Colonel House saying that "unity of plan and control between all the Allies and the United States was essential in order to achieve a just and permanent peace," and asking him, with General Bliss, the American Chief of Staff, to attend the first meeting of the Allied War Council. Later on the same day a message from Washington, on the authority of the President's private secretary, denied that Mr. Wilson had sent any such telegram. On Tuesday, however, Me. Boner Law declared in the House that the Government " had the information quite officially." Whatever may be the explanation of this curious episode, it is one which should certainly be probed- to the bottom. Very possibly there will turn out to be no mystery but only a blunder. It would, however, be most unsatisfactory to leave things as they are. It is to every one's interests that the matter should be laid at rest by the only trustworthy means—i.e., the publication of all the facts connected with the messages. If the whole thing is a mare's-nest, the sooner it is proved so the better.
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