seating Orlando. The Four held usually two
long meetings every day, and the President,
besides, in order to discount the criticism that
the consideration of the Covenant of the
League of Nations was delaying the peace,
was holding meetings of the League of Nations
Commission in the evening--which more than
once lasted beyond midnight. He had also
innumerable other engagements that he was
forced to meet: conferences with all kinds of
delegations, meetings with experts, home
affairs. No slave ever worked harder than
he did in those days.

But no matter how hard he toiled, the criti-
cism grew steadily worse: and on March 27th
the President finally dictated a statement
denying that the discussions of the Covenant
were delaying the Treaty. "The conferences
of the Commission [on the League of Na-
tions]" he said, "have invariably been held
at times when they could not interfere with
the consultations of those who have under-
taken to formulate the general conclusions
of the Conference with regard to the many
other complicated problems of peace."

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