THE PEACE CONFERENCE REACHES A SUPREME
CRISIS: THE PRESIDENT FALLS ILL: HE ORDERS
THE "GEORGE WASHINGTON"; AND THE POSSI-
BILITY OF AMERICAN WITHDRAWAL FROM THE
CONFERENCE IS CONSIDERED

UNFORTUNATELY, the statement by
the President issued on March 27th,
denying that the consideration of the Coven-
ant of the League of Nations was delaying
the peace, while it did not help appreciably
in quieting popular criticism, seemed even
to increase the more insidious and dangerous
attacks of the reactionaries who were trying
to stampede the President. His explanation
seemed to them a kind of confession of weak-
ness. They therefore redoubled their ef-
forts. It was in those days of late March that
the French put up their hardest fight for the
possession of the Saar valley, when Foch was
most insistent upon making the Rhine the
controlled frontier of Germany, when Italy

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