to take our army to Roumania, I was all the better pleased to hear him admit that events had proved me to be right. Besides, it was Clemenceau himself who had made the agreement about our Legions with Dr. Beneš as early as December 1917 and January 1918.
With Clemenceau’s right-hand man, M. Philippe Berthelot, I discussed every question of importance that was likely to affect the post-war order in Europe and in the Near East. He was an interesting personality, not merely on account of his political position but as a keen observer of the course of world events. He favoured consistently the removal of Turkey from Europe, in accordance with the original Allied plan. The eminent journalist, M. Gauvain; Professor Denis; Colonel House, who had invited Dr. Beneš to take part in the Armistice Conference; the American Ambassador, Mr. W. G. Sharp; the British Ambassador, Lord Derby; the Serbian Minister, M. Vesnitch; and Dr. Trumbitch, with whom I discussed in detail our future cooperation with the Southern Slavs, were among the men whom I met or with whom I renewed acquaintance in Paris.
There, too, the outlines of the Little Entente were agreed upon. I negotiated first with the Roumanian statesman, M. Take Jonescu, who presently brought the Greek Prime Minister, M. Venizelos, to me. In accordance with the situation then existing, we contemplated a close understanding with the Southern Slavs and the Poles, as well as with the Roumanians and the Greeks, who had made a Treaty of Friendship with Serbia at the time of the Balkan wars. Though we were fully aware of the obstacles in our path, and particularly of the territorial disputes between the Southern Slavs and the Roumanians, we agreed to clear the ground for ulterior co-operation during the impending Peace Conference. The idea of the Little Entente was, so to speak, in the air. It had been developed by our joint work with the Roumanians and the Poles in Russia, by our close relations with the Southern Slavs in all countries during the war, by common enterprises like the Rome Congress of the Oppressed Hapsburg Peoples, and by the organization of the Mid-European Democratic Union in America. On the basis of this experience, I put forward in my book, “The New Europe,” the demand that, alongside of the big Entente, similar groups should be formed, above all among the Little States of Central Europe.
Before leaving Paris I was able once more to thank M. Briand—whom I met in the by no means unpolitical drawing-
