The Deliberations of the Council of Four (March 24-June 28, 1919)

The Council of Four--Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and Orlando--was formed at Wilson's suggestion to consider a number of major questions revolving around the Paris Peace Conference. This work comprises the transcripts of those discussions made by the French interpreter, Paul-Joseph Mantoux, from March 24 through June 28, 1919. Mantoux published an unannotated version of these transcripts in two volumes in 1955. The present English-language edition makes available to a worldwide reading public an indispensable source for the study of the conference. Mantoux was present at all sessions of the Four, and his transcripts of their conversations are the only record of them during the first thirty-seven meetings, when the great controversies raised by French claims and the crucial discussions over the question of reparation by Germany occurred. In contrast to the minutes later kept by the Council's official secretary, Sir Maurice Hankey, which are cast in the form of indirect discourse, Mantoux's transcripts record the conversations directly.
The editors provide extensive but appropriate annotation and print as appendixes the reports, proposals, and other materials that the Four had on the table before them.