Page:Armistice Day.djvu/219

Rh in a situation which will permit them to enforce that peace.

"Did the armistice which I signed on November 11, 1918, fulfill this purpose? Yes, since on the 28th of June, after seven months of negotiations, Germany accepted all the conditions of the Allies.

"I said to M. Clemenceau, on the 11th of November, 1918, at 9 o'clock in the morning, when I brought him the document which had just been signed in the forest of Compiègne:

Here is my armistice; you can now make any peace you wish, I am able to enforce it.' If peace has not been a very good one, is it my fault? I did my job; it was up to the heads of the government to do theirs."

Foch arose, and emphasizing each one of his words, as if to be sure of summing up the interview thoroughly, he said:

"To command is nothing. To negotiate is nothing. What is necessary is to understand those with whom one has to deal and to make one's self thoroughly understood by them. To understand each other well is the whole secret of life!"

And Foch evidently meant also that it was the secret of the life of nations the same as that of individuals, the secret of peace and of war, the secret of commerce and of friendship.