In view of the warnings that President Wilson had received as to the probable result of insisting on the plan of a League which he had prepared and his failure to heed the warnings, his persistency in pressing for acceptance of the Covenant before anything else was done makes the resulting delay in the peace less excusable.
Two weeks after the President returned from the United States in March the common opinion was that the drafting of the Covenant had delayed the restoration of peace, an opinion which was endorsed in the press of many countries.

The belief became so general and aroused so much popular condemnation that Mr.Wilson considered it necessary to make a public denial, in which he expressed surprise at the published views and declared that the negotiations in regard to the League of Nations had in no way delayed the peace.

Concerning the denial and the subject with which it dealt, I made on March 28 the following memorandum: "The President has issued a public statement, which appears in this morning's papers, in which he refers to the 'surprising impression' that the discussions concerning the League of Nations have delayed the making of peace and he flatly denies that the impression is justified.
"I doubt if this statement will remove the general impression which amounts almost to a conviction.

Every one knows that the President's thoughts and a great deal of his time prior to his departure for the United States were given to the formulation of the plan for a League and that he insisted that the 'Covenant' should be drafted and reported before the other features of the peace were considered.

The _real_ difficulties of the present situation, which had to be settled before the treaty could be drafted, were postponed until his return here on March 13th.
"In fact the real bases of peace have only just begun to receive the attention which they deserve.
"If such questions as the Rhine Provinces, Poland, reparations, and economic arrangements had been taken up by the President and Premiers in January, and if they had sat day and night, as they are now sitting _in camera,_ until each was settled, the peace treaty would, I believe, be to-day on the Conference's table, if not actually signed.
"Of course the insistence that the plan of the League be first pushed to a draft before all else prevented the settlement of the other questions.