No man, whose mind was not warped by prejudice or dominated by political expediency, could give it his approval or become its apologist.

Secrecy, and intrigues which were only possible through secrecy, stained nearly all the negotiations at Paris, but in this final act of withholding knowledge of the actual text of the Treaty from the delegates of most of the nations represented in the Conference the spirit of secretiveness seems to have gone mad.
The psychological effects of secrecy on those who are kept in ignorance are not difficult to analyze.

They follow normal processes and may be thus stated: Secrecy breeds suspicion; suspicion, doubt; doubt, distrust; and distrust produces lack of frankness, which is closely akin to secrecy.

The result is a vicious circle, of which deceit and intrigue are the very essence.

Secrecy and its natural consequences have given to diplomacy a popular reputation for trickery, for double-dealing, and in a more or less degree for unscrupulous and dishonest methods of obtaining desired ends, a reputation that has found expression in the ironic definition of a diplomat as "an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." The time had arrived when the bad name which diplomacy had so long borne could and should have been removed.