Istwa Nou

Forbes and his colleagues took testimony for twelve days with their instructions already settled. Complaints against the occupation went before the full commission; replies were heard by one commissioner or by staff. No treaty official could testify at all in the first week, nobody was ever allowed to cross-examine a witness, and nine tenths of the available time went to the occupation's opponents, whose case Georges Leger had organised down to identical banners in every town. Russell meanwhile proposed the exit: push Borno out, have the Conseil d'Etat elect a neutral caretaker, hold legislative elections, then let the assembly choose. Forbes agreed and required that the idea appear to be the commission's own. Told to name a neutral man, Hudicourt asked where anyone was to find such a white blackbird. Each side listed five names, and Borno, who never wrote a list, stopped at Eugene Roy. Forbes reported that the Americans had tried to plant democracy by drill and harrow and had failed to grasp the country. Russell's rebuttal was suppressed as politically awkward.