President Wilson himself had a violent shock before the Conference was many weeks old. Angered by the attitude of the French in Syria, Mr. Lloyd George summoned a private meeting of the Big Four, flourished the Hussein-McMahon treaty in the face of M. Clemenceau and affirmed that Britain, who had bound herself by such a solemn treaty with the Arabs and received f them in return invaluable assistance during the war, could not acquiesce in the dispossession of te Arabs in Syria by the French. That Britain herself was at that very moment, and in complete disregard of that document which Mr. Lloyd George was waving at the French with such a theatrical of its sanctity, was planning a more cruel dispossession of the Arabs in Palestine not seem to worry the supple conscience of Mr. Lloyd George at all. However, the whole disclosure came as a shock to the American President. Mr. Wilson said that it was the first had ever heard of the Hussein-McMahon treaty and was interested to know of it. He then went o to state that the United States was indifferent to the claims of both France and Great Britain overpeoples, unless these peoples wanted them. One of the fundamental principles to which the United States adhered, he said, was the consent of the governed. From the point of view of the Unite States, the only thing that mattered was whether France would be agreeable to the Syrians Britain to the Mesopotamians.
The President, who had all along given his whole-hearted support to Zionism, and who only a few weeks before had declared that America would concur in the founding of a Jewish state in Palestine, apparently never stopped to think whether this would be agreeable to the people of Palestine, where the principle of the consent of the governed should not apply to the southern part of Syria (Palestine) as well as to the norther part, where he now insisted on defending it against the French designs.
However, as a result of this meeting, President Wilson did take a very important step with the intention of putting into practice the principles he advocated. He proposed that an international commission representing America, Britain and France should go to Syria and Palestine and ascertain te wishes of the people. Britain and France declined to act on this proposal, but the President was not deterred, and eventually sent out an entirely American commission to carry out the investigation. This was the famous King-Crane Commission which, after a comprehensive and penetrating survey reported strongly against the Zionist scheme and warned of the dangers involved in any attempt to carry it out, except on a very small scale and in a manner that would fundamentally preclude any idea of a Jewish state. The report, however, came too late to be placed before the Peace Conference. Moreover when it reached the President his health had begun to fail ad his grip on thing to loosen. No action whatever was taken on it. Its recommendations, which, i adopted, would have dictated an entirely different kind of Mandate for Palestine, and would h obviated the entire conflict and problem of to-day, were disregarded. The predetermined course of events was not to be halted by any such obstacle. The plot moved forward to the next stage.