The late Georges Clemenceau, "Tiger of France," seized the late President Woodrow Wilson by the throat, spat in this face and called him "Boche, Boche,", during the Versailles Peace Conference, according to an article in "LiIntransigeant."
The incident was described in me~ mories of Sir J. Basil Thompson, former British intelligence Service Chief who guarded statesmen at Versailles. They included this hitherto untold incident:
"At the peace conference, during discussion of the Saar, Mr.' Wilson and JIN. Clemenceau were near breaking point when the "Tiger" offered M. Andre Tardieu's compromise solution.
Mr. Wilson rose, straightened his sglasces and replied that France should have nothing to do with the Saar. He rejected all of Clemeanceau's sugger rose, white with fury, spluttered something unintelligible his colleagues at the conference table, then sprang at Mr. Wilson's throat.
He shook him violently, as though ig strangle him, spat, and shouted "Boche, Boche, America's apostle of peace picked up his glasses, ran to the door—then changed his mind.
He returned to a fireplace and contemplated the damage in a mirror.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.