Paris Peace Conf. 185.001/23½
The Liaison Officer for General Pershing (Hayes) to the Secretary of the Commission to Negotiate Peace (Grew)
For General Churchill and Mr. Grew:
Marshal Foch has transmitted identical communications to the American, British and French governments, preparatory to an agreement concerning forces to be maintained during the armistice and thereafter.
The Marshal fears the result of the present independent diminishing of the forces of the allied nations. He estimates the German divisions remaining under arms at from 50 to 60, urges that the allies should be prepared to meet 60 to 70 German divisions, and recommends that 120 to 140 divisions be retained for this purpose, made up of 60 to 65 French divisions, 35 to 40 British divisions, 22 to 25 American divisions, and 6 Belgian divisions.
The note of Marshal Foch states that the allies must occupy the Rhenish provinces as a guarantee after the signature of peace, and until the reparation exacted has been made. For this post-bellum occupation, he proposes the use of 13 to 15 British divisions, 15 to 20 French divisions, 6 American divisions, and 2 to 4 Belgian divisions.
The attention of Marshal Foch has been called to the fact that the problem of transportation before demobilization is so much, more serious for the American forces than for the French and English, that the return of our troops must take place at almost a fixed rate; and that it is proposed to have here about 20 American combat [Page 58] divisions on March 1st, about 15 on April 1st, and about 10 on May 1st.
It is the belief of the Commander in Chief of the A. E. F. that the elimination of the German navy, the surrender of a large part of German war material, the crippling of German transportation facilities, the shortage of food, the political upheaval within Germany, the reduction of the German army to not more than 50 divisions, and the dispatching of this personnel to their home garrisons, makes it virtually impossible for her to resume hostilities, and makes unnecessary the retention of so large a force as 120 or 140 allied divisions.