GERMANY RATIFIES PEACE TREATY
German Assembly Votes to Sign Treaty.—On Sunday, June 22, the German National Assembly voted 237 to 138 to sign the Peace Treaty, but without accepting the obligations contained in Articles 227-230 relating to the trial of the ex-Kaiser and extradition of other Germans accused of crimes, and Article 231, fixing upon Germany responsibility for the war. The Centrists and Democrats held out for this modification of the terms.
On the same date the Bauer Cabinet communicated with the Entente Powers requesting a delay of 48 hours before submitting the final decision of Germany, but received a brief negative reply with the further information that the Allied terms must be accepted without reservations. Accordingly on June 23 the Assembly voted for unconditional acceptance, and the decision was transmitted as follows by Dr. Haniel von Haimhausen, the German representative at Paris:
The Minister of Foreign Affairs has instructed me to communicate to your Excellency the following:
"It appears to the government of the German Republic, in consternation at the last communication of the Allied and associated governments, that these governments have decided to wrest from Germany by force acceptance of the peace conditions, even those, which, without presenting any material significance, aim at divesting the German people of their honor.
"No act of violence can touch the honor of the German people. The German people, after frightful suffering in these last years, have no mean of defending themselves by external action.
"Yielding to superior force, and without renouncing in the meantime its own view of the unheard of injustice of the peace conditions, the government of the German Republic declares that it is ready to accept and sign the peace conditions imposed."
Please accept, Mr. President, assurances of my high consideration.
(Signed) Von Haniel.
New German Cabinet for Treaty Acceptance.—Rather than face the responsibility for signing the Peace Treaty, the Scheidemann Cabinet resigned, seven voting for and seven against acceptance. After a week of effort a new Ministry was finally organized on June 21 with Gustav Adolf Bauer, a Conservative Socialist and labor leader, as Premier; Dr. Hermann Muller, Majority Socialist, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mathias Erzberger, Minister of Finance and Vice-Chancellor; and Dr. Edouard Daniel, Ministry of the Interior. Reports from Germany referred to the new Cabinet as transitional in character and mediocre in personnel, dominated by Erzberger.
The Ceremony at Versailles.—The German delegates selected to sign the treaty, Drs. Hermann Muller and Johannes Bell, arrived at Versailles on June 27. The ceremony of signing occurred at 3 p. m. on the following day in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles before a crowded gathering of officials, diplomats, and press representatives, with an immense throng in the grounds outside the palace. After very brief remarks by President Clemenceau, the German delegates signed the Treaty and the Rhine Agreement at 3.12, and were followed by the American, British, French, Japanese, Italian and other delegates in order.
General Smuts signed after filing a statement criticizing the severity of certain requirements in the Treaty.
China Refuses to Sign.—Following repeated efforts to secure permission to sign the treaty with reservation regarding the Shantung settlement, the Chinese delegates at Paris refrained from attaching their signatures, and at the same time issued a statement explaining their position:
The statement says that the action of the conference on Shantung evoked a nation-wide protest in China, which makes it impossible for the Chinese Government to accept the objectionable clause in the treaty.
The delegation's proposal was that it should write in the treaty above its signature, "Subject to reservation made at the plenary session of May 6, relative to the question of Shantung in Articles 156, 157, and 188." The statement says that the Peace Conference, through official channels, denied the privilege of any action on the part of China which would make it possible to reopen the Shantung question.
"After failing in all earnest attempts at conciliation," says the statement, "and after seeing every honorable compromise rejected, the Chinese delegation had no course open save to adhere to the path of duty to their country."
China, it is said, is willing to accept the Shantung settlement on two conditions: (1) that Japan set a definite date for the restoration of Kiao Chau, any time within a year being regarded as a reasonable period; and (2) that Japan withdraw police from the Shantung railways. The Chinese delegates remained in Paris, expecting to participate in the Austrian settlement and in the organization of the League of Nations.
Treaty Ratified by Germany.—The Peace Treaty was ratified by the German Assembly at Weimar on June 9 and signed that evening by President Ebert. Before the final ratification, a resolution was defeated proposing a judicial tribunal to pass upon the legality of the trial of the ex-Kaiser and upon the question of responsibility for the war. The official notice of ratification was accompanied by a request that the blockade be raised and prisoners of war liberated as soon as possible.
German Blockade Raised.—The Superior Blockade Council on June 26 announced that it had been decided to resume trade with Germany immediately upon ratification of the Treaty by the German Assembly, without awaiting final ratification by the Entente Powers.
Washington, July 14.—Formal announcement was made to-night by the State Department that free communication and the resumption of trade relations with Germany had been authorized, effective to-day, and that hereafter only a few restrictions covering principally the importation of sugar, wheat, dyes, potash, drugs, and chemicals would remain in force. The export conservation list and bunker regulations are wiped out, and wheat is the only export commodity subject to control, its distribution for export remaining under the Grain Corporation.
The orders issued to-day in effect place the United States on a basis of open trading with all nationalities of the world, under the "blanket license" system, so far as the great majority of commodities are concerned, with the exceptions of Hungary and that part of Russia under the control of the Bolsheviki.—N.Y. Times, 15/7.
Trial of Ex-Kaiser in London.—Premier Lloyd George on July 4 announced before the House of Commons that it had been decided to hold the trial of the ex-Kaiser in London before a tribunal composed of judicial representatives of the chief Entente Powers, including the United States, with a British judge presiding.
Later reports indicated that Washington had been considered as the scene of the trial, but that President Wilson had preferred a European capital. London was selected in the belief that a trial in England under Anglo-Saxon legal procedure would not be open to accusation of unfairness.
At the time of going to press uncertainty still existed as to whether the trial would actually take place and as to the attitude of the Dutch Government on the question of extradition. A Copenhagen despatch of July 11 reported that informal negotiations were already in progress with Holland and that the Dutch Government was ready to deliver the ex-Kaiser to the Entente Powers.
Paris Council Reorganized.—Paris, June 30 (Associated Press).—The new Council of Four, consisting of Stephen Pichon, the French Foreign Minister; Robert Lansing, the American Secretary of State; Arthur J. Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, and Tomasso Tittoni, the Italian Foreign Minister, will meet to-morrow afternoon to outline the method of procedure of the Peace Conference, which is likely to undergo many changes.
M. Pichon will be chairman of the council. It is probable that a body similar to the old Council of Ten will be constituted, but the Council of Four will continue the work of direction.
The missing clauses in the Austrian treaty will probably be delivered to the Austrian delegation before the end of the week, but it seems unlikely that the treaty can be signed before July 31 at the earliest.
UNITED STATES
Franco-American Agreement.—The text of the duplicate agreements signed by Great Britain and the United States with France to insure support to France in the event of Germany's failure to observe the peace terms regarding the western frontier, was published on July 2. The agreement with the United States first states the reasons for the understanding and cites Articles XLII-XLIV of the Peace Treaty. It concludes as follows:
In case these stipulations should not assure immediately to France appropriate security and protection, the United States of America shall be bound to come immediately to her aid in case of any unprovoked act of aggression directed against her by Germany.
Article II.—The present treaty, couched in terms analogous to those of a treaty concluded on the same date and to the same end between Great Britain and the French Republic, a copy of which is hereto annexed, will not enter into force until the moment when the latter is ratified.
Article III.—The present treaty must be submitted to the Council of the Society of Nations and must be recognized by the council, deciding if occasion arise by majority, as an engagement in conformity with the covenant of the society. It will remain in force until, upon demand of one of the parties to the treaty, the council deciding if occasion arise by a majority, finds that the society itself assures sufficient protection.
Article IV.—The present treaty shall before ratification be submitted to the chambers of the French Parliament for approval, and it shall be submitted to the Senate of the United States of America at the same time as the treaty of Versailles shall be submitted for assent to ratification. Ratifications shall be exchanged at the time of deposit in Paris of the ratifications of the treaty of Versailles, or as soon afterwards as possible.
The agreement is signed by M. Clemenceau, M. Pichon, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Lansing. It is significant that the third article of the Agreement makes it subject to the approval of the Council of the League of Nations.
President Defends Treaty.—President Wilson left Paris on June 28 and arrived in New York on July 8. After speaking in New York he at once went to Washington, and on July 10 delivered the Peace Treaty to the Senate assembled in open session. His speech at this time was an appeal for unqualified ratification of the Treaty and acceptance of the international responsibilities involved in the plan for a League of Nations. Referring to the league, the President said;
Convenient, indeed indispensable, as statesmen found the newly planned League of Nations to be for the execution of present plans of peace and reparation, they saw it in a new aspect before their work was finished. They saw it as the main object of the peace, as the only thing that could complete it or make it worth while. They saw it as the hope of the world, and that hope they did not dare to disappoint.
Shall we or any other free people hesitate to accept this great duty? Dare we reject it and break the heart of the world?
He closed as follows:
America may be said to have just reached her majority as a world power. It was almost exactly twenty-one years ago that the results of the war with Spain put us unexpectedly in possession of rich islands on the other side of the world and brought us into association with other governments in the control of the West Indies.
It was regarded as a sinister and ominous thing by the statesmen of more than one European Chancellery that we should have extended our power beyond the confines of our continental dominions. They were accustomed to think of new neighbors as a new menace, of rivals as watchful enemies.
There were persons amongst us at home who looked with deep disapproval and avowed anxiety on such extensions of our national authority over distant islands and over peoples whom they feared we might exploit, not serve and assist. But we have not exploited them. We have been their friends and have sought to serve them. And our dominion has been a menace to no other nation. We redeemed our honor to the utmost in our dealings with Cuba. She is weak but absolutely free, and it is her trust in us that makes her free.
Can We Refuse Moral Leadership?—Weak peoples everywhere stand ready to give us any authority among them that will assure them a like friendly oversight and direction. They know that there is no ground for fear in receiving us as their mentors and guides.
Our isolation was ended twenty years ago, and now fear of us is ended also, our counsel and association sought after and desired. There can be no question of our ceasing to be a world power. The only question is whether we can refuse the moral leadership that is offered us, whether we shall accept or reject the confidence of the world.
The war and the conference of peace, now sitting in Paris, seem to me to have answered that question. Our participation in the war established our position among the nations, and nothing but our own mistaken action can alter it. It was not an accident or a matter of sudden choice that we are no longer isolated and devoted to a policy which has only our own interest and advantage for its object. It was our duty to go in, if we were, indeed, the champions of liberty and of right.
We answered to the call of duty in a way so spirited, so utterly without thought of what we spent of blood or treasure, so effective, so worthy of the admiration of true men everywhere, so wrought out of the stuff of all that was heroic that the whole world saw at last, in the flesh, in noble action, a great ideal asserted and vindicated by a nation they had deemed material and now found to be compact of the spiritual forces that must free men of every nation from every unworthy bondage. It is thus that a new role and a new responsibility have come to this great nation that we honor and which we would all wish to lift to yet higher levels of service and achievement.
The stage is set, the destiny disclosed. It has come about by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of God, who led us into this way. We cannot turn back. We can only go forward, with lifted eyes and freshened spirit, to follow the vision. It was of this that we dreamed at our birth. America shall in truth show the way. The light streams upon the path ahead, and nowhere else.
The Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine.—In conference with Senators on July 10 the President spoke as follows regarding the bearing of the Peace Treaty upon the Monroe Doctrine:
Touching on the Monroe Doctrine the President said that he brought the matter up in Paris, and as a result there was an acknowledgment of the doctrine which had never before had any standing in international law, being only a declaration of the President of the United States. He held that the action in Paris was a guarantee of recognition of the doctrine, and that furthermore the League would, by its terms, prevent aggression by European powers against any Central or South American powers. The President appeared perfectly certain on this point, and the Senators present understood him to believe that recognition by the League of the doctrine constituted a sort of second line of defense.
It came out during the conversation that the President expected the Japanese to fix a definite time when they would retire from the Shantung Peninsula granted them in succession to the German rights. It is understood, here that the President used strong efforts, while in Paris, to induce the Japanese to fix definitely the time of their retirement from Shantung.
The Irish question was brought up by Senator Phelan. Mr. Wilson said that this problem was one of the most difficult ones he had to consider while abroad, involving many discussions of the subject. But he held that as the Irish question related to the territory of Great Britain, recognized by international law, and as the questions before the conference related wholly to territory taken from the enemy and not possessed by the Allies, no headway could have been made with the Irish situation. Mr. Wilson said that he wished the American people to understand the delicacy of his position in the matter.
Senate Debates Treaty Ratification.—The period following the delivery of the Peace Treaty was taken up in the U. S. Senate with debate for and against its unqualified acceptance. On July 13 the opponents of unqualified acceptance counted on all 49 Republican Senators and two Democrats to support reservations. At a Republican conference on that date reservations on these points were advocated:
- As to the Monroe Doctrine.
- On Article X, guaranteeing territorial integrity to members of the League of Nations.
- As to purely domestic questions, such as the tariff, immigration, and race equality.
- On the right of the United States to withdraw from the League of Nations under two years' notice, the United States Government, instead of the League, to determine if its obligations under the League covenant have been fulfilled.
ITALY
New Cabinet to Sign Treaty.—During the week of June 21-28 the Orlando Cabinet in Italy resigned, and a new Ministry was formed with Francesco Nitti as Premier and Minister of the Interior and Tommasso Tittoni Minister of Foreign Affairs. The resignation of Orlando appears to have been due to disappointment in Italy over the peace settlement and dissatisfaction with the Premier's tortuous policy. Yet the radical annexationist element, whose spokesman is d'Annunzio, oppose Nitti as more moderate than Orlando and a follower of Giolitti, who was against Italy's entry into the war.
On July 15 the Chamber of Deputies gave the Nitti Cabinet a vote of confidence by a majority of 257 to 111, the Premier at that time announcing a vigorous policy against threatening labor troubles in Italy.
Italy's Desperate Finances.—In regard to Italy, we find that she is in a worse plight than any other country. When the national wealth is mortgaged for more than three-quarters, and the people have not enough resources to extinguish or diminish the public debts, but must pay for their interest and for the increased expenses of the budget, no living man would dare to deny that such an economic and industrial situation bespeaks very dark days for Italy. So the country which entered the war to break the bondages of diplomatic and financial slavery of the central empires, and to redeem her sons beyond the Alps, having apparently accomplished these marvelous deeds, will be strangled in another way by her ruinous imperialistic policy. Whichever remedy the rulers of Italy will resort to, it will be a cajolery which the working classes, alert, watchful, anxious to apply their radical program, will denounce as a policy of deceit and continuous misery for themselves and their kin.—N.Y. Nation, 12/7.
Anti-French Disturbances at Fiume.—Blame for Italy's disappointments at the Peace Conference has in some measure shifted from the United States to France. At Fiume on July 6 several French soldiers were attacked and shot at by Italian rioters, including Italian troops. According to an American eye-witness, the French, who have only about 600 troops in Fiume to the Italians' 20,000, in no way provoked the attack. The Paris Council of Five on July 8 appointed a committee to investigate recent troubles at Fiume and other Adriatic ports between Italian and other Allied soldiers of the forces of occupation. Major General Charles P. Summerall was appointed American member of the commission.
The Italian Bureau of Information in the United States on July 8 gave out a statement, afterward declared unauthorized by the Italian embassy, deploring Italy's exclusion from the Anglo-French American agreement, and pointing out the danger that the isolation of Italy might force her again with a rapprochement with the central powers.
TURKEY
Negotiations with Turkey Postponed.—The Council of Ten at Paris on July 17 gave a hearing to a Turkish delegation headed by Darad Perid Pasha, the Grand Vizier. In the meeting, which lasted an hour, the Grand Vizier pleaded that the Turkish people were not responsible for Turkey's participation in the war, and that the empire be permitted to remain intact in both Asia and Europe. On June 29 the Council sent a note to the Turkish mission thanking them for their statement, but informing them that, since the international questions raised could not be immediately decided, nothing would be gained by their longer stay in Paris. The Turkish delegation left Paris on July 3.
According to a report of July 13, Enver Pasha and other leaders of the old regime in Turkey had been captured, tried by court martial and sentenced to death.
HUNGARY
Bloodshed in Vienna.—According to a Vienna report of July 2, forty youths of the Budapest Military Academy and two officers were put to death by the Hungarian Soviet Government in reprisal against the uprising on June 26 of counter-revolutionary forces. Bela Kun issued a proclamation that "blood shall flow henceforth, if necessary, to insure the protection of the proletariat."
No Parley with Hungarian Soviets.—Paris, July 13 (Associated Press).—The Allied and associated powers to-day joined in a wireless message to Bela Kun, the Hungarian Communist Foreign Minister, in declaring that they cannot enter into a discussion with him until he has carried out the conditions of the armistice.
The Supreme Council in Paris on Friday discussed with Marshal Foch and representatives of the Czecho and Jugo-Slavia governments the question of combined military action against the Hungarian Communist forces. The Hungarians have been slow in carrying out the terms of the armistice which resulted in the Czech, Roumanian and Jugo-Slovak armies stopping their advance on Budapest several weeks ago.
POLAND AND RUSSIA
Poland an Independent State.—The text of a treaty signed by Poland and the Entente Powers appeared in the press of July 2. The treaty establishes Poland, as an independent European state, under the guarantee of the League of Nations, and provides religious toleration, protection to Jewish citizens, and safeguards of the rights of minority peoples.
Paris, June 30.—In transmitting to the Polish Government the treaty which has since been signed by Poland with the Entente Powers and the United States,. Premier Clemenceau, as President of the Peace Conference, addressed a letter to Premier Paderewski setting forth the reasons why the provisions of the document were considered necessary. Under the treaty Poland agreed to protect minorities against discrimination, to assume payment of such a share of the Russian debt as should be assigned to her by the Interallied Commission, and to support important international postal, railway, telegraphic, and other conventions incidental to the establishment of a national standing.
American Mission to Omsk.—Washington, July 7.—Roland S. Morris, the American Ambassador to Japan, left Tokio to-day for Siberia, on an extended trip -which will take him as far as Omsk, the seat of the Provisional Government headed by Admiral Kolchak, to report to President Wilson on the situation. It is understood that the according of full recognition of the Omsk Government in place of the present Quasi-recognition that has already been granted by the Allied and associated governments will follow the report of Ambassador Morris, provided this is favorable.
Ambassador Morris will be met at Vladivostok by General William S. Graves, commander of the American forces in Siberia, who will accompany him to Omsk and will also make a report on conditions there and in the rest of Siberia.—N.Y. Times, 8/7.
Inquiry about Alleged Secret Treaty.—On July 16 the United States Senate adopted a resolution introduced by Senator Lodge requesting the President for any available information regarding a secret treaty said to have been negotiated between Japan and Germany in October. 1918, embodying a plan for Russian rehabilitation and promising Japan's indirect protection of German interests in the Versailles negotiations. In speaking of the alleged treaty, Senator Lodge stated that he had no evidence of its existence other than a press report from Budapest on June 20. This report, based on a wireless from Moscow, gave the terms of the agreement as follows:
- Both parties undertake to lend a helping hand to the third treaty party (Russia) as soon as compatible with the world's political situation for the restoration of her internal order, international prestige, and power.
- Japan undertakes the granting to Germany of advantages resulting from the most favored nation reciprocity clauses of the existing Russo-Japanese treaty.
- Japan undertakes to permit Germany to participate, in accordance with concession; embodied in this special treaty, in Japan's preferential treaty rights in China, the parties undertaking to exclude foreign powers (United States and Great Britain) from securing further concessions there.
- Japan undertakes the safeguarding, indirectly, of Germany's interests in the forthcoming Peace Conference, striving for minimum territorial and material ad vantages to Germany.