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20 YEARS AFTER.

TREATY THAT BROUGHT NO

PEACE.

(By WILLIAM C. McCLOY.)

The document that ended "the war to end war" is twenty years old in 1939, but the curtain has not yet been rung down on that conflict's epilogue of aggressions, invasions and undeclared wars. What blame history may attach to the Treaty of Versailles will be sifted from a study of the personalities who framed its provisions, of the deals and trades and back-stage jockeying of causes and claims that attended its birth. The story of those personalities and their problems is told here in a series of three articles, of which this is the first. The year 1939 marks the twentieth anniversary of the birth of the Versailles Treaty. On June 28, 1919, at Versailles, most magnificent of former French kings' palaces, representatives of the new-born German Republic and the Allies, signed a document declaring the World War ended, and including, among other inflammable conditions, the following:

Cessation of much German territory; loss of all German colonies; strict limitation of the German Army and Navy, and abolition of conscription in Germany; heavy indemnities and reparations, Germany and her Allies to pay the Entente Allies £21,000,000,000 in all.

Of more than 80,000 words—just the length of a model detective story—the Versailles Treaty bids, fair to go down in history as the greatest scapegoat of its time. Every arch-disturber of the peace takes refuge behind it. It is blamed for all the ills the third decadc of the twentieth century has fallen heir to—political, social and economic.

King Carol of Rumania cries for help— greedy neighbours are jealous of his country's boundaries—fixed by the Versailles Treaty. A former Wittenberg College professor, no>v safe in Springfield, Ohio, declines the Nazi Government's Order of the German Eagle with the words, "Practically all political scientists and historians throughout the world regard the ersailles Treaty as a gTeat blunder, which has thrown Germany and the rest of the world into misery and confusion." Spain is torn by civil war and Japan tries to dismember China —their excuses being the Versailles Treaty. But for it, we are assured, an outraged world would never have heard of Mussolini and Hitler, while Mussolini and Hitler, in their turn, declare they were obliged to resort to drastic measures because of the Versailles Treaty. The world's nine 3-ears' depression is attributed, unanimously, to Versailles.

The agreement adopted at Versailles on June 28, 1919, was signed by the treaty plenipotentiaries of Germany and the Allied Powers. President Wilson gave this document to the United States Senate on July 10. It was ratified by the German National Assembly the same day, by the British Parliament, July 25, by the King of Great Britain, July 31, by the King of Italy, October 7, by France, October 13, and by Japan, October 27. It was rejected by the United States Senate on November 19.

Seven Separate Treaties Strictly speaking, the World War was not concluded by the Versailles Treaty. No single stroke of the pen could end the far-flung conflict waged between 1914 and 1918. Everything connected with that struggle was upon an unprecedented scale, and the treaties' terminating it were no exception. The settlement of so many conflicting interests involving so many different nations and races required more than one "scrap of paper." Seven separate treaties were necessary to the World War's complete conclusion, the first to be signed, and the most important, being the Treaty of Versailles. The other treaties ending the World War were as follow: Treaty of St. Germain, September 27, 1919, between the new Republic of Austria and the Allies; Treaty of Neuilly, November 27, 1919, between Bulgaria and the Allies; Treaty of Trianon, July 4, 1920, between Hungary and the Allies; the Sevres' Treaty, signed August 20, 1920, between lurkey and the Allies, which was never ratified; on July 24, 1923, at Lausanne, a new treaty, engineered by the Kemal Pasha, was signed by Turkey and the Allies, by which Turkey regained part of her former territory and many other advantages; Treaty of Rapallo, November 10, 1920, between Italy and ugoslavia, providing, among other things, for the creation of the independents State of Fiurae; Treaty of Riga, signed at that northern city, March 27, 1927, by the new Republic of Poland and its ancient enemy, Russia.

The United States did not ratify the Treaties of Versailles, St. Germain and Trianon. Separate treaties signed by the United States were with Austria, August 27, 1921; with Germany, August 25, 1921; with Hungary, August 29, 1921. Until these treaties were ratified, it was decided by the U.S.A. that the conditions of the Armistice prevailed between the United States and the enemy countries.

The failure of the United States to subscribe to the_ Versailles Treaty -was due to President Wilson's entanglement of that document with his cherished League of Nations. The two could not be considered separately. Article X. made it clear that the soldiers of the then only solvent country in the world—the United States—were to be sent overseas to fight—should the League of Nations require it. The United States liked the League of Nations so little that it refused to sign the Versailles Treaty, much to President Wilson's surprise and indignation. Architects of the Treaty. Great Britain's Prime Minister, Lloyd George; the French Premier, Georges Clemenceau; Italy's Premier, Vittorio Orlando; and President Wilson were the treaty's architects. Giants all, politically, they were strangely lacking in one thing at Versailles—the gift of prophecy. Who can forget newspaper headlines during those long weeks in 1919 while the Versailles Treaty was in the making? "The Shame of Shantung," "The Infarily of Fiume," "The Disgrace of Thrace," reflected public opinion as old boundaries were swept aside, new boundaries manufactured, States bartered and territories swapped without respect to nations, races, languages, creeds, history or traditions. "The Polish Corridor," "the artificially created State of Czechoslovakia," "the free city of Danzig"—these burning topics of to-day were equally familiar to 1919, only then it was their possibilities that were dreaded.

Of the few findings in the Versailles Treaty's favour, it may be said that many of ite pronouncements could not be evident until they had been tried out —experimented with. And it should not be forgotten that many of the proposals urged upon the treaty makers, and that might have made it even worse, were turned down. Indeed, a list of all that was left out of the Versailles Treaty should make consoling reading these disastrous days.

Due to any number of .unforeseen compulsions, the Versailles peace table, by June, 1919, had degenerated into a trading counter. It was no longer a question of can the treaty be consummated, but what parts of it can be saved and what parts scrapped—without too much danger? All the high ideals, the altruistic hopes had vanished. The pcace table was animated by a frankly commercial inspiration.

Some ribald diplomats refer to the Reparations Clause of the Versailles Treaty as "the nigger in the woodpile." It goes much deeper than that. Bertrand Russell, in his latest book, Tower," says: "The stronger nations individually each still extract money from the weaker—the most forcible illustration of this being the Reparations Clause of the Versailles Treaty. The ultimate basis of law and of economic relations is still the military power of the Vigilantß6."—(Copyright: N.A.V.A.)

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19390211.2.44

Bibliographic details

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 8

Word Count
1,221

20 YEARS AFTER. Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 8

20 YEARS AFTER. Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 35, 11 February 1939, Page 8