SIGNING THE PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17251, 29 August 1919, Page 9

SIGNING THE PEACE.

SCENES AT VERSAILLES. AN HISTORIC GATHERING. CORRESPONDENT'S IMPRESSIONS. Tn a despatch describing the signing of peace with Germany at Versailles on June 28, the special correspondent of the; London Times says :— The German delegates made no observations whatsoever in reply to M. Clemenceau s very brief opening remarks, and, resnonding to the invitation of M. Dutasta, the Secretary-General of the Conference, walked to the table where the one original copy of the Peace Treaty lay open for their signature, seated themselves one after the other upon the Louis Seize chair, and engaged German honour to carry out with fidelity the terms to which they subscribed. Whatever may be said by General Smute end' others in criticism of' the terms thus signed, there can be ,no question at all that to-day's ceremony really was worthy 01 lts great place in history. Essayists will have to give the world in rounded Periods a full and considered account of all the scenes in the great pageant of history which some thousand people were enabled to see to-day. All we can attempt is to tell faithfully what we saw. ' There is no need to enter into the great and tragic history of Versailles which, in some ways, has been the centre of the whole of French history. Enshrined in , the marvellous stonework and lines of Mansart, in the gardens of Le Notre, in the paintings of Le Brun, and the sculpture of Coysevox and Tuby; enshrined, also, in the memories, and the very bitter memories, of the proclamation of the German Empire in the self-same room where to-day the victorious peace terms were imposed upon Germany, lies the whole history of France, that amazing nation which, in spite of every temptation, in spite of every fault of character, has remained a leader of the world's thought and the world s action. The Pulse of Prance. Versailles is, in ordinary times, a sleepy town of which a superficial observer might well say that its glory was departed. Its broad avenues, its spacious houses, its vast barracks, its tremendous Palace, seemed to have become things through which no blood ran. To-day the whole life-blood of Franceblood which still courses through French veins to-day in the full flush of victory— also, it may honestly be said, the blood which was shed upon the battlefields of the war, made Versailles the pulse of. France. Any political doctor who may desire to test the pulse of France cannot do better than put his thumb and fingers upon the spirit which animated the whole j of to-day's historic proceedings. There may _ be some slight symptoms of fever, but it is the fever of victory. On the whole at Versailles was expressed to-day the immense relief of the whole French people at having got rid of the vampire i of war. . Both on entering and leaving the j Galerie dea Glaoes M. Clemenceau had a great reception. It was an explosion of honest national admiration. And all those who were privileged to see the scene in the Galerie des Gtaces and who were wise enough to realise that an even greater scene would be witnessed in the park below will certainly bear with them to their graves the memory of one of those rare moments when a people spontaneously and full-hear tedly shows its gratitude to one of its own number. The reception given to M. Clemenceau, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Lloyd George after the signature of peace by the crowd at Versailles was certainly the event of the day. The will-power behind that reception showed quite clearly that the signature was but a foregone conclusion and a matter of form and that, even after seven months of armistice, the Allies retained the strength and fighting spirit necessary to subdue the recalcitrant enemy, should occasion arise. Entering Delegates. The German delegates arrived at. Versailles in the early hours of this morning. At Iff their credentials were examined at the Trianon Palace Hotel, and at three o'clock they were invited to proceed from the Hotel des Reservoirs through the park to the Galerie des Glaces. Unknown, to them a tremendous stage had been prepared. Versailles and its park and its avenues of approach would seem to have I been laid out on a scale which presupposes I on the part of Le Notre some hope of elevation, for onlv from on high . can the grandiose proportions of his work be appreciated. They will be seen in more than one photograph of to-day's events taken from on high by the aeroplanes -circled over the palace while the final event of the great war was being brought to an end. In front of the Palace you have a great courtyard shut off from an even wider expanse by magnificent wrought ironwork j of the Louis Seize period. Feeding this i eastern semicircle in front of the Palace ] run five great avenues. At half-past 10 [ General Brecord, who commanded the i Sixth Cavalry Division throughout the war . and was in command of the Versailles troops, had his men on the move. By > noon the whole of the Palace courtyard, j the Place d'Armes beyond it, and the | Avenue de Paris, through which the Dele- j gates were to pass, had been fringed with ', horizon blue. In the Cour d'Honneur cavalry alone held guard, and they, with their fluttering pennons of red and white in the foreground, and the Republican Guard with their white breeches, gleaming helmets, red shakos, and white crossbelts, gave to the somewhat heavy and sombre Palace a relief of colour which by an almost super-sensitive desire for'auster- j ity was lacking in any national flag save the Tricolour of France, whifeh flew just above the balcony from which Louis XVI.. Marie Antoinette, and the Dauphin watched the advancing mob of poissardes,: butchers, and peasants, armed with vociferous tongues, cleavers, scythes, and unsatisfied appetites. Behind the palace no one was admitted until after luncheon to view the incomparable sweep of park and canal ending in those preposterously illusive poplars which give to the Grand Canal its sense of infinity. Here in the course of the afternoon sharp detonations of the seventy-fives and the heavier murmur of the guns from Satory were to tell the crowds which afterwards streamed through the palace that peace had been signed. The Victory Luncheon. • While tramway-cars, omnibuses, and trains were bearing the multitudes _ from Paris to Versailles, "carriage folk," con- • sisting of Deputies, diplomatists, journalists, actresses, cinematograph -operators, and cinematograph favourites, wore partaking of the "time-honoured lunch at the Hotel des Reservoirs. M. Clemenceau and Marshal Foch were practically alone among the great personages present to be recognised by the waiting crowd. As they passed there was a round of cheers, and then a stream of cars followed, bearing Admiral l.ebon. j General Pershing, and the Maharajah of ! Bikanir—who had been lunching at the Hotel des Reservoirsdelegates from Siam, the Triune Kingdom. Japan, and every other Power great and small which has either broken off diplomatic relations with Germany, declared formal war upon Germany, or covered Europe and the seven seas with the blood of her men. Those who "were to take part in the final scene arrived so soon one after the other, that as one looked down the Avenue de Paris all that was to be seen was a great ■ cloud of dust upon the horizon, and at the foot of the marble staircase there was for a time a considerable jam of motor-cars. Conference Postcards. It must be admitted that the first impulse of most delegates when they entered the Palace was to avail themselves of the opportunity of sending off great masses of postcards, specially postmarked with a Peace Conference stamp. Apart from the colours borne by the arriving cars and the gloriously bemedalled breasts of the soldiers in horizon bine or khaki on duty, who had been specially picked, there was not much colour in the crowd. The.

black of mourning was the predominant note, but that black was bravely worn, and quite truthfully it can be said that joy ( and gaiety presided" over the whole day s proceedings. Perhaps the best feature of the whole occasion was to be found in the predominance of military uniform in the very forefront of the crowd. Not only did the troops line everything that was to be lined, but -they also occupied every imaginable point of vantage upon the window ledges and the roots, ihty furnished, too, an admirable frame for the whole Cour d'Honneur by lining its palisade with blue and khaki throughcut its whole length. Most of the delegates drove to the Palace in closed motorcars, passing, with tne exception of but two or three unrecognised by the crowd. They passed by lines of steel-helmeted poilus before they reached the outer confines of Versailles. In the courtyard? of the Palace they passed a group of officers who had begun the war as cadets from Saint Cyr, ' the Sandhurst of France, every one cf I whom had won the Legion of Honour during the campaign, and one of whom bore upon his breast a ribbon of the Croix ! de Guerre, showing by its stars and palms j that he had been mentioned 16 times in I despatches. i Autograph Hunting. I The delegates, when they arrived, ' alighted at the marble staircase in the extreme left-hand corner of the courtyard. There a guard of honour of the Republican Guard had been mounted. Once they entered the palace the atmosphere and surroundings became almost exI clusively civilian. Thev 'were conducted I up the marble staircases and led through the Salon de la Paiax, in which is depicted Louis XV. giving peace to Europe, to the Galerie des Glaces. In the Galerie des Glaces was no pomp or martial show. Underneath the glorious heaven painted by Le Brun the entering delegates saw instead a collection of sober-clad individuals who were more bent upon getting each other's autographs on a copy of the peace terms than upon anything else. Most of the allied delegates arrived some threequarters of an hour before the time fixed for the signature of the treaty, and it was amusing to notice the eagerness with which famous men wandered from one end of the very long room to the other in search of the autographs of equally famous men. The Galerie des Glaces is an inordinately long room. Its space to-day was divided fairly equally in thirds between the delegates and their sectarial oddments, invited guests representing all that has done its best to bring victory to France and the Allies, and the press of the world. Among the invited guests were the President* of the Chamber and the Senate, who occupied special armchairs slightly in front of the rest of the public. There were also a whole bouquet of military leaders, including Marshal Foch, General Mangin, and General Maunoury. Between these distinguished guests and the press seats there stretched a slightly elevated wilderness of gilt and crimson chairs, at which gradually the members of the Conference took their seats round a horseshoe table. A Gathering of the Famous. Looking over towards that table, one saw immediately the clever, honest and benevolent features of M. Venizelos.'. Beyond the Greek Delegation came the Belgians, then Italy, and then France, represented by M. Clemenceau as president, who sat immediately under the inscription which proclaims that " Le Roy gouverne par lui-meme." M. Clemenceau, the president of the meeting, had between him and the French Delegation, consisting of MM. Pichon, Klotz, Tardieu, and Cambon on his right, President Wilson and the American representatives, Mr.' Lansing, Colonel House, and General Bliss. On bis left were the British Delegation, which was seated as follows:— Lloyd George, Mr. Bonar Law, Mr. Balfour, Lord Milner, and Mr. Barnes. Immediately there followed the representatives of the Empire. Canada first, with Sir George Foster, Mr., Doherty, and Mr. Sefton; then came "Australia, with Mr. Hughes and Sir Joseph Cook ; then New Zealand, Mr. Massey; South Africa, General Botha and General Smuts; after him came Mr. Montagu, and the Maharajah of Bikanir and Lord Sinha. Beyond the Dominions came Japan, which completed the seating of the top table. The Japanese, looking over the great park through the windows. Lad on their left the vacant chairs of the German Delegation. Beyond them came the representatives of all the Southern and Central American Republics, who were able to see in between the heads of the intervening secretaries across the gap of the horseshoe the Delegates of Portugual, Cuba, Roumania, the Hedjaz, Siam, Servia, and Czecho-Slovakia. Beyond them they looked at another row of secretaries, and then they saw the field and opera glasses of the press. Enemy Delegates' Arrival. Herr Muller and his J fellow-delegatea reached their places between Japan and Brazil almost unnoticed. Herr Muller, who is a tall spare man with a somewhat scrubby moustache, was clad in black and wore the curt black tie of bourgeois Ggr- | man ceremonial. He and his fellow-dele- | gates when they reached their seats bowed I to the Conference and then sat down. | The Conference, which, owing to the i great length of the room, had not become ; entirely aware of the entry of what were, after all. the chief actors in the drama, 1 remained seated, and many of them no I doubt .first, became acquainted with the I arrival of the German delegates when M. j Clemenceau rose and, with his usual ; brevity, addressed the gathering prior to j the signing of the terms.