VERSAILLES TREATY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20601, 27 June 1930, Page 14

VERSAILLES TREATY.

HISTORIC ANNIVERSARY. PROLONGED NEGOTIATIONS. Tho elovonth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles falls to-day. It was the principal act in the prolonged negotiations and settlements that followed the close of the World War on November 11, 1918. The first plenary session of tho conference of tho powers assembled in Paris to settle the terms of peace was h?ld on January 18, 1919; and the conference remained in being from that date until January 21, 1920, when tho Supremo Council met for the last timo. In June, 1919, all arrangements had been made for a general advance of tho armies of occupation in case tho German Government rofused to sign tho treaty that had been prepared. On June 21 a new German Chancellor, Herr Bauer, offered to sign on conditions, but was told that conditions could not be accepted. He thereupon obtained the leave of the Weimar National Assombly to sign unconditionally. 5 ' Tho new German Minister for Foreign Affairs, Herr Hermann Muller, and his colleague, Dr. 8011, signed the treaty on Juno 28 in the Salle des Glaces at Versailles in tho presence of all the plenipotentiaries, except those of China. New Zealand was * represented by the Right Hon. W. F. Massoy. Before and after this ceremony several subsidiary treaties wero signed. The main treaty of Versailles was ratified by President Ebert on behalf of Germany on July 10, and by the King of Italy, by King George V., and by President Poincare in October, 1919. But it was not until January 10, 1920, when Germany at last signed a protocol agreeing to give compensation for the ships which had been scuttled at Scapa Flow that the final exchange of ratifications took place in Paris, and the state of war between the European; Allies and Germany was formally terminated.