BLAME FOR POINCARE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19808, 9 December 1938, Page 16

BLAME FOR POINCARE

KUIN OF PEACE PLAN DRAMA AT VERSAILLES LLOYD GEORGE’S VIEWS LONDON, Oct. 17. If one man’s nerves hadn’t glued him to a chair at one of the great critical moments of our time, perhaps Europe would not have been, quite so bad these last 20 years, peri.aps Hitler would never have found such damaging ammunition provided for him by the Treaty of Versailles. To-day you may read the story of those fateful days as seen by Mr. Lloyd George, one of the men who made the Treaty, and marvel how one small incident misinterpreted may have great consequences.

To the Trianon Hotel at Versailles come the German delegates to give their reply to the Allied peace terms. They are' the new rulers of Germany, all workers save one, Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, aristocrat and! official of the old regime.

The drama opens when Clemenceau, France’s Tiger, stands up and courteously tells the German delegates that the Allies are ready to hear their reply to the peace terms. He sits down, and all the rulers there expect Count Brockdorff-Rant-zau to follow Clemenceau’s example. What happens? He remains’ seated. He unfolds his manuscript. The silence is strained, painful. He begins to read from his manuscript in harsh and defiant voice.

The Allies foel insulted. The faces of even those anxious to give a tolerant hearing to Germany's plea for a modification of the .Treaty harden. President Wilson’s mind closes with a snap. He turns to Mr. Lloyd George, says: “Isn't it just like them?’’

One opportunity to seften the mind of the Allies passes. How Chance Was Missed

Years afterwards, so Mr. Lloyd George says, he hears the explanation, given him by one of the German delegates who sat near Brock-dorff-Rantz.au.

He says the count was so nervous that he was physically incapable of standing up. He tried to do so, but his knees trembled so much that he could not lift himself from his chair. His stage fright looked to the rest of the people there typical of Prussian arrogance. So the chance was missed.

The Versailles Treaty is now blamed fer most of our international croubles: provides Hitler with his greatest weapon. But Mr. Lloyd George says to the critics: Don’t blame the treaties, but blame those who repudiated their own solemn contracts and broken pledges; those who took advantage of their superiority 0 deny justice to those not strong mough to demand jt. As for the men who made the Treaty- -Wilson, Clemenceau, Orlando and Lloyd George—contrary to most reports, Mr. Lloyd George say r s they worked in friendly harmony and '■cached unanimous conclusions. What about Wilson? Was he the innocent dupe of a couple of shrewd, political gangsters' who bullied and flattered him until he signed on the dotted line? That is the explanation given by those who think the Treaty unjust. Mr. Lloyd George says it is nonsense, and the notion that President Wilson “came to Europe a ’oneh" crusader, to enforce his ideas about an association of nations upon hostile Governments is a myth, and a 'polish one at that.”

As fer those who think the Treaty was not stern enough, they hold that Clcmenceau and Lloyd George were the converts of the Nonconformistlooking President of the United States. Clemeneeau, says Lloyd George, was not the 'sort of stuff out of which penitent forms are made. Three Hated M. I’oincare Wilson, who rather considered himsglf as a missionary coming among the heathens of Europe, sometimes took a flight of idealistic fancy, then Hd Clemeneeau would open his eyes in twinkling wonder. Lloyd George has. nothing to say much in favour of Poincare either. He had a dull, sterile mind, no wit, no imagination. He was fussy. Clemeneeau loathed and despised Poincare. So did Wilson. So did Brnar Law, for whom Lloyd George’s praise is generous and warm. Poincare encouraged the Czechs • and Poles to arm; creating fear in disarmed Germany. He encouraged revolt in the Rhineland, intrigued with anti-German elements in Britain in every attemot to restore good will in Europe. Poincare, says Lloyd George, is the true creator ef modern Germany with its vast armaments, and if all this ends in another European catastrophe it will .have been engineered by Poincare.

‘“His dead hand lies heavy on Europe to-day.”

Curzon Had the Idea

What about the man who started it all? What about bringing the Kaiser to trial? No point in giving you three guesses regarding the man who first thought of this idea. It wasn’t Lloyd George, the democrat, but Curzon, “the superior marquis.” The issue was raised by him at the Imperial Cabinet held after the armistice: followed a talk he had with Clemeneeau in Paris. Mr. Lloyd George deals fully with this episode because of the sneers about the origin and authorship of the nv'tjon of trying the Kaiser.

Said Curzon; “In my view the Kaiser is the arch-criminal of the world. and just as in any other sphere of life when you get hold. of a criminal you bring him to justice, so I do not see. because he is an Emperor and livins in exile in another country, why lie should be safe from the punishment which is his due.”

*“The Truth About the Peace Treaties,” by David Lloyd George.