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diff --git a/14477-0.txt b/14477-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..454705b --- /dev/null +++ b/14477-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15817 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14477 *** + +_The Inside Story of + +The Peace Conference_ + + +_by + +Dr. E.J. Dillon_ + + + +HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS + +_NEW YORK AND LONDON_ + +THE INSIDE STORY OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE + +Copyright 1920, by Harper & Brothers + +Printed in the United States of America + +Published February, 1920 + +_To +C.W. BARRON + +in memory of interesting conversations + +on historic occasions + +These pages are inscribed._ + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAP. PAGE + +FOREWORD ix + +I. THE CITY OF THE CONFERENCE 1 + +II. SIGNS OF THE TIMES 45 + +III. THE DELEGATES 58 + +IV. CENSORSHIP AND SECRECY 117 + +V. AIMS AND METHODS 136 + +VI. THE LESSER STATES 184 + +VII. POLAND'S OUTLOOK IN THE FUTURE 264 + +VIII. ITALY 272 + +IX. JAPAN 322 + +X. ATTITUDE TOWARD RUSSIA 344 + +XI. BOLSHEVISM 376 + +XII. HOW BOLSHEVISM WAS FOSTERED 399 + +XIII. SIDELIGHTS ON THE TREATY 407 + +XIV. THE TREATY WITH GERMANY 455 + +XV. THE TREATY WITH BULGARIA 464 + +XVI. THE COVENANT AND MINORITIES 469 + + + + +FOREWORD + +It is almost superfluous to say that this book does not claim to be a +history, however summary, of the Peace Conference, seeing that such a +work was made sheer impossible now and forever by the chief delegates +themselves when they decided to dispense with records of their +conversations and debates. It is only a sketch--a sketch of the problems +which the war created or rendered pressing--of the conditions under +which they cropped up; of the simplicist ways in which they were +conceived by the distinguished politicians who volunteered to solve +them; of the delegates' natural limitations and electioneering +commitments and of the secret influences by which they were swayed; of +the peoples' needs and expectations; of the unwonted procedure adopted +by the Conference and of the fateful consequences of its decisions to +the world. + +In dealing with all those matters I aimed at impartiality, which is an +unattainable ideal, but I trust that sincerity and detachment have +brought me reasonably close to it. Having no pet theories of my own to +champion, my principal standard of judgment is derived from the law of +causality and the rules of historical criticism. + +The fatal tactical mistake chargeable to the Conference lay in its +making the charter of the League of Nations and the treaty of peace with +the Central Powers interdependent. For the maxims that underlie the +former are irreconcilable with those that should determine the latter, +and the efforts to combine them must, among other untoward results, +create a sharp opposition between the vital interests of the people of +the United States and the apparent or transient interests of their +associates. The outcome of this unnatural union will be to damage the +cause of stable peace which it was devised to further. + +But the surest touchstone by which to test the capacity and the +achievements of the world-legislators is their attitude toward Russia in +the political domain and toward the labor problem in the economic +sphere. And in neither case does their action or inaction appear to have +been the outcome of statesman-like ideas, or, indeed, of any higher +consideration than that of evading the central issue and transmitting +the problem to the League of Nations. The results are manifest to all. + +The continuity of human progress depends at bottom upon labor, and it is +becoming more and more doubtful whether the civilized races of mankind +can be reckoned on to supply it for long on conditions akin to those +which have in various forms prevailed ever since the institutions of +ancient times and which alone render the present social structure +viable. If this forecast should prove correct, the only alternative to a +break disastrous in the continuity of civilization is the frank +recognition of the principle that certain inferior races are destined to +serve the cause of mankind in those capacities for which alone they are +qualified and to readjust social institutions to this axiom. + +In the meanwhile the Conference which ignored this problem of problems +has transformed Europe into a seething mass of mutually hostile states +powerless to face the economic competition of their overseas rivals and +has set the very elements of society in flux. + +E.J. DILLON. + + + + +THE INSIDE STORY OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE + +I + +THE CITY OF THE CONFERENCE + + +The choice of Paris for the historic Peace Conference was an +afterthought. The Anglo-Saxon governments first favored a neutral +country as the most appropriate meeting-ground for the world's +peace-makers. Holland was mentioned only to be eliminated without +discussion, so obvious and decisive were the objections. French +Switzerland came next in order, was actually fixed upon, and for a time +held the field. Lausanne was the city first suggested and nearly chosen. +There was a good deal to be said for it on its own merits, and in its +suburb, Ouchy, the treaty had been drawn up which terminated the war +between Italy and Turkey. But misgivings were expressed as to its +capacity to receive and entertain the formidable peace armies without +whose co-operation the machinery for stopping all wars could not well be +fabricated. At last Geneva was fixed upon, and so certain were +influential delegates of the ratification of their choice by all the +Allies, that I felt justified in telegraphing to Geneva to have a house +hired for six months in that picturesque city. + +But the influential delegates had reckoned without the French, who in +these matters were far and away the most influential. Was it not in the +Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, they asked, that Teuton militarism had +received its most powerful impulse? And did not poetic justice, which +was never so needed as in these evil days, ordain that the chartered +destroyer who had first seen the light of day in that hall should also +be destroyed there? Was this not in accordance with the eternal fitness +of things? Whereupon the matter-of-fact Anglo-Saxon mind, unable to +withstand the force of this argument and accustomed to give way on +secondary matters, assented, and Paris was accordingly fixed upon.... + +"Paris herself again," tourists remarked, who had not been there since +the fateful month when hostilities began--meaning that something of the +wealth and luxury of bygone days was venturing to display itself anew as +an afterglow of the epoch whose sun was setting behind banks of +thunder-clouds. And there was a grain of truth in the remark. The Ville +Lumière was crowded as it never had been before. But it was mostly +strangers who were within her gates. In the throng of Anglo-Saxon +warriors and cosmopolitan peace-lovers following the trailing skirts of +destiny, one might with an effort discover a Parisian now and again. But +they were few and far between. + +They and their principal European guests made some feeble attempts to +vie with the Vienna of 1814-15 in elegance and taste if not in pomp and +splendor. But the general effect was marred by the element of the +_nouveaux-riches_ and _nouveaux-pauvres_ which was prominent, if not +predominant. A few of the great and would-be great ladies outbade one +another in the effort to renew the luxury and revive the grace of the +past. But the atmosphere was numbing, their exertions half-hearted, and +the smile of youth and beauty was cold like the sheen of winter ice. +The shadow of death hung over the institutions and survivals of the +various civilizations and epochs which were being dissolved in the +common melting-pot, and even the man in the street was conscious of its +chilling influence. Life in the capital grew agitated, fitful, +superficial, unsatisfying. Its gaiety was forced--something between a +challenge to the destroyer and a sad farewell to the past and present. +Men were instinctively aware that the morrow was fraught with bitter +surprises, and they deliberately adopted the maxim, "Let us eat and +drink, for to-morrow we die." None of these people bore on their +physiognomies the dignified impress of the olden time, barring a few +aristocratic figures from the Faubourg St.-Germain, who looked as though +they had only to don the perukes and the distinctive garb of the +eighteenth century to sit down to table with Voltaire and the Marquise +du Châtelet. Here and there, indeed, a coiffure, a toilet, the bearing, +the gait, or the peculiar grace with which a robe was worn reminded one +that this or that fair lady came of a family whose life-story in the +days of yore was one of the tributaries to the broad stream of European +history. But on closer acquaintanceship, especially at conversational +tournaments, one discovered that Nature, constant in her methods, +distributes more gifts of beauty than of intellect. + +Festive banquets, sinful suppers, long-spun-out lunches were as frequent +and at times as Lucullan as in the days of the Regency. The outer, +coarser attributes of luxury abounded in palatial restaurants, hotels, +and private mansions; but the refinement, the grace, the brilliant +conversation even of the Paris of the Third Empire were seen to be +subtle branches of a lost art. The people of the armistice were weary +and apprehensive--weary of the war, weary of politics, weary of the +worn-out framework of existence, and filled with a vague, nameless +apprehension of the unknown. They feared that in the chaotic slough into +which they had fallen they had not yet touched bottom. None the less, +with the exception of fervent Catholics and a number of earnest +sectarians, there were few genuine seekers after anything essentially +better. + +Not only did the general atmosphere of Paris undergo radical changes, +together with its population, but the thoroughfares, many of them, +officially changed their names since the outbreak of the war. + +The Paris of the Conference ceased to be the capital of France. It +became a vast cosmopolitan caravanserai teeming with unwonted aspects of +life and turmoil, filled with curious samples of the races, tribes, and +tongues of four continents who came to watch and wait for the mysterious +to-morrow. The intensity of life there was sheer oppressive; to the +tumultuous striving of the living were added the silent influences of +the dead. For it was also a trysting-place for the ghosts of +sovereignties and states, militarisms and racial ambitions, which were +permitted to wander at large until their brief twilight should be +swallowed up in night. The dignified Turk passionately pleaded for +Constantinople, and cast an imploring look on the lone Armenian whose +relatives he had massacred, and who was then waiting for political +resurrection. Persian delegates wandered about like souls in pain, +waiting to be admitted through the portals of the Conference Paradise. +Beggared Croesus passed famishing Lucullus in the street, and once +mighty viziers shivered under threadbare garments in the biting frost as +they hurried over the crisp February snow. Waning and waxing Powers, +vacant thrones, decaying dominations had, each of them, their accusers, +special pleaders, and judges, in this multitudinous world-center on +which tragedy, romance, and comedy rained down potent spells. For the +Conference city was also the clearing-house of the Fates, where the +accounts of a whole epoch, the deeds and misdeeds of an exhausted +civilization, were to be balanced and squared. + +Here strange yet familiar figures, survivals from the past, started up +at every hand's turn and greeted one with smiles or sighs. Men on whom I +last set eyes when we were boys at school, playing football together in +the field or preparing lessons in the school-room, would stop me in the +street on their way to represent nations or peoples whose lives were out +of chime, or to inaugurate the existence of new republics. One face I +shall never forget. It was that of the self-made temporary dictator of a +little country whose importance was dwindling to the dimensions of a +footnote in the history of the century. I had been acquainted with him +personally in the halcyon day of his transient glory. Like his +picturesque land, he won the immortality of a day, was courted and +subsidized by competing states in turn, and then suddenly cast aside +like a sucked orange. Then he sank into the depths of squalor. He was +eloquent, resourceful, imaginative, and brimful of the poetry of +untruth. One day through the asphalt streets of Paris he shuffled along +in the procession of the doomed, with wan face and sunken eyes, wearing +a tragically mean garb. And soon after I learned that he had vanished +unwept into eternal oblivion. + +An Arabian Nights touch was imparted to the dissolving panorama by +strange visitants from Tartary and Kurdistan, Korea and Aderbeijan, +Armenia, Persia, and the Hedjaz--men with patriarchal beards and +scimitar-shaped noses, and others from desert and oasis, from Samarkand +and Bokhara. Turbans and fezzes, sugar-loaf hats and headgear resembling +episcopal miters, old military uniforms devised for the embryonic armies +of new states on the eve of perpetual peace, snowy-white burnooses, +flowing mantles, and graceful garments like the Roman toga, contributed +to create an atmosphere of dreamy unreality in the city where the +grimmest of realities were being faced and coped with. + +Then came the men of wealth, of intellect, of industrial enterprise, and +the seed-bearers of the ethical new ordering, members of economic +committees from the United States, Britain, Italy, Poland, Russia, +India, and Japan, representatives of naphtha industries and far-off coal +mines, pilgrims, fanatics, and charlatans from all climes, priests of +all religions, preachers of every doctrine, who mingled with princes, +field-marshals, statesmen, anarchists, builders-up, and pullers-down. +All of them burned with desire to be near to the crucible in which the +political and social systems of the world were to be melted and recast. +Every day, in my walks, in my apartment, or at restaurants, I met +emissaries from lands and peoples whose very names had seldom been heard +of before in the West. A delegation from the Pont-Euxine Greeks called +on me, and discoursed of their ancient cities of Trebizond, Samsoun, +Tripoli, Kerassund, in which I resided many years ago, and informed me +that they, too, desired to become welded into an independent Greek +republic, and had come to have their claims allowed. The Albanians were +represented by my old friend Turkhan Pasha, on the one hand, and by my +friend Essad Pasha, on the other--the former desirous of Italy's +protection, the latter demanding complete independence. Chinamen, +Japanese, Koreans, Hindus, Kirghizes, Lesghiens, Circassians, +Mingrelians, Buryats, Malays, and Negroes and Negroids from Africa and +America were among the tribes and tongues forgathered in Paris to watch +the rebuilding of the political world system and to see where they "came +in." + +One day I received a visit from an Armenian deputation; its chief was +described on his visiting-card as President of the Armenian Republic of +the Caucasus. When he was shown into my apartment in the Hôtel Vendôme, +I recognized two of its members as old acquaintances with whom I had +occasional intercourse in Erzerum, Kipri Keui, and other places during +the Armenian massacres of the year 1895. We had not met since then. They +revived old memories, completed for me the life-stories of several of +our common friends and acquaintances, and narrated interesting episodes +of local history. And having requested my co-operation, the President +and his colleagues left me and once more passed out of my life. + +Another actor on the world-stage whom I had encountered more than once +before was the "heroic" King of Montenegro. He often crossed my path +during the Conference, and set me musing on the marvelous ups and downs +of human existence. This potentate's life offers a rich field of +research to the psychologist. I had watched it myself at various times +and with curious results. For I had met him in various European capitals +during the past thirty years, and before the time when Tsar Alexander +III publicly spoke of him as Russia's only friend. King Nikita owes such +success in life as he can look back on with satisfaction to his +adaptation of St. Paul's maxim of being all things to all men. Thus in +St. Petersburg he was a good Russian, in Vienna a patriotic Austrian, in +Rome a sentimental Italian. He was also a warrior, a poet after his own +fashion, a money-getter, and a speculator on 'Change. His alleged +martial feats and his wily, diplomatic moves ever since the first Balkan +war abound in surprises, and would repay close investigation. The ease +with which the Austrians captured Mount Lovtchen and his capital made a +lasting impression on those of his allies who were acquainted with the +story, the consequences of which he could not foresee. What everybody +seemed to know was that if the Teutons had defeated the Entente, King +Nikita's son Mirko, who had settled down for the purpose in Vienna, +would have been set on the throne in place of his father by the +Austrians; whereas if the Allies should win, the worldly-wise monarch +would have retained his crown as their champion. But these well-laid +plans went all agley. Prince Mirko died and King Nikita was deposed. For +a time he resided at a hotel, a few houses from me, and I passed him now +and again as he was on his way to plead his lost cause before the +distinguished wreckers of thrones and régimes. + +It seemed as though, in order to provide Paris with a cosmopolitan +population, the world was drained of its rulers, of its prosperous and +luckless financiers, of its high and low adventurers, of its tribe of +fortune-seekers, and its pushing men and women of every description. And +the result was an odd blend of classes and individuals worthy, it may +be, of the new democratic era, but unprecedented. It was welcomed as of +good augury, for instance, that in the stately Hôtel Majestic, where the +spokesmen of the British Empire had their residence, monocled +diplomatists mingled with spry typewriters, smart amanuenses, and even +with bright-eyed chambermaids at the evening dances.[1] The British +Premier himself occasionally witnessed the cheering spectacle with +manifest pleasure. Self-made statesmen, scions of fallen dynasties, +ex-premiers, and ministers, who formerly swayed the fortunes of the +world, whom one might have imagined _capaces imperii nisi imperassent_, +were now the unnoticed inmates of unpretending hotels. Ambassadors whose +most trivial utterances had once been listened to with concentrated +attention, sued days and weeks for an audience of the greater +plenipotentiaries, and some of them sued in vain. Russian diplomatists +were refused permission to travel in France or were compelled to +undergo more than average discomfort and delay there. More than once I +sat down to lunch or dinner with brilliant commensals, one of whom was +understood to have made away with a well-known personage in order to rid +the state of a bad administrator, and another had, at a secret +_Vehmgericht_ in Turkey, condemned a friend of mine, now a friend of +his, to be assassinated. + +In Paris, this temporary capital of the world, one felt the repercussion +of every event, every incident of moment wheresoever it might have +occurred. To reside there while the Conference was sitting was to occupy +a comfortable box in the vastest theater the mind of men has ever +conceived. From this rare coign of vantage one could witness +soul-gripping dramas of human history, the happenings of years being +compressed within the limits of days. The revolution in Portugal, the +massacre of Armenians, Bulgaria's atrocities, the slaughter of the +inhabitants of Saratoff and Odessa, the revolt of the Koreans--all +produced their effect in Paris, where official and unofficial exponents +of the aims and ambitions, religions and interests that unite or divide +mankind were continually coming or going, working aboveground or +burrowing beneath the surface. + +It was within a few miles of the place where I sat at table with the +brilliant company alluded to above that a few individuals of two +different nationalities, one of them bearing, it was said, a well-known +name, hatched the plot that sent Portugal's strong man, President +Sidonio Paes, to his last account and plunged that ill-starred land into +chaotic confusion. The plan was discovered by the Portuguese military +attaché, who warned the President himself and the War Minister. But +Sidonio Paes, quixotic and foolhardy, refused to take or brook +precautions. A few weeks later the assassin, firing three shots, had no +difficulty in taking aim, but none of them took effect. The reason was +interesting: so determined were the conspirators to leave nothing to +chance, they had steeped the cartridges in a poisonous preparation, +whereby they injured the mechanism of the revolver, which, in +consequence, hung fire. But the adversaries of the reform movement which +the President had inaugurated again tried and planned another attempt, +and Sidonio Paes, who would not be taught prudence, was duly shot, and +his admirable work undone[2] by a band of semi-Bolshevists. + +Less than six months later it was rumored that a number of specially +prepared bombs from a certain European town had been sent to Moscow for +the speedy removal of Lenin. The casual way in which these and kindred +matters were talked of gave one the measure of the change that had come +over the world since the outbreak of the war. There was nobody left in +Europe whose death, violent or peaceful, would have made much of an +impression on the dulled sensibilities of the reading public. All values +had changed, and that of human life had fallen low. + +To follow these swiftly passing episodes, occasionally glancing behind +the scenes, during the pauses of the acts, and watch the unfolding of +the world-drama, was thrillingly interesting. To note the dubious +source, the chance occasion of a grandiose project of world policy, and +to see it started on its shuffling course, was a revelation in politics +and psychology, and reminded one of the saying mistakenly attributed to +the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstjern, "_Quam parva sapientia regitur +mundus_."[3] + +The wire-pullers were not always the plenipotentiaries. Among those were +also outsiders of various conditions, sometimes of singular ambitions, +who were generally free from conventional prejudices and conscientious +scruples. As traveling to Paris was greatly restricted by the +governments of the world, many of these unofficial delegates had come in +capacities widely differing from those in which they intended to act. I +confess I was myself taken in by more than one of these secret +emissaries, whom I was innocently instrumental in bringing into close +touch with the human levers they had come to press. I actually went to +the trouble of obtaining for one of them valuable data on a subject +which did not interest him in the least, but which he pretended he had +traveled several thousand miles to study. A zealous prelate, whose +business was believed to have something to do with the future of a +certain branch of the Christian Church in the East, in reality held a +brief for a wholly different set of interests in the West. Some of these +envoys hoped to influence decisions of the Conference, and they +considered they had succeeded when they got their points of view brought +to the favorable notice of certain of its delegates. What surprised me +was the ease with which several of these interlopers moved about, +although few of them spoke any language but their own. + +Collectivities and religious and political associations, including that +of the Bolshevists, were represented in Paris during the Conference. I +met one of the Bolshevists, a bright youth, who was a veritable apostle. +He occupied a post which, despite its apparent insignificance, put him +occasionally in possession of useful information withheld from the +public, which he was wont to communicate to his political friends. His +knowledge of languages and his remarkable intelligence had probably +attracted the notice of his superiors, who can have had no suspicion of +his leanings, much less of his proselytizing activity. However this may +have been, he knew a good deal of what was going on at the Conference, +and he occasionally had insight into documents of a certain interest. He +was a seemingly honest and enthusiastic Bolshevik, who spread the +doctrine with apostolic zeal guided by the wisdom of the serpent. He was +ever ready to comment on events, but before opening his mind fully to a +stranger on the subject next to his heart, he usually felt his way, and +only when he had grounds for believing that the fortress was not +impregnable did he open his batteries. Even among the initiated, few +would suspect the rôle played by this young proselytizer within one of +the strongholds of the Conference, so naturally and unobtrusively was +the work done. I may add that luckily he had no direct intercourse with +the delegates. + +Of all the collectivities whose interests were furthered at the +Conference, the Jews had perhaps the most resourceful and certainly the +most influential exponents. There were Jews from Palestine, from Poland, +Russia, the Ukraine, Rumania, Greece, Britain, Holland, and Belgium; but +the largest and most brilliant contingent was sent by the United States. +Their principal mission, with which every fair-minded man sympathized +heartily, was to secure for their kindred in eastern Europe rights equal +to those of the populations in whose midst they reside.[4] And to the +credit of the Poles, Rumanians, and Russians, who were to be constrained +to remove all the existing disabilities, they enfranchised the Hebrew +elements spontaneously. But the Western Jews, who championed their +Eastern brothers, proceeded to demand a further concession which many of +their own co-religionists hastened to disclaim as dangerous--a kind of +autonomy which Rumanian, Polish, and Russian statesmen, as well as many +of their Jewish fellow-subjects, regarded as tantamount to the creation +of a state within the state. Whether this estimate is true or erroneous, +the concessions asked for were given, but the supplementary treaties +insuring the protection of minorities are believed to have little chance +of being executed, and may, it is feared, provoke manifestations of +elemental passions in the countries in which they are to be applied. + +Twice every day, before and after lunch, one met the "autocrats," the +world's statesmen whose names were in every mouth--the wise men who +would have been much wiser than they were if only they had credited +their friends and opponents with a reasonable measure of political +wisdom. These individuals, in bowler hats, sweeping past in sumptuous +motors, as rarely seen on foot as Roman cardinals, were the destroyers +of thrones, the carvers of continents, the arbiters of empires, the +fashioners of the new heaven and the new earth--or were they only the +flies on the wheel of circumstance, to whom the world was unaccountably +becoming a riddle? + +This commingling of civilizations and types brought together in Paris by +a set of unprecedented conditions was full of interest and instruction +to the observer privileged to meet them at close quarters. The average +observer, however, had little chance of conversing with them, for, as +these foreigners had no common meeting-place, they kept mostly among +their own folk. Only now and again did three or four members of +different races, when they chanced to speak some common language, get +an opportunity of enjoying their leisure together. A friend of mine, a +highly gifted Frenchman of the fine old type, a descendant of +Talleyrand, who was born a hundred and fifty years too late, opened his +hospitable house once a week to the élite of the world, and partially +met the pressing demand. + +To the gaping tourist the Ville Lumière resembled nothing so much as a +huge world fair, with enormous caravanserais, gigantic booths, gaudy +merry-go-rounds, squalid taverns, and huge inns. Every place of +entertainment was crowded, and congregations patiently awaited their +turn in the street, undeterred by rain or wind or snow, offering +absurdly high prices for scant accommodation and disheartened at having +their offers refused. Extortion was rampant and profiteering went +unpunished. Foreigners, mainly American and British, could be seen +wandering, portmanteau in hand, from post to pillar, anxiously seeking +where to lay their heads, and made desperate by failure, fatigue, and +nightfall. The cost of living which harassed the bulk of the people was +fast becoming the stumbling-block of governments and the most powerful +lever of revolutionaries. The chief of the peace armies resided in +sumptuous hotels, furnished luxuriously in dubious taste, flooded after +sundown with dazzling light, and filled by day with the buzz of idle +chatter, the shuffling of feet, the banging of doors, and the ringing of +bells. Music and dancing enlivened the inmates when their day's toil was +over and time had to be killed. Thus, within, one could find anxious +deliberation and warm debate; without, noisy revel and vulgar brawl. +"Fate's a fiddler; life's a dance." + +To few of those visitors did Paris seem what it really was--a nest of +golden dreams, a mist of memories, a seed-plot of hopes, a storehouse of +time's menaces. + + +THE PARIS CONFERENCE AND THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA + +There were no solemn pageants, no impressive ceremonies, such as those +that rejoiced the hearts of the Viennese in 1814-15 until the triumphal +march of the Allied troops. + +The Vienna of Congress days was transformed into a paradise of delights +by a brilliant court which pushed hospitality to the point of +lavishness. In the burg alone were two emperors, two empresses, four +kings, one queen, two crown-princes, two archduchesses, and three +princes. Every day the Emperor's table cost fifty thousand gulden--every +Congress day cost him ten times that sum. Galaxies of Europe's eminent +personages flocked to the Austrian capital, taking with them their +ministers, secretaries, favorites, and "confidential agents." So eager +were these world-reformers to enjoy themselves that the court did not go +into mourning for Queen Marie Caroline of Naples, the last of Marie +Theresa's daughters. Her death was not even announced officially lest it +should trouble the festivities of the jovial peace-makers! + +The Paris of the Conference, on the other hand, was democratic, with a +strong infusion of plutocracy. It attempted no such brilliant display as +that which flattered the senses or fired the imagination of the +Viennese. In 1919 mankind was simpler in its tastes and perhaps less +esthetic. It is certain that the froth of contemporary frivolity had +lost its sparkling whiteness and was grown turbid. In Vienna, balls, +banquets, theatricals, military reviews, followed one another in dizzy +succession and enabled politicians and adventurers to carry on their +intrigues and machinations unnoticed by all except the secret police. +And, as the Congress marked the close of one bloody campaign and ushered +in another, one might aptly term it the interval between two tragedies. +For a time it seemed as though this part of the likeness might become +applicable to the Conference of Paris. + +Moving from pleasure to politics, one found strong contrasts as well as +surprising resemblances between the two peace-making assemblies, and, it +was assumed, to the advantage of the Paris Conference. Thus, at the +Austrian Congress, the members, while seemingly united, were pulling +hard against one another, each individual or group tugging in a +different direction. The Powers had been compelled by necessity to unite +against a common enemy and, having worsted him on the battlefield, fell +to squabbling among themselves in the Council Chamber as soon as they +set about dividing the booty. In this respect the Paris Conference--the +world was assured in the beginning--towered aloft above its historic +predecessor. Men who knew the facts declared repeatedly that the +delegates to the Quai d'Orsay were just as unanimous, disinterested, and +single-minded during the armistice as they were through the war. +Probably they were. + +Another interesting point of comparison was supplied by the _dramatis +personæ_? of both illustrious companies. They were nearly all +representatives of old states, but there was one exception. + + +THE CONGRESS CHIEF + +_Mistrusted, Feared, Humored, and Obeyed_ + +A relatively new Power took part in the deliberations of the Vienna +Congress, and, perhaps, because of its loftier intentions, introduced a +jarring note into the concert of nations. Russia was then a newcomer +into the European councils; indeed she was hardly yet recognized as +European. Her gifted Tsar, Alexander I, was an idealist who wanted, not +so much peace with the vanquished enemy as a complete reform of the +ordering of the whole world, so that wars should thenceforward be +abolished and the welfare of mankind be set developing like a sort of +pacific _perpetuum mobile_. This blessed change, however, was to be +compassed, not by the peoples or their representatives, but by the +governments, led by himself and deliberating in secret. At the Paris +Conference it was even so. + +This curious type of public worker--a mixture of the mystical and the +practical--was the terror of the Vienna delegates. He put spokes in +everybody's wheel, behaved as the autocrat of the Congress and felt as +self-complacent as a saint. Countess von Thurheim wrote of him: "He +mistrusted his environment and let himself be led by others. But he was +thoroughly good and high-minded and sought after the weal, not merely of +his own country, but of the whole world. _Son coeur eût embrassé le +bonheur du monde_." He realized in himself the dreams of the +philosophers about love for mankind, but their Utopias of human +happiness were based upon the perfection both of subjects and of +princes, and, as Alexander could fulfil only one-half of these +conditions, his work remained unfinished and the poor Emperor died, a +victim of his high-minded illusions.[5] + +The other personages, Metternich in particular, were greatly put out by +Alexander's presence. They labeled him a marplot who could not and would +not enter into the spirit of their game, but they dared not offend him. +Without his brave troops they could not have been victorious and they +did not know how soon they might need him again, for he represented a +numerous and powerful people whose economic and military resources +promised it in time the hegemony of the world. So, while they heartily +disliked the chief of this new great country, they also feared and, +therefore, humored him. They all felt that the enemy, although defeated +and humbled, was not, perhaps, permanently disabled, and might, at any +moment, rise, phoenix-like and soar aloft again. The great visionary was +therefore fêted and lauded and raised to a dizzy pedestal by men who, in +their hearts, set him down as a crank. His words were reverently +repeated and his smiles recorded and remembered. Hardly any one had the +bad taste to remark that even this millennial philosopher in the +statesman's armchair left unsightly flaws in his system for the welfare +of man. Thus, while favoring equality generally, he obstinately refused +to concede it to one race, in fact, he would not hear of common fairness +being meted out to that race. It was the Polish people which was treated +thus at the Vienna Congress, and, owing to him, Poland's just claims +were ignored, her indefeasible rights were violated, and the work of the +peace-makers was botched.... + +Happily, optimists said, the Paris Conference was organized on a wholly +different basis. Its members considered themselves mere servants of the +public--stewards, who had to render an account of their stewardship and +who therefore went in salutary fear of the electorate at home. This +check was not felt by the plenipotentiaries in Vienna. Again, everything +the Paris delegates did was for the benefit of the masses, although most +of it was done by stealth and unappreciated by them. + +The remarkable document which will forever be associated with the name +of President Wilson was the _clou_ of the Conference. The League of +Nations scheme seemed destined to change fundamentally the relations of +peoples toward one another, and the change was expected to begin +immediately after the Covenant had been voted, signed, and ratified. But +it was not relished by any government except that of the United States, +and it was in order to enable the delegates to devise such a wording of +the Covenant as would not bind them to an obnoxious principle or commit +their electorates to any irksome sacrifice, that the peace treaty with +Germany and the liquidation of the war were postponed. This delay caused +profound dissatisfaction in continental Europe, but it had the +incidental advantage of bringing home to the victorious nations the +marvelous recuperative powers of the German race. It also gave time for +the drafting of a compact so admirably tempered to the human weaknesses +of the rival signatory nations, whose passions were curbed only by sheer +exhaustion, that all their spokesmen saw their way to sign it. There was +something almost genial in the simplicity of the means by which the +eminent promoter of the Covenant intended to reform the peoples of the +world. He gave them credit for virtues which would have rendered the +League unnecessary and displayed indulgence for passions which made its +speedy realization hopeless, thus affording a _superfluous_ illustration +of the truth that the one deadly evil to be shunned by those who would +remain philanthropists is a practical knowledge of men, and of the +truism that the statesman's bane is an inordinate fondness for abstract +ideas. + +One of the decided triumphs of the Paris Peace Conference over the +Vienna Congress lay in the amazing speed with which it got through the +difficult task of solving offhandedly some of the most formidable +problems that ever exercised the wit of man. One of the Paris journals +contained the following remarkable announcement: "The actual time +consumed in constituting the League of Nations, which it is hoped will +be the means of keeping peace in the world, was thirty hours. This +doesn't seem possible, but it is true."[6] + +How provokingly slowly the dawdlers of Vienna moved in comparison may +be read in the chronicles of that time. The peoples hoped and believed +that the Congress would perform its tasks in a short period, but it was +only after nine months' gestation and sore travail that it finally +brought forth its offspring--a mountain of Acts which have been +moldering in dust ever since. + +The Wilsonian Covenant, which bound together thirty-two states--a league +intended to be incomparably more powerful than was the Holy +Alliance--will take rank as the most rapid improvisation of its kind in +diplomatic history. + +A comparison between the features common to the two international +legislatures struck many observers as even more reassuring than the +contrast between their differences. Both were placed in like +circumstances, faced with bewildering and fateful problems to which an +exhausting war, just ended, had imparted sharp actuality. One of the +delegates to the Vienna Congress wrote: + +"Everything had to be recast and made new, the destinies of Germany, +Italy, and Poland settled, a solid groundwork laid for the future, and a +commercial system to be outlined."[7] Might not those very words have +been penned at any moment during the Paris Conference with equal +relevance to its undertakings? + +Or these: "However easily and gracefully the fine old French wit might +turn the topics of the day, people felt vaguely beneath it all that +these latter times were very far removed from the departed era and, in +many respects, differed from it to an incomprehensible degree."[8] And +the veteran Prince de Ligne remarked to the Comte de la Garde: "From +every side come cries of Peace, Justice, Equilibrium, Indemnity.... Who +will evolve order from this chaos and set a dam to the stream of +claims?" How often have the same cries and queries been uttered in +Paris? + +When the first confidential talks began at the Vienna Congress, the same +difficulties arose as were encountered over a century later in Paris +about the number of states that were entitled to have representatives +there. At the outset, the four Cabinet Ministers of Austria, Russia, +England, and Prussia kept things to themselves, excluding vanquished +France and the lesser Powers. Some time afterward, however, Talleyrand, +the spokesman of the worsted nation, accompanied by the Portuguese +Minister, Labrador, protested vehemently against the form and results of +the deliberations. At one sitting passion rose to white heat and +Talleyrand spoke of quitting the Congress altogether, whereupon a +compromise was struck and eight nations received the right to be +represented. In this way the Committee of Eight was formed.[9] In Paris +discussion became to the full as lively, and on the first Saturday, when +the representatives of Belgium, Greece, Poland, and the other small +states delivered impassioned speeches against the attitude of the Big +Five they were maladroitly answered by M. Clemenceau, who relied, as the +source from which emanated the superior right of the Great Powers, upon +the twelve million soldiers they had placed in the field. It was +unfortunate that force should thus confer privileges at a Peace +Conference which was convoked to end the reign of force and privilege. +In Vienna it was different, but so were the times. + +Many of the entries and comments of the chroniclers of 1815 read like +extracts from newspapers of the first three months of 1919. "About +Poland, they are fighting fiercely and, down to the present, with no +decisive result," writes Count Carl von Nostitz, a Russian military +observer.... "Concerning Germany and her future federative constitution, +nothing has yet been done, absolutely nothing."[10] Here is a gloss +written by Countess Elise von Bernstorff, wife of the Danish Minister: +"Most comical was the mixture of the very different individuals who all +fancied they had work to do at the Congress ... One noticed noblemen and +scholars who had never transacted any business before, but now looked +extremely consequential and took on an imposing bearing, and professors +who mentally set down their university chairs in the center of a +listening Congress, but soon turned peevish and wandered hither and +thither, complaining that they could not, for the life of them, make out +what was going on." Again: "It would have been to the interest of all +Europe--rightly understood--to restore Poland. This matter may be +regarded as the most important of all. None other could touch so nearly +the policy of all the Powers represented,"[11] wrote the Bavarian +Premier, Graf von Montgelas, just as the Entente press was writing in +the year 1919. + +The plenipotentiaries of the Paris Conference had for a short period +what is termed a good press, and a rigorous censorship which never erred +on the side of laxity, whereas those of the Vienna Congress were +criticized without truth. For example, the population of Vienna, we are +told by Bavaria's chief delegate, was disappointed when it discerned in +those whom it was wont to worship as demigods, only mortals. "The +condition of state affairs," writes Von Gentz, one of the clearest heads +at the Congress, "is weird, but it is not, as formerly, in consequence +of the crushing weight that is hung around our necks, but by reason of +the mediocrity and clumsiness of nearly all the workers."[12] One +consequence of this state of things was the constant upspringing of new +and unforeseen problems, until, as time went on, the bewildered +delegates were literally overwhelmed. "So many interests cross each +other here," comments Count Carl von Nostitz, "which the peoples want to +have mooted at the long-wished-for League of Nations, that they fall +into the oddest shapes.... Look wheresoever you will, you are faced with +incongruity and confusion.... Daily the claims increase as though more +and more evil spirits were issuing forth from hell at the invocation of +a sorcerer who has forgotten the spell by which to lay them."[13] It was +of the Vienna Congress that those words were written. + +In certain trivial details, too, the likeness between the two great +peace assemblies is remarkable. For example, Lord Castlereagh, who +represented England at Vienna, had to return to London to meet +Parliament, thus inconveniencing the august assembly, as Mr. Wilson and +Mr. George were obliged to quit Paris, with a like effect. Before +Castlereagh left the scene of his labors, uncharitable judgments were +passed on him for allowing home interests to predominate over his +international activities. + +The destinies of Poland and of Germany, which were then about to become +a confederation, occupied the forefront of interest at the Congress as +they did at the Conference. A similarity is noticeable also in the state +of Europe generally, then and now. "The uncertain condition of all +Europe," writes a close observer in 1815, "is appalling for the peoples: +every country has mobilized ... and the luckless inhabitants are crushed +by taxation. On every side people complain that this state of peace is +worse than war ... individuals who despised Napoleon say that under him +the suffering was not greater ... every country is sapping its own +prosperity, so that financial conditions, in lieu of improving since +Napoleon's collapse, are deteriorating every where."[14] + +In 1815, as in 1919, the world pacifiers had their court painters, and +Isabey, the French portraitist, was as much run after as was Sir William +Orpen in 1919. In some respects, however, there was a difference. +"Isabey," said the Prince de Ligne, "is the Congress become painter. +Come! His talk is as clever as his brush." But Sir William Orpen was so +absorbed by his work that he never uttered a word during a sitting. The +contemporaries of the Paris Conference were luckier than their forebears +of the Vienna Congress--for they could behold the lifelike features of +their benefactors in a cinema. "It is understood," wrote a Paris +journal, "that the necessity of preserving a permanent record of the +personalities and proceedings at the Peace Conference has not been lost +sight of. Very shortly a series of cinematographic films of the +principal delegates and of the commissions is to be made on behalf of +the British government, so that, side by side with the Treaty of Paris, +posterity will be able to study the physiognomy of the men who made +it."[15] In no case is it likely to forget them. + +So the great heart of Paris, even to a greater degree than that of +Vienna over a hundred years ago, beat and throbbed to cosmic measures +while its brain worked busily at national, provincial, and economic +questions. + +Side by side with the good cheer prevalent that kept the eminent +lawgivers of the Vienna Congress in buoyant spirits went the cost of +living, prohibitive outside the charmed circle in consequence of the +high and rising prices. + +"Every article," writes the Comte de la Garde, one of the chroniclers +of the Vienna Congress, "but more especially fuel, soared to incredible +heights. The Austrian government found it necessary, in consequence, to +allow all its officials supplements to their salaries and +indemnities."[16] In Paris things were worse. Greed and disorganization +combined to make of the French capital a vast fleecing-machine. The sums +of money expended by foreigners in France during all that time and a +much longer period is said to have exceeded the revenue from foreign +trade. There was hardly any coal, and even the wood fuel gave out now +and again. Butter was unknown. Wine was bad and terribly dear. A public +conveyance could not be obtained unless one paid "double, treble, and +quintuple fares and a gratuity." The demand was great and the supply +sometimes abundant, but the authorities contrived to keep the two apart +systematically. + +THE COST OF LIVING + +In no European country did the cost of living attain the height it +reached in France in the year 1919. Not only luxuries and comforts, but +some of life's necessaries, were beyond the reach of home-coming +soldiers, and this was currently ascribed to the greed of merchants, the +disorganization of transports, the strikes of workmen, and the +supineness of the authorities, whose main care was to keep the nation +tranquil by suppressing one kind of news, spreading another, and giving +way to demands which could no longer be denied. There was another and +more effectual cause: the war had deprived the world of twelve million +workmen and a thousand milliard francs' worth of goods. But of this +people took no account. The demobilized soldiers who for years had been +well fed and relieved of solicitude for the morrow returned home, +flushed with victory, proud of the commanding position which they had +won in the state, and eager to reap the rewards of their sacrifices. But +they were bitterly disillusioned. They expected a country fit for heroes +to live in, and what awaited them was a condition of things to which +only a defeated people could be asked to resign itself. The food to +which the poilu had, for nearly five years, been accustomed at the front +was become, since the armistice, the exclusive monopoly of the +capitalist or the _nouveau-riche_ in the rear. To obtain a ration of +sugar he or his wife had to stand in a long queue for hours, perhaps go +away empty-handed and return on the following morning. When his +sugar-card was eventually handed to him he had again to stand in line +outside the grocer's door and, when his turn came to enter it, was +frequently told that the supply was exhausted and would not be +replenished for a week or longer. Yet his newspaper informed him that +there was plenty of colonial sugar, ready for shipment, but forbidden by +the authorities to be imported into France. I met many poor people from +the provinces and some resident in Paris who for four years had not once +eaten a morsel of sugar, although the well-to-do were always amply +supplied. In many places even bread was lacking, while biscuits, +shortbread, and fancy cakes, available at exorbitant prices, were +exhibited in the shop windows. Tokens of unbridled luxury and glaring +evidences of wanton waste were flaunted daily and hourly in the faces of +the humbled men who had saved the nation and wanted the nation to +realize the fact. Lucullan banquets, opulent lunches, all-night dances, +high revels of an exotic character testified to the peculiar psychic +temper as well as to the material prosperity of the passive elements of +the community and stung the poilus to the quick. "But what justice," +these asked, "can the living hope for, when the glorious dead are so +soon forgotten?" For one ghastly detail remains to complete a picture to +which Boccaccio could hardly have done justice. "While all this wild +dissipation was going on among the moneyed class in the capital the +corpses of many gallant soldiers lay unburied and uncovered on the +shell-plowed fields of battle near Rheims, on the road to +Neuville-sur-Margival and other places--sights pointed out to visitors +to tickle their interest in the grim spectacle of war. In vain +individuals expostulated and the press protested. As recently as May +persons known to me--my English secretary was one--looked with the +fascination of horror on the bodies of men who, when they breathed, were +heroes. They lay there where they had fallen and agonized, and now, in +the heat of the May sun, were moldering in dust away--a couple of hours' +motor drive from Paris...."[17] + +The soldiers mused and brooded. Since the war began they had undergone a +great psychic transformation. Stationed at the very center of a +sustained fiery crisis, they lost their feeling of acquiescence in the +established order and in the place of their own class therein. In the +sight of death they had been stirred to their depths and volcanic fires +were found burning there. Resignation had thereupon made way for a +rebellious mood and rebellion found sustenance everywhere. The poilu +demobilized retained his military spirit, nay, he carried about with him +the very atmosphere of the trenches. He had rid himself of the sentiment +of fear and the faculty of reverence went with it. His outlook on the +world had changed completely and his inner sense reversed the social +order which he beheld, as the eye reverses the object it apprehends. +Respect for persons and institutions survived in relatively few +instances the sacredness of life and the fear of death. He was +impressed, too, with the all-importance of his class, which he had +learned during the war to look upon as the Atlas on whose shoulders rest +the Republic and its empire overseas. He had saved the state in war and +he remained in peace-time its principal mainstay. With his value as +measured by these priceless services he compared the low estimate put +upon him by those who continued to identify themselves with the +state--the over-fed, lazy, self-seeking money-getters who reserved to +themselves the fruits of his toil. + +One can well imagine--I have actually heard--the poilus putting their +case somewhat as follows: "So long as we filled the gap between the +death-dealing Teutons and our privileged compatriots we were well fed, +warmly clad, made much of. During the war we were raised to the rank of +pillars of the state, saviors of the nation, arbiters of the world's +destinies. So long as we faced the enemy's guns nothing was too good for +us. We had meat, white bread, eggs, wine, sugar in plenty. But, now that +we have accomplished our task, we have fallen from our high estate and +are expected to become pariahs anew. We are to work on for the old gang +and the class from which it comes, until they plunge us into another +war. For what? What is the reward for what we have achieved, what the +incentive for what we are expected to accomplish? We cannot afford as +much food as before the war, nor of the same quality. We are in want +even of necessaries. Is it for this that we have fought? A thousand +times no. If we saved our nation we can also save our class. We have the +will and the power. Why should we not exert them?" The purpose of the +section of the community to which these demobilized soldiers mainly +belonged grew visibly definite as consciousness of their collective +force grew and became keener. Occasionally it manifested itself openly +in symptomatic spurts. + +One dismal night, at a brilliant ball in a private mansion, a select +company of both sexes, representatives of the world of rank and fashion, +were enjoying themselves to their hearts' content, while their +chauffeurs watched and waited outside in the cold, dark streets, chewing +the cud of bitter reflections. Between the hours of three and four in +the morning the latter held an open-air meeting, and adopted a +resolution which they carried out forthwith. A delegation was sent +upstairs to give notice to the light-hearted guests that they must be +down in their respective motors within ten minutes on pain of not +finding any conveyances to take them home. The mutineers were nearly all +private chauffeurs in the employ of the personages to whom they sent +this indelicate ultimatum. The resourceful host, however, warded off the +danger and placated the rebellious drivers by inviting them to an +improvised little banquet of _pâtés de foie gras_, dry champagne, and +other delicacies. The general temper of the proletariat remained +unchanged. Tales of rebellion still more disquieting were current in +Paris, which, whether true or false, were aids to a correct diagnosis of +the situation. + +A dancing mania broke out during the armistice, which was not confined +to the French capital. In Berlin, Rome, London, it aroused the +indignation of those whose sympathy with the spiritual life of their +respective nations was still a living force. It would seem, however, to +be the natural reaction produced by a tremendous national calamity, +under which the mainspring of the collective mind temporarily gives way +and the psychical equilibrium is upset. Disillusion, despondency, and +contempt for the passions that lately stirred them drive the people to +seek relief in the distractions of pleasures, among which dancing is +perhaps one of the mildest. It was so in Paris at the close of the long +period of stress which ended with the rise of Napoleon. Dancing then +went on uninterruptedly despite national calamities and private +hardships. "Luxury," said Victor Hugo, "is a necessity of great states +and great civilizations, but there are moments when it must not be +exhibited to the masses." There was never a conjuncture when the danger +of such an exhibition was greater or more imminent than during the +armistice on the Continent--for it was the period of incubation +preceding the outbreak of the most malignant social disease to which +civilized communities are subject. + +The festivities and amusements in the higher circles of Paris recall the +glowing descriptions of the fret and fever of existence in the Austrian +capital during the historic Vienna Congress a hundred years ago. Dancing +became epidemic and shameless. In some salons the forms it took were +repellent. One of my friends, the Marquis X., invited to a dance at the +house of a plutocrat, was so shocked by what he saw there that he left +almost at once in disgust. Madame Machin, the favorite teacher of the +choreographic art, gave lessons in the new modes of dancing, and her fee +was three hundred francs a lesson. In a few weeks she netted, it is +said, over one hundred thousand francs. + +The Prince de Ligne said of the Vienna Congress: "Le Congrès danse mais +il ne marche pas." The French press uttered similar criticisms of the +Paris Conference, when its delegates were leisurely picking up +information about the countries whose affairs they were forgathered to +settle. The following paragraph from a Paris journal--one of many +such--describes a characteristic scene: + + The domestic staff at the Hôtel Majestic, the headquarters of the + British Delegation at the Peace Conference, held a very successful + dance on Monday evening, attended by many members of the British + Mission and Staff. The ballroom was a medley of plenipotentiaries + and chambermaids, generals and orderlies, Foreign Office attachés + and waitresses. All the latest forms of dancing were to be seen, + including the jazz and the hesitation waltz, and, according to the + opinion of experts, the dancing reached an unusually high standard + of excellence. Major Lloyd George, one of the Prime Minister's + sons, was among the dancers. Mr. G.H. Roberts, the Food Controller, + made a very happy little speech to the hotel staff.[18] + +The following extract is also worth quoting: + + A packed house applauded 'Hullo, Paris!' from the rise of the + curtain to the finale at the new Palace Theater (in the rue + Mogador), Paris, last night.... President Wilson, Mr. A.J. Balfour, + and Lord Derby all remained until the fall of the curtain at 12.15 + ... and ... were given cordial cheers from the dispersing audience + as they passed through the line of Municipal Guards, who presented + arms as the distinguished visitors made their way to their + motor-cars.[19] + +Juxtaposed with the grief, discontent, and physical hardships prevailing +among large sections of the population which had provided most of the +holocausts for the Moloch of War, the ostentatious gaiety of the +prosperous few might well seem a challenge. And so it was construed by +the sullen lack-alls who prowled about the streets of Paris and told one +another that their turn would come soon. + +When the masses stare at the wealthy with the eyes one so often noticed +during the eventful days of the armistice one may safely conclude, in +the words of Victor Hugo, that "it is not thoughts that are harbored by +those brains; it is events." + +By the laboring classes the round of festivities, the theatrical +representations, the various negro and other foreign dances, and the +less-refined pleasures of the world's blithest capital were watched with +ill-concealed resentment. One often witnessed long lines of motor-cars +driving up to a theater, fashionable restaurant, or concert-hall, +through the opening portals of which could be caught a glimpse of the +dazzling illumination within, while, a few yards farther off, queues of +anemic men and women were waiting to be admitted to the shop where milk +or eggs or fuel could be had at the relatively low prices fixed by the +state. The scraps of conversation that reached one's ears were far from +reassuring. + +I have met on the same afternoon the international world-regenerators, +smiling, self-complacent, or preoccupied, flitting by in their motors to +the Quai d'Orsay, and also quiet, determined-looking men, trudging along +in the snow and slush, wending their way toward their labor +conventicles, where they, too, were drafting laws for a new and strange +era, and I voluntarily fell to gaging the distance that sundered the two +movements, and asked myself which of the inchoate legislations would +ultimately be accepted by the world. The question since then has been +partially answered. As time passed, the high cost of living was +universally ascribed, as we saw, to the insatiable greed of the +middlemen and the sluggishness of the authorities, whose incapacity to +organize and unwillingness to take responsibility increased and augured +ill of the future of the country unless men of different type should in +the meanwhile take the reins. Practically nothing was done to ameliorate +the carrying power of the railways, to utilize the waterways, to employ +the countless lorries and motor-vans that were lying unused, to +purchase, convey, and distribute the provisions which were at the +disposal of the government. Various ministerial departments would +dispute as to which should take over consignments of meat or vegetables, +and while reports, notes, and replies were being leisurely written and +despatched, weeks or months rolled by, during which the foodstuffs +became unfit for human consumption. In the middle of May, to take but +one typical instance, 2,401 eases of lard and 1,418 cases of salt meat +were left rotting in the docks at Marseilles. In the storage magazines +at Murumas, 6,000 tons of salt meat were spoiled because it was nobody's +business to remove and distribute them. Eighteen refrigerator-cars +loaded with chilled meat arrived in Paris from Havre in the month of +June. When they were examined at the cold-storage station it was +discovered that, the doors having been negligently left open, the +contents of the cases had to be destroyed.[20] From Belgium 108,000 +kilos of potatoes were received and allowed to lie so long at one of the +stations that they went bad and had to be thrown away. When these and +kindred facts were published, the authorities, who had long been silent, +became apologetic, but remained throughout inactive. In other countries +the conditions, if less accentuated, were similar. + +One of the dodges to which unscrupulous dealers resorted with impunity +and profit was particularly ingenious. At the central markets, whenever +any food is condemned, the public-health authorities seize it and pay +the owner full value at the current market rates. The marketmen often +turned this equitable arrangement to account by keeping back large +quantities of excellent vegetables, for which the population was +yearning, and when they rotted and had to be carted away, received their +money value from the Public Health Department, thus attaining their +object, which was to lessen the supply and raise the prices on what they +kept for sale.[21] The consequence was that Paris suffered from a +continual dearth of vegetables and fruits. Statistics published by the +United States government showed the maximum increase in the cost of +living in four countries as follows: France, 235 per cent.; Britain, 135 +per cent.; Canada, 115 per cent.; and the United States, 107 per +cent.[22] But since these data were published prices continued to rise +until, at the beginning of July, they had attained the same level as +those of Russia on the eve of the revolution there. In Paris, Lyons, +Marseilles, the prices of various kinds of fish, shell-fish, jams, +apples, had gone up 500 per cent., cabbage over 900 per cent., and +celeriac 2,000 per cent. Anthracite coal, which in the year 1914 cost 56 +francs a ton, could not be purchased in 1919 for less than 360 francs. + +The restaurants and hotels waged a veritable war of plunder on their +guests, most of whom, besides the scandalous prices, which bore no +reasonable relation to the cost of production, had to pay the government +luxury tax of 10 per cent, over and above. A well-known press +correspondent, who entertained seven friends to a simple dinner in a +modest restaurant, was charged 500 francs, 90 francs being set down for +one chicken, and 28 for three cocktails. The _maître d'hotel_, in +response to the pressman's expostulations, assured him that these +charges left the proprietor hardly any profit. As it chanced, however, +the journalist had just been professionally investigating the cost of +living, and had the data at his finger-ends. As he displayed his +intimate knowledge to his host, and obviously knew where to look for +redress, he had the satisfaction of obtaining a rebate of 150 +francs.[23] + +Nothing could well be more illuminating than the following curious +picture contributed by a journal whose representative made a special +inquiry into the whole question of the cost of living.[24] "I was dining +the other day at a restaurant of the Bois de Boulogne. There was a long +queue of people waiting at the door, some sixty persons all told, mostly +ladies, who pressed one another closely. From time to time a voice +cried: 'Two places,' whereupon a door was held opened, two patients +entered, and then it was loudly slammed, smiting some of those who stood +next to it. At last my turn came, and I went in. The guests were sitting +so close to one another that they could not move their elbows. Only the +hands and fingers were free. There sat women half naked, and men whose +voices and dress betrayed newly acquired wealth. Not one of them +questioned the bills which were presented. And what bills! The _hors +d'oeuvre_, 20 francs. Fish, 90 francs. A chicken, 150 francs. Three +cigars, 45 francs. The repast came to 250 francs a person at the very +lowest." Another journalist commented upon this story as follows: "Since +the end of last June," he said, "445,000 quintals of vegetables, the +superfluous output of the Palatinate, were offered to France at nominal +prices. And the cost of vegetables here at home is painfully notorious. +Well, the deal was accepted by the competent Commission in Paris. +Everything was ready for despatching the consignment. The necessary +trains were secured. All that was wanting was the approval of the French +authorities, who were notified. Their answer has not yet been given and +already the vegetables are rotting in the magazines." + +The authorities pleaded the insufficiency of rolling stock, but the +press revealed the hollowness of the excuse and the responsibility of +those who put it forward, and showed that thousands of wagons, lorries, +and motor-vans were idle, deteriorating in the open air. For instance, +between Cognac and Jarnac the state railways had left about one +thousand wagons unused, which were fast becoming unusable.[25] And this +was but one of many similar instances. + +It would be hard to find a parallel in history for the rapacity combined +with unscrupulousness and ingenuity displayed during that fateful period +by dishonest individuals, and left unpunished by the state. Doubtless +France was not the only country in which greed was insatiable and its +manifestations disastrous. From other parts of the Continent there also +came bitter complaints of the ruthlessness of profiteers, and in Italy +their heartless vampirism contributed materially to the revolutionary +outbreaks throughout that country in July. Even Britain was not exempt +from the scourge. But the presence of whole armies of well-paid, +easy-going foreign troops and officials on French soil stimulated greed +by feeding it, and also their complaints occasionally bared it to the +world. The impression it left on certain units of the American forces +was deplorable. When United States soldiers who had long been stationed +in a French town were transferred to Germany, where charges were low, +the revulsion of feeling among the straightforward, honest Yankees was +complete and embarrassing. And by way of keeping it within the bounds of +political orthodoxy, they were informed that the Germans had conspired +to hoodwink them by selling at undercost prices, in order to turn them +against the French. It was an insidious form of German propaganda! + +On the other hand, the experience of British and American warriors in +France sometimes happened to be so unfortunate that many of them gave +credence to the absurd and mischievous legend that their governments +were made to pay rent for the trenches in which their troops fought and +died, and even for the graves in which the slain were buried. + +An acquaintance of mine, an American delegate, wanted an abode to +himself during the Conference, and, having found one suitable for which +fifteen to twenty-five thousand francs a year were deemed a fair rent, +he inquired the price, and the proprietor, knowing that he had to do +with a really wealthy American, answered, "A quarter of a million +francs." Subsequently the landlord sent to ask whether the distinguished +visitor would take the place; but the answer he received ran, "No, I +have too much self-respect." + +Hotel prices in Paris, beginning from December, 1918, were prohibitive +to all but the wealthy. Yet they were raised several times during the +Conference. Again, despite the high level they had reached by the +beginning of July, they were actually quintupled in some hotels and +doubled in many for about a week at the time of the peace celebrations. +Rents for flats and houses soared proportionately. + +One explanation of the fantastic rise in rents is characteristic. During +the war and the armistice, the government--and not only the French +government--proclaimed a moratorium, and no rents at all were paid, in +consequence of which many house-owners were impoverished and others +actually beggared. And it was with a view to recoup themselves for these +losses that they fleeced their tenants, French and foreign, as soon as +the opportunity presented itself. An amusing incident arising out of the +moratorium came to light in the course of a lawsuit. An ingenious +tenant, smitten with the passion of greed, not content with occupying +his flat without paying rent, sublet it at a high figure to a man who +paid him well and in advance, but by mischance set fire to the place and +died. Thereupon the _tenant_ demanded and received a considerable sum +from the insurance company in which the defunct occupant had had to +insure the flat and its contents. He then entered an action at law +against the proprietor of the house for the value of the damage caused +by the fire, and he won his case. The unfortunate owner was condemned to +pay the sum claimed, and also the costs of the action.[26] But he could +not recover his rent. + +Disorganization throughout France, and particularly in Paris, verged on +the border of chaos. Every one felt its effects, but none so severely as +the men who had won the war. The work of demobilization, which began +soon after the armistice, but was early interrupted, proceeded at +snail-pace. The homecoming soldiers sent hundreds of letters to the +newspapers, complaining of the wearisome delays on the journey and the +sharp privations which they were needlessly forced to endure. Thus, +whereas they took but twenty-eight hours to travel from Hanover to +Cologne--the lines being German, and therefore relatively well +organized--they were no less than a fortnight on the way between Cologne +and Marseilles.[27] During the German section of the journey they were +kept warm, supplied with hot soup and coffee twice daily; but during the +second half, which lasted fourteen days, they received no beverage, hot +or cold. "The men were cared for much less than horses." That these +poilus turned against the government and the class responsible for this +gross neglect was hardly surprising. One of them wrote: "They [the +authorities] are frightened of Bolshevism. But we who have not got home, +we all await its coming. I don't, of course, mean the real Bolshevism, +but even that kind which they paint in such repellent hues."[28] The +conditions of telegraphic and postal communications were on a par with +everything else. There was no guarantee that a message paid for would +even be sent by the telegraph-operators, or, if withheld, that the +sender would be apprised of its suppression. The war arrangements were +retained during the armistice. And they were superlatively bad. A +committee appointed by the Chamber of Deputies to inquire into the +matter officially, reported that,[29] at the Paris Telegraph Bureau +alone, 40,000 despatches were held back every day--40,000 a day, or +58,400,000 in four years! And from the capital alone. The majority of +them were never delivered, and the others were distributed after great +delay. The despatches which were retained were, in the main, thrown into +a basket, and, when the accumulation had become too great, were +destroyed. The Control Section never made any inquiry, and neither the +senders nor those to whom the despatches were addressed were ever +informed.[30] Even important messages of neutral ambassadors in Rome and +London fell under the ban. The recklessness of these censors, who ceased +even to read what they destroyed, was such that they held up and made +away with state orders transmitted by the great munitions factories, and +one of these was constrained to close down because it was unable to +obtain certain materials in time. + +The French Ambassador in Switzerland reported that, owing to these +holocausts, important messages from that country, containing orders for +the French national loan, never reached their destination, in +consequence of which the French nation lost from ten to twenty million +francs. And even the letters and telegrams that were actually passed +were so carelessly handled that many of them were lost on the way or +delayed until they became meaningless to the addressee. So, for +instance, an official letter despatched by the Minister of Commerce to +the Minister of Finance in Paris was sent to Calcutta, where the French +Consul-General came across it, and had it directed back to Paris. The +correspondent of the _Echo de Paris_, who was sent to Switzerland by his +journal, was forbidden by law to carry more than one thousand francs +over the frontier, nor was the management of the journal permitted to +forward to him more than two hundred francs at a time. And when a +telegram was given up in Paris, crediting him with two hundred francs, +it was stopped by the censor. Eleven days were let go by without +informing the persons concerned. When the administrator of the journal +questioned the chief censor, he declined responsibility, having had +nothing to do with the matter, but he indicated the Central Telegraph +Control as the competent department. There, too, however, they were +innocent, having never heard of the suppression. It took another day to +elicit the fact that the economic section of the War Ministry was alone +answerable for the decision. The indefatigable manager of the _Echo de +Paris_ applied to the department in question, but only to learn that it, +too, was without any knowledge of what had happened, but it promised to +find out. Soon afterward it informed the zealous manager that the +department which had given the order could only be the Exchange +Commission of the Ministry of Finances. And during all the time the +correspondent was in Zurich without money to pay for telegrams or to +settle his hotel and restaurant bills.[31] + +The Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself, in a report on the whole +subject, characterized the section of Telegraphic Control as "an organ +of confusion and disorder which has engendered extraordinary abuses, and +risked compromising the government seriously."[32] It did not merely +risk, it actually went far to compromise the government and the entire +governing class as well. + +It looked as though the rulers of France were still unconsciously guided +by the maxim of Richelieu, who wrote in his testament, "If the peoples +were too comfortable there would be no keeping them to the rules of +duty." The more urgent the need of resourcefulness and guidance, the +greater were the listlessness and confusion. "There is neither unity of +conduct," wrote a press organ of the masses, "nor co-ordination of the +Departments of War, Public Works, Revictualing, Transports. All these +services commingle, overlap, clash, and paralyze one another. There is +no method. Thus, whereas France has coffee enough to last her a +twelvemonth, she has not sufficient fuel for a week. Scruples, too, are +wanting, as are punishments; everywhere there is a speculator who offers +his purse, and an official, a station-master, or a subaltern to stretch +out his hand.... Shortsightedness, disorder, waste, the frittering away +of public moneys and irresponsibility: that is the balance...."[33] + +That the spectacle of the country sinking in this administrative +quagmire was not conducive to the maintenance of confidence in its +ruling classes can well be imagined. On all sides voices were uplifted, +not merely against the Cabinet, whose members were assumed to be +actuated by patriotic motives and guided by their own lights, but +against the whole class from which they sprang, and not in France only, +but throughout Europe. Nothing, it was argued, could be worse than what +these leaders had brought upon the country, and a change from the +bourgeoisie to the proletariat could not well be inaugurated at a more +favorable conjuncture. + +In truth the bourgeoisie were often as impatient of the restraints and +abuses as the homecoming poilu. The middle class during the armistice +was subjected to some of the most galling restraints that only the war +could justify. They were practically bereft of communications. To use +the telegraph, the post, the cable, or the telephone was for the most +part an exhibition of childish faith, which generally ended in the loss +of time and money. + +This state of affairs called for an immediate and drastic remedy, for, +so long as it persisted, it irritated those whom it condemned to +avoidable hardship, and their name was legion. It was also part of an +almost imperceptible revolutionary process similar to that which was +going on in several other countries for transferring wealth and +competency from one class to another and for goading into rebellion +those who had nothing to lose by "violent change in the politico-social +ordering." The government, whose powers were concentrated in the hands +of M. Clemenceau, had little time to attend to these grievances. For its +main business was the re-establishment of peace. What it did not fully +realize was the gravity of the risks involved. For it was on the cards +that the utmost it could achieve at the Conference toward the +restoration of peace might be outweighed and nullified by the +consequences of what it was leaving undone and unattempted at home. At +no time during the armistice was any constructive policy elaborated in +any of the Allied countries. Rhetorical exhortations to keep down +expenditure marked the high-water level of ministerial endeavor there. + +The strikes called by the revolutionary organizations whose aim was the +subversion of the regime under which those monstrosities flourished at +last produced an effect on the parliament. One day in July the French +Chamber left the Cabinet in a minority by proposing the following +resolution: "The Chamber, noting that the cost of living in Belgium has +diminished by a half and in England by a fourth since the armistice, +while it has continually increased in France since that date, judges the +government's economic policy by the results obtained and passes to the +order of the day."[34] + +Shortly afterward the same Chamber recanted and gave the Cabinet a +majority. In Great Britain, too, the House of Commons put pressure on +the government, which at last was forced to act. + +On the other hand, extravagance was systematically encouraged everywhere +by the shortsighted measures which the authorities adopted and +maintained as well as by the wanton waste promoted or tolerated by the +incapacity of their representatives. In France the moratorium and +immunity from taxation gave a fillip to recklessness. People who had +hoarded their earnings before the war, now that they were dispensed from +paying rent and relieved of fair taxes, paid out money ungrudgingly for +luxuries and then struck for higher salaries and wages. + +Even the Deputies of the Chamber, which did nothing to mitigate the evil +complained of, manifested a desire to have their own salaries--six +hundred pounds a year--augmented proportionately to the increased cost +of living; but in view of the headstrong current of popular opinion +against parliamentarism the government deemed it impolitic to raise the +point at that conjuncture. + +Most of the working-men's demands in France as in Britain were granted, +but the relief they promised was illusory, for prices still went up, +leaving the recipients of the relief no better off. And as the wages +payable for labor are limited, whereas prices may ascend to any height, +the embittered laborer fancied he could better his lot by an appeal to +the force which his organization wielded. The only complete solution of +the problem, he was assured, was to be found in the supersession of the +governing classes and the complete reconstruction of the social fabric +on wholly new foundations.[35] And some of the leaders rashly declared +that they were unable to discern the elements of any other. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Cf. _The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), March 12,1919. + +[2] On December 18, 1918. + +[3] "With what little wisdom the world is governed." + +[4] "Mr. Bernard Richards, Secretary of the delegation from the American +Jewish Congress to the Peace Conference, expressed much satisfaction +with the work done in Paris for the protection of Jewish rights and the +furtherance of the interests of other minorities involved in the peace +settlement." (_The New York Herald_, July 20, 1919.) How successful was +the influence of the Jewish community at the Peace Conference may be +inferred from the following: "Mr. Henry H. Rosenfelt, Director of the +American Jewish Relief Committee, announces that all New York agencies +engaged in Jewish relief work will join in a united drive in New York in +December to raise $7,500,000 (£1,500,000) to provide clothing, food, and +medicines for the six million Jews throughout Eastern Europe _as well as +to make possible a comprehensive programme for their complete +rehabilitation_.--American Radio News Service." Cf. _The Daily Mail_, +August 19, 1919. + +[5] Countess Lulu von Thurheim, _My Life_, 1788-1852. German edition, +Munich, 1913-14. + +[6] _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), February 23, 1919. + +[7] Grafen von Montgelas, _Denwürdigkeiten des bayrischen +Staatsministers Maximilian._ See also Dr. Karl Soll, _Der Wiener +Kongress_. + +[8] Varnhagen von Ense. + +[9] Friedrich von Gentz. + +[10] Dr. Karl Soll, _Count Carl von Nostitz_. + +[11] Cf. Dr. Karl Soll, _Der Wiener Kongress_. + +[12] Dr. Karl Soll, _Friedrich von Gentz_. + +[13] Dr. Karl Soll, _Count Carl von Nostitz_, p. 109. + +[14] Jean Gabriel Eynard--the representative of Geneva. + +[15] _The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), March 22, 1919. + +[16] Count de la Garde. + +[17] Cf. _Le Matin_, May 31, 1919. A noteworthy example of the +negligence of the authorities was narrated by this journal on the same +day. To a wooden cross with an inscription recording that the grave was +tenanted by "an unknown Frenchman" was hung a disk containing his name +and regiment! And here and there the skulls of heroes protruded from the +grass, but the German tombs were piously looked after by Boche +prisoners. + +[18] _The Daily Mail_ (Continental edition), March 12, 1919. + +[19] _Ibid._, April 23, 1919. + +[20] Cf. _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), June 8, 1919. + +[21] Cf. _The New York Herald_, June 2, 1919. + +[22] Cf. _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), April 20, 1919. + +[23] _Le Figaro_, June 8, 1919. + +[24] _L'Humanité_, July 10, 1919. + +[25] _La Democratie Nouvelle_, June 14, 1919. + +[26] _Le Figaro_, March 6, 1919. + +[27] _L'Humanité_, May 23, 1919. + +[28] _3 Ibid._ + +[29] _Le Gaulois_, March 23, 1919. _The New York Herald_ (Paris +edition), March 22, 1919. _L'Echo de Paris_, June 12, 1919. + +[30] _The New York Herald_, March 22, 1919. + +[31] _L'Echo de Paris_, June 12, 1919. + +[32] _The New York Herald_, March 22, 1919. + +[33] _L'Humanité_, May 23, 1919. + +[34] on July 18, 1919. Cf. _Matin, Echo de Paris, Figaro_, July 10, +1919. + +[35] Cf. _L'Humanité_ (French Syndicalist organ), July 11, 1919. + + + + +II + +SIGNS OF THEIR TIMES + + +Society during the transitional stage through which it has for some +years been passing underwent an unprecedented change the extent and +intensity of which are as yet but imperfectly realized. Its more +striking characteristics were determined by the gradual decomposition of +empires and kingdoms, the twilight of their gods, the drying up of their +sources of spiritual energy, and the psychic derangement of communities +and individuals by a long and fearful war. Political principles, respect +for authority and tradition, esteem for high moral worth, to say nothing +of altruism and public spirit, either vanished or shrank to shadowy +simulacra. In contemporary history currents and cross-currents, eddies +and whirlpools, became so numerous and bewildering that it is not easy +to determine the direction of the main stream. Unsocial tendencies +coexisted with collectivity of effort, both being used as weapons +against the larger community and each being set down as a manifestation +of democracy. Against every kind of authority the world, or some of its +influential sections, was up in revolt, and the emergence of the +passions and aims of classes and individuals had freer play than ever +before. + +To this consummation conservative governments, and later on their chiefs +at the Peace Conference, systematically contributed with excellent +intentions and efficacious measures. They implicitly denied, and acted +on the denial, that a nation or a race, like an individual, has +something distinctive, inherent, and enduring that may aptly be termed +soul or character. They ignored the fact that all nations and races are +not of the same age nor endowed with like faculties, some being young +and helpless, others robust and virile, and a third category senescent +and decrepit, and that there are some races which Nature has wholly and +permanently unfitted for service among the pioneers of progress. In +consequence of these views, which I venture to think erroneous, they +applied the same treatment to all states. Just as President Wilson, by +striving to impose his pinched conception of democracy and his lofty +ideas of political morality on Mexico, had thrown that country into +anarchy, the two Anglo-Saxon governments by enforcing their theories +about the protection of minorities and other political conceptions in +various states of Europe helped to loosen the cement of the +politico-social structure there. + +Through these as well as other channels virulent poison penetrated to +the marrow of the social organism. Language itself, on which all human +intercourse hinges, was twisted to suit unwholesome ambitions, further +selfish interests, and obscure the vision of all those who wanted real +reforms and unvarnished truth. During the war the armies were never told +plainly what they were struggling for; officially they were said to be +combating for justice, right, self-determination, the sacredness of +treaties, and other abstract nouns to which the heroic soldiers never +gave a thought and which a section of the civil population +misinterpreted. Indeed, so little were these shibboleths understood even +by the most intelligent among the politicians who launched them that one +half of the world still more or less conscientiously labors to establish +their contraries and is anathematizing the other half for championing +injustice, might, and unveracity--under various misnomers. + +Anglo-Saxondom, taking the lead of humanity, imitated the Catholic +states of by-past days, and began to impose on other peoples its own +ideas, as well as its practices and institutions, as the best fitted to +awaken their dormant energies and contribute to the social +reconstruction of the world. In the interval, language, whether applied +to history, journalism, or diplomacy, was perverted and words lost their +former relations to the things connoted, and solemn promises were +solemnly broken in the name of truth, right, or equity. For the new era +of good faith, justice and morality was inaugurated, oddly enough, by a +general tearing up of obligatory treaties and an ethical violation of +the most binding compacts known to social man. This happened +coincidently to be in keeping with the general insurgence against all +checks and restraints, moral and social, for which the war is mainly +answerable, and to be also in harmony with the regular supersession of +right by might which characterizes the present epoch and with the +disappearance of the sense of law. In a word, under the auspices of the +amateur world-reformers, the tendency of Bolshevism throve and +spread--an instructive case of people serving the devil at the bidding +of God's best friends. + +As in the days of the Italian despots, every individual has the chance +of rising to the highest position in many of the states, irrespective of +his antecedents and no matter what blots may have tarnished his +'scutcheon. Neither aristocratic descent, nor public spirit nor even a +blameless past is now an indispensable condition of advancement. In +Germany the head of the Republic is an honest saddler. In Austria the +chief of the government until recently was the assassin of a prime +minister. The chief of the Ukraine state was an ex-inmate of an asylum. +Trotzky, one of the Russian duumvirs, is said to have a record which +might of itself have justified his change of name from Braunstein. Bela +Kuhn, the Semitic Dictator of Hungary, had the reputation of a thief +before rising to the height of ruler of the Magyars.... In a word, +Napoleon's ideal is at last realized, "La carrière est ouverte aux +talents." + +Among the peculiar traits of this evanescent epoch may be mentioned +inaccessibility to the teaching of facts which run counter to cherished +prejudices, aims, and interests. People draw from facts which they +cannot dispute only the inferences which they desire. An amusing +instance of this occurred in Paris, where a Syndicalist organ[36] +published an interesting and on the whole truthful account of the +chaotic confusion, misery, and discontent prevailing in Russia and of +the brutal violence and foxy wiles of Lenin. The dreary picture included +the cost of living; the disorganization of transports; the terrible +mortality caused by the after-effects of the war; the crowding of +prisons, theaters, cinemas, and dancing-saloons; the eagerness of +employers to keep their war prisoners employed while thousands of +demobilized soldiers were roaming about the cities and villages vainly +looking for work; the absence of personal liberty; the numerous arrests, +and the relative popularity withal of the Dictator. This popularity, it +was explained, the press contributed to keep alive, especially since the +abortive attempt made on his life, when the journals declared that he +was indispensable for the time being to his country. + +He himself was described as a hard despot, ruthless as a tiger who +strikes his fellow-workers numb and dumb with fear. "But he is under no +illusions as to the real sentiments of the members of the Soviet who +back him, nor does he deign to conceal those which he entertains toward +them.... Whenever Lenin himself is concerned justice is expeditious. +Some men will be delivered from prison after many years of preventive +confinement without having been brought to trial, others who fired on +Kerensky will be kept untried for an indefinite period, whereas the +brave Russian patriot who aimed his revolver at Lenin, and whom the +French press so justly applauded, had only three weeks to wait for his +condemnation to death." + +This article appearing in a Syndicalist organ seemed an event. Some +journals summarized and commented it approvingly, until it was +discovered to be a skit on the transient conditions in France, whereupon +the "admirable _exposé_ based upon convincing evidence" and the +"forcible arguments" became worthless.[37] + +An object-lesson in the difficulty of legislating in Anglo-Saxon fashion +for foreign countries and comprehending their psychology was furnished +by two political trials which, taking place in Paris during the +Conference, enabled the delegates to estimate the distance that +separates the Anglo-Saxon from the Continental mode of thought and +action in such a fundamental problem as the administration of justice. +Raoul Villain, the murderer of Jean Jaurès--France's most eminent +statesman--was kept in prison for nearly five years without a trial. He +had assassinated his victim in cold blood. He had confessed and +justified the act. The eye-witnesses all agreed as to the facts. Before +the court, however, a long procession of ministers of state, +politicians, historians, and professors defiled, narrating in detail the +life-story, opinions, and strivings of the victim, who, in the eyes of a +stranger, unacquainted with its methods, might have seemed to be the +real culprit. The jury acquitted the prisoner. + +The other accused man was a flighty youth who had fired on the French +Premier and wounded him. He, however, had not long to wait for his +trial. He was taken before the tribunal within three weeks of his arrest +and was promptly condemned to die.[38] Thus the assassin was justified +by the jury and the would-be assassin condemned to be shot. "Suppose +these trials had taken place in my country," remarked a delegate of an +Eastern state, "and that of the two condemned men one had been a member +of the privileged minority, what an uproar the incident would have +created in the United States and England! As it happened in western +Europe, it passed muster." + +How far removed some continental nations are from the Anglo-Saxons in +their mode of contemplating and treating another momentous category of +social problems may be seen from the circumstance that the Great Council +in Basel adopted a bill brought in by the Socialist Welti, authorizing +the practice of abortion down to the third month, provided that the +husband and wife are agreed, and in cases where there is no marriage +provided it is the desire of the woman and that the operation is +performed by a regular physician.[39] + +Another striking instance of the difference of conceptions between the +Anglo-Saxon and continental peoples is contained in the following +unsavory document, which the historian, whose business it is to flash +the light of criticism upon the dark nooks of civilization, can neither +ignore nor render into English. It embodies a significant decision taken +by the General Staff of the 256th Brigade of the Army of Occupation[40] +and was issued on June 21, 1919.[41] + + + + + SIGNS OF THE TIMES + + EXPLOITATION ET POLICE DE LA MAISON PUBLIQUE DE MÜNCHEN-GLADBACH + + (1.) Les deux femmes composant l'unique personnel de la maison + publique de Gladbach (2, Gasthausstrasse), sont venues en + délégation déclarer qu'elles ne pouvaient suffire à la nombreuse + clientèle, qui envahit leur maison, devant laquelle stationneraient + en permanence de nombreux groupes de clients affamés. + + Elles déclarent que défalcation faite du service qu'elles doivent + assurer à leurs abonnés belges et allemands, elles ne peuvent + fournir à la division qu'un total de vingt entrées par jour (10 + pour chacune d'elle). + + L'établissement d'ailleurs ne travaille pas la nuit et observe + strictement le repos dominical. D'autre part les ressources de la + ville ne permettent pas, paraît-il, d'augmenter le personnel. Dans + ces conditions, en vue d'éviter tout désordre et de ne pas demander + à ces femmes un travail audessus de leurs forces, les mesures + suivantes seront prises: + + (2.) JOURS DE TRAVAIL: Tous les jours de la semaine, sauf le + dimanche. + + RENDEMENT MAXIMUM: Chaque jour chaque femme reçoit 10 hommes, soit + 20 pour les deux personnes, 120 par semaine. + + HEURES D'OUVERTURE: 17 heures à 21 heures. Aucune réception n'aura + lieu en dehors de ces heures. + + TARIF: Pour un séjour d'un quart heure (entrée et sortie de + l'établissement comprises) ... 5 marks. + + CONSOMMATIONS: La maison ne vend aucune boisson. Il n'y a pas de + salle d'attente. Les clients doivent donc se présenter par deux. + + (3.) RÉPARTITION: Les 6 jours de la semaine sont donnés: Le + lundi--1er bat. du 164 et C.H.R. Le mardi--1er bat. du 169 et + C.H.R. Le mercredi--2e bat. du 164 et C.H.R. Le jeudi--2e bat. du + 169 et C.H.R. Le vendredi--3e bat. du 164. Le samedi--3e bat. du + 169. + + (4.) Dans chaque bataillon il sera établi le jour qui leur est + fixé, 20 tickets déposés aux bureaux des sergents-majeur à raison + de 5 par compagnie. Les hommes désireux de rendre visite à + l'établissement réclamerout au bureau de leur sergent-majeur, 1 + ticket qui leur donnera driot de priorité. + + +The value of that document derives from its having been issued as an +ordinary regulation, from its having been reproduced in a widely +circulated journal of the capital without evolving comment, and from the +strong light which it projects upon one of the darkest corners of the +civilization which has been so often and so eloquently eulogized. + +Manifestly the currents of the new moral life which the Conference was +to have set flowing are as yet somewhat weak, the new ideals are still +remote and the foreshadowings of a nobler future are faint. Another +token of the change which is going forward in the world was reported +from the Far East, but passed almost unnoticed in Europe. The Chinese +Ministry of Public Instruction, by an edict of November 3, 1919, +officially introduced in all secondary schools a phonetic system of +writing in place of the ideograms theretofore employed. This is +undoubtedly an event of the highest importance in the history of +culture, little though it may interest the Western world to-day. At the +same time, as a philologist by profession, I agree with a continental +authority[42] who holds that, owing to the monosyllabic character of the +Chinese language and to the further disadvantage that it lacks wholly or +partly several consonants,[43] it will be practically impossible, as the +Japanese have already found, to apply the new alphabet to the +traditional literary idiom. Neither can it be employed for the needs of +education, journalism, of the administration, or for telegraphing. It +will, however, be of great value for elementary instruction and for +postal correspondence. It is also certain to develop and extend. But its +main significance is twofold: as a sign of China's awakening and as an +innovation, the certain effect of which will be to weaken national unity +and extend regionalism at its expense. From this point of view the +reform is portentous. + +Another of the signs of the new times which calls for mention is the +spread and militancy of the labor movement, to which the war and its +concomitants gave a potent impulse. It is differentiated from all +previous ferments by this, that it constitutes merely an episode in the +universal insurgency of the masses, who are fast breaking through the +thin social crust formed by the upper classes and are emerging rapidly +above the surface. One of the most impressive illustrations of this +general phenomenon is the rise of wages, which in Paris has set the +municipal street-sweepers above university professors, the former +receiving from 7,600 to 8,000 francs a year, whereas the salary of the +latter is some 500 francs less.[44] + +This general disturbance is the outcome of many causes, among which are +the over-population of the world, the spread of education and of equal +opportunity, the anonymity of industrial enterprises, scientific and +unscientific theories, the specialization of labor and its depressing +influence.[45] These factors produced a labor organization which the +railways, newspapers, and telegraph contributed to perfect and transform +into a proletarian league, and now all progressive humanity is tending +steadily and painfully to become one vast collectivity for producing and +sharing on more equitable lines the means of living decently. This +consummation is coming about with the fatality of a natural law, and the +utmost the wisest of governments can do is to direct it through pacific +channels and dislodge artificial obstacles in its course. + +One of the first reforms toward which labor is tending with more or +less conscious effort is the abolition of the hereditary principle in +the possession of wealth and influence and of the means of obtaining +them. The division of labor in the past caused the dissociation of the +so-called nobler avocations from manual work, and gradually those who +followed higher pursuits grew into a sort of hereditary caste which +bestowed relative immunity from the worst hardships of life's struggle +and formed a ruling class. To-day the masses have their hands on the +principal levers for shattering this top crust of the social sphere and +seem resolved to press them. + +The problem for the solution of which they now menacingly clamor is the +establishment of an approximately equitable principle for the +redistribution of the world's resources--land, capital, industries, +monopolies, mines, transports, and colonies. Whether +socialization--their favorite prescription--is the most effectual way of +achieving this object may well be doubted, but must be thoroughly +examined and discussed. The end once achieved, it is expected that +mankind will have become one gigantic living entity, endowed with +senses, nerves, heart, arteries, and all the organs necessary to operate +and employ the forces and wealth of the planet. The process will be +complex because the factors are numerous and of various orders, and for +this reason few political thinkers have realized that its many phases +are aspects of one phenomenon. That is also a partial explanation of the +circumstance that at the Conference the political questions were +separated from the economic and treated by politicians as paramount, the +others being relegated to the background. The labor legislation passed +in Paris reduced itself, therefore, to counsels of perfection. + +That the Conference was incapable of solving a problem of this magnitude +is self-evident. But the delegates could and should have referred it to +an international parliament, fully representative of all the interests +concerned. For the best way of distributing the necessaries and comforts +of life, which have been acquired or created by manual toil, is a +problem that can neither be ignored nor reasoned away. So long as it +remains a problem it will be a source of intermittent trouble and +disorder throughout the civilized world. The titles, which the classes +heretofore privileged could invoke in favor of possession, are now being +rapidly acquired by the workers, who in addition dispose of the force +conferred by organization, numbers, and resolve. At the same time most +of the stimuli and inventives to individual enterprise are being +gradually weakened by legislation, which it would be absurd to condemn +and dangerous to regard as a settlement. In the meanwhile productivity +is falling off, while the demand for the products of labor is growing +proportionately to the increase of population and culture. + +Hitherto the laws of distribution were framed by the strong, who were +few and utilized the many. To-day their relative positions have shifted; +the many have waxed strong and are no longer minded to serve as +instruments in the hands of a class, hereditary or selected. But the +division of mankind into producers and utilizers has ever been the solid +and durable mainstay of that type of civilization from which progressive +nations are now fast moving away, and the laws and usages against which +the proletariat is up in arms are but its organic expression. + +From the days of the building of the Pyramids down to those of the +digging of the Panama Canal the chasm between the two social orders +remained open. The abolition of slavery changed but little in the +arrangement--was, indeed, effected more in the interests of the old +economics than in deference to any strong religious or moral sentiment. +In substance the traditional ordering continued to exist in a form +better adapted to the modified conditions. But the filling up of that +chasm, which is now going forward, involves the overthrow of the system +in its entirety, and the necessity of either rearing a wholly new +structure, of which even the keen-sighted are unable to discern the +outlines, or else the restoration of the old one on a somewhat different +basis. And the only basis conceivable to-day is that which would start +from the postulate that some races of men come into the world devoid of +the capacity for any more useful part in the progress of mankind than +that which was heretofore allotted to the proletariat. It cannot be +gainsaid that there are races on the globe which are incapable of +assimilating the higher forms of civilization, but which might well be +made to render valuable services in the lower without either suffering +injustice themselves or demoralizing others. And it seems nowise +impossible that one day these reserves may be mobilized and +systematically employed in virtue of the principle that the weal of the +great progressive community necessitates such a distribution of parts as +will set each organ to perform the functions for which it is best +qualified. + +Since the close of the war internationalism was in the air, and the +labor movement intensified it. It stirred the thought and warmed the +imagination alike of exploiters and exploited. Reformers and pacifists +yearned for it as a means of establishing a well-knit society of +progressive and pacific peoples and setting a term to sanguinary wars. +Some financiers may have longed for it in a spirit analogous to that in +which Nero wished that the Roman people had but one neck. And the +Conference chiefs seemed to have pictured it to themselves--if, indeed, +they meditated such an abstract matter--in the guise of a _pax +Anglo-Saxonica_, the distinctive feature of which would lie in the +transfer to the two principal peoples--and not to a board representing +all nations--of those attributes of sovereignty which the other states +would be constrained to give up. Of these three currents flowing in the +direction of internationalism only one--that of finance--appears for the +moment likely to reach its goal.... + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[36] _L'Humanité,_ March 6 and 18, 1919. + +[37] Cf. _L'Humanité_, April 10,1919. + +[38] The sentence was subsequently commuted. + +[39] _La Gazette de Lausanne_, May 26, 1919. + +[40] 128th Division. + +[41] It was reproduced by the French Syndicalist organ, _L'Humanité_ of +July 7, 1919. + +[42] R. de Saussure. Cf. _Journal de Genève_, August 18, and also May +26, 1919. + +[43] d, r, t, l, g (partly) and p, except at the beginning of a word. + +[44] Cf. the French papers generally for the month of May--also +_Bonsoir_, July 26, 1919. + +[45] Walther Rathenau has dealt with this question in several of his +recent pamphlets, which are not before me at the moment. + + + +III + +THE DELEGATES + + +The plenipotentiaries, who became the world's arbiters for a while, were +truly representative men. But they mirrored forth not so much the souls +of their respective peoples as the surface spirit that flitted over an +evanescent epoch. They stood for national grandeur, territorial +expansion, party interests, and even abstract ideas. Exponents of a +narrow section of the old order at its lowest ebb, they were in no sense +heralds of the new. Amid a labyrinth of ruins they had no clue to guide +their footsteps, in which the peoples of the world were told to follow. +Only true political vision, breadth of judgment, thorough mastery of the +elements of the situation, an instinct for discerning central issues, +genuine concern for high principles of governance, and the rare moral +courage that disregards popularity as a mainspring of action--could have +fitted any set of legislators to tackle the complex and thorny problems +that pressed for settlement and to effect the necessary preliminary +changes. That the delegates of the principal Powers were devoid of many +of these qualities cannot fairly be made a subject of reproach. It was +merely an accident. But it was as unfortunate as their honest conviction +that they could accomplish the grandiose enterprise of remodeling the +communities of the world without becoming conversant with their +interests, acquainted with their needs, or even aware of their +whereabouts. For their failure, which was inevitable, was also bound to +be tragic, inasmuch as it must involve, not merely their own ambition to +live in history as the makers of a new and regenerate era, but also the +destinies of the nations and races which confidently looked up to them +for the conditions of future pacific progress, nay, of normal existence. + +During the Conference it was the fashion in most European countries to +question the motives as well as to belittle the qualifications of the +delegates. Now that political passion has somewhat abated and the +atmosphere is becoming lighter and clearer, one may without provoking +contradiction pay a well-deserved tribute to their sincerity, high +purpose, and quick response to the calls of public duty and moral +sentiment. They were animated with the best intentions, not only for +their respective countries, but for humanity as a whole. One and all +they burned with the desire to go as far as feasible toward ending the +era of destructive wars. Steady, uninterrupted, pacific development was +their common ideal, and they were prepared to give up all that they +reasonably could to achieve it. It is my belief, for example, that if +Mr. Wilson had persisted in making his League project the cornerstone of +the new world structure and in applying his principles without favor, +the Italians would have accepted it almost without discussion, and the +other states would have followed their example. All the delegates must +have felt that the old order of things, having been shaken to pieces by +the war and its concomitants, could not possibly survive, and they +naturally desired to keep within evolutionary bounds the process of +transition to the new system, thus accomplishing by policy what +revolution would fain accomplish by violence. It was only when they came +to define that policy with a view to its application that their +unanimity was broken up and they split into two camps, the pacifists and +the militarists, or the democrats and imperialists, as they have been +roughly labeled. Here, too, each member of the assembly worked with +commendable single-mindedness, and under a sense of high responsibility, +for that solution of the problem which to him seemed the most conducive +to the general weal. And they wrestled heroically one with the other for +what they held to be right and true relatively to the prevalent +conditions. The circumstance that the cause and effects of this clash of +opinions and sentiments were so widely at variance with early +anticipations had its roots partly in their limited survey of the +complex problem, and partly, too, in its overwhelming vastness and their +own unfitness to cope with it. + +The delegates who aimed at disarmament and a society of pacific peoples +made out as good a case--once their premises were admitted--as those who +insisted upon guarantees, economic and territorial. Everything depended, +for the theory adopted, upon each individual's breadth of view, and for +its realization upon the temper of the peoples and that of their +neighbors. As under the given circumstances either solution was sure to +encounter formidable opposition, which only a doughty spirit would dare +to affront, compromise, offering a side-exit out of the quandary, was +avidly taken. In this way the collective sagacities, working in +materials the nature of which they hardly understood, brought forth +strange products. Some of the incongruities of the details, such, for +instance, as the invitation to Prinkipo, despatched anonymously, +occasionally surpass satire, but their bewildered authors are entitled +to the benefit of extenuating circumstances. + +On the momentous issue of a permanent peace based on Mr. Wilson's +pristine concept of a league of nations, and in accordance with rigid +principles applied equally to all the states, there was no discussion. +In other words, it was tacitly agreed that the fourteen points should +not form a bar to the vital postulates of any of the Great Powers. It +was only on the subject of the lesser states and the equality of nations +that the debates were intense, protracted, and for a long while +fruitless. At times words flamed perilously high. For months the +solutions of the Adriatic, the Austrian, Turkish, and Thracian problems +hung in poignant suspense, the public looking on with diminishing +interest and waxing dissatisfaction. The usual optimistic assurances +that all would soon run smoothly and swiftly fell upon deaf ears. Faith +in the Conference was melting away. + +The plight of the Supreme Council and the vain exhortations to believe +in its efficiency reminded me of the following story. + +A French parish priest was once spiritually comforting a member of his +flock who was tormented by doubts about the goodness of God as measured +by the imperfection of His creation. Having listened to a vivid account +of the troubled soul's high expectation of its Maker and of its deep +disappointment at His work, the pious old curé said: "Yes, my child. The +world is indeed bad, as you say, and you are right to deplore it. But +don't you think you may have formed to yourself an exaggerated idea of +God?" An analogous reflection would not be out of place when passing +judgment on the Conference which implicitly arrogated to itself some of +the highest attributes of the Deity, and thus heightened the contrast +between promise and achievement. Certainly people expected much more +from it than it could possibly give. But it was the delegates themselves +who had aroused these expectations announcing the coming of a new epoch +at their fiat. The peoples were publicly told by Mr. Lloyd George and +several of his colleagues that the war of 1914-18 would be the last. His +"Never again" became a winged phrase, and the more buoyant optimists +expected to see over the palace of arbitration which was to be +substituted for the battlefield, the inspiring inscription: "A la +dernière des guerres, l'humanité reconnaissante."[46] Mr. Wilson's vast +project was still more attractive. + +Mr. Lloyd George is too well known in his capacity of British +parliamentarian to need to be characterized. The splendid services he +rendered the Empire during the war, when even his defects proved +occasionally helpful, will never be forgotten. Typifying not only the +aims, but also the methods, of the British people, he never seems to +distrust his own counsels whencesoever they spring nor to lack the +courage to change them in a twinkling. He stirred the soul of the nation +in its darkest hour and communicated his own glowing faith in its star. +During the vicissitudes of the world struggle he was the right man for +the responsible post which he occupied, and I am proud of having been +one of the first to work in my own modest way to have him placed there. +But a good war-leader may be a poor peace-negotiator, and, as a matter +of fact, there are few tasks concerned with the welfare of the nation +which Mr. Lloyd George could not have tackled with incomparably greater +chances of accomplishing it than that of remodeling the world. His +antecedents were all against him. His lack of general equipment was +prohibitive; even his inborn gifts were disqualifications. One need not +pay too great heed to acrimonious colleagues who set him down as a +word-weaving trimmer, between whose utterances and thoughts there is no +organic nexus, who declines to take the initiative unless he sees +adequate forces behind him ready to his to his support, who lacks the +moral courage that serves as a parachute for a fall from popularity, +but possesses in abundance that of taking at the flood the rising tide +which balloon-like lifts its possessor high above his fellows. But +judging him in the light of the historic events in which he played a +prominent part, one cannot dismiss these criticisms as groundless. + +Opportunism is an essential element of statecraft, which is the art of +the possible. But there is a line beyond which it becomes shiftiness, +and it would be rash to assert that Mr. Lloyd George is careful to keep +on the right side of it. At the Conference his conduct appeared to +careful observers to be traced mainly by outside influences, and as +these were various and changing the result was a zigzag. One day he +would lay down a certain proposition as a dogma not to be modified, and +before the week was out he would advance the contrary proposition and +maintain that with equal warmth and doubtless with equal conviction. +Guided by no sound knowledge and devoid of the ballast of principle, he +was tossed and driven hither and thither like a wreck on the ocean. Mr. +Melville Stone, the veteran American journalist, gave his countrymen his +impression of the first British delegate. "Mr. Lloyd George," he said, +"has a very keen sense of humor and a great power over the multitude, +but with this he displays a startling indifference to, if not ignorance +of, the larger affairs of nations." In the course of a walk Mr. Lloyd +George expressed surprise when informed that in the United States the +war-making power was invested in Congress. "What!" exclaimed the +Premier, "you mean to tell me that the President of the United States +cannot declare war? I never heard that before." Later, when questions of +national ambitions were being discussed, Mr. Lloyd George asked, "What +is that place Rumania is so anxious to get?" meaning Transylvania.[47] + +The stories current of his praiseworthy curiosity about the places +which he was busy distributing to the peoples whose destinies he was +forging would be highly amusing if the subject were only a private +individual and his motive a desire for useful information, but on the +representative of a great Empire they shed a light in which the dignity +of his country was necessarily affected and his own authority deplorably +diminished. For moral authority at that conjuncture was the sheet anchor +of the principal delegates. Although without a program, Mr. Lloyd George +would appear to have had an instinctive feeling, if not a reasoned +belief, that in matters of general policy his safest course would be to +keep pace with the President of the United States. For he took it for +granted that Mr. Wilson's views were identical with those of the +American people. One of his colleagues, endeavoring to dispel this +illusion, said: "Your province at this Conference is to lead. Your +colleagues, including Mr. Wilson, will follow. You have the Empire +behind you. Voice its aspirations. They coincide with those of the +English-speaking peoples of the world. Mr. Wilson has lost his +elections, therefore he does not stand for as much as you imagine. You +have won your elections, so you are the spokesman of a vast community +and the champion of a noble cause. You can knead the Conference at your +will. Assert your will. But even if you decide to act in harmony with +the United States, that does not mean subordinating British interests to +the President's views, which are not those of the majority of his +people." But Mr. Lloyd George, invincibly diffident--if diffidence it +be--shrank from marching alone, and on certain questions which mattered +much Mr. Wilson had his way. + +One day there was an animated discussion in the twilight of the Paris +conclave while the press was belauding the plenipotentiaries for their +touching unanimity. The debate lay between the United States as voiced +by Mr. Wilson and Great Britain as represented by Mr. Lloyd George. On +the morrow, before the conversation was renewed, a colleague adjured the +British Premier to stand firm, urging that his contention of the +previous day was just in the abstract and beneficial to the Empire as +well. Mr. Lloyd George bowed to the force of these motives, but yielded +to the greater force of Mr. Wilson's resolve. "Put it to the test," +urged the colleague. "I dare not," was the rejoinder. "Wilson won't +brook it. Already he threatens, if we do, to leave the Conference and +return home." "Well then, let him. If he did, we should be none the +worse off for his absence. But rest assured, he won't go. He cannot +afford to return home empty-handed after his splendid promises to his +countrymen and the world." Mr. Lloyd George insisted, however, and said, +"But he will take his army away, too." "What!" exclaimed the tempter. +"His army? Well, I only ..." but it would serve no useful purpose to +quote the vigorous answer in full. + +This odd mixture of exaggerated self-confidence, mismeasurement of +forces, and pliability to external influences could not but be baleful +in one of the leaders of an assembly composed, as was the Paris +Conference, of men each with his own particular ax to grind and +impressible only to high moral authority or overwhelming military force. +It cannot be gainsaid that no one, not even his own familiars, could +ever foresee the next move in Mr. Lloyd George's game of statecraft, and +it is demonstrable that on several occasions he himself was so little +aware of what he would do next that he actually advocated as +indispensable measures diametrically opposed to those which he was to +propound, defend, and carry a week or two later. A conversation which +took place between him and one of his fellow-workers gives one the +measure of his irresolution and fitfulness. "Do tell me," said this +collaborator, "why it is that you members of the Supreme Council are +hurriedly changing to-day the decisions you came to after five months' +study, which you say was time well spent?" + +"Because of fresh information we have received in the meanwhile. We know +more now than we knew then and the different data necessitate different +treatment." + +"Yes, but the conditions have not changed since the Conference opened. +Surely they were the same in January as they are in June. Is not that +so?" + +"No doubt, no doubt, but we did not ascertain them before June, so we +could not act upon them until now." + +With the leading delegates thus drifting and the pieces on the political +chessboard bewilderingly disposed, outsiders came to look upon the +Conference as a lottery. Unhappily, it was a lottery in which there were +no mere blanks, but only prizes or heavy forfeits. + +To sum up: the first British delegate, essentially a man of expedients +and shifts, was incapable of measuring more than an arc of the political +circle at a time. A comprehensive survey of a complicated situation was +beyond his reach. He relied upon imagination and intuition as +substitutes for precise knowledge and technical skill. Hence he himself +could never be sure that his decision, however carefully worked out, +would be final, seeing that in June facts might come to his cognizance +with which five months' investigations had left him unacquainted. This +incertitude about the elements of the problem intensified the ingrained +hesitancy that had characterized his entire public career and warped his +judgment effectually. The only approach to a guiding principle one can +find in his work at the Conference was the loosely held maxim that Great +Britain's best policy was to stand in with the United States in all +momentous issues and to identify Mr. Wilson with the United States for +most purposes of the Congress. Within these limits Mr. Lloyd George was +unyielding in fidelity to the cause of France, with which he merged that +of civilization. + +M. Clemenceau is the incarnation of the tireless spirit of destruction. +Pulling down has ever been his delight, and it is largely to his success +in demolishing the defective work of rivals--and all human work is +defective--that he owes the position of trust and responsibility to +which the Parliament raised him during the last phase of the war. +Physically strong, despite his advanced age, he is mentally brilliant +and superficial, with a bias for paradox, epigram, and racy, +unconventional phraseology. His action is impulsive. In the Dreyfus days +I saw a good deal of M. Clemenceau in his editorial office, when he +would unburden his soul to M.M. Vaughan, the poet Quillard, and others. +Later on I approached him while he was chief of the government on a +delicate matter of international combined with national politics, on +which I had been requested to sound him by a friendly government, and I +found him, despite his developed and sobering sense of responsibility, +whimsical, impulsive, and credulous as before. When I next talked with +him he was the rebellious editor of _L'Homme Enchaîné_, whose corrosive +strictures upon the government of the day were the terror of Ministers +and censors. Soon afterward he himself became the wielder of the great +national gagging-machine, and in the stringency with which he +manipulated it he is said by his own countrymen to have outdone the +government of the Third Empire. His _alter ego_, Georges Mandel, is +endowed with qualities which supplement and correct those of his +venerable chief. His grasp of detail is comprehensive and firm, his +memory retentive, and his judgment bold and deliberate. A striking +illustration of the audacity of his resolve was given in the early part +of 1918. Marshal Joffre sent a telegram to President Wilson in +Washington, and because he had omitted to despatch it through the War +Ministry, M. Mandel, who is a strict disciplinarian, proposed that he be +placed under arrest. It was with difficulty that some public men moved +him to leniency. + +M. Clemenceau, the professional destroyer, who can boast that he +overthrew eighteen Cabinets, or nineteen if we include his own, was +unquestionably the right man to carry on the war. He acquitted himself +of the task superbly. His faith in the Allies' victory was unwavering. +He never doubted, never flagged, never was intimidated by obstacles nor +wheedled by persons. Once during the armistice, in May or June, when +Marshal Foch expressed his displeasure that the Premier should have +issued military orders to troops under his command[48] without first +consulting him, he was on the point of dismissing the Marshal and +appointing General Pétain to succeed him.[49] Whether the qualities +which stood him in such good stead during the world struggle could be of +equal, or indeed of much, avail in the general constructive work for +which the Conference was assembled is a question that needs only to be +formulated. But in securing every advantage that could be conferred on +his own country his influence on the delegates was decisive. M. +Clemenceau, who before the war was the intimate friend of Austrian +journalists, hated his country's enemies with undying hate. And he loved +France passionately. I remember significant words of his, uttered at the +end of the year 1899 to an enterprising young man who had founded a +Franco-German review in Munich and craved his moral support. "Is it +possible," he exclaimed, "that it has already come to that? Well, a +nation is not conquered until it accepts defeat. Whenever France gives +up she will have deserved her humiliation." + +At the Conference M. Clemenceau moved every lever to deliver his country +for all time from the danger of further invasions. And, being a realist, +he counted only on military safeguards. At the League of Nations he was +wont to sneer until it dawned upon him that it might be forged into an +effective weapon of national defense. And then he included it in the +litany of abstract phrases about right, justice, and the +self-determination of peoples which it became the fashion to raise to +the inaccessible heights where those ideals are throned which are to be +worshiped but not incarnated. The public somehow never took his +conversion to Wilsonianism seriously, neither did his political friends +until the League bade fair to become serviceable in his country's hands. +M. Clemenceau's acquaintanceship with international politics was at once +superior to that of the British Premier and very slender. But his +program at the Conference was simple and coherent, because independent +of geography and ethnography: France was to take Germany's leading +position in the world, to create powerful and devoted states in eastern +Europe, on whose co-operation she could reckon, and her allies were to +do the needful in the way of providing due financial and economic +assistance so as to enable her to address herself to the cultural +problems associated with her new rôle. And he left nothing undone that +seemed conducive to the attainment of that object. Against Mr. Wilson he +maneuvered to the extent which his adviser, M. Tardieu, deemed safe, and +one of his most daring speculations was on the President's journey to +the States, during which M. Clemenceau and his European colleagues hoped +to get through a deal of work on their own lines and to present Mr. +Wilson with the decisions ready for ratification on his return. But the +stratagem was not merely apparent; it was bruited abroad with indiscreet +details, whereupon the first American delegate on his return broke the +tables of their laws--one of which separated the Treaty from the +Covenant--and obliged them to begin anew. It is fair to add that M. +Clemenceau was no uncompromising partisan of the conquest of the left +bank of the Rhine, nor of colonial conquests. These currents took their +rise elsewhere. "We don't want protesting deputies in the French +Parliament," he once remarked in the presence of the French Minister of +Foreign Affairs.[50] Offered the choice between a number of bridgeheads +in Germany and the military protection of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, he +unhesitatingly decided for the latter, which had been offered to him by +President Wilson after the rejection of the Rhine frontier. + +M. Clemenceau, whose remarkable mental alacrity, self-esteem, and love +of sharp repartee occasionally betrayed him into tactless sallies and +epigrammatic retorts, deeply wounded the pride of more than one delegate +of the lesser Powers in a way which they deemed incompatible alike with +circumspect statesmanship and the proverbial hospitality of his country. +For he is incapable of resisting the temptation to launch a _bon mot_, +however stinging. It would be ungenerous, however, to attach more +importance to such quickly forgotten utterances than he meant them to +carry. An instance of how he behaved toward the representatives of +Britain and France is worth recording, both as characterizing the man +and as extenuating his offense against the delegates of the lesser +Powers. + +One morning[51] M. Clemenceau appeared at the Conference door, and +seemed taken aback by the large number of unfamiliar faces and figures +behind Mr. Balfour, toward whom he sharply turned with the brusque +interrogation: "Who are those people behind you? Are they English?" +"Yes, they are," was the answer. "Well, what do they want here?" "They +have come on the same errand as those who are now following you." +Thereupon the French Premier, whirling round, beheld with astonishment +and displeasure a band of Frenchmen moving toward him, led by M. Pichon, +the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In reply to his question as to the +motive of their arrival, he was informed that they were all experts, who +had been invited to give the Conference the benefit of their views about +the revictualing of Hungary. "Get out, all of you. You are not wanted +here," he cried in a commanding voice. And they all moved away meekly, +led by M. Pichon, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Their services proved +to be unnecessary, for the result reached by the Conference was +negative. + +M. Tardieu cannot be separated from his chief, with whom he worked +untiringly, placing at his disposal his intimate knowledge of the nooks +and crannies of professional and unprofessional diplomacy. He is one of +the latest arrivals and most pushing workers in the sphere of the Old +World statecraft, affects Yankee methods, and speaks English. For +several years political editor of the _Temps_, he obtained access to the +state archives, and wrote a book on the Agadir incident which was well +received, and also a monograph on Prince von Bülow, became Deputy, aimed +at a ministerial portfolio, and was finally appointed Head Commissary to +the United States. Faced by difficulties there--mostly the specters of +his own former utterances evoked by German adversaries--his progress at +first was slow. He was accused of having approved some of the drastic +methods--especially the U-boat campaign--which the Germans subsequently +employed, because in the year 1912, when he was writing on the subject, +France believed that she herself possessed the best submarines, and she +meant to employ them. He was also challenged to deny that he had +written, in August, 1912, that in every war churches and monuments of +art must suffer, and that "no army, whatever its nationality, can +renounce this." He was further charged with having taken a kindly +interest in air-war and bomb-dropping, and given it as his opinion that +it would be absurd "to deprive of this advantage those who had made most +progress in perfecting this weapon." But M. Tardieu successfully +exorcised these and other ghosts. And on his return from the United +States he was charged with organizing a press bureau of his own, to +supply American journalists with material for their cablegrams, while at +the same time he collaborated with M. Clemenceau in reorganizing the +political communities of the world. It is only in the French Chamber, of +which he is a distinguished member, that M. Tardieu failed to score a +brilliant success. Few men are prophets in their own country, and he is +far from being an exception. At the Conference, in its later phases, he +found himself in frequent opposition to the chief of the Italian +delegation, Signor Tittoni. One of the many subjects on which they +disagreed was the fate of German Austria and the political structure and +orientation of the independent communities which arose on the ruins of +the Dual Monarchy. M. Tardieu favored an arrangement which would bring +these populations closely together and impart to the whole an +anti-Teutonic impress. If Germany could not be broken up into a number +of separate states, as in the days of her weakness, all the other +European peoples in the territories concerned could, and should, be +united against her, and at the least hindered from making common cause +with her. The unification of Germany he considered a grave danger, and +he strove to create a countervailing state system. + +To the execution of this project there were formidable difficulties. +For one thing, none of the peoples in question was distinctly +anti-German. Each one was for itself. Again, they were not particularly +enamoured of one another, nor were their interests always concordant, +and to constrain them by force to unite would have been not to prevent +but to cause future wars. A Danubian federation--the concrete shape +imagined for this new bulwark of European peace--did not commend itself +to the Italians, who had their own reasons for their opposition besides +the Wilsonian doctrine, which they invoked. If it be true, Signor +Tittoni argues, that Austria does not desire to be amalgamated with +Germany, why not allow her to exercise the right of self-determination +accorded to other peoples? M. Tardieu, on the other hand, not content +with the prohibition to Germany to unite with Austria, proposed[52] that +in the treaty with Austria this country should be obliged to repress the +unionist movement in the population. This amendment was inveighed +against by the Italian delegation in the name of every principle +professed and transgressed by the world-mending Powers. Even from the +French point of view he declared it perilous, inasmuch as there was, and +could be, no guarantee that a Danubian confederation would not become a +tool in Germany's hands. + +Two things struck me as characteristic of the principal +plenipotentiaries: as a rule, they eschewed first-rate men as +fellow-workers, one integer and several zeros being their favorite +formula, and they took no account of the flight of time, planning as +though an eternity were before them and then suddenly improvising as +though afraid of being late for a train or a steamer. These +peculiarities were baleful. The lesser states, having mainly first-class +men to represent them, illustrated the law of compensation, which +assigned many mediocrities to the Great Powers. The former were also the +most strenuous toilers, for their task bristled with difficulties and +abounded in startling surprises, and its accomplishment depended on the +will of others. Time and again they went over the ground with infinite +care, counting and gaging the obstacles in their way, devising means to +overcome them, and rehearsing the effort in advance. So much stress had +been laid during the war on psychology, and such far-reaching +consequences were being drawn from the Germans' lack of it, that these +public men made its cultivation their personal care. Hence, besides +tracing large-scale maps of provinces and comprehensive maps[53] of the +countries to be reconstituted, and ransacking history for arguments and +precedents, they conscientiously ascertained the idiosyncrasies of their +judges, in order to choose the surest ways to impress, convince, or +persuade them. And it was instructive to see them try their hand at this +new game. + +One and all gave assent to the axiom that moderation would impress the +arbiters more favorably than greed, but not all of them wielded +sufficient self-command to act upon it. The more resourceful delegates, +whose tasks were especially redoubtable because they had to demand large +provinces coveted by others, prepared the ground by visiting personally +some of the more influential arbiters before these were officially +appointed, forcibly laying their cases before them and praying for their +advice. In reality they were striving to teach them elementary +geography, history, and politics. The Ulysses of the Conference, M. +Venizelos, first pilgrimaged to London, saying: "If the Foreign Office +is with Greece, what matters it who is against her." He hastened to call +on President Wilson as soon as that statesman arrived in Europe, and, +to the surprise of many, the two remained a long time closeted together. +"Whatever did you talk about?" asked a colleague of the Greek Premier. +"How did you keep Wilson interested in your national claims all that +time? You must have--" "Oh no," interrupted the modest statesman. "I +disposed of our claims succinctly enough. A matter of two minutes. Not +more. I asked him to dispense me from taking up his time with such +complicated issues which he and his colleagues would have ample +opportunity for studying. The rest of the time I was getting him to give +me the benefit of his familiarity with the subject of the League of +Nations. And he was good enough to enumerate the reasons why it should +be realized, and the way in which it must be worked. I was greatly +impressed by what he said." "Just fancy!" exclaimed a colleague, +"wasting all that time in talking about a scheme which will never come +to anything!" But M. Venizelos knew that the time was not misspent. +President Wilson was at first nowise disposed to lend a favorable ear to +the claims of Greece, which he thought exorbitant, and down to the very +last he gave his support to Bulgaria against Greece whole-heartedly. The +Cretan statesman passed many an hour of doubt and misgiving before he +came within sight of his goal. But he contrived to win the President +over to his way of envisaging many Oriental questions. He is a +past-master in practical psychology. + +The first experiments of M. Venizelos, however, were not wholly +encouraging. For all the care he lavished on the chief luminaries of the +Conference seemingly went to supplement their education and fill up a +few of the geographical, historical, philological, ethnological, and +political gaps in their early instruction rather than to guide them in +their concrete decisions, which it was expected would be always left to +the "commissions of experts." But the fruit which took long to mature +ripened at last, and Greece had many of her claims allowed. Thus in +reorganizing the communities of the world the personal factor played a +predominant part. Venizelos was, so to say, a fixed star in the +firmament, and his light burned bright through every rift in the clouds. +His moderation astonished friends and opponents. Every one admired his +_exposé_ of his case as a masterpiece. His statesman-like setting, in +perspective, the readiness with which he put himself in the place of his +competitor and struck up a fair compromise, endeared him to many, and +his praises were in every one's mouth. His most critical hour--it lasted +for months--struck when he found himself struggling with the President +of the United States, who was for refusing the coast of Thrace to Greece +and bestowing it on Bulgaria. But with that dispute I deal in another +place. + +Of Italy's two plenipotentiaries during the first five months one was +the most supple and the other the most inflexible of her statesmen, +Signor Orlando and Baron Sonnino. If her case was presented to the +Conference with less force than was attainable, the reasons are obvious. +Her delegates had a formal treaty on which they relied; to the attitude +of their country from the outbreak of the war to its finish they rightly +ascribed the possibility of the Allies' victory, and they expected to +see this priceless service recognized practically; the moderation and +suppleness of Signor Orlando were neutralized by the uncompromising +attitude of Baron Sonnino, and, lastly, the gaze of both statesmen was +fixed upon territorial questions and sentimental aspirations to the +neglect of economic interests vital to the state--in other words, they +beheld the issues in wrong perspective. But one of the most popular +figures among the delegates was Signor Orlando, whose eloquence and +imagination gave him advantages which would have been increased a +hundredfold if he might have employed his native language in the +conclave. For he certainly displayed resourcefulness, humor, a historic +sense, and the gift of molding the wills of men. But he was greatly +hampered. Some of his countrymen alleged that Baron Sonnino was his evil +genius. One of the many sayings attributed to him during the Conference +turned upon the quarrels of some of the smaller peoples among +themselves. "They are," the Premier said, "like a lot of hens being held +by the feet and carried to market. Although all doomed to the same fate, +they contrive to fight one another while awaiting it." + +After the fall of Orlando's Cabinet, M. Tittoni repaired to Paris as +Italy's chief delegate. His reputation as one of Europe's principal +statesmen was already firmly established; he had spent several years in +Paris as Ambassador, and he and the late Di San Giuliano and Giolitti +were the men who broke with the Central Empires when these were about to +precipitate the World War. In French nationalist circles Signor Tittoni +had long been under a cloud, as the man of pro-German leanings. The +suspicion--for it was nothing more--was unfounded. On the contrary, M. +Tittoni is known to have gone with the Allies to the utmost length +consistent with his sense of duty to his own country. To my knowledge he +once gave advice which his Italian colleagues and political friends and +adversaries now bitterly regret was disregarded. The nature of that +counsel will one day be disclosed.... + +Of Japan's delegates, the Marquis Saionji and Baron Makino, little need +be said, seeing that their qualifications for their task were +demonstrated by the results. Mainly to statesmanship and skilful +maneuvering Japan is indebted for her success at the Paris Conference, +where her cause was referred by Mr. Lloyd George and M. Clemenceau to +Mr. Wilson to deal with. The behavior of her representatives was an +illuminating object-lesson in the worth of psychological tactics in +practical politics. They hardly ever appeared in the footlights, +remained constantly silent and observant, and were almost ignored by the +press. But they kept their eyes fixed on the goal. Their program was +simple. Amid the flitting shadows of political events they marched +together with the Allies, until these disagreed among themselves, and +then they voted with Great Britain and the United States. Occasionally +they went farther and proposed measures for the lesser states which +Britain framed, but desired to second rather than propose. Japan, at the +Conference, was a stanch collaborator of the two English-speaking +principals until her own opportunity came, and then she threw all her +hoarded energies into her cause, and by her firm resolve dispelled any +opposition that Mr. Wilson may have intended to offer. One of the most +striking episodes of the Conference was the swift, silent, and +successful campaign by which Japan had her secret treaty with China +hall-marked by the puritanical President of the United States, whose +sense of morality could not brook the secret treaties concluded by Italy +and Rumania with the Greater and Greatest Powers of Europe. Again, it +was with statesman-like sagacity that the Japanese judged the Russian +situation and made the best of it--first, shortly before the invitation +to Prinkipo, and, later, before the celebrated eight questions were +submitted to Admiral Kolchak. I was especially struck by an occurrence, +trivial in appearance, which demonstrated the weight which they rightly +attached to the psychological side of politics. Everybody in Paris +remarked, and many vainly complained of, the indifference, or rather, +unfriendliness, of which Russians were the innocent victims. Among the +Allied troops who marched under the Arc de Triomphe on July 14th there +were Rumanians, Greeks, Portuguese, and Indians, but not a single +Russian. A Russian general drove about in the forest of flags and +banners that day looking eagerly for symbols of his own country, but for +hours the quest was fruitless. At last, when passing the Japanese +Embassy, he perceived, to his delight, an enormous Russian flag waving +majestically in the breeze, side by side with that of Nippon. "I shed +tears of joy," he told his friend that evening, "and I vowed that +neither I nor my country would ever forget this touching mark of +friendship." + +Japanese public opinion criticized severely the failure of their +delegates to obtain recognition of the equality of races or nations. +This judgment seems unjust, for nothing that they could have done or +said would have wrung from Mr. Wilson and Mr. Hughes their assent to the +doctrine, nor, if they had been induced to proclaim it, would it have +been practically applied. + +In general, the lawyers were the most successful in stating their cases. +But one of the delegates of the lesser states who made the deepest +impression on those of the greater was not a member of the bar. The head +of the Polish delegation, Roman Dmowski, a picturesque, forcible +speaker, a close debater and resourceful pleader, who is never at a loss +for an image, a comparison, an _argumentum ad hominem_, or a repartee, +actually won over some of the arbiters who had at first leaned toward +his opponents--a noteworthy feat if one realizes all that it meant in an +assembly where potent influences were working against some of the +demands of resuscitated Poland. His speech in September on the future of +eastern Galicia was a veritable masterpiece. + +M. Dmowski appeared at the Conference under all the disadvantages that +could be heaped upon a man who has incurred the resentment of the most +powerful international body of modern times. He had the misfortune to +have the Jews of the world as his adversaries. His Polish friends +explained this hostility as follows. His ardent nationalist sentiments +placed him in antagonism to every movement that ran counter to the +progress of his country on nationalist lines. For he is above all things +a Pole and a patriot. And as the Hebrew population of Poland, +disbelieving in the resurrection of that nation, had long since struck +up a cordial understanding with the states that held it in bondage, the +gifted author of a book on the _Foundations of Nationalism_, which went +through four editions, was regarded by the Hebrew elements of the +population as an irreconcilable enemy. In truth, he was only the leader +of a movement that was a historical necessity. One of the theses of the +work was the necessity of cultivating an anti-German spirit in Poland as +the only antidote against the Teuton virus introduced from Berlin +through economic and other channels. And as the Polish Jews, whose idiom +is a corrupted German dialect and whose leanings are often Teutonic, +felt that the attack upon the whole was an attack on the part, they +anathematized the author and held him up to universal obloquy. And there +has been no reconciliation ever since. In the United States, where the +Jewish community is numerous and influential, M. Dmowski found spokes in +his wheel at every stage of his journey, and in Paris, too, he had to +full-front a tremendous opposition, open and covert. Whatever unbiased +people may think of this explanation and of his hostility to the Germans +and their agents, Roman Dmowski deservedly enjoys the reputation of a +straightforward and loyal fighter for his country's cause, a man who +scorns underhand machinations and proclaims aloud--perhaps too +frankly--the principles for which he is fighting. Polish Jews who +appeared in Paris, some of them his bitterest antagonists, recognized +the chivalrous way in which he conducts his electoral and other +campaigns. Among the delegates his practical acquaintanceship with East +European polities entitled him to high rank. For he knows the world +better than any living statesman, having traveled over Europe, Asia, and +America. He undertook and successfully accomplished a delicate mission +in the Far East in the year 1905, rendering valuable services to his +country and to the cause of civilization. + +"M. Dmowski's activity," his friends further assert, "is impassioned and +unselfish. The ambition that inspires and nerves him is not of the +personal sort, nor is his patriotism a ladder leading to place and +power. Polish patriotism occupies a category apart from that of other +European peoples, and M. Dmowski has typified it with rare fidelity and +completeness. If Wilsonianism had been realized, Polish nationalism +might have become an anachronism. To-day it is a large factor in +European politics and is little understood in the West. M. Dmowski lives +for his country. Her interests absorb his energies. He would probably +agree with the historian Paolo Sarpi, who said, 'Let us be Venetians +first and Christians after.' Of the two widely divergent currents into +which the main stream of political thought and sentiment throughout the +world is fast dividing itself, M. Dmowski moves with the national away +from the international championed by Mr. Wilson. The frequency with +which the leading spirits of Bolshevism turn out to be Jews--to the +dismay and disgust of the bulk of their own community--and the ingenuity +they displayed in spreading their corrosive tenets in Poland may not +have been without effect upon the energy of M. Dmowski's attitude toward +the demand of the Polish Jews to be placed in the privileged position of +wards of the League of Nations. But the principle of the protection of +minority--Jewish or Gentile--is assailable on grounds which have nothing +to do with race or religion." Some of the most interesting and +characteristic incidents at the Conference had the Polish statesman for +their principal actor, and to him Poland owes some of the most solid and +enduring benefits conferred on her at the Conference. + +Of a different temper is M. Paderewski, who appeared in Paris to plead +his country's cause at a later stage of the labors of the Conference. +This eminent artist's energies were all blended into one harmonious +whole, so that his meetings with the great plenipotentiaries were never +disturbed by a jarring note. As soon as it was borne in upon him that +their decisions were as irrevocable as decrees of Fate, he bowed to them +and treated the authors as Olympians who had no choice but to utter the +stern fiat. Even when called upon to accept the obnoxious clause +protecting religious and ethnic minorities against which his colleague +had vainly fought, M. Paderewski sunk political passion in reason and +attuned himself to the helpful role of harmonizer. He held that it would +have been worse than useless to do otherwise. He was grieved that his +country must acquiesce in that decree, he regretted intensely the +necessity which constrained such proven friends of Poland as the Four to +pass what he considered a severe sentence on her; but he resigned +himself gracefully to the inevitable and thanked Fate's executioners for +their personal sympathy. This attitude evoked praise and admiration from +Messrs. Lloyd George and Wilson, and the atmosphere of the conclave +seemed permeated with a spirit that induced calm satisfaction and the +joy of elevated thoughts. M. Paderewski made a deep and favorable +impression on the Supreme Council. + +Belgium sent her most brilliant parliamentarian, M. Hymans, as first +plenipotentiary to the Conference. He was assisted by the chief of the +Socialist party, M. Vandervelde, and by an eminent authority on +international law, M. Van den Heuvel. But for reasons which elude +analysis, none of the three delegates hit it off with the duumvirate +who were spinning the threads of the world's destinies. M. Hymans, +however, by his warmth, sincerity, and courage impressed the +representatives of the lesser states, won their confidence, became their +natural spokesman, and blazed out against all attempts--and they were +numerous and deliberate--to ignore their existence. It was he who by his +direct and eloquent protest took M. Clemenceau off his guard and +elicited the amazing utterance that the Powers which could put twelve +million soldiers in the field were the world's natural arbiters. In this +way he cleared the atmosphere of the distorting mists of catchwords and +shibboleths. + +How decisive a role internal politics played in the designation of +plenipotentiaries to the Conference was shown with exceptional clearness +in the case of Rumania. That country had no legislature. The Constituent +Assembly, which had been dissolved owing to the German invasion, was +followed by no fresh elections. The King, with whom the initiative thus +rested, had reappointed M. Bratiano Chief of the Government, and M. +Bratiano was naturally desirous of associating his own historic name +with the aggrandizement of his country. But he also desired to secure +the services of his political rival, M. Take Jonescu, whose reputation +as a far-seeing statesman and as a successful negotiator is world-wide. +Among his qualifications are an acquaintanceship with European countries +and their affairs and a rare facility for give and take which is of the +essence of international politics. He can assume the initiative in +_pourparlers_, however uncompromising the outlook; frame plausible +proposals; conciliate his opponents by showing how thoroughly he +understands and appreciates their point of view, and by these means he +has often worked out seemingly hopeless negotiations to a satisfactory +issue. M. Clemenceau wrote of him, "C'est un grand Européen."[54] + +M. Bratiano's bid for the services of his eminent opponent was coupled +with the offer of certain portfolios in the Cabinet to M. Jonescu and to +a number of his parliamentary supporters. While negotiations were slowly +proceeding by telegraph, M. Jonescu, who had already taken up his abode +in Paris, was assiduously weaving his plans. He began by assuming what +everybody knew, that the Powers would refuse to honor the secret treaty +with France, Britain, and Russia, which assigned to Rumania all the +territories to which she had laid claim, and he proposed first striking +up a compromise with the other interested states, then compacting +Rumania, Jugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Greece into a solid +block, and asking the Powers to approve and ratify the new league. Truly +it was a genial conception worthy of a broad-minded statesman. It aimed +at a durable peace based on what he considered a fair settlement of +claims satisfactory to all, and it would have lightened the burden of +the Big Four. But whether it could have been realized by peoples moved +by turbid passions and represented by trustees, some of whom were +avowedly afraid to relinquish claims which they knew to be exorbitant, +may well be doubted. + +But the issue was never put to the test. The two statesmen failed to +agree on the Cabinet question; M. Jonescu kept aloof from office, and +the post of second delegate fell to Rumania's greatest diplomatist and +philologist, M. Mishu, who had for years admirably represented his +country as Minister in the British capital. From the outset M. +Bratiano's position was unenviable, because he based his country's case +on the claims of the secret treaty, and to Mr. Wilson every secret +treaty which he could effectually veto was anathema. Between the two +men, in lieu of a bond of union, there was only a strong force of mutual +repulsion, which kept them permanently apart. They moved on different +planes, spoke different languages, and Rumania, in the person of her +delegates, was treated like Cinderella by her stepmother. The Council of +Three kept them systematically in the dark about matters which it +concerned them to know, negotiated over their heads, transmitted to +Bucharest injunctions which only they were competent to receive, +insisted on their compromising to accept future decrees of the +Conference without an inkling as to their nature, and on their admitting +the right of an alien institution--the League of Nations--to intervene +in favor of minorities against the legally constituted government of the +country. M. Bratiano, who in a trenchant speech inveighed against these +claims of the Great Powers to take the governance of Europe into their +own hands, withdrew from the Conference and laid his resignation in the +hands of the King. + +One of the most remarkable debaters in this singular parliament, where +self-satisfied ignorance and dullness of apprehension were so hard to +pierce, was the youthful envoy of the Czechoslovaks, M. Benes. This +politician, who before the Conference came to an end was offered the +honorable task of forming a new Cabinet, which he wisely declined, +displayed a masterly grasp of Continental politics and a rare gift of +identifying his country's aspirations with the postulates of a settled +peace. A systematic thinker, he made a point of understanding his case +at the outset. He would begin his _exposé_ by detaching himself from all +national interests and starting from general assumptions recognized by +the Olympians, and would lead his hearers by easy stages to the +conclusions which he wished them to draw from their own premises. And +two of them, who had no great sympathy with his thesis, assured me that +they could detect no logical flaw in his argument. Moderation and +sincerity were the virtues which he was most eager to exhibit, and they +were unquestionably the best trump cards he could play. Not only had he +a firm grasp of facts and arguments, but he displayed a sense of measure +and open-mindedness which enabled him to implant his views on the minds +of his hearers. + +Armenia's cause found a forcible and suasive pleader in Boghos Pasha, +whose way of marshaling arguments in favor of a contention that was +frowned upon by many commanded admiration. The Armenians asked for a +vast stretch of territory with outlets on the Black Sea and the +Mediterranean, but they were met with the objections that their total +population was insignificant; that only in one province were they in a +majority, and that their claim to Cilicia clashed with one of the +reserved rights of France. The ice, therefore, was somewhat thin in +parts, but Boghos Pasha skated over it gracefully. His description of +the Armenian massacres was thrilling. Altogether his _exposé_ was a +masterpiece, and was appreciated by Mr. Wilson and M. Clemenceau. + +The Jugoslav delegates, MM. Vesnitch and Trumbitch, patriotic, +tenacious, uncompromising, had an early opportunity of showing the stuff +of which they were made. When they were told that the Jugoslav state was +not yet recognized and that the kingdom of Serbia must content itself +with two delegates, they lodged an indignant protest against both +decisions, and refused to appear at the Conference unless they were +allowed an adequate number of representatives. Thereupon the Great +Powers compromised the matter by according them three, and with stealthy +rage they submitted to the refusal of recognition. They were not again +heard of until one day they proposed that their dispute with Italy +about Fiume and the Dalmatian coast should be solved by submitting it to +President Wilson for arbitration. The expedient was original. President +Wilson, people remembered, had had an animated talk on the subject with +the Italian Premier, Orlando, and it was known that he had set his face +against Italy's claim and against the secret treaty that recognized it. +Consequently the Serbs were running no risk by challenging Signor +Orlando to lay the matter before the American delegate. Whether, all +things considered, it was a wise move to make has been questioned. +Anyhow, the Italian delegation declined the suggestion on a number of +grounds which several delegates considered convincing. The Conference, +it urged, had been convoked precisely for the purpose of hearing and +settling such disputes as theirs, and the Conference consisted, not of +one, but of many delegates, who collectively were better qualified to +deal with such problems than any one man. Europeans, too, could more +fully appreciate the arguments, and the atmosphere through which the +arguments should be contemplated, than the eminent American idealist, +who had more than once had to modify his judgment on European matters. +Again, to remove the discussion from the international court might well +be felt as a slight put upon the men who composed it. For why should +their verdict be less worth soliciting than that of the President of the +United States? True, Italy's delegates were themselves judges in that +tribunal, but the question to be tried was not a matter between two +countries, but an issue of much wider import--namely, what frontiers +accorded to the embryonic state of Jugoslavia would be most conducive to +the world's peace. And nobody, they held, could offer a more complete or +trustworthy answer than they and their European colleagues, who were +conversant with all the elements of the problem. Besides--but this +objection was not expressly formulated--had not Mr. Wilson already +decided against Italy? On these and other grounds, then, they decided to +leave the matter to the Conference. It was a delicate subject, and few +onlookers cared to open their minds on its merits. + +Albania was represented by an old friend of mine, the venerable Turkhan +Pasha, who had been in diplomacy ever since the Congress of Berlin in +the 'seventies of last century, and who looked like a modernized Nestor. +I made his acquaintance many years ago, when he was Ambassador of Turkey +in St. Petersburg. He was then a favorite everywhere in the Russian +capital as a conscientious Ambassador, a charming talker, and a +professional peace-maker, who wished well to everybody. The Young Turks +having recalled him from St. Petersburg, he soon afterward became Grand +Vizier to the Mbret of Albania. Far resonant events removed the Mbret +from the throne, Turkhan Pasha from the Vizierate, and Albania from the +society of nations, and I next found my friend in Switzerland ill in +health, eating the bitter bread of exile, temporarily isolated from the +world of politics and waiting for something to turn up. A few years more +gave the Allies an unexpectedly complete victory and brought back +Turkhan Pasha to the outskirts of diplomacy and politics. He suddenly +made his appearance at the Paris Conference as the representative of +Albania and the friend of Italy. + +Another Albanian friend of mine, Essad Pasha, whose plans for the +regeneration of his country differed widely from those of Turkhan, was +for a long while detained in Saloniki. By dint of solicitations and +protests, he at last obtained permission to repair to Paris and lay his +views before the Conference, where he had a curious interview with Mr. +Wilson. The President, having received from Albanians in the United +States many unsolicited judgments on the character and antecedents of +Essad Pasha, had little faith in his fitness to introduce and popularize +democratic institutions in Albania. And he unburdened himself of these +doubts to friends, who diffused the news. The Pasha asked for an +audience, and by dint of patience and perseverance his prayer was heard. +Five minutes before the appointed hour he was at the President's house, +accompanied by his interpreter, a young Albanian named Stavro, who +converses freely in French, Greek, and Turkish, besides his native +language. But while in the antechamber Essad, remembering that the +American President speaks nothing but pure English, suggested that +Stavro should drive over to the Hôtel Crillon for an interpreter to +translate from French. Thereupon one of the secretaries stopped him, +saying: "Although he cannot speak French, the President understands it, +so that a second interpreter will be unnecessary." Essad then addressed +Mr. Wilson in Albanian, Stavro translated his words into French, and the +President listened in silence. It was the impression of those in the +room that, at any rate, Mr. Wilson understood and appreciated the gist +of the Pasha's sharp criticism of Italy's behavior. But, to be on the +safe side, the President requested his visitor to set down on paper at +his leisure everything he had said and to send it to him. + + +PRESIDENT WILSON + + +President Wilson, before assuming the redoubtable rôle of world arbiter, +was hardly more than a name in Europe, and it was not a synonym for +statecraft. His ethical objections to the rule of Huerta in Mexico, his +attempt to engraft democratic principles there, and the anarchy that +came of it were matters of history. But the President of the nation to +whose unbounded generosity and altruism the world owes a debt of +gratitude that can only be acknowledged, not repaid, deservedly enjoyed +a superlative measure of respect from his foreign colleagues, and the +author of the project which was to link all nations together by ties of +moral kinship was literally idolized by the masses. Never has it fallen +to my lot to see any mortal so enthusiastically, so spontaneously +welcomed by the dejected peoples of the universe. His most casual +utterances were caught up as oracles. He occupied a height so far aloft +that the vicissitudes of everyday life and the contingencies of politics +seemingly could not touch him. He was given credit for a rare degree of +selflessness in his conceptions and actions and for a balance of +judgment which no storms of passion could upset. So far as one could +judge by innumerable symptoms, President Wilson was confronted with an +opportunity for good incomparably vaster than had ever before been +within the reach of man. + +Soon after the opening of the Conference the shadowy outlines of his +portrait began to fill in, slowly at first, and before three months had +passed the general public beheld it fairly complete, with many of its +natural lights and shades. The quality of an active politician is never +more clearly brought out than when, raised to an eminent place, he is +set an arduous feat in sight of the multitude. Mr. Wilson's task was +manifestly congenial to him, for it was deliberately chosen by himself, +and it comprised the most tremendous problems ever tackled by man born +of woman. The means by which he set to work to solve them were +startlingly simple: the regeneration of the human race was to be +compassed by means of magisterial edicts secretly drafted and sternly +imposed on the interested peoples, together with a new and not wholly +appropriate nomenclature. + +In his own country, where he has bitter adversaries as well as devoted +friends, Mr. Wilson was regarded by many as a composite being made up +of preacher, teacher, and politician. To these diverse elements they +refer the fervor and unction, the dogmatic tone, and the practised +shrewdness that marked his words and acts. Independent American opinion +doubted his qualifications to be a leader. As a politician, they said, +he had always followed the crowd. He had swum with the tide of public +sentiment in cardinal matters, instead of stemming or canalizing and +guiding it. Deficient in courageous initiative, he had contented himself +with merely executive functions. No new idea, no fresh policy, was +associated with his name. His singular attitude on the Mexican imbroglio +had provoked the sharp criticism even of friends and the condemnation of +political opponents. His utterances during the first stages of the World +War, such as the statement that the American people were too proud to +fight and had no concern with the causes and objects of the war,[55] +when contrasted with the opposite views which he propounded later on, +were ascribed to quick political evolution--but were not taken as +symptoms of a settled mind. He seemed a pacifist when his pride revolted +at the idea of settling any intelligible question by an appeal to +violence, and a semi-militarist when, having in his own opinion created +a perfectly safe and bloodless peace guarantee in the shape of the +League of Nations, he agreed to safeguard it by a military compact which +sapped its foundation. He owed his re-election for a second term partly, +it was alleged, to the belief that during the first he had kept his +country out of the war despite the endeavors of some of its eminent +leaders to bring it in; yet when firmly seated in the saddle, he +followed the leaders whom he had theretofore with-stood and obliged the +nation to fight. + +As chief of the great country, his domestic critics add, which had just +turned victory's scale in favor of the Allies, Mr. Wilson saw a superb +opportunity to hitch his wagon to a star, and now for the first time he +made a determined bid for the leadership of the world. Here the idealist +showed himself at his best. But by the way of preparation he asked the +nation at the elections to refuse their votes to his political +opponents, despite the fact that they were loyally supporting his +policy, and to return only men of his own party, and in order to silence +their misgivings he declared that to elect Republican Senators would be +to repudiate the administration of the President of the United States at +a critical conjuncture. This was urged against him as the inexpiable +sin. The electors, however, sent his political opponents to the Senate, +whereupon the President organized his historic visit to Europe. It might +have become a turning-point in the world's history had he transformed +his authority and prestige into the driving-power requisite to embody +his beneficent scheme. But he wasted the opportunity for lack of moral +courage. Thus far American criticism. But the peoples of Europe ignored +the estimates of the President made by his fellow-countrymen, who, as +such, may be forgiven for failing to appreciate his apostleship, or set +the full value on his humanitarian strivings. The war-weary masses +judged him not by what he had achieved or attempted in the past, but by +what he proposed to do in the future. And measured by this standard, his +spiritual statue grew to legendary proportions. + +Europe, when the President touched its shores, was as clay ready for the +creative potter. Never before were the nations so eager to follow a +Moses who would take them to the long-promised land where wars are +prohibited and blockades unknown. And to their thinking he was that +great leader. In France men bowed down before him with awe and +affection. Labor leaders in Paris told me that they shed tears of joy in +his presence, and that their comrades would go through fire and water to +help him to realize his noble schemes.[56] To the working classes in +Italy his name was a heavenly clarion at the sound of which the earth +would be renewed. The Germans regarded him and his humane doctrine as +their sheet-anchor of safety. The fearless Herr Muehlon said, "If +President Wilson were to address the Germans, and pronounce a severe +sentence upon them, they would accept it with resignation and without a +murmur and set to work at once." In German-Austria his fame was that of +a savior, and the mere mention of his name brought balm to the suffering +and surcease of sorrow to the afflicted. A touching instance of this +which occurred in the Austrian capital, when narrated to the President, +moved him to tears. There were some five or six thousand Austrian +children in the hospitals at Vienna who, as Christmas was drawing near, +were sorely in need of medicaments and much else. The head of the +American Red Cross took up their case and persuaded the Americans in +France to send two million dollars' worth of medicaments to Vienna. +These were duly despatched, and had got as far as Berne, when the French +authorities, having got wind of the matter, protested against this +premature assistance to infant enemies on grounds which the other +Allies had to recognize as technically tenable, and the medicaments were +ordered back to France from Berne. Thereupon Doctor Ferries, of the +International Red Cross, became wild with indignation and laid the +matter before the Swiss government, which undertook to send some +medicaments to the children, while the Americans were endeavoring to +move the French to allow at least some of the remedies to go through. +The children in the hospitals, when told that they must wait, were +bright and hopeful. "It will be all right," some of them exclaimed. +"Wilson is coming soon, and he will bring us everything." + +Thus Mr. Wilson had become a transcendental hero to the European +proletarians, who in their homely way adjusted his mental and moral +attributes to their own ideal of the latter-day Messiah. His legendary +figure, half saint, half revolutionist, emerged from the transparent +haze of faith, yearning, and ignorance, as in some ecstatic vision. In +spite of his recorded acts and utterances the mythopeic faculty of the +peoples had given itself free scope and created a messianic democrat +destined to free the lower orders, as they were called, in each state +from the shackles of capitalism, legalized thraldom, and crushing +taxation, and each nation from sanguinary warfare. Truly, no human being +since the dawn of history has ever yet been favored with such a superb +opportunity. Mr. Wilson might have made a gallant effort to lift society +out of the deep grooves into which it had sunk, and dislodge the secular +obstacles to the enfranchisement and transfiguration of the human race. +At the lowest it was open to him to become the center of a countless +multitude, the heart of their hearts, the incarnation of their noblest +thought, on condition that he scorned the prudential motives of +politicians, burst through the barriers of the old order, and deployed +all his energies and his full will-power in the struggle against sordid +interests and dense prejudice. But he was cowed by obstacles which his +will lacked the strength to surmount, and instead of receiving his +promptings from the everlasting ideals of mankind and the inspiriting +audacities of his own highest nature and appealing to the peoples +against their rulers, he felt constrained in the very interest of his +cause to haggle and barter with the Scribes and the Pharisees, and ended +by recording a pitiful answer to the most momentous problems couched in +the impoverished phraseology of a political party. + +Many of his political friends had advised the President not to visit +Europe lest the vast prestige and influence which he wielded from a +distance should dwindle unutilized on close contact with the realists' +crowd. Even the war-god Mars, when he descended into the ranks of the +combatants on the Trojan side, was wounded by a Greek, and, screaming +with pain, scurried back to Olympus with paling halo. But Mr. Wilson +decided to preside and to direct the fashioning of his project, and to +give Europe the benefit of his advice. He explained to Congress that he +had expressed the ideals of the country for which its soldiers had +consciously fought, had had them accepted "as the substance of their own +thoughts and purpose" by the statesmen of the associated governments, +and now, he concluded: "I owe it to them to see to it, in so far as in +me lies, that no false or mistaken interpretation is put upon them, and +no possible effort omitted to realize them. It is now my duty to play my +full part in making good what they offered their lives and blood to +obtain. I can think of no call to service which could transcend +this."[57] No intention could well be more praiseworthy. + +Soon after the _George Washington_, flying the presidential flag, had +steamed out of the Bay on her way to Europe, the United Press received +from its correspondent on board, who was attached to Mr. Wilson's +person, a message which invigorated the hopes of the world and evoked +warm outpourings of the seared soul of suffering man in gratitude toward +the bringer of balm. It began thus: "The President sails for Europe to +uphold American ideals, and literally to fight for his Fourteen Points. +The President, at the Peace Table, will insist on the freedom of the +seas and a general disarmament.... The seas, he holds, ought to be +guarded by the whole world." + +Since then the world knows what to think of the literal fighting at the +Peace Table. The freedom of the seas was never as much as alluded to at +the Peace Table, for the announcement of Mr. Wilson's militant +championship brought him a wireless message from London to the effect +that that proposal, at all events, must be struck out of his program if +he wished to do business with Britain. And without a fight or a +remonstrance the President struck it out. The Fourteen Points were not +discussed at the Conference.[58] One may deplore, but one cannot +misunderstand, what happened. Mr. Wilson, too, had his own fixed aim to +attain: intent on associating his name with a grandiose humanitarian +monument, he was resolved not to return to his country without some sort +of a covenant of the new international life. He could not afford to go +home empty-handed. Therein lay his weakness and the source of his +failure. For whenever his attitude toward the Great Powers was taken to +mean, "Unless you give me my Covenant, you cannot have your Treaty," the +retort was ready: "Without our Treaty there will be no Covenant." + +Like Dejoces, the first king of the Medes, who, having built his palace +at Ecbatana, surrounded it with seven walls and permanently withdrew his +person from the gaze of his subjects, Mr. Wilson in Paris admitted to +his presence only the authorized spokesmen of states and causes, and not +all of these. He declined to receive persons who thought they had a +claim to see him, and he received others who were believed to have none. +During his sojourn in Paris he took many important Russian affairs in +hand after having publicly stated that no peace could be stable so long +as Russia was torn by internal strife. And as familiarity with Russian +conditions was not one of his accomplishments, he presumably needed +advice and help from those acquainted with them. Now a large number of +Russians, representing all political parties and four governments, were +in Paris waiting to be consulted. But between January and May not one of +them was ever asked for information or counsel. Nay, more, those who +respectfully solicited an audience were told to wait. In the meanwhile +men unacquainted with the country and people were sent by Mr. Wilson to +report on the situation, and to begin by obtaining the terms of an +acceptable treaty from the Bolshevik government. + +The first plenipotentiary of one of the principal lesser states was for +months refused an audience, to the delight of his political adversaries, +who made the most of the circumstance at home. An eminent diplomatist +who possessed considerable claims to be vouchsafed an interview was put +off from week to week, until at last, by dint of perseverance, as it +seemed to him, the President consented to see him. The diplomatist, +pleased at his success, informed a friend that the following Wednesday +would be the memorable day. "But are you not aware," asked the friend, +"that on that day the President will be on the high seas on his way back +to the United States?" He was not aware of it. But when he learned that +the audience had been deliberately fixed for a day when Mr. Wilson would +no longer be in France he felt aggrieved. + +In Italy the President's progress was a veritable triumph. Emperors and +kings had roused no such enthusiasm. One might fancy him a deity +unexpectedly discovered under the outward appearance of a mortal and now +being honored as the god that he was by ecstatic worshipers. Everything +he did was well done, everything he said was nobly conceived and worthy +of being treasured up. In these dispositions a few brief months wrought +a vast difference. + +In this respect an instructive comparison might be made between Tsar +Alexander I at the Vienna Congress and the President of the United +States at the Conference of Paris. The Russian monarch arrived in the +Austrian capital with the halo of a Moses focusing the hopes of all the +peoples of Europe. His reputation for probity, public spirit, and lofty +aspirations had won for him the good-will and the anticipatory blessings +of war-weary nations. He, too, was a mystic, believed firmly in occult +influences, so firmly indeed that he accepted the fitful guidance of an +ecstatic lady whose intuition was supposed to transcend the sagacity of +professional statesmen. And yet the Holy Alliance was the supreme +outcome of his endeavors, as the League of Nations was that of Mr. +Wilson's. In lieu of universal peace all eastern Europe was still +warring and revolting in September and the general outlook was +disquieting. The disheartening effect of the contrast between the +promise and the achievement of the American statesman was felt +throughout the world. But Mr. Wilson has the solace to know that people +hardly ever reach their goal--though they sometimes advance fairly near +to it. They either die on the way or else it changes or they do. + +It was doubtless a noble ambition that moved the Prime Ministers of the +Great Powers and the chief of the North American Republic to give their +own service to the Conference as heads of their respective missions. For +they considered themselves to be the best equipped for the purpose, and +they were certainly free from such prejudices as professional traditions +and a confusing knowledge of details might be supposed to engender. But +in almost every respect it was a grievous mistake and the source of +others still more grievous. True, in his own particular sphere each of +them had achieved what is nowadays termed greatness. As a war leader Mr. +Lloyd George had been hastily classed with Marlborough and Chatham, M. +Clemenceau compared to Danton, and Mr. Wilson set apart in a category to +himself. But without questioning these journalistic certificates of fame +one must admit that all three plenipotentiaries were essentially +politicians, old parliamentary hands, and therefore expedient-mongers +whose highest qualifications for their own profession were drawbacks +which unfitted them for their self-assumed mission. Of the concrete +world which they set about reforming their knowledge was amazingly +vague. "Frogs in the pond," says the Japanese proverb, "know naught of +the ocean." There was, of course, nothing blameworthy in their +unacquaintanceship with the issues, but only in the offhandedness with +which they belittled its consequences. Had they been conversant with the +subject or gifted with deeper insight, many of the things which seemed +particularly clear to them would have struck them as sheer inexplicable, +and among these perhaps their own leadership of the world-parliament. + +What they lacked, however, might in some perceptible degree have been +supplied by enlisting as their helpers men more happily endowed than +themselves. But they deliberately chose mediocrities. It is a mark of +genial spirits that they are well served, but the plenipotentiaries of +the Conference were not characterized by it. Away in the background some +of them had familiars or casual prompters to whose counsels they were +wont to listen, but many of the adjoints who moved in the limelight of +the world-stage were gritless and pithless. + +As the heads of the principal governments implicitly claimed to be the +authorized spokesmen of the human race and endowed with unlimited +powers, it is worth noting that this claim was boldly challenged by the +peoples' organs in the press. Nearly all the journals read by the masses +objected from the first to the dictatorship of the group of Premiers, +Mr. Wilson being excepted. "The modern parasite," wrote a respectable +democratic newspaper,[59] "is the politician. Of all the privileged +beings who have ever governed us he is the worst. In that, however, +there is nothing surprising ... he is not only amoral, but incompetent +by definition. And it is this empty-headed individual who is intrusted +with the task of settling problems with the very rudiments of which he +is unacquainted." Another French journal[60] wrote: "In truth it is a +misfortune that the leaders of the Conference are Cabinet chiefs, for +each of them is obsessed by the carking cares of his domestic policy. +Besides, the Paris Conference takes on the likeness of a lyrical drama +in which there are only tenors. Now would even the most beautiful work +in the world survive this excess of beauties?" + +The truth as revealed by subsequent facts would seem to be that each of +the plenipotentiaries recognizing parliamentary success as the source of +his power was obsessed by his own political problems and stimulated by +his own immediate ends. As these ends, however incompatible with each +other, were believed by each one to tend toward the general object, he +worked zealously for their attainment. The consequences are notorious. +M. Clemenceau made France the hub of the universe. Mr. Lloyd George +harbored schemes which naturally identified the welfare of mankind with +the hegemony of the English-speaking races. Signor Orlando was inspired +by the "sacred egotism" which had actuated all Italian Cabinets since +Italy entered the war, and President Wilson was burning to associate his +name and also that of his country with the vastest and noblest +enterprise inscribed in the annals of history. And each one moved over +his own favorite route toward his own goal. It was an apt illustration +of the Russian fable of the swan, the crab, and the pike being harnessed +together in order to remove a load. The swan flew upward, the crab +crawled backward, the pike made with all haste for the water, and the +load remained where it was. + +A lesser but also a serious disadvantage of the delegation of government +chiefs made itself felt in the procedure. Embarrassing delays were +occasioned by the unavoidable absences of the principal delegates whom +pressure of domestic politics called to their respective capitals, as +well as by their tactics, and their colleagues profited by their absence +for the sake of the good cause. Thus all Paris, as we saw, was aware +that the European chiefs, whose faith in Wilsonian orthodoxy was still +feeble at that time, were prepared to take advantage of the President's +sojourn in Washington to speed up business in their own sense and to +confront him on his return with accomplished facts. But when, on his +return, he beheld their handiwork he scrapped it, and a considerable +loss of time ensued for which the world has since had to pay very +heavily. + +Again, when Premier Orlando was in Rome after Mr. Wilson's appeal to +the Italian people, a series of measures was passed by the delegates in +Paris affecting Italy, diminishing her importance at the Conference, and +modifying the accepted interpretation of the Treaty of London. Some of +these decisions had to be canceled when the Italians returned. These +stratagems had an undesirable effect on the Italians. + +Not the least of the Premiers' disabilities lay in the circumstance that +they were the merest novices in international affairs. Geography, +ethnography, psychology, and political history were sealed books to +them. Like the rector of Louvain University who told Oliver Goldsmith +that, as he had become the head of that institution without knowing +Greek, he failed to see why it should be taught there, the chiefs of +state, having attained the highest position in their respective +countries without more than an inkling of international affairs, were +unable to realize the importance of mastering them or the impossibility +of repairing the omission as they went along. + +They displayed their contempt for professional diplomacy and this +feeling was shared by many, but they extended that sentiment to certain +diplomatic postulates which can in no case be dispensed with, because +they are common to all professions. One of them is knowledge of the +terms of the problems to be solved. No conjuncture could have been less +favorable for an experiment based on this theory. The general situation +made a demand on the delegates for special knowledge and experience, +whereas the Premiers and the President, although specialists in nothing, +had to act as specialists in everything. Traditional diplomacy would +have shown some respect for the law of causality. It would have sent to +the Conference diplomatists more or less acquainted with the issues to +be mooted and also with the mentality of the other negotiators, and it +would have assigned to them a number of experts as advisers. It would +have formed a plan similar to that proposed by the French authorities +and rejected by the Anglo-Saxons. In this way at least the technical +part of the task would have been tackled on right lines, the war would +have been liquidated and normal relations quickly re-established among +the belligerent states. It may be objected that this would have been a +meager contribution to the new politico-social fabric. Undoubtedly it +would, but, however meager, it would have been a positive gain. Possibly +the first stone of a new world might have been laid once the ruins of +the old were cleared away. But even this modest feat could not be +achieved by amateurs working in desultory fashion and handicapped by +their political parties at home. The resultant of their apparent +co-operation was a sum in subtraction because dispersal or effort was +unavoidably substituted for concentration. + +Whether one contemplates them in the light of their public acts or +through the prism of gossip, the figures cut by the delegates of the +Great Powers were pathetic. Giants in the parliamentary sphere, they +shrank to the dimensions of dwarfs in the international. In matters of +geography, ethnography, history, and international politics they were +helplessly at sea, and the stories told of certain of their efforts to +keep their heads above water while maintaining a simulacrum of dignity +would have been amusing were the issues less momentous. "Is it after +Upper or Lower Silesia that those greedy Poles are hankering?" one +Premier is credibly reported to have asked some months after the Polish +delegation had propounded and defended its claims and he had had time to +familiarize himself with them. "Please point out to me Dalmatia on the +map," was another characteristic request, "and tell me what connection +there is between it and Fiume." One of the principal plenipotentiaries +addressed a delegate who is an acquaintance of mine approximately as +follows: "I cannot understand the spokesmen of the smaller states. To me +they seem stark mad. They single out a strip of territory and for no +intelligible reason flock round it like birds of prey round a corpse on +the field of battle. Take Silesia, for example. The Poles are clamoring +for it as if the very existence of their country depended on their +annexing it. The Germans are still more crazy about it. But for their +eagerness I suppose there is some solid foundation. But how in Heaven's +name do the Armenians come to claim it? Just think of it, the Armenians! +The world has gone mad. No wonder France has set her foot down and +warned them off the ground. But what does France herself want with it? +What is the clue to the mystery?" My acquaintance, in reply, pointed out +as considerately as he could that Silesia was the province for which +Poles and Germans were contending, whereas the Armenians were pleading +for Cilicia, which is farther east, and were, therefore, frowned upon by +the French, who conceive that they have a civilizing mission there and +men enough to accomplish it. + +It is characteristic of the epoch, and therefore worthy of the +historian's attention, that not only the members of the Conference, but +also other leading statesmen of Anglo-Saxon countries, were wont to make +a very little knowledge of peoples and countries go quite a far way. Two +examples may serve to familiarize the reader with the phenomenon and to +moderate his surprise at the defects of the world-dictators in Paris. +One English-speaking statesman, dealing with the Italian government[61] +and casting around for some effective way of helping the Italian people +out of their pitiable economic plight, fancied he hit upon a felicitous +expedient, which he unfolded as follows. "I venture," he said, "to +promise that if you will largely increase your cultivation of bananas +the people of my country will take them all. No matter how great the +quantities, our market will absorb them, and that will surely make a +considerable addition to your balance on the right side." At first the +Italians believed he was joking. But finding that he really meant what +he said, they ruthlessly revealed his idea to the nation under the +heading, "Italian bananas!" + +Here is the other instance. During the war the Polish people was +undergoing unprecedented hardships. Many of the poorer classes were +literally perishing of hunger. A Polish commission was sent to an +English-speaking country to interest the government and people in the +condition of the sufferers and obtain relief. The envoys had an +interview with a Secretary of State, who inquired to what port they +intended to have the foodstuffs conveyed for distribution in the +interior of Poland. They answered: "We shall have them taken to Dantzig. +There is no other way." The statesman reflected a little and then said: +"You may meet with difficulties. If you have them shipped to Dantzig you +must of course first obtain Italy's permission. Have you got it?" "No. +We had not thought of that. In fact, we don't yet see why Italy need be +approached." "Because it is Italy who has command of the Mediterranean, +and if you want the transport taken to Dantzig it is the Italian +government that you must ask!"[62] + +The delegates picked up a good deal of miscellaneous information about +the various countries whose future they were regulating, and to their +credit it should be said that they put questions to their informants +without a trace of false pride. One of the two chief delegates wending +homeward from a sitting at which M. Jules Cambon had spoken a good deal +about those Polish districts which, although they contained a majority +of Germans, yet belonged of right to Poland, asked the French delegate +why he had made so many allusions to Frederick the Great. "What had +Frederick to do with Poland?" he inquired. The answer was that the +present German majority of the inhabitants was made up of colonists who +had immigrated into the districts since the time of Frederick the Great +and the partition of Poland. "Yes, I see," exclaimed the statesman, "but +what had Frederick the Great to do with the partition of Poland?" ... In +the domain of ethnography there were also many pitfalls and accidents. +During an official _exposé_ of the Oriental situation before the Supreme +Council, one of the Great Four, listening to a narrative of Turkish +misdeeds, heard that the Kurds had tortured and killed a number of +defenseless women, children, and old men. He at once interrupted the +speaker with the query: "You now call them Kurds. A few minutes ago you +said they were Turks. I take it that the Kurds and the Turks are the +same people?" Loath to embarrass one of the world's arbiters, the +delegate respectfully replied, "Yes, sir, they are about the same, but +the worse of the two are the Kurds."[63] + +Great Britain's first delegate, with engaging candor sought to disarm +criticism by frankly confessing in the House of Commons that he had +never before heard of Teschen, about which such an extraordinary fuss +was then being made, and by asking: "How many members of the House have +ever heard of Teschen? Yet," he added significantly, "Teschen very +nearly produced an angry conflict between two allied states."[64] + +The circumstance that an eminent parliamentarian had never heard of +problems that agitate continental peoples is excusable. Less so was his +resolve, despite such a capital disqualification, to undertake the task +of solving those problems single-handed, although conscious that the +fate of whole peoples depended on his succeeding. It is no adequate +justification to say that he could always fall back upon special +commissions, of which there was no lack at the Conference. Unless he +possessed a safe criterion by which to assess the value of the +commissions' conclusions, he must needs himself decide the matter +arbitrarily. And the delegates, having no such criterion, pronounced +very arbitrary judgments on momentous issues. One instance of this +turned upon Poland's claims to certain territories incorporated in +Germany, which were referred to a special commission under the +presidency of M. Cambon. Commissioners were sent to the country to study +the matter on the spot, where they had received every facility for +acquainting themselves with it. After some weeks the commission reported +in favor of the Polish claim with unanimity. But Mr. Lloyd George +rejected their conclusions and insisted on having the report sent back +to them for reconsideration. Again the commissioners went over the +familiar ground, but felt obliged to repeat their verdict anew. Once +more, however, the British Premier demurred, and such was his tenacity +that, despite Mr. Wilson's opposition, the final decision of the +Conference reversed that of the commission and non-suited the Poles. By +what line of argument, people naturally asked, did the first British +delegate come to that conclusion? That he knew more about the matter +than the special Inter-Allied commission is hardly to be supposed. +Indeed, nobody assumed that he was any better informed on that subject +than about Teschen. The explanation put in circulation by interested +persons was that, like Socrates, he had his own familiar demon to prompt +him, who, like all such spirits, chose to flourish, like the violet, in +the shade. That this source of light was accessible to the Prime +Minister may, his apologists hold, one day prove a boon to the peoples +whose fate was thus being spun in darkness and seemingly at haphazard. +Possibly. But in the meanwhile it was construed as an affront to their +intelligence and a violation of the promise made to them of "open +covenants openly arrived at." The press asked why the information +requisite for the work had not been acquired in advance as these +semi-mystical ways of obtaining it commended themselves to nobody. +Wholly mystical were the methods attributed to one or other of the men +who were preparing the advent of the new era. For superstition of +various kinds was supposed to be as well represented at the Paris +Conference as at the Congress of Vienna. Characteristic of the epoch was +the gravity with which individuals otherwise well balanced exercised +their ingenuity in finding out the true relation of the world's peace to +certain lucky numbers. For several events connected with the Conference +the thirteenth day of the month was deliberately, and some occultists +added felicitously, chosen. It was also noticed that an effort was made +by all the delegates to have the Allies' reply to the German +counter-proposals presented on the day of destiny, Friday, June 13th. +When it miscarried a flutter was caused in the dovecotes of the +illuminated. The failure was construed as an inauspicious omen and it +caused the spirits of many to droop. The principal clairvoyante of +Paris, Madame N----, who plumes herself on being the intermediary +between the Fates that rule and some of their earthly executors, was +consulted on the subject, one knows not with what result.[65] It was +given out, however, as the solemn utterance of the oracle in vogue that +Mr. Wilson's enterprise was weighted with original sin; he had made one +false step before his arrival in Europe, and that had put everything out +of gear. By enacting fourteen commandments he had countered the magic +charm of his lucky thirteen. One of the fourteen, it was soothsaid, must +therefore be omitted--it might be, say, that of open covenants openly +arrived at, or the freedom of the seas--in a word, any one so long as +the mystic number thirteen remained intact. But should that be +impossible, seeing that the Fourteen Points had already become +house-hold words to all nations and peoples, then it behooved the +President to number the last of his saving points 13a.[66] + +This odd mixture of the real and the fanciful--a symptom, as the +initiated believed, of a mood of fine spiritual exaltation--met with +little sympathy among the impatient masses whose struggle for bare life +was growing ever fiercer. Stagnation held the business world, prices +were rising to prohibitive heights, partly because of the dawdling of +the world's conclave; hunger was stalking about the ruined villages of +the northern departments of France, destructive wars were being waged in +eastern Europe, and thousands of Christians were dying of hunger in +Bessarabia.[67] Epigrammatic strictures and winged words barbed with +stinging satire indicated the feelings of the many. And the fact remains +on record that streaks of the mysticism that buoyed up Alexander I at +the Congress of Vienna, and is supposed to have stimulated Nicholas II +during the first world-parliament at The Hague, were noticeable from +time to time in the environment of the Paris Conference. The disclosure +of these elements of superstition was distinctly harmful and might have +been hindered easily by the system of secrecy and censorship which +effectively concealed matters much less mischievous. + +The position of the plenipotentiaries was unenviable at best and they +well deserve the benefit of extenuating circumstances. For not even a +genius can efficiently tackle problems with the elements of which he +lacks acquaintanceship, and the mass of facts which they had to deal +with was sheer unmanageable. It was distressing to watch them during +those eventful months groping and floundering through a labyrinth of +obstacles with no Ariadne clue to guide their tortuous course, and +discovering that their task was more intricate than they had imagined. +The ironic domination of temper and circumstance over the fitful +exertions of men struggling with the partially realized difficulties of +a false position led to many incongruities upon which it would be +ungracious to dwell. One of them, however, which illustrates the +situation, seems almost incredible. It is said to have occurred in +January. According to the current narrative, soon after the arrival of +President Wilson in Paris, he received from a French publicist named +M.B. a long and interesting memorandum about the island of Corsica, +recounting the history, needs, and aspirations of the population as well +as the various attempts they had made to regain their independence, and +requesting him to employ his good offices at the Conference to obtain +for them complete autonomy. To this demand M.B. is said to have received +a reply[68] to the effect that the President "is persuaded that this +question will form the subject of a thorough examination by the +competent authorities of the Conference" Corsica, the birthplace of +Napoleon, and as much an integral part of France as the Isle of Man is +of England, seeking to slacken the ties that link it to the Republic and +receiving a promise that the matter would be carefully considered by the +delegates sounds more like a mystification than a sober statement of +fact. The story was sent to the newspapers for publication, but the +censor very wisely struck it out. + +These and kindred occurrences enable one better to appreciate the +motives which prompted the delegates to shroud their conversations and +tentative decisions in a decorous veil of secrecy. + +It is but fair to say that the enterprise to which they set their hands +was the vastest that ever tempted lofty ambitions since the +tower-builders of Babel strove to bring heaven within reach of the +earth. It transcended the capacity of the contemporary world's greatest +men.[69] It was a labor for a wonder-worker in the pristine days of +heroes. But although to solve even the main problems without residue was +beyond the reach of the most genial representatives of latter-day +statecraft, it needed only clearness of conception, steadiness of +purpose, and the proper adjustment of means to ends, to begin the work +on the right lines and give it an impulse that might perhaps carry it to +completion in the fullness of time. + +But even these postulates were wanting. The eminent parliamentarians +failed to rise to the gentle height of average statecraft. They appeared +in their new and august character of world-reformers with all the roots +still clinging to them of the rank electoral soil from which they +sprang. Their words alone were redolent of idealism, their deeds were +too often marred by pettifogging compromises or childish +blunders--constructive phrases and destructive acts. Not only had they +no settled method of working, they lacked even a common proximate aim. +For although they all employed the same phraseology when describing the +objects for which their countries had fought and they themselves were +ostensibly laboring, no two delegates attached the same ideas to the +words they used. Yet, instead of candidly avowing this root-defect and +remedying it, they were content to stretch the euphemistic terms until +these covered conflicting conceptions and gratified the ears of every +hearer. Thus, "open covenants openly arrived at" came to mean arbitrary +ukases issued by a secret conclave, and "the self-determination of +peoples" connoted implicit obedience to dictatorial decrees. The new +result was a bewildering phantasmagoria. + +And yet it was professedly for the purpose of obviating such +misunderstandings that Mr. Wilson had crossed the Atlantic. Having +expressed in plain terms the ideals for which American soldiers had +fought, and which became the substance of the thoughts and purposes of +the associated statesmen, "I owe it to them," he had said, "to see to +it, in so far as in me lies, that no false or mistaken interpretation is +put upon them and no possible effort omitted to realize them." And that +was the result achieved. + +No such juggling with words as went on at the Conference had been +witnessed since the days of medieval casuistry. New meanings were +infused into old terms, rendering the help of "exegesis" indispensable. +Expressions like "territorial equilibrium" and "strategic frontiers" +were stringently banished, and it is affirmed that President Wilson +would wince and his expression change at the bare mention of these +obnoxious symbols of the effete ordering which it was part of his +mission to do away with forever. And yet the things signified by those +words were preserved withal under other names. Nor could it well be +otherwise. One can hardly conceive a durable state system in Europe +under the new any more than the old dispensation without something that +corresponds to equilibrium. An architect who should boastingly discard +the law of gravitation in favor of a different theory would stand little +chance of being intrusted with the construction of a palace of peace. +Similarly, a statesman who, while proclaiming that the era of wars is +not yet over, would deprive of strategic frontiers the pivotal states of +Europe which are most exposed to sudden attack would deserve to find few +disciples and fewer clients. Yet that was what Mr. Wilson aimed at and +what some of his friends affirm he has achieved. His foreign colleagues +re-echoed his dogmas after having emasculated them. It was instructive +and unedifying to watch how each of the delegates, when his own +country's turn came to be dealt with on the new lines, reversed his +tactics and, sacrificing sound to substance, insisted on safeguards, +relied on historic rights, invoked economic requirements, and appealed +to common sense, but all the while loyally abjured "territorial +equilibrium" and "strategic guarantees." Hence the fierce struggles +which MM. Orlando, Dmowski, Bratiano, Venizelos, and Makino had to carry +on with the chief of that state which is the least interested in +European affairs in order to obtain all or part of the territories which +they considered indispensable to the security and well-being of their +respective countries. + +At the outset Mr. Wilson stood for an ideal Europe of a wholly new and +undefined type, which would have done away with the need for strategic +frontiers. Its contours were vague, for he had no clear mental picture +of the concrete Europe out of which it was to be fashioned. He spoke, +indeed, and would fain have acted, as though the old Continent were like +a thinly inhabited territory of North America fifty years ago, +unencumbered by awkward survivals of the past and capable of receiving +any impress. He seemingly took no account of its history, its peoples, +or their interests and strivings. History shared the fate of Kolchak's +government and the Ukraine; it was not recognized by the delegates. What +he brought to Europe from America was an abstract idea, old and +European, and at first his foreign colleagues treated it as such. Some +of them had actually sneered at it, others had damned it with faint +praise, and now all of them honestly strove to save their own countries' +vital interests from its disruptive action while helping to apply it to +their neighbors. Thus Britain, who at that time had no territorial +claims to put forward, had her sea-doctrine to uphold, and she upheld it +resolutely. Before he reached Europe the President was notified in plain +terms that his theory of the freedom of the seas would neither be +entertained nor discussed. Accordingly, he abandoned it without +protest. It was then explained away as a journalistic misconception. +That was the first toll paid by the American reformer in Europe, and it +spelled failure to his entire scheme, which was one and indivisible. It +fell to my lot to record the payment of the tribute and the abandonment +of that first of the fourteen commandments. The mystic thirteen +remained. But soon afterward another went by the board. Then there were +twelve. And gradually the number dwindled. + +This recognition of hard realities was a bitter disappointment to all +the friends of the spiritual and social renovation of the world. It was +a spectacle for cynics. It rendered a frank return to the ancient system +unavoidable and brought grist to the mill of the equilibrists. And yet +the conclusion was shriked. But even the tough realities might have been +made to yield a tolerable peace if they had been faced squarely. If the +new conception could not be realized at once, the old one should have +been taken back into favor provisionally until broader foundations could +be laid, but it must be one thing or the other. From the political angle +of vision at which the European delegates insisted on placing +themselves, the Old World way of tackling the various problems was alone +admissible. Their program was coherent and their reasoning strictly +logical. The former included strategic frontiers and territorial +equilibrium. Doubtless this angle of vision was narrow, the survey it +allowed was inadequate, and the results attainable ran the risk of being +ultimately thrust aside by the indignant peoples. For the world problem +was not wholly nor even mainly political. Still, the method was +intelligible and the ensuing combinations would have hung coherently +together. They would have satisfied all those--and they were many--who +believed that the second decade of the twentieth century differs in no +essential respect from the first and that latter-day world problems may +be solved by judicious territorial redistribution. But even that +conception was not consistently acted on. Deviations were permitted here +and insisted upon there, only they were spoken of unctuously as +sacrifices incumbent on the lesser states to the Fourteen Points. For +the delegates set great store by their reputation for logic and +coherency. Whatever other charges against the Conference might be +tolerated, that of inconsistency was bitterly resented, especially by +Mr. Wilson. For a long while he contended that he was as true to his +Fourteen Points as is the needle to the pole. It was not until after his +return to Washington, in the summer, that he admitted the perturbations +caused by magnetic currents--sympathy for France he termed them. + +The effort of imagination required to discern consistency in such of the +Council's decisions as became known from time to time was so far beyond +the capacity of average outsiders that the ugly phrase "to make the +world safe for hypocrisy" was early coined, uttered, and propagated. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[46] Cf. _Le Temps_, May 23, 1919. It is an adaptation of the +inscription over the Pantheon, "Aux grands hommes, la Patrie +reconnaissante." + +[47] _The Daily Mail_, April 25, 1919 (Paris edition). + +[48] In Germany. + +[49] General Pétain is said to have rejected the suggestion. + +[50] Cf. _Bulletin des Droits de l'Homme_, 19ème année, p. 461. + +[51] It was either Friday, the 4th, or Saturday, the 5th of July. + +[52] At the end of August, 1919. + +[53] One delegate from a poor and friendless country had to take the +maps of a rival state and retouch them in accordance with the +ethnographical data, which he considered alone correct. + +[54] _L'Homme Enchatné_, December 14, 1914. + +[55] "With its causes and objects we have no concern." Speech delivered +by Mr. Wilson before the League to Enforce Peace in Washington on May +24, 1916. + +[56] The testimony of a leading French press organ is worth reproducing +here: "La situation du Président Wilson dans nos démocraties est +magnifique, souveraine et extrêmement périlleuse. On ne connaît pas +d'hommes, dans les temps contemporains, ayant eu plus d'autorité et de +puissance; la popularité lui a donné ce que le droit divin ne conférait +pas toujours aux monarques héréditaires. En revanche et par le fait du +choc en retour, sa responsabilité est supérieure à celle du prince le +plus absolu. S'il réussit à organiser le monde d'après ses rêves, sa +gloire dominera les plus hautes gloires; mais il faut dire hardiment que +s'il échouait il plongerait le monde dans un chaos dont le bolchevisme +russe ne nous offre qu'une faible image; et sa responsabilité devant la +conscience humaine dépasserait ce que peut supporter un simple mortel. +Redoutable alternative!"--Cf. _Le Figaro_, February 10, 1919. + +[57] From Mr. Wilson's address to Congress read on December 2, 1918. Cf. +_The Times_, December 4, 1918. + +[58] Cf. Secretary Lansing's evidence before the Senate Foreign +Relations Committee, _The Chicago Tribune_, August 27, 1919. + +[59] _La Démocratie Nouvelle_, May 27, 1919 + +[60] _Le Figaro_, March 26, 1919. + +[61] Both of them occurred before the armistice, but during the war. + +[62] For the accuracy of this and the preceding story I vouch +absolutely. I have the names of persons, places, and authorities, which +are superfluous here. + +[63] The Kurds are members of the great Indo-European family to which +the Greeks, Italians, Celts, Teutons, Slavs, Hindus, Persians, and +Afghans belong, whereas the Turks are a branch of a wholly different +stock, the Ural-Altai group, of which the Mongols, Turks, Tartars, +Finns, and Magyars are members. + +[64] April 16, 1919. + +[65] Madame N---- showed a friend of mine an autograph letter which she +claims to have received from one of her clients, "a world's famous man." +I was several times invited to inspect it at the clairvoyante's abode, +or at my own, if I preferred. + +[66] Articles on the subject appeared in the French press. To the best +of my recollection there was one in _Bonsoir_. + +[67] The American Red Cross buried sixteen hundred of them in August, +1919. _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 30, 1919. + +[68] The reply, of which I possess what was given to me as a copy, is +dated Paris, January 9, 1919, and is in French. + +[69] Imagine, for instance, the condition of mind into which the +following day's work must have thrown the American statesman, beset as +he was with political worries of his own. The extract quoted is taken +from _The Daily Mail_ of April 18, 1919 (Paris edition). + +President Wilson had a busy day yesterday, as the following list of +engagements shows: 11 A.M. Dr. Wellington Koo, to present the Chinese +Delegation to the Peace Conference. 11.10 A.M. Marquis de Vogué had a +delegation of seven others, representing the Congrès Français, to +present their view as to the disposition of the left bank of the Rhine. +11.30 A.M. Assyrian and Chaldean Delegation, with a message from the +Assyrian-Chaldean nation. 11.45 A.M. Dalmatian Delegation, to present to +the President the result of the plebiscite of that part of Dalmatia +occupied by Italians. _Noon_. M. Bucquet, Chargé d'Affaires of San +Marino, to convey the action of the Grand Council of San Marino, +conferring on the President Honorary Citizenship in the Republic of San +Marino. 12.10 P.M. M. Colonder, Swiss Minister of Foreign Affairs. 12.20 +P.M. Miss Rose Schneiderman and Miss Mary Anderson, delegates of the +National Women's Trade Union League of the United States. 12.30 P.M. The +Patriarch of Constantinople, the head of the Orthodox Eastern Church. +12.45 P.M. Essad Pasha, delegate of Albania, to present the claims of +Albania. 1 P.M. M.M.L. Coromilas, Greek Minister at Rome, to pay his +respects. _Luncheon_. Mr. Newton D. Baker, Secretary for War. 4 P.M. Mr. +Herbert Hoover. 4.15 P.M. M. Bratiano, of the Rumanian Delegation. 4.30 +P.M. Dr. Affonso Costa, former Portuguese Minister, Portuguese Delegate +to the Peace Conference. 4.45 P.M. Boghos Nubar Pasha, president of the +Armenian National Delegation, accompanied by M.A. Aharoman and Professor +A. Der Hagopian, of Robert College. 5.15 P.M. M. Pasitch, of the Serbian +Delegation. 5.30 P.M. Mr. Frank Walsh, of the Irish-American Delegation. + + + + +IV + +CENSORSHIP AND SECRECY + + +Never was political veracity in Europe at a lower ebb than during the +Peace Conference. The blinding dust of half-truths cunningly mixed with +falsehood and deliberately scattered with a lavish hand, obscured the +vision of the people, who were expected to adopt or acquiesce in the +judgments of their rulers on the various questions that arose. Four and +a half years of continuous and deliberate lying for victory had +disembodied the spirit of veracity and good faith throughout the world +of politics. Facts were treated as plastic and capable of being shaped +after this fashion or that, according to the aim of the speaker or +writer. Promises were made, not because the things promised were seen to +be necessary or desirable, but merely in order to dispose the public +favorably toward a policy or an expedient, or to create and maintain a +certain frame of mind toward the enemies or the Allies. At elections and +in parliamentary discourses, undertakings were given, some of which were +known to be impossible of fulfilment. Thus the ministers in some of the +Allied countries bound themselves to compel the Germans not only to pay +full compensation for damage wantonly done, but also to defray the +entire cost of the war. + +The notion that the enemy would thus make good all losses was manifestly +preposterous. In a century the debt could not be wiped out, even though +the Teutonic people could be got to work steadily and selflessly for +the purpose. For their productivity would be unavailing if their +victorious adversaries were indisposed to admit the products to their +markets. And not only were the governments unwilling, but some of the +peoples announced their determination to boycott German wares on their +own initiative. None the less the nations were for months buoyed up with +the baleful delusion that all their war expenses would be refunded by +the enemy.[70] + +It was not the governments only, however, who, after having for over +four years colored and refracted the truth, now continued to twist and +invent "facts." The newspapers, with some honorable exceptions, +buttressed them up and even outstripped them. Plausible unveracity thus +became a patriotic accomplishment and a recognized element of politics. +Parties and states employed it freely. Fiction received the hall-mark of +truth and fancies were current as facts. Public men who had solemnly +hazarded statements belied by subsequent events denied having ever +uttered them. Never before was the baleful theory that error is helpful +so systematically applied as during the war and the armistice. If the +falsehoods circulated and the true facts suppressed were to be collected +and published in a volume, one would realize the depth to which the +standard of intellectual and moral integrity was lowered.[71] + +The censorship was retained by the Great Powers during the Conference as +a sort of soft cushion on which the self-constituted dispensers of Fate +comfortably reposed. In Paris, where it was particularly severe and +unreasoning, it protected the secret conclave from the harsh strictures +of the outside world, concealing from the public, not only the +incongruities of the Conference, but also many of the warnings of +contemporary history. In the opinion of unbiased Frenchmen no such +rigorous, systematic, and short-sighted repression of press liberty had +been known since the Third Empire as was kept up under the rule of the +great tribune whose public career had been one continuous campaign +against every form of coercion. This twofold policy of secrecy on the +part of the delegates and censorship on the part of the authorities +proved incongruous as well as dangerous, for, upheld by the eminent +statesmen who had laid down as part of the new gospel the principle of +"open covenants openly arrived at," it furnished the world with a fairly +correct standard by which to interpret the entire phraseology of the +latter-day reformers. Events showed that only by applying that criterion +could the worth of their statements of fact and their promises of +amelioration be gaged. And it soon became clear that most of their +utterances like that about open covenants were to be construed according +to the maxim of _lucus a non lucendo_. + +It was characteristic of the system that two American citizens were +employed to read the cablegrams arriving from the United States to +French newspapers. The object was the suppression of such messages as +tended to throw doubt on the useful belief that the people of the great +American Republic were solid behind their President, ready to approve +his decisions and acts, and that his cherished Covenant, sure of +ratification, would serve as a safe guarantee to all the states which +the application of his various principles might leave strategically +exposed. In this way many interesting items of intelligence from the +United States were kept out of the newspapers, while others were +mutilated and almost all were delayed. Protests were unavailing. Nor was +it until several months were gone by that the French public became aware +of the existence of a strong current of American opinion which favored a +critical attitude toward Mr. Wilson's policy and justified misgivings as +to the finality of his decisions. It was a sorry expedient and an +unsuccessful one. + +On another occasion strenuous efforts are reported to have been made +through the intermediary of President Wilson to delay the publication in +the United States of a cablegram to a journal there until the Prime +Minister of Britain should deliver a speech in the House of Commons. An +accident balked these exertions and the message appeared. + +Publicity was none the less strongly advocated by the plenipotentiaries +in their speeches and writings. These were as sign-posts pointing to +roads along which they themselves were incapable of moving. By their own +accounts they were inveterate enemies of secrecy and censorship. The +President of the United States had publicly said that he "could not +conceive of anything more hurtful than the creation of a system of +censorship that would deprive the people of a free republic such as ours +of their undeniable right to criticize public officials." M. Clemenceau, +who suffered more than most publicists from systematic repression, had +changed the name of his newspaper from the _L'Homme Libre_ to _L'Homme +Enchaîné_, and had passed a severe judgment on "those friends of +liberty" (the government) who tempered freedom with preventive +repression measured out according to the mood uppermost at the +moment.[72] But as soon as he himself became head of the government he +changed his tactics and called his journal _L'Homme Libre_ again. In +the Chamber he announced that "publicity for the 'debates' of the +Conference was generally favored," but in practice he rendered the +system of gagging the press a byword in Europe. Drawing his own line of +demarcation between the permissible and the illicit, he informed the +Chamber that so long as the Conference was engaged on its arduous work +"it must not be said that the head of one government had put forward a +proposal which was opposed by the head of another government."[73] As +though the disagreements, the bickerings, and the serious quarrels of +the heads of the governments could long be concealed from the peoples +whose spokesmen they were! + +That bargainings went on at the Conference which a plain-dealing world +ought to be apprised of is the conclusion which every unbiased outsider +will draw from the singular expedients resorted to for the purpose of +concealing them. Before the Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, +State-Secretary Lansing confessed that when, after the treaty had been +signed, the French Senate called for the minutes of the proceedings on +the Commission of the League of Nations, President Wilson telegraphed +from Washington to the Peace Commission requesting it to withhold them. +He further admitted that the only written report of the discussions in +existence was left in Paris, outside the jurisdiction of the United +States Senate. When questioned as to whether, in view of this system of +concealment, the President's promise of "open covenants openly arrived +at" could be said to have been honestly redeemed, Mr. Lansing answered, +"I consider that was carried out."[74] It seems highly probable that in +the same and only in the same sense will the Treaty and the Covenant be +carried out in the spirit or the letter. + +During the fateful days of the Conference preventive censorship was +practised with a degree of rigor equaled only by its senselessness. As +late as the month of June, the columns of the newspapers were checkered +with blank spaces. "Scarcely a newspaper in Paris appears uncensored at +present," one press organ wrote. "Some papers protest, but protests are +in vain."[75] + +"Practically not a word as to the nature of the Peace terms that France +regards as most vital to her existence appears in the French papers this +morning," complained a journal at the time when even the Germans were +fully informed of what was being enacted. On one occasion _Bonsoir_ was +seized for expressing the view that the Treaty embodied an Anglo-Saxon +peace;[76] on another for reproducing an interview with Marshal Foch +that had already appeared in a widely circulated Paris newspaper.[77] By +way of justifying another of these seizures the French censor alleged +that an article in the paper was deemed uncomplimentary to Mr. Lloyd +George. The editor replied in a letter to the British Premier affirming +that there was nothing in the article but what Mr. Lloyd George could +and should be proud of. In fact, it only commended him "for having +served the interests of his country most admirably and having had +precedence given to them over all others." The letter concluded: "We are +apprehensive that in the whole business there is but one thing truly +uncomplimentary, and that is that the French censorship, for the purpose +of strangling the French press, should employ your name, the name of him +who abolished censorship many weeks ago."[78] + +Even when British journalists were dealing with matters as unlikely to +cause trouble as a description of the historic proceedings at Versailles +at which the Germans received the Peace Treaty, the censor held back +their messages, from five o'clock in the afternoon till three the next +morning.[79] Strange though it may seem, it was at first decided that no +newspaper-men should be allowed to witness the formal handing of the +Treaty to the enemy delegates! For it was deemed advisable in the +interests of the world that even that ceremonial should be secret.[80] +These singular methods were impressively illustrated and summarized in a +cartoon representing Mr. Wilson as "The new wrestling champion," +throwing down his adversary, the press, whose garb, composed of +journals, was being scattered in scraps of paper to the floor, and under +the picture was the legend: "It is forbidden to publish what Marshal +Foch says. It is forbidden to publish what Mr. George thinks. It is +forbidden to publish the Treaty of Peace with Germany. It is forbidden +to publish what happened at ... and to make sure that nothing else will +be published, the censor systematically delays the transmission of every +telegram."[81] + +In the Chamber the government was adjured to suppress the institution of +censorship once the Treaty was signed by the Germans, and Ministers were +reminded of the diatribes which they had pronounced against that +institution in the years of their ambitions and strivings. In vain +Deputies described and deplored the process of demoralization that was +being furthered by the methods of the government. "In the provinces as +well as in the capital the journals that displease are seized, +eavesdroppers listen to telephonic conversations, the secrets of private +letters are violated. Arrangements are made that certain telegrams shall +arrive too late, and spies are delegated to the most private meetings. +At a recent gathering of members of the National Press, two spies were +surprised, and another was discovered at the Federation of the Radical +Committees of the Oise."[82] But neither the signature of the Treaty nor +its ratification by Germany occasioned the slightest modification in the +system of restrictions. Paris continued in a state of siege and the +censors were the busiest bureaucrats in the capital. + +One undesirable result of this régime of keeping the public in the dark +and indoctrinating it in the views always narrow, and sometimes +mischievous, which the authorities desired it to hold, was that the +absurdities which were allowed to appear with the hall-mark of +censorship were often believed to emanate directly from the government. +Britons and Americans versed in the books of the New Testament were +shocked or amused when told that the censor had allowed the following +passage to appear in an eloquent speech delivered by the ex-Premier, M. +Painlevé: "As Hall Caine, the great American poet, has put it, 'O death, +where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?'"[83] + +Every conceivable precaution was taken against the leakage of +information respecting what was going on in the Council of Ten. +Notwithstanding this, the French papers contrived now and again, during +the first couple of months, to publish scraps of news calculated to +convey to the public a faint notion of the proceedings, until one day a +Nationalist organ boldly announced that the British Premier had +disagreed with the expert commission and with his own colleagues on the +subject of Dantzig and refused to give way. This paragraph irritated the +British statesman, who made a scene at the next meeting of the Council. +"There is," he is reported to have exclaimed, "some one among us here +who is unmindful of his obligations," and while uttering these and other +much stronger words he eyed severely a certain mild individual who is +said to have trembled all over during the philippic. He also launched +out into a violent diatribe against various French journals which had +criticized his views on Poland and his method of carrying them in +council, and he went so far as to threaten to have the Conference +transferred to a neutral country. In conclusion he demanded an +investigation into the origin of the leakage of information and the +adoption of severe disciplinary measures against the journalists who +published the disclosures.[84] Thenceforward the Council of Ten was +suspended and its place taken by a smaller and more secret conclave of +Five, Four, or Three, according as the state of the plenipotentiaries' +health, the requirements of their home politics, or their relations +among themselves caused one or two to quit Paris temporarily. + +This measure insured relative secrecy, fostered rumors and gossip, and +rendered criticism, whether helpful or captious, impossible. It also +drove into outer darkness those Allied states whose interests were +described as limited, as though the interests of Italy, whose delegate +was nominally one of the privileged five, were not being treated as more +limited still. But the point of this last criticism would be blunted if, +as some French and Italian observers alleged, the deliberate aim of the +"representatives of the twelve million soldiers" was indeed to enable +peace to be concluded and the world resettled congruously with the +conceptions and in harmony with the interests of the Anglo-Saxon +peoples. But the supposition is gratuitous. There was no such deliberate +plan. After the establishment of the Council of Five, Mr. Lloyd George +and Mr. Wilson made short work of the reports of the expert commissions +whenever these put forward reasoned views differing from their own. In a +word, they became the world's supreme and secret arbiters without +ceasing to be the official champions of the freedom of the lesser states +and of "open covenants openly arrived at." They constituted, so to say, +the living synthesis of contradictories. + +The Council of Five then was a superlatively secret body. No secretaries +were admitted to its gatherings and no official minutes of its +proceedings were recorded. Communications were never issued to the +press. It resembled a gang of benevolent conspirators, whose debates and +resolutions were swallowed up by darkness and mystery. Even the most +modest meeting of a provincial taxpayers' association keeps minutes of +its discussions. The world parliament kept none. Eschewing traditional +usages, as became naïve shapers of the new world, and ignoring history, +the Five, Four, or Three shut themselves up in a room, talked informally +and disconnectedly without a common principle, program, or method, and +separated again without having reached a conclusion. It is said that +when one put forth an idea, another would comment upon it, a third might +demur, and that sometimes an appeal would be made to geography, history, +or ethnography, and as the data were not immediately accessible either +competent specialists were sent for or the conversation took another +turn. They very naturally refused to allow these desultory proceedings +to be put on record, the only concession which they granted to the +curiosity of future generations being the fixation of their own physical +features by photography and painting. When the sitting was over, +therefore, no one could be held to aught that he had said; there was +nothing to bind any of the individual delegates to the views he had +expressed, nor was there anything to mark the line to which the Council +as a whole had advanced. Each one was free to dictate to his secretary +his recollections of what had gone on, but as these _précis_ were given +from memory they necessarily differed one from the other on various +important points. On the following morning, or a few days later, the +world's workers would meet again, and either begin at the beginning, +traveling over the same familiar field, or else break fresh ground. In +this way in one day they are said to have skimmed the problems of +Spitzbergen, Morocco, Dantzig, and the feeding of the enemy populations, +leaving each problem where they had found it. The moment the discussion +of a contentious question approached a climax, the specter of +disagreement deterred them from pursuing it to a conclusion, and they +passed on quickly to some other question. And when, after months had +been spent in these Penelopean labors, definite decisions respecting the +peace had to be taken lest the impatient people should rise up and wrest +matters into their own hands, the delegates referred the various +problems which they had been unable to solve to the wisdom and tact of +the future League of Nations. + +When misunderstandings arose as to what had been said or done it was the +official translator, M. Paul Mantoux--one of the most brilliant +representatives of Jewry at the Conference--who was wont to decide, his +memory being reputed superlatively tenacious. In this way he attained +the distinction of which his friends are justly proud, of being a living +record--indeed, the sole available record--of what went on at the +historic council. He was the recipient and is now the only repository of +all the secrets of which the plenipotentiaries were so jealous, lest, +being a kind of knowledge which is in verity power, it should be used +one day for some dubious purpose. But M. Mantoux enjoyed the esteem and +confidence not only of Mr. Wilson, but also of the British Prime +Minister, who, it was generally believed, drew from his entertaining +narratives and shrewd appreciations whatever information he possessed +about French politics and politicians. It was currently affirmed that, +being a man of method and foresight, M. Mantoux committed everything to +writing for his own behoof. Doubts, however, were entertained and +publicly expressed as to whether affairs of this magnitude, involving +the destinies of the world, should have been handled in such secret and +unbusiness-like fashion. But on the supposition that the general +outcome, if not the preconceived aim, of the policy of the Anglo-Saxon +plenipotentiaries was to confer the beneficent hegemony of the world +upon its peoples, there could, it was argued, be no real danger in the +procedure followed. For, united, those nations have nothing to fear. + +Although the translations were done rapidly, elegantly, and lucidly, +allegations were made that they lost somewhat by undue compression and +even by the process of toning down, of which the praiseworthy object was +to spare delicate susceptibilities. For a limited number of delicate +susceptibilities were treated considerately by the Conference. A +defective rendering made a curious impression on the hearers once, when +a delegate said: "My country, unfortunately, is situated in the midst of +states which are anything but peace-loving--in fact, the chief danger to +the peace of Europe emanates from them." M. Mantoux's translation ran, +"The country represented by M. X. unhappily presents the greatest danger +to the peace of Europe." + +On several occasions passages of the discourses of the plenipotentiaries +underwent a certain transformation in the well-informed brain of M. +Mantoux before being done into another language. They were plunged, so +to say, in the stream of history before their exposure to the light of +day. This was especially the case with the remarks of the +English-speaking delegates, some of whom were wont to make extensive use +of the license taken by their great national poet in matters of +geography and history. One of them, for example, when alluding to the +ex-Emperor Franz Josef and his successor, said: "It would be unjust to +visit the sins of the father on the head of his innocent son. Charles I +should not be made to suffer for Franz Josef." M. Mantoux rendered the +sentence, "It would be unjust to visit the sins of the uncle on the +innocent nephew," and M. Clemenceau, with a merry twinkle in his eye, +remarked to the ready interpreter, "You will lose your job if you go on +making these wrong translations." + +But those details are interesting, if at all, only as means of eking out +a mere sketch which can never become a complete and faithful picture. It +was the desire of the eminent lawgivers that the source of the most +beneficent reforms chronicled in history should be as well hidden as +those of the greatest boon bestowed by Providence upon man. And their +motives appear to have been sound enough. + +The pains thus taken to create a haze between themselves and the peoples +whose implicit confidence they were continuously craving constitute one +of the most striking ethico-psychological phenomena of the Conference. +They demanded unreasoning faith as well as blind obedience. Any +statement, however startling, was expected to carry conviction once it +bore the official hall-mark. Take, for example, the demand made by the +Supreme Four to Bela Kuhn to desist from his offensive against the +Slovaks. The press expressed surprise and disappointment that he, a +Bolshevist, should have been invited even hypothetically by the "deadly +enemies of Bolshevism" to delegate representatives to the Paris +Conference from which the leaders of the Russian constructive elements +were excluded. Thereupon the Supreme Four, which had taken the step in +secret, had it denied categorically that such an invitation had been +issued. The press was put up to state that, far from making such an +undignified advance, the Council had asserted its authority and +peremptorily summoned the misdemeanant Kuhn to withdraw his troops +immediately from Slovakia under heavy pains and penalties. + +Subsequently, however, the official correspondence was published, when +it was seen that the implicit invitation had really been issued and that +the denial ran directly counter to fact. By this exposure the Council of +Four, which still sued for the full confidence of their peoples, was +somewhat embarrassed. This embarrassment was not allayed when what +purported to be a correct explanation of their action was given out and +privately circulated by a group which claimed to be initiated. It was +summarized as follows: "The Israelite, Bela Kuhn, who is leading Hungary +to destruction, has been heartened by the Supreme Council's indulgent +message. People are at a loss to understand why, if the Conference +believes, as it has asserted, that Bolshevism is the greatest scourge of +latter-day humanity, it ordered the Rumanian troops, when nearing +Budapest for the purpose of overthrowing it in that stronghold, first to +halt, and then to withdraw.[85] The clue to the mystery has at last been +found in a secret arrangement between Kuhn and a certain financial group +concerning the Banat. About this more will be said later. In one of my +own cablegrams to the United States I wrote: "People are everywhere +murmuring and whispering that beneath the surface of things powerful +undercurrents are flowing which invisibly sway the policy of the secret +council, and the public believes that this accounts for the sinister +vacillation and delay of which it complains."[86] + +In the fragmentary utterances of the governments and their press organs +nobody placed the slightest confidence. Their testimony was discredited +in advance, on grounds which they were unable to weaken. The following +example is at once amusing and instructive. The French Parliamentary +Committee of the Budget, having asked the government for communication +of the section of the Peace Treaty dealing with finances, were told that +their demand could not be entertained, every clause of the Treaty being +a state secret. The Committee on Foreign Affairs made a like request, +with the same results. The entire Chamber next expressed a similar wish, +which elicited a firm refusal. The French Premier, it should be added, +alleged a reason which was at least specious. "I should much like," he +said, "to communicate to you the text you ask for, but I may not do so +until it has been signed by the President of the Republic. For such is +the law as embodied in Article 8 of the Constitution." Now nobody +believed that this was the true ground for his refusal. His explanation, +however, was construed as a courteous conventionality, and as such was +accepted. But once alleged, the fiction should have been respected, at +any rate by its authors. It was not. A few weeks later the Premier +ordered the publication of the text of the Treaty, although, in the +meantime, it had not been signed by M. Poincaré. "The excuse founded +upon Article 8 was, therefore, a mere humbug," flippantly wrote an +influential journal.[87] + +An amusing joke, which tickled all Paris was perpetrated shortly +afterward. The editor of the _Bonsoir_ imported six hundred copies of +the forbidden Treaty from Switzerland, and sent them as a present to +the Deputies of the Chamber, whereupon the parliamentary authorities +posted up a notice informing all Deputies who desired a copy to call at +the questor's office, where they would receive it gratuitously as a +present from the _Bonsoir._ Accordingly the Deputies, including the +Speaker, Deschanel, thronged to the questor's office. Even solemn-faced +Ministers received a copy of the thick volume which I possessed ever +since the day it was issued. + +Another glaring instance of the lack of straightforwardness which +vitiated the dealings of the Conference with the public turned upon the +Bullitt mission to Russia. Mr. Wilson, who in the depths of his heart +seems to have cherished a vague fondness for the Bolshevists there, +which he sometimes manifested in utterances that startled the foreigners +to whom they were addressed, despatched through Colonel House some +fellow-countrymen of his to Moscow to ask for peace proposals which, +according to the Moscow government, were drafted by himself and Messrs. +House and Lansing. Mr. Bullitt, however, who must know, affirms that the +draft was written by Mr. Lloyd George's secretary, Mr. Philip Kerr, and +himself and presented to Lenin by Messrs. Bullitt, Steffins, and Petit. +If the terms of this document should prove acceptable the American +envoys were empowered to promise that an official invitation to a new +peace conference would be sent to them as well as to their opponents by +April 15th. The conditions--eleven in number--with a few slight +modifications in which the Americans acquiesced--were accepted by the +dictator, who was bound, however, not to permit their publication. The +facts remained secret until Mr. Bullitt, thrown over by Mr. Wilson, who +recoiled from taking the final and decisive step, resigned, and in a +letter reproduced by the press set forth the reasons for his +decision.[88] + +Now, vague reports that there was such a mission had found its way into +the Paris newspapers at a relatively early date. But an authoritative +denial was published without delay. The statement, the public was +assured, was without foundation. And the public believed the assurance, +for it was confirmed authoritatively in England. Sir Samuel Hoare, in +the House of Commons, asked for information about a report that "two +Americans have recently returned from Russia bringing offers of peace +from Lenin," and received from Mr. Bonar Law this noteworthy reply: "I +have said already that there is not the shadow of foundation for this +information, otherwise I would have known it. Moreover, I have +communicated with Mr. Lloyd George in Paris, who also declares that he +knows nothing about the matter."[89] _E pur si muove_. Mr. Lloyd George +knew nothing about President Wilson's determination to have the Covenant +inserted in the Peace Treaty, even after the announcement was published +to the world by the Havas Agency, and the confirmation given to pressmen +by Lord Robert Cecil. The system of reticence and concealment, coupled +with the indifference of this or that delegation to questions in which +it happened to take no special interest, led to these unseemly air-tight +compartments. + +From this rank soil of secrecy, repression, and unveracity sprang +noxious weeds. False reports and mendacious insinuations were launched, +spread, and credited, impairing such prestige as the Conference still +enjoyed, while the fragmentary announcements ventured on now and again +by the delegates, in sheer self-defense, were summarily dismissed as +"eye-wash" for the public. + +For a time the disharmony between words and deeds passed unnoticed by +the bulk of the masses, who were edified by the one and unacquainted +with the other. But gradually the lack of consistency in policy and of +manly straightforwardness and moral wholeness in method became apparent +to all and produced untoward consequences. Mr. Wilson, whose authority +and influence were supposed to be paramount, came in for the lion's +share of criticism, except in the Polish policy of the Conference, which +was traced to Mr. Lloyd George and his unofficial prompters. The +American press was the most censorious of all. One American journal +appearing in Paris gave utterance to the following comments on the +President's rôle:[90] + + President Wilson is conscious of his power of persuasion. That + power enables him to say one thing, do another, describe the act as + conforming to the idea, and, with act and idea in exact + contradiction to each other, convince the people, not only that he + has been consistent throughout, but that his act cannot be altered + without peril to the nation and danger to the world. + + We do not know which Mr. Wilson to follow--the Mr. Wilson who says + he will not do a thing or the Mr. Wilson who does that precise + thing. + + A great many Americans have one fixed idea. That idea is that the + President is the only magnanimous, clear-visioned, broad-minded + statesman in the United States, or the entire world, for that + matter. + + When he uses his powers of persuasion Americans become as the + children of Hamelin Town. Inasmuch as Mr. Wilson of the word and + Mr. Wilson of the deed seem at times to be two distinct identities, + some of his most enthusiastic supporters for the League of Nations, + being unfortunately gifted with memory and perception, are fairly + standing on their heads in dismay. + +And yet Mr. Wilson himself was a victim of the policy of reticence and +concealment to which the Great Powers were incurably addicted. At the +time when they were moving heaven and earth to induce him to break with +Germany and enter the war, they withheld from him the existence of their +secret treaties. Possibly it may not be thought fair to apply the test +of ethical fastidiousness to their method of bringing the United States +to their side and to their unwillingness to run the risk of alienating +the President. But it appears that until the close of hostility the +secret was kept inviolate, nor was it until Mr. Wilson reached the +shores of Europe for the purpose of executing his project that he was +faced with the huge obstacles to his scheme arising out of those +far-reaching commitments. With this depressing revelation and the +British _non possumus_ to his demand for the freedom of the seas, Mr. +Wilson's practical difficulties began. It was probably on that occasion +that he resolved, seeing that he could not obtain everything he wanted, +to content himself with the best he could get. And that was not a +society of peoples, but a rough approximation to the hegemony of the +Anglo-Saxon nations. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[70] The French Minister of Finances made this the cornerstone of his +policy and declared that the indemnity to be paid by the vanquished +Teutons would enable him to set the finances of France on a permanently +sound basis. In view of this expectation new taxation was eschewed. + +[71] A selection of the untruths published in the French press during +the war has been reproduced by the Paris journal, _Bonsoir_. It contains +abundant pabulum for the cynic and valuable data for the psychologist. +The example might be followed in Great Britain. The title is: +"Anthologie du Bourrage de Crâne." It began in the month of July, 1919. + +[72] Cf. _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), June 2, 1919. + +[73] Cf. _The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), January 17, 1919. + +[74] Cf. _The Chicago Tribune_, August 27, 1919. + +[75] Cf. _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), June 10, 1919. + +[76] Cf. _Bonsoir_, June 20, 1919. + +[77] On April 27th. + +[78] _Bonsoir_, June 21, 1919. + +[79] _The New York Herald_, May 15. 1919. + +[80] _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), May 3,1919. + +[81] _The New York Herald_, June 6, 1919. + +[82] Cf. _Le Matin_, July 9, 1919. The chief speakers alluded to were +MM. Renaudel, Deshayes, Lafont, Paul Meunier, Vandame. + +[83] _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), April 29, 1919. + +[84] Quoted in the Paris _Temps_ of March 28,1919. + +[85] This explanation deals exclusively with the first advance of the +Rumanian army into Hungary. + +[86] Cabled to _The Public Ledger_ of Philadelphia, April 20,1919. + +[87] _Bonsoir_, June 21, 1919. + +[88] Cf. _The Daily News_, July 5,1919. _L'Humanité_, July 8, 1919. + +[89] Cf. _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), April 4, 1919. + +[90] _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), July 31, 1919. + + + + +V + +AIMS AND METHODS + + +The policy of the Anglo-Saxon plenipotentiaries was never put into +words. For that reason it has to be judged by their acts, despite the +circumstance that these were determined by motives which varied greatly +at different times, and so far as one can conjecture were not often +practical corollaries of fundamental principles. From these acts one may +draw a few conclusions which will enable us to reconstruct such policy +as there was. One is that none of the sacrifices imposed upon the +members of the League of Nations was obligatory on the Anglo-Saxon +peoples. These were beyond the reach of all the new canons which might +clash with their interests or run counter to their aspirations. They +were the givers and administrators of the saving law rather than its +observers. Consequently they were free to hold all that was theirs, +however doubtful their title; nay, they were besought to accept a good +deal more under the mandatory system, which was molded on their own +methods of governance. It was especially taken for granted that the +architects would be called to contribute naught to the new structure but +their ideas, and that they need renounce none of their possessions, +however shady its origin, however galling to the population its +retention. It was in deference to this implicit doctrine that President +Wilson withdrew without protest or discussion his demand for the freedom +of the seas, on which he had been wont to lay such stress. + +Another way of putting the matter is this. The principal aim of the +Conference was to create conditions favorable to the progress of +civilization on new lines. And the seed-bearers of true, as +distinguished from spurious, civilization and culture being the +Anglo-Saxons, it is the realization of their broad conceptions, the +furtherance of their beneficent strivings, that are most conducive to +that ulterior aim. The men of this race in the widest sense of the term +are, therefore, so to say, independent ends in themselves, whereas the +other peoples are to be utilized as means. Hence the difference of +treatment meted out to the two categories. In the latter were implicitly +included Italy and Russia. Unquestionably the influence of +Anglo-Saxondom is eminently beneficial. It tends to bring the rights and +the dignity as well as the duties of humanity into broad day. The +farther it extends by natural growth, therefore, the better for the +human race. The Anglo-Saxon mode of administering colonies, for +instance, is exemplary, and for this reason was deemed worthy to receive +the hall-mark of the Conference as one of the institutions of the future +League. But even benefits may be transformed into evils if imposed by +force. + +That, in brief, would seem to be the clue--one can hardly speak of any +systematic conception--to the unordered improvisations and incongruous +decisions of the Conference. + +I am not now concerned to discuss whether this unformulated maxim, which +had strong roots that may not always have reached the realm of +consciousness, calls for approval as an instrument of ethico-political +progress or connotes an impoverishment of the aims originally propounded +by Mr. Wilson. Excellent reasons may be assigned why the two +English-speaking statesmen proceeded without deliberation on these lines +and no other. The matter might have been raised to a higher plane, but +for that the delegates were not prepared. All that one need retain at +present is the orientation of the Supreme Council, inasmuch as it +imparts a sort of relative unity to seemingly heterogeneous acts. Thus, +although the conditions of the Peace Treaty in many respects ran +directly counter to the provisions of the Covenant, none the less the +ultimate tendency of both was to converge in a distant point, which, +when clearly discerned, will turn out to be the moral guidance of the +world by Anglo-Saxondom as represented at any rate in the incipient +stage by both its branches. Thus the discussions among the members of +the Conference were in last analysis not contests about mere +abstractions. Beneath the high-sounding principles and far-resonant +reforms which were propounded but not realized lurked concrete racial +strivings which a patriotic temper and robust faith might easily +identify with the highest interests of humanity. + +When the future historian defines, as he probably will, the main result +of the Conference's labors as a tendency to place the spiritual and +political direction of the world in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon race, +it is essential to a correct view of things that he should not regard +this trend as the outcome of a deliberate concerted policy. It was +anything but this. Nobody who conversed with the statesmen before and +during the Conference could detect any sure tokens of such ultimate +aims, nor, indeed, of a thorough understanding of the lesser problems to +be settled. Circumstance led, and the statesmen followed. The historian +may term the process drift, and the humanitarian regret that such +momentous issues should ever have been submitted to a body of uninformed +politicians out of touch with the people for whose behoof they claimed +to be legislating. To liquidate the war should have been the first, as +it was the most urgent, task. But it was complicated, adjourned, and +finally botched by interweaving it with a mutilated scheme for the +complete readjustment of the politico-social forces of the planet. The +result was a tangled skein of problems, most of them still unsolved, and +some insoluble by governments alone. Out of the confusion of clashing +forces towered aloft the two dominant Powers who command the economic +resources of the world, and whose democratic institutions and internal +ordering are unquestionably more conducive to the large humanitarian end +than those of any other, and gradually their overlordship of the world +began to assert itself. But this tendency was not the outcome of +deliberate endeavor. Each representative of those vast states was +solicitous in the first place about the future of his own country, and +then about the regeneration of the human race. One would like to be able +to add that all were wholly inaccessible to the promptings of party +interests and personal ambitions. + +Planlessness naturally characterized the exertions of the Anglo-Saxon +delegates from start to finish. It is a racial trait. Their hosts, who +were experts in the traditions of diplomacy, had before the opening of +the Conference prepared a plan for their behoof, which at the lowest +estimate would have connoted a vast improvement on their own desultory +way of proceeding. The French proposed to distribute all the preparatory +work among eighteen commissions, leaving to the chief plenipotentiaries +the requisite time to arrange preliminaries and become acquainted with +the essential elements of the problems. But Messrs. Wilson and Lloyd +George are said to have preferred their informal conversations, +involving the loss of three and a half months, during which no results +were reached in Paris, while turmoil, bloodshed, and hunger fed the +smoldering fires of discontent throughout the World. + +The British Premier, like his French colleague, was solicitous chiefly +about making peace with the enemy and redeeming as far as possible his +election pledges to his supporters. To that end everything else would +appear to have been subordinated. To the ambitious project of a world +reform he and M. Clemenceau gave what was currently construed as a +nominal assent, but for a long time they had no inkling of Mr. Wilson's +intention to interweave the peace conditions with the Covenant. So far, +indeed, were they both from entertaining the notion that the two +Premiers expressly denied--and allowed their denial to be circulated in +the press--that the two documents were or could be made mutually +interdependent. M. Pichon assured a group of journalists that no such +intention was harbored.[91] Mr. Lloyd George is understood to have gone +farther and to have asked what degree of relevancy a Covenant for the +members of the League could be supposed to possess to a treaty concluded +with a nation which for the time being was denied admission to that +sodality. And as we saw, he was incurious enough not to read the +narrative of what had been done by his own American colleagues even +after the Havas Agency announced it. + +To President Wilson, on the other hand, the League was the _magnum opus_ +of his life. It was to be the crown of his political career, to mark the +attainment of an end toward which all that was best in the human race +had for centuries been consciously or unconsciously wending without +moving perceptibly nearer. Instinctively he must have felt that the +Laodicean support given to him by his colleagues would not carry him +much farther and that their fervor would speedily evaporate once the +Conference broke up and their own special aims were definitely achieved +or missed. With the shrewdness of an experienced politician he grasped +the fact that if he was ever to present his Covenant to the world +clothed with the authority of the mightiest states, now was his +opportunity. After the Conference it would be too late. And the only +contrivance by which he could surely reckon on success was to insert the +Covenant in the Peace Treaty and set before his colleagues an +irresistible incentive for elaborating both at the same time. + +He had an additional motive for these tactics in the attitude of a +section of his own countrymen. Before starting for Paris he had, as we +saw, made an appeal to the electorate to return to the legislature only +candidates of his own party to the exclusion of Republicans, and the +result fell out contrary to his expectations. Thereupon the oppositional +elements increased in numbers and displayed a marked combative +disposition. Even moderate Republicans complained in terms akin to those +employed by ex-President Taft of Mr. Wilson's "partizan exclusion of +Republicans in dealing with the highly important matter of settling the +results of the war. He solicited a commission in which the Republicans +had no representation and in which there were no prominent Americans of +any real experience and leadership of public opinion."[92] + +The leaders of this opposition sharply watched the policy of the +President at the Conference and made no secret of their resolve to +utilize any serious slip as a handle for revising or rejecting the +outcome of his labors. Seeing his cherished cause thus trembling in the +scale, Mr. Wilson hit upon the expedient of linking the Covenant with +the Peace Treaty and making of the two an inseparable whole. He +announced this determination in a forcible speech[93] to his own +countrymen, in which he said, "When the Treaty comes back, gentlemen on +this side will find the Covenant not only in it, but so many threads of +the Treaty tied to the Covenant that you cannot dissect the Covenant +from the Treaty without destroying the whole vital structure." This +scheme was denounced by Mr. Wilson's opponents as a trick, but the +historian will remember it as a maneuver, which, however blameless or +meritorious its motive, was fraught with lamentable consequences for all +the peoples for whose interests the President was sincerely solicitous. +To take but one example. The misgivings generated by the Covenant +delayed the ratification of the Peace Treaty by the United States +Senate, in consequence of which the Turkish problem had to be postponed +until the Washington government was authorized to accept or compelled to +refuse a mandate for the Sultan's dominions, and in the meanwhile mass +massacres of Greeks and Armenians were organized anew. + +A large section of the press and the majority of the delegates strongly +condemned the interpolation of the Covenant. What they demanded was +first the conclusion of a solid peace and then the establishment of +suitable international safeguards. For to be safeguarded, peace must +first exist. "A suit of armor without the warrior inside is but a +useless ornament," wrote one of the American journals.[94] + +But the course advocated by Mr. Wilson was open to another direct and +telling objection. Peace between the belligerent adversaries was, in the +circumstances, conceivable only on the old lines of strategic frontiers +and military guaranties. The Supreme Council implied as much in its +official reply to the criticisms offered by the Austrians to the +conditions imposed on them, making the admission that Italy's new +northern frontiers were determined by considerations of strategy. The +plan for the governance of the world by a league of pacific peoples, on +the other hand, postulated the abolition of war preparations, including +strategic frontiers. Consequently the more satisfactory the Treaty the +more unfavorable would be the outlook for the moral reconstitution of +the family of nations, and _vice versa_. And to interlace the two would +be to necessitate a compromise which would necessarily mar both. + +In effect the split among the delegates respecting their aims and +interests led to a tacit understanding among the leaders on the basis of +give-and-take, the French and British acquiescing in Mr. Wilson's +measures for working out his Covenant--the draft of which was +contributed by the British--and the President, giving way to them on +matters said to affect their countries' vital interests. How smoothly +this method worked when great issues were not at stake may be inferred +from the perfunctory way in which it was decided that the Kaiser's trial +should take place in London. A few days before the Treaty was signed +there was a pause in the proceedings of the Supreme Council during which +the secretary was searching for a mislaid document. Mr. Lloyd George, +looking up casually and without addressing any one in particular, +remarked, "I suppose none of you has any objection to the Kaiser being +tried in London?" M. Clemenceau shrugged his shoulders, Mr. Wilson +raised his hand, and the matter was assumed to be settled. Nothing more +was said or written on the subject. But when the news was announced, +after the President's departure from France, it took the other American +delegates by surprise and they disclaimed all knowledge of any such +decision. On inquiry, however, they learned that the venue had in truth +been fixed in this offhand way.[95] + +Mr. Wilson found it a hard task at first to obtain acceptance for his +ill-defined tenets by France, who declined to accept the protection of +his League of Nations in lieu of strategic frontiers and military +guaranties. Insurmountable obstacles barred his way. The French +government and people, while moved by decent respect for their American +benefactors[96] to assent to the establishment of a league, flatly +refused to trust themselves to its protection against Teuton aggression. +But they were quite prepared to second Mr. Wilson's endeavors to oblige +some of the other states to content themselves with the guaranties it +offered, only, however, on condition that their own country was first +safeguarded in the traditional way. Territorial equilibrium and military +protection were the imperative provisos on which they insisted. And as +France was specially favored by Mr. Wilson on sentimental grounds which +outweighed his doctrine, and as she was also considered indispensable to +the Anglo-Saxon peoples as their continental executive, she had no +difficulty in securing their support. On this point, too, therefore, the +President found himself constrained to give way. And only did he abandon +his humanitarian intentions and his strongest arguments to be lightly +brushed aside, he actually recoiled so far into the camp of his +opponents that he gave his approval to an indefensible clause in the +Treaty which would have handed over to France the German population of +the Saar as the equivalent of a certain sum in gold. Coming from the +world-reformer who, a short time before, had hurled the thunderbolts of +his oratory against those who would barter human beings as chattels, +this amazing compromise connoted a strange falling off. Incidentally it +was destructive of all faith in the spirit that had actuated his +world-crusade. It also went far to convince unbiased observers that the +only framework of ideas with decisive reference to which Mr. Wilson +considered every project and every objection as it arose, was that which +centered round his own goal--the establishment, if not of a league of +nations cemented by brotherhood and fellowship, at least of the nearest +approach to that which he could secure, even though it fell far short of +the original design. These were the first-fruits of the interweaving of +the Covenant with the Treaty. + +In view of this readiness to split differences and sacrifice principles +to expediency it became impossible even to the least observant of Mr. +Wilson's adherents in the Old World to cling any longer to the belief +that his cosmic policy was inspired by firm intellectual attachment to +the sublime ideas of which he had made himself the eloquent exponent and +had been expected to make himself the uncompromising champion. In every +such surrender to the Great Powers, as in every stern enforcement of his +principles on the lesser states, the same practical spirit of the +professional politician visibly asserted itself. One can hardly acquit +him of having lacked the moral courage to disregard the veto of +interested statesmen and governments and to appeal directly to the +peoples when the consequence of this attitude would have been the +sacrifice of the makeshift of a Covenant which he was ultimately content +to accept as a substitute for the complete reinstatement of nations in +their rights and dignity. + +The general tendency of the labors of the Conference then was shaped by +those two practical maxims, the immunity of the Anglo-Saxon peoples and +of their French ally from the restrictions to be imposed by the new +politico-social ordering in so far as these ran counter to their +national interests, and the determination of the American President to +get and accept such a league of nations as was feasible under extremely +inauspicious conditions and to content himself with that. + +To this estimate exception may be taken on the ground that it underrates +an effort which, however insufficient, was well meant and did at any +rate point the way to a just resettlement of secular problems which the +war had made pressing and that it fails to take account of the +formidable obstacles encountered. The answer is, that like efforts had +proceeded more than once before from rulers of men whose will, seeing +that they were credited with possessing the requisite power, was assumed +to be adequate to the accomplishment of their aim, and that they had led +to nothing. The two Tsars, Alexander I at the Congress of Vienna, and +Nicholas II at the first Conference of The Hague, are instructive +instances. They also, like Mr. Wilson, it is assumed, would fain have +inaugurated a golden age of international right and moral fellowship if +verbal exhortations and arguments could have done it. The only kind of +fresh attempt, which after the failure of those two experiments could +fairly lay claim to universal sympathy, was one which should withdraw +the proposed politico-social rearrangement from the domain alike of +rhetoric and of empiricism and substitute a thorough systematic reform +covering all the aspects of international intercourse, including all the +civilized peoples on the globe, harmonizing the vital interests of these +and setting up adequate machinery to deal with the needs of this +enlarged and unified state system. And it would be fruitless to seek for +this in Mr. Wilson's handiwork. Indeed, it is hardly too much to affirm +that empiricism and opportunism were among the principal characteristics +of his policy in Paris, and that the outcome was what it must be. + +Disputes and delays being inevitable, the Conference began its work at +leisure and was forced to terminate it in hot haste. Having spent months +chaffering, making compromises, and unmaking them again while the +peoples of the world were kept in painful suspense, all of them +condemned to incur ruinous expenditure and some to wage sanguinary wars, +the springs of industrial and commercial activity being kept sealed, the +delegates, menaced by outbreaks, revolts, and mutinies, began, after +months had been wasted, to speed up and get through their work without +adequate deliberation. They imagined that they could make up for the +errors of hesitancy and ignorance by moments of lightning-like +improvisation. Improvisation and haphazard conclusions were among their +chronic failings. Even in the early days of the Conference they had +promulgated decisions, the import and bearings of which they missed, and +when possible they canceled them again. Sometimes, however, the error +committed was irreparable. The fate reserved for Austria was a case in +point. By some curious process of reasoning it was found to be not +incompatible with the Wilsonian doctrine that German-Austria should be +forbidden to throw in her lot with the German Republic, this prohibition +being in the interest of France, who could not brook a powerful united +Teuton state. The wishes of the Austrian-Germans and the principle of +self-determination accordingly went for nothing. The representations of +Italy, who pleaded for that principle, were likewise brushed aside. + +But what the delegates appear to have overlooked was the decisive +circumstance that they had already "on strategic grounds" assigned the +Brenner line to Italy and together with it two hundred and twenty +thousand Tyrolese of German race living in a compact mass--although a +much smaller alien element was deemed a bar to annexation in the case of +Poland. And what was more to the point, this allotment deprived Tyrol of +an independent economic existence, cutting it off from the southern +valley and making it tributary to Bavaria. Mr. Wilson, the public was +credibly informed, "took this grave decision without having gone deeply +into the matter, and he repents it bitterly. None the less, he can no +longer go back."[97] + +Just as Tyrol's loss of Botzen and Meran made it dependent on Bavaria, +so the severance of Vienna from southern Moravia--- the source of its +cereal supplies, situated at a distance of only thirty-six +miles--transformed the Austrian capital into a head without a body. But +on the eminent anatomists who were to perform a variety of unprecedented +operations on other states, this spectacle had no deterrent effect. + +Whenever a topic came up for discussion which could not be solved +offhand, it was referred to a commission, and in many cases the +commission was assisted by a mission which proceeded to the country +concerned and within a few weeks returned with data which were assumed +to supply materials enough for a decision, even though most of its +members were unacquainted with the language of the people whose +condition they had been studying. How quick of apprehension these envoys +were supposed to be may be inferred from the task with which the +American mission under General Harbord was charged, and the space of +time accorded him for achieving it. The members of this mission started +from Brest in the last decade of August for the Caucasus, making a stay +at Constantinople on the way, and were due back in Paris early in +October. During the few intervening weeks "the mission," General Harbord +said, "will go into every phase of the situation, political, racial, +economic, financial, and commercial. I shall also investigate highways, +harbors, agricultural and mining conditions, the question of raising an +Armenian army, policing problems, and the raw materials of Armenia."[98] +Only specialists who have some practical acquaintanceship with the +Caucasus, its conditions, peoples, languages, and problems, can +appreciate the herculean effort needed to tackle intelligently any one +of the many subjects all of which this improvised commission under a +military general undertook to master in four weeks. Never was a chaotic +world set right and reformed at such a bewildering pace. + +Bad blood was caused by the distribution of places on the various +commissions. The delegates of the lesser nations, deeming themselves +badly treated, protested vehemently, and for a time passion ran high. +Squabbles of this nature, intensified by fierce discussions within the +Council, tidings of which reached the ears of the public outside, +disheartened those who were anxious for the speedy restoration of normal +conditions in a world that was fast decomposing. But the optimism of the +three principal plenipotentiaries was beyond the reach of the most +depressing stumbles and reverses. Their buoyant temper may be gaged from +Mr. Balfour's words, reported in the press: "It is true that there is a +good deal of discussion going on, but there is no real discord about +ideas or facts. We are agreed on the principal questions and there only +remains to find the words that embody the agreements."[99] These tidings +were welcomed at the time, because whatever defects were ascribed to the +distinguished statesmen of the Conference by faultfinders, a lack of +words was assuredly not among them. This cheery outlook on the future +reminded me of the better grounded composure of Pope Pius IX during the +stormy proceedings at the Vatican Council. A layman, having expressed +his disquietude at the unruly behavior of the prelates, the Pontiff +replied that it had ever been thus at ecclesiastical councils. "At the +outset," he went on to explain, "the members behave as men, wrangle and +quarrel, and nothing that they say or do is worth much. That is the +first act. The second is ushered in by the devil, who intensifies the +disorder and muddles things bewilderingly. But happily there is always a +third act in which the Holy Ghost descends and arranges everything for +the best." + +The first two phases of the Conference's proceedings bore a strong +resemblance to the Pope's description, but as, unlike ecclesiastical +councils, it had no claim to infallibility, and therefore no third act, +the consequences to the world were deplorable. The Supreme Council never +knew how to deal with an emergency and every week unexpected incidents +in the world outside were calling for prompt action. Frequently it +contradicted itself within the span of a few days, and sometimes at one +and the same time its principal representatives found themselves in +complete opposition to one another. To give but one example: In April M. +Clemenceau was asked whether he approved the project of relieving +famine-stricken Russia. His answer was affirmative, and he signed the +document authorizing it. His colleagues, Messrs. Wilson, Lloyd George, +and Orlando, followed suit, and the matter seemed to be settled +definitely. But at the same time Mr. Hoover, who had been the ardent +advocate of the plan, officially received a letter from the French +Minister of Foreign Affairs signifying the refusal of the French +government to acquiesce in it.[100] On another occasion[101] the Supreme +Council thought fit to despatch a mission to Asia Minor in order to +ascertain the views of the populations of Syria and Mesopotamia on the +régime best suited to them. France, whose secular relations with Syria, +where she maintains admirable educational establishments, are said to +have endeared her to the population, objected to this expedient as +superfluous and mischievous. Superfluous because the Francophil +sentiments of the people are supposed to be beyond all doubt, and +mischievous because plebiscites or substitutes for plebiscites could +have only a bolshevizing effect on Orientals. Seemingly yielding to +these considerations, the Supreme Council abandoned the scheme and the +members of the mission made other plans.[102] After several weeks' +further reflection, however, the original idea was carried out, and the +mission visited the East. + +The reader may be glad of a momentary glimpse of the interior of the +historic assembly afforded by those who were privileged to play a part +in it before it was transformed into a secret conclave of five, four, or +three. Within the doors of the chambers whence fateful decrees were +issued to the four corners of the earth the delegates were seated, +mostly according to their native languages, within earshot of the +special pleaders. M. Clemenceau, at the head of the table, has before +him a delegate charged with conducting the case, say, of Greece, Poland, +Serbia, or Czechslovakia. The delegate, standing in front of the stern +but mobile Premier, and encircled by other more or less attentive +plenipotentiaries, looks like a nervous schoolboy appearing before +exacting examiners, struggling with difficult questions and eager to +answer them satisfactorily. Suppose the first language spoken is French. +As many of the plenipotentiaries do not understand it, they cannot be +blamed for relaxing attention while it is being employed, and keeping up +a desultory conversation among themselves in idiomatic English, which +forms a running bass accompaniment to the voice, often finely modulated, +of the orator. Owing to this embarrassing language difficulty, as soon +as a delegate pauses to take his breath, his arguments and appeals are +done by M. Mantoux into English, and then it is the turn of the French +plenipotentiaries to indulge in a quiet chat until some question is put +in English, which has forthwith to be rendered into French, after which +the French reply is translated into English, and so on unendingly, each +group resuming its interrupted conversations alternately. + +One delegate who passed several hours undergoing this ordeal said that +he felt wholly out of sympathy with the atmosphere at the Conference +Hall, adding: "While arguing or appealing to my country's arbiters I +felt I was addressing only a minority of the distinguished judges, while +the thoughts of the others were far away. And when the interpreter was +rendering, quickly, mechanically, and summarily, my ideas without any of +the explosive passion that shot them from my heart, I felt discouraged. +But suddenly it dawned on me that no judgment would be uttered on the +strength of anything that I had said or left unsaid. I remembered that +everything would be referred to a commission, and from that to a +sub-commission, then back again to the distinguished plenipotentiaries," + +Another delegate remarked: "Many years have elapsed since I passed my +last examination, but it came back to me in all its vividness when I +walked up to Premier Clemenceau and looked into his restless, flashing +eyes. I said to myself: When last I was examined I was painfully +conscious that my professors knew a lot more about the subject than I +did, but now I am painfully aware that they know hardly anything at all +and I am fervently desirous of teaching them. The task is arduous. It +might, however, save time and labor if the delegates would receive our +typewritten dissertations, read them quietly in their respective hotels, +and endeavor to form a judgment on the data they supply. Failing that, +I should like at least to provide them with a criterion of truth, for +after me will come an opponent who will flatly contradict me, and how +can they sift truth from error when the winnow is wanting? It is hard to +feel that one is in the presence of great satraps of destiny, but I made +an act of faith in the possibilities of genial quantities lurking behind +those everyday faces and of a sort of magic power of calling into being +new relations of peace and fellowship between individual classes and +peoples. It was an act of faith." + +If the members of the Supreme Council lacked the graces with which to +draw their humbler colleagues and were incapable of according +hospitality to any of the more or less revolutionary ideas floating in +the air, they were also utterly powerless to enforce their behests in +eastern Europe against serious opposition. Thus, although they kept +considerable Inter-Allied forces in Germany, they failed to impose their +decrees there, notwithstanding the circumstance that Germany was +disorganized, nearly disarmed, and distracted by internal feuds. The +Conference gave way when Germany refused to let the Polish troops +disembark at Dantzig, although it had proclaimed its resolve to insist +on their using that port. It allowed Odessa to be evacuated and its +inhabitants to be decimated by the bloodthirsty Bolsheviki. It ordered +the Ukrainians and the Poles to cease hostilities,[103] but hostilities +went on for months afterward. An American general was despatched to the +warring peoples to put an end to the fighting, but he returned +despondent, leaving things as he had found them. General Smuts was sent +to Budapest to strike up an agreement with Kuhn and the Magyar +Bolshevists, but he, too, came back after a fruitless conversation. The +Supreme Council's writ ran in none of those places. + +About March 19th the Inter-Allied commission gave Erzberger twenty-four +hours in which to ratify the convention between Germany and Poland and +to carry out the conditions of the armistice. But Erzberger declined to +ratify it and the Allies were unable or unwilling to impose their will +on him. From this state of things the Rumanian delegates drew the +obvious corollary. Exasperated by the treatment they received, they +quitted the Conference, pursued their own policy, occupied Budapest, +presented their own peace conditions to Hungary, and relegated, with +courteous phrases and a polite bow to the Council, the directions +elaborated for their guidance to the region of pious counsels. + +In these ways the well-meant and well-advertised endeavors to substitute +a moral relationship of nations for the state of latent warfare known as +the balance of power were steadily wasted. On the one side the subtle +skill of Old World diplomacy was toiling hard and successfully to revive +under specious names its lost and failing causes, while on the other +hand the New World policy, naïvely ignoring historical forces and +secular prejudices, was boldly reaching out toward rough and ready modes +of arranging things and taking no account of concrete circumstances. +Generous idealists were thus pitted against old diplomatic stagers and +both secretly strove to conclude hastily driven bargains outside the +Council chamber with their opponents. As early as the first days of +January I was present at some informal meetings where such transactions +were being talked over, and I afterward gave it as my impression that +"if things go forward as they are moving to-day the outcome will fall +far short of reasonable expectations. The first striking difference +between the transatlantic idealists and the Old World politicians lies +in their different ways of appreciating expeditiousness, on the one +hand, and the bases of the European state-system, on the other hand. A +statesman when dealing with urgent, especially revolutionary, +emergencies should never take his eyes from the clock. The politicians +in Paris hardly ever take account of time or opportunity. The overseas +reformers contend that the territorial and political balance of forces +has utterly broken down and must be definitely scrapped in favor of a +league of nations, and the diplomatists hold that the principle of +equilibrium, far from having spent its force, still affords the only +groundwork of international stability and requires to be further +intensified."[104] + +Living in the very center of the busy world of destiny-weavers, who were +generously, if unavailingly, devoting time and labor to the fabrication +of machinery for the good government of the entire human race out of +scanty and not wholly suitable materials, a historian in presence of the +manifold conflicting forces at work would have found it difficult to +survey them all and set the daily incidents and particular questions in +correct perspective. The earnestness and good-will of the +plenipotentiaries were highly praiseworthy and they themselves, as we +saw, were most hopeful. Nearly all the delegates were characterized by +the spirit of compromise, so valuable in vulgar politics, but so +perilous in embodying ideals. Anxious to reach unanimous decisions even +when unanimity was lacking, the principal statesmen boldly had recourse +to ingenious formulas and provisional agreements, which each party might +construe in its own way, and paid scant attention to what was going on +outside. I wrote at the time:[105] + +"But parallel with the Conference and the daily lectures which its +members are receiving on geography, ethnography, and history there are +other councils at work, some publicly, others privately, which represent +the vast masses who are in a greater hurry than the political world to +have their urgent wants supplied. For they are the millions of Europe's +inhabitants who care little about strategic frontiers and much about +life's necessaries which they find it increasingly difficult to obtain. +Only a visitor from a remote planet could fully realize the significance +of the bewildering phenomena that meet one's gaze here every day without +exciting wonder.... The sprightly people who form the rind of the +politico-social world ... are wont to launch winged words and coin witty +epigrams when characterizing what they irreverently term the efforts of +the Peace Conference to square the circle; they contrast the noble +intentions of the delegates with the grim realities of the workaday +world, which appear to mock their praiseworthy exertions. They say that +there never were so many wars as during the deliberations of these +famous men of peace. Hard fighting is going on in Siberia; victories and +defeats have just been reported from the Caucasus; battles between +Bolshevists and peace-lovers are raging in Esthonia; blood is flowing in +streams in the Ukraine; Poles and Czechs have only now signed an +agreement to sheath swords until the Conference announces its verdict; +the Poles and the Germans, the Poles and the Ukrainians, the Poles and +the Bolshevists, are still decimating each other's forces on territorial +fragments of what was once Russia, Germany, or Austria." + +Sinister rumors were spread from time to time in Paris, London, and +elsewhere, which, wherever they were credited, tended to shake public +confidence not only in the dealings of the Supreme Council with the +smaller countries, but also in the nature of the occult influences that +were believed to be occasionally causing its decisions to swerve from +the orthodox direction. And these reports were believed by many even in +Conference circles. Time and again I was visited by delegates +complaining that this or that decision was or would be taken in response +to the promptings not of land-grabbing governments, but of wealthy +capitalists or enterprising captains of industry. "Why do you suppose +that there is so much talk now of an independent little state centering +around Klagenfurt?" one of them asked me. "I will tell you: for the sake +of some avaricious capitalists. Already arrangements are being pushed +forward for the establishment of a bank of which most of the shares are +to belong to X." Another said: "Dantzig is needed for +politico-commercial reasons. Therefore it will not be made part of +Poland.[106] Already conversations have begun with a view to giving the +ownership of the wharves and various lucrative concessions to +English-speaking pioneers of industry. If the city were Polish no such +liens could be held on it because the state would provide everything +needful and exploit its resources." The part played in the Banat +Republic by motives of a money-making character is described elsewhere. + +A friend and adviser of President Wilson publicly affirmed that the +Fiume problem was twice on the point of being settled satisfactorily for +all parties, when the representatives of commercial interests cleverly +interposed their influence and prevented the scheme from going through +in the Conference. I met some individuals who had been sent on a secret +mission to have certain subjects taken into consideration by the Supreme +Council, and a man was introduced to me whose aim was to obtain through +the Conference a modification of financial legislation respecting the +repayment of debts in a certain republic of South America. This +optimist, however, returned as he had come and had nothing to show for +his plans. The following significant passage appeared in a leading +article in the principal American journal published in Paris[107] on the +subject of the Prinkipo project and the postponement of its execution: + +"From other sources it was learned that the doubts and delays in the +matter are not due so much to the declination [_sic_] of several of the +Russian groups to participate in a conference with the Bolshevists, but +to the pulling against one another of the several interests represented +by the Allies. Among the Americans a certain very influential group +backed by powerful financial interests which hold enormously rich oil, +mining, railway, and timber concessions, obtained under the old régime, +and which purposes obtaining further concessions, is strongly in favor +of recognizing the Bolshevists as a _de facto_ government. In +consideration of the _visa_ of these old concessions by Lenin and +Trotzky and the grant of new rights for the exploitation of rich mineral +territory, they would be willing to finance the Bolshevists to the tune +of forty or fifty million dollars. And the Bolshevists are surely in +need of money. President Wilson and his supporters, it is declared, are +decidedly averse from this pretty scheme." + +That President Wilson would naturally set his face against any such +deliberate compromise between Mammon and lofty ideals it was superfluous +to affirm. He stood for a vast and beneficent reform and by exhorting +the world to embody it in institutions awakened in some people--in the +masses were already stirring--thoughts and feelings that might long have +remained dormant. But beyond this he did not go. His tendencies, or, +say, rather velleities--for they proved to be hardly more--were +excellent, but he contrived no mechanism by which to convert them into +institutions, and when pressed by gainsayers abandoned them. + +An economist of mark in France whose democratic principles are well +known[108] communicated to the French public the gist of certain curious +documents in his possession. They let in an unpleasant light on some of +the whippers-up of lucre at the expense of principle, who flocked around +the dwelling-places of the great continent-carvers and lawgivers in +Paris. His article bears this repellent heading: "Is it true that +English and American financiers negotiated during the war in order to +secure lucrative concessions from the Bolsheviki? Is it true that these +concessions were granted to them on February 4, 1919? Is it true that +the Allied governments played into their hands?"[109] + +The facts alleged as warrants for these questions are briefly as +follows: On February 4, 1919, the Soviet of the People's Commissaries in +Moscow voted the bestowal of a concession for a railway linking +Ob-Kotlass-Saroka and Kotlass-Svanka, in a resolution which states "(1) +that the project is feasible; (2) that the transfer of the concession to +representatives of foreign capital may be effected if production will be +augmented thereby; (3) that the execution of this scheme is +indispensable; and (4) that in order to accelerate this solution of the +question the persons desirous of obtaining the concession shall be +obliged to _produce proofs of their contact with Allied_ and neutral +enterprises, and of their capacity to financing the work and supply the +materials requisite for the construction of the said line." On the other +hand, it appears from an _official_ document bearing the date of June +26, 1918, that a demand for the concession of this line was lodged by +two individuals--the painter A.A. Borissoff (who many years ago received +from me a letter of introduction to President Roosevelt asking him to +patronize this gentleman's exhibition of paintings in the United +States), and Herr Edvard Hannevig. Desirous of ascertaining whether +these petitioners possessed the qualifications demanded, the Bolshevist +authorities made inquiries and received from the Royal Norwegian +Consulate at Moscow a certificate[110] setting forth that "citizen +Hannevig was a co-associate of the large banks Hannevig situated in +London and in America." Consequently negotiations might go forward. The +document adds: "In October Borissoff and Hannevig renewed their request, +whereupon the journals _Pravda_, _Izevestia_, and _Ekonomitsheskaya +Shizn_ discussed the subject with animation. At a sitting held on +October 12th the project was approved with certain modifications, and on +February 1, 1919, the Supreme Soviet of National Economy approved it +anew." + +The magnitude of the concession may be inferred from the circumstance +that one of its clauses conceded "_the exploitation of eight millions of +forest land_ which even to-day, _despite existing conditions, can bring +in a revenue of three hundred million rubles a year_." + +What it comes to, therefore, assuming that these official documents are +as they seem, based on facts, is that from June 26th, that is to say +during the war, the Bolshevist government was petitioned to accord an +important railway concession and also the exploitation of a forest +capable of yielding three hundred million rubles a year to a Russian +citizen who alleged that he was acting on behalf of English and American +capitalists, and that Edvard Hannevig, having proved that he was really +the mandatory of these great allied financiers, the concession was +first approved by two successive commissions[111] and then definitely +conferred by the Soviet of the People's Commissaries.[112] + +The eminent author of the article proceeds to ask whether this can +indeed be true; whether English and American capitalists petitioned the +Bolsheviki for vast concessions during the war; whether they obtained +them while the Conference was at its work and soldiers of their +respective countries were fighting in Russia against the Bolsheviki who +were bestowing them. "Is it true," he makes bold to ask further, "that +that is the explanation of the incredible friendliness displayed by the +Allied governments toward the Bolshevist bandits with whom they were +willing to strike up a compromise, whom they were minded to recognize by +organizing a conference on the Princes' Island?... Many times already +rank-smelling whiffs of air have blown upon us; they suggested the +belief that behind the Peace Conference there lurked not merely what +people feared, but something still worse or an immense political Panama. +If this is not true, gentlemen, deny it. Otherwise one day you will +surely have an explosion."[113] + +Whether these grave innuendoes, together with the statement made by Mr. +George Herron,[114] the incident of the Banat Republic and the +ultimatum respecting the oil-fields unofficially presented to the +Rumanians suffice to establish a _prima facie_ case may safely be left +to the judgment of the public. The conscientious and impartial +historian, however firm his faith in the probity of the men representing +the powers, both of unlimited and limited interests, cannot pass them +over in silence. + +One of the shrewdest delegates in Paris, a man who allowed himself to be +breathed upon freely by the old spirit of nationalism, but was capable +withal of appreciating the passionate enthusiasm of others for a more +altruistic dispensation, addressed me one evening as follows: "Say what +you will, the Secret Council is a Council of Two, and the Covenant a +charter conferred upon the English-speaking peoples for the government +of the world. The design--if it be a design--may be excellent, but it is +not relished by the other peoples. It is a less odious hegemony than +that of imperialist Germany would have been, but it is a hegemony and +odious. Surely in a quest of this kind after the most effectual means of +overcoming the difficulties and obviating the dangers of international +intercourse, more even than in the choice of a political régime, the +principle of self-determination should be allowed free play. Was that +not to have been one of the choicest fruits of victory? But no; force is +being set in motion, professedly for the good of all, but only as their +good is understood by the 'all-powerful Two.' And to all the others it +is force and nothing more. Is it to be wondered at that there are so +many discontented people or that some of them are already casting about +for an alternative to the Anglo-Saxon hegemony misnamed the Society of +Nations?" + +It cannot be gainsaid that the two predominant partners behaved +throughout as benevolent despots, to whom despotism came more easily +than benevolence. As we saw, they kept their colleagues of the lesser +states as much in the dark as the general public and claimed from them +also implicit obedience to all their behests. They went farther and +demanded unreasoning acquiescence in decisions to be taken in the +future, and a promise of prompt acceptance of their injunctions--a +pretension such as was never before put forward outside the Catholic +Church, which, at any rate, claims infallibility. Asked why he had not +put up a better fight for one of the states of eastern Europe, a +sharp-tongued delegate irreverently made answer, "What more could you +expect than I did, seeing that I was opposed by one colleague who looks +upon himself as Napoleon and by another who believes himself to be the +Messiah." + +Among the many epigrammatic sayings current in Paris about the +Conference, the most original was ascribed to the Emir Faissal, the son +of the King of the Hedjaz. Asked what he thought of the world's +areopagus, he is said to have answered: "It reminds me somewhat of one +of the sights of my own country. My country, as you know, is the desert. +Caravans pass through it that may be likened to the armies of delegates +and experts at the Conference--caravans of great camels solemnly +trudging along one after the other, each bearing its own load. They all +move not whither they will, but whither they are led. For they have no +choice. But between the two there is this difference: that whereas the +big caravan in the desert has but one leader--a little ass--the +Conference in Paris is led by two delegates who are the great Ones of +the earth." In effect, the leaders were two, and no one can say which +of them had the upper hand. Now it seemed to be the British Premier, now +the American President. The former scored the first victory, on the +freedom of the seas, before the Conference opened. The latter won the +next, when Mr. Wilson firmly insisted on inserting the Covenant in the +Treaty and finally overrode the objections of Mr. Lloyd George and M. +Clemenceau, who scouted the idea for a while as calculated to impair the +value of both charters. There was also a moment when the two were +reported to have had a serious disagreement and Mr. Lloyd George, having +suddenly quitted Paris for rustic seclusion, was likened to Achilles +sulking in his tent. But one of the two always gave way at the last +moment, just as both had given way to M. Clemenceau at the outset. When +the difference between Japan and China cropped up, for example, the +other delegates made Mr. Wilson their spokesman. Despite M. Clemenceau's +resolve that the public should not "be apprized that the head of one +government had ever put forward a proposal which was opposed by the head +of another government," it became known that they occasionally disagreed +among themselves, were more than once on the point of separating, and +that at best their unanimity was often of the verbal order, failing to +take root in identity of views. To those who would fain predicate +political tact or statesmanship of the men who thus undertook to set +human progress on a new and ethical basis, the story of these +bickerings, hasty improvisations, and amazing compromises is +distressing. The incertitude and suspense that resulted were +disconcerting. Nobody ever knew what was coming. A subcommission might +deliver a reasoned judgment on the question submitted to it, and this +might be unanimously confirmed by the commission, but the Four or Three +or Two or even One could not merely quash the report, but also reverse +the practical consequences that followed. This was done over and over +again. + +And there were other performances still more amazing. When, for example, +the Polish problem became so pressing that it could not be safely +postponed any longer, the first delegates were at their wits' ends. +Unable to agree on any of the solutions mooted, they conceived the idea +of obtaining further data and a lead from a special commission. The +commission was accordingly appointed. Among its members were Sir Esmé +Howard, who has since become Ambassador in Rome, the American General +Kernan, and M. Noulens, the ex-Ambassador of France in Petrograd. These +envoys and their colleagues set out for Poland to study the problem on +the spot. They exerted themselves to the utmost to gather data for a +serious judgment, and returned to Paris after a sojourn of some two +months, legitimately proud of the copious and well-sifted results of +their research. And then they waited. Days passed and weeks, but nobody +took the slightest interest in the envoys. They were ignored. At last +the chief of the commission, M. Noulens, taking the initiative, wrote +direct to M. Clemenceau, informing him that the task intrusted to him +and his colleagues had been achieved, and requesting to be permitted to +make their report to the Conference. The reply was an order dissolving +the commission unheard. + +Once when the relations between Messrs. Wilson and Lloyd George were +somewhat spiced by antagonism of purpose and incompatibility of methods, +a political friend of the latter urged him to make a firm stand. But the +British Premier, feeling, perhaps, that there were too many +unascertained elements in the matter, or identifying the President with +the United States, drew back. More than once, too, when a certain +delegate was stating his case with incisive emphasis Mr. Wilson, who +was listening with attention and in silence, would suddenly ask, "Is +this an ultimatum?" The American President himself never shrank from +presenting an ultimatum when sure of his ground and morally certain of +victory. On one such occasion a proposal had been made to Mr. Lloyd +George, who approved it whole-heartedly. But it failed to receive the +_placet_ of the American statesman. Thereupon the British Premier was +strongly urged to stand firm. But he recoiled, his plea being that he +had received an ultimatum from his American colleague, who spoke of +quitting France and withdrawing the American troops unless the point +were conceded. And Mr. Wilson had his way. One might have thought that +this success would hearten the President to other and greater +achievements. But the leader who incarnated in his own person the +highest strivings of the age, and who seemed destined to acquire +pontifical ascendancy in a regenerated world, lacked the energy to hold +his own when matters of greater moment and high principle were at stake. + +These battles waged within the walls of the palace on the Quai d'Orsay +were discussed out-of-doors by an interested and watchful public, and +the conviction was profound and widespread that the President, having +set his hand to the plow so solemnly and publicly, and having promised a +harvest of far-reaching reforms, would not look back, however +intractable the ground and however meager the crop. But confronted with +serious obstacles, he flinched from his task, and therein, to my +thinking, lay his weakness. If he had come prepared to assert his +personal responsibility, to unfold his scheme, to have it amply and +publicly discussed, to reject pusillanimous compromise in the sphere of +execution, and to appeal to the peoples of the world to help him to +carry it out, the last phase of his policy would have been worthy of +the first, and might conceivably have inaugurated the triumph of the +ideas which the indolent and the men of little faith rejected as +incapable of realization. To this hardy course, which would have +challenged the approbation of all that is best in the world, there was +an alternative: Mr. Wilson might have confessed that his judgment was at +fault, mankind not being for the moment in a fitting mood to practise +the new tenets, that a speedy peace with the enemy was the first and +most pressing duty, and that a world-parliament should be convened for a +later date to prepare the peoples of the universe for the new ordering. +But he chose neither alternative. At first it was taken for granted that +in the twilight of the Conference hall he had fought valiantly for the +principles which he had propounded as the groundwork of the new +politico-social fabric, and that it was only when he found himself +confronted with the insuperable antagonism of his colleagues of France +and Britain that he reluctantly receded from his position and resolved +to show himself all the more unbending to the envoys of the lesser +countries. But this assumption was refuted by State-Secretary Lansing, +who admitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the +President's Fourteen Points, which he had vowed to carry out, were not +even discussed at the Conference. The outcome of this attitude--one +cannot term it a policy--was to leave the best of the ideas which he +stood for in solution, to embitter every ally except France and Britain, +and to scatter explosives all over the world. + +To this dwarfing parliamentary view of world-policy Mr. Lloyd George +likewise fell a victim. But his fault was not so glaring. For it should +in fairness be remembered that it was not he who first preached the +advent of the millennium. He had only given it a tardy and cold assent, +qualified by an occasional sally of keen pleasantry. Down to the last +moment, as we saw, he not only was unaware that the Covenant would be +inserted in the Peace Treaty, but he was strongly of the opinion, as +indeed were M. Pichon and others, that the two instruments were +incompatible. He also apparently inclined to the belief that spiritual +and moral agencies, if not wholly impotent to bring about the requisite +changes in the politico-social world, could not effect the +transformation for a long while to come, and that in the interval it +behooved the governments to fall back upon the old system of so-called +equilibrium, which, after Germany's collapse, meant an informal kind of +Anglo-Saxon overlordship of the world and a _pax Britannica_ in Europe. +As for his action at the Conference, in so far as it did not directly +affect the well-being of the British Empire, which was his first and +main care, one might describe it as one of general agreement with Mr. +Wilson. He actually threw it into that formula when he said that +whenever the interests of the British Empire permitted he would like to +find himself at one with the United States. It was on that occasion that +the person addressed warned him against identifying the President with +the people of the United States. + +In truth, it was difficult to follow the distinguished American +idealist, because one seldom knew whither he would lead. Neither, +apparently, did he himself. Some of his own countrymen in Paris held +that he had always been accustomed to follow, never to guide. Certainly +at the Conference his practice was to meet the more powerful of his +contradictors on their own ground and come to terms with them, so as to +get at least a part of what he aimed at, and that he accepted, even when +the instalment was accorded to him not as such, but as a final +settlement. So far as one can judge by his public acts and by the +admissions of State-Secretary Lansing, he cannot have seriously +contemplated staking the success of his mission on the realization of +his Fourteen Points. The manner in which he dealt with his Covenant, +with the French demand for concrete military guaranties and with secret +treaties, all afford striking illustrations of his easy temper. Before +quitting Paris for Washington he had maintained that the Covenant as +drafted was satisfactory, nay, he contended that "not even a period +could be changed in the agreement." The Monroe Doctrine, he held, needed +no special stipulation. But as soon as Senator Lodge and others took +issue with him on the subject, he shifted his position and hedged that +doctrine round with defenses which cut off a whole continent from the +purview of the League, which is nothing if not cosmic in its +functions.[115] Again, there was to be no alliance. The French Premier +foretold that there would be one. Mr. Wilson, who was in England at the +time, answered him in a speech declaring that the United States would +enter into no alliance which did not include all the world: "no +combination of power which is not a combination of all of us." Well, +since then he became a party to a kind of triple alliance and in the +judgment of many observers it constitutes the main result of the +Conference. In the words of an American press organ: "Clemenceau got +virtually everything he asked. President Wilson virtually dropped his +own program, and adopted the French and British, both of them +imperialistic."[116] + +Again, when the first commission of experts reported upon the frontiers +of Poland, the British Premier objected to a section of the "corridor," +on the ground that as certain districts contained a majority of Germans +their annexation would be a danger to the future peace and therefore to +Poland herself, and also on the ground that it would run counter to one +of Mr. Wilson's fundamental points; the President, who at that time +dissented from Mr. Lloyd George, rose and remarked that his principles +must not be construed too literally. "When I said that Poland must be +restored, I meant that everything indispensable to her restoration must +be accorded. Therefore, if that should involve the incorporation of a +number of Germans in Polish territory, it cannot be helped, for it is +part of the restoration. Poland must have access to the sea by the +shortest route, and everything else which that implies." None the less, +the British Premier, whose attitude toward the claims of the Poles was +marked by a degree of definiteness and persistency which could hardly be +anticipated in one who had never even heard of Teschen before the year +1919, maintained his objections with emphasis and insistence, until Mr. +Wilson and M. Clemenceau gave in. + +Or take the President's way of dealing with the non-belligerent states. +Before leaving Paris for Washington, Mr. Wilson, officially questioned +by one of his colleagues at an official sitting as to whether the +neutrals would also sign the Covenant, replied that only the Allies +would be admitted to affix their signatures. "Don't you think it would +be more conducive to the firm establishment of the League if the +neutrals were also made parties to it now?" insisted the +plenipotentiary. "No, I do not," answered the President. "I think that +it would be conferring too much honor on them, and they don't deserve +it." The delegate was unfavorably impressed by this reply. It seemed +lacking in breadth of view. Still, it was tenable on certain narrow, +formal grounds. But what he could not digest was the eagerness with +which Mr. Wilson, on his return from Washington, abandoned his way of +thinking and adopted the opposite view. Toward the end of April the +delegates and the world were surprised to learn that not only would +Spain be admitted to the orthodox fold, but that she would have a voice +in the management of the flock with a seat in the Council. The chief of +the Portuguese delegation[117] at once delivered a trenchant protest +against this abrupt departure from principle, and as a jurisconsult +stigmatized the promotion of Spain to a voice in the Council as an +irregularity, and then retired in high dudgeon. + +Thus the grave reproach cannot be spared Mr. Wilson of having been weak, +vague, and inconsistent with himself. He constituted himself the supreme +judge of a series of intricate questions affecting the organization and +tranquillity of the European Continent, as he had previously done in the +case of Mexico, with the results we know. This authority was accorded to +him--with certain reservations--in virtue of the exalted position which +he held in a state disposing of vast financial and economic resources, +shielded from some of the dangers that continually overhang European +nations, and immune from the immediate consequences of the mistakes it +might commit in international politics. For every continental people in +Europe is in some measure dependent on the good-will of the United +States, and therefore anxious to deserve it by cultivating the most +friendly relations with its chief. This predisposition on the part of +his wards was an asset that could have been put to good account. It was +a guaranty of a measure of success which would have satisfied a generous +ambition; it would have enabled him to effect by a wise policy what +revolution threatened to accomplish by violence, and to canalize and +lead to fruitful fields the new-found strength of the proletarian +masses. + +The compulsion of working with others is often a wholesome corrective. +It helps one to realize the need of accommodating measures to people's +needs. But Mr. Wilson deliberately segregated himself from the nations +for whose behoof he was laboring, and from some of their authorized +representatives. And yet the aspirations and conceptions of a large +section of the masses differed very considerably from those of the two +statesmen with whom he was in close collaboration. His avowed aims were +at the opposite pole to those of his colleagues. To reconcile +internationalism and nationalism was sheer impossible. Yet instead of +upholding his own, taking the peoples into his confidence, and sowing +the good seed which would certainly have sprouted up in the fullness of +time, he set himself, together with his colleagues, to weld +contradictories and contributed to produce a synthesis composed of +disembodied ideas, disintegrated communities, embittered nations, +conflicting states, frenzied classes, and a seething mass of discontent +throughout the world. + +Mr. Wilson has fared ill with his critics, who, when in quest of +explanations of his changeful courses, sought for them, as is the wont +of the average politician, in the least noble parts of human nature. In +his case they felt especially repelled by his imperial aloofness, the +secrecy of his deliberations, and the magisterial tone of his judgments, +even when these were in flagrant contradiction with one another. +Obstinacy was also included among the traits which were commonly +ascribed to him. As a matter of fact he was a very good listener, an +intelligent questioner, and amenable to argument whenever he felt free +to give practical effect to the conclusions. When this was not the case, +arguments necessarily failed of their effect, and on these occasions +considerations of expediency proved a lever sufficient to sway his +decision. But, like his more distinguished colleagues, he had to rely +upon counsel from outside, and in his case, as in theirs, the official +adviser was not always identical with the real prompter. He, too, as we +saw, set aside the findings of the commissions when they disagreed with +his own. In a word, Mr. Wilson's fatal stumble was to have sacrificed +essentials in order to score on issues of secondary moment; for while +success enabled him to obtain his paper Covenant from his co-delegates +in Paris, and to bring back tangible results to Washington, it lost him +the leadership of the world. The cost of this deplorable weakness to +mankind can be estimated only after its worst effects have been added up +and appraised. + +In matters affecting the destinies of the lesser states Mr. Wilson was +firm as a rock. Prom the position once taken up nothing could move him. +Their economic dependence on his own country rendered their arguments +pointless and lent irresistible force to his injunctions. Greece's +dispute with Bulgaria was a classic instance. The Bulgars repaired to +Paris more as claimants in support of indefeasible rights than as +vanquished enemies summoned to learn the conditions imposed on them by +the nations which they had betrayed and assailed. Victory alone could +have justified their territorial pretensions; defeat made them +grotesque. All at once, however, it was bruited abroad that President +Wilson had become Bulgaria's intercessor and favored certain of her +exorbitant claims. One of these was for the annexation of part of the +coast of western Thrace, together with a seaport at the expense of the +Greeks, the race which had resided on the seaboard for twenty-five +hundred consecutive years. M. Venizelos offered them instead one +commercial outlet[118] and special privileges in another, and the +plenipotentiaries of Great Britain, France, and Japan considered the +offer adequate. + +But Mr. Wilson demurred. A commercial outlet through foreign territory, +he said, might possibly be as good as a direct outlet through one's own +territory in peace-time, but not in time of war, and, after all, one +must bear in mind the needs of a country during hostilities. In the +mouth of the champion of universal peace that was an unexpected +argument. It had been employed by Italy in favor of her claim to Fiume. +Mr. Wilson then met it by invoking the economic requirements of +Jugoslavia, and by declaring that the Treaty was being devised for +peace, not for war, that the League of Nations would hinder wars, or at +the very least supply the deficiencies of those states which had +sacrificed strategical positions for humanitarian aims. But in the case +of Bulgaria he was taking what seems the opposite position and +transgressing his own principle of nationality in order to maintain it. + +Mr. Wilson, pursuing his line of argument, further pointed out that the +Supreme Council had not accepted as sufficient for Poland an outlet +through German territory, but had created the city-state of Dantzig in +order to confer a greater degree of security upon the Polish republic. +To that M. Venizelos replied that there was no parity between the two +instances. Poland had no outlet to the sea except through Dantzig, and +could not, therefore, allow that one to remain in the hands of an +unfriendly nation, whereas Bulgaria already possessed two very +commodious ports, Varna and Burgas, on the Black Sea, which becomes a +free sea in virtue of the internationalization of the straits. The +possession of a third outlet on the Ægean could not, therefore, be +termed a vital question for his protégée. Thus the comparison with +Poland was irrelevant. + +If Poland, which is a very much greater state than Bulgaria, can live +and prosper with a single port, and that not her own--if Rumania, which +is also a much more numerous and powerful nation, can thrive with a +single issue to the sea, by what line of argument, M. Venizelos asked, +can one prove that little Bulgaria requires three or four exits, and +that her need justifies the abandonment to her tender mercies of seven +hundred and fifty thousand Greeks and the violation of one of the +fundamental principles underlying the new moral ordering. + +Compliance with Bulgaria's demand would prevent Greece from including +within her boundaries the three-quarters of a million Greeks who have +dwelt in Thrace for twenty-five centuries, preserving their nationality +intact through countless disasters and tremendous cataclysms. Further, +the Greek Premier, taking a leaf from Wilson's book, turned to the +aspect which the problem would assume in war-time. Bulgaria, he argued, +is essentially a continental state, whose defense does not depend upon +naval strength, whereas Greece contains an island population of nearly a +million and a half and looks for protection against aggression chiefly +to naval precautions. In case of war, Bulgaria, if her claim to an issue +on the Ægean were allowed, could with her submarines delay or hinder the +transport and concentration in Macedonia of Greek forces from the +islands and thus place Greece in a position of dangerous inferiority. + +Lastly, if Greece's claims in Thrace were rejected, she would have a +population of 1,790,000 souls outside her national boundaries--that is +to say, more than one-third of the population which is within her state. +Would this be fair? Of the total population of Bulgarian and Turkish +Thrace the Turks and Greeks together form 85 per cent., the Bulgars only +6 per cent., and the latter nowhere in compact masses. Moreover--and +this ought to have clinched the matter--the Hellenic population formed +an absolute as well as a relative majority in the year 1919. + +These arguments and various other considerations drawn from the +inordinate ambitions, the savage cruelty,[119] and the Punic faith of +the Bulgars convinced the British, French, and Japanese delegates of the +soundness of Greece's pleas, and they sided with M. Venizelos. But Mr. +Wilson clung to his idea with a tenacity which could not be justified by +argument, and was concurrently explained by motives irrelevant to the +merits of the case. Whether the influence of Bulgarophil American +missionaries and strong religious leanings were at the root of his +insistence, as was generally assumed, or whether other considerations +weighed with him, is immaterial. And yet it is worth recording that a +Bulgarian journal[120] announced with the permission of the governmental +censor that the American missionaries in Bulgaria and the professors of +Robert College of Constantinople had so primed the American delegates at +the Conference on the question of Thrace, and generally on the Bulgarian +problem, that all M. Venizelos's pains to convince them of the justice +of his contention would be lost labor."[121] + +However this may be, Mr. Wilson's attitude was the subject of adverse +comment throughout Europe. His implied claim to legislate for the world +and to take over its moral leadership earned for him the epithet of +"Dictator," and provoked such epigrammatic comments among his own +countrymen and the French as this: "Louis XIV said, 'I am the state!' +Mr. Wilson, outdoing him, exclaimed, 'I am all the states!'" + +The necessity of winning over dissentient colleagues to his grandiose +scheme of world reorganization and of satisfying their demands, which +were of a nature to render that scheme abortive, was the most +influential agency in impairing his energies and upsetting his plans. +This remark assumes what unhappily seems a fact, that those plans were +mainly mechanical. It is certain that they made no provision for +directly influencing the masses, for giving them sympathetic guidance, +and enabling them to suffuse with social sentiments the aspirations and +strivings which were chiefly of the materialistic order, with a view to +bringing about a spiritual transformation of the social basis. Indeed we +have no evidence that the need of such a transformation of the basis of +political thought, which was still rooted in the old order, was grasped +by any of those who set their hand to the legislative part of the work. + +These unfavorable impressions were general. Almost every step +subsequently taken by the Conference confirmed them, and long before the +Treaty was presented to the Germans, public confidence was gone in the +ability of the Supreme Council to attain any of the moral victories over +militarism, race-hatred, and secret intrigues which its leaders had +encouraged the world to expect. + +"The leaders of the Conference," wrote an influential press organ,[122] +"are under suspicion. They may not know it, but it is true. The +suspicion is doubtless unjust, but it exists. What exists is a fact; and +men who ignore facts are not statesmen. The only way to deal with facts +is to face them. The more unpleasant they are the more they need to be +faced. + +"Some of the Conference leaders are suspected of having, at various +times and in various circumstances, thought more of their own personal +and political positions and ambitions than of the rapid and practical +making of peace. They are suspected, in a word, of a tendency to +subordinate policy to politics. + +"In regard to some important matters they are suspected of having no +policy. They are also suspected of unwillingness to listen to their own +competent advisers, who could lay down for them a sound policy. Some of +them are even suspected of being under the spell of some benumbing +influence that paralyzes their will and befogs their minds, when high +resolve and clear visions are needful." + +Another accusation of the same tenor was thus formulated: "In various +degrees[123] and with different qualities of guilt all the Allied and +Associated leaders have dallied with dishonesty. While professing to +seek naught save the welfare of mankind, they have harbored thoughts of +self-interest. The result has been a progressive loss of faith in them +by their own peoples severally, and by the Allied, Associated, and +neutral peoples jointly. The tide of public trust in them has reached +its lowest ebb." + +At the Conference, as we saw, the President of the United States +possessed what was practically a veto on nearly all matters which left +the vital interests of Britain and France intact. And he frequently +exercised it. Thus the dispute about the Thracian settlement lay not +between Bulgaria and Greece, nor between Greece and the Supreme Council, +but between Greece and Mr. Wilson. In the quarrel over Fiume and the +Dalmatian coast it was the same. When the Shantung question came up for +settlement it was Mr. Wilson alone who dealt with it, his colleagues, +although bound by their promises to support Japan, having made him their +mouthpiece. The rigor he displayed in dealing with some of the smaller +countries was in inverse ratio to the indulgence he practised toward the +Great Powers. Not only were they peremptorily bidden to obey without +discussion the behests which had been brought to their cognizance, but +they were ordered, as we saw, to promise to execute other injunctions +which might be issued by the Supreme Council on certain matters in the +future, the details of which were necessarily undetermined. + +In order to stifle any velleities of resistance on the part of their +governments, they were notified that America's economic aid, of which +they were in sore need, would depend on their docility. It is important +to remember that it was the motive thus clearly presented that +determined their formal assent to a policy which they deprecated. A +Russian statesman summed up the situation in the words: "It is an +illustration of one of our sayings, 'Whose bread I eat, his songs I +sing.'" Thus it was reported in July that an agreement come to by the +financial group Morgan with an Italian syndicate for a yearly advance to +Italy of a large sum for the purchase of American food and raw stuffs +was kept in abeyance until the Italian delegation should accept such a +solution of the Adriatic problem as Mr. Wilson could approve. The +Russian and anti-Bolshevists were in like manner compelled to give their +assent to certain democratic dogmas and practices. It is also fair, +however, to bear in mind that whatever one may think of the wisdom of +the policy pursued by the President toward these peoples, the motives +that actuated it were unquestionably admirable, and the end in view was +their own welfare, as he understood it. It is all the more to be +regretted that neither the arguments nor the example of the autocratic +delegates were calculated to give these the slightest influence over the +thought or the unfettered action of their unwilling wards. The +arrangements carried out were entirely mechanical. + +In the course of time after the vital interests of Britain, France, and +Japan had been disposed of, and only those of the "lesser states," in +the more comprehensive sense of this term, remained, President Wilson +exercised supreme power, wielding it with firmness and encountering no +gainsayer. Thus the peace between Italy and Austria was put off from +month to month because he--and only he--among the members of the Supreme +Council rejected the various projects of an arrangement. Into the merits +of this dispute it would be unfruitful to enter. That there was much to +be said for Mr. Wilson's contention, from the point of view of the +League of Nations, and also from that of the Jugoslavs, will not be +denied. That some of the main arguments to which he trusted his case +were invalidated by the concessions which he had made to other countries +was Italy's contention, and it cannot be thrust aside as untenable. + +At last Mr. Wilson ventured on a step which challenged the attention and +stirred the disquietude of his friends. He despatched a note[124] to +Turkey, warning her that if the massacres of Armenians were not +discontinued he would withdraw the twelfth of his Fourteen Points, which +provides for the maintenance of Turkish sovereignty over undeniable +Turkish territories. The intention was excellent, but the necessary +effects of his action were contrary to what the President can have aimed +at. He had not consulted the Conference on the important change which he +was about to make respecting a point which was supposed to be part of +the groundwork of the new ordering. This from the Conference point of +view was a momentous decision, which could be taken only with the +consent of the Supreme Council. Even as a mere threat it was worthless +if it did not stand for the deliberate will of that body which the +President had deemed it superfluous to consult. As it happened, the +British authorities were just then organizing a body of gendarmes to +police the Turkish territories in question, and they were engaged in +this work with the knowledge and approval of the Supreme Council. Mr. +Wilson's announcement could therefore only be construed--and was +construed--as the act of an authority superior to that of the +Council.[125] The Turks, who are shrewd observers, must have drawn the +obvious conclusion from these divergent measures as to the degree of +harmony prevailing among the Allied and Associated Powers. + +M. Clemenceau had a conversation on the subject with Mr. Polk, who +explained that the note was informal and given verbally, and conveyed +the idea only of one nation in connection with the Armenian situation. +This explanation, accepted by the French government, did not commend +itself to public opinion, either in France or elsewhere. Moreover, the +French were struck by another aspect of this arbitrary exercise of +supreme power. "President Wilson," wrote an eminent French publicist, +"throws himself into the attitude of a man who can bind and loose the +Turkish Empire at the very moment when the Senate appears opposed to +accepting any mandate, European or Asiatic, at the moment when Mr. +Lansing declares to the Congress that the government of which he is a +member does not desire to accept any mandate. But is it not obvious that +if Mr. Wilson sovereignly determines the lot of Turkey he can be held in +consequence to the performance of certain duties? We have often had to +deplore the absence of policy common to the Allies. But has each one of +them, considered separately, at least a policy of its own? Does it take +action otherwise than at haphazard, yielding to the impulse of a +general, a consul, or a missionary?"[126] + +It soon became manifest even to the most obtuse that whenever the +Supreme Council, following its leaders and working on such lines as +these, terminated its labors, the ties between the political communities +of Europe would be just as flimsy as in the unregenerate days of secret +diplomacy, secret alliances, and secret intrigues, unless in the +meanwhile the peoples themselves intervened to render them stronger and +more enduring. It would, however, be the height of unfairness to make +Mr. Wilson alone answerable for this untoward ending to a far resonant +beginning. He had been accused by the press of most countries of +enwrapping personal ambition in the attractive covering of +disinterestedness and altruism, just as many of his foreign colleagues +were said to go in fear of the "malady of lost power." But charges of +this nature overstep the bounds of legitimate criticism. Motive is +hardly ever visible, nor is it often deducible from deliberate action. +If, for example, one were to infer from the vast territorial +readjustments and the still vaster demands of the various belligerents +at the Conference, the motives that had determined them to enter the +war, the conclusion--except in the case of the American people, whose +disinterestedness is beyond the reach of cavil--would indeed be +distressing. The President of the United States merited well of all +nations by holding up to them an ideal for realization, and the mere +announcement of his resolve to work for it imparted an appreciable if +inadequate incentive to men of good-will. The task, however, was so +gigantic that he cannot have gaged its magnitude, discerned the defects +of the instruments, nor estimated aright the force of the hindrances +before taking the world to witness that he would achieve it. Even with +the hearty co-operation of ardent colleagues and the adoption of a sound +method he could hardly have hoped to do more than clear the +ground--perhaps lay the foundation-stone--of the structure he dreamt of. +But with the partners whom circumstance allotted him, and the gainsayers +whom he had raised up and irritated in his own country, failure was a +foregone conclusion from the first. The aims after which most of the +European governments strove were sheer incompatible with his own. +Doubtless they all were solicitous about the general good, but their +love for it was so general and so diluted with attachment to others' +goods as to be hardly discernible. The reproach that can hardly be +spared to Mr. Wilson, however, is that of pusillanimity. If his faith in +the principles he had laid down for the guidance of nations were as +intense as his eloquent words suggested, he would have spurned the offer +of a sequence of high-sounding phrases in lieu of a resettlement of the +world. And his appeal to the peoples would most probably have been +heard. The beacon once lighted in Paris would have been answered in +almost every capital of the world. One promise he kept religiously: he +did not return to Washington without a paper covenant. Is it more? Is it +merely a paradox to assert that as war was waged in order to make war +impossible, so a peace was made that will render peace impossible? + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[91] In March. + +[92] Quoted by _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 10, 1919. + +[93] Delivered at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on March 4, +1919. + +[94] _The New York Herald_, March 19, 1919 (Paris edition). + +[95] Cf. _The New York Herald_, July 8, 1919. + +[96] The semi-official journals manifested a steady tendency to lean +toward the Republican opposition in the United States, down to the month +of August, when the amendments proposed by various Senators bade fair to +jeopardize the Treaties and render the promised military succor +doubtful. + +[97] _Journal de Genève_, May 18, 1919. + +[98] _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), August 14, 1919. + +[99] Cf. Paris papers of February 2, 1919, and _The Public Ledger_ +(Philadelphia), February 4, 1919. + +[100] Cf. _L'Echo de Paris_, April 19, 1919. + +[101] In April, 1919. + +[102] About April 10,1919. + +[103] On March 19, 1919. + +[104] Cf. my cablegram published in _The Public Ledger_ (Philadelphia), +January 12, 1919. + +[105] Cf. _The Public Ledger_ (Philadelphia), February 5, 1919. + +[106] Doctor Bunke, Councilor at the court of Dantzig, endeavors in _The +Dantzig Neueste Nachrichten_ to prove that the problem of Dantzig was +solved exclusively in the interests of the Naval Powers, America and +Britain, who need it as a basis for their commerce with Poland, Russia, +and Germany. Cf. also _Le Temps_, August 23, 1919 + +[107] _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), March 1, 1919. + +[108] Lysis, author of _Demain_, and many other remarkable studies of +economic problems, and editor of _Le Démocratie Nouvelle_, May 30, 1919. + +[109] For an account of analogous bargainings with Bela Kuhn, see the +Chapter on Rumania. + +[110] Bearing the number 3882. + +[111] On October 12, 1918, and February 1, 1919 + +[112] On February 4, 1919. + +[113] _La Démocratie Nouvelle_, May 30, 1919 + +[114] See his admirable article in _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition) +of May 21, 1919, from which the following extract is worth quoting: "I +have said that certain great forces have steadily and occultly worked +for a German peace. But I mean, in fact, one force--an international +finance to which all other forces hostile to the freedom of nations and +of the individual soul are contributory. The influence of this finance +had permeated the Conference, delaying the decisions as long as +possible, increasing divisions between people and people, between class +and class, between peace-makers and peace-makers, in order to achieve +two definite ends, which two ends are one and the same. + +"The first end was so to manipulate the minds of the peace-makers, of +their hordes of retainers and 'experts,' as to bring about, if possible, +a peace that would not be destructive to industrial Germany. The second +end was so to delay the Russian question, so to complicate and thwart +every proposed solution, that, at last, either during or after the Peace +Conference, a recognition of the Bolshevist power as the _de facto_ +government of Russia would be the only possible solution." + +[115] "What confidence can be commanded by men who, asserting one week +that the ultimate of human wisdom has been attained in a document, +confess the next week that the document is frail? When are we to believe +that their confessions are at an end?"--_The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris +edition), August 23, 1919. + +[116] _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), July 31, 1919. + +[117] M. Affonso Costa, who shortly before had succeeded the Minister of +Foreign Affairs, M. Monas Egiz. + +[118] Dedeagatch. + +[119] See _Rapports et Enquêtes de la Commission Interalliée sur les +Violations du droit des gens commises en Macédoine Orientale par les +armées bulgares_. The conclusion of the report is one of the most +terrible indictments ever drawn up by impartial investigators against +what is practically a whole people. + +[120] _Zora_, August 11th. Cf. _Le Temps_, August 28, 1919. + +[121] Mr. Charles House published a statement in the press of Saloniki +to the effect that the Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions +forbids missionaries to take an active part in politics. He added that +if this injunction was transgressed--and in Paris the current belief was +that it had been--it would not be tolerated by the Missionary Board, nor +recognized by the American government. + +[122] _The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), March 31, 1919. + +[123] _The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), April 6, 1919. + +[124] Somewhere between August 17 and 20, 1919. It was transmitted by +Admiral Bristol, American member of the Inter-Allied Inquiry Mission at +Smyrna. + +[125] Cf. _L'Echo de Paris_, August 28, 1919. Article by Pertinax. + +[126] _L'Echo de Paris_, August 28, 1919. Article by Pertinax. + + + + +VI + +THE LESSER STATES + + +Before the Anglo-Saxon statesmen thus set themselves to rearrange the +complex of interests, forces, policies, nationalities, rights, and +claims which constituted the politico-social world of 1919, they were +expected to deal with all the Allied and Associated nations, without +favor or prejudice, as members of one family. This expectation was not +fulfilled. It may not have been warranted. From the various discussions +and decisions of which we have knowledge, a number of delegates drew the +inference that France was destined for obvious reasons to occupy the +leading position in continental Europe, under the protection of +Anglo-Saxondom; and that a privileged status was to be conferred on the +Jews in eastern Europe and in Palestine, while the other states were to +be in the leading-strings of the Four. This view was not lightly +expressed, however inadequately it may prove to have been then supported +by facts. As to the desirability of forming this rude hierarchy of +states, the principal plenipotentiaries were said to have been in +general agreement, although responding to different motives. There was +but one discordant voice--that of France--who was opposed to the various +limitations set to Poland's aggrandizement, and also to the clause +placing the Jews under the direct protection of the League of Nations, +and investing them with privileges in which the races among whom they +reside are not allowed to participate. Bulgaria had a position unique +in her class, for she was luckier than most of her peers in having +enlisted on her side the American delegation and Mr. Wilson as leading +counsel and special pleader for her claim to an outlet to the Ægean Sea. + +At the Conference each state was dealt with according to its class. +Entirely above the new law, as we saw, stood its creators, the +Anglo-Saxons. To all the others, including the French, the Wilsonian +doctrine was applied as fully as was compatible with its author's main +object, the elaboration of an instrument which he could take back with +him to the United States as the great world settlement. Within these +limits the President was evidently most anxious to apply his Fourteen +Points, but he kept well within these. Thus he would, perhaps, have been +quite ready to insist on the abandonment by Britain of her supremacy on +the seas, on a radical change in the international status of Egypt and +Ireland, and much else, had these innovations been compatible with his +own special object. But they were not. He was apparently minded to test +the matter by announcing his resolve to moot the problem of the freedom +of the seas, but when admonished by the British government that it would +not even brook its mention, he at once gave it up and, presumably +drawing the obvious inference from this downright refusal, applied it to +the Irish, Egyptian, and other issues, which were forthwith eliminated +from the category of open or international problems. But France's +insistent demand, on the other hand, for the Rhine frontier met with an +emphatic refusal.[127] + +The social reformer is disheartened by the one-sided and inexorable way +in which maxims proclaimed to be of universal application were +restricted to the second-class nations. + +Russia's case abounds in illustrations of this arbitrary, unjust, and +impolitic pressure. The Russians had been our allies. They had fought +heroically at the time when the people of the United States were, +according to their President, "too proud to fight." They were essential +factors in the Allies' victory, and consequently entitled to the +advantages and immunities enjoyed by the Western Powers. In no case +ought they to have been placed on the same level as our enemies, and in +lieu of recompense condemned to punishment. And yet this latter +conception of their deserts was not wholly new. Soon after their +defection, and when the Allies were plunged in the depths of +despondency, a current of opinion made itself felt among certain +sections of the Allied peoples tending to the conclusion of peace on the +basis of compensations to Germany, to be supplied by the cession of +Russian territory. This expedient was advocated by more than one +statesman, and was making headway when fresh factors arose which bade +fair to render it needless. + +At the Paris Conference the spirit of this conception may still have +survived and prompted much that was done and much that was left +unattempted. Russia was under a cloud. If she was not classed as an +enemy she was denied the consideration reserved for the Allies and the +neutrals. Her integrity was a matter of indifference to her former +friends; almost every people and nationality in the Russian state which +asked for independence found a ready hearing at the Supreme Council. And +some of them before they had lodged any such claim were encouraged to +lose no time in asking for separation. In one case a large sum of money +and a mission were sent to "create the independent state of the +Ukraine," so impatient were peoples in the West to obtain a substitute +for the Russian ally whom they had lost in the East, and great was their +consternation when their protégés misspent the funds and made common +cause with the Teutons. + +Disorganized Russia was in some ways a godsend to the world's +administrators in Paris. To the advocate of alliances, territorial +equilibrium, and the old order of things it offered a facile means of +acquiring new helpmates in the East by emancipating its various peoples +in the name of right and justice. It held out to the capitalists who +deplored the loss of their milliards a potential source whence part of +that loss might be made good.[128] To the zealots of the League of +Nations it offered an unresisting body on which all the requisite +operations from amputation to trepanning might be performed without the +use of anesthetics. + +The various border states of Russia were thus quietly lopped off without +even the foreknowledge, much less the assent, of the patient, and +without any pretense at plebiscites. Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Georgia +were severed from the chaotic Slav state offhandedly, and the warrant +was the doctrine propounded by President Wilson--that every people shall +be free to choose its own mode of living and working. Every people? +Surely not, remarked unbiased onlookers. The Egyptians, the Irish, the +Austrians, the Persians, to name but four among many, are disqualified +for the exercise of these indefeasible rights. Perhaps with good reason? +Then modify the doctrine. Why this difference of treatment? they +queried. Is it not because the supreme judge knows full well that Great +Britain would not brook the discussion of the Egyptian or the Irish +problem, and that France, in order to feel quite secure, must hinder the +Austrian-Germans from coalescing with their brethren of the Reich? But +if Britain and France have the right to veto every self-denying measure +that smacks of disruption or may involve a sacrifice, why is Russia +bereft of it? If the principle involved be of any value at all, its +application must be universal. To an equal all-round distribution of +sacrifice the only alternative is the supremacy of force in the service +of arbitrary rule. And to this force, accordingly, the Supreme Council +had recourse. The only cases in which it seriously vindicated the rights +of oppressed or dissatisfied peoples to self-determination against the +will of the ruling race or nation were those in which that race or +nation was powerless to resist. Whenever Britain or France's interests +were deemed to be imperiled by the putting in force of any of the +Fourteen Points, Mr. Wilson desisted from its application. Thus it came +about that Russia was put on the same plane with Germany and received +similar, in some respects, indeed, sterner, treatment. The Germans were +at least permitted to file objections to the conditions imposed and to +point out flaws in the arrangements drafted, and their representations +sometimes achieved their end. It was otherwise with the Russians. They +were never consulted. And when their representatives in Paris +respectfully suggested that all such changes as might be decided upon by +the Great Powers during their country's political disablement should be +taken to be provisional and be referred for definite settlement to the +future constituent assembly, the request was ignored. + +Of psychological rather than political interest was Mr. Wilson's +conscientious hesitation as to whether the nationalities which he was +preparing to liberate were sufficiently advanced to be intrusted with +self-government. As stated elsewhere, his first impulse would seem to +have been to appoint mandatories to administer the territories severed +from Russia. The mandatory arrangement under the ubiquitous League is +said to have been his own. Presumably he afterward acquired the belief +that the system might be wisely dispensed with in the case of some of +Russia's border states, for they soon afterward received promises of +independence and implicitly of protection against future encroachments +by a resuscitated Russia. + +In this connection a scene is worth reproducing which was enacted at the +Peace Table before the system of administering certain territories by +proxy was fully elaborated. At one of the sittings the delegates set +themselves to determine what countries should be thus governed,[129] and +it was understood that the mandatory system was to be reserved for the +German colonies and certain provinces of the Turkish Empire. But in the +course of the conversation Mr. Wilson casually made use of the +expression, "The German colonies, the territories of the Turkish Empire +and other territories." One of the delegates promptly put the question, +"What other territories?" to which the President replied, +unhesitatingly, "Those of the late Russian Empire." Then he added by way +of explanation: "We are constantly receiving petitions from peoples who +lived hitherto under the scepter of the Tsars--Caucasians, Central +Asiatic peoples, and others--who refuse to be ruled any longer by the +Russians and yet are incapable of organizing viable independent states +of their own. It is meet that the desires of these nations should be +considered." At this the Czech delegate, Doctor Kramarcz, flared up and +exclaimed: "Russia? Cut up Russia? But what about her integrity? Is that +to be sacrificed?" But his words died away without evoking a response. +"Was there no one," a Russian afterward asked, "to remind those +representatives of the Great Powers of their righteous wrath with +Germany when the Brest-Litovsk treaty was promulgated?" + +Toward Italy, who, unlike Russia, was not treated as an enemy, but as +relegated to the category of lesser states, the attitude of President +Wilson was exceptionally firm and uncompromising. On the subject of +Fiume and Dalmatia he refused to yield an inch. In vain the Italian +delegation argued, appealed, and lowered its claims. Mr. Wilson was +adamant. It is fair to admit that in no other way could he have +contrived to get even a simulacrum of a League. Unless the weak states +were awed into submitting to sacrifices for the great aim which he had +made his own, he must return to Washington as the champion of a +manifestly lost cause. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that his +thesis was not destitute of arguments to support it. Accordingly the +deadlock went on for months, until the Italian Cabinet fell and people +wearied of the Adriatic problems. + +Poland was another of the communities which had to bend before +Anglo-Saxon will, represented in her case mainly by Mr. Lloyd George, +not, however, without the somewhat tardy backing of his colleague from +Washington. It is important for the historian and the political student +to observe that as the British Premier was not credited with any +profound or original ideas about the severing or soldering of east +European territories, the authorship of the powerful and successful +opposition to the allotting of Dantzig to Poland was rightly or wrongly +ascribed not to him, but to what is euphemistically termed +"international finance" lurking in the background, whose interest in +Poland was obviously keen, and whose influence on the Supreme Council, +although less obvious, was believed to be far-reaching. The same +explanation was currently suggested for the fixed resolve of Mr. Lloyd +George not to assign Upper Silesia to Poland without a plebiscite. His +own account of the matter was that although the inhabitants were +Polish--they are as two to one compared with the Germans--it was +conceivable that they entertained leanings toward the Germans, and might +therefore desire to throw in their lot with these. When one compares +this scrupulous respect for the likes and dislikes of the inhabitants of +that province with the curt refusal of the same men at first to give ear +to the ardent desire of the Austrians to unite with the Germans, or to +abide by a plebiscite of the inhabitants of Fiume or Teschen, one is +bewildered. The British Premier's wish was opposed by the official body +of experts appointed to report on the matter. Its members had no +misgivings. The territory, they said, belonged of right to Poland, the +great majority of its population was unquestionably Polish, and the +practical conclusion was that it should be handed over to the Polish +government as soon as feasible. Thereupon the staff of the commission +was changed and new members were substituted for the old.[130] But that +was not enough. The British Premier still encountered such opposition +among his foreign colleagues that it was only by dint of wordy warfare +and stubbornness that he finally won his point. + +The stipulation for which the first British delegate toiled thus +laboriously was that within a fortnight after the ratification of the +Treaty the German and Polish forces should evacuate the districts in +which the plebiscite was to be held, that the Workmen's Councils there +should be dissolved, and that the League of Nations should take over the +government of the district so as to allow the population to give full +expression to its will. But the League of Nations did not exist and +could not be constituted for a considerable time. It was therefore +decided[131] that some temporary substitute for the League should be +formed at once, and the Supreme Council decided that Inter-Allied troops +should occupy the districts. That was the first instalment of the price +to be paid for the British Premier's tenderness for plebiscites, which +the expert commissions deprecated as unnecessary, and which, as events +proved in this case, were harmful. + +In the meanwhile Bolshevist--some said German--agents were stirring up +the population by suasion and by terrorism until it finally began to +ferment. Thousands of working-men responded to the goad, "turned down" +their tools and ceased work. Thereupon the coal-fields of Upper Silesia, +the production of which had already dropped by 50 per cent, since the +preceding November, ceased to produce anything. This consummation +grieved the Supreme Council, which turned for help to the Inter-Allied +armies. For the Silesian coal-fields represented about one-third of +Germany's production, and both France and Italy were looking to Germany +for part of their fuel-supply. The French press pertinently asked +whether it would not have been cheaper, safer, and more efficacious to +have forgone the plebiscite and relied on the Polish troops from the +outset.[132] For, however ideal the intentions of Mr. Lloyd George may +have been, the net result of his insistence on a plebiscite was to +enable an ex-newspaper vender named Hoersing, who had undertaken to +prevent the detachment of Upper Silesia from Germany, to set his +machinery for agitation in motion and cause general unrest in the +Silesian and Dombrova coal-mining districts. When the strike was +declared the workmen, who are Poles to a man, rejected all suggestions +that they should refer their grievances to arbitration courts. For these +tribunals were conducted by Germans. The consequence of Mr. Lloyd +George's spirited intervention was, in the words of an unbiased +observer, to "raise the specters of starvation, freezing and Bolshevism +in eastern Europe" during the ensuing winter--a heavy price to pay for +pedantic adherence to the letter of an irrelevant ordinance, at a moment +when the spirit of basic principles was being allowed to evaporate. + +Rumania was chastened and qualified in severer fashion for admission to +the sodality of nations until her delegates quitted the Conference in +disgust, struck out their own policy, and courteously ignored the Great +Powers. Then the Supreme Council changed its note for the moment and +abandoned the position which it had taken up respecting the armistice +with Hungary, to revert to it shortly afterward.[133] The joy with which +the upshot of this revolt was hailed by all the lesser states was an +evil omen. For their antipathy toward the Supreme Council had long +before hardened into a sentiment much more intense, and any stick seemed +good enough to break the rod of the self-constituted governors of the +planet. + +The concrete result of this tinkering and cobbling could only be a +ramshackle structure, built without any reference to the canons of +political architecture. It was shaped neither by the Fourteen Points nor +by the canons of the balance of power and territory. It was hardly more +than an abortive attempt to make a synthesis of the two. Created by +force, it could be perpetuated only by force; but if symptoms are to be +trusted, it is more likely to be broken up by force. As an American +press organ remarked in August: "The Council of Five complains that no +one now condescends to recognize the League of Nations. Even the small +nations are buying war material, quite oblivious of the fact that there +are to be no more wars, now that the League is there to prevent them. +Sweden is buying large supplies from Germany, and Spain is sending a +commission to Paris to negotiate for some of France's war +equipment."[134] + +Belgium, too, was treated with scant consideration. The praise lavished +on her courageous people during the war was apparently deemed an +adequate recompense for the sacrifices she had made and the losses she +endured. For the revision of the treaties of 1839, indispensable to the +economic development of the country, no diplomatic preparation was made +down to May, and among the Treaty clauses then drafted Belgium's share +of justice was so slight and insufficient that the unbiased press +published sharp strictures on the forgetfulness or egotism of the +Supreme Council. "The little that has leaked out of the decisions taken +regarding the conditions which affect Belgium," wrote one journal, "has +caused not only bitter disappointment in Belgium, but also indignation +everywhere.... The Allies having decided not to accord moral +satisfaction to Belgium (they chose Geneva as the capital of the League +of Nations), it was perhaps to be expected that they would not accord +her material satisfaction. And such expectations are being fulfilled. +The Limburg province, annexed to Holland in 1839, the province which +gave the retreating enemy unlawful refuge in 1918, a rank violation of +Dutch neutrality, is apparently not to be restored to Belgium. Even the +right, vital to the safety and welfare of Belgium, the right of +unimpeded navigation of the Scheldt between Antwerp and the sea, has not +yet been conceded. And the raw material that is indispensable if Belgian +industry is to be revived is withheld; the Allies, however, are quite +willing to flood the country with manufactured articles."[135] + +And yet Belgium's demands were extremely modest.[136] They were +formulated, not as the guerdon for her heroic defense of civilization, +but as a plain corollary flowing direct from each and every principle +officially recognized by the heads of the Conference--right, +nationality, legitimate guarantees, and economic requirements. Tested by +any or all of these accepted touchstones, everything asked for was +reasonable and fair in itself, and seemingly indispensable to the +durability of the new world-structure which the statesmen were +endeavoring to raise on the ruins of the old. Belgium's forlorn +political and territorial plight embodied all the worst vices of the old +balance of power stigmatized by President Wilson: the mutilation of the +country; the forcible separation of sections of its population from each +other; the distribution of these lopped, ethnic fragments among alien +states and dynasties; the control of her waterways handed over to +commercial rivals; the transformation of cities and districts that were +obviously destined to figure among her sources of national well-being +and centers of culture into dead towns that paralyze her effort and +hinder her progress. In a word, Belgium had had no political existence +for her own behoof. She was not an organic unit in the sodality of +nations, but a mere cog in the mechanism of European equilibrium. + +Ruined by the war, Belgium was sorely tried by the Peace Conference. She +complained of two open wounds which poisoned her existence, stunted her +economic growth, and rendered her self-defense an impossibility: the +vast gap of Limburg on the east and the blocking of the Scheldt on the +west. The great national _réduit_, Antwerp, cut off from the sea, +inaccessible to succor in case of war, on the one side, and Limburg +opening to Germany's armies the road through central Belgium, on the +other--these were the two standing dangers which it was hoped would be +removed. How dangerous they are events had demonstrated. In October, +1914, Antwerp fell because Holland had closed the Scheldt and forbidden +the entrance to warships and transports, and in November, 1918, a German +army of over seventy thousand men eluded pursuit by the Allies by +passing through Dutch Limburg, carrying with them vast war materials and +booty. Militarily Belgium is exposed to mortal perils so long as the +treaties which ordained this preposterous division of territories are +maintained in vigor. + +Economically, too, the consequences, especially of the status of the +Scheldt, are admittedly baleful. To Holland the river is practically +useless--indeed, the only advantage it could confer would be the power +of impeding the growth and prosperity of Antwerp for the benefit of its +rival, Rotterdam. All that the Belgians desired there was the complete +control of their national river, with the right of carrying out the +works necessary to keep it navigable. A like demand was put forward for +the canal of Terneuzen, which links the city of Ghent with the Scheldt; +and the suppression of the checks and hindrances to Belgium's free +communications with her hinterland--_i.e._, the basins of the Meuse and +the Rhine. Prom every point of view, including that of international +law, the claims made were at once modest and grounded. But the Supreme +Council had no time to devote to such subsidiary matters, and, like more +momentous issues, they were adjourned. + +The Belgian delegation did not ask that Holland's territory should be +curtailed. On the contrary, they would have welcomed its increase by the +addition of territory inhabited by people of her own idiom, under +German sway.[137] But the Dutch demurred, as Denmark had done in the +matter of the third Schleswig zone, for fear of offending Germany. And +the Supreme Council acquiesced in the refusal. Again, when issues were +under discussion that turned upon the Rhine country and affected Belgian +interests, her delegates were never consulted. They were systematically +ignored by the Conference. When the capital of the League of Nations was +to be chosen, their hopes that Brussels would be deemed worthy of the +honor were blasted by President Wilson himself. One of the American +delegates informed a foreign colleague "that the capital of the League +must be situate in a tranquil country, must have a steady, settled +population and a really good climate." "A good climate?" asked a +continental statesman. "Then why not choose Monte Carlo?" + +But the decision in favor of Geneva was sent by courier from Switzerland +ready made to President Wilson. The chief grounds which lent color to +the belief that religious bias played a larger part in the Conference's +decisions than was apparent were the following: It was from Geneva that +the spirit of religious and political liberty first went forth to be +incarnated among the various nations of the world. It is to John Calvin, +rather than to Martin Luther, that the birth of the Scotch Covenanters +and of English Puritanism is traceable. Hence Geneva is the parent of +New England. So, too, it was Rousseau--a true child of Calvin--who was +the author of America's Declaration of Independence. Again, one of the +first pacifists and advocates of international arbitration was born in +Geneva. John Knox sat for two years at the feet of Calvin. Consequently +the Puritan Revolution, the French Revolution, and the American +Revolution all had their springs in Geneva. + +These were the considerations which weighed with President Wilson when +he refused to fix his choice on Brussels. In vain the Belgians argued +and pleaded, urging that if the Conference were to vote for London, +Washington, or Paris, they would receive the announcement with +respectful acquiescence, but that among the lesser states they conceived +that their country's claims were the best grounded. To the Americans who +objected that Switzerland's mountains and lakes, being free from hateful +war memories, offer more fitting surroundings for the capital of the +League of Peace than Brussels, where vestiges of the odious struggle +will long survive, they answered that they could only regret that +Belgium's resistance to the lawless invaders should be taken to +disqualify her for the honor. + +It is worth while pursuing this matter a step farther. The Federal +Council in Berne having soon afterward officially recommended[138] the +nation to enter the League which guarantees it neutrality,[139] an +illuminating discussion ensued. And it was elicited that as there is an +obligation imposed on all member-states to execute the decrees of the +League for the coercion of rebellious fellow-members, it follows that in +such cases Switzerland, too, would be obliged to take an active part in +the struggle between the League and the recalcitrant country. From +military operations, however, Switzerland is dispensed, but it would +certainly be bound to adopt economic measures of pressure, and to this +extent abandon its neutrality. Now not only would that attitude be +construed by the disobedient nation as unfriendly, and the usual +consequences drawn from it, but as Switzerland is freed from military +co-operation, it follows that the League could not fix the headquarters +of its military command in its own capital, Geneva, as that would +constitute a violation of Swiss neutrality. And, if it did, Switzerland +would in self-defense be bound to oppose the decision! + +The Belgians were discouraged by the disdainful demeanor and grudging +disposition of the Supreme Council, and irritated by the arbitrariness +of its decrees and the indefensible way in which it applied principles +that were propounded as sacred. Before restoring the diminutive cantons +of Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium, for example, Mr. Wilson insisted on +ascertaining the will of the population by plebiscite. In itself the +measure was reasonable, but the position of these little districts was +substantially on all-fours with Alsace-Lorraine, which was restored to +France without any such test. In Fiume, also, the will of the +inhabitants went for nothing, Mr. Wilson refusing to consult them. +Further, Austria, whose people were known to favor union with Germany, +was systematically jockeyed into ruinous isolation. "Now what, in the +light of these conflicting judgments," asked the Belgians, "is the true +meaning of the principle of self-determination?" The only reply they +received was that Mr. Wilson was right when he told his +fellow-countrymen that his principles stood in need of interpretation, +and that, as he was the sole authorized interpreter, his presence was +required in Europe. + +In money matters, too, the chief plenipotentiaries can hardly be +acquitted of something akin to niggardliness toward the country which +had saved theirs from a catastrophe. Down to the month of May, 1921, two +and a half milliard francs was the maximum sum allotted to Belgium by +the Supreme Council. And for the work of restoring the devastated +country, which the Great Powers had spontaneously promised to +accomplish, it was alleged by experts to be wholly inadequate. Other +financial grievances were ignored--for a time. Further, it was decided +that Germany should surrender her African colonies to the Great Powers; +yet Belgium, who contributed materially to their conquest, was not to be +associated with them. + +Irritated by this illiberality, the Belgian delegation, having consulted +with M. Renkin, to whose judgment in these matters special weight +attached, resolved to make a firm stand, and refused to sign the Treaty +unless at least certain modest financial, economic, and colonial claims, +which ought to have been settled spontaneously, were accorded under +pressure. And the Supreme Council, rather than be arraigned before the +world on the charge of behaving unjustly as well as ungenerously toward +Belgium, ultimately gave way, leaving, however, an impression behind +which seemed as indelible as it was profound.... + +The domination which is now being exercised by the principal Powers over +the remaining states of the world is fraught with consequences which +were not foreseen, and have not yet been realized by those who +established it. Among the least momentous, but none the less real, is +one to which Belgium is exposed. Hitherto there was a language problem +in that heroic country which, being an internal controversy, could be +settled without noteworthy perturbations by the good-will of the +Walloons and the Flemings. The danger, which one fervently hopes will be +warded off, consists in the possible transformation of that dispute into +an international question, in consequence of possible accords of a +military or economic nature. The subject is too delicate to be handled +by a foreigner, and the Belgian people are too practical and law-loving +not to avoid unwary steps that might turn a linguistic problem into a +racial issue. + +The Supreme Council soon came to be looked upon as the prototype of the +future League, and in that light its action was sharply scrutinized by +all whom the League concerned. Foremost among these were the +representatives of the lesser states, or, as they were termed, "states +with limited interests." This band of patriots had pilgrimaged to Paris +full of hope for their respective countries, having drunk in avidly the +unstinted praise and promises which had served as pabulum for their +attachment to the Allied cause during the war. But their illusions were +short-lived. At one of their first meetings with the delegates of the +Great Powers a storm burst which scattered their expectations to the +winds. When the sky cleared it was discovered that from indispensable +fellow-workers they had shrunk to dwarfish protégées, mere units of an +inferior category, who were to be told what to do and would be +constrained to do it thoroughly if not unmurmuringly. + +At the historic sitting of January 26th, the delegates of the lesser +states protested energetically against the purely decorative part +assigned to them at a Conference in the decisions of which their peoples +were so intensely interested. The Canadian Minister, having spoken of +the "proposal" of the Great Powers, was immediately corrected by M. +Clemenceau, who brusquely said that it was not a proposal, but a +decision, which was therefore definitive and final. Thereupon the +Belgian delegate, M. Hymans, delivered a masterly speech, pleading for +genuine discussion in order to elucidate matters that so closely +concerned them all, and he requested the Conference to allow the smaller +belligerent Allies more than two delegates. Their demand was curtly +rejected by the French Premier, who informed his hearers that the +Conference was the creation of the Great Powers, who intended to keep +the direction of its labors in their own hands. He added significantly +that the smaller nations' representatives would probably not have been +invited at all if the special problem of the League of Nations had not +been mooted. Nor should it be forgotten, he added, that the five Great +Powers represented no less than twelve million fighting-men.... In +conclusion, he told them that they had better get on with their work in +lieu of wasting precious time in speechmaking. These words produced a +profound and lasting effect, which, however, was hardly the kind +intended by the French statesman. + +"Conferential Tsarism" was the term applied to this magisterial method +by one of the offended delegates. He said to me on the morrow: "My reply +to M. Clemenceau was ready, but fear of impairing the prestige of the +Conference prevented me from uttering it. I could have emphasized the +need for unanimity in the presence of vigilant enemies, ready to +introduce a wedge into every fissure of the edifice we are constructing. +I could have pointed out that, this being an assembly of nations which +had waged war conjointly, there is no sound reason why its membership +should be diluted with states which never drew the sword at all. I might +have asked what has become of the doctrine preached when victory was +still undecided, that a league of nations must repose upon a free +consent of all sovereign states. And above all things else I could have +inquired how it came to pass that the architect-in-chief of the society +of nations which is to bestow a stable peace on mankind should invoke +the argument of force, of militarism, against the pacific peoples who +voluntarily made the supreme sacrifice for the cause of humanity and now +only ask for a hearing. Twelve million fighting-men is an argument to be +employed against the Teutons, not against the peace-loving, law-abiding +peoples of Europe. + +"Premier Clemenceau seemed to lay the blame for the waste of time on our +shoulders, but the truth is that we were never admitted to the +deliberations until yesterday; although two and one-half months have +elapsed since the armistice was concluded, and although the progress +made by these leading statesmen is manifestly limited, he grudged us +forty-five minutes to give vent to our views and wishes. + +"The French Tiger was admirable when crushing the enemies of +civilization with his twelve million fighting-men; but gestures and +actions which were appropriate to the battlefield become sources of +jarring and discord when imported into a concert of peoples." + +Much bitterness was generated by those high-handed tactics, whereupon +certain slight concessions were made in order to placate the offended +delegates; but, being doled out with a bad grace, they failed of the +effect intended. Belgium received three delegates instead of two, and +Jugoslavia three; but Rumania, whose population was estimated at +fourteen millions, was allowed but two. This inexplicable decision +caused a fresh wound, which was kept continuously open by friction, +although it might readily have been avoided. Its consequences may be +traced in Rumania's singular relations to the Supreme Council before and +after the fall of Kuhn in Hungary. + +But even those drastic methods might be deemed warranted if the policy +enforced were, in truth, conducive to the welfare of the nations on whom +it was imposed. But hastily improvised by one or two men, who had no +claim to superior or even average knowledge of the problems involved, +and who were constantly falling into egregious and costly errors, it was +inevitable that their intervention should be resented as arbitrary and +mischievous by the leaders of the interested nations whose +acquaintanceship with those questions and with the interdependent issues +was extensive and precise. This resentment, however, might have been +not, indeed, neutralized, but somewhat mitigated, if the temper and +spirit in which the Duumvirate discharged its self-set functions had +been free from hauteur and softened by modesty. But the magisterial +wording in which its decisions were couched, the abruptness with which +they were notified, and the threats that accompanied their imposition +would have been repellent even were the authors endowed with +infallibility. + +One of the delegates who unbosomed himself to me on the subject soon +after the Germans had signed the Treaty remarked: "The Big Three are +superlatively unsympathetic to most of the envoys from the lesser +belligerent states. And it would be a wonder if it were otherwise, for +they make no effort to hide their disdain for us. In fact, it is +downright contempt. They never consult us. When we approach them they +shove us aside as importunate intruders. They come to decisions unknown +to us, and carry them out in secrecy, as though we were enemies or +spies. If we protest or remonstrate, we are imperialists and ungrateful. + +"Often we learn only from the newspapers the burdens or the restrictions +that have been imposed on us." + +A couple of days previously M. Clemenceau, in an unofficial reply to a +question put by the Rumanian delegation, directed them to consult the +financial terms of the Treaty with Austria, forgetting that the +delegates of the lesser states had not been allowed to receive or read +those terms. Although communicated to the Austrians, they were carefully +concealed from the Rumanians, whom they also concerned. At the same +time, the Rumanian government was called upon to take and announce a +decision which presupposed acquaintanceship with those conditions, +whereupon the Rumanian Premier telegraphed from Bucharest to Paris to +have them sent. But his _locum tenens_ did not possess a copy and had no +right to demand one.[140] Incongruities of this character were frequent. + +One statesman in Paris, who enjoys a world-wide reputation, dissented +from those who sided with the lesser states. He looked at their protests +and tactics from an angle of vision which the unbiased historian, +however emphatically he may dissent from it, cannot ignore. He said: +"All the smaller communities are greedy and insatiable. If the chiefs of +the World Powers had understood their temper and ascertained their +aspirations in 1914, much that has passed into history since then would +never have taken place. During the war these miniature countries were +courted, flattered, and promised the sun and the moon, earth and heaven, +and all the glories therein. And now that these promises cannot be +redeemed, they are wroth, and peevishly threaten the great states with +disobedience and revolt. This, it is true, they could not do if the +latter had not forfeited their authority and prestige by allowing their +internal differences, hesitations, contradictions, and repentances to +become manifest to all. To-day it is common knowledge that the Great +Powers are amenable to very primitive incentives and deterrents. If in +the beginning they had been united and said to their minor brethren: +'These are your frontiers. These your obligations,' the minor brethren +would have bowed and acquiesced gratefully. In this way the boundary +problems might have been settled to the satisfaction of all, for each +new or enlarged state would have been treated as the recipient of a free +gift from the World Powers. But the plenipotentiaries went about their +task in a different and unpractical fashion. They began by recognizing +the new communities, and then they gave them representatives at the +Conference. This they did on the ground that the League of Nations must +first be founded, and that all well-behaved belligerents on the Allied +side have a right to be consulted upon that. And, finally, instead of +keeping to their program and liquidating the war, they mingled the +issues of peace with the clauses of the League and debated them +simultaneously. In these debates they revealed their own internal +differences, their hesitancy, and the weakness of their will. And the +lesser states have taken advantage of that. The general results have +been the postponement of peace, the physical exhaustion of the Central +Empires, and the spread of Bolshevism." + +It should not be forgotten that this mixture of the general and the +particular of the old order and the new was objected to on other +grounds. The Italians, for example, urged that it changed the status of +a large number of their adversaries into that of highly privileged +Allies. During the war they were enemies, before the peace discussions +opened they had obtained forgiveness, after which they entered the +Conference as cherished friends. The Italians had waged their war +heroically against the Austrians, who inflicted heavy losses on them. +Who were these Austrians? They were composed of the various +nationalities which made up the Hapsburg monarchy, and in especial of +men of Slav speech. These soldiers, with notable exceptions, discharged +their duty to the Austrian Emperor and state conscientiously, according +to the terms of their oath. Their disposition toward the Italians was +not a whit less hostile than was that of the common German man against +the French and the English. Why, then, argued the Italians, accord them +privileges over the ally who bore the brunt of the fight against them? +Why even treat the two as equals? It may be replied that the bulk of the +people were indifferent and merely carried out orders. Well, the same +holds good of the average German, yet he is not being spoiled by the +victorious World Powers. But the Croats and others suddenly became the +favorite children of the Conference, while the Germans and +Teuton-Austrians, who in the meanwhile had accepted and fulfilled +President Wilson's conditions for entry into the fellowship of nations, +were not only punished heavily--which was perfectly just--but also +disqualified for admission into the League, which was inconsistent. + +The root of all the incoherences complained of lay in the circumstance +that the chiefs of the Great Powers had no program, no method; Mr. +Wilson's pristine scheme would have enabled him to treat the gallant +Serbs and their Croatian brethren as he desired. But he had failed to +maintain it against opposition. On the other hand, the traditional +method of the balance of power would have given Italy all that she could +reasonably ask for, but Mr. Wilson had partially destroyed it. Nothing +remained then but to have recourse to a _tertium quid_ which profoundly +dissatisfied both parties and imperiled the peace of the world in days +to come. And even this makeshift the eminent plenipotentiaries were +unable to contrive single-handed. Their notion of getting the work done +was to transfer it to missions, commissions, and sub-commissions, and +then to take action which, as often as not, ran counter to the +recommendations of these selected agents. Oddly enough, none of these +bodies received adequate directions. To take a concrete example: a +central commission was appointed to deal with the Polish frontier +problems, a second commission under M. Jules Cambon had to study the +report on the Polish Delimitation question, but although often +consulted, it was seldom listened to. Then there was a third commission, +which also did excellent work to very little purpose. Now all the +questions which formed the subjects of their inquiries might be +approached from various sides. There were historical frontiers, +ethnographical frontiers, political and strategical and linguistic +frontiers. And this does not exhaust the list. Among all these, then, +the commissioners had to choose their field of investigation as the +spirit moved them, without any guidance from the Supreme Council, which +presumably did not know what it wanted. + +As an example of the Council's unmethodical procedure, and of its +slipshod way of tackling important work, the following brief sketch of a +discussion which was intended to be decisive and final, but ended in +mere waste of time, may be worth recording. The topic mooted was +disarmament. The Anglo-Saxon plenipotentiaries, feeling that they owed +it to their doctrines and their peoples to ease the military burdens of +the latter and lessen temptations to acts of violence, favored a measure +by which armaments should be reduced forthwith. The Italian delegates +had put forward the thesis, which was finally accepted, that if Austria, +for instance, was to be forbidden to keep more than a certain number of +troops under arms, the prohibition should be extended to all the states +of which Austria had been composed, and that in all these cases the +ratio between the population and the army should be identical. +Accordingly, the spokesmen of the various countries interested were +summoned to take cognizance of the decision and intimate their readiness +to conform to it. + +M. Paderewski listened respectfully to the decree, and then remarked: +"According to the accounts received from the French military +authorities, Germany still has three hundred and fifty thousand soldiers +in Silesia." "No," corrected M. Clemenceau, "only three hundred +thousand." "I accept the correction," replied the Polish Premier. "The +difference, however, is of no importance to my contention, which is that +according to the symptoms reported we Poles may have to fight the +Germans and to wage the conflict single-handed. As you know, we have +other military work on hand. I need only mention our strife with the +Bolsheviki. If we are deprived of effective means of self-defense, on +the one hand, and told to expect no help from the Allies, on the other +hand, the consequence will be what every intelligent observer foresees. +Now three hundred thousand Germans is no trifle to cope with. If we +confront them with an inadequate force and are beaten, what then?" +"Undoubtedly," exclaimed M. Clemenceau, "if the Germans were victorious +in the east of Europe the Allies would have lost the war. And that is a +perspective not to be faced." + +M. Bratiano spoke next. "We too," he said, "have to fight the Bolsheviki +on more than one front. This struggle is one of life and death to us. +But it concerns, if only in a lesser degree, all Europe, and we are +rendering services to the Great Powers by the sacrifices we thus offer +up. Is it desirable, is it politic, to limit our forces without +reference to these redoubtable tasks which await them? Is it not +incumbent on the Powers to allow these states to grow to the dimensions +required for the discharge of their functions?" "What you advance is +true enough for the moment," objected M. Clemenceau; "but you forget +that our limitations are not to be applied at once. We fix a term after +the expiry of which the strength of the armies will be reduced. We have +taken all the circumstances into account." "Are you prepared to affirm," +queried the Rumanian Minister, "that you can estimate the time with +sufficient precision to warrant our risking the existence of our country +on your forecast?" "The danger will have completely disappeared," +insisted the French Premier, "by January, 1921." "I am truly glad to +have this assurance," answered M. Bratiano, "for I doubt not that you +are quite certain of what you advance, else you would not stake the fate +of your eastern allies on its correctness. But as we who have not been +told the grounds on which you base this calculation are asked to +manifest our faith in it by incurring the heaviest conceivable risks, +would it be too much to suggest that the Great Powers should show their +confidence in their own forecast by guaranteeing that if by the +insurgence of unexpected events they proved to be mistaken and Rumania +were attacked, they would give us prompt and adequate military +assistance?" To this appeal there was no affirmative response; whereupon +M. Bratiano concluded: "The limitation of armaments is highly desirable. +No people is more eager for it than ours. But it has one limitation +which must, I venture to think, be respected. So long as you have a +restive or dubious neighbor, whose military forces are subjected neither +to limitation nor control, you cannot divest yourself of your own means +of self-defense. That is our view of the matter." + +Months later the same difficulty cropped up anew, this time in a +concrete form, and was dealt with by the Supreme Council in its +characteristic manner. Toward the end of August Rumania's doings in +Hungary and her alleged designs on the Banat alarmed and angered the +delegates, whose authority was being flouted with impunity; and by way +of summarily terminating the scandal and preventing unpleasant surprises +M. Clemenceau proposed that all further consignments of arms to Rumania +should cease. Thereupon Italy's chief representative, Signor Tittoni, +offered an amendment. He deprecated, he said, any measure leveled +specially against Rumania, all the more that there existed already an +enactment of the old Council of Four limiting the armaments of all the +lesser states. The Military Council of Versailles, having been charged +with the study of this matter, had reached the conclusion that the Great +Powers should not supply any of the governments with war material. +Signor Tittoni was of the opinion, therefore, that those conclusions +should now be enforced. + +The Council thereupon agreed with the Italian delegate, and passed a +resolution to supply none of the lesser countries with war material. And +a few minutes later it passed another resolution authorizing Germany to +cede part of her munitions and war material to Czechoslovakia and some +more to General Yudenitch![141] + +When the commissions to which all the complex problems had to be +referred were being first created,[142] the lesser states were allowed +only five representatives on the Financial and Economic commissions, and +were bidden to elect them. The nineteen delegates of these States +protested on the ground that this arrangement would not give them +sufficient weight in the councils by which their interests would be +discussed. These malcontents were headed by Senhor Epistacio Pessoa, the +President-elect of the United States of Brazil. The Polish delegate, M. +Dmowski, addressing the meeting, suggested that they should not proceed +to an election, the results of which might stand in no relation to the +interests which the states represented had in matters of European +finance, but that they should ask the Great Powers to appoint the +delegates. To this the President-elect of Brazil demurred, taking the +ground that it would be undignified for the lesser states to submit to +have their spokesman nominated by the greater. Thereupon they elected +five delegates, all of them from South American countries, to deal with +European finance, leaving the Europeans to choose five from among +themselves. This would have given ten in all to the communities whose +interests were described as limited, and was an affront to the Great +Powers. + +This comedy was severely judged and its authors reprimanded by the heads +of the Conference, who, while quashing the elections, relented to the +extent of promising that extra delegates might be appointed for the +lesser nations later on. As a matter of fact, the number of commissions +was of no real consequence, because on all momentous issues their +findings, unless they harmonized with the decisions of the chief +plenipotentiaries, were simply ignored. + +The curious attitude of the Supreme Council toward Rumania may be +contemplated from various angles of vision. But the safest coign of +vantage from which to look at it is that formed by the facts. + +Rumania's grievances were many, and they began at the opening of the +Conference, when she was refused more than two delegates as against the +five attributed to each of the Great Powers and three each for Serbia +and Belgium, whose populations are numerically inferior to hers. Then +her treaty with Great Britain, France, and Russia, on the strength of +which she entered the war, was upset by its more powerful signatories as +soon as the frontier question was mooted at the Conference. Further, the +existence of the Rumanian delegation was generally ignored by the +Supreme Council. Thus, when the treaty with Germany was presented to +Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau, a mere journalist[143] at the Conference +possessed a complete copy, whereas the Rumanian delegation, headed by +the Prime Minister Bratiano, had cognizance only of an incomplete +summary. When the fragmentary treaty was drafted for Austria, the +Rumanian delegation saw the text only on the evening before the +presentation, and, noticing inacceptable clauses, formulated +reservations. These reservations were apparently acquiesced in by the +members of the Supreme Council. That, at any rate, was the impression of +MM. Bratiano and Misu. But on the following day, catching a glimpse of +the draft, they discovered that the obnoxious provisions had been left +intact. Then they lodged their reserves in writing, but to no purpose. +One of the obligations imposed on Rumania by the Powers was a promise to +accept in advance any and every measure that the Supreme Council might +frame for the protection of minorities in the country, and for further +restricting the sovereignty of the state in matters connected with the +transit of Allied goods. And, lastly, the Rumanians complained that the +action of the Supreme Council was creating a dangerous ferment in the +Dobrudja, and even in Transylvania, where the Saxon minority, which had +willingly accepted Rumanian sway, was beginning to agitate against it. +In Bessarabia the non-Rumanian elements of the population were fiercely +opposing the Rumanians and invoking the support of the Peace Conference. +The cardinal fact which, in the judgment of the Rumanians, dominated the +situation was the _quasi_ ultimatum presented to them in the spring, +when they were summoned unofficially and privately to grant industrial +concessions to a pushing body of financiers, or else to abide by the +consequences, one of which, they were told, would be the loss of +America's active assistance. They had elected to incur the threatened +penalty after having carefully weighed the advantages and disadvantages +of laying the matter before President Wilson himself, and inquiring +officially whether the action in question was--as they felt sure it must +be--in contradiction with the President's east European policy. For it +would be sad to think that abundant petroleum might have washed away +many of the tribulations which the Rumanians had afterward to endure, +and that loans accepted on onerous conditions would, as was hinted, have +softened the hearts of those who had it in their power to render the +existence of the nation sour or sweet.[144] "Look out," exclaimed a +Rumanian to me. "You will see that we shall be spurned as Laodiceans, +or worse, before the Conference is over." Rumania's external situation +was even more perilous than her domestic plight. Situated between Russia +and Hungary, she came more and more to resemble the iron between the +hammer and the anvil. A well-combined move of the two anarchist states +might have pulverized her. Alive to the danger, her spokesmen in Paris +were anxious to guard against it, but the only hope they had at the +moment was centered in the Great Powers, whose delegates at the +Conference were discharging the functions which the League of Nations +would be called on to fulfil whenever it became a real institution. And +their past experience of the Great Powers' mode of action was not +calculated to command their confidence. It was the Great Powers which, +for their own behoof and without the slightest consideration for the +interests of Rumania, had constrained that country to declare war +against the Central Empires[145] and had made promises of effective +support in the shape of Russian troops, war material of every kind, +officers, and heavy artillery. But neither the promises of help nor the +assurances that Germany's army of invasion would be immobilized were +redeemed, and so far as one can now judge they ought never to have been +made. For what actually came to pass--the invasion of the country by +first-class German armies under Mackensen--might easily have been +foreseen, and was actually foretold.[146] The entire country was put to +sack, and everything of value that could be removed was carried off to +Hungary, Germany, or Austria. The Allies lavished their verbal +sympathies on the immolated nation, but did little else to succor it, +and want and misery and disease played havoc with the people. + +After the armistice things became worse instead of better. The +Hungarians were permitted to violate the conditions and keep a powerful +army out of all proportion to the area which they were destined to +retain, and as the Allies disposed of no countering force in eastern +Europe, their commands were scoffed at by the Budapest Cabinet. In the +spring of 1919 the Bolshevists of Hungary waxed militant and threatened +the peace of Rumania, whose statesmen respectfully sued for permission +to occupy certain commanding positions which would have enabled their +armies to protect the land from invasion. But the Duumviri in Paris +negatived the request. They fancied that they understood the situation +better than the people on the spot. Thereupon the Bolshevists, ever +ready for an opportunity, seized upon the opening afforded them by the +Supreme Council, attacked the Rumanians, and invaded their territory. +Nothing abashed, the two Anglo-Saxon statesmen comforted M. Bratiano and +his colleagues with the expression of their regret and the promise that +tranquillity would not again be disturbed. The Supreme Council would see +to that. But this promise, like those that preceded it, was broken. + +The Rumanians went so far as to believe that the Supreme Council either +had Bolshevist leanings or underwent secret influences--perhaps +unwittingly--the nature of which it was not easy to ascertain. In +support of these theories they urged that when the Rumanians were on the +very point of annihilating the Red troops of Kuhn, it was the Supreme +Council which interposed its authority to save them, and did save them +effectually, when nothing else could have done it. That Kuhn was on the +point of collapsing was a matter of common knowledge. A radio-telegram +flashed from Budapest by one of his lieutenants contained this +significant avowal: "He [Kuhn] has announced that the Hungarian forces +are in flight. The troops which occupied a good position at the +bridgehead of Gomi have abandoned it, carrying with them the men who +were doing their duty. In Budapest preparations are going forward for +equipping fifteen workmen's battalions." In other words, the downfall of +Bolshevism had begun. The Rumanians were on the point of achieving it. +Their troops on the bank of the river Tisza[147] were preparing to march +on Budapest. And it was at that critical moment that the world-arbiters +at the Conference who had anathematized the Bolshevists as the curse of +civilization interposed their authority and called a halt. If they had +solid grounds for intervening they were not avowed. M. Clemenceau sent +for M. Bratiano and vetoed the march in peremptory terms which did scant +justice to the services rendered and the sacrifices made by the Rumanian +state. Secret arrangements, it was whispered, had been come to between +agents of the Powers and Kuhn. At the time nobody quite understood the +motive of the sudden change of disposition evinced by the Allies toward +the Magyar Bolshevists. For it was assumed that they still regarded the +Bolshevist leaders as outlaws. One explanation was that they objected to +allow the Rumanian army alone to occupy the Hungarian capital. But that +would not account for their neglect to despatch an Inter-Allied +contingent to restore order in the city and country. For they remained +absolutely inactive while Kuhn's supporters were rallying and +consolidating their scattered and demoralized forces, and they kept the +Rumanians from balking the Bolshevist work of preparing another attack. +As one of their French critics[148] remarked, they dealt exclusively in +negatives--some of them pernicious enough, whereas a positive policy +was imperatively called for. To reconstruct a nation, not to say a +ruined world, a series of contradictory vetoes is hardly sufficient. But +another explanation of their attitude was offered which gained +widespread acceptance. It will be unfolded presently. + +The dispersed Bolshevist army, thus shielded, soon recovered its nerve, +and, feeling secure on the Rumanian front, where the Allies held the +invading troops immobilized, attacked the Slovaks and overran their +country. For Bolshevism is by nature proselytizing. The Prague Cabinet +was dismayed. The new-born Czechoslovak state was shaken. A catastrophe +might, as it seemed, ensue at any moment. Rumania's troops were on the +watch for the signal to resume their march, but it came not. The +Czechoslovaks were soliciting it prayerfully. But the weak-kneed +plenipotentiaries in Paris were minded to fight, if at all, with weapons +taken from a different arsenal. In lieu of ordering the Rumanian troops +to march on Budapest, they addressed themselves to the Bolshevist +leader, Kuhn, summoned him to evacuate the Slovak country, and +volunteered the promise that they would compel the Rumanians to +withdraw. This amazing line of action was decided on by the secret +Council of Three without the assent or foreknowledge of the nation to +whose interests it ran counter and the head of whose government was +rubbing shoulders with the plenipotentiaries every day. But M. +Bratiano's existence and that of his fellow-delegate was systematically +ignored. It is not easy to fathom the motives that inspired this +supercilious treatment of the spokesman of a nation which was +sacrificing its sons in the service of the Allies as well as its own. +Personal antipathy, however real, cannot be assumed without convincing +grounds to have been the mainspring. + +But there was worse than the contemptuous treatment of a colleague who +was also the chief Minister of a friendly state. If an order was to be +given to the Rumanian government to recall its forces from the front +which they occupied, elementary courtesy and political tact as well as +plain common sense would have suggested its being communicated, in the +first instance, to the chief of that government--who was then resident +in Paris--as head of his country's delegation to the Conference. But +that was not the course taken. The statesmen of the Secret Council had +recourse to the radio, and, without consulting M. Bratiano, despatched a +message "to the government in Bucharest" enjoining on it the withdrawal +of the Rumanian army. For they were minded scrupulously to redeem their +promise to the Bolshevists. One need not be a diplomatist to realize the +amazement of "the Rumanian government" on receiving this abrupt behest. +The feelings of the Premier, when informed of these underhand doings, +can readily be imagined. And it is no secret that the temper of a large +section of the Rumanian people was attuned by these petty freaks to +sentiments which boded no good to the cause for which the Allies +professed to be working. In September M. Bratiano was reported as having +stigmatized the policy adopted by the Conference toward Rumania as being +of a "malicious and dangerous character."[149] + +The frontier to which the troops were ordered to withdraw had, as we +saw, just been assigned to Rumania[150] without the assent of her +government, and with a degree of secrecy and arbitrariness that gave +deep offense, not only to her official representatives, but also to +those parliamentarians and politicians who from genuine attachment or +for peace' sake were willing to go hand in hand with the Entente. "If +one may classify the tree by its fruits," exclaimed a Rumanian statesman +in my hearing, "the great Three are unconscious Bolshevists. They are +undermining respect for authority, tradition, plain, straightforward +dealing, and, in the case of Rumania, are behaving as though their +staple aim were to detach our nation from France and the Entente. And +this aim is not unattainable. The Rumanian people were heart and soul +with the French, but the bonds which were strong a short while ago are +being weakened among an influential section of the people, to the regret +of all Rumanian patriots." + +The answer given by the "Rumanian government in Bucharest" to the +peremptory order of the Secret Council was a reasoned refusal to comply. +Rumania, taught by terrible experience, declined to be led once more +into deadly peril against her own better judgment. Her statesmen, more +intimately acquainted with the Hungarians than were Mr. Lloyd George, +Mr. Wilson, and M. Clemenceau, required guaranties which could be +supplied only by armed forces--Rumanian or Allied. Unless and until +Hungary received a government chosen by the free will of the people and +capable of offering guaranties of good conduct, the troops must remain +where they were. For the line which they occupied at the moment could be +defended with four divisions, whereas the new one could not be held by +less than seven or eight. The Council was therefore about to commit +another fateful mistake, the consequences of which it was certain to +shift to the shoulders of the pliant people. It was then that Rumania's +leaders kicked against the pricks. + +To return to the dispute between Bucharest and Paris: the Rumanian +government would have been willing to conform to the desire of the +Supreme Council and withdraw its troops if the Supreme Council would +only make good its assurance and guarantee Rumania effectually from +future attacks by the Hungarians. The proviso was reasonable, and as a +measure of self-defense imperative. The safeguard asked for was a +contingent of Allied force. But the two supreme councilors in Paris +dealt only in counters. All they had to offer to M. Bratiano were verbal +exhortations before the combat and lip-sympathy after defeat, and these +the Premier rejected. But here, as in the case of the Poles, the +representatives of the "Allied and Associated" Powers insisted. They +were profuse of promises, exhortations, and entreaties before passing to +threats--of guaranties they said nothing--but the Rumanian Premier, +turning a deaf ear to cajolery and intimidation, remained inflexible. +For he was convinced that their advice was often vitiated by gross +ignorance and not always inspired by disinterestedness, while the orders +they issued were hardly more than the velleities of well-meaning gropers +in the dark who lacked the means of executing them. + +The eminent plenipotentiaries, thus set at naught by a little state, +ruminated on the embarrassing situation. In all such cases their +practice had been to resign themselves to circumstances if they proved +unable to bend circumstances to their schemes. It was thus that +President Wilson had behaved when British statesmen declined even to +hear him on the subject of the freedom of the seas, when M. Clemenceau +refused to accept a peace that denied the Saar Valley and a pledge of +military assistance to France, and when Japan insisted on the +retrocession of Shantung. Toward Italy an attitude of firmness had been +assumed, because owing to her economic dependence on Britain and the +United States she could not indulge in the luxury of nonconformity. +Hence the plenipotentiaries, and in particular Mr. Wilson, asserted +their will inexorably and were painfully surprised that one of the +lesser states had the audacity to defy it. + +The circumstance that after their triumph over Italy the world's +trustees were thus publicly flouted by a little state of eastern Europe +was gall and wormwood to them. It was also a menace to the cause with +which they were identified. None the less, they accepted the inevitable +for the moment, pitched their voices in a lower key, and decided to +approve the Rumanian thesis that Neo-Bolshevism in Hungary must be no +longer bolstered up,[151] but be squashed vicariously. They accordingly +invited the representatives of the three little countries on which the +honor of waging these humanitarian wars in the anarchist east of Europe +was to be conferred, and sounded them as to their willingness to put +their soldiers in the field, and how many as to the numbers available. +M. Bratiano offered eight divisions. The Czechoslovaks did not relish +the project, but after some delay and fencing around agreed to furnish a +contingent, whereas the Jugoslavs met the demand with a plain negative, +which was afterward changed to acquiescence when the Council promised to +keep the Italians from attacking them. As things turned out, none but +the Rumanians actually fought the Hungarian Reds. Meanwhile the members +of the American, British, and Italian missions in Hungary endeavored to +reach a friendly agreement with the criminal gang in Budapest. + +The plan of campaign decided on had Marshal Foch for its author. It was, +therefore, business-like. He demanded a quarter of a million men,[152] +to which it was decided that Rumania should contribute 120,000, +Jugoslavia 50,000, and Czechoslovakia as many as she could conveniently +afford. But the day before the preparations were to have begun,[153] +Bela Kuhn flung his troops[154] against the Rumanians with initial +success, drove them across the Tisza with considerable loss, took up +commanding positions, and struck dismay into the members of the Supreme +Council. The Semitic Dictator, with grim humor, explained to the +crestfallen lawgivers, who were once more at fault, that a wanton breach +of the peace was alien to his thoughts; that, on the contrary, his +motive for action deserved high praise--it was to compel the rebellious +Rumanians to obey the behest of the Conference and withdraw to their +frontiers. The plenipotentiaries bore this gibe with dignity, and +decided to have recourse once more to their favorite, and, indeed, only +method--the despatch of exhortative telegrams. Of more efficacious means +they were destitute. This time their message, which lacked a definite +address, was presumably intended for the anti-Bolshevist population of +Hungary, whom it indirectly urged to overthrow the Kuhn Cabinet and +receive the promised reward--namely, the privilege of entering into +formal relations with the Entente and signing the death-warrant of the +Magyar state. It is not easy to see how this solution alone could have +enabled the Supreme Council to establish normal conditions and +tranquillity in the land. But the Duumvirate seemed utterly incapable of +devising a coherent policy for central or eastern Europe. Even when +Hungary had a government friendly to the Entente they never obtained any +advantage from it. They had had no use for Count Karolyi. They had +allowed things to slip and slide, and permitted--nay, helped--Bolshevism +to thrive, although they had brand-marked it as a virulent epidemic to +be drastically stamped out. Temper, education, and training disqualified +them for seizing opportunity and pressing the levers that stood ready +to their hand. + +In consequence of the vacillation of the two chiefs, who seldom stood +firm in the face of difficulties, the members of the predatory gang +which concealed its alien origin under Magyar nationality and its +criminal propensities[155] under a political mask had been enabled to go +on playing an odious comedy, to the disgust of sensible people and the +detriment of the new and enlarged states of Europe. For the cost of the +Supreme Council's weakness had to be paid in blood and substance, little +though the two delegates appeared to realize this. The extent to which +the ruinous process was carried out would be incredible were it not +established by historic facts and documents. + +The permanent agents of the Powers in Hungary,[156] preferring +conciliation to force, now exhorted the Hungarians to rid themselves of +Kuhn and promised in return to expel the Rumanians from Hungarian +territory once more and to have the blockade raised. At the close of +July some Magyars from Austria met Kuhn at a frontier station[157] and +strove to persuade him to withdraw quietly into obscurity, but he, +confiding in the policy of the Allies and his star, scouted the +suggestion. It was at this juncture that the Rumanians, pushing on to +Budapest, resolved, come what might, to put an end to the intolerable +situation and to make a clean job of it once for all. And they +succeeded. + +For Rumania's initial military reverse[158] was the result of a +surprise attack by some eighty thousand men. But her troops rapidly +regained their warlike spirit, recrossed the river Tisza, shattered the +Neo-Bolshevist regime, and reached the environs of Budapest. + +By the 1st of August the lawless band that was ruining the country +relinquished the reins of power, which were taken over at first by a +Socialist Cabinet of which an influential French press organ wrote: "The +names of the new ... commissaries of the people tell us nothing, because +their bearers are unknown. But the endings of their names tell us that +most of them are, like those of the preceding government, of Jewish +origin. Never since the inauguration of official communism did Budapest +better deserve the appellation of Judapest, which was assigned to it by +the late M. Lueger, chief of the Christian Socialists of Vienna. That is +an additional trait in common with the Russian Soviets."[159] + +The Rumanians presented a stiff ultimatum to the new Hungarian Cabinet. +They were determined to safeguard their country and its neighbors from a +repetition of the danger and of the sacrifices it entailed; in other +words, to dictate the terms of a new armistice. The Powers demurred and +ordered them to content themselves with the old one concluded by the +Serbian Voyevod Mishitch and General Henrys in November of the preceding +year and violated subsequently by the Magyars. But the objections to +this course were many and unanswerable. In fact they were largely +identical with the objections which the Supreme Council itself had +offered to the Polish-Ukrainian armistice. And besides these there were +others. For example, the Rumanians had had no hand or part in drafting +the old armistice. Moreover it was clearly inapplicable to the fresh +campaign which was waged and terminated nine months after it had been +drawn up. Experience had shown that it was inadequate to guarantee +public tranquillity, for it had not hindered Magyar attacks on the +Rumanians and Czechoslovaks. The Rumanians, therefore, now that they had +worsted their adversaries, were resolved to disarm them and secure a +real peace. They decided to leave fifteen thousand troops for the +maintenance of internal order.[160] Rumania's insistence on the delivery +of live-stock, corn, agricultural machinery, and rolling-stock for +railways was, it was argued, necessitated by want and justified by +equity. For it was no more than partial reparation for the immense +losses wantonly inflicted on the nation by the Magyars and their allies. +Until then no other amends had been made or even offered. The Austrians, +Hungarians, and Germans, during their two years' occupation of Rumania, +had seized and carried off from the latter country two million five +hundred thousand tons of wheat and hundreds of thousands of head of +cattle, besides vast quantities of clothing, wool, skins, and raw +material, while thousands of Rumanian homes were gutted and their +contents taken away and sold in the Central Empires. Factories were +stripped of their machinery and the railways of their engines and +wagons. When Mackensen left there remained in Rumania only fifty +locomotives out of the twelve hundred which she possessed before the +war. The material, therefore, that Rumania removed from Hungary during +the first weeks of the occupation represented but a small part of the +quantities of which she had been despoiled during the war. + +It was further urged that at the beginning the Rumanian delegates would +have contented themselves with reparation for losses wantonly inflicted +and for the restitution of the property wrongfully taken from them by +their enemies, on the lines on which France had obtained this offset. +They had asked for this, but were informed that their request could not +be complied with. They were not even permitted to send a representative +to Germany to point out to the Inter-Allied authorities the objects of +which their nation had been robbed, as though the plunderers would +voluntarily give up their ill-gotten stores! It was partly because of +these restrictions that the Rumanian authorities resolved to take what +belonged to them without more ado. And they could not, they said, afford +to wait, because they were expecting an attack by the Russian Bolsheviki +and it behooved them to have done with one foe before taking on another. +These explanations irritated in lieu of calming the Supreme Council. + +"Possibly," wrote the well-informed _Temps_, "Rumania would have been +better treated if she had closed with certain proposals of loans on +crushing terms or complied with certain demands for oil +concessions."[161] Possibly. But surely problems of justice, equity, and +right ought never to have been mixed up with commercial and industrial +interests, whether with the connivance or by the carelessness of the +holders of a vast trust who needed and should have merited unlimited +confidence. It is neither easy nor edifying to calculate the harm which +transactions of this nature, whether completed or merely inchoate, are +capable of inflicting on the great community for whose moral as well as +material welfare the Supreme Council was laboring in darkness against so +many obstacles of its own creation. Is it surprising that the states +which suffered most from these weaknesses of the potent delegates should +have resented their misdirection and endeavored to help themselves as +best they could? It may be blameworthy and anti-social, but it is +unhappily natural and almost unavoidable. It is sincerely to be +regretted that the art of stimulating the nations--about which the +delegates were so solicitous--to enthusiastic readiness to accept the +Council as the "moral guide of the world" should have been exercised in +such bungling fashion. + +The Supreme Council then feeling impelled to assert its dignity against +the wilfulness of a small nation decided on ignoring alike the service +and the disservice rendered by Rumania's action. Accordingly, it +proceeded without reference to any of the recent events except the +disappearance of the Bolshevist gang. Four generals were accordingly +told off to take the conduct of Hungarian affairs into their hands +despite their ignorance of the actual conditions of the problem.[162] +They were ordered to disarm the Magyars, to deliver up Hungary's war +material to the Allies, of whom only the Rumanians and the Czechoslovaks +had taken the field against the enemy since the conclusion of the +armistice the year before, and they were also to exercise their +authority over the Rumanian victors and the Serbs, both of whom occupied +Hungarian territory. The _Temps_ significantly remarked that the Supreme +Council, while not wishing to deal with any Hungarian government but one +qualified to represent the country, "seems particularly eager to see +resumed the importation of foreign wares into Hungary. Certain persons +appear to fear that Rumania, by retaking from the Magyars wagons and +engines, might check the resumption of this traffic."[163] + +What it all came to was that the Great Powers, who had left Rumania to +her fate when she was attacked by the Magyars, intervened the moment the +assailed nation, helping itself, got the better of its enemy, and then +they resolved to balk it of the fruits of victory and of the safeguards +it would fain have created for the future. It was to rely upon the +Supreme Council once more, to take the broken reed for a solid staff. +That the Powers had something to urge in support of their interposition +will not be denied. They rightly set forth that Rumania was not +Hungary's only creditor. Her neighbors also possessed claims that must +be satisfied as far as feasible, and equity prompted the pooling of all +available assets. This plea could not be refuted. But the credit which +the pleaders ought to have enjoyed in the eyes of the Rumanian nation +was so completely sapped by their antecedents that no heed was paid to +their reasoning, suasion, or promises. + +Rumania, therefore, in requisitioning Hungarian property was formally in +the wrong. On the other hand, it should be borne in mind that she, like +other nations, was exasperated by the high-handed action of the Great +Powers, who proceeded as though her good-will and loyalty were of no +consequence to the pacification of eastern Europe. + +After due deliberation the Supreme Council agreed upon the wording of a +conciliatory message, not to the Rumanians, but to the Magyars, to be +despatched to Lieutenant-Colonel Romanelli. The gist of it was the old +refrain, "to carry out the terms of the armistice[164] and respect the +frontiers traced by the Supreme Council[165] and we will protect you +from the Rumanians, who have no authority from us. We are sending +forthwith an Inter-Allied military commission[166] to superintend the +disarmament and see that the Rumanian troops withdraw." + +It cannot be denied that the Rumanian conditions were drastic. But it +should be remembered that the provocation amounted almost to +justification. And as for the crime of disobedience, it will not be +gainsaid that a large part of the responsibility fell on the shoulders +of the lawgivers in Paris, whose decrees, coming oracularly from +Olympian heights without reference to local or other concrete +circumstances, inflicted heavy losses in blood and substance on the +ill-starred people of Rumania. And to make matters worse, Rumania's +official representatives at the Conference had been not merely ignored, +but reprimanded like naughty school-children by a harsh dominie and +occasionally humiliated by men whose only excuse was nervous tenseness +in consequence of overwork combined with morbid impatience at being +contradicted in matters which they did not understand. Other states had +contemplated open rebellion against the big ferrule of the "bosses," and +more than once the resolution was taken to go on strike unless certain +concessions were accorded them. Alone the Rumanians executed their +resolve. + +Naturally the destiny-weavers of peoples and nations in Paris were +dismayed at the prospect and apprehensive lest the Rumanians should end +the war in their own way. They despatched three notes in quick +succession to the Bucharest government, one of which reads like a +peevish indictment hastily drafted before the evidence had been sifted +or even carefully read. It raked up many of the old accusations that had +been leveled against the Rumanians, tacked them on to the crime of +insubordination, and without waiting for an answer--assuming, in fact, +that there could be no satisfactory answer--summoned them to prove +publicly by their acts that they accepted and were ready to execute in +good faith the policy decided upon by the Conference.[167] + +That note seemed unnecessarily offensive and acted on the Rumanians as +a powerful irritant,[168] besides exposing the active members of the +Supreme Council to scathing criticism. The Rumanians asked their Entente +friends in private to outline the policy which they were accused of +countering, and were told in reply that it was beyond the power of the +most ingenious hair-splitting casuist to define or describe. "As for +us," wrote one of the stanchest supporters of the Entente in French +journalism, "who have followed with attention the labors and the +utterances, written and oral, of the Four, the Five, the Ten, of the +Supreme and Superior Councils, we have not yet succeeded in discovering +what was the 'policy decided by the Conference.' We have indeed heard or +read countless discourses pronounced by the choir-masters. They abound +in noble thought, in eloquent expositions, in protests, and in promises. +But of aught that could be termed a policy we have not found a +trace."[169] This verdict will be indorsed by the historian. + +The Rumanians seemed in no hurry to reply to the Council's three notes. +They were said to be too busy dealing out what they considered rough and +ready justice to their enemies, and were impatient of the intervention +of their "friends." They seized rolling-stock, cattle, agricultural +implements, and other property of the kind that had been stolen from +their own people and sent the booty home without much ado. Work of this +kind was certain to be accompanied by excesses and the Conference +received numerous protests from the aggrieved inhabitants. But on the +whole Rumania, at any rate during the first few weeks of the occupation, +had the substantial sympathy of the largest and most influential +section of the world's press. People declared that they were glad to +see the haze of self-righteousness and cant at last dispelled by a whiff +of wholesome egotism. From the outspoken comments of the most widely +circulating journals in France and Britain the dictators in Paris, who +were indignant that the counsels of the strong should carry so little +weight in eastern Europe, could acquaint themselves with the impression +which their efforts at cosmic legislation were producing among the saner +elements of mankind. + +In almost every language one could read words of encouragement to the +recalcitrant Rumanians for having boldly burst the irksome bonds in +which the peoples of the world were being pinioned. "It is our view," +wrote one firm adherent of the Entente, "that having proved incapable of +protecting the Rumanians in their hour of danger, our alliance cannot +to-day challenge the safeguards which they have won for +themselves."[170] + +"If liberty had her old influence," one read in another popular +journal,[171] "the Great Powers would not be bringing pressure to bear +on Rumania with the object of saving Hungary from richly deserved +punishment." "Instead of nagging the Rumanians," wrote an eminent French +publicist, "they would do much better to keep the Turks in hand. If the +Turks in despair, in order to win American sympathies, proclaim +themselves socialists, syndicalists, or laborists, will President Wilson +permit them to renovate Armenia and other places after the manner of +Jinghiz Khan?"[172] + +But what may have weighed with the Supreme Council far more than the +disapproval of publicists were its own impotence, the undignified figure +it was cutting, and the injury that was being done to the future League +of Nations by the impunity with which one of the lesser states could +thus set at naught the decisions of its creators and treat them with +almost the same disrespect which they themselves had displayed toward +the Rumanian delegates in Paris. They saw that once their energetic +representations were ignored by the Bucharest government they were at +the end of their means of influencing it. To compel obedience by force +was for the time being out of the question. In these circumstances the +only issue left them was to make a virtue of necessity and veer round to +the Rumanian point of view as unobtrusively as might be, so as to tide +over the transient crisis. And that was the course which they finally +struck out. + +Matters soon came to the culminating point. The members of the Allied +Military Mission had received full powers to force the commanders of the +troops of occupation to obey the decisions of the Conference, and when +they were confronted with M. Diamandi, the ex-Minister to Petrograd, +they issued their orders in the name of the Supreme Council. "We take +orders here only from our own government, which is in Bucharest," was +the answer they received. The Rumanians have a proverb which runs: "Even +a donkey will not fall twice into the same quicksand," and they may have +quoted it to General Gorton when refusing to follow the Allies after +their previous painful experience. Then the mission telegraphed to Paris +for further instructions.[173] In the meanwhile the Rumanian government +had sent its answer to the three notes of the Council. And its tenor was +firm and unyielding. Undeterred by menaces, M. Bratiano maintained that +he had done the right thing in sending troops to Budapest, imposing +terms on Hungary and re-establishing order. As a matter of fact he had +rendered a sterling service to all Europe, including France and +Britain. For if Kuhn and his confederates had contrived to overrun +Rumania, the Great Powers would have been morally bound to hasten to the +assistance of their defeated ally. The press was permitted to announce +that the Council of Five was preparing to accept the Rumanian position. +The members of the Allied Military Mission were informed that they were +not empowered to give orders to the Rumanians, but only to consult and +negotiate with them, whereby all their tact and consideration were +earnestly solicited. + +But the palliatives devised by the delegates were unavailing to heal the +breach. After a while the Council, having had no answer to its urgent +notes, decided to send an ultimatum to Rumania, calling on her to +restore the rolling-stock which she had seized and to evacuate the +Hungarian capital. The terms of this document were described as +harsh.[174] Happily, before it was despatched the Council learned that +the Rumanian government had never received the communications nor +seventy others forwarded by wireless during the same period. Once more +it had taken a decision without acquainting itself of the facts. +Thereupon a special messenger[175] was sent to Bucharest with a note +"couched in stern terms," which, however, was "milder in tone" than the +ultimatum. + +To go back for a moment to the elusive question of motive, which was not +without influence on Rumania's conduct. Were the action and inaction of +the plenipotentiaries merely the result of a lack of cohesion among +their ideas? Or was it that they were thinking mainly of the fleeting +interests of the moment and unwilling to precipitate their conceptions +of the future in the form of a constructive policy? The historian will +do well to leave their motives to another tribunal and confine himself +to facts, which even when carefully sifted are numerous and significant +enough. + +During the progress of the events just sketched there were launched +certain interesting accounts of what was going on below the surface, +which had such impartial and well-informed vouchers that the chronicler +of the Conference cannot pass them over in silence. If true, as they +appear to be, they warrant the belief that two distinct elements lay at +the root of the Secret Council's dealings with Rumania. One of them was +their repugnance to her whole system of government, with its survivals +of feudalism, anti-Semitism, and conservatism. Associated with this was, +people alleged, a wish to provoke a radical and, as they thought, +beneficent change in the entire régime by getting rid of its chiefs. +This plan had been successfully tried against MM. Orlando and Sonnino in +Italy. Their solicitude for this latter aim may have been whetted by a +personal lack of sympathy for the Rumanian delegates, with whom the +Anglo-Saxon chiefs hardly ever conversed. It was no secret that the +Rumanian Premier found it exceedingly difficult to obtain an audience of +his colleague President Wilson, from whom he finally parted almost as +much a stranger as when he first arrived in Paris. + +It may not be amiss to record an instance of the methods of the Supreme +Council, for by putting himself in the place of the Rumanian Premier the +reader may the more clearly understand his frame of mind toward that +body. In June the troops of Moritz (or Bela) Kuhn had inflicted a severe +defeat on the Czechoslavs. Thereupon the Secret Council of Four or Five, +whose shortsighted action was answerable for the reverse, decided to +remonstrate with him. Accordingly they requested him to desist from the +offensive. Only then did it occur to them that if he was to withdraw +his armies behind the frontiers, he must be informed where these +frontiers were. They had already been determined in secret by the three +great statesmen, who carefully concealed them not merely from an +inquisitive public, but also from the states concerned. The Rumanian, +Jugoslav and Czechoslovak delegates were, therefore, as much in the dark +on the subject as were rank outsiders and enemies. But as soon as +circumstances forced the hand of all the plenipotentiaries the secret +had to be confided to them all.[176] The Hungarian Dictator pleaded that +if his troops had gone out of bounds it was because the frontiers were +unknown to him. The Czechoslovaks respectfully demurred to one of the +boundaries along the river Ipol which it was difficult to justify and +easy to rectify. But the Rumanian delegation, confronted with the map, +met the decision with a frank protest. For it amounted to the +abandonment of one of their three vital irreducible claims which they +were not empowered to renounce. Consequently they felt unable to +acquiesce in it. But the Supreme Council insisted. The second delegate, +M. Misu, was in consequence obliged to start at once for Bucharest to +consult with the King and the Cabinet and consider what action the +circumstances called for. In the meantime, the entire question, and +together with it some of the practical consequences involved by the +tentative solution, remained in suspense. + +When certain clauses of the Peace Treaty, which, although they +materially affected Rumania, had been drafted without the knowledge of +her plenipotentiaries, were quite ready, the Rumanian Premier was +summoned to take cognizance of them. Their tenor surprised and irritated +him. As he felt unable to assent to them, and as the document was to be +presented to the enemy in a day or two, he deemed it his duty to mention +his objections at once. But hardly had he begun when M. Clemenceau arose +and exclaimed, "M. Bratiano, you are here to listen, not to comment." +Stringent measures may have been considered useful and dictatorial +methods indispensable in default of reasoning or suasion, but it was +surely incumbent on those who employed them to choose a form which would +deprive them of their sting or make them less personally painful. + +For whatever one may think of the wisdom of the policy adopted by the +Supreme Council toward the unprivileged states, it would be difficult to +justify the manner in which they imposed it. Patience, tact, and suasion +are indispensable requisites in men who assume the functions of leaders +and guides, yet know that military force alone is inadequate to shape +the future after their conception. The delegates could look only to +moral power for the execution of their far-reaching plans, yet they +spurned the means of acquiring it. The best construction one can put +upon their action will represent it as the wrecking of the substance by +the form. By establishing a situation of force throughout Europe the +Council created and sanctioned the principle that it must be maintained +by force. + +But the affronted nations did not stop at this mild criticism. They +assailed the policy itself, cast suspicion on the disinterestedness of +the motives that inspired it, and contributed thereby to generate an +atmosphere of distrust in which the frail organism that was shortly to +be called into being could not thrive. Contemplated through this +distorting medium, one set of delegates was taunted with aiming at a +monopoly of imperialism and the other with rank hypocrisy. It is +superfluous to remark that the idealism and lofty aims of the President +of the United States were never questioned by the most reckless +Thersites. The heaviest charges brought against him were weakness of +will, exaggerated self-esteem, impatience of contradiction, and a naive +yearning for something concrete to take home with him, in the shape of a +covenant of peoples. + +The reports circulating in the French capital respecting vast commercial +enterprises about to be inaugurated by English-speaking peoples and +about proposals that the governments of the countries interested should +facilitate them, were destructive of the respect due to statesmen whose +attachment to lofty ideals should have absorbed every other motive in +their ethico-political activity. Thus it was affirmed by responsible +politicians that an official representative of an English-speaking +country gave expression to the view, which he also attributed to his +government, that henceforth his country should play a much larger part +in the economic life of eastern Europe than any other nation. This, he +added, was a conscious aim which would be steadily pursued, and to the +attainment of which he hoped the politicians and their people would +contribute. So far this, it may be contended, was perfectly legitimate. + +But it was further affirmed, and not by idle quidnuncs, that one of +Rumania's prominent men had been informed that Rumania could count on +the good-will and financial assistance of the United States only if her +Premier gave an assurance that, besides the special privileges to be +conferred on the Jewish minority in his country, he would also grant +industrial and commercial concessions to certain Jewish groups and firms +who reside and do business in the United States. And by way of taking +time by the forelock one or more of these firms had already despatched +representatives to Rumania to study and, if possible, earmark the +resources which they proposed to exploit. + +Now, to expand the trade of one's country is a legitimate ambition, and +to hold that Jewish firms are the best qualified to develop the +resources of Rumania is a tenable position. But to mix up any commercial +scheme with the ethical regeneration of Europe is, to put it mildly, +impolitic. However unimpeachable the motives of the promoter of such a +project, it is certain to damage both causes which he has at heart. But +the report does not leave the matter here. It goes on to state that a +very definite proposal, smacking of an ultimatum, was finally presented, +which set before the Rumanians two alternatives from which they were to +choose--either the concessions asked for, which would earn for them the +financial assistance of the United States, or else no concessions and no +help. + +At a Conference, the object of which was the uplifting of the life of +nations from the squalor of sordid ambitions backed by brutal force, to +ideal aims and moral relationship, haggling and chaffering such as this +seemed wholly out of place. It reminded one of "those that sold oxen and +sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting" in the temple of +Jerusalem who were one day driven out with "a scourge of small cords." +The Rumanians hoped that the hucksters in the latter-day temple of peace +might be got rid of in a similar way; one of them suggested boldly +asking President Wilson himself to say what he thought of the policy +underlying the disconcerting proposal.... + +The other alleged element of the Supreme Council's attitude needs no +qualification. The mystery that enwrapped the orders from the Conference +which suddenly arrested the march of the Rumanian and Allied troops, +when they were nearing Budapest for the purpose of overthrowing Bela +Kuhn, never perplexed those who claimed to possess trustworthy +information about the goings-on between certain enterprising officers +belonging some to the Allied Army of Occupation and others to the +Hungarian forces. One of these transactions is alleged to have taken +place between Kuhn himself, who is naturally a shrewd observer and hard +bargain-driver, and a certain financial group which for obvious reasons +remained nameless. The object of the compact was the bestowal on the +group of concessions in the Banat in return for an undertaking that the +Bolshevist Dictator would be left in power and subsequently honored by +an invitation to the Conference. The plenipotentiaries' command +arresting the march against Kuhn and their conditional promise to summon +him to the Conference, dovetail with this contract. These undeniable +coincidences are humiliating. The nexus between them was discovered and +announced before the stipulations were carried out. + +The Banat had been an apple of discord ever since the close of +hostilities. The country, inhabited chiefly by Rumanians, but with a +considerable admixture of Magyar and Saxon elements, is one of the +richest unexploited regions in Europe. Its mines of gold, zinc, lead, +coal, and iron offer an irresistible temptation to pushing capitalists +and their governments, who feel further attracted by the credible +announcement that it also possesses oil in quantities large enough to +warrant exploitation. It was partly in order to possess herself of these +abundant resources and create an accomplished fact that Serbia, who also +founded her claim on higher ground, laid hands on the administration of +the Banat. But the experiment was disappointing. The Jugoslavs having +failed to maintain themselves there, the bargain just sketched was +entered into by officers of the Hungarian and Allied armies. For +concession-hunters are not fastidious about the nationality or character +of those who can bestow what they happen to be seeking. + +This stroke of jobbery had political consequences. That was inevitable. +For so long as the Banat remained in Rumania or Serbian hands it could +not be alienated in favor of any foreign group. Therefore secession from +both those states was a preliminary condition to economic alienation. +The task was bravely tackled. An "independent republic" was suddenly +added to the states of Europe. This amazing creation, which fitted in +with the Balkanizing craze of the moment, was the work of a few +wire-pullers in which the easy-going inhabitants had neither hand nor +part. Indeed, they were hardly aware that the Republic of the Banat had +been proclaimed. The amateur state-builders were obliging officers of +the two armies, and behind them were speculators and concession-hunters. +It was obvious that the new community, as it contained a very small +population for an independent state, would require a protector. Its +sponsors, who had foreseen this, provided for it by promising to assign +the humanitarian rôle of protectress of the Banat Republic to democratic +France. And French agents were on the spot to approve the arrangement. +Thus far the story, of which I have given but the merest outline.[177] + +In this compromising fashion then Bela Kuhn was left for the time being +in undisturbed power, and none of his friends had any fear that he would +be driven out by the Allies so long as he contrived to hit it off with +the Hungarians. Should these turn away from him, however, the +cosmopolitan financiers, whose cardinal virtues are suppleness and +adaptability, would readily work with his successor, whoever he might +be. The few who knew of this quickening of high ideals with low intrigue +were shocked by the light-hearted way in which under the ægis of the +Conference a discreditable pact was made with the "enemy of the human +race," a grotesque régime foisted on a simple-minded people without +consideration for the principle of self-determination, and the very +existence of the Czechoslovak Republic imperiled. Indeed, for a brief +while it looked as though the Bolshevist forces of the Ukraine and +Russia would effect a junction with the troops of Bela Kuhn and shatter +eastern Europe to shreds. To such dangerous extent did the Supreme +Council indirectly abet the Bolshevist peace-breakers against the +Rumanians and Czechoslovak allies. + +It was at this conjuncture that a Rumanian friend remarked to me: "The +apprehension which our people expressed to you some months ago when they +rejected the demand for concessions has been verified by events. Please +remember that when striking the balance of accounts." + +The fact could not be blinked that in the camp of the Allies there was a +serious schism. The partizans of the Supreme Council accused the +Bucharest government of secession, and were accused in turn of having +misled their Rumanian partners, of having planned to exploit them +economically, of having favored their Bolshevist invaders, and pursued a +policy of blackmail. The rights and wrongs of this quarrel had best be +left to another tribunal. What can hardly be gainsaid is that in a +general way the Rumanians--and not these alone--were implicitly classed +as people of a secondary category, who stood to gain by every measure +for their good which the culture-bearers in Paris might devise. These +inferior nations were all incarnate anachronisms, relics of dark ages +which had survived into an epoch of democracy and liberty, and it now +behooved them to readjust themselves to that. Their institutions must be +modernized, their Old World conceptions abandoned, and their people +taught to imitate the progressive nations of the West. What the +populations thought and felt on the subject was irrelevant, they being +less qualified to judge what was good for them than their +self-constituted guides and guardians. To the angry voices which their +spokesmen uplifted no heed need be paid, and passive resistance could be +overcome by coercion. This modified version of Carlyle's doctrine would +seem to be at the root of the Supreme Council's action toward the lesser +nations generally and in especial toward Rumania. + + +POLAND AND THE SUPREME COUNCIL + +This frequent misdirection by the Supreme Council, however one may +explain it, created an electric state of the political atmosphere among +all nations whose interests were set down or treated as "limited," and +more than one of them, as we saw, contemplated striking out a policy of +passive resistance. As a matter of fact some of them timidly adopted it +more than once, almost always with success and invariably with impunity. +It was thus that the Czechoslovaks--the most docile of them +all--disregarding the injunctions of the Conference, took possession of +contentious territory,[178] and remained in possession of it for several +months, and that the Jugoslavs occupied a part of the district of +Klagenfurt and for a long time paid not the slightest heed to the order +issued by the Supreme Council to evacuate it in favor of the Austrians, +and that the Poles applied the same tactics to eastern Galicia. The +story of this last revolt is characteristic alike of the ignorance and +of the weakness of the Powers which had assumed the functions of +world-administrators. During the hostilities between the Ruthenians of +Galicia and the Poles the Council, taunted by the press with the +numerous wars that were being waged while the world's peace-makers were +chatting about cosmic politics in the twilight of the Paris conclave, +issued an imperative order that an armistice must be concluded at once. +But the Poles appealed to events, which swiftly settled the matter as +they anticipated. Neither the Supreme Council nor the agents it employed +had a real grasp of the east European situation, or of the rôle +deliberately assigned to Poland by its French sponsors--that of +superseding Russia as a bulwark against Germany in the East--or of the +local conditions. Their action, as was natural in these circumstances, +was a sequence of gropings in the dark, of incongruous behests, +exhortations, and prohibitions which discredited them in the eyes of +those on whose trust and docility the success of their mission depended. + +Consciousness of these disadvantages may have had much to do with the +rigid secrecy which the delegates maintained before their desultory +talks ripened into discussions. In the case of Poland, as of Rumania, +the veil was opaque, and was never voluntarily lifted. One day[179] the +members of the Polish delegation, eager to get an inkling of what had +been arranged by the Council of Four about Dantzig, requested M. +Clemenceau to apprize them at least of the upshot if not of the details. +The French Premier, who has a quizzing way and a keen sense of humor, +replied, "On the 26th inst. you will learn the precise terms." But +Poland's representative insisted and pleaded suasively for a hint of +what had been settled. The Premier finally consented and said, "Tell the +General Secretary of the Conference, M. Dutasta, from me, that he may +make the desired communication to you." The delegate accordingly +repaired to M. Dutasta, preferred his request, and received this reply: +"M. Clemenceau may say what he likes. His words do not bind the +Conference. Before I consider myself released from secrecy I must have +the consent of all his colleagues as well. If you would kindly bring me +their express authorization I will communicate the information you +demand." That closed the incident. + +When the Council finally agreed to a solution, the delegates were +convoked to learn its nature and to make a vow of obedience to its +decisions. During the first stage of the Conference the representatives +of the lesser states had sometimes been permitted to put questions and +present objections. But later on even this privilege was withdrawn. The +following description of what went on may serve as an illustration of +the Council's mode of procedure. One day the Polish delegation was +summoned before the Special Commission to discuss an armistice between +the Ruthenians of Galicia and the Polish Republic. The late General +Botha, a shrewd observer, whose valuable experience of political +affairs, having been confined to a country which had not much in common +with eastern Europe, could be of little help to him in solving the +complex problems with which he was confronted, was handicapped from the +outset. Unacquainted with any languages but English and Dutch, the +general had to surmount the additional difficulty of carrying on the +conversation through an interpreter. The form it took was somewhat as +follows: + +"It is the wish of the Supreme Council," the chairman began, "that +Poland should conclude an armistice with the Ruthenians, and under new +conditions, the old ones having lost their force.[180] Are you prepared +to submit your proposals?" "This is a military matter," replied the +Polish delegate, "and should be dealt with by experts. One of our most +competent military authorities will arrive shortly in Paris with full +powers to treat with you on the subject. In the meantime, I agree that +the old conditions are obsolete and must be changed. I can also mention +three provisos without which no armistice is possible: (1) The Poles +must be permitted to get into permanent contact with Rumania. That +involves their occupation of eastern Galicia. The principal grounds for +this demand are that our frontier includes that territory and that the +Rumanians are a law-abiding, pacific people whose interests never clash +with ours and whose main enemy--Bolshevism--is also ours. (2) The Allies +shall purge the Ukrainian army of the Bolshevists, German and other +dangerous elements that now pervade it and render peace impossible. (3) +The Poles must have control of the oil-fields were it only because these +are now being treated as military resources and the Germans are +receiving from Galicia, which contains the only supplies now open to +them, all the oil they require and are giving the Ruthenians munitions +in return, thus perpetuating a continuous state of warfare. You can +realize that we are unwilling to have our oil-fields employed to supply +our enemies with war material against ourselves." General Botha asked, +"Would you be satisfied if, instead of occupying all eastern Galicia at +once in order to get into touch with the Rumanians, the latter were to +advance to meet you?" "Quite. That would satisfy us as a provisional +measure." "But now suppose that the Supreme Council rejects your three +conditions--a probable contingency--- what course do you propose to +take?" "In that case our action would be swayed by events, one of which +is the hostility of the Ruthenians, which would necessitate measures of +self-defense and the use of our army. And that would bring back the +whole issue to the point where it stands to-day."[181] To the +suggestions made by the Polish delegate that the question of the +armistice be referred to Marshal Foch, the answer was returned that the +Marshal's views carried no authority with the Supreme Council. + +General Botha, thereupon adopting an emotional tone, said: "I have one +last appeal to make to you. It behooves Poland to lift the question from +its present petty surroundings and set it in the larger frame of world +issues. What we are aiming at is the overthrow of militarism and the +cessation of bloodshed. As a civilized nation Poland must surely see eye +to eye with the Supreme Council how incumbent it is on the Allies to put +a stop to the misery that warfare has brought down on the world and is +now inflicting on the populations of Poland and eastern Galicia." +"Truly," replied the Polish delegate, "and so thoroughly does she +realize it that it is repugnant to her to be satisfied with a sham +peace, a mere pause during which a bloodier war may be organized. We +want a settlement that really connotes peace, and our intimate knowledge +of the circumstances enables us to distinguish between that and a mere +truce. That is the ground of our insistence." + +"Bear well in mind," insisted the Boer general, "the friendly attitude +of the great Allies toward your country at a critical period of its +history. They restored it. They meant and mean to help it to preserve +its status. It behooves the Poles to show their appreciation of this +friendship in a practical way by deferring to their wishes. Everything +they ordain is for your good. Realize that and carry out their schemes." +"For their help we are and will remain grateful," was the answer, "and +we will go as far toward meeting their wishes as is feasible without +actually imperiling their contribution to the restoration of our state. +But we cannot blink the facts that their views are sometimes mistaken +and their power to realize them generally imaginary. They have made +numerous and costly mistakes already, which they now frankly avow. If +they persisted in their present plan they would be adding another to the +list. And as to their power to help us positively, it is nil. Their +initial omission to send a formidable military force to Poland was an +irreparable blunder, for it left them without an executive in eastern +Europe, where they now can help none of their protégées against their +respective enemies. Poles, Rumanians, Jugoslavs are all left to +themselves. From the Allies they may expect inspiriting telegrams, but +little else. In fact, the utmost they can do is to issue decrees that +may or may not be obeyed. Examples are many. They obtained for us by the +armistice the right of disembarking troops at Dantzig, and we were +unspeakably grateful to them. But they failed to make the Germans +respect that right and we had to resign ourselves to abandon it. They +ordered the Ukrainians to cease their numerous attacks on us and we +appreciated their thoughtfulness. But the order was disobeyed; we were +assailed and had no one to look to for help but ourselves. Still we are +most thankful for all that they could do. But if we concluded the +armistice which you are pleading for, this is what would happen: we +should have the Ruthenians arrayed against us on one side and the +Germans on the other. Now if the Ruthenians have brains, their forces +will attack us at the same time as those of the Germans do. That is +sound tactics. But if their strength is only on paper, they will give +admission to the Bolsheviki. That is the twofold danger which you, in +the name of the Great Powers, are unwillingly endeavoring to conjure up +against us. If you admit its reality you cannot blame our reluctance to +incur it. On the other hand, if you regard the peril as imaginary, you +will draw the obvious consequences and pledge the word of the Great +Powers that they will give us military assistance against it should it +come?" + +If clear thinking and straightforward action has counted for anything, +the matter would have been settled satisfactorily then and there. But +the Great Powers operated less with argument than with more forcible +stimuli. Holding the economic and financial resources of the world in +their hands, they sometimes merely toyed with reasoning and proceeded to +coerce where they were unable to convince or persuade. One day the chief +delegate of one of the states "with limited interests" said to me: "The +unvarnished truth is that we are being coerced. There is no milder term +to signify this procedure. Thus we are told that unless we indorse the +decrees of the Powers, whose interests are unlimited like their +assurance, they will withhold from us the supplies of food, raw +materials, and money without which our national existence is +inconceivable. Necessarily we must give way, at any rate for the time +being." Those words sum up the relations of the lesser to the greater +Powers. + +In the case of Poland the conversation ended thus--General Botha, +addressing the delegate, said: "If you disregard the injunctions of the +Big Four, who cannot always lay before you the grounds of their policy, +you run the risk of being left to your own devices. And you know what +that means. Think well before you decide!" Just then, as it chanced, +only a part of General Haller's soldiers in France had been transported +to their own country,[182] and the Poles were in mortal terror lest the +work of conveying the remainder should be interrupted. This, then, was +an implicit appeal to which they could not turn a wholly deaf ear. +"Well, what is it that the Big Four ask of us?" inquired the delegate. +"The conclusion of an armistice with the Ruthenians, also that +Poland--as one of the newly created states--should allow the free +transit of all the Allied goods through her territory." The delegate +expressed a wish to be told why this measure should be restricted to the +newly made states. The answer was because it was in the nature of an +experiment and should, therefore, not be tried over too large an area. +"There is also another little undertaking which you are requested to +give--namely, that you will accept and act upon the future decisions of +the commission whatever they may be." "Without an inkling of their +character?" "If you have confidence in us you need have no misgivings as +to that." In spite of the deterrents the Polish delegation at that +interview met all these demands with a firm _non possumus_. It upheld +the three conditions of the armistice, rejected the free transit +proposal, and demurred to the demand for a promise to bow to all future +decisions of a fallible commission. "When the Polish dispute with the +Czechoslovaks was submitted to a commission we were not asked in advance +to abide by its decision. Why should a new rule be introduced now?" +argued the Polish delegates. And there the matter rested for a brief +while. + +But the respite lasted only a few days, at the expiry of which an envoy +called on the members of the Polish delegation and reopened the +discussion on new lines. He stated that he spoke on behalf of the Big +Four, of whose views and intentions he was the authorized exponent. And +doubtless he thought he was. But as a matter of fact the French +government had no cognizance of his visit or mission or of the +conversation to which it led. He presented arguments before having +recourse to deterrents. Poland's situation, he said, called for +prudence. Her secular enemy was Germany, with whom it would be +difficult, perhaps impossible, ever to cultivate such terms as would +conciliate her permanently. All the more reason, therefore, to deserve +and win the friendship of her other neighbors, in particular of the +Ruthenians. The Polish plenipotentiary met the argument in the usual +way, where upon the envoy exclaimed: "Well, to make a long story short, +I am here to say that the line of action traced out for your country +emanates from the inflexible will of the Great Powers. To this you must +bend. If it should lead to hostilities on the part of your neighbors you +could, of course, rely on the help of your protectors. Will this not +satisfy you?" "If the protection were real it certainly would. But where +is it? Has it been vouchsafed at any moment since the armistice? Have +the Allied governments an executive in eastern Europe? Are they likely +to order their troops thither to assist any of their protégées? And if +they issued such an order, would it be obeyed? They cannot protect us, +as we know to our cost. That is why we are prepared, in our +interests--also in theirs--to protect ourselves." + +This remarkable conversation was terminated by the announcement of the +penalty of disobedience. "If you persist in refusing the proposals I +have laid before you, I am to tell you that the Great Powers will +withdraw their aid from your country and may even feel it to be their +duty to modify the advantageous status which they had decided to confer +upon it." To which this answer was returned: "For the assistance we are +receiving we are and will ever be truly grateful. But in order to +benefit by it the Polish people must be a living organism and your +proposals tend to reduce us to a state of suspended vitality. They also +place us at the mercy of our numerous enemies, the greatest of whom is +Germany." + +But lucid intelligence, backed by unflagging will, was of no avail +against the threat of famine. The Poles had to give way. M. Paderewski +pledged his word to Messrs. Lloyd George and Wilson that he would have +an armistice concluded with the Ruthenians of eastern Galicia, and the +Duumvirs rightly placed implicit confidence in his word as in his moral +rectitude. They also felt grateful to him for having facilitated their +arduous task by accepting the inevitable. To my knowledge President +Wilson himself addressed a letter to him toward the end of April, +thanking him cordially for the broad-minded way in which he had +co-operated with the Supreme Council in its efforts to reconstitute his +country on a solid basis. Probably no other representative of a state +"with limited interests" received such high mark of approval. + +M. Paderewski left Paris for Warsaw, there to win over the Cabinet. But +in Poland, where the authorities were face to face with the concrete +elements of the problem, the Premier found no support. Neither the +Cabinet nor the Diet nor the head of the state found it possible to +redeem the promise made in their name. Circumstance was stronger than +the human will. M. Paderewski resigned. The Ruthenians delivered a +timely attack on the Poles, who counter-attacked, captured the towns of +Styra, Tarnopol, Stanislau, and occupied the enemy country right up to +Rumania, with which they desired to be in permanent contact. Part of the +Ruthenian army crossed the Czech frontier and was disarmed, the +remainder melted away, and there remained no enemy with whom to conclude +an armistice. + +For the "Big Four" this turn of events was a humiliation. The Ruthenian +army, whose interests they had so taken to heart, had suddenly ceased to +exist, and the future danger which it represented to Poland was seen to +have been largely imaginary. Their judgment was at fault and their power +ineffectual. Against M. Paderewski's impotence they blazed with +indignation. He had given way to their decision and promptly gone to +Warsaw to see it executed, yet the conditions were such that his words +were treated as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. The Polish +Premier, it is true, had tendered his resignation in consequence, but it +was refused--and even had it been accepted, what was the retirement of a +Minister as compared with the indignity put upon the world's lawgivers +who represented power and interests which were alike unlimited? Angry +telegrams were flashed over the wires from Paris to Warsaw and the +Polish Premier was summoned to appear in Paris without delay. He duly +returned, but no new move was made. The die was cast. + +A noteworthy event in latter-day Polish history ensued upon that +military victory over the Ruthenians of eastern Galicia. The +Ukrainian[183] Minister at Vienna was despatched to request the Poles to +sign a unilateral treaty with them after the model of that which was +arranged by the two Anglo-Saxon states in favor of France. The proposal +was that the Ukraine government would renounce all claims to eastern +Galicia and place their troops under the supreme command of the Polish +generalissimus, in return for which the Poles should undertake to +protect the Ukrainians against all their enemies. This draft agreement, +while under consideration in Warsaw, was negatived by the Polish +delegates in Paris, who saw no good reason why their people should bind +themselves to fight Russia one day for the independence of the Ukraine. +Another inchoate state which made an offer of alliance to Poland was +Esthonia, but its advances were declined on similar grounds. It is +manifest, however, that in the new state system alliances are more in +vogue than in the old, although they were to have been banished from it. + +Throughout all the negotiations that turned upon the future status and +the territorial frontiers of Poland the British Premier unswervingly +stood out against the Polish claims, just as the President of the United +States inflexibly countered those of Italy, and both united to negative +those of the Rumanians. Whatever one may think of the merits of these +controversies--and various opinions have been put forward with obvious +sincerity--there can be but one judgment as to the spirit in which they +were conducted. It was a dictatorial spirit, which was intolerant not +merely of opposition, but of enlightened and constructive criticism. To +the representatives of the countries concerned it seemed made up of +bitter prejudice and fierce partizanship, imbibed, it was affirmed, from +those unseen sources whence powerful and, it was thought, noxious +currents flowed continuously toward the Conference. For none of the +affronted delegates credited with a knowledge of the subject either Mr. +Lloyd George, who had never heard of Teschen, or Mr. Wilson, whose +survey of Corsican politics was said to be so defective. And yet to the +activity of men engaged like these in settling affairs of unprecedented +magnitude it would be unfair to apply the ordinary tests of technical +fastidiousness. Their position as trustees of the world's greatest +states, even though they lacked political imagination, knowledge, and +experience, entitled them to the high consideration which they generally +received. But it could not be expected to dazzle to blindness the eyes +of superior men--and the delegates of the lesser states, Venizelos, +Dmowski, and Benes, were undoubtedly superior in most of the attributes +of statesmanship. Yet they were frequently snubbed and each one made to +feel that he was the fifth wheel in the chariot of the Conference. No +sacred fame, says Goethe, requires us to submit to contempt, and they +winced under it. The Big Three lacked the happy way of doing things +which goes with diplomatic tact and engaging manners, and the +consequence was that not only were their arguments mistrusted, but even +their good faith was, as we saw, momentarily subjected to doubt. "Bitter +prejudice, furious antipathy" were freely predicated of the two +Anglo-Saxon statesmen, who were rashly accused of attempting by +circuitous methods to deprive France of her new Slav ally in eastern +Europe. Sweeping recriminations of this character deserve notice only as +indicating the spirit of discord--not to use a stronger term--prevailing +at a Conference which was professedly endeavoring to knit together the +peoples of the planet in an organized society of good-fellowship. + +The delegates of the lesser states, to whom one should not look for +impartial judgments, formulated some queer theories to explain the +Allies' unavowed policy and revealed a frame of mind in no wise +conducive to the attainment of the ostensible ends of the Conference. +One delegate said to me: "I have no longer the faintest doubt that the +firm purpose of the 'Big Two' is the establishment of the hegemony of +the Anglo-Saxon peoples, which in the fullness of time may be +transformed into the hegemony of the United States of North America. +Even France is in some respects their handmaid. Already she is bound to +them indissolubly. She is admittedly unable to hold her own without +their protection. She will become more dependent on them as the years +pass and Germany, having put her house in order, regains her economic +preponderance on the Continent. This decline is due to the operation of +a natural law which diplomacy may retard but cannot hinder. Numbers will +count in the future, and then France's rôle will be reduced. For this +reason it is her interest that her new allies in eastern Europe should +be equipped with all the means of growing and keeping strong instead of +being held in the leading-strings of the overlords. But perhaps this +tutelage is reckoned one of those means?" + +Against Britain in especial the Poles, as we saw, were wroth. They +complained that whenever they advanced a claim they found her first +delegate on their path barring their passage, and if Mr. Wilson chanced +to be with them the British Premier set himself to convert him to his +way of thinking or voting. Thus it was against Mr. Lloyd George that the +eastern Galician problem had had to be fought at every stage. At the +outset the British Premier refused Galicia to Poland categorically and +purposed making it an entirely separate state under the League of +Nations. This design, of which he made no secret, inspired the +insistence with which the armistice with the Ruthenians of Galicia was +pressed. The Polish delegates, one of them a man of incisive speech, +left no stone unturned to thwart that part of the English scheme, and +they finally succeeded. But their opponents contrived to drop a spoonful +of tar in Poland's pot of honey by ordering a plebiscite to take place +in eastern Galicia within ten or fifteen years. Then came the question +of the Galician Constitution. The Poles proposed to confer on the +Ruthenians a restricted measure of home rule with authority to arrange +in their own way educational and religious matters, local +communications, and the means of encouraging industry and agriculture, +besides giving them a proportionate number of seats in the state +legislature in Warsaw. But again the British delegates--experienced in +problems of home rule--expressed their dissatisfaction and insisted on a +parliament or diet for the Ukraine invested with considerable authority +over the affairs of the province. The Poles next announced their +intention to have a governor of eastern Galicia appointed by the +President of the Polish Republic, with a council to advise him. The +British again amended the proposal and asked that the governor should be +responsible to the Galician parliament, but to this the Poles demurred +emphatically, and finally it was settled that only the members of his +council should be responsible to the provincial legislature. The Poles +having suggested that military conscription should be applied to eastern +Galicia on the same terms as to the rest of Poland, the British once +more joined issue with them and demanded that no troops whatever should +be levied in the province. The upshot of this dispute was that after +much wrangling the British Commission gave way to the Poles, but made it +a condition that the troops should not be employed outside the province. +To this the Poles made answer that the massing of so many soldiers on +the Rumanian frontier might reasonably be objected to by the +Rumanians--and so the amoebean word-game went on in the subcommission. +In a word, when dealing with the eastern Galician problem, Mr. Lloyd +George played the part of an ardent champion of complete home rule. + +To sum up, the Conference linked eastern Galicia with Poland, but made +the bonds extremely tenuous, so that they might be severed at any moment +without involving profound changes in either country, and by this +arrangement, which introduced the provisional into the definitive, a +broad field of operations was allotted to political agitation and revolt +was encouraged to rear its crest. + +The province of Upper Silesia was asked for on grounds which the Poles, +at any rate, thought convincing. But Mr. Lloyd George, it was said, +declared them insufficient. The subject was thrashed out one day in June +when the Polish delegates were summoned before their all-powerful +colleagues to be told of certain alterations that had been recently +introduced into the Treaty which concerned them to know. They appeared +before the Council of Five.[184] President Wilson, addressing the two +delegates, spoke approximately as follows: "You claim Silesia on the +ground that its inhabitants are Poles and we have given your demand +careful consideration. But the Germans tell us that the inhabitants, +although Polish by race, wish to remain under German rule as heretofore. +That is a strong objection if founded on fact. At present we are unable +to answer it. In fact, nobody can answer it with finality but the +inhabitants themselves. Therefore we must order a plebiscite among +them." One of the Polish delegates remarked: "If you had put the +question to the inhabitants fifty years ago they would have expressed +their wish to remain with the Germans because at that time they were +profoundly ignorant and their national sentiment was dormant. Now it is +otherwise. For since then many of them have been educated, and the +majority are alive to the issue and will therefore declare for Poland. +And if any section of the territory should still prefer German sway to +Polish and their district in consequence of your plebiscite becomes +German, the process of enlightenment which has already made such headway +will none the less go on, and their children, conscious of their loss, +will anathematize their fathers for having inflicted it. And then there +will be trouble." + +Mr. Wilson retorted: "You are assuming more than is meet. The frontiers +which we are tracing are provisional, not final. That is a consideration +which ought to weigh with you. Besides, the League of Nations will +intervene to improve what is imperfect." "O League of Nations, what +blunders are committed in thy name!" the delegate may have muttered to +himself as he listened to the words meant to comfort him and his +countrymen. + +Much might have been urged against this proffered solace if the +delegates had been in a captious mood. The League of Nations had as yet +no existence. If its will, intelligence, and power could indeed be +reckoned upon with such confidence, how had it come to pass that its +creators, Britain and the United States, deemed them dubious enough to +call for a reinforcement in the shape of a formal alliance for the +protection of France? If this precautionary measure, which shatters the +whole Wilsonian system, was indispensable to one Ally it was at least +equally indispensable to another. And in the case of Poland it was more +urgent than in the case of France, because if Germany were again to +scheme a war of conquest the probability is infinitesimal that she would +invade Belgium or move forward on the western front. The line of least +resistance, which is Poland, would prove incomparably more attractive. +And then? The absence of Allied troops in eastern Europe was one of the +principal causes of the wars, tumults, and chaotic confusion that had +made nervous people tremble for the fate of civilization in the interval +between the conclusion of the armistice and the ratification of the +Treaty. In the future the absence of strongly situated Allies there, if +Germany were to begin a fresh war, would be more fatal still, and the +Polish state might conceivably disappear before military aid from the +Allied governments could reach it. Why should the safety of Poland and +to some extent the security of Europe be made to depend upon what is at +best a gambler's throw? + +But no counter-objections were offered. On the contrary, M. Paderewski +uttered the soft answer that turneth away wrath. He profoundly regretted +the decision of the lawgivers, but, recognizing that it was immutable, +bowed to it in the name of his country. He knew, he said, that the +delegates were animated by very friendly feelings toward his country and +he thanked them for their help. M. Paderewski's colleague, the less +malleable M. Dmowski, is reported to have said: "It is my desire to be +quite sincere with you, gentlemen. Therefore I venture to submit that +while you profess to have settled the matter on principle, you have not +carried out that principle thoroughly. Doubtless by inadvertence. Thus +there are places inhabited by a large majority of Poles which you have +allotted to Germany on the ground that they are inhabited by Germans. +That is inconsistent." At this Mr. Lloyd George jumped up from his place +and asked: "Can you name any such places?" M. Dmowski gave several +names. "Point them out to me on the map," insisted the British Premier. +They were pointed out on the map. Twice President Wilson asked the +delegate to spell the name Bomst for him.[185] Mr. Lloyd George then +said: "Well, those are oversights that can be rectified." "Oh yes," +added Mr. Wilson, "we will see to that."[186] M. Dmowski also questioned +the President about the plebiscite, and under whose auspices the voting +would take place, and was told that there would be an Inter-Allied +administration to superintend the arrangements and insure perfect +freedom of voting. "Through what agency will that administration work? +Is it through the officials?" "Evidently," Mr. Wilson answered. "You are +doubtless aware that they are Germans?" "Yes. But the administration +will possess the right to dismiss those who prove unworthy of their +confidence." "Don't you think," insisted M. Dmowski, "that it would be +fairer to withdraw one half of the German bureaucrats and give their +places to Poles?" To which the President replied: "The administration +will be thoroughly impartial and will adopt all suitable measures to +render the voting free." There the matter ended. + +The two potentates in council, tackling the future status of Lithuania, +settled it in an offhand and singular fashion which at any rate bespoke +their good intentions. The principle of self-determination, or what was +facetiously termed the Balkanization of Europe, was at first applied to +that territory and a semi-independent state created _in petto_ which was +to contain eight million inhabitants and be linked with Poland. Certain +obstacles were soon afterward encountered which had not been foreseen. +One was that all the Lithuanians number only two millions, or say at the +most two millions and one hundred thousand. Out of these even the +Supreme Council could not make eight millions. In Lithuania there are +two and a half million Poles, one and a half million Jews, and the +remainder are White Russians.[187] It was recognized that a community +consisting of such disparate elements, situated where it now is, could +hardly live and strive as an independent state. The Lithuanian Jews, +however, were of a different way of thinking, and they opposed the +Polish claims with a degree of steadfastness and animation which wounded +Poland's national pride and left rankling sores behind. + +It is worth noting that the representatives of Russia, who are supposed +to clutch convulsively at all the states which once formed part of the +Tsardom, displayed a degree of political detachment in respect of +Lithuania which came as a pleasant surprise to many. The Russian +Ambassador in Paris, M. Maklakoff, in a remarkable address before a +learned assembly[188] in the French capital, announced that Russia was +henceforward disinterested in the status of Lithuania. + +That the Poles were minded to deal very liberally with the Lithuanians +became evident during the Conference. General Pilsudski, on his own +initiative, visited Vilna and issued a proclamation to the Lithuanians +announcing that elections would be held, and asking them to make known +their desires, which would be realized by the Warsaw government. One of +the many curious documents of the Conference is an official missive +signed by the General Secretary, M. Dutasta, and addressed to the first +Polish delegate, exhorting him to induce his government to come to terms +with the Lithuanian government, as behooves two neighboring states. +Unluckily for the soundness of that counsel there was no recognized +Lithuanian state or Lithuanian government to come to terms with. + +As has been often enough pointed out, the actions and utterances of the +two world-menders were so infelicitous as to lend color to the +belief--shared by the representatives of a number of humiliated +nations--that greed of new markets was at the bottom of what purported +to be a policy of pure humanitarianism. Some of the delegates were +currently supposed to be the unwitting instruments of elusive +capitalistic influences. Possibly they would have been astonished were +they told this: Great Britain was suspected of working for complete +control of the Baltic and its seaboard in order to oust the Germans from +the markets of that territory and to have potent levers for action in +Poland, Germany, and Russia. The achievement of that end would mean +command of the Baltic, which had theretofore been a German lake.[189] It +would also entail, it was said, the separation of Dantzig from Poland, +and the attraction of the Finns, Esthonians, Letts, and Lithuanians from +Germany's orbit into that of Great Britain. In vain the friends of the +delegates declared that economic interests were not the mainspring of +their deliberate action and that nothing was further from their +intention than to angle for a mandate for those countries. The +conviction was deep-rooted in the minds of many that each of the Great +Powers was playing for its own hand. That there was some apparent +foundation for this assumption cannot, as we saw, be gainsaid. Widely +and unfavorably commented was the circumstance that in the heat of those +discussions at the Conference a man of confidence of the Allies put this +significant and impolitic question to one of the plenipotentiaries: "How +would you take it if England were to receive a mandate for Lithuania?" + +"The Great Powers," observed the most outspoken of the delegates of the +lesser states, "are bandits, but as their operations are on a large +scale they are entitled to another and more courteous name. Their gaze +is fascinated by markets, concessions, monopolies. They are now making +preparations for a great haul. At this politicians cannot affect to be +scandalized. For it has never been otherwise since men came together in +ordered communities. But what is irritating and repellent is the perfume +of altruism and philanthropy which permeates this decomposition. We are +told that already they are purchasing the wharves of Dantzig, making +ready for 'big deals' in Libau, Riga, and Reval, founding a bank in +Klagenfurt and negotiating for oil-wells in Rumania. Although deeply +immersed in the ethics of politics, they have not lost sight of the +worldly goods to be picked up and appropriated on the wearisome journey +toward ideal goals. The atmosphere they have thus renewed is peculiarly +favorable to the growth of cant, and tends to accelerate the process of +moral and social dissolution. And the effects of this mephitic air may +prove more durable than the contribution of its creators to the +political reorganization of Europe. If we compare the high functions +which they might have fulfilled in relation to the vast needs and the +unprecedented tendencies of the new age with those which they have +unwittingly and deliberately performed as sophists of sentimental +morality and destroyers of the wheat together with the tares, we shall +have to deplore one of the rarest opportunities missed beyond retrieve." + +In this criticism there is a kernel of truth. The ethico-social currents +to which the war gave rise had a profoundly moral aspect, and if rightly +canalized might have fertilized many lands and have led to a new and +healthy state-system. One indispensable condition, however, was that the +peoples of the world should themselves be directly interested in the +process, that they should be consulted and listened to, and helped or +propelled into new grooves of thought and action. Instead of that the +delegates contented themselves with giving new names to old institutions +and tendencies which stood condemned, and with teaching lawless +disrespect for every check and restraint except such as they chose to +acknowledge. They were powerful advocates for right and justice, +democracy and publicity, but their definitions of these abstract nouns +made plain-speaking people gasp. Self-interest and material power were +the idols which they set themselves to pull down, but the deities which +they put in their places wore the same familiar looks as the idols, only +they were differently colored. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[127] In February, 1919. + +[128] The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Pichon, undertook to +recognize in principle the independence of Esthonia, provided that +Esthonia would take over her part of the Russian debt. + +[129] In the first version of the Covenant, Article XIX deals with this +subject. In the revised version it is Article XXI. + +[130] Cf. _L'Echo de Paris_, August 19, 1919. + +[131] In July, 1919. + +[132] _L'Echo de Paris_, August 19, 1919. + +[133] The armistice concluded with Hungary was grossly violated by the +Hungarians and had lost its force. The Rumanians, when occupying the +country, demanded a new one, and drafted it. The Supreme Council at +first demurred, and then desisted from dictation. But its attitude +underwent further changes later. + +[134] _The New York Herald_, (Paris ed.), August 20, 1919. + +[135] _Ibid._, May 4, 1919. + +[136] I discussed Belgium's demands in a series of special articles +published in _The London Daily Telegraph_ and _The Philadelphia Public +Ledger_ in the months of January, February, and March, 1919. + +[137] In Frisia and Ghelderland. + +[138] In August, 1919. + +[139] By Article XXI of the Covenant and Article CCCCXXXV of the Treaty. + +[140] I was in possession of a complete copy. + +[141] Cf. _Corriere della Sera_, August 24, 1919. + +[142] In February. + +[143] Cf. Chapter, "Censorship and Secrecy." The writer of these pages +was the journalist. + +[144] _Le Temps_, July 8, 1919. + +[145] At the close of August, 1916. + +[146] I was one of those who at the time maintained that even in the +Allies' interests Rumania ought not to enter the war at that +conjuncture, and anticipation of that invasion was one of the reasons I +adduced. + +[147] Also known by the German name of Theiss. + +[148] Cf. _Le Temps_, July 28, 1919. + +[149] Cf. _The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), September 5, 1919. + +[150] On June 13, 1919. + +[151] On July 11, 1919, some days later, the decision was suspended, +owing to the opinion of General Bliss, who disagreed with Foch. + +[152] On July 17, 1919. + +[153] On July 20th. + +[154] Estimated at 85,000. + +[155] Moritz Kuhn, who altered his name to Bela Kuhn, was a vulgar +criminal. Expelled from school for larceny, he underwent several terms +of imprisonment, and is alleged to have pilfered from a fellow-prisoner. +Even among some thieves there is no honor. + +[156] Italy was represented by Lieutenant-Colonel Romanelli, who resided +in Budapest; Britain, by Col. Sir Thomas Cunningham, who was in Vienna, +as was also Prince Livio Borghese. Later on the Powers delegated +generals to be members of a military mission to the Hungarian capital. + +[157] At Bruck. + +[158] On July 20th. + +[159] _Le Journal des Débats_, August 4, 1919. + +[160] This is a larger proportion than was left to the Germans by the +Treaty of Versailles. + +[161] _Le Temps_, July 8, 1919. + +[162] It was the habitual practice of the Conference to intrust missions +abroad to generals who knew nothing whatever about the countries to +which they were sent. + +[163] _Le Temps_, August 8, 1919. + +[164] Armistice of November 13, 1918, which had become void. + +[165] On June 13, 1919. + +[166] Composed of four members, one each for Britain, the United States, +France, and Italy. + +[167] On July 20th. + +[168] Paris journals ascribed it to Mr. Balfour, although it does not +bear the hall-mark of a diplomatist. + +[169] _Le Journal des Débats_, August 13, 1919. + +[170] Pertinax in _L'Echo de Paris_, August 10, 1919. + +[171] _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), August 10, 1919. + +[172] _Le Journal des Débats_, August 13, 1919. Article by Auguste +Gauvain. + +[173] General Gorton is the one who is said to have despatched the +telegram. + +[174] In the beginning of September, 1919. + +[175] The French government having prudently refused to furnish an +envoy, the British chose Sir George Clark. + +[176] On June 10, 1919. + +[177] The actors in this episode were not all officers and civil +servants. They included some men in responsible positions. + +[178] In Teschen. + +[179] On Friday, April 18, 1919. + +[180] The Rumanians, on the contrary, had been ordered to keep to the +old conditions, although they, too, had lost their force. + +[181] That is exactly what happened in the end. But the delegates would +not believe it until it became an accomplished fact. + +[182] About twenty-five thousand had already left France. + +[183] The Ruthenians, Ukrainians, and Little Russians are racially the +same people, just as those who speak German in northwestern Germany, +Dutch in Holland, and Flemish in Belgium are racially close kindred. The +main distinctions between the members of each branch are political. + +[184] The Messrs. Wilson, George, Clemenceau, Barons Makino and Sonnino. +M. Clemenceau was the nominal chairman, but in reality it was President +Wilson who conducted the proceedings. + +[185] Bomst is a canton in the former Province (Regierungs-besirk) of +Posen, with about sixty thousand inhabitants. + +[186] Minutes of this conversation exist. + +[187] An interesting Russian tribe, dwelling chiefly in the provinces of +Minsk and Grodno (excepting the extreme south), a small part of Suvalki, +Vilna (excepting the northwest corner), the entire provinces of Vitebsk +and Moghileff, the west part of Smolensk, and a few districts of +Tshernigoff. + +[188] La Société des Études Politiques. The discourse in question was +printed and published. + +[189] In Germany and Russia the same view was generally taken of the +motives that actuated the policy of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. The most +elaborate attempt to demonstrate its correctness was made by Cr. Bunke, +in _The Dantziger Neueste Nachrichten_, already mentioned in this book. + + + + +VII + +POLAND'S OUTLOOK IN THE FUTURE + + +Casting a parting glance at Poland as she looked when emerging from the +Conference in the leading-strings of the Great Western Powers, after +having escaped from the Bolshevist dangers that compassed her round, we +behold her about to begin her national existence as a semi-independent +nation, beset with enemies domestic and foreign. For it would be an +abuse of terms to affirm that Poland, or, indeed, any of the lesser +states, is fully independent in the old sense of the word. The special +treaty imposed on her by the Great Two obliges her to accord free +transit to Allied goods and certain privileges to her Jewish and other +minorities; to accept the supervision and intervention of the League of +Nations, which the Poles contend means in their case an +Anglo-Saxon-Jewish association; and, at the outset, at any rate, to +recognize the French generalissimus as the supreme commander of her +troops. + +Poland's frontiers and general status ought, if the scheme of her French +protectors had been executed, to have been accommodated to the peculiar +functions which they destined her to fill in New Europe. France's plan +was to make of Poland a wall between Germany and Russia. The marked +tendency of the other two Conference leaders was to transform it into a +bridge between those two countries. And the outcome of the compromise +between them has been to construct something which, without being +either, combines all the disadvantages of both. It is a bridge for +Germany and a wall for Bolshevist Russia. That is the verdict of a large +number of Poles. Although the Europe of the future is to be a pacific +and ethically constituted community, whose members will have their +disputes and quarrels with one another settled by arbitration courts and +other conciliatory tribunals, war and efficient preparation for it were +none the less uppermost in the minds of the circumspect lawgivers. Hence +the Anglo-Saxon agreement to defend France against unprovoked +aggression. Hence, too, the solicitude displayed by the French to have +the Polish state, which is to be their mainstay in eastern Europe, +equipped with every territorial and other guaranty necessary to qualify +it for the duties. But what the French government contrived to obtain +for itself it failed to secure for its new Slav ally. Nay, oddly enough +it voted with the Anglo-Saxon delegates for keeping all the lesser +states under the tutelage of the League. The Duumvirs, having made the +requisite concessions to France, were resolved in Poland's case to avoid +a further recoil toward the condemned forms of the old system of +equilibrium. Hence the various plebiscites, home-rule charters, +subdivisions of territory, and other evidences of a struggle for reform +along the line of least resistance, as though in the unavoidable future +conflict between timidly propounded theories and politico-social forces +the former had any serious chance of surviving. In politics, as in +coinage, it is the debased metal that ousts the gold from circulation. + +Poland's situation is difficult; some people would call it precarious. +She is surrounded by potential enemies abroad and at home--Germans, +Russians, Ukrainians, Magyars, and Jews. A considerable number of +Teutons are incorporated in her republic to-day, and also a large number +of people of Russian race. Now, Russia and Germany, even if they +renounce all designs of reconquering the territory which they misruled +for such a long span of time, may feel tempted one day to recover their +own kindred, and what they consider to be their own territory. And +irredentism is one of the worst political plagues for all the three +parties who usually suffer from it. If then Germany and Russia were to +combine and attack Poland, the consequences would be serious. That +democratic Germany would risk such a wild adventure in the near future +is inconceivable. But history operates with long periods of time, and it +behooves statesmanship to do likewise. + +A Polish statesman would start from the assumption that, as Russia and +Germany have for the time being ceased to be efficient members of the +European state-system, a good understanding may be come to with both of +them, and a close intimacy cultivated with one. Resourcefulness and +statecraft will be requisite to this consummation. For some Russians are +still uncompromising, and would fain take back a part of what the +revolutionary wave swept out of their country's grasp, but circumstance +bids fair to set free a potent moderating force in the near future. +Already it is incarnated in statesmen of the new type. In this +connection it is instructive to pass in review the secret maneuvers by +which the recognition of Poland's independence was, so to say, extorted +from a Russian Minister, who was reputed at the time to be a Democrat of +the Democrats. As some governments have now become champions of +publicity, I venture to hope that this disclosure will be as helpful to +those whom it concerns as was the systematic suppression of my articles +and telegrams during the space of four years.[190] + +On the outbreak of the Russian revolution Poland's representatives in +Britain, who had been ceaselessly working for the restoration of their +country, approached the British government with a request that the +opportunity should be utilized at once, and the new democratic Cabinet +in Petrograd requested to issue a proclamation recognizing the +independence of Poland. The reasons for this move having been propounded +in detail, orally and in writing, the Foreign Secretary despatched at +once a telegram to the Ambassador in the Russian capital, instructing +him to lay the matter before the Russian Foreign Minister and urge him +to lose no time in establishing the claim of the Polish provisional +government to the sympathies of the world, and the redress of its wrongs +by Russia. Sir George Buchanan called on Professor Milyukoff, then +Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Constitutional +Democratic party, and propounded to him the views of the British +government, which agreed with those of France and Italy, and hoped he +would see his way to profit by the opportunity. The answer was prompt +and definite, and within forty-eight hours of Mr. Balfour's despatch it +reached the Foreign Office. The gist of it was that the Minister of +Foreign Affairs regretted his inability to deal with the problem at that +conjuncture, owing to its great complexity and various bearings, and +also because of his apprehension that the Poles would demand the +incorporation of Russian lands in their reconstituted state. From this +answer many conclusions might fairly be drawn respecting persons, +parties, and principles on the surface of revolutionary Russia. But to +his credit, Mr. Balfour did not accept it as final. He again telegraphed +to the British Ambassador, instructing him to insist upon the +recognition of Poland, as the matter was urgent, and to exhort the +provisional government to give in good time the desired proof of the +democratic faith that is to save Russia. Sir George Buchanan +accomplished the task expeditiously. M. Milyukoff gave way, drafted and +issued the proclamation. Mr. Bonar Law welcomed it in a felicitous +speech in the House of Commons,[191] and the Entente press lauded to the +skies the generous spirit of the new Russian government. The Russian +people and their leaders have traveled far since then, and have rid +themselves of much useless ballast. + +As Slavs the Poles might have been naturally predisposed to live in +amity with the Russians, were it not for the specter of the past that +stands between them. But now that Russia is a democracy in fact as well +as in name, this is much more feasible than it ever was before, and it +is also indispensable to the Russians. In the first place, it is +possible that Poland may have consolidated her forces before her mighty +neighbor has recovered the status corresponding to her numbers and +resources. If the present estimates are correct, and the frontiers, when +definitely traced, leave Poland a republic with some thirty-five million +people, such is her extraordinary birth-rate and the territorial scope +it has for development, that in the not far distant future her +population may exceed that of France. Assuming for the sake of argument +that armies and other national defenses will count in politics as much +as hitherto, Poland's specific weight will then be considerable. She +will have become not indeed a world power (to-day there are only two +such), but a European Great Power whose friendship will be well worth +acquiring. + +In the meanwhile Polish statesmen--the Poles have one in Roman +Dmowski--may strike up a friendly accord with Russia, abandoning +definitely and formally all claims to so-called historic Poland, +disinteresting themselves in all the Baltic problems which concern +Russia so closely, and envisaging the Ukraine from a point of view that +harmonizes with hers. And if the two peoples could thus find a common +basis of friendly association, Poland would have solved at least one of +her Sphinx questions. + +As for the internal development of the nation, it is seemingly hampered +with as many hindrances as the international. It may be likened to the +world after creation, bearing marks of the chaos of the eve. The German +Poles differ considerably from the Austrian, while the Russian Poles are +differentiated from both. The last-named still show traces of recent +servitude in their everyday avocations. They lack the push and the +energy of purpose so necessary nowadays in the struggle for life. The +Austrian Poles in general are reputed to be likewise easy-going, lax, +and more brilliant than solid, while their administrative qualities are +said to be impaired by a leaning toward Oriental methods of transacting +business. The Polish inhabitants of the provinces hitherto under Germany +are people of a different temperament. They have assimilated some of the +best qualities of the Teuton without sacrificing those which are +inherent in men of their own race. A thorough grasp of detail and a gift +for organization characterize their conceptions, and precision, +thoroughness, and conscientiousness are predicated of their methods. If +it be true that the first reform peremptorily called for in the new +republic is an administrative purge, it follows that it can be most +successfully accomplished with the whole-hearted co-operation of the +German Poles, whose superior education fits them to conform their +schemes to the most urgent needs of the nation and the epoch. + +The next measure will be internal colonization. There are considerable +tracts of land in what once was Russian Poland, the population of which, +owing to the havoc of war, is abnormally sparse. Some districts, like +that of the Pripet marshes, which even at the best of times had but five +persons to the kilometer, are practically deserts. For the Russian army, +when retreating before the Germans, drove before it a huge population +computed at eight millions, who inhabited the territory to the east of +Brest-Litovsk and northward between Lida and Minsk. Of these eight +millions many perished on the way. A large percentage of the survivors +never returned.[192] Roughly speaking, a couple of millions (mostly +Poles and Jews) went back to their ruined homes. Now the Poles, who are +one of the most prolific races in Europe, might be encouraged to settle +on these thinly populated lands, which they could convert into +ethnographically Polish districts within a relatively short span of +time. These, however, are merely the ideas of a friendly observer, whose +opinion cannot lay claim to any weight. + +To-day Poland's hope is not, as it has been hitherto, the nobleman, the +professor, and the publicist, but the peasant. The members of this class +are the nucleus of the new nation. It is from their midst that Poland's +future representatives in politics, arts, and science will be drawn. +Already the peasants are having their sons educated in high-schools and +universities, of which the republic has a fair number well supplied with +qualified teachers,[193] and they are resolute adversaries of every +movement tainted with Bolshevism. + +Thus the difficulties and dangers with which new Poland will have to +contend are redoubtable. But she stands a good chance of overcoming them +and reaching the goal where lies her one hope of playing a noteworthy +part in reorganized Europe. The indispensable condition of success is +that the current of opinion and sentiment in the country shall buoy up +reforming statesmen. These must not only understand the requirements of +the new epoch and be alive to the necessity of penetrating public +opinion, but also possess the courage to place high social aims at the +head of their life and career. Statesmen of this temper are rare to-day, +but Poland possesses at least one of them. Her resources warrant the +conviction which her chiefs firmly entertain that she may in a +relatively near future acquire the economic leadership of eastern +Europe, and in population, military strength, and area equal France. + +Parenthetically it may be observed that the enthusiasm of the Poles for +British institutions and for intimate relations with Great Britain has +perceptibly cooled. + +In the limitations to which she is now subjected, her more optimistic +leaders discern the temporarily unavoidable condition of a beneficent +process of working forward toward indefinite amelioration. Their +people's faith, that may one day raise the country above the highest +summit of its past historical development, if it does not reconcile them +to the present, may nerve them to the effort which shall realize that +high consummation in the future. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[190] Most of my articles written during the last half of the war, and +some during the armistice, were held back on grounds which were +presumably patriotic. I share with those who were instrumental in +keeping them from the public the moral portion of the reward which +consists in the assumption that some high purpose was served by the +suppression. + +[191] On April 26, 1917. + +[192] Mainly White Russians. + +[193] The Poles have universities in Cracow, Warsaw, Lvoff (Lemberg), +Liublin, and will shortly open one in Posen. One Polish statesman +entertains a novel and useful idea which will probably be tested in the +University of Posen. Noticing that the greater the progress of technical +knowledge the less is the advance made in the knowledge of men, which is +perhaps the most pressing need of the new age, this statesman proposes +to create a new type of university, where there would be two principal +sections, one for the study of natural sciences and mathematics, and the +other for the study of men, which would include biology, psychology, +ethnography, sociology, philology, history, etc. + + + + +VIII + +ITALY + + +Of all the problems submitted to the Conference, those raised by Italy's +demands may truly be said to have been among the easiest. Whether placed +in the light of the Fourteen Points or of the old system of the rights +of the victors, they would fall into their places almost automatically. +But the peace criteria were identical with neither of those principles. +They consisted of several heterogeneous maxims which were invoked +alternately, Mr. Wilson deciding which was applicable to the particular +case under discussion. And from his judgment there was no appeal. + +It is of the essence of statesmanship to be able to put oneself in the +place--one might almost say in the skin--of the foreign peoples and +governments with which one is called upon to deal. But the feat is +arduous and presupposes a variety of conditions which the President was +unable to fulfil. His conception of Europe, for example, was much too +simple. It has been aptly likened to that of the American economist who +once remarked to the manager of an English railway: "You Britishers are +handicapped by having to build your railway lines through cities and +towns. We go to work diligently: we first construct the road and create +the cities afterward." + +And Mr. Wilson happened just then to be in quest of a fulcrum on which +to rest his idealistic lever. For he had already been driven by +egotistic governments from several of his commanding positions, and +people were gibingly asking whether the new political gospel was being +preached only as a foil for backslidings. Thus he abandoned the freedom +of the seas ... on which he had taken a determined stand before the +world. Although he refused the Rhine frontier to France, he had +reluctantly given way to M. Clemenceau in the matter of the Saar Valley, +assenting to a monstrous arrangement by which the German inhabitants of +that region were to be handed over to the French Republic against their +expressed will, as a set-off for a sum in gold which Germany would +certainly be unable to pay.[194] He doubtless foresaw that he would also +yield on the momentous issue of Shantung and the Chino-Japanese secret +treaty. In a word, some of his more important abstract tenets professed +in words were being brushed aside when it came to acts, and his position +was truly unenviable. Naturally, therefore, he seized the first +favorable occasion to apply them vigorously and unswervingly. This was +supplied by the dispute between Italy and Jugoslavia, two nations which +he held, so to say, in the hollow of his hand. + +The latter state, still in the making, depended for its frontiers +entirely on the fiat of the American President backed by the Premiers of +Britain and France. And of this backing Mr. Wilson was assured. Italy, +although more powerful militarily than Jugoslavia, was likewise +economically dependent upon the good-will of the two English-speaking +communities, who were assured in advance of the support of the French +Republic. If, therefore, she could not be reasoned or cajoled into +obeying the injunctions of the Supreme Council, she could easily be made +malleable by other means. In her case, therefore, Mr. Wilson's ethical +notions might be fearlessly applied. That this was the idea which +underlay the President's policy is the obvious inference from the calm, +unyielding way in which he treated the Italian delegation. In this +connection it should be borne in mind that there is no more important +distinction between all former peace settlements and that of the Paris +Conference than the unavowed but indubitable fact that the latter rests +upon the hegemony of the English-speaking communities of the world, +whereas the former were based upon the balance of power. So immense a +change could not be effected without discreetly throwing out as useless +ballast some of the highly prized dogmas of the accepted political +creeds, even at the cost of impairing the solidarity of the Latin races. +This was effected incidentally. As a matter of fact, the French are not, +properly speaking, a Latin race, nor has their solidarity with Italy or +Spain ever been a moving political force in recent times. Italy's +refusal to fight side by side with her Teuton allies against France and +her backers may conceivably be the result of racial affinities, but it +has hardly ever been ascribed to that sentimental source. Sentiment in +politics is a myth. In any case, M. Clemenceau discerned no pressing +reason for making painful efforts to perpetuate the Latin union, while +solicitude for national interests hindered him from making costly +concessions to it. + +Naturally the cardinal innovation of which this was a corollary was +never invoked as the ground for any of the exceptional measures adopted +by the Conference. And yet it was the motive for several, for although +no allusion was made to the hegemony of Anglo-Saxondom, it was ever +operative in the subconsciousness of the two plenipotentiaries. And in +view of the omnipotence of these two nations, they temporarily +sacrificed consistency to tactics, probably without conscientious +qualms, and certainly without political misgivings. That would seem to +be a partial explanation of the lengths to which the Conference went in +the direction of concessions to the Great Powers' imperialist demands. +France asked to be recognized and treated as the personification of that +civilization for which the Allied peoples had fought. And for many +reasons, which it would be superfluous to discuss here, a large part of +her claim was allowed. This concession was attacked by many as connoting +a departure from principle, but the deviation was more apparent than +real, for under all the wrappings of idealistic catchwords lay the +primeval doctrine of force. The only substantial difference between the +old system and the new was to be found in the wielders of the force and +the ends to which they intended to apply it. Force remains the granite +foundation of the new ordering, as it had been of the old. But its +employment, it was believed, would be different in the future from what +it had been in the past. Concentrated in the hands of the +English-speaking peoples, it would become so formidable a weapon that it +need never be actually wielded. Possession of overwhelmingly superior +strength would suffice to enforce obedience to the decrees of its +possessors, which always will, it is assumed, be inspired by equity. An +actual trial of strength would be obviated, therefore, at least so long +as the relative military and economic conditions of the world states +underwent no sensible change. To this extent the war specter would be +exorcised and trying abuses abolished. + +That those views were expressly formulated and thrown into the clauses +of a secret program is unlikely. But it seems to be a fact that the +general outlines of such a policy were conceived and tacitly adhered to. +These outlines governed the action of the two world-arbiters, not only +in the dictatorial decrees issued in the name of political idealism and +its Fourteen Points, which were so bitterly resented as oppressive by +Italy, Rumania, Jugoslavia, Poland, and Greece, but likewise in those +other concessions which scandalized the political puritans and gladdened +the hearts of the French, the Japanese, the Jugoslavs, and the Jews. The +dictatorial decrees were inspired by the delegates' fundamental aims, +the concessions by their tactical needs--the former, therefore, were +meant to be permanent, the latter transient. + +All other explanations of the Italian crisis, however well they may fit +certain of its phases, are, when applied to the pith of the matter, +beside the mark. Even if it were true, as the dramatist, Sem Benelli, +wrote, that "President Wilson evidently considers our people as on the +plane of an African colony, dominated by the will of a few ambitious +men," that would not account for the tenacious determination with which +the President held to his slighted theory. + +Italy's position in Europe was in many respects peculiar. Men still +living remember the time when her name was scarcely more than a +geographical expression which gradually, during the last sixty years, +came to connote a hard-working, sober, patriotic nation. Only little by +little did she recover her finest provinces and her capital, and even +then her unity was not fully achieved. Austria still held many of her +sons, not only in the Trentino, but also on the other shore of the +Adriatic. But for thirty years her desire to recover these lost children +was paralyzed by international conditions. In her own interests, as well +as in those of peace, she had become the third member of an alliance +which constrained her to suppress her patriotic feelings and allowed her +to bend all her energies to the prevention of a European conflict. + +When hostilities broke out, the attitude of the Italian government was a +matter of extreme moment to France and the Entente. Much, perhaps the +fate of Europe, depended on whether they would remain neutral or throw +in their lot with the Teutons. They chose the former alternative and +literally saved the situation. The question of motive is wholly +irrelevant. Later on they were urged to move a step farther and take an +active part against their former allies. But a powerful body of opinion +and sentiment in the country was opposed to military co-operation, on +the ground that the sum total of the results to be obtained by +quiescence would exceed the guerdon of victory won by the side of the +Entente. The correctness of this estimate depended upon many +incalculable factors, among which was the duration of the struggle. The +consensus of opinion was that it would be brief, in which case the terms +dangled before Italy's eyes by the Entente would, it was believed by the +Cabinet, greatly transcend those which the Central Powers were prepared +to offer. Anyhow they were accepted and the compact was negotiated, +signed, and ratified by men whose idealism marred their practical sense, +and whose policy of sacred egotism, resolute in words and feeble in +action, merely impaired the good name of the government without bringing +any corresponding compensation to the country. The world struggle lasted +much longer than the statesmen had dared to anticipate; Italy's +obligations were greatly augmented by Russia's defection, she had to +bear the brunt of all, instead of a part of Austria's forces, whereby +the sacrifices demanded of her became proportionately heavier. +Altogether it is fair to say that the difficulties to be overcome and +the hardships to be endured before the Italian people reached their goal +were and still are but imperfectly realized by their allies. For the +obstacles were gigantic, the effort heroic; alone the results shrank to +disappointing dimensions. + +The war over, Italian statesmen confidently believed that those +supererogatory exertions would be appropriately recognized by the +Allies. And this expectation quickly crystallized into territorial +demands. The press which voiced them ruffled the temper of +Anglo-Saxondom by clamoring for more than it was ever likely to concede, +and buoyed up their own nation with illusory hopes, the non-fulfilment +of which was certain to produce national discontent. Curiously enough, +both the government and the press laid the main stress upon territorial +expansion, leaving economic advantages almost wholly out of account. + +It was at this conjuncture that Mr. Wilson made his appearance and threw +all the pieces on the political chessboard into weird confusion. "You," +he virtually said, "have been fighting for the dismemberment of your +secular enemy, Austria. Well, she is now dismembered and you have full +satisfaction. Your frontiers shall be extended at her expense, but not +at the expense of the new states which have arisen on her ruins. On the +contrary, their rights will circumscribe your claims and limit your +territorial aggrandizement. Not only can you not have all the additional +territory you covet, but I must refuse to allot even what has been +guaranteed to you by your secret treaty. I refuse to recognize that +because the United States government was no party to it, was, in fact, +wholly unaware of it until recently. New circumstances have transformed +it into a mere scrap of paper." + +This language was not understood by the Italian people. For them the +sacredness of treaties was a dogma not to be questioned, and least of +all by the champion of right, justice, and good faith. They had welcomed +the new order preached by the American statesman, but were unable to +reconcile it with the tearing up of existing conventions, the +repudiation of legal rights, the dissolution of alliances. In particular +their treaty with France, Britain, and Russia had contributed +materially to the victory over the common enemy, had in fact saved the +Allies. "It was Italy's intervention," said the chief of the Austrian +General Staff, Conrad von Hoetzendorff, "that brought about the +disaster. Without that the Central Empires would infallibly have won the +war."[195] And there is no reason to doubt his assertion. In truth Italy +had done all she had promised to the Allies, and more. She had +contributed materially to save France--wholly gratuitously. It was also +her neutrality, which she could have bartered, but did not,[196] that +turned the scale at Bucharest against the military intervention of +Rumania on the side of the Teutons.[197] And without the neutrality of +both these countries at the outset of hostilities the course of the +struggle and of European history would have been widely different from +what they have been. And now that the Allies had achieved their aim they +were to refuse to perform their part of the compact in the name, too, of +a moral principle from the operation of which three great Powers were +dispensed. That was the light in which the matter appeared to the +unsophisticated mind of the average Italian, and not to him alone. +Others accustomed to abstract reasoning asked whether the best +preparation for the future régime of right and justice, and all that +these imply, is to transgress existing rights and violate ordinary +justice, and what difference there is between the demoralizing influence +of this procedure and that of professional Bolshevists. There was but +one adequate answer to this objection, and it consisted in the +whole-hearted and rigid application of the Wilsonian tenets to all +nations without exception. But even the author of these tenets did not +venture to make it. + +The essence of the territorial question lay in the disposal of the +eastern shore of the Adriatic.[198] The Jugoslavs claimed all Istria and +Dalmatia, and based their claim partly on the principle of nationalities +and partly on the vital necessity of having outlets on that sea, and in +particular Fiume, the most important of them all, which they described +as essentially Croatian and indispensable as a port. The Italian +delegates, joining issue with the Jugoslavs, and claiming a section of +the seaboard and Fiume, argued that the greatest part of the East +Adriatic shore would still remain Croatian, together with all the ports +of the Croatian coast and others in southern Dalmatia--in a word, twelve +ports, including Spalato and Ragusa, and a thousand kilometers of +seaboard. The Jugoslavs met this assertion with the objection that the +outlets in question were inaccessible, all except Fiume and Metkovitch. +As for Fiume,[199] the Italian delegates contended that although not +promised to Italy by the Treaty of London, it was historically hers, +because, having been for centuries an autonomous entity and having as +such religiously preserved its Italian character, its inhabitants had +exercised their rights to manifest by plebiscite their desire to be +united with the mother country. They further denied that it was +indispensable to the Jugoslavs because these would receive a dozen other +ports and also because the traffic between Croatia and Fiume was +represented by only 7 per cent. of the whole, and even that of Croatia, +Slavonia, and Dalmatia combined by only 13 per cent. Further, Italy +would undertake to give all requisite export facilities in Fiume to the +Jugoslavs. + +The latter traversed many of these statements, and in particular that +which described Fiume as a separate autonomous entity and as an +essentially Italian city. Archives were ransacked by both parties, +ancient documents produced, analyzed, condemned as forgeries or appealed +to as authentic proofs, chance phrases were culled from various writers +of bygone days and offered as evidence in support of each contention. +Thus the contest grew heated. It was further inflamed by the attitude of +Italy's allies, who appeared to her as either covertly unfriendly or at +best lukewarm. + +M. Clemenceau, who maintained during the peace negotiations the epithet +"Tiger" which he had earned long before, was alleged to have said in the +course of one of those conversations which were misnamed private, "For +Italy to demand Fiume is to ask for the moon."[200] Officially he took +the side of Mr. Wilson, as did also the British Premier, and Italy's two +allies signified but a cold assent to those other claims which were +covered by their own treaty. But they made no secret of their desire to +see that instrument wholly set aside. Fiume they would not bestow on +their ally, at least not unless she was prepared to offer an equivalent +to the Jugoslavs and to satisfy the President of the United States. + +This advocacy of the claims of the Jugoslavs was bitterly resented by +the Italians. For centuries the two peoples had been rivals or enemies, +and during the war the Jugoslavs fought with fury against the Italians. +For Italy the arch-enemy had ever been Austria and Austria was largely +Slav. "Austria," they say, "was the official name given to the cruel +enemy against whom we fought, but it was generally the Croatians and +other Slavs whom our gallant soldiers found facing them, and it was they +who were guilty of the misdeeds from which our armies suffered." +Official documents prove this.[201] Orders of the day issued by the +Austrian Command eulogize "the Serbo-Croatian battalions who vied with +the Austro-German and Hungarian soldiers in resisting the pitfalls dug +by the enemy to cause them to swerve from their fidelity and take the +road to treason.[202] In the last battle which ended the existence of +the Austro-Hungarian monarchy a large contingent of excellent Croatian +troops fought resolutely against the Italian armies." + +In Italy an impressive story is told which shows how this transformation +of the enemy of yesterday into the ally of to-day sometimes worked out. +The son of an Italian citizen who was fighting as an aviator was killed +toward the end of the war, in a duel fought in the air, by an Austrian +combatant. Soon after the armistice was signed the sorrowing father +repaired to the place where his son had fallen. He there found an +ex-Austrian officer, the lucky victor and slayer of his son, wearing in +his buttonhole the Jugoslav _cocarde_, who, advancing toward him with +extended hand, uttered the greeting, "You and I are now allies."[203] +The historian may smile at the naïveté of this anecdote, but the +statesman will acknowledge that it characterized the relations between +the inhabitants of the new state and the Italians. One can divine the +feelings of these when they were exhorted to treat their ex-enemies as +friends and allies. + +"Is it surprising, then," the Italians asked, "that we cannot suddenly +conceive an ardent affection for the ruthless 'Austrians' of whose +cruelties we were bitterly complaining a few months back? Is it strange +that we cannot find it in our hearts to cut off a slice of Italian +territory and make it over to them as one of the fruits of--our victory +over them? If Italy had not first adopted neutrality and then joined the +Allies in the war there would be no Jugoslavia to-day. Are we now to pay +for our altruism by sacrificing Italian soil and Italian souls to the +secular enemies of our race?" In a word, the armistice transformed +Italy's enemy into a friend and ally for whose sake she was summoned to +abandon some of the fruits of a hard-earned victory and a part of her +secular aspirations. What, asked the Italian delegates, would France +answer if she were told that the Prussians whom her matchless armies +defeated must henceforth be looked upon as friends and endowed with some +new colonies which would otherwise be hers? The Italian dramatist Sem +Benelli put the matter tersely: "The collapse of Austria transforms +itself therefore into a play of words, so much so that our people, who +are much more precise because they languished under the Austrian yoke +and the Austrian scourge, never call the Austrians by this name; they +call them always Croatians, knowing well that the Croatians and the +Slavs who constituted Austria were our fiercest taskmasters and most +cruel executioners. It is naïve to think that the ineradicable +characteristics and tendencies of peoples can be modified by a change of +name and a new flag." + +But there was another way of looking at the matter, and the Allies, +together with the Jugoslavs, made the most of it. The Slav character of +the disputed territory was emphasized, the principle of nationality +invoked, and the danger of incorporating an unfriendly foreign element +which could not be assimilated was solemnly pointed out. But where +sentiment actuates, reason is generally impotent. The policy of the +Italian government, like that of all other governments, was frankly +nationalistic; whether it was also statesman-like may well be +questioned--indeed the question has already been answered by some of +Italy's principal press organs in the negative.[204] They accuse the +Cabinet of having deliberately let loose popular passions which it +afterward vainly sought to allay, and the facts which they allege in +support of the charge have never been denied. + +It was certainly to Italy's best interests to strike up a friendly +agreement with the new state, if that were feasible, and some of the men +in whose hands her destinies rested, feeling their responsibility, made +a laudable attempt to come to an understanding. Signor Orlando, whose +sagacity is equal to his resourcefulness, was one. In London he had +talked the subject over with the Croatian leader, M. Trumbic, and +favored the movement toward reconciliation[205] which Baron Sonnino, his +colleague, as resolutely discouraged. A congress was accordingly held in +Rome[206] and an accord projected. The reciprocal relations became +amicable. The Jugoslav committee in the Italian capital congratulated +Signor Orlando on the victory of the Piave. But owing to various causes, +especially to Baron Sonnino's opposition, these inchoate sentiments of +neighborliness quickly lost their warmth and finally vanished. No trace +of them remained at the Paris Conference, where the delegates of the two +states did not converse together nor even salute one another. + +President Wilson's visit to Rome, where, to use an Italian expression, +he was welcomed by Delirium, seemed to brighten Italy's outlook on the +future. Much was afterward made by the President's enemies of the +subsequent change toward him in the sentiments of the Italian people. +This is commonly ascribed to his failure to fulfil the expectations +which his words or attitude aroused or warranted. Nothing could well be +more misleading. Mr. Wilson's position on the subject of Italy's claims +never changed, nor did he say or do aught that would justify a doubt as +to what it was. In Rome he spoke to the Ministers in exactly the same +terms as in Paris at the Conference. He apprized them in January of what +he proposed to do in April and he even contemplated issuing a +declaration of his Italian policy at once. But he was earnestly +requested by the Ministers to keep his counsel to himself and to make no +public allusion to it during his sojourn in Italy.[207] It was not his +fault, therefore, if the Italian people cherished illusory hopes. In +Paris Signer Orlando had an important encounter with Mr. Wilson,[208] +who told him plainly that the allotment of the northern frontiers traced +for Italy by the London Treaty would be confirmed, while that of the +territory on the eastern Adriatic would be quashed. The division of the +spoils of Austria there must, he added, be made congruously with a map +which he handed to the Italian Premier. It was proved on examination to +be identical with one already published by the _New Europe_.[209] Signor +Orlando glanced at the map and in courteous phraseology unfolded the +reasons why he could not entertain the settlement proposed. He added +that no Italian parliament would ratify it. Thereupon the President +turned the discussion to politico-ethical lines, pointed out the harm +which the annexation of an alien and unfriendly element could inflict +upon Italy, the great advantages which cordial relations with her Slav +neighbor would confer on her, and the ease with which she might gain the +markets of the new state. A young and small nation like the Jugoslavs +would be grateful for an act of generosity and would repay it by lasting +friendship--a return worth far more than the contentious territories. +"Ah, you don't know the Jugoslavs, Mr. President," exclaimed Signor +Orlando. "If Italy were to cede to them Dalmatia, Fiume, and eastern +Istria they would forthwith lay claim to Trieste and Pola and, after +Trieste and Pola, to Friuli and Gorizia." + +After some further discussion Mr. Wilson said: "Well, I am unable to +reconcile with my principles the recognition of secret treaties, and as +the two are incompatible I uphold the principles." "I, too," rejoined +the Italian Premier, "condemn secret treaties in the future when the new +principles will have begun to regulate international politics. As for +those compacts which were concluded during the war they were all secret, +not excluding those to which the United States was a party." The +President demurred to this reservation. He conceived and put his case +briefly as follows: Italy, like her allies, had had it in her power to +accept the Fourteen Points, reject them, or make reserves. Britain and +France had taken exception to those clauses which they were determined +to reject, whereas Italy signified her adhesion to them all. Therefore +she was bound by the principles underlying them and had forfeited the +right to invoke a secret treaty. The settlement of the issues turning +upon Dalmatia, Istria, Fiume, and the islands must consequently be +taken in hand without reference to the clauses of that instrument. +Examined on their merits and in the light of the new arrangements, +Italy's claims could not be upheld. It would be unfair to the Jugoslavs +who inhabit the whole country to cut them off from their own seaboard. +Nor would such a measure be helpful to Italy herself, whose interest it +was to form a homogeneous whole, consolidate her dominions, and prepare +for the coming economic struggle for national well-being. The principle +of nationality must, therefore, be allowed full play. + +As for Fiume, even if the city were, as alleged, an independent entity +and desirous of being incorporated in Italy, one would still have to set +against these facts Jugoslavia's imperative need of an outlet to the +sea. Here the principle of economic necessity outweighs those of +nationality and free determination. A country must live, and therefore +be endowed with the wherewithal to support life. On these grounds, +judgment should be entered for the Jugoslavs. + +The Italian Premier's answer was equally clear, but he could not +unburden his mind of it all. His government had, it was true, adhered to +the Fourteen Points without reservation. But the assumptions on which it +gave this undertaking were that it would not be used to upset past +compacts, but would be reserved for future settlements; that even had it +been otherwise the maxims in question should be deemed relevant in +Italy's case only if applied impartially to all states, and that the +entire work of reorganization should rest on this ethical foundation. A +régime of exceptions, with privileged and unprivileged nations, would +obviously render the scheme futile and inacceptable. Yet this was the +system that was actually being introduced. If secret treaties were to be +abrogated, then let the convention between Japan and China be also put +out of court and the dispute between them adjudicated upon its merits. +If the Fourteen Points are binding, let the freedom of the seas be +proclaimed. If equal rights are to be conferred upon all states, let the +Monroe Doctrine be repealed. If disarmament is to become a reality, let +Britain and America cease to build warships. Suppose for a moment that +to-morrow Brazil or Chile were to complain of the conduct of the United +States, the League of Nations, in whose name Mr. Wilson speaks, would be +hindered by the Monroe Doctrine from intervening, whereas Britain and +the United States in analogous conditions may intermeddle in the affairs +of any of the lesser states. When Ireland or Egypt or India uplifts its +voice against Britain, it is but a voice in the desert which awakens no +echo. If Fiume were inhabited by American citizens who, with a like +claim to be considered a separate entity, asked to be allowed to live +under the Stars and Stripes, what would President Wilson's attitude be +then? Would he turn a deaf ear to their prayer? Surely not. Why, in the +case of Italy, does he not do as he would be done by? What it all comes +to is that the new ordering under the flag of equality is to consist of +superior and inferior nations, of which the former, who speak English, +are to possess unlimited power over the latter, to decide what is good +for them and what is bad, what is licit and what is forbidden. And +against their fiat there is to be no appeal. In a word, it is to be the +hegemony of the Anglo-Saxon race. + +It is worth noting that Signor Orlando's arguments were all derived from +the merits of the case, not from the terms or the force of the London +Treaty. Fiume, he said, had besought Italy to incorporate it, and had +made this request before the armistice, at a moment when it was risky to +proclaim attachments to the kingdom.[210] The inhabitants had invoked +Mr. Wilson's own words: "National aspirations must be respected.... +Self-determination is not a mere phrase." "Peoples and provinces are not +to be bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were +mere chattels and pawns in a game. Every territorial settlement involved +in this war must be made in the interest and for the benefit of the +populations concerned, and not as a part of any adjustment for +compromise of claims among rival states." And in his address at Mount +Vernon the President had advocated a doctrine which is peculiarly +applicable to Fiume--_i.e._: + +"The settlement of every question, whether of territory, of sovereignty, +of economic arrangement, or of political relationship, upon the basis of +the free acceptance of that settlement by the people immediately +concerned, and not upon the basis of material interest or advantage of +any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement, for +the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery."[211] These maxims +laid down by Mr. Wilson implicitly allot Fiume to Italy. + +Finally as to the objection that Italy's claims would entail the +incorporation of a number of Slavs, the answer was that the percentage +was negligible as compared with the number of foreign elements annexed +by other states. The Poles, it was estimated, would have some 30 per +cent. of aliens, the Czechs not less, Rumania 17 per cent., Jugoslavia +11 per cent., France 4 per cent., and Italy only 3 per cent. + +In February the Jugoslavs made a strategic move, which many admired as +clever, and others blamed as unwise. They proposed that all differences +between their country and Italy should be submitted to Mr. Wilson's +arbitration. Considering that the President's mind was made up on the +subject from the beginning, and that he had decided against Italy, it +was natural that the delegation in whose favor his decision was known to +incline should be eager to get it accepted by their rivals. As neither +side was ignorant of what the result of the arbitration would be, only +one of the two could be expected to close with the offer, and the most +it could hope by doing this was to embarrass the other. The Italian +answer was ingenious. Their dispute, they said, was not with Serbia, who +alone was represented at the Conference; it concerned Croatia, who had +no official standing there, and whose frontiers were not yet determined, +but would in due time be traced by the Conference, of which Italy was a +member. The decision would be arrived at after an exhaustive study, and +its probable consequences to Europe's peace would be duly considered. As +extreme circumspection was imperative before formulating a verdict, five +plenipotentiaries would seem better qualified than any one of them, even +though he were the wisest of the group. To remove the question from the +competency of the Conference, which was expressly convoked to deal with +such issues, and submit it to an individual, would be felt as a slight +on the Supreme Council. And so the matter dropped. + +Signor Orlando knew that if he had adopted the suggestion and made Mr. +Wilson arbiter, Italy's hopes would have been promptly extinguished in +the name of the Fourteen Points, and her example held up for all the +lesser states to imitate. The President was, however, convinced that the +Italian people would have ratified the arrangement with alacrity. It is +worth recording that he was so sure of his own hold on the Italian +masses that, when urging Signor Orlando to relinquish his demand for +Fiume and the Dalmatian coast, he volunteered to provide him with a +message written by himself to serve as the Premier's justification. +Signor Orlando was to read out this document in Parliament in order to +make it clear to the nation that the renunciation had been demanded by +America, that it would most efficaciously promote Italy's best +interests, and should for that reason be ratified with alacrity. Signor +Orlando, however, declined the certificate and things took their course. + +In Paris the Italian delegation made little headway. Every one admired, +esteemed, and felt drawn toward the first delegate, who, left to +himself, would probably have secured for his country advantageous +conditions, even though he might be unable to add Fiume to those secured +by the secret treaty. But he was not left to himself. He had to reckon +with his Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was as mute as an oyster and +almost as unsociable. Baron Sonnino had his own policy, which was +immutable, almost unutterable. At the Conference he seemed unwilling to +propound, much less to discuss it, even with those foreign colleagues on +whose co-operation or approval its realization depended. He actually +shunned delegates who would fain have talked over their common interests +in a friendly, informal way, and whose business it was to strike up an +agreement. In fact, results which could be secured only by persuading +indifferent or hostile people and capturing their good-will he expected +to attain by holding aloof from all and leading the life of a hermit, +one might almost say of a misanthrope. One can imagine the feelings, if +one may not reproduce the utterances, of English-speaking officials, +whose legitimate desire for a free exchange of views with Italy's +official spokesman was thwarted by the idiosyncrasies of her own +Minister of Foreign Affairs. In Allied circles Baron Sonnino was +distinctly unpopular, and his unpopularity produced a marked effect on +the cause he had at heart. He was wholly destitute of friends. He had, +it is true, only two enemies, but they were himself and the foreign +element who had to work with him. Italy's cause was therefore +inadequately served. + +Several months' trial showed the unwisdom of Baron Sonnino's attitude, +which tended to defeat his own policy. Italy was paid back by her allies +in her own coin, aloofness for aloofness. After she had declined the +Jugoslavs' ingenious proposal to refer their dispute to Mr. Wilson the +three delegates[212] agreed among themselves to postpone her special +problems until peace was signed with Germany, but Signor Orlando, having +got wind of the matter, moved every lever to have them put into the +forefront of the agenda. He went so far as to say that he would not sign +the Treaty unless his country's claims were first settled, because that +document would make the League of Nations--and therefore Italy as a +member of the League--the guarantor of other nations' territories, +whereas she herself had no defined territories for others to guarantee. +She would not undertake to defend the integrity of states which she had +helped to create while her own frontiers were indefinite. But in the art +of procrastination the Triumvirate was unsurpassed, and, as the time +drew near for presenting the Treaty to Germany, neither the Adriatic, +the colonial, the financial, nor the economic problems on which Italy's +future depended were settled or even broached. In the meanwhile the +plenipotentiaries in secret council, of whom four or five were wont to +deliberate and two to take decisions, had disagreed on the subject of +Fiume. Mr. Wilson was inexorable in his refusal to hand the city over to +Italy, and the various compromises devised by ingenious weavers of +conflicting interests failed to rally the Italian delegates, +whose inspirer was the taciturn Baron Sonnino. The +Italian press, by insisting on Fiume as a _sine qua non_ of +Italy's approval of the Peace Treaty and by announcing +that it would undoubtedly be accorded, had made it +practically impossible for the delegates to recede. The +circumstance that the press was inspired by the government is immaterial +to the issue. President Wilson, who had been frequently told that a word +from him to the peoples of Europe would fire their enthusiasm and carry +them whithersoever he wished, even against their own governments, now +purposed wielding this unique power against Italy's plenipotentiaries. +As we saw, he would have done this during his sojourn in Rome, but was +dissuaded by Baron Sonnino. His intention now was to compel the +delegates to go home and ascertain whether their inflexible attitude +corresponded with that of their people and to draw the people into the +camp of the "idealists." He virtually admitted this during his +conversation with Signor Orlando. What he seems to have overlooked, +however, is that there are time limits to every policy, and that only +the same causes can be set in motion to produce the same results. In +Italy the President's name had a very different sound in April from the +clarion-like tones it gave forth in January, and the secret of his +popularity even then was the prevalent faith in his firm determination +to bring about a peace of justice, irrespective of all separate +interests, not merely a peace with indulgence for the strong and rigor +for the weak. The time when Mr. Wilson might have summoned the peoples +of Europe to follow him had gone by irrevocably. It is worth noting that +the American statesman's views about certain of Italy's claims, although +originally laid down with the usual emphasis as immutable, underwent +considerable modifications which did not tend to reinforce his +authority. Thus at the outset he had proclaimed the necessity of +dividing Istria between the two claimant nations, but, on further +reflection, he gave way in Italy's favor, thus enabling Signor Orlando +to make the point that even the President's solutions needed +corrections. It is also a fact that when the Italian Premier insisted on +having the Adriatic problems definitely settled before the presentation +of the Treaty to the Germans[213] his colleagues of France and Britain +assured him that this reasonable request would be complied with. The +circumstance that this promise was disregarded did not tend to smooth +matters in the Council of Five. + +The decisive duel between Signor Orlando and Mr. Wilson was fought out +in April, and the overt acts which subsequently marked their tense +relations were but the practical consequences of that. On the historic +day each one set forth his program with a _ne varietur_ attached, and +the President of the United States gave utterance to an estimate of +Italian public opinion which astonished and pained the Italian Premier, +who, having contributed to form it, deemed himself a more competent +judge of its trend than his distinguished interlocutor. But Mr. Wilson +not only refused to alter his judgment, but announced his intention to +act upon it and issue an appeal to the Italian nation. The gist of this +document was known to M. Clemenceau and Mr. Lloyd George. It has been +alleged, and seems highly probable, that the British Premier was +throughout most anxious to bring about a workable compromise. Proposals +were therefore put forward respecting Fiume and Dalmatia, some of which +were not inacceptable to the Italians, who lodged counter-proposals +about the others. On the fate of these counter-proposals everything +depended. + +On April 23d I was at the Hôtel Edouard VII, the headquarters of the +Italian delegation, discussing the outlook and expecting to learn that +some agreement had been reached. In an adjoining room the members of the +delegation were sitting in conference on the burning subject, painfully +aware that time pressed, that the Damocles's sword of Mr. Wilson's +declaration hung by a thread over their heads, and that a spirit of +large compromise was indispensable. At three o'clock Mr. Lloyd George's +secretary brought the reply of the Council of Three to Italy's maximum +of concessions. Only one point remained in dispute, I was told, but that +point hinged upon Fiume, and, by a strange chance, it was not mentioned +in the reply which the secretary had just handed in. The Italian +delegation at once telephoned to the British Premier asking him to +receive the Marquis Imperiali, who, calling shortly afterward, learned +that Fiume was to be a free city and exempt from control. It was when +the marquis had just returned that I took leave of my hosts and received +the assurance that I should be informed of the result. About half an +hour later, on receipt of an urgent message, I hastened back to the +Italian headquarters, where consternation prevailed, and I learned that +hardly had the delegates begun to discuss the contentious clause when a +copy of the _Temps_ was brought in, containing Mr. Wilson's appeal to +the Italian people "over the heads of the Italian government." + +The publication fell like a powerful explosive. The public were at a +loss to fit in Mr. Wilson's unprecedented action with that of his +British and French colleagues. For if in the morning he sent his appeal +to the newspapers, it was asked, why did he allow his Italian colleagues +to go on examining a proposal on which he manifestly assumed that they +were no longer competent to treat? Moreover a rational desire to settle +Italy's Adriatic frontiers, it was observed, ought not to have lessened +his concern about the larger issues which his unwonted procedure was +bound to raise. And one of these was respect for authority, the loss of +which was the taproot of Bolshevism. Signor Orlando replied to the +appeal in a trenchant letter which was at bottom a reasoned protest +against the assumed infallibility of any individual and, in particular, +of one who had already committed several radical errors of judgment. +What the Italian Premier failed to note was the consciousness of +overwhelming power and the will to use it which imparted its specific +mark to the whole proceeding. Had he realized this element, his +subsequent tactics would perhaps have run on different lines. + +The suddenness with which the President carried out his purpose was +afterward explained as the outcome of misinformation. In various Italian +cities, it had been reported to him, posters were appearing on the walls +announcing that Fiume had been annexed. Moreover, it was added, there +were excellent grounds for believing that at Rome the Italian Cabinet +was about to issue a decree incorporating it officially, whereby things +would become more tangled than ever. Some French journals gave credit to +these allegations, and it may well be that Mr. Wilson, believing them, +too, and wanting to be beforehand, took immediate action. This, however, +is at most an explanation; it hardly justifies the precipitancy with +which the Italian plenipotentiaries were held up to the world as men who +were misrepresenting their people. As a matter of fact careful inquiry +showed that all those reports which are said to have alarmed the +President were groundless. Mr. Wilson's sources of information +respecting the countries on which he was sitting in judgment were often +as little to be depended on as presumably were the decisions of the +special commissions which he and Mr. Lloyd George so unceremoniously +brushed aside. + +On the following morning Signori Orlando and Sonnino called on the +British Premier in response to his urgent invitation. To their surprise +they found Mr. Wilson and M. Clemenceau also awaiting them, ready, as it +might seem, to begin the discussion anew, curious in any case to observe +the effect of the declaration. But the Italian Premier burned his boats +without delay or hesitation. "You have challenged the authority of the +Italian government," he said, "and appealed to the Italian people. Be it +so. It is now become my duty to seek out the representatives of my +people in Parliament and to call upon them to decide between Mr. Wilson +and me." The President returned the only answer possible, "Undoubtedly +that is your duty." "I shall inform Parliament then that we have allies +incapable of agreeing among themselves on matters that concern us +vitally." Disquieted by the militant tone of the Minister, Mr. Lloyd +George uttered a suasive appeal for moderation, and expressed the hope +that in his speech to the Italian Chamber, Signor Orlando would not +forget to say that a satisfactory solution may yet be found. He would +surely be incapable of jeopardizing the chances of such a desirable +consummation. "I will make the people arbiters of the whole situation," +the Premier announced, "and in order to enable them to judge with full +knowledge of the data, I herewith ask your permission to communicate my +last memorandum to the Council of Four. It embodies the pith of the +facts which it behooves the Parliament to have before it. In the +meantime, the Italian government withdraws from the Peace Conference." +On this the painful meeting terminated and the principal Italian +plenipotentiaries returned to Rome. In France a section of the press +sympathized with the Italians, while the government, and in particular +M. Clemenceau, joined Mr. Wilson, who had promised to restore the +sacredness of treaties[214] in exhorting Signor Orlando to give up the +Treaty of London. The clash between Mr. Wilson and Signor Orlando and +the departure of the Italian plenipotentiaries coincided with the +arrival of the Germans in Versailles, so that the Allies were faced with +the alternative of speeding up their desultory talks and improvising a +definite solution or giving up all pretense at unanimity in the presence +of the enemy. One important Paris journal found fault with Mr. Wilson +and his "Encyclical," and protested emphatically against his way of +filling every gap in his arrangements by wedging into it his League of +Nations. "Can we harbor any illusion as to the net worth of the League +of Nations when the revised text of the Covenant reveals it shrunken to +the merest shadow, incapable of thought, will, action, or justice?... +Too often have we made sacrifices to the Wilsonian doctrine."[215] ... +Another press organ compared Fiume to the Saar Valley and sympathized +with Italy, who, relying on the solidarity of her allies, expected to +secure the city.[216] + +While those wearisome word-battles--in which the personal element played +an undue part--were being waged in the twilight of a secluded Valhalla, +the Supreme Economic Council decided that the seized Austrian vessels +must be pooled among all the Allies. When the untoward consequences of +this decision were flashed upon the Italians and the Jugoslavs, the +rupture between them was seen to be injurious to both and profitable to +third parties. For if the Austrian vessels were distributed among all +the Allied peoples, the share that would fall to those two would be of +no account. Now for the first time the adversaries bestirred themselves. +But it was not their diplomatists who took the initiative. Eager for +their respective countries' share of the spoils of war, certain +business men on both sides met,[217] deliberated, and worked out an +equitable accord which gave four-fifths of the tonnage to Italy and the +remainder to the Jugoslavs, who otherwise would not have obtained a +single ship.[218] They next set about getting the resolution of the +Economic Council repealed, and went on with their conversations.[219] +The American delegation was friendly, promised to plead for the repeal, +and added that "if the accord could be extended to the Adriatic problem +Mr. Wilson would be delighted and would take upon himself to ratify it +_even without the sanction of the Conference_.[220] Encouraged by this +promise, the delegates made the attempt, but as the Italian Premier had +for some unavowed reason limited the intercourse of the negotiators to a +single day, on the expiry of which he ordered the conversation to +cease,[221] they failed. Two or three days later the delegates in +question had quitted Paris. + +What this exchange of views seems to have demonstrated to open-minded +Italians was that the Jugoslavs, whose reputation for obstinacy was a +dogma among all their adversaries and some of their friends, have chinks +in their panoply through which reason and suasion may penetrate. + +When the Italian withdrew from the Conference he had ample reason for +believing that in his absence peace could not be signed, and many +thought that, by departing, he was giving Mr. Wilson a Roland for his +Oliver. But this supposed tactical effect formed no part of Orlando's +deliberate plan. It was a coincidence to be utilized, nothing more. Mr. +Wilson had left him no choice but to quit France and solicit the verdict +of his countrymen. But Mr. Wilson's colleagues were aghast at the +thought that the Pact of London, by which none of the Allies might +conclude a separate peace, rendered it indispensable that Italy's +recalcitrant plenipotentiaries should be co-signatories, or at any rate +consenting parties. About this interpretation of the Pact there was not +the slightest doubt. Hence every one feared that the signing of the +Peace Treaty would be postponed indefinitely because of the absence of +the Italian plenipotentiaries from the Conference. That certainly was +the belief of the remaining delegates. There was no doubt anywhere that +the presence or the express assent of the Italians was a _sine qua non_ +of the legality of the Treaty. It certainly was the conviction of the +French press, and was borne out by the most eminent jurists throughout +the world.[222] That the Italian delegates might refuse to sign, as +Signor Orlando had threatened, until Italy's affairs were arranged +satisfactorily was taken for granted, and the remaining members of the +inner Council set to work to checkmate this potential maneuver and +dispense with her co-operation. This aim was attained during the absence +of the Italian delegation by the decree that the signature of any three +of the Allied and Associated governments would be deemed adequate. The +legality and even the morality of this provision were challenged by +many. + +But it may be maintained that the imperative nature of the task which +confronted the Conference demanded a chart of ideas and principles +different from that by which Old World diplomacy had been guided and +that respect for the letter of a compact should not be allowed to +destroy its spirit. There is much to be said for this contention, which +was, however, rejected by Italian jurists as destructive of the +sacredness of treaties. They also urged that even if it were permissible +to dash formal obstacles aside in order to clear the path for the +furtherance of a good cause, it is also indispensable that the result +should be compassed with the smallest feasible sacrifice of principle. +Hopes were accordingly entertained by the Italian delegates that, on +their return to Paris, at least a formal declaration might be made that +Italy's signature was indispensable to the validity of the Treaty. But +they were not, perhaps could not, be fulfilled at that conjuncture. + +Advantage was taken in other ways of the withdrawal of Italy's +representatives from the Conference. For example, a clause of the Treaty +with Germany dealing with reparations was altered to Italy's detriment. +Another which turned upon Austro-German relations was likewise modified. +Before the delegates left for Rome it had been settled that Germany +should be bound over to respect Austria's independence. This obligation +was either superfluous, every state being obliged to respect the +independence of every other, or else it had a cryptic meaning which +would only reveal itself in the application of the clause. As soon as +the Conference was freed from the presence of the Italians the formula +was modified, and Germany was plainly forbidden to unite with Austria, +even though Austria should expressly desire amalgamation. As this +enactment runs directly counter to the principle of self-determination, +the Italian Minister Crespi raised his voice in energetic protest +against this and the financial changes,[223] whereupon the Triumvirs, +giving way on the latter point, consented to restore the primitive text +of the financial condition.[224] Germany is obliged to supply France +with seven million tons of coal every year by way of restitution for +damage done during the war. At the price of fifty francs a ton, the +money value of this tribute would be three hundred and fifty million +francs, of which Italy would be entitled to receive 30 per cent. But +during the absence of the Italian representatives a supplementary clause +was inserted in the Treaty[225] conferring a special privilege on France +which renders Italy's claim of little or no value. It provides that +Germany shall deliver annually to France an amount of coal equal to the +difference between the pre-war production of the mines of Pas de Calais +and the Nord, destroyed by the enemy, and the production of the mines of +the same area during each of the coming years, the maximum limit to be +twenty million tons. As this contribution takes precedence of all +others, and as Germany, owing to insufficiency of transports and other +causes, will probably be unable to furnish it entirely, Italy's claim is +considered practically valueless. + +The reception of the delegates in Rome was a triumph, their return to +Paris a humiliation. For things had been moving fast in the meanwhile, +and their trend, as we said, was away from Italy's goal. Public opinion +in their own country likewise began to veer round, and people asked +whether they had adopted the right tactics, whether, in fine, they were +the right men to represent their country at that crisis of its history. +There was no gainsaying the fact that Italy was completely isolated at +the Conference. She had sacrificed much and had garnered in relatively +little. The Jugoslavs had offered her an alliance--although this kind of +partnership had originally been forbidden by the Wilsonian discipline; +the offer was rejected and she was now certain of their lasting enmity. +Venizelos had also made overtures to Baron Sonnino for an understanding, +but they elicited no response, and Italy's relations with Greece lost +whatever cordiality they might have had. Between France and Italy the +threads of friendship which companionship in arms should have done much +to strengthen were strained to the point of snapping. And worst, +perhaps, of all, the Italian delegates had approved the clause +forbidding Germany to unite with Austria. + +That the fault did not lie wholly in the attitude of the Allies is +obvious. The Italian delegates' lack of method, one might say of unity, +was unquestionably a contributory cause of their failure to make +perceptible headway at the Conference. A curious and characteristic +incident of the slipshod way in which the work was sometimes done +occurred in connection with the disposal of the Palace Venezia, in Rome, +which had belonged to Austria, but was expropriated by the Italian +government soon after the opening of hostilities. The heirs of the +Hapsburg Crown put forward a claim to proprietary rights which was +traversed by the Italian government. As the dispute was to be laid +before the Conference, the Roman Cabinet invited a _juris consult_ +versed in these matters to argue Italy's case. He duly appeared, +unfolded his claim congruously with the views of his government, but +suddenly stopped short on observing the looks of astonishment on the +faces of the delegates. It appears that on the preceding day another +delegate of the Economic Conference, also an Italian, had unfolded and +defended the contrary thesis--namely, that Austria's heirs had +inherited her right to the Palace of Venezia.[226] + +Passing to more momentous matters, one may pertinently ask whether too +much stress was not laid by the first Italian delegation upon the +national and sentimental sides of Italy's interests, and too little on +the others. Among the Great Powers Italy is most in need of raw +materials. She is destitute of coal, iron, cotton, and naphtha. Most of +them are to be had in Asia Minor. They are indispensable conditions of +modern life and progress. To demand a fair share of them as guerdon for +having saved Europe, and to put in her claim at a moment when Europe was +being reconstituted, could not have been construed as imperialism. The +other Allies had possessed most of those necessaries in abundance long +before the war. They were adding to them now as the fruits of a victory +which Italy's sacrifices had made possible. Why, then, should she be +left unsatisfied? Bitterly though the nation was disappointed by failure +to have its territorial claims allowed, it became still more deeply +grieved when it came to realize that much more important advantages +might have been secured if these had been placed in the forefront of the +nation's demands. Emigration ground for Italy's surplus population, +which is rapidly increasing, coal and iron for her industries might +perhaps have been obtained if the Italian plan of campaign at the +Conference had been rightly conceived and skilfully executed. But this +realistic aspect of Italy's interests was almost wholly lost sight of +during the waging of the heated and unfruitful contests for the +possession of town and ports, which, although sacred symbols of +Italianism, could not add anything to the economic resources which will +play such a predominant part in the future struggle for material +well-being among the new and old states. There was a marked propensity +among Italy's leaders at home and in Paris to consider each of the +issues that concerned their country as though it stood alone, instead of +envisaging Italy's economic, financial, and military position after the +war as an indivisible problem and proving that it behooved the Allies in +the interests of a European peace to solve it satisfactorily, and to +provide compensation in one direction for inevitable gaps in the other. +This, to my thinking, was the fundamental error of the Italian and +Allied statesmen for which Europe may have to suffer. That Italy's +policy cannot in the near future return to the lines on which it ran +ever since the establishment of her national unity, whatever her allies +may do or say, will hardly be gainsaid. Interests are decisive factors +of foreign policy, and the action of the Great Powers has determined +Italy's orientation. + +Italy undoubtedly gained a great deal by the war, into which she entered +mainly for the purpose of achieving her unity and securing strong +frontiers. But she signed the Peace Treaty convinced that she had not +succeeded in either purpose, and that her allies were answerable for her +failure. It was certainly part of their policy to build up a strong +state on her frontier out of a race which she regards as her adversary +and to give it command of some of her strategic positions. And the overt +bearing manner in which this policy was sometimes carried out left as +much bitterness behind as the object it aimed at. It is alleged that the +Italian delegates were treated with an economy of consideration which +bordered on something much worse, while the arguments officially invoked +to non-suit them appeared to them in the light of bitter sarcasms. +President Wilson, they complained, ignored his far-resonant principle +of self-determination when Japan presented her claim for Shantung, but +refused to swerve from it when Italy relied on her treaty rights in +Dalmatia. And when the inhabitants of Fiume voted for union with the +mother country, the President abandoned that principle and gave judgment +for Jugoslavia on other grounds. He was right, but disappointing, they +observed, when he told his fellow-citizens that his presence in Europe +was indispensable in order to interpret his conceptions, for no other +rational being could have construed them thus. + +The withdrawal of the Italian delegates was construed as an act of +insubordination, and punished as such. The Marquis de Viti de Varche has +since disclosed the fact that the Allied governments forthwith reduced +the credits accorded to Italy during hostilities, whereupon hardships +and distress were aggravated and the peasantry over a large area of the +country suffered intensely.[227] For Italy is more dependent on her +allies than ever, owing to the sacrifices which she offered up during +the war, and she was made to feel her dependence painfully. The military +assistance which they had received from her was fraught with financial +and economic consequences which have not yet been realized by the +unfortunate people who must endure them. Italy at the close of +hostilities was burdened with a foreign debt of twenty milliards of +lire, an internal debt of fifty millards, and a paper circulation four +times more than what it was in pre-war days.[228] Raw materials were +exhausted, traffic and production were stagnant, navigation had almost +ceased, and the expenditure of the state had risen to eleven milliards +a year.[229] + +According to the figures published by the Statistical Society of Berne, +the general rise in prices attributed to the war hit Italy much harder +than any of her allies.[230] The consequences of this and other +perturbations were sinister and immediate. The nation, bereft of what it +had been taught to regard as its right, humiliated in the persons of its +chiefs, subjected to foreign guidance, insufficiently clad, underfed, +and with no tangible grounds for expecting speedy improvement, was +seething with discontent. Frequent strikes merely aggravated the general +suffering, which finally led to riots, risings, and the shedding of +blood. The economic, political, and moral crisis was unprecedented. The +men who drew Italy into the war were held up to public opprobrium +because in the imagination of the people the victory had cost them more +and brought them in less than neutrality would have done. One of the +principal orators of the Opposition, in a trenchant discourse in the +Italian Parliament, said, "The Salandra-Sonnino Cabinet led Italy into +the war blindfolded."[231] + +After the return of the Italian delegation to Paris various fresh +combinations were devised for the purpose of grappling with the Adriatic +problem. One commended itself to the Italians as a possible basis for +discussion. In principle it was accepted. A declaration to this effect +was made by Signor Orlando and taken cognizance of by M. Clemenceau, who +undertook to lay the matter before Mr. Wilson, the sole arbitrator in +Italian affairs. He played the part of Fate throughout. Days went by +after this without bringing any token that the Triumvirate was +interested in the Adriatic. At last the Italian Premier reminded his +French colleague that the latest proposal had been accepted in +principle, and the Italian plenipotentiaries were awaiting Mr. Wilson's +pleasure in the matter. Accordingly, M. Clemenceau undertook to broach +the matter to the American statesman without delay. The reply, which was +promptly given, dismayed the Italians. It was in the form of one of +those interpretations which, becoming associated with Mr. Wilson's name, +shook public confidence in certain of the statesman-like qualities with +which he had at first been credited. The construction which he now put +upon the mode of voting to be applied to Fiume, including this city--in +a large district inhabited by a majority of Jugoslavs--imparted to the +project as the Italians had understood it a wholly new aspect. They +accordingly declared it inacceptable. As after that there seemed to be +nothing more for the Italian Premier to do in Paris, he left, was soon +afterward defeated in the Chamber, and resigned together with his +Cabinet. The vote of the Italian Parliament, which appeared to the +continental press in the light of a protest of the nation against the +aims and the methods of the Conference, closed for the time being the +chapter of Italy's endeavor to complete her unity, secure strong +frontiers, and perpetuate her political partnership with France and her +intimate relations with the Entente. Thenceforward the English-speaking +states might influence her overt acts, compel submission to their +behests, and generally exercise a sort of guardianship over her, because +they are the dispensers of economic boons, but the union of hearts, the +mutual trust, the cement supplied by common aims are lacking. + +One of the most telling arguments employed by President Wilson to +dissuade various states from claiming strategic positions, and in +particular Italy from insisting on the annexation of Fiume and the +Dalmatian coast, was the effective protection which the League of +Nations would confer on them.[232] Strategical considerations would, it +was urged, lose all their value in the new era, and territorial +guaranties become meaningless and cumbersome survivals of a dead epoch. +That was the principal weapon with which he had striven to parry the +thrusts of M. Clemenceau and the touchstone by which he tested the +sincerity of all professions of faith in his cherished project of +compacting the nations of the world in a vast league of peace-loving, +law-abiding communities. But the faith of France's leaders differed +little from unbelief. Guaranties first and the protection of the League +afterward was the French formula, around which many fierce battles royal +were fought. In the end Mr. Wilson, having obtained the withdrawal of +the demand for the Rhine frontier, gave in, and the Covenant was +reinforced by a compact which in the last analysis is a military +undertaking, a unilateral Triple Alliance, Great Britain and the United +States undertaking to hasten to France's assistance should her territory +be wantonly invaded by Germany. The case thus provided for is extremely +improbable. The expansion of Germany, when the auspicious hour strikes, +will presumably be inaugurated on wholly new lines, against which +armies, even if they can be mobilized in time, will be of little avail. +But if force were resorted to, it is almost certain to be used in the +direction where the resistance is least--against France's ally, Poland. +This, however, is by the way. The point made by the Italians was that +the League of Nations being thus admittedly powerless to discharge the +functions which alone could render strategic frontiers unnecessary, can +consequently no longer be relied upon as an adequate protection against +the dangers which the possession of the strongholds she claimed on the +Adriatic would effectively displace. Either the League, it was argued, +can, as asserted, protect the countries which give up commanding +positions to potential enemies, or it cannot. In the former hypothesis +France's insistence on a military convention is mischievous and +immoral--in the latter Italy stands in as much need of the precautions +devised as her neighbor. But her spokesmen were still plied with the +threadbare arguments and bereft of the countervailing corrective. And +faith in the efficacy of the League was sapped by the very men who were +professedly seeking to spread it. + +The press of Rome, Turin, and Milan pointed to the loyalty of the +Italian people, brought out, they said, in sharp relief by the +discontent which the exclusive character of that triple military accord +engendered among them. As kinsmen of the French it was natural for +Italians to expect that they would be invited to become a party to this +league within the League. As loyal allies of Britain and France they +felt desirous of being admitted to the alliance. But they were excluded. +Nor was their exasperation allayed by the assurance of their press that +this was no alliance, but a state of tutelage. An alliance, it was +explained, is a compact by which two or more parties agree to render one +another certain services under given conditions, whereas the convention +in question is a one-sided undertaking on the part of Britain and the +United States to protect France if wantonly attacked, because she is +unable efficaciously to protect herself. It is a benefaction. But this +casuistry fell upon deaf ears. What the people felt was the +disesteem--the term in vogue was stronger--in which they were held by +the Allies, whom they had saved perhaps from ruin. + +By slow degrees the sentiments of the Italian nation underwent a +disquieting change. All parties and classes united in stigmatizing the +behavior of the Allies in terms which even the literary eminence of the +poet d'Annunzio could not induce the censors to let pass. "The Peace +Treaty," wrote Italy's most influential journal, "and its correlate +forbode for the near future the Continental hegemony of France +countersigned by the Anglo-American alliance."[233] Another widely +circulated and respected organ described the policy of the Entente as a +solvent of the social fabric, constructive in words, corrosive in acts, +"mischievous if ever there was a mischievous policy. For while raising +hopes and whetting appetites, it does nothing to satisfy them; on the +contrary, it does much to disappoint them. In words--a struggle for +liberty, for nations, for the equality of peoples and classes, for the +well-being of all; in acts--the suppression of the most elementary and +constitutional liberty, the overlordship of certain nations based on the +humiliation of others, the division of peoples into exploiters and +exploited--the sharpening of social differences--the destruction of +collective wealth, and its accumulation in a few blood-stained hands, +universal misery, and hunger."[234] + +Although it is well understood that Italy's defeat at the Conference was +largely the handiwork of President Wilson, the resentment of the Italian +nation chose for its immediate objects the representatives of France and +Britain. The American "associates" were strangers, here to-day and gone +to-morrow, but the Allies remain, and if their attitude toward Italy, it +was argued, had been different, if their loyalty had been real, she +would have fared proportionately as well as they, whatever the American +statesmen might have said or done. + +The Italian press breathed fiery wrath against its French ally, who so +often at the Conference had met Italy's solicitations with the odious +word "impossible." Even moderate organs of public opinion gave free vent +to estimates of France's policy and anticipations of its consequences +which disturbed the equanimity of European statesmen. "It is +impossible," one of these journals wrote, "for France to become the +absolute despot of Europe without Italy, much less against Italy. What +transcended the powers of Richelieu, who was a lion and fox combined, +and was beyond the reach of Bonaparte, who was both an eagle and a +serpent, cannot be achieved by "Tiger" Clemenceau in circumstances so +much less favorable than those of yore. We, it is true, are isolated, +but then France is not precisely embarrassed by the choice of friends." +The peace was described as "Franco-Slav domination with its headquarters +in Prague, and a branch office in Agram." M. Clemenceau was openly +charged with striving after the hegemony of the Continent for his +country by separating Germany from Austria and surrounding her with a +ring of Slav states--Poland, Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and perhaps the +non-Slav kingdom of Rumania. All these states would be in the +leading-strings of the French Republic, and Austria would be linked to +it in a different guise. And in order to effect this resuscitation of +the Hapsburg state under the name of "Danubian federation," Mr. Wilson, +it was asserted, had authorized a deliberate violation of his own +principle of self-determination, and refused to Austria the right of +adopting the régime which she preferred. It was, in truth, an odd +compromise, these critics continued, for an idealist of the President's +caliber, on whose every political action the scrutinizing gaze of the +world was fixed. One could not account for it as a sacrifice made for a +high ethical aim--one of those ends which, according to the old maxim, +hallows the means. It seemed an open response to a secret instigation or +impulse which was unconnected with any recognized or avowable principle. +Even the Socialist organs swelled the chorus of the accusers. _Avanti_ +wrote, "We are Socialists, yet we have never believed that the American +President with his Fourteen Points entered into the war for the highest +aims of humanity and for the rights of peoples, any more than we believe +at present that his opposition to the aspirations of the Italian state +on the Adriatic are inspired by motives of idealism."[235] + +The fate of the disputed territories on the Adriatic was to be the +outcome of self-determination. Poland's claims were to be left to the +self-determination of the Silesian and Ruthenian populations. Rumania +was told that her suit must remain in abeyance until it could be tested +by the same principle, which would be applied in the form of a +plebiscite. For self-determination was the cornerstone of the League of +Nations, the holiest boon for which the progressive peoples of the world +had been pouring out their life-blood and substance for nearly five +years. But when Italy invoked self-determination, she was promptly +non-suited. When Austria appealed to it she was put out of court. And to +crown all, the world was assured that the Fourteen Points had been +triumphantly upheld. This depravation of principles by the triumph of +the little prudences of the hour spurred some of the more impulsive +critics to ascribe it to influences less respectable than those to which +it may fairly be attributed. + +The directing Powers were hypersensitive to the oft-repeated charge of +meddling in the internal affairs of other nations. They were never +tired of protesting their abhorrence of anything that smacked of +interference. Among the numerous facts, however, which they could +neither deny nor reconcile with their professions, the following was +brought forward by the Italians, who had a special interest to draw +public attention to it. It had to do with the abortive attempt to +restore the Hapsburg monarchy in Hungary as the first step toward the +formation of a Danubian federation. "It is certain," wrote the principal +Italian journal, "that the Archduke Joseph's _coup d'état_ did not take +place, indeed (given the conditions in Budapest) could not take place, +without the Entente's connivance. The official _communiqués_ of Budapest +and Vienna, dated August 9th, recount on this point precise details +which no one has hitherto troubled to deny. The Peidl government was +scarcely three days in power, and, therefore, was not in a position to +deserve either trust or distrust, when the heads of the 'order-loving +organizations' put forward, to justify the need of a new crisis, the +complaints of the heads of the Entente Missions as to the anarchy +prevailing in Hungary and the urgency of finding 'some one' who could +save the country from the abyss. Then a commission repaired to Alscuth, +where it easily persuaded the Archduke to come to Budapest. Here he at +once visited all the heads of missions and spent the whole day in +negotiations. '_As a result of negotiations with Entente +representatives, the Archduke Joseph undertook a solution of the +crisis_.' He then called together the old state police and a volunteer +army of eight thousand men. The Rumanian garrison was kept ready. The +Peidl government naturally did not resist at all. At 10 P.M. on August +7th all the Entente Missions held a meeting, _to which the Archduke +Joseph and the new Premier were invited_. General Gorton presided. _The +Conference lasted two hours and reached an agreement on all questions. +All the heads of Missions assured the new government of their warmest +support_."[236] + +Another case of unwarranted interference which stirred the Italians to +bitter resentment turned upon the obligation imposed on Austria to +renounce her right to unite with Germany. "It is difficult to discern in +the policy of the Entente toward Austria anything more respectable than +obstinacy coupled with stupidity," wrote the same journal. "But there is +something still worse. It is impossible not to feel indignant with a +coalition which, after having triumphed in the name of the loftiest +ideas ... treats German-Austria no better than the Holy Alliance treated +the petty states of Italy. But the Congress of Vienna acted in harmony +with the principle of legitimism which it avowed and professed, whereas +the Paris Conference violates without scruple the canons by which it +claims to be guided. + +"Not a whit more decorous is the intervention of the Supreme Council in +the internal affairs of Germany--a state which, according to the spirit +and the letter of the Versailles Treaty, is sovereign and not a +protectorate. The Conference was qualified to dictate peace terms to +Germany, but it wanders beyond the bounds of its competency when it +construes those terms and arrogates to itself--on the strength of forced +and equivocal interpretations--the right of imposing upon a nation which +is neither militarily nor juridically an enemy a constitutional reform. +Whether Germany violates the Treaty by her Constitution is a question +which only a judicial finding of the League of Nations can fairly +determine."[237] + +It would be impolitic to overlook and insincere to belittle the effects +of this incoherency upon the relations between France and Italy. Public +opinion in the Peninsula characterized the attitude of Prance as +deliberately hostile. The Italians at the Conference eagerly scrutinized +every act and word of their French colleagues, with a view to +discovering grounds for dispelling this view. But the search is reported +to have been worse than vain. It revealed data which, although +susceptible of satisfactory explanations, would, if disclosed at that +moment, have aggravated the feeling of bitterness against France, which +was fast gathering. Signor Orlando had recourse to the censor to prevent +indiscretions, but the intuition of the masses triumphed over +repression, and the existing tenseness merged into resentment. The way +in which Italians accounted for M. Clemenceau's attitude was this. +Although Italy has ceased to be the important political factor she once +was when the Triple Alliance was in being, she is still a strong +continental Power, capable of placing a more numerous army in the field +than her republican sister, and her population continues to increase at +a high rate. In a few years she will have outstripped her rival. France, +too, has perhaps lost those elements of her power and prestige which she +derived from her alliance with Russia. Again, the Slav ex-ally, Russia, +may become the enemy of to-morrow. In view of these contingencies France +must create a substitute for the Rumanian and Italian allies. And as +these have been found in the new Slav states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, +and Jugoslavia, she can afford to dispense with making painful +sacrifices to keep Italy in countenance. + +A trivial incident which affords a glimpse of the spirit prevailing +between the two kindred peoples occurred at St.-Germain-en-Laye, where +the Austrian delegates were staying. They had been made much of in +Vienna by the Envoy of the French Republic there, M. Allizé, whose +mission it was to hinder Austria from uniting with the Reich. Italy's +policy was, on the contrary, to apply Mr. Wilson's principle of +self-determination and allow the Austrians to do as they pleased in that +respect. A fervent advocate of the French orthodox doctrine--a +publicist--repaired to the Austrian headquarters at St.-Germain for the +purpose, it is supposed, of discussing the subject. Now intercourse of +any kind between private individuals and the enemy delegates was +strictly forbidden, and when M. X. presented himself, the Italian +officer on duty refused him admission. He insisted. The officer was +inexorable. Then he produced a written permit signed by the Secretary of +the Conference, M. Dutasta. How and why this exception was made in his +favor when the rule was supposed to admit of no exceptions was not +disclosed. But the Italian officer, equal to the occasion, took the +ground that a military prohibition cannot be canceled by a civilian, and +excluded the would-be visitor. + +The general trend of France's European policy was repugnant to Italy. +She looked on it as a well-laid scheme to assume a predominant rôle on +the Continent. That, she believed, was the ultimate purpose of the veto +on the union of Austria and Germany, of the military arrangements with +Britain and the United States, and of much else that was obnoxious to +Italy. Austria was to be reconstituted according to the federative plans +of the late Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to be made stronger than before as +a counterpoise to Italy, and to be at the beck and call of France. Thus +the friend, ally, sister of yesterday became the potential enemy of +to-morrow. That was the refrain of most of the Italian journals, and +none intoned it more fervently than those which had been foremost in +bringing their country into the war. One of these, a Conservative organ +of Lombardy, wrote: "Until yesterday, we might have considered that two +paths lay open before us, that of an alliance with France and that of +an independent policy. But we can think so no longer. To offer our +friendship to-day to the people who have already chosen their own road +and established their solidarity with our enemies of yesterday and +to-morrow would not be to strike out a policy, but to decide on an +unseemly surrender. It would be tantamount to reproducing in an +aggravated form the situation we occupied in the alliance with Germany. +Once again we should be engaged in a partnership of which one of the +partners was in reality our enemy. France taking the place of Germany, +and Jugoslavia that of Austria, the situation of the old Triple Alliance +would be not merely reproduced, but made worse in the reproduction, +because the _Triplice_ at least guaranteed us against a conflict which +we had grounds for apprehending, whereas the new alliance would tie our +hands for the sake of a little Balkan state which, single-handed, we are +well able to keep in its place. + +"We have had enough of a policy which has hitherto saddled us with all +the burdens of the alliance without bestowing on us any advantage--which +has constrained us to favor all the peoples whose expansion dovetailed +with French schemes and to combat or neglect those others whose +consolidation corresponded to our interests--which has led us to support +a great Poland and a great Bohemia and to combat the Ukraine, Hungary, +Bulgaria, Rumania, Spain, to whose destinies the French, but not we, +were indifferent."[238] A press organ of Bologna denounced the atrocious +and ignominious sacrifice "which her allies imposed on Italy by means of +economic blackmailing and violence with a whip in one hand and a chunk +of bread in the other."[239] + +Sharp comments were provoked by the heavy tax on strangers in Tunisia +imposed by the French government,[240] on strangers, mostly Italians, +who theretofore had enjoyed the same rights as the French and Tunisians. +"Suddenly," writes the principal Italian journal, "and just when it was +hoped that the common sacrifices they had made had strengthened the ties +between the two nations, the governor of Tunisia issued certain orders +which endangered the interests of foreigners and the effects of which +will be felt mainly by Italians, of whom there are one hundred and +twenty thousand in Tunisia.[241] First there came an order forbidding +the use of any language but French in the schools. Now the tax referred +to in the House of Lords gives the Tunisian government power to levy an +impost on the buying and selling of property in Tunisia. The new tax, +which is to be levied over and above pre-existing taxes, ranged from 59 +per cent. of the value when it is not assessed at a higher sum than one +hundred thousand lire to 80 per cent. when its estimated value is more +than five hundred thousand lire." The article terminates with the remark +that boycotting is hardly a suitable epilogue to a war waged for common +ideals and interests. + +These manifestations irritated the French and were taken to indicate +Italy's defection. It was to no purpose that a few level-headed men +pointed out that the French government was largely answerable for the +state of mind complained of. "Pertinax," in the _Echo de Paris_, wrote +"that the alliance, in order to subsist and flourish, should have +retained its character as an Anti-German League, whereas it fell into +the error of masking itself as a Society of Nations and arrogated to +itself the right of bringing before its tribunal all the quarrels of the +planet."[242] Italy's allies undoubtedly did much to forfeit her +sympathies and turn her from the alliance. It was pointed out that when +the French troops arrived in Italy the Bulletin of the Italian command +eulogized their efforts almost daily, but when the Italian troops went +to France, the _communiqués_ of the French command were most chary of +allusions to their exploits, yet the Italian army contributed more dead +to the French front than did the French army to the Italian front.[243] +At the Peace Conference, as we saw, when the terms with Germany were +being drafted, Italy's problems were set aside on the grounds that there +was no nexus between them. The Allies' interests, which were dealt with +as a whole during the war, were divided after the armistice into +essential and secondary interests, and those of Italy were relegated to +the latter class. Subsequently France, Britain, and the United States, +without the co-operation or foreknowledge of their Italian friends, +struck up an alliance from which they excluded Italy, thereby vitiating +the only arguments that could be invoked in favor of such a coalition. +When peace was about to be signed they one-sidedly revoked the treaty +which they had concluded in London, rendering the consent of all Allies +necessary to the validity of the document, and decreed that Italy's +abstention would make no difference. When the instrument was finally +signed, Mr. Wilson returned to the United States, Mr. Lloyd George to +England, and the Marquis of Saionji to Japan, without having settled any +of Italy's problems. Italy, her needs, her claims, and her policy thus +appear as matters of little account to the Great Powers. Naturally, the +Italian people were disappointed, and desirous of seeking new friends, +the old ones having forsaken them. + +It would be difficult to exaggerate the consequences which this attitude +of the Allies toward Italy may have on European politics generally. Her +most eminent statesman, Signor Tittoni, who succeeded Baron Sonnino, +transcending his country's mortifications, exerted himself tactfully and +not unsuccessfully to lubricate the mechanism of the alliance, to ease +the dangerous friction and to restore the tone. And he seems to have +accomplished in these respects everything which a sagacious statesman +could do. But to arrest the operation of psychological laws is beyond +the power of any individual. In order to appreciate the Italian point of +view, it is nowise necessary to approve the exaggerated claims put +forward by her press in the spring of 1919. It is enough to admit that +in the light of the Wilsonian doctrine they were not more incompatible +with that doctrine than the claims made by other Powers and accorded by +the Supreme Council. + +To sum up, Italy acquired the impression that association with her +recent allies means for her not only sacrifices in their hour of need, +but also further sacrifices in their hour of triumph. She became +reluctantly convinced that they regard interests which she deems vital +to herself as unconnected with their own. And that was unfortunate. If +at some fateful conjuncture in the future her allies on their part +should gather the impression that she has adjusted her policy to those +interests which are so far removed from theirs, they will have +themselves to blame. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[194] This clause, which figured in the draft Treaty, as presented to +the Germans, provoked such emphatic protests from all sides that it was +struck out in the revised version. + +[195] In an interview given to the Correspondenz Bureau of Vienna by +Conrad von Hoetzendorff. Cf. _Le Temps_, July 19, 1919. + +[196] The Prime Minister, Salandra, declared that to have made +neutrality a matter of bargaining would have been to dishonor Italy. + +[197] King Carol was holding a crown council at the time. Bratiano had +spoken against the King's proposal to throw in the country's lot with +Germany. Carp was strongly for carrying out Rumania's treaty +obligations. Some others hesitated, but before it could be put to the +vote a telegram was brought in announcing Italy's resolve to maintain +neutrality. The upshot was Rumania's refusal to follow her allies. + +[198] On the eastern Adriatic, the Treaty of London allotted to Italy +the peninsula of Istria, without Fiume, most of Dalmatia, exclusive of +Spalato, the chief Dalmatian islands and the Dodecannesus. + +[199] The present population of Fiume is computed at 45,227 souls, of +whom 33,000 are Italians, 10,927 Slavs, and 1,300 Magyars. + +[200] Another delegate is reported to have answered: "As we need Italy's +friendship, we should pay the moderate price asked and back her claim to +have the moon." + +[201] A number of orders of the day eulogizing individual Slav officers +and collective military entities were quoted by the advocates of Italy's +cause at the Conference. + +[202] Official _communiqué_ of June 17, 1918. + +[203] _Journal de Genève_, April 25, 1919. + +[204] Cf. _Il Corriere della Sera_ and _Il Secolo_ of May 26, 1919. + +[205] In the Senate he defended this attitude on March 4,1919, and +expressed a desire to dispel the misunderstanding between the two +peoples. + +[206] In April, 1919. + +[207] This fact has since been made public by Enrico Ferri in a +remarkable discourse pronounced in the parliament at Rome (July 9, +1919). It was Baron Sonnino who deprecated the publication of any +statement on the subject by President Wilson. Cf. _La Stampa_, July 10, +1919. + +[208] On January 10, 1919. + +[209] It gave eastern Friuli to Italy, including Gorizia, split Istria +into two parts, and assigned Trieste and Pola also to Italy, but under +such territorial conditions that they would be exposed to enemy +projectiles in case of war. + +[210] The National Council of Fiume issued its proclamation before it +had become known that the battle of Vittorio Veneto was begun--_i.e._, +October 30, 1918. + +[211] Speech delivered at Mount Vernon on July 4, 1918. + +[212] Of the United States, France, and Great Britain. + +[213] Between April 5th and 12th. + +[214] In his address to the representatives of organized labor in +January, 1918. + +[215] _L'Echo de Paris_, April 29, 1919. + +[216] _Le Gaulois_, April 29, 1919. + +[217] These meetings were held from March 28 till April 23, 1919. + +[218] See Marco Borsa's article in _Il Secolo_, June 18, 1919; also +_Corriere della Sera_, June 19, 1919. + +[219] From May 5 to 16, 1919. + +[220] _Il Secolo_, June 19, 1919. + +[221] On April 23, 1919. + +[222] "Can and will our allies treat our absence as a matter of no +moment? Can and will they violate the formal undertaking which forbids +the belligerents to conclude a diplomatic peace?... The London +Declaration prohibits categorically the conclusion of any separate peace +with any enemy state. France and England cannot sign peace with Germany +if Italy does not sign it.... The situation is grave and abnormal, for +our allies it is also grave and abnormal. Italy is isolated, and +nations, especially those of continental Europe, which are not overrich, +flee solitude as nature abhors a vacuum."--_Corriere della Sera_, April +26, 1919. Again: "'The Treaty of London' restrains France and England +from concluding peace without Italy. And Italy is minded not to conclude +peace with Germany before she herself has received +satisfaction."--_Journal de Genève_, April 25, 1919. + +[223] On May 6, 1919, at Versailles. + +[224] Cf. _Corriere della Sera_, May 10, 1919. + +[225] Annex W of the Revised Treaty. + +[226] This incident was revealed by Enrico Ferri, in his remarkable +speech in the Italian Parliament on July 9, 1919. Cf. _La Stampa_, July +10, 1919, page 2. + +[227] Cf. _The Morning Post_, July 9, 1919. + +[228] On July 10th the Italian Finance Minister, in his financial +statement, announced that the total cost of the war to Italy would +amount to one hundred milliard lire. He added, however, that her share +of the German indemnity would wipe out her foreign debt, while a +progressive tax on all but small fortunes would meet her internal +obligations. Cf. _Corriere della Sera_, July 11 and 12, 1919. + +[229] Cf. _Avanti_, July 19, 1919. + +[230] Shown in percentages, the rise in the cost of living was: United +States, 220 per cent.; England, 240 per cent.; Switzerland, 257 per +cent.; France, 368 per cent.; Italy, 481 per cent. + +[231] Enrico Ferri, on July 9, 1919. Cf. _La Stampa_, July 10, 1919. + +[232] At a later date the President reiterated the grounds of his +decision. In his Columbus speech (September 4, 1919) he asserted that +"Italy desired Fiume for strategic military reasons, which the League of +Nations would make unnecessary." (_The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), +September 6, 1919.) But the League did not render strategic precautions +unnecessary to France. + +[233] _Corriere della Sera_, May 11, 1919. + +[234] _La Stampa_, July 16, 1919. + +[235] _Avanti_, April 27, 1919. Cf. _Le Temps_, April 28, 1919. + +[236] _Corriere della Sera_, August 9, 1919. + +[237] _Corriere della Sera_, September 3, 1919. + +[238] Quoted in _La Stampa_ of July 20, 1919. + +[239] _Ibidem_. + +[240] _Corriere d' Italia_, June 29, 1919. + +[241] Cf. _Modern Italy_, July 12, 1919 (page 298). + +[242] _Echo de Paris_, July 7, 1919. + +[243] Cf. "An Italian Exposé," published by _The Morning Post_, July 5, +1919. + + + + +IX + +JAPAN + + +Among the solutions of the burning questions which exercised the +ingenuity and tested the good faith of the leading Powers at the Peace +Conference, none was more rapidly reached there, or more bitterly +assailed outside, than those in which Japan was specially interested. +The storm that began to rage as soon as the Supreme Council's decision +on the Shantung issue became known did not soon subside. Far from that, +it threatened for a time to swell into a veritable hurricane. This +problem, like most of those which were submitted to the forum of the +Conference, may be envisaged from either of two opposite angles of +survey; from that of the future society of justice-loving nations, whose +members are to forswear territorial aggrandizement, special economic +privileges, and political sway in, or at the expense of, other +countries; or from the traditional point of view, which has always +prevailed in international politics and which cannot be better described +than by Signor Salandra's well-known phrase "sacred egotism." Viewed in +the former light, Japan's demand for Shantung was undoubtedly as much a +stride backward as were those of the United States and France for the +Monroe Doctrine and the Saar Valley respectively. But as the three Great +Powers had set the example, Japan was resolved from the outset to rebel +against any decree relegating her to the second-or third-class nations. +The position of equality occupied by her government among the +governments of other Great Powers did not extend to the Japanese nation +among the other nations. But her statesmen refused to admit this +artificial inferiority as a reason for descending another step in the +international hierarchy and they invoked the principle of which Britain, +France, and America had already taken advantage. + +The Supreme Council, like Janus of old, possessed two faces, one +altruistic and the other egotistic, and, also like that son of Apollo, +held a key in its right hand and a rod in its left. It applied to the +various states, according to its own interest or convenience, the +principles of the old or the new Covenant, and would fain have +dispossessed Japan of the fruits of the campaign, and allotted to her +the rôle of working without reward in the vineyard of the millennium, +were it not that this policy was excluded by reasons of present +expediency and previous commitments. The expediency was represented by +President Wilson's determination to obtain, before returning to +Washington, some kind of a compact that might be described as the +constitution of the future society of nations, and by his belief that +this instrument could not be obtained without Japan's adherence, which +was dependent on her demand for Shantung being allowed. And the previous +commitments were the secret compacts concluded by Japan with Britain, +France, Russia, and Italy before the United States entered the war. + +Nippon's rôle in the war and the circumstances that shaped it are +scarcely realized by the general public. They have been purposely thrust +in the background. And yet a knowledge of them is essential to those who +wish to understand the significance of the dispute about Shantung, which +at bottom was the problem of Japan's international status. Before +attempting to analyze them, however, it may not be amiss to remark that +during the French press campaign conducted in the years 1915-16, with +the object of determining the Tokio Cabinet to take part in the military +operations in Europe, the question of motive was discussed with a degree +of tactlessness which it is difficult to account for. It was affirmed, +for example, that the Mikado's people would be overjoyed if the Allied +governments vouchsafed them the honor of participating in the great +civilizing crusade against the Central Empires. That was proclaimed to +be such an enviable privilege that to pay for it no sacrifice of men or +money would be exorbitant. Again, the degree to which Germany is a +menace to Japan was another of the texts on which Entente publicists +relied to scare Nippon into drastic action, as though she needed to be +told by Europeans where her vital interests lay, from what quarters they +were jeopardized, and how they might be safeguarded most successfully. +So much for the question of tact and form. Japan has never accepted the +doctrine of altruism in politics which her Western allies have so +zealously preached. Until means have been devised and adopted for +substituting moral for military force in the relations of state with +state, the only reconstruction of the world in which the Japanese can +believe is that which is based upon treaties and the pledged word. That +is the principle which underlies the general policy and the present +strivings of our Far Eastern ally. + +One of the characteristic traits of all Nippon's dealings with her +neighbors is loyalty and trustworthiness. Her intercourse with Russia +before and after the Manchurian campaign offers a shining example of all +the qualities which one would postulate in a true-hearted neighbor and a +stanch and chivalrous ally. I had an opportunity of watching the +development of the relations between the two governments for many years +before they quarreled, and subsequently down to 1914, and I can state +that the praise lavished by the Tsar's Ministers on their Japanese +colleagues was well deserved. And for that reason it may be taken as an +axiom that whatever developments the present situation may bring forth, +the Empire of Nippon will carry out all its engagements with scrupulous +exactitude, in the spirit as well as the letter. + +To be quite frank, then, the Japanese are what we should term realists. +Consequently their foreign policy is inspired by the maxims which +actuated all nations down to the year 1914, and still move nearly all of +them to-day. In fact, the only Powers that have fully and +authoritatively repudiated them as yet are Bolshevist Russia, and to a +large extent the United States. Holding thus to the old dispensation, +Japan entered the war in response to a definite demand made by the +British government. The day before Britain declared war against Germany +the British Ambassador at Tokio officially inquired whether his +government could count upon the active co-operation of the Mikado's +forces in the campaign about to begin. On August 4th Baron Kato, having +in the meanwhile consulted his colleagues, answered in the affirmative. +Three days later another communication reached Tokio from London, +requesting the _immediate_ co-operation of Japan, and on the following +day it was promised. The motive for this haste was credibly asserted to +be Britain's apprehension lest Germany should transfer Kiaochow to +China, and reserve to herself, in virtue of Article V of the Convention +of 1898, the right of securing after the war "a more suitable territory" +in the Middle Empire or Republic. Thereupon they began operations which +were at first restricted to the China seas, but were afterward extended +to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and finally to the Mediterranean. The +only task that fell to their lot on land was that of capturing Kiaochow. +But whatever they set their hands to they carried out thoroughly, and +to the complete satisfaction of their European allies. + +For many years the people of Nippon have been wending slowly, but with +tireless perseverance and unerring instinct, toward their far-off goal, +which to the unbiased historian will seem not merely legitimate but +praiseworthy. Their intercourse with Russia was the story of one long +laborious endeavor to found a common concern which should enable Japan +to make headway on her mission. Russia was just the kind of partner +whose co-operation was especially welcome, seeing that it could be had +without the hitches and set-backs attached to that of most other Great +Powers. The Russians were never really intolerant in racial matters, nor +dangerous in commercial rivalry. They intermarried freely with all the +so-called inferior races and tribes in the Tsardom, and put all on an +equal footing before the law. Twenty-three years ago I paid a visit to +my friend General Tomitch, the military governor of Kars, and I found +myself sitting at his table beside the Prefect of the city, who was a +Mohammedan. The individual Russian is generally free from racial +prejudices; he has no sense of the "yellow peril," and no objection to +receive the Japanese as a comrade, a colleague, or a son-in-law. + +And the advances made by Ito and others would have been reciprocated by +Witte and Lamsdorff were it not that the Tsar, interested in +Bezobrazoff's Yalu venture, subordinated his policy to those vested +interests, and compelled Japan to fight. The master-idea of the policy +of Ito, with whom I had two interesting conversations on the subject, +was to strike up a close friendship with the Tsardom, based on community +of durable interests, and to bespeak Russia's help for the hour of storm +and stress which one day might strike. The Tsar's government was +inspired by analogous motives. Before the war was terminated I repaired +to London on behalf of Russia, in order to propose to the Japanese +government, in addition to the treaty of peace which was about to be +discussed at Portsmouth, an offensive and defensive alliance, and to ask +that Prince Ito be sent as first plenipotentiary, invested with full +powers to conclude such a treaty. + +M. Izvolsky's policy toward Japan, frank and statesman-like, had an +offensive and a defensive alliance for its intended culmination, and the +treaties and conventions which he actually concluded with Viscount +Motono, in drafting which I played a modest part, amounted almost to +this. The Tsar's opposition to the concessions which represented +Russia's share of the compromise was a tremendous obstacle, which only +the threat of the Minister's resignation finally overcame. And +Izvolsky's energy and insistence hastened the conclusion of a treaty +between them to maintain and respect the _status quo_ in Manchuria, and, +in case it was menaced, to concert with each other the measures they +might deem necessary for the maintenance of the _status quo_. And it was +no longer stipulated, as it had been before, that these measures must +have a pacific character. They were prepared to go farther. And I may +now reveal the fact that the treaty had a secret clause, providing for +the action which Russia afterward took in Mongolia. + +These transactions one might term the first act of the international +drama which is still proceeding. They indicate, if they did not shape, +the mold in which the bronze of Japan's political program was cast. It +necessarily differed from other politics, although the maxims underlying +it were the same. Japan, having become a Great Power after her war with +China, was slowly developing into a world Power, and hoped to establish +her claim to that position one day. It was against that day that she +would fain have acquired a puissant and trustworthy ally, and she left +nothing undone to deserve the whole-hearted support of Russia. In the +historic year of 1914, many months before the storm-cloud broke, the War +Minister Sukhomlinoff transferred nearly all the garrisons from Siberia +to Europe, because he had had assurances from Japan which warranted him +in thus denuding the eastern border of troops. During the campaign, when +the Russian offensive broke down and the armies of the enemy were +driving the Tsar's troops like sheep before them, Japan hastened to the +assistance of her neighbor, to whom she threw open her military +arsenals, and many private establishments as well. And when the +Petrograd Cabinet was no longer able to meet the financial liabilities +incurred, the Mikado's advisers devised a generous arrangement on lines +which brought both countries into still closer and more friendly +relations. + +The most influential daily press organ in the Tsardom, the _Novoye +Vremya_, wrote: "The war with Germany has supplied our Asiatic neighbor +with an opportunity of proving the sincerity of her friendly assurances. +She behaves not merely like a good friend, but like a stanch military +ally.... In the interests of the future tranquil development of Japan a +more active participation of the Japanese is requisite in the war of the +nations against the world-beast of prey. An alliance with Russia for the +attainment of this object would be an act of immense historic +significance."[244] + +Ever since her entry into the community of progressive nations, Japan's +main aspiration and striving has been to play a leading and a civilizing +part in the Far East, and in especial to determine China by advice and +organization to move into line with herself, adopt Western methods and +apply them to Far-Eastern aims. And this might well seem a legitimate as +well as a profitable policy, and a task as noble as most or those to +which the world is wont to pay a tribute of high praise. It appeared all +the more licit that the Powers of Europe, with the exception of Russia, +had denied full political rights to the colored alien. He was placed in +a category apart--an inferior class member of humanity. + +"In Japan, and as yet in Japan alone, do we find the Asiatic welcoming +European culture, in which, if a tree may fairly be judged by its fruit, +is to be found the best prospect for the human personal liberty, in due +combination with restraints of law sufficient to, but not in excess of, +the requirements of the general welfare. In this particular +distinctiveness of characteristic, which has thus differentiated the +receptivity of the Japanese from that of the continental Asiatic, we may +perhaps see the influence of the insular environment that has permitted +and favored the evolution of a strong national personality; and in the +same condition we may not err in finding a promise of power to preserve +and to propagate, by example and by influence, among those akin to her, +the new policy which she has adopted, and by which she has profited, +affording to them the example which she herself has found in the +development of Eastern peoples."[245] + +Now that is exactly what the Japanese aimed at accomplishing. They were +desirous of contributing to the intellectual and moral advance of the +Chinese and other backward peoples of the Far East, in the same way as +France is laudably desirous of aiding the Syrians, or Great Britain the +Persians. And what is more, Japan undertook to uphold the principle of +the open door, and generally to respect the legitimate interests of +European peoples in the Far East. + +But the white races had economic designs of their own on China, and one +of the preliminary conditions of their execution was that Japan's +aspirations should be foiled. Witte opened the campaign by inaugurating +the process of peaceful penetration, but his remarkable efforts were +neutralized and defeated by his own sovereign. The Japanese, after the +Manchurian campaign, which they had done everything possible to avoid, +contrived wholly to eliminate Russian aggression from the Far East. The +feat was arduous and the masterly way in which it was tackled and +achieved sheds a luster on Japanese statesmanship as personified by +Viscount Motono. The Tsardom, in lieu of a potential enemy, was +transformed into a stanch and powerful friend and ally, on whom Nippon +could, as she believed, rely against future aggressors. Russia came to +stand toward her in the same political relationship as toward France. +Japanese statesmen took the alliance with the Tsardom as a solid and +durable postulate of their foreign policy. + +All at once the Tsardom fell to pieces like a house of cards, and the +fragments that emerged from the ruins possessed neither the will nor the +power to stand by their Far Eastern neighbors. The fruits of twelve +years' statesmanship and heavy sacrifices were swept away by the Russian +revolution, and Japan's diplomatic position was therefore worse beyond +compare than that of the French Republic in July, 1917, because the +latter was forthwith sustained by Great Britain and the United States, +with such abundance of military and economic resources as made up in the +long run for that of Russia. Japan, on the other hand, has as yet no +substitute for her prostrate ally. She is still alone among Powers some +of whom decline to recognize her equality, while others are ready to +thwart her policy and disable her for the coming race. + +The Japanese are firm believers in the law of causality. Where they +desire to reap, there they first sow. They invariably strive to deal +with a situation while there is still time to modify it, and they take +pains to render the means adequate to the end. Unlike the peoples of +western Europe and the United States, the Japanese show a profound +respect for the principles of authority and inequality, and reserve the +higher functions in the community for men of the greatest ability and +attainments. It is a fact, however, that individual liberty has made +perceptible progress in the population, and is still growing, owing to +the increase of economic well-being and the spread of general and +technical education. But although socialism is likewise spreading fast, +I feel inclined to think that in Japan a high grade of instruction and +of social development on latter-day lines will be found compatible with +that extraordinary cohesiveness to which the race owes the position +which it occupies among the communities of the world. The soul of the +individual Japanese may be said to float in an atmosphere of +collectivity, which, while leaving his intellect intact, sways his +sentiments and modifies his character by rendering him impressible to +motives of an order which has the weal of the race for its object. + +Japan has borrowed what seemed to her leaders to be the best of +everything in foreign countries. They analyzed the military, political, +and industrial successes of their friends and enemies, satisfactorily +explained and duly fructified them. They use the school as the seed-plot +of the state, and inculcate conceptions there which the entire community +endeavors later on to embody in acts and institutions. And what the +elementary school has begun, the intermediate, the technical, and the +high schools develop and perfect, aided by the press, which is +encouraged by the state. + +Japan's ideal cannot be offhandedly condemned as immoral, pernicious, or +illegitimate. Its partizans pertinently invoke every principle which +their Allies applied to their own aims and strivings. And men of deeper +insight than those who preside over the fortunes of the Entente to-day +recognize that Europeans of high principles and discerning minds, who +perceive the central issues, would, were they in the position of the +Japanese statesmen, likewise bend their energies to the achievement of +the same aims. + +The Japanese argue their case somewhat as follows: + +"We are determined to help China to put herself in line with ourselves, +and to keep her from falling into anarchy. And no one can honestly deny +our qualifications. We and they have very much in common, and we +understand them as no Anglo-Saxon or other foreign people can. On the +one hand our own past experience resembles that of the Middle Kingdom, +and on the other our method of adapting ourselves to the new +international conditions challenged and received the ungrudging +admiration of a world disposed to be critical. The Peking treaties of +May, 1915, between China and Japan, and the pristine drafts of them +which were modified before signature, enable the outsider to form a +fairly accurate opinion of Japan's economic and political program, which +amounts to the application of a Far Eastern Monroe Doctrine. + +"What we seek to obtain in the Far East is what the Western Powers have +secured throughout the remainder of the globe: the right to contribute +to the moral and intellectual progress of our backward neighbors, and to +profit by our exertions. China needs the help which we are admittedly +able to bestow. To our mission no cogent objection has ever been +offered. No Cabinet in Tokio has ever looked upon the Middle Realm as a +possible colony for the Japanese. The notion is preposterous, seeing +that China is already over-populated. What Japan sorely needs are +sources whence to draw coal and iron for industrial enterprise. She also +needs cotton and leather." + +In truth, the ever-ready command of these raw materials at their +sources, which must be neither remote nor subject to potential enemies, +is indispensable to the success of Japan's development. But for the +moment the English-speaking nations have a veto upon them, in virtue of +possession, and the embargo put by the United States government upon the +export of steel during the war caused a profound emotion in Nippon. For +the shipbuilding works there had increased in number from nine before +the war to twelve in 1917, and to twenty-eight at the beginning of 1918, +with one hundred slips capable of producing six hundred thousand tons of +net register. The effect of that embargo was to shut down between 70 and +80 per cent. of the shipbuilding works of the country, and to menace +with extinction an industry which was bringing in immense profits. + +It was with these antecedents and aims that Japan appeared before the +Conference in Paris and asked, not for something which she lacked +before, but merely for the confirmation of what she already possessed by +treaty. It must be admitted that she had damaged her cause by the manner +in which that treaty had been obtained. To say that she had intimidated +the Chinese, instead of coaxing them or bargaining with them, would be a +truism. The fall of Tsingtao gave her a favorable opportunity, and she +used and misused it unjustifiably. The demands in themselves were open +to discussion and, if one weighs all the circumstances, would not +deserve a classification different from some of those--the protection of +minorities or the transit proviso, for example--imposed by the greater +on the lesser nations at the Conference. But the mode in which they were +pressed irritated the susceptible Chinese and belied the professions +made by the Mikado's Ministers. The secrecy, too, with which the Tokio +Cabinet endeavored to surround them warranted the worst construction. +Yuan Shi Kai[246] regarded the procedure as a deadly insult to himself +and his country. And the circumstance that the Japanese government +failed either to foresee or to avoid this amazing psychological blunder +lent color to the objections of those who questioned Japan's +qualifications for the mission she had set herself. The wound inflicted +on China by that exhibition of insolence will not soon heal. How it +reacted may be inferred from the strenuous and well-calculated +opposition of the Chinese delegation at the Conference. + +Nor was that all. In the summer of 1916 a free fight occurred between +Chinese and Japanese soldiers in Cheng-cha-tun, the rights and wrongs of +which were, as is usual in such cases, obscure. But the Okuma Cabinet, +assuming that the Chinese were to blame, pounced upon the incident and +made it the base of fresh demands to China,[247] two of which were +manifestly excessive. That China would be better off than she is or is +otherwise likely to become under Japanese guidance is in the highest +degree probable. But in order that that guidance should be effective it +must be accepted, and this can only be the consequence of such a policy +of cordiality, patience, and magnanimity as was outlined by my friend, +the late Viscount Motono.[248] + +At the Conference the policy of the Japanese delegates was clear-cut and +coherent. It may be summarized as follows: the Japanese delegation +decided to give its entire support to the Allies in all matters +concerning the future relations of Germany and Russia, western Europe, +the Balkans, the African colonies, as well as financial indemnities and +reparations. The fate of the Samoan Archipelago must be determined in +accord with Britain and the United States. New Guinea should be allotted +to Australia. As the Marshall, Caroline, and Ladrone Islands, although +of no intrinsic value, would constitute a danger in Germany's hands, +they should be taken over by Japan. Tsingtao and the port of Kiaochow +should belong to Japan, as well as the Tainan railway. Japan would +co-operate with the Allies in maintaining order in Siberia, but no Power +should arrogate to itself a preponderant voice in the matter of +obtaining concessions or other interests there. Lastly, the principle of +the open door was to be upheld in China, Japan being admittedly the +Power which is the most interested in the establishment and maintenance +of peace in the Far East. + +At the Conference, when the Kiaochow dispute came up for discussion, the +Japanese attitude, according to their Anglo-Saxon and French colleagues, +was calm and dignified, their language courteous, their arguments were +put with studied moderation, and their resolve to have their treaty +rights recognized was inflexible. Their case was simple enough, and +under the old ordering unanswerable. The only question was whether it +would be invalidated by the new dispensation. But as the United States +had obtained recognition for its Monroe Doctrine, Britain for the +supremacy of the sea, and France for the occupation of the Saar Valley +and the suspension of the right of self-determination in the case of +Austria, it was obvious that Japan had abundant and cogent arguments for +her demands, which were that the Chinese territory once held by Germany, +and since wrested from that Power by Japan, be formally retroceded to +Japan, whose claim to it rested upon the right of conquest and also +upon the faith of treaties which she had concluded with China. At the +same time she expressly and spontaneously disclaimed the intention of +keeping that territory for herself. Baron Makino said at the Peace +Table: + +"The acquisition of territory belonging to one nation which it is the +intention of the country acquiring it to exploit to its sole advantage +is not conducive to amity or good-will." Japan, although by the fortune +of war Germany's heir to Kiaochow, did not purpose retaining it for the +remaining term of the lease; she had, in fact, already promised to +restore it to China. She maintained, however, that the conditions of +retrocession should form the subject of a general settlement between +Tokio and Peking. + +The Chinese delegation, which worked vigorously and indefatigably and +won over a considerable number of backers, argued that Kiaochow had +ceased to belong to Germany on the day when China declared war on that +state, inasmuch as all their treaties, including the lease of Kiaochow, +were abrogated by that declaration, and the ownership of every rood of +Chinese territory held by Germany reverted in law to China, and should +therefore be handed over to her, and not to Japan. To this plea Baron +Makino returned the answer that with the surrender of Tsingtao to Japan +in 1914[249] the whole imperial German protectorates of Shantung had +passed to that Power, China being still a neutral. Consequently the +entry of China into the war in 1917 could not affect the status of the +province which already belonged to Nippon by right of conquest. As a +matter of alleged fact, this capture of the protectorates by the +Japanese had been specially desired by the British government, in order +to prevent Germany from ceding it to China. If that move meant +anything, therefore, it meant that neither China nor Germany had or +could have any hold on the territory once it was captured by Japan. +Further, this conquest was effected at the cost of vast sums of money +and two thousand Japanese lives. + +Nor was that all. In the year 1915[250] China signed an agreement with +Japan, undertaking "to recognize all matters that may be agreed upon +between the Japanese government and the German government respecting the +disposition of all the rights, interests, and concessions which, in +virtue of treaties or otherwise, Germany possesses _vis-à-vis_ China, in +relation to the province of Shantung." This treaty, the Chinese +delegates answered, was extorted by force. Japan, having vainly sought +to obtain it by negotiations that lasted nearly four months, finally +presented an ultimatum,[251] giving China forty-eight hours in which to +accept it. She had no alternative. But at least she made it known to the +world that she was being coerced. It was on the day on which that +document was signed that the Japanese representative in Peking sent a +spontaneous declaration to the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, +promising to return the leased territory to China on condition that all +Kiaochow be opened as a commercial port, that a Japanese settlement be +established, and also an international settlement, if the Powers desired +it, and that an arrangement be made beforehand between the Chinese and +Japanese governments with regard to "the disposal of German public +establishments and populations, and with regard to other conditions and +procedures." + +The Japanese further invoked another and later agreement, which was, +they alleged, signed by the Chinese without demur.[252] This accord, +coming after the entry of China into the war, was tantamount to the +renunciation of any rights which China might have believed she possessed +as a corollary of her belligerency. It also disposed, the Japanese +argued, of her contention that the territory in question is +indispensable and vital to her--a contention which Japan met with the +promise to deliver it up--and which was invalidated by China's refusal +to fight for it in the year 1914. This latter argument was controverted +by the Chinese assertion that they were ready and willing to declare war +against Germany at the outset, but that their co-operation was refused +by the Entente, and subsequently by Japan. This allegation is credible, +if we remember the eagerness exhibited by the British government that +Japan should lose no time in co-operating with her allies, the +representations made by the British Ambassador to Baron Kato on the +subject,[253] and the alleged motive to prevent the retrocession of +Shantung to China by the German government. + +The arguments of China and Japan were summarily put in the following +questions by a delegate of each country: "Yes or no, does Kiaochow, +whose population is exclusively Chinese, form an integral part of the +Chinese state? Yes or no, was Kiaochow brutally occupied by the Kaiser +in the teeth of right and justice and to the detriment of the peace of +the Far East, and it may be of the world? Yes or no, did Japan enter the +war against the aggressive imperialism of the German Empire, and for the +purpose of arranging a lasting peace in the Far East? Yes or no, was +Kiaochow captured by the English and Japanese troops in 1914 with the +sole object of destroying a dangerous naval base? Yes or no, was China's +co-operation against Germany, which was advocated and offered by +President Yuan Shi Kai in August, 1914, refused at the instigation of +Japan?"[254] + +The Japanese catechism ran thus: "Yes or no, was Kiaochow a German +possession in the year 1914? Yes or no, was the world, including the +United States, a consenting party to the occupation of that province by +the Germans? Why did China, who to-day insists that that port is +indispensable to her, cede it to Germany? Why in 1914 did she make no +effort to recover it, but leave this task to the Japanese army? Further, +who can maintain that juridically the last war abolished _ipso facto_ +all the cessions of territory previously effected? Turkey formerly ceded +Cyprus to Great Britain. Will it be argued that this cession is +abrogated and that Cyprus must return to Turkey directly and +unconditionally? The Conference announced repeatedly that it took its +stand on justice and the welfare of the peoples. It is in the name of +the welfare of the peoples, as well as in the name of justice, that we +assert our right to take over Kiaochow. The harvest to him whose hands +soweth the seed."[255] + +If we add to all these conflicting data the circumstance that Great +Britain, France, and Russia had undertaken[256] to support Japan's +demands at the Conference, and that Italy had promised to raise no +objection, we shall have a tolerable notion of the various factors of +the Chino-Japanese dispute, and of its bearings on the Peace Treaty and +on the principles of the Covenant. It was one of the many illustrations +of the incompatibility of the Treaty and the Covenant, the respective +scopes of which were radically and irreconcilably different. The +Supreme Council had to adjudicate upon the matter from the point of view +either of the Treaty or of the Covenant; as part of a vulgar bargain of +the old, unregenerate days, or as an example of the self-renunciation of +the new ethical system. The majority of the Council was pledged to the +former way of contemplating it, and, having already promulgated a number +of decrees running counter to the Covenant doctrine in favor of their +own peoples, could not logically nor politically make an exception to +the detriment of Japan. + +What actually happened at the Peace Table is still a secret, and +President Wilson, who knows its nature, holds that it is in the best +interests of humanity that it should so remain! The little that has as +yet been disclosed comes mainly from State-Secretary Lansing's answers +to the questions put by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. +America's second delegate, in answer to the questions with which he was +there plied, affirmed that "President Wilson alone approved the Shantung +decision, that the other members of the American delegation made no +protest against it, and that President Wilson alone knows whether Japan +has guaranteed to return Shantung to China."[257] Another eminent +American, who claims to have been present when President Wilson's act +was officially explained to the Chinese delegates, states that the +President, disclosing to them his motives, pleaded that political +exigencies, the menace that Japan would abandon the Conference, and the +rumor that England herself might withdraw, had constrained him to accept +the Shantung settlement in order to save the League.[258] Rumors appear +to have played an undue part in the Conference, influencing the judgment +or the decisions of the Supreme Council. The reader will remember that +it was a rumor to the effect that the Italian government had already +published a decree annexing Fiume that is alleged to have precipitated +the quarrel between Mr. Wilson and the first Italian delegation. It is +worth noting that the alleged menace that Japan would quit the +Conference if her demands were rejected was not regarded by Secretary +Lansing as serious. "Could Japan's signature to the League have been +obtained without the Shantung decision?" he was asked. "I think so," he +answered. + +The decision caused tremendous excitement among the Chinese and their +numerous friends. At first they professed skepticism and maintained that +there must be some misunderstanding, and finally they protested and +refused to sign the Treaty. One of the American journals published in +Paris wrote: "Shantung was at least a moral explosion. It blew down the +front of the temple, and now everybody can see that behind the front +there was a very busy market. The morals were the morals of a horse +trade. If the muezzin were loud and constant in his calls to prayer, it +probably was to drown the sound of the dickering in the market. There is +no longer any obligation upon this nation to accept the Covenant as a +moral document. It is not."[259] + +All that may be perfectly true, but it sounds odd that the discovery +should not have been made until Japan's claim was admitted formally to +take over Shantung, after she had solemnly promised to restore it to +China. The Covenant was certainly transgressed long before this, and +much more flagrantly than by President Wilson's indorsement of Japan's +demand for the formal retrocession of Shantung. But by those infractions +nobody seemed scandalized. _Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi._ Debts of +gratitude had to be paid at the expense of the Covenant, and people +closed their eyes or their lips. It was not until the Japanese asked for +something which all her European allies considered to be her right that +an outcry was raised and moral principles were invoked. + +The Japanese press was nowise jubilant over the finding of the Supreme +Council. The journals of all parties argued that their country was +receiving no more than had already been guaranteed to it by China, and +ratified by the Allies before the Peace Conference met, and to have +obtained what was already hers by rights of conquest and of treaties was +anything but a triumph. What Japan desired was to have herself +recognized practically, not merely in theory, as the nation which is the +most nearly interested in China, and therefore deserving of a special +status there. In other words, she aimed at the proclamation of something +in the nature of a Far Eastern doctrine analogous to that of Monroe. As +priority of interest had been conceded to her by the Ishii-Lansing +Agreement with the United States, it was in this sense that her press +was fain to construe the clause respecting non-interference with +"regional understandings." + +That policy is open. The principles underlying it, always tenable, were +never more so than since the Peace Conference set the Great Powers to +direct the lesser states. Moreover, Japan, it is argued, knows by +experience that China has always been a temptation to the Western +peoples. They sent expeditions to fight her and divided her territory +into zones of influence, although China was never guilty of an +aggressive attitude toward them, as she was toward Japan. They were +actuated by land greed and all that that implies, and if China were +abandoned to her own resources to-morrow she would surely fall a prey to +her Western protectors. In this connection they point to an incident +which took place during the Conference, when Signor Tittoni demanded +that Italy should receive the Austrian concession in Tientsin, which +adjoins the Italian concession. But Viscount Chinda protested and the +demand was ruled out. To sum up, the broad maxim underlying Japan's +policy as defined by her own representatives is that in the resettlement +of the world the principle adopted, whether the old or the new, shall be +applied fairly and impartially at least to all the Great Powers. + +Every world conflict has marked the close of one epoch and the opening +of another. Into the melting-pot on the fire kindled by the war many +momentous problems have been flung, any one of which would have sufficed +to bring about a new political, economic, and social constellation. +Japan's advance along the road of progress is one of these far-ranging +innovations. She became a Great Power in the wars against China and +Russia, and is qualifying for the part of a World Power to-day. And her +statesmen affirm that in order to achieve her purpose she will recoil +from no sacrifice except those of honor and of truth. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[244] _Novoye Vremya_, June 13-26, 1915. + +[245] Cf. _The Problem of Asia_ (Capt. A.T. Mahan), pp. 150-151. + +[246] The late President of the Chinese Republic. + +[247] These demands were (1) an apology from the Chinese authorities; +(2) an indemnity for the killed and wounded; (3) the policing of certain +districts of Manchuria by the Japanese; and (4) the employment of +Japanese officers to train Chinese troops in Manchuria. + +[248] Minister of Foreign Affairs. He repudiated his predecessor's +policy. + +[249] November 8th. + +[250] May 25, 1915. + +[251] On May 6, 1915. + +[252] On September 24, 1918. + +[253] On August 7, 1914. + +[254] Cf. _Le Matin_, April 25, 1919. + +[255] _Le Matin_, April 23, 1919. + +[256] "His Majesty's Government accede with pleasure to the requests of +the Japanese Government for assurances that they will support Japan's +claims in regard to the disposal of Germany's rights in Shantung, and +possessions in islands north of the Equator, on the occasion of a Peace +Conference, it being understood that the Japanese Government will, in +the event of a peace settlement, treat in the same spirit Great +Britain's claims to German islands south of the Equator." (Signed) +Conyngham Greene, British Ambassador, Tokio, February 16, 1917. France +gave a similar assurance in writing on March 1, 1917, and the Russian +government had made a like declaration on February 20, 1917. + +[257] As a matter of fact, the entire world knew and knows that she had +guaranteed the retrocession. Baron Makino declared it at the Conference. +Cf. _The_ (London) _Times_, February 13, 1919; also on May 5, 1919; and +Viscount Uchida confirmed it on May 17, 1919. It had also been stated in +the Japanese ultimatum to Germany, August 15, 1914, and repeated by +Viscount Uchida at the beginning of August, 1919. + +[258] Mr. Thomas Millard, some of whose letters were published by _The +New York Times_. Cf. _Le Temps_, July 29, 1919. + +[259] _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 20, 1919. + + + + +X + +ATTITUDE TOWARD RUSSIA + + +In their dealings with Russia the principal plenipotentiaries +consistently displayed the qualities and employed the standards, maxims, +and methods which had stood them in good stead as parliamentary +politicians. The betterment of the world was an idea which took a +separate position in their minds, quite apart from the other political +ideas with which they usually operated. Overflowing with verbal +altruism, they first made sure of the political and economic interests +of their own countries, safeguarding or extending these sources of +power, after which they proceeded to try their novel experiment on +communities which they could coerce into obedience. Hence the aversion +and opposition which they encountered among all the nations which had to +submit to the yoke, and more especially among the Russians. + +Russia's opposition, widespread and deep-rooted, is natural, and history +will probably add that it was justified. It starts from the assumption, +which there is no gainsaying, that the Conference was convoked to make +peace between the belligerents and that whatever territorial changes it +might introduce must be restricted to the countries of the defeated +peoples. From all "disannexations" not only the Allies' territories, but +those of neutrals, were to be exempted. Repudiate this principle and the +demands of Ireland, Egypt, India to the benefits of self-determination +became unanswerable. Belgium's claim to Dutch Limburg and other +territorial oddments must likewise be allowed. Indeed, the plea actually +put forward against these was that the Conference was incompetent to +touch any territory actually possessed by either neutral or Allied +states. Ireland, Egypt, and Dutch Limburg Were all domestic matters with +which the Conference had no concern. + +Despite this fundamental principle Russia, the whilom Ally, without +whose superhuman efforts and heroic sacrifices her partners would have +been pulverized, was tacitly relegated to the category of hostile and +defeated peoples, and many of her provinces lopped off arbitrarily and +without appeal. None of her representatives was convoked or consulted on +the subject, although all of them, Bolshevist and anti-Bolshevist, were +at one in their resistance to foreign dictation. + +The Conference repeatedly disclaimed any intention of meddling in the +internal affairs of any other state, and the Irish, the Egyptian, and +several other analogous problems were for the purposes of the Conference +included in this category. On what intelligible grounds, then, were the +Finnish, the Lettish, the Esthonian, the Georgian, the Ukrainian +problems excluded from it? One cannot conceive a more flagrant violation +of the sovereignty of a state than the severance and disposal of its +territorial possessions against its will. It is a frankly hostile act, +and as such was rightly limited by the Conference to enemy countries. +Why, then, was it extended to the ex-Ally? Is it not clear that if +reconstituted Russia should regard the Allied states as enemies and +choose the potential enemies of these as its friends, it will be +legitimately applying the principles laid down by the Allies themselves? +No expert in international law and no person of average common sense +will seriously maintain that any of the decisions reached in Paris are +binding on the Russia of the future. No problem which concerns two +equal parties can be rightfully decided by only one of them. The +Conference which declared itself incompetent to impose on Holland the +cession to Belgium even of a small strip of territory on one of the +banks of the Belgian river Scheldt cannot be deemed authorized to sign +away vast provinces that belonged to Russia. Here the plea of the +self-determination of peoples possesses just as much or as little +cogency as in the case of Ireland and Egypt. + +President Wilson and Mr. Lloyd George had inaugurated their East +European policy by publicly proclaiming that Russia was the key to the +world situation, and that the peace would be no peace so long as her +hundred and fifty million inhabitants were left floundering in chaotic +confusion, under the upas shade of Bolshevism. They had also held out +hopes to their great ex-ally of efficient help and practical counsel. +And there ended what may be termed the constructive side of their +conceptions. + +It was followed by no coherent action. Discourses, promises, maneuvers, +and counter-maneuvers were continuous and bewildering, but of systematic +policy there was none. Statesmanship in the higher sense of the word was +absent from every decision the delegates took and from every suggestion +they proffered. Nor was it only by omission that they sinned. Their +invincible turn for circuitous methods, to which severer critics give a +less sonorous name, was manifested _ad nauseam_. They worked out cunning +little schemes which it was hard to distinguish from intrigues, and +which, if they had not been foiled in time, would have made matters even +worse than they are. From the outset the British government was for +summoning Bolshevist delegates to the Conference. A note to this effect +was sent by the London Foreign Office to the Allied governments about a +fortnight before the delegates began their work of making peace. But +the suggestion was withdrawn at the instance of the French, who doubted +whether the services of systematic lawbreakers would materially conduce +to the establishment of a new society of law-abiding states. Soon +afterward another scheme cropped up, this time for the appointment of an +Inter-Allied committee to watch over Russia's destinies and serve as a +sort of board of Providence. The representatives of the anti-Bolshevist +governments resented this notion bitterly. They remarked that they could +not be fairly asked to respect decisions imposed on them exactly as +though they were vanquished enemies like the Germans. The British and +American delegates were swayed in their views mainly by the assumptions +that all central Russia was in the power of Lenin; that his army was +well disciplined and powerful; that he might contrive to hold the reins +of government and maintain anarchism indefinitely, and that the +so-called constructive elements were inclined toward reaction. + +In other words, the delegates accepted two sets of premises, from which +they drew two wholly different sets of conclusions. Now they felt +impelled to act on the one, now on the other, but they could never make +up their minds to carry out either. They agreed that Bolshevism is a +potent solvent of society, fraught with peril to all organized +communities, yet they could not resolve to use joint action to extirpate +it.[260] They recognized that so long as it lasted there was no hope of +establishing a community of nations, but they discarded military +intervention on grounds of their own internal policy, and because it ran +counter to the principle of self-determination. Over against that +principle, however, one had to set the circumstance that they were +already intermeddling in Russian affairs in Archangel, Murmansk, +Odessa, and elsewhere, and that they ended by creating a new state and +government in northwestern Russia, against which Kolchak and Denikin +vehemently protested. + +In mitigation of judgment it is only fair to take into account the +tremendous difficulties that faced them; their unfamiliarity with the +Russian problem; the want of a touchstone by which to test the +overwhelming mass of conflicting information which poured in upon them; +their constitutional lack of moral courage, and the circumstance that +they were striving to reconcile contradictories. Without chart or +compass they drifted into strange and sterile courses, beginning with +the Prinkipo incident and ending with the written examination to which +they naïvely subjected Kolchak in order to legalize international +relations, which could not truly be described as either war or peace. +Neither the causes of Bolshevism in its morbid manifestations nor the +unformulated ideas underlying whatever positive aspect it may be +supposed to possess, nor the conditions governing its slow but +perceptible evolution, were so much as glanced at, much less studied, by +the statesmen who blithely set about dealing with it now by military +force, now by economic pressure, and fitfully by tentative forbearance +and hints to its leaders of forthcoming recognition. + +One cannot thus play fast and loose with the destinies of a community +composed of one hundred and fifty million people whose members are but +slackly linked together by a few tenuous social bonds, without +forfeiting the right to offer them real guidance. And a blind man is a +poor guide to those who can see. Alone the Americans were equipped with +carefully tabulated statistics and huge masses of facts which they +poured out as lavishly as coal-heavers hurl the contents of their sacks +into the cellar. But they put them to no practical use. Losing +themselves in a labyrinth of details, they failed to get a +comprehensive view of the whole. The other delegations lacked both data +and general ideas. And all the Allies were destitute of a powerful army +in the East, and therefore of the means of asserting the authority which +they assumed. + +They one and all dealt in vague theories and deceptive analogies, paying +little heed to the ever-shifting necessities of time, place, and +peoples, and indeed to the only conditions under which any new maxims +could be fruitfully applied. And even such rules as they laid down were +restricted and modified in accordance with their own countries' +interests or their unavowed aims, without specific warrant or +explanation. No account was taken of the historical needs or aspirations +of the people for whom they were legislating, as though all nations were +of the same age, capable of the same degree of culture, and impressible +to identical motives. It never seemed to have crossed their minds that +races and peoples, like individuals, have a soul, or that what is meat +to one may be poison to another. + +One of the most Ententophil and moderate press organs in France put the +matter forcibly and plainly as follows: "The governments of Washington +and of London are aware that we are immutably attached to the alliance +with them. But we owe them the truth. Far too often they make a bad +choice of the agents whose business it is to keep them informed, and +they affect too much disdain for friendly suggestions which emanate from +any other source. American agents, in particular, civil as well as +military, explore Europe much as their forebears 'prospected' the Far +West, and they look upon the most ancient nations of Europe as Iroquois, +Comanches, or Aztecs. They are astounded at not finding everything on +the old Continent as in New York or Chicago, and they set to work to +reform Europe according to the rules in force in Oklahoma or Colorado. +Now we venture respectfully to point out to them that methods differ +with countries. In the United States the Colonists were wont to set fire +to the forests in order to clear and fertilize the land. Certain +American agents recommend the employment in Europe of an analogous +procedure in political matters. They rejoice to behold the Russian and +Hungarian forests burst into flame. In Lenin, Trotzky, Bela Kuhn, they +appreciate useful pioneers of the new civilization. We crave their +permission to view these things from another side. In old Europe one +cannot set fire to the forests without at the same time burning villages +and cities."[261] + +Before and during the armistice I was in almost constant touch with all +Russian parties within the country and without, and received detailed +accounts of the changing conditions of the people, which, although +conflicting in many details, enabled me to form a tolerably correct +picture of the trend of things and to forecast what was coming. + +Among other communications I received proposals from Moscow with the +request that I should present them to one of the British delegates, who +was supposed to be then taking an active interest, or at any rate +playing a prominent part, in the reconstruction of Russia, less for her +own sake than for that of the general peace. But as it chanced, the +eminent statesman lacked the leisure to take cognizance of the proposal, +the object of which was to hit upon such a _modus vivendi_ with Russia +as would enable her united peoples to enter upon a normal course of +national existence without further delay. Incidentally it would have put +an end to certain conversations then going forward with a view to a +friendly understanding between Russia and Germany. It would also, I had +reason to believe, have divided the speculative Bolshevist group from +the extreme bloodthirsty faction, produced a complete schism in the +party, and secured an armistice which would have prevented the Allies' +subsequent defeats at Murmansk, Archangel, and Odessa. Truth prompts me +to add that these desirable by-results, although held out as inducements +and characterized as readily attainable, were guaranteed only by the +unofficial pledge of men whose good faith was notoriously doubtful. + +The document submitted to me is worth summarizing. It contained a lucid, +many-sided, and plausible account of the Russian situation. Among other +things, it was a confession of the enormity of the crimes perpetrated, +on both sides, it said, which it ascribed largely to the brutalizing +effects of the World War, waged under disastrous conditions unknown in +other lands. Myriads of practically unarmed men had been exposed during +the campaign to wholesale slaughter, or left to die in slow agonies +where they fell, or were killed off by famine and disease, for the +triumph of a cause which they never understood, but had recently been +told was that of foreign capitalists. In the demoralization that ensued +all restraints fell away. The entire social fabric, from groundwork to +summit, was rent, and society, convulsed with bestial passions, tore its +own members to pieces. Russia ran amuck among the nations. That was the +height of war frenzy. Since then, the document went on, passion had +abated sensibly and a number of well-intentioned men who had been swept +onward by the current were fast coming to their senses, while others +were already sane, eager to stem it and anxious for moral sympathy from +outside. + +From out of the revolutionary welter, the _exposé_ continued, certain +hopeful phenomena had emerged symptomatic of a new spirit. Conditions +conducive to equality existed, although real equality was still a +somewhat remote ideal. But the tendencies over the whole sphere of +Russian social, moral, and political life had undergone remarkable and +invigorating changes in the direction of "reasonable democracy." Many +wholesome reforms had been attempted, and some were partially realized, +especially in elementary instruction, which was being spread clumsily, +no doubt, as yet, but extensively and equally, being absolutely +gratuitous.[262] + +Various other so-called ameliorations were enumerated in this obviously +partial _exposé_, which was followed by an apology for certain prominent +individuals, who, having been swept off their feet by the revolutionary +floods, would gladly get back to firm land and help to extricate the +nation from the Serbonian bog in which it was sinking. They admitted a +share of the responsibility for having set in motion a vast juggernaut +chariot, which, however, they had arrested, but hoped to expiate past +errors by future zeal. At the same time they urged that it was not they +who had demoralized the army or abolished the death penalty or thrown +open the sluice-gates to anarchist floods. On the contrary, they claimed +to have reorganized the national forces, reintroduced the severest +discipline ever known, appointed experienced officers, and restored +capital punishment. Nor was it they, but their predecessors, they added, +who had ruined the transport service of the country and caused the food +scarcity. + +These individuals would, it was said, welcome peace and friendship with +the Entente, and give particularly favorable consideration to any +proposal coming from the English-speaking peoples, in whom they were +disposed to place confidence under certain simple conditions. The need +for these conditions would not be gainsaid by the British and American +governments if they recalled to mind the treatment which they had +theretofore meted out to the Russian people. At that moment no Russian +of any party regarded or could regard the Allies without grounded +suspicions, for while repudiating interference in domestic affairs, the +French, Americans, and British were striving hard to influence every +party in Russia, and were even believed to harbor designs on certain +provinces, such as the Caucasus and Siberia. Color was imparted to these +misgivings by the circumstance that the Allied governments were openly +countenancing the dismemberment of the country by detaching non-Russian +and even Russian elements from the main body. It behooved the Allies to +dissipate this mistrust by issuing a statement of their policy in +unmistakable terms, repudiating schemes for territorial gains, +renouncing interference in domestic affairs and complicity in the work +of disintegrating the country. Russia and her affairs must be left to +Russians, who would not grudge economic concessions as a reasonable +_quid pro quo_. + +The proposal further insisted that the declaration of policy should be +at once followed by the despatch of two or three well-known persons +acquainted with Russia and Russian affairs, and enjoying the confidence +of European peoples, to inquire into the conditions of the country and +make an exhaustive report. This mission, it was added, need not be +official, it might be intrusted to individuals unattached to any +government. + +If a satisfactory answer to this proposal were returned within a +fortnight, an armistice and suspension of the secret _pourparlers_ with +Germany would, I was told, have followed. That this compact would have +led to a settlement of the Russian problems is more than any one, +however well informed, could vouch for, but I had some grounds for +believing the move to be genuine and the promises overdone. No +reasonable motive suggested itself for a vulgar hoax. Moreover, the +overture disclosed two important facts, one of which was known at the +time only to the Bolshevist government--namely, that secret +_pourparlers_ were going forward between Berlin and Moscow for the +purpose of arriving at a workable understanding between the two +governments, and that the Allied troops at Odessa, Archangel, and +Murmansk were in a wretched plight and in direr need of an armistice +than the Bolsheviki.[263] + +I mentioned the matter summarily to one of the delegates, who evinced a +certain interest in it and promised to discuss it at length later on +with a view to action. Another to whom I unfolded it later thought it +would be well if I myself started, together with two or three others, +for Moscow, Petrograd, Ekaterinodar, and other places, and reported on +the situation. But weeks went by and nothing was done.[264] + +I had interesting talks with some influential delegates on the eve of +the invitation issued to all _de facto_ governments of Russia to +forgather at Prinkipo for a symposium. They admitted frankly at the time +that they had no policy and were groping in the dark, and one of them +held to the dogma that no light from outside was to be expected. They +gave me the impression that underlying the impending summons was the +conviction that Bolshevism, divested of its frenzied manifestations, was +a rough and ready government calumniously blackened by unscrupulous +enemies, criminal perhaps in its outbursts, but suited in its feasible +aims to the peculiar needs of a peculiar people, and therefore as worthy +of being recognized as any of the others. It was urged that it had +already lasted a considerable time without provoking a counter-movement +worthy of the name; that the stories circulating about the horrors of +which it was guilty were demonstrably exaggerated; that many of the +bloody atrocities were to be ascribed to crazy individuals on both +sides; that the witnesses against Lenin were partial and untrustworthy; +that something should be done without delay to solve a pressing problem, +and that the Conference could think of nothing better, nor, in fact, of +any alternative. + +To me the principal scheme seemed a sinister mistake, both in form and +in substance. In form, because it nullified the motives which determined +the help given to the Greeks, Poles, and Serbs, who were being urged to +crush the Bolshevists, and left the Allies without good grounds for +keeping their own troops in Archangel, Odessa, and northern Russia to +stop the onward march of Bolshevism. Some governments had publicly +stigmatized the Bolshevists as cutthroats; one had pledged itself never +to have relations with them, but the Prinkipo invitation bespoke a +resolve to cancel these judgments and declarations and change their tack +as an improvement on doing nothing at all. The scheme was also an error +in substance, because the sole motive that could warrant it was the hope +of reconciling the warring parties. And that hope was doomed to +disappointment from the outset. + +According to the Prinkipo project, which was attributed to President +Wilson,[265] an invitation was to be issued to all organized groups +exercising or attempting to exercise political authority or military +control in Siberia and northern Russia, to send representatives to +confer with the delegates of the Allied and Associated Powers on +Prince's Islands. It is difficult to discuss the expedient seriously. +One feels like a member of the little people of yore, who are reported +to have consulted an oracle to ascertain what they must do to keep from +laughing during certain debates on public affairs. It exposed its +ingenuous authors to the ridicule of the world and made it clear to the +dullest apprehension that from that quarter, at any rate, the Russian +people, as a whole, must expect neither light nor leading, nor +intelligent appreciation of their terrible plight. There is a sphere of +influence in the human intellect between the reason and the imagination, +the boundary line of which is shadowy. That sphere would seem to be the +source whence some of the most extraordinary notions creep into the +minds of men who have suddenly come into a position of power which they +are not qualified to wield--the _nouveaux puissants_ of the world of +politics. + +To the credit of the Supreme Council it never let offended dignity stand +between itself and the triumph of any of the various causes which it +successively took in hand. Time and again it had been addressed by the +Russian Bolshevist government in the most opprobrious terms, and accused +not merely of clothing political expediency in the garb of spurious +idealism, but of giving the fore place in political life to sordid +interests, over which a cloak of humanitarianism had been deftly thrown. +One official missive from the Bolshevist government to President Wilson +is worth quoting from:[266] "We should like to learn with more precision +how you conceive the Society of Nations? When you insist on the +independence of Belgium, of Serbia, of Poland, you surely mean that the +masses of the people are everywhere to take over the administration of +the country. But it is odd that you did not also require the +emancipation of Ireland, of Egypt, of India, and of the Philippines.... + +"As we concluded peace with the German Kaiser, for whom you have no more +consideration than we have for you, so we are minded to make peace with +you. We propose, therefore, the discussion, in concert with our allies, +of the following questions: (1) Are the French and English governments +ready to give up exacting the blood of the Russian people if this people +consent to pay them ransom and to compensate them in that way? (2) If +the answer is in the affirmative, what ransom would the Allies want +(railway concessions, gold mines, or territories)? + +"We also look forward to your telling us exactly whether the future +Society of Nations will be a joint stock enterprise for the exploitation +of Russia, and in particular--as your French allies require--for forcing +Russia to refund the milliards which their bankers furnished to the +Tsarist government, or whether the Society of Nations will be something +different...." + +As soon as the Prinkipo motion was passed by the delegates I was +informed by telephone, and I lost no time in communicating the tidings +to Russia's official representatives in Paris. The plan astounded them. +They could hardly believe that, while hopefully negotiating with the +anti-Bolshevists, the Conference was desirous at the same time of +opening _pourparlers_ with the Leninists, between whom and them +antagonism was not merely political, but personal and vindictive, like +that of two Albanians in a blood feud. I suggested that the scheme +should be thwarted at its inception, and that for this purpose I should +be authorized by the representatives of the four[267] constructive +governments in Russia to make known their decision. I was accordingly +empowered to announce to the world that they would categorically refuse +to send any representatives to confer with the assassins of their +kinsmen and the destroyers of their country, and that under no +circumstances would they swerve from that attitude. Having received the +authorization, I cabled to the United States and Britain that the +projected meeting would come to naught, owing to the refusal of all +constructive elements to agree to any compromise with the Bolsheviki; +that in the opinion of Russia's representatives in Paris the advance +made by the plenipotentiaries would strengthen the Bolshevist movement, +render the civil war more merciless than before, and raise up formidable +difficulties to the establishment of the League of Nations. + +But the plenipotentiaries did not yet give up their cause as lost. By +way of "saving their face," they unofficially approached the Russian +Ministers in Paris, whom they had not deigned to consult on the subject +before making the plunge, and exhorted them to give at least a formal +assent to the proposal, which would commit them to nothing and would +enable them to withdraw without loss of dignity. They, on their part, +undertook to smooth the road to the best of their ability. Thus it would +be unnecessary, they explained, for the Ministers of the constructive +governments or their substitutes to come into contact with the slayers +of their kindred; they would occupy different wings of the hotel at +Prinkipo, and never meet their adversaries. The delegates would see to +that. "Then why should we go there at all if discussion be superfluous?" +asked the Russians. "Because the Allied governments desire to ascertain +the condition of Russia and your conception of the measures that would +contribute to ameliorate it," was the reply. "Prince's Islands is not +the right place to study the Russian situation, nor is it reasonable to +expect us to journey thither in order to tell subordinates, who have no +knowledge of our country, what we can tell them and their principals in +Paris in greater detail and with confirmatory documents. Moreover, the +delegates you have appointed have no qualification to judge of Russia's +plight and potentialities. They know neither the country nor its +language nor its people nor its politics, yet you want us to travel all +the way to Turkey to tell them what we think, in order that they should +return from Turkey to Paris and report to your Ministers what we said +and what we could have unfolded directly to the Ministers themselves +long ago and are ready to propound to them to-day or to-morrow. + +"The project is puerile and your tactics are baleful. Your Ministers +branded the Bolshevists as criminals, and the French government publicly +announced that it would enter into no relations with them. In spite of +that, all the Allied governments have now offered to enter into +relations with them. Now you admit that you made a slip, and you promise +to correct it if only we consent to save your face and go on a +wild-goose chase to Prinkipo. But for us that journey would be a +recantation of our principles. That is why we are unable to make it." + +The Prinkipo incident, which began in the region of high politics, ended +in comedy. A number of more or less witty epigrams were coined at the +expense of the plenipotentiaries, the scheme, set in a stronger light +than it was meant to endure, assumed a grotesque shape, and its +promoters strove to consign it as best they could to oblivion. But the +Sphinx question of Russia's future remained, and the penalties for +failure to solve it aright waxed more and more deterrent. The supreme +arbiters had cognizance of them, had, in fact, enumerated them when +proclaiming the impossibility of establishing a durable peace or a solid +League of Nations as long as Russia continued to be a prey to anarchy. +But even with the prizes and penalties before their eyes to entice and +spur them, they proved unequal to the task of devising an intelligent +policy. Fitful and incoherent, their efforts were either incapable of +being realized or, when feasible, were mischievous. Thus, by degrees, +they hardened the great Slav nation against the Entente. + +The reader will be prepared to learn that the overtures made to the +Bolsheviki kindled the anger of the patriotic Russians at home, who had +been looking to the Western nations for salvation and making veritable +holocausts in order to merit it. Every observer could perceive the +repercussion of this sentiment in Paris, and I received ample proofs of +it from Siberia. There the leaders and the population unhesitatingly +turned for assistance to Japan. For this there were excellent reasons. +The only government which throughout the war knew its own mind and +pursued a consistent and an intelligible policy toward Russia was that +of Tokio. This point is worth making at a time when Japan is regarded as +a Laodicean convert to the invigorating ideas of the Western peoples, at +heart a backslider and a potential schismatic. She is charged with +making interest the mainspring of her action in her intercourse with +other nations. The charge is true. Only a Candide would expect to see +her moved by altruism and self-denial, in a company which penalizes +these virtues. Community of interests is the link that binds Japan to +Britain. A like bond had subsisted between her and Tsarist Russia. I +helped to create it. Her statesmen, who have no taste for sonorous +phraseology, did not think it necessary to give it a more fashionable +name. This did not prevent the Japanese from being chivalrously loyal to +their allies under the strain of powerful temptations, true to the +spirit and the letter of their engagements. But although they made no +pretense to lofty purpose, their political maxims differ nowise from +those of the great European states, whose territorial, economic, and +military interests have been religiously safeguarded by the Treaty of +Versailles. True, the statesmen of Tokio shrink from the hybrid +combination of two contradictions linked together by a sentimental +fallacy. Their unpopularity among Anglo-Saxons is the result of +speculations about their future intentions; in other words, they are +being punished, as certain of the delegates at the Conference have been +eulogized, not for what they actually did, but for what it is assumed +they are desirous of achieving. Toward Russia they played the same game +that their allies were playing there and in Europe, only more frankly +and systematically. They applied the two principal maxims which lie at +the root of international politics to-day--_do ut des_, and the nation +that is capable of leading others has the right and the duty to lead +them. And they established a valuable reputation for fulfilling their +compacts conscientiously. Nippon, then, would have helped her Russian +neighbors, and she expected to be helped by them in return. Have not the +Allies, she asked, compelled Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Jugoslavia to +pay them in cash for their emancipation? + +Russians, who have no color prejudices, hit it off with the Japanese, by +whom they are liked in return. That the two peoples should feel drawn to +each other politically is, therefore, natural, and that they will strike +up economic agreements in the future seems to many inevitable and +legitimate. One such agreement was on the point of being signed between +them and the anti-Bolshevists of Omsk immediately after, and in +consequence of, the Allies' ill-considered invitation to Lenin and +Trotzky to delegate representatives to Prinkipo. This convention, I have +reason to believe, was actually drafted, and was about to be signed. And +the adverse influence that suddenly made itself felt and hindered the +compact came not from Russia, but from western Europe. It would be +unfruitful to dwell further on this matter here, beyond recording the +belief of many Russians that the zeal of the English-speaking peoples +for the well-being of Siberia, where they intend to maintain troops +after having withdrawn them from Europe, is the counter-move to Japan's +capacity and wish to co-operate with the population of that rich +country. This assumption may be groundless, but it will surprise only +those who fail to note how often the flag of principle is unfurled over +economic interests. + +The delegates were not all discouraged by their discomfiture over the +Prinkipo project. Some of them still hankered after an agreement with +the Bolshevists which would warrant them in including the Russian +problem among the tasks provisionally achieved. President Wilson +despatched secret envoys to Moscow to strike up an accord with +Lenin,[268] but although the terms which Mr. Bullitt obtained were those +which had in advance been declared satisfactory, he drew back as soon as +they were agreed to. And he assigned no reason for this change of +attitude. Whether the brightening of the prospects of Kolchak and +Denikin had modified his judgment on the question of expediency must +remain a matter of conjecture. It is hardly necessary, however, to point +out once more that this sudden improvisation of schemes which were +abandoned again at the last moment tended to lower the not particularly +high estimate set by the ethnic wards of the Anglo-Saxon peoples on the +moral guidance of their self-constituted guardians. + +An ardent champion of the Allied nations in France wrote: "We have never +had a Russian policy which was all of one piece. We have never +synthetized any but contradictory conceptions. This is so true that one +may safely affirm that if Russian patriotism has been sustained by our +velleities of action, Russian destructiveness has been encouraged by our +velleities of desertion. We joined, so to say, both camps, and our +velleities of desertion occasionally getting the upper hand of our +velleities of action ... we carry out nothing."[269] + +Toward Kolchak and Denikin the attitude of the Supreme Council varied +considerably. It was currently reported in Paris that the Admiral had +had the misfortune to arouse the displeasure of the two Conference +chiefs by some casual manifestation of a frame of mind which was +resented, perhaps a movement of independence, to which distance or the +medium of transmission imparted a flavor of disrespect. Anyhow, the +Russian leader was for some time under a cloud, which darkened the +prospects of his cause. And as for Denikin, he appeared to the other +great delegate as a self-advertising braggart. + +These mental portraits were retouched as the fortune of war favored the +pair. And their cause benefited correspondingly. To this improvement +influences at work in London contributed materially. For the +anti-Bolshevist currents which made themselves felt in certain state +departments in that capital, where there were several irreconcilable +policies, were powerful and constant. By the month of May the Conference +had turned half-heartedly from Lenin and Trotzky to Kolchak and Denikin, +but its mode of negotiating bore the mark peculiar to the diplomacy of +the new era of "open covenants openly arrived at." The delegates in +Paris communicated with the two leaders in Russia "over the heads" and +without the knowledge of their authorized representatives in Paris, just +as they had issued peremptory orders to "the Rumanian government at +Bucharest" over the heads of its chiefs, who were actually in the French +capital. + +The proximate motives that determined several important decisions of +the Secret Council, although of no political moment, are of sufficient +psychological interest to warrant mention. They shed a light on the +concreteness, directness, and simplicity of the workings of the +statesmen's minds when engaged in transacting international business. +For example, the particular moment for the recognition of new +communities as states was fixed by wholly extrinsical circumstances. A +food-distributer, for instance, or the Secretary of a Treasury, wanted a +receipt for expenditure abroad from the people that benefited by it. As +a document of this character presupposes the existence of a state and a +government, the official dispenser of food or money was loath to go to +the aid of any nation which was not a state or which lacked a properly +constituted government. Hence, in some cases the Conference had to +create both on the spur of the moment. Thus the reason why Finland's +independence received the hall-mark of the Powers when it did was +because the United States government was generously preparing to give +aid to the Finns and had to get in return proper receipts signed by +competent authorities representing the state.[270] Had it not been for +this immediate need of valid receipts, the act of recognition might have +been postponed in the same way as was the marking off of the frontiers. +And like considerations led to like results in other cases. +Czechoslovakia's independence was formally recognized for the same +reason, as one of its leading men frankly admitted. + +One of the serious worries of the Conference chiefs in their dealings +with Russia was the lack of a recognized government there, qualified to +sign receipts for advances of money and munitions. And as they could not +resolve to accord recognition to any of the existing administrations, +they hit upon the middle course, that of promoting the anti-Bolshevists +to the rank of a community, not, indeed, sovereign or independent, but +deserving of every kind of assistance except the despatch of Allied +troops. Assistance was already being given liberally, but the necessity +was felt for justifying it formally. And the two delegates went to work +as though they were hatching some dark and criminal plot. Secretly +despatching a message to Admiral Kolchak, they put a number of questions +to him which he was not qualified to answer without first consulting his +official advisers in Paris. Yet these advisers were not apprised by the +Secret Council of what was being done. Nay, more, the French Foreign +Office was not notified. By the merest chance I got wind of the matter +and published the official message.[271] It summoned the Admiral to bind +himself to convene a Constituent Assembly as soon as he arrived in +Moscow; to hold free elections; to repudiate definitely the old régime +and all that it implied; to recognize the independence of Poland and +Finland, whose frontiers would be determined by the League of Nations; +to avail himself of the advice and co-operation of the League in coming +to an understanding with the border states, and to acquiesce in the +decision of the Peace Conference respecting the future status of +Bessarabia. Kolchak's answer was described as clear when "decipherable," +and to his credit, he frankly declined to forestall the will of the +Constituent Assembly respecting those border states which owed their +separate existence to the initiative of the victorious governments. But +the Secret Council of the Conference accepted his answer, and relied +upon it as an adequate reason for continuing the assistance which they +had been giving him theretofore. + +About the person of Kolchak it ought to be superfluous to say more than +that he is an upright citizen of energy and resolution, as patriotic as +Fabricius, as disinterested and unambitious as Cincinnatus. To his +credit account, which is considerable, stands his wonder-working faith +in the recuperative forces of his country when its fortunes were at +their lowest ebb. With buoyancy and confidence he set himself the task +of rescuing his fellow-countrymen when it looked as hopeless as that of +Xenophon at Cunaxa. He created an army out of nothing, induced his men +by argument, suasion, and example to shake off the virus of indiscipline +and sacrifice their individual judgment and will to the well-being of +their fellows. He enjoined nothing upon others that he himself was not +ready to undertake, and he exposed himself time and again to risks +greater far than any general should deliberately incur. Whether he +succeeds or fails in his arduous enterprise, Kolchak, by his preterhuman +patience and sustained energy and courage, has deserved exceptionally +well of his country, and could afford to ignore the current legends that +depict him in the crying colors of a reactionary, even though they were +accepted for the time by the most exalted among the Great Unversed in +Russian affairs. One may dissent from his policy and object to some of +his lieutenants and to many of his partizans, but from the +single-minded, patriotic soldier one cannot withhold a large meed of +praise. Kolchak's defects are mostly exaggerations of his qualities. His +remarkable versatility is purchased at the price of fitfulness, his +energy displays itself in spurts, and his impulsiveness impairs at times +the successful execution of a plan which requires unflagging constancy. +His judgment of men is sometimes at fault, but he would never hesitate +to confer a high post upon any man who deserved it. He is democratic in +the current sense of the word, but neither a doctrinaire nor a faddist. +A disciplinarian and a magnetic personality withal, he charms as +effectually as he commands his soldiers. He is enlightened enough, like +the great Western world-menders in their moments of theorizing, to +discountenance secrecy and hole-and-corner agreements, and, what is +still more praiseworthy, he is courageous enough to practise the +doctrine. + +When the revolution broke out Kolchak was at Sebastopol. The telegram +conveying the sensational tidings of the outbreak was kept secret by all +military commanders--except himself. He unhesitatingly summoned the +soldiers and sailors, apprised them of what had taken place, gave them +an insight into the true meaning of the violent upheaval, and asked them +to join with him in a heroic endeavor to influence the course of things, +in the direction of order and consolidation. He gaged aright the +significance of the revolution and the impossibility of confining it +within any bounds, political, moral, or geographical. But he reasoned +that a band of resolute patriots might contrive to wrest something for +the country from the hands of Fate. It was with this faith and hope that +he set to work, and soon his valiant army, the reclaimed provinces, and +the improved Russian outlook were eloquent witnesses to his worth, whose +testimony no legendary reports, however well received in the West, could +weaken. + +How ingrained in the plenipotentiaries was their proneness for what, for +want of a better word, may be termed conspirative and circuitous action +may be inferred from the record of their official and unofficial +conversations and acts. When holding converse with Kolchak's authorized +agents in Paris they would lay down hard conditions, which were +described as immutable; and yet when communicating with the Admiral +direct they would submit to him terms considerably less irksome, unknown +to his Paris advisers, thus mystifying both and occasioning friction +between them. In many cases the contrast between the two sets of demands +was disconcerting, and in all it tended to cause misunderstandings and +complicate the relations between Kolchak and his Paris agents. But he +continued to give his confidence to his representatives, although they +were denied that of the delegates. It would, of course, be grossly +unfair to impute anything like disingenuousness to plenipotentiaries +engaged upon issues of this magnitude, but it was an unfortunate +coincidence that they were known to regard some of the members of the +Russian Council in Paris with disfavor, and would have been glad to see +them superseded. When Nansen's project to feed the starving population +of Russia was first mooted, Kolchak's Ministers in Paris were approached +on the subject, and the Allies' plan was propounded to them so +defectively or vaguely as to give them the impression that the +co-operation of the Bolshevist government was part of the program. They +were also allowed to think that during the work of feeding the people +the despatch of munitions and other military necessaries to Kolchak and +his army would be discontinued. Naturally, the scheme, weighted with +these two accompaniments, was unacceptable to Kolchak's representatives +in Paris. But, strange to say, in the official notification which the +plenipotentiaries telegraphed at the same time to the Admiral direct, +neither of these obnoxious riders was included, so that the proposal +assumed a different aspect. + +Another example of these singular tactics is supplied by their +_pourparlers_ with the Admiral's delegates about the future +international status of Finland, whose help was then being solicited to +free Petrograd from the Bolshevist yoke. The Finns insisted on the +preliminary recognition of their complete independence by the Russians. +Kolchak's representatives shrank from bartering any territories which +had belonged to the state on their own sole responsibility. None the +less, as the subject was being theoretically threshed out in all its +bearings, the members of the Russian Council in Paris inquired of the +Allies whether the Finns had at least renounced their pretensions to the +province of Karelia. But the spokesmen of the Conference replied +elusively, giving them no assurance that the claim had been +relinquished. Thereupon they naturally concluded that the Finns either +still maintained their demand or else had not yet modified their former +decision on the matter, and they deemed it their duty to report in this +sense to their chief. Yet the plenipotentiaries, in their message on the +subject to Kolchak, which was sent about the same time, assured him that +the annexation of Karelia was no longer insisted upon, and that the +Finns would not again put forward the claim! One hardly knows what to +think of tactics like these. In their talks with the spokesmen of +certain border states of Russia the official representatives of the +three European Powers at the Conference employed language that gave rise +to misunderstandings which may have untoward consequences in the future. +One would like to believe that these misunderstandings were caused by +mere slips of the tongue, which should not have been taken literally by +those to whom they were addressed; but in the meanwhile they have become +not only the source of high, possibly delusive, hopes, but the basis of +elaborate policies. For example, Esthonian and Lettish Ministers were +given to understand that they would be permitted to send diplomatic +legations to Petrograd as soon as Russia was reconstituted, a mode of +intercourse which presupposes the full independence of all the countries +concerned. A constitution was also drawn up for Esthonia by one of the +Great Powers, which started with the postulate that each people was to +be its own master. Consequently, the two nations in question were +warranted in looking forward to receiving that complete independence. +And if such was, indeed, the intention of the Great Powers, there is +nothing further to be said on the score of straightforwardness or +precision. But neither in the terms submitted to Kolchak nor in those to +which his Paris agents were asked to give their assent was the +independence of either country as much as hinted at.[272] + +These may perhaps seem trivial details, but they enable us to estimate +the methods and the organizing arts of the statesmen upon whose skill in +resource and tact in dealing with their fellows depended the new +synthesis of international life and ethics which they were engaged in +realizing. It would be superfluous to investigate the effect upon the +Russians, or, indeed, upon any of the peoples represented in Paris, of +the Secret Council's conspirative deliberations and circuitous +procedure, which were in such strong contrast to the "open covenants +openly arrived at" to which in their public speeches they paid such high +tribute. + +The main danger, which the Allies redoubted from failure to restore +tranquillity in Russia, was that Germany might accomplish it and, owing +to her many advantages, might secure a privileged position in the +country and use it as a stepping-stone to material prosperity, military +strength, and political ascendancy. This feat she could accomplish +against considerable odds. She would achieve it easily if the Allies +unwittingly helped her, as they were doing. + +Unfortunately the Allied governments had not much hope of succeeding. +If they had been capable of elaborating a comprehensive plan, they no +longer possessed the means of executing it. But they devised none. "The +fact is," one of the Conference leaders exclaimed, "we have no policy +toward Russia. Neither do we possess adequate data for one." + +They strove to make good this capital omission by erecting a paper wall +between Germany and her great Slav neighbor. The plan was simple. The +Teutons were to be compelled to disinterest themselves in the affairs of +Russia, with whose destinies their own are so closely bound up. But they +soon realized that such a partition is useless as a breakwater against +the tidal wave of Teutondom, and Germany is still destined to play the +part of Russia's steward and majordomo. + +How could it be otherwise? Germany and Russia are near neighbors. Their +economic relations have been continuous for ages, and the Allies have +made them indispensable in the future; Russia is ear-marked as Germany's +best colony. The two peoples are become interdependent. The Teuton will +recognize the Slav as an ally in economics, and will pay himself +politically. Who will now thwart or check this process? Russia must +live, and therefore buy and sell, barter and negotiate. Can a parchment +treaty hinder or invalidate her dealings? Can it prevent an admixture of +politics in commercial arrangements, seeing that they are but two +aspects of one and the same transaction? It is worthy of note that a +question which goes to the quick of the matter was never mooted. It is +this: Is it an essential element of the future ordering of the world +that Germany shall play no part whatever in its progress? Is it to be +assumed that she will always content herself with being treated as the +incorrigible enemy of civilization? And, if not, what do all these +checks and barriers amount to? + +In Russia there are millions of Germans conversant with the language, +laws, and customs of the people. Many of them have been settled there +for generations. They are passionately attached to their race, and +neither unfriendly nor useless to the country of their adoption. The +trade, commerce, and industry of the European provinces are largely in +their hands and in those of their forerunners and helpers, the Jews. The +Russo-German and Jewish middlemen in the country have their faces ever +turned toward the Fatherland. They are wont to buy and sell there. They +always obtained their credit in Berlin, Dresden, or Frankfurt. They +acted as commercial travelers, agents, brokers, bankers, for Russians +and Germans. They are constantly going and coming between the two +countries. How are these myriads to be fettered permanently and kept +from eking out a livelihood in the future on the lines traced by +necessity or interest in the past? The Russians, on their side, must +live, and therefore buy and sell. Has the Conference or the League the +right or power to dictate to them the persons or the people with whom +alone they may have dealings? Can it narrow the field of Russia's +political activities? Some people flatter themselves that it can. In +this case the League of Nations must transform itself into an alliance +for the suppression of the German race. + +Burning indignation and moral reprobation were the sentiments aroused +among the high-minded Allies by the infamous Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. +For that mockery of a peace, even coming from an enemy, transcended the +bounds of human vengeance. It was justly anathematized by all Entente +peoples as the loathsome creation of a frenzied people. But shortly +afterward the Entente governments themselves, their turn having come, +wrought what Russians of all parties regard as a political patchwork of +variegated injustice more odious far, because its authors claimed to be +considered as the devoted friends of their victims and the champions of +right. Whereas the Brest-Litovsk Treaty provided for a federative Slav +state, with provincial diets and a federal parliament, the system +substituted by the Allies consisted in carving up Russia into an +ever-increasing number of separate states, some of which cannot live by +themselves, in debarring the inhabitants from a voice in the matter, in +creating a permanent agency for foreign intervention, and ignoring +Russia's right to reparation from the common enemy. The Russians were +not asked even informally to say what they thought or felt about what +was being done. This province and that were successively lopped off in a +lordly way by statesmen who aimed at being classed as impartial +dispensers of justice and sowers of the seeds of peace, but were +unacquainted with the conditions and eschewed investigation. Here, at +all events, the usual symptoms of hesitancy and procrastination were +absent. Swift resolve and thoroughness marked the disintegrating action +by which they unwittingly prepared the battlefields of the future. + +Nobody acquainted with Russian psychology imagines that the feelings of +a high-souled people can be transformed by gifts of food, money, or +munitions made to some of their fellow-countrymen. How little likely +Russians are to barter ideal boons for material advantages may be +gathered from an incident worth noting that occurred in the months of +April and May, when the fall of the capital into the hands of the +anti-Bolshevists was confidently expected. + +At that time, as it chanced, the one thing necessary for their success +against Bolshevism was the capture of Petrograd. If that city, which, +despite its cosmopolitan character, still retained its importance as the +center of political Russia, could be wrested from the tenacious grasp +of Lenin and Trotzky, the fall of the anarchist dictators was, people +held, a foregone conclusion. The friends of Kolchak accordingly pressed +every lever to set the machinery in motion for the march against Peter's +city. And as, of all helpers, the Finns and Esthonians were admittedly +the most efficacious, conversations were begun with their leaders. They +were ready to drive a bargain, but it must be a hard and lucrative one. +They would march on Petrograd for a price. The principal condition which +they laid down was the express and definite recognition of their +complete independence within frontiers which it would be unfruitful here +to discuss. The Kolchak government was ready to treat with the Finnish +Cabinet, as the _de facto_ government, and to recognize Finland's +present status for what it is in international law; but as they could +not give what they did not possess, their recognition must, they +explained, be like their own authority, provisional. A similar reply was +made to the Esthonians; to this those peoples demurred. The Russians +stood firm and the negotiations fell through. It is to be supposed that +when they have recovered their former status they will prove more +amenable to the blandishments of the Allies than they were to the +powerful bribe dangled before their eyes by the Esthonians and the +Finns? + +But if the improvised arrangements entailing dismemberment which the +Great Powers imposed on Russia during her cataleptic trance are revised, +as they may be, whenever she recovers consciousness and strength, what +course will events then follow? If she seeks to regather under her wing +some of the peoples whose complete independence the League of Nations +was so eager to guarantee, will that body respond to the appeal of these +and fly to their assistance? Russia, who has not been consulted, will +not be as bound by the canons of the League, and one need not be a +prophet to foretell the reluctance of Western armies to wage another war +in order to prevent territories, of which some of the plenipotentiaries +may have heard as little as of Teschen, becoming again integral parts of +the Slav state. Europe may then see its political axis once more shifted +and its outlook obscured. Thus the system of equilibrium, which was +theoretically abolished by the Fourteen Points, may be re-established by +the hundred and one economico-political changes which Russia's recovery +will contribute to bring about. + +A decade is but a twinkling in the history of a nation. Within a few +years Russia may once more be united. The army that will have achieved +this feat will constitute a formidable weapon in the hands of the state +that wields it. As everything, even military strength, is relative, and +as the armies of the rest of Europe will not be impatient to fight in +the East, and will therefore count for considerably less than their +numbers, there will be no real danger of an invasion. Russia is a +country easy to get into, but hard to get out of, and military success +against its armies there would in verity be a victory without glory, +annexation, indemnities, or other appreciable gains. + +It is hard to believe that the distinguished statesmen of the Conference +took these eventualities fully into account before attempting to reshape +amorphous Russia after their own vague ideal. But whether we assess +their work by the standards of political science or of international +ethics, or explain it as a series of well-meant expedients begotten by +the practical logic of momentary convenience, we must confess that its +gifted authors lacked a direct eye for the wayward tides of national and +international movements; were, in fact, smitten by political blindness, +and did the best they could in these distressing circumstances. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[260] From whatever angle this Russian business is viewed, the policy of +the Allies, if it can be dignified with that name, seems to be a +compound of weakness, ineptitude, and shilly-shally."--Cf. _The +Westminster Gazette_, July 5, 1919. + +[261] Cf. _Journal des Débats_, August 13, 1919. Article by M. Auguste +Gauvain. + +[262] There can be no doubt that the Bolshevist government under +Lunatcharsky has made a point of furthering the arts, sciences, and +elementary instruction. All reports from foreign travelers and from +eminent Russians--one of these my university fellow-student, now +perpetual secretary of the Academy--agree about this silver lining to a +dark cloud. + +[263] This latter fact was doubtless known to the British government, +which decided as early as March to recall the British troops from +northern Russia. + +[264] I published the facts in _The Daily Telegraph_, April 21, and _The +Public Ledger_ of Philadelphia, April 10, 1919. + +[265] Colonel House is said to have dissociated himself from the +President on this occasion. + +[266] It was sent at the end of October, 1918, and to my knowledge was +not published in full. + +[267] Omsk, Ekaterinodar, Archangel, and the Crimea. The last-named +disappeared soon afterward. + +[268] See Chapter IV "Censorship and Secrecy," p. 132. + +[269] Pertinax in _L'Echo de Paris_, July 5, 1919. + +[270] This admission was made to a distinguished member of the +Diplomatic Corps. + +[271] In _The Daily Telegraph_, June 19, 1919, and in _The Public +Ledger_ of Philadelphia. + +[272] In July M. Pichon told the Esthonian delegates that France +recognized the independence of their country in principle. But this +declaration was not taken seriously, either by the Russians or by the +French. + + + + +XI + +BOLSHEVISM + + +What is Bolshevism? A generic term that stands for a number of things +which have little in common. It varies with the countries where it +appears. In Russia it is the despotism of an organized and unscrupulous +group of men in a disorganized community. It might also be termed the +frenzy of a few epileptics running amuck among a multitude of +paralytics. It is not so much a political doctrine or a socialist theory +as a psychic disease of a section of the community which cannot be cured +without leaving permanent traces and perhaps modifying certain organic +functions of the society affected. For some students at a distance who +make abstraction from its methods--as a critic appreciating the +performance of "Hamlet" might make abstraction from the part of the +Prince of Denmark--it is a modification of the theory of Karl Marx, the +newest contribution to latter-day social science. In Russia, at any +rate, the general condition of society from which it sprang was +characterized not by the advance of social science, but by a psychic +disorder the germs of which, after a century of incubation, were brought +to the final phase of development by the war. In its origins it is a +pathological phenomenon. + +Four and a half years of an unprecedented campaign which drained to +exhaustion the financial and economic resources of the European +belligerents upset the psychical equilibrium of large sections of their +populations. Goaded by hunger and disease to lawless action, and no +longer held back by legal deterrents or moral checks, they followed the +instinct of self-preservation to the extent of criminal lawlessness. +Familiarity with death and suffering dispelled the fear of human +punishment, while numbness of the moral sense made them insensible to +the less immediate restraints of a religious character. These phenomena +are not unusual concomitants of protracted wars. History records +numerous examples of the homecoming soldiery turning the weapons +destined for the foreign foe against political parties or social classes +in their own country. In other European communities for some time +previously a tendency toward root-reaching and violent change was +perceptible, but as the state retained its hold on the army it remained +a tendency. In the case of Russia--the country where the state, more +than ordinarily artificial and ill-balanced, was correspondingly +weak--Fate had interpolated a blood-stained page of red and white terror +in the years 1906-08. Although fitful, unorganized, and abortive, that +wild splutter was one of the foretokens of the impending cataclysm, and +was recognized as such by the writer of these pages. During the +foregoing quarter of a century he had watched with interest the sowing +of the dragon's teeth from which was one day to spring up a race of +armed and frenzied men. Few observers, however, even in the Tsardom, +gaged the strength or foresaw the effects of the anarchist propaganda +which was being carried on suasively and perseveringly, oftentimes +unwittingly, in the nursery, the school, the church, the university, and +with eminent success in the army and the navy. Hence the widespread +error that the Russian revolution was preceded by no such era of +preparation as that of the encylopedists in France. + +Recently, however, publicists have gone to the other extreme and +asserted that Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Gorky, and a host of other Russian +writers were apostles of the tenets which have since received the name +of Bolshevism, and that it was they who prepared the Russian upheaval +just as it was the authors of the "Encyclopedia" who prepared the French +Revolution. In this sweeping form the statement is misleading. Russian +literature during the reigns of the last three Tsars--with few +exceptions, like the writings of Leskoff--was unquestionably a vehicle +for the spread of revolutionary ideas. But it would be a gross +exaggeration to assert that the end deliberately pursued was that form +of anarchy which is known to-day as Bolshevism, or, indeed, genuine +anarchy in any form. Tolstoy and Gorky may be counted among the +forerunners of Bolshevism, but Dostoyevsky, whom I was privileged to +know, was one of its keenest antagonists. Nor was it only anarchism that +he combated. Like Leskoff, he was an inveterate enemy of political +radicalism, and we university students bore him a grudge in consequence. +In his masterly delineation[273] of a group of "reformers," in +particular of Verkhovensky--whom psychic tendency, intellectual anarchy, +and political crime bring under the category of Bolshevists--he +foreshadowed the logical conclusion, and likewise the political +consummation, of the corrosive doctrines which in those days were +associated with the name of Bakunin. In the year 1905-06, when the +upshot of the conflict between Tsarism and the revolution was still +doubtful, Count Witte and I often admired the marvelous intuition of the +great novelist, whose gallery of portraits in the "Devils" seemed to +have become suddenly endowed with life, and to be conspiring, shooting, +and bomb-throwing in the streets of Moscow, Petersburg, Odessa, and +Tiflis. The seeds of social revolution sown by the novelists, essayists, +and professional guides of the nation were forced by the wars of 1904 +and 1914 into rapid germination. + +As far back as the year 1892, in a work published over a pseudonym, the +present writer described the rotten condition of the Tsardom, and +ventured to foretell its speedy collapse.[274] The French historian +Michelet wrote with intuition marred by exaggeration and acerbity: "A +barbarous force, a law-hating world, Russia sucks and absorbs all the +poison of Europe and then gives it off in greater quantity and deadlier +intensity. When we admit Russia, we admit the cholera, dissolution, +death. That is the meaning of Russian propaganda. Yesterday she said to +us, 'I am Christianity.' To-morrow she will say, 'I am socialism.' It is +the revolting idea of a demagogy without an idea, a principle, a +sentiment, of a people which would march toward the west with the gait +of a blind man, having lost its soul and its will and killing at random, +of a terrible automaton like a dead body which can still reach and slay. + +"It might commove Europe and bespatter it with blood, but that would not +hinder it from plunging itself into nothingness in the abysmal ooze of +definite dissolution." + +Russia, then, led by domiciled aliens without a fatherland, may be truly +said to have been wending steadily toward the revolutionary vortex long +before the outbreak of hostilities. Her progress was continuous and +perceptible. As far back as the year 1906 the late Count Witte and +myself made a guess at the time-distance which the nation still had to +traverse, assuming the rate of progress to be constant, before reaching +the abyss. This, however, was mere guesswork, which one of the many +possibilities--and in especial change in the speed-rate--might belie. In +effect, events moved somewhat more quickly than we anticipated, and it +was the World War and its appalling concomitants that precipitated the +catastrophe. + +As circumstances willed it, certain layers of the people of central +Europe were also possessed by the revolutionary spirit at the close of +the World War. In their case hunger, hardship, disease, and moral shock +were the avenues along which it moved and reached them. This coincidence +was fraught with results more impressive than serious. The governments +of both these great peoples had long been the mainstays of monarchic +tradition, military discipline, and the principle of authority. The +Teutons, steadily pursuing an ideal which lay at the opposite pole to +anarchy, had risked every worldly and well-nigh every spiritual +possession to realize it. It was the hegemony of the world. This +aspiration transfigured, possessed, fanaticized them. Teutondom became +to them what Islam is to Mohammedans of every race, even when they shake +off religion. They eschewed no means, however iniquitous, that seemed to +lead to the goal. They ceased to be human in order to force Europe to +become German. Offering up the elementary principles of morality on the +altar of patriotism, they staked their all upon the single venture of +the war. It was as the throw of a gambler playing for his soul with the +Evil One. Yet the faith of these materialists waxed heroic withal, like +their self-sacrifice. And in the fiery ardor of their enthusiasm, hard +concrete facts were dissolved and set floating as illusions in the +ambient mist. Their wishes became thoughts and their fears were +dispelled as fancies. They beheld only what they yearned for, and when +at last they dropped from the dizzy height of their castles in cloudland +their whole world, era, and ideal was shattered. Unavailing remorse, +impotent rage, spiritual and intense physical exhaustion completed their +demoralization. The more harried and reckless among them became +frenzied. Turning first against their rulers, then against one another, +they finally started upon a work of wanton destruction relieved by no +creative idea. It was at this time-point that they endeavored to join +hands with their tumultuous Eastern neighbors, and that the one word +"Bolshevism" connoted the revolutionary wave that swept over some of the +Slav and German lands. But only for a moment. One may safely assert, as +a general proposition, that the same undertaking, if the Germans and the +Russians set their hands to it, becomes forthwith two separate +enterprises, so different are the conceptions and methods of these two +peoples. Bolshevism was almost emptied of its contents by the Germans, +and little left of it but the empty shell. + +Comparisons between the orgasms of collective madness which accompanied +the Russian welter, on the one hand, and the French Revolution, on the +other, are unfruitful and often misleading. It is true that at the +outset those spasms of delirium were in both cases violent reactions +against abuses grown well-nigh unbearable. It is also a fact that the +revolutionists derived their preterhuman force from historic events +which had either denuded those abuses of their secular protection or +inspired their victims with wonder-working faith in their power to sweep +them away. But after this initial stage the likeness vanishes. The +French Revolution, which extinguished feudalism as a system and the +nobility as a privileged class, speedily ceased to be a mere dissolvent. +In its latter phases it assumed a constructive character. Incidentally +it created much that was helpful in substance if not beautiful in form, +and from the beginning it adopted a positive doctrine as old as +Christianity, but new in its application to the political sphere. Thus, +although it uprooted quantities of wheat together with the tares, its +general effect was to prepare the ground for a new harvest. It had a +distinctly social purpose, which it partially realized. Nor should it +be forgotten that in the psychological sphere it kindled a transient +outburst of quasi-religious enthusiasm among its partizans, imbued them +with apostolic zeal, inspired them with a marvelous spirit of +self-abnegation, and nerved their arms to far-resonant exploits. And the +forces which the revolution thus set free changed many of the forms of +the European world, but without reshaping it after the image of the +ideal. + +Has the withering blight known as Bolshevism any such redeeming traits +to its credit account? The consensus of opinion down to the present +moment gives an emphatic, if summary, answer in the negative. Every +region over which it swept is blocked with heaps of unsightly ruins, It +has depreciated all moral values. It passed like a tornado, spending its +energies in demolition. Of construction hardly a trace has been +discerned, even by indulgent explorers.[275] One might liken it to a +so-called possession by the spirit of evil, wont of yore to use the +human organs as his own for words of folly and deeds of iniquity. +Bolshevism has operated uniformly as a quick solvent of the social +organism. Doubtless European society in 1917 sorely needed purging by +drastic means, but only a fanatic would say that it deserved +annihilation. + +It has been variously affirmed that the political leaven of these +destructive ferments in eastern and central Europe was wholesome. Slavs +and Germans, it is argued, stung by the bankruptcy of their political +systems, resolved to alter them on the lines of universal suffrage and +its corollaries, but were carried farther than they meant to go. This +mild judgment is based on a very partial survey of the phenomena. The +improvement in question was the work, not of the Bolshevists, but of +their adversaries, the moderate reformers. And the political strivings +of these had no organic nexus with the doctrine which emanated from the +nethermost depths in which vengeful pariahs, outlaws, and benighted +nihilists were floundering before suffocating in the ooze of anarchism. +Neither can one discern any degree of kinship between Spartacists like +Eichhorn or Lenin and moderate reformers as represented, say, by Theodor +Wolff and Boris Savinkoff. The two pairs are sundered from each other by +the distance that separates the social and the anti-social instinct. +Those are vulgar iconoclasts, these are would-be world-builders. That +the Russian, or, indeed, the German constitutional reformers should have +hugged the delusion that while thrones were being hurled to the ground, +and an epoch was passing away in violent convulsions, a few alterations +in the electoral law would restore order and bring back normal +conditions to the agonizing nations, is an instructive illustration of +the blurred vision which characterizes contemporary statesmen. The +Anglo-Saxon delegates at the Conference were under a similar delusion +when they undertook to regenerate the world by a series of merely +political changes. + +No one who has followed attentively the work of the constitution-makers +in Weimar can have overlooked their readiness to adopt and assimilate +the positive elements of a movement which was essentially destructive. +In this respect they displayed a remarkable degree of open-mindedness +and receptivity. They showed themselves avid of every contribution which +they could glean from any source to the work of national reorganization, +and even in Teutonized Bolshevism they apparently found helpful hints of +timely innovations. One may safely hazard the prediction that these +adaptations, however little they may be relished, are certain to spread +to the Western peoples, who will be constrained to accept them in the +long run, and Germany may end by becoming the economic leader of +democratic Europe. The law of politico-social interchange and +assimilation underlying this phenomenon, had it been understood by the +statesmen of the Entente, might have rendered them less desirous of +seeing the German organism tainted with the germs of dissolution. For +what Germany borrows from Bolshevism to-day western Europe will borrow +from Germany to-morrow. And foremost among the new institutions which +the revolution will impose upon Europe is that of the Soviets, +considerably modified in form and limited in functions. + +"In the conception of the Soviet system," writes the most influential +Jewish-German organ in Europe, "there is assuredly something +serviceable, and it behooves us to familiarize ourselves therewith. +Psychologically, it rests upon the need felt by the working-man to be +something more than a mere cog in the industrial mechanism. The first +step would consist in conferring upon labor committees juridical +functions consonant with latter-day requirements. These functions would +extend beyond those exercised by the labor committees hitherto. How far +they could go without rendering the industrial enterprise impossible is +a matter for investigation.... This is not merely a wish of the +extremists; it is a psychological requirement, and therefore it +necessitates the establishment of a closer nexus between legislation and +practical life which unhappily is become so complicated. And this need +is not confined to the laboring class. It is universal. Therefore, what +is good for the one is meet for the other."[276] + +The Soviet system adapted to modern existence is one--and probably the +sole--legacy of Bolshevism to the new age. + +During the Peace Conference Bolshevism played a large part in the +world's affairs. By some of the eminent lawgivers there it was feared as +a scourge; by others it was wielded as a weapon, and by a third set it +was employed as a threat. Whenever a delegate of one of the lesser +states felt that he was losing ground at the Peace Table, and that his +country's demands were about to be whittled down as extravagant, he +would point significantly to certain "foretokens" of an outbreak of +Bolshevism in his country and class them as an inevitable consequence of +the nation's disappointment. Thus the representative of nearly every +state which had a territorial program declared that that program must be +carried out if Bolshevism was to be averted there. "This or else +Bolshevism" was the peroration of many a delegate's _exposé_. More +redoubtable than political discontent was the proselytizing activity of +the leaders of the movement in Russia. + +Of the two pillars of Bolshevism one is a Russian, the other a Jew, the +former, Ulianoff (better known as Lenin), the brain; the other, +Braunstein (called Trotzky), the arm of the sect. Trotzky is an +unscrupulous despot, in whose veins flows the poison of malignity. His +element is cruelty, his special gift is organizing capacity. Lenin is a +Utopian, whose fanaticism, although extensive, has well-defined limits. +In certain things he disagrees profoundly with Trotzky. He resembles a +religious preacher in this, that he created a body of veritable +disciples around himself. He might be likened to a pope with a college +of international cardinals. Thus he has French, British, German, +Austrian, Czech, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Japanese, Hindu, Chinese, +Buryat, and many other followers, who are chiefs of proselytizing +sections charged with the work of spreading the Bolshevik evangel +throughout the globe, and are working hard to discharge their duties. +Lenin, however, dissatisfied with the measures of success already +attained, is constantly stimulating his disciples to more strenuous +exertions. He shares with other sectarian chiefs who have played a +prominent part in the world's history that indefinable quality which +stirs emotional susceptibility and renders those who approach him more +easily accessible to ideas toward which they began by manifesting +repugnance. Lenin is credibly reported to have made several converts +among his Western opponents. + +The plenipotentiaries, during the first four months, approached +Bolshevism from a single direction, unvaried by the events which it +generated or the modifications which it underwent. They tested it solely +by its accidental bearings on the one aim which they were intent on +securing--a formal and provisional resettlement of Europe capable of +being presented to their respective parliaments as a fair achievement. +With its real character, its manifold corollaries, its innovating +tendencies over the social, political, and ethnical domain, they were +for the time being unconcerned. Without the slightest reference to any +of these considerations they were ready to find a place for it in the +new state system with which they hoped to endow the world. More than +once they were on the point of giving it official recognition. There was +no preliminary testing, sifting, or examining by these empiricists, who, +finding Bolshevism on their way, and discerning no facile means of +dislodging or transforming it, signified their willingness under easy +conditions to hallmark and incorporate it as one of the elements of the +new ordering. From the crimes laid to its charge they were prepared to +make abstraction. The barbarous methods to which it owed its very +existence they were willing to consign to oblivion. And it was only a +freak of circumstance that hindered this embodiment of despotism from +beginning one of their accepted means of rendering the world safe for +democracy. + +Political students outside the Conference, going farther into the +matter, inquired whether there was any kernel of truth in the doctrines +of Lenin, any social or political advantage in the practices of +Braunstein (Trotzky), and the conclusions which they reached were +negative.[277] But inquiries of this theoretical nature awakened no +interest among the empiricists of the Supreme Council. For them +Bolshevism meant nothing more than a group of politicians, who directed, +or misdirected, but certainly represented the bulk of the Russian +people, and who, if won over and gathered under the cloak of the +Conference, would facilitate its task and bear witness to its triumph. +This inference, drawn by keen observers from many countries and parties, +is borne out by the curious admissions and abortive acts of the +principal plenipotentiaries themselves. + +In its milder manifestations on the social side Russian Bolshevism +resembles communism, and may be described as a social revolution +effected by depriving one set of people--the ruling and intelligent +class--of power, property, and civil rights, putting another and less +qualified section in their place, and maintaining the top-heavy +structure by force ruthlessly employed. Far-reaching though this change +undoubtedly is, it has no nexus with Marxism or kindred theories. Its +proximate causes were many: such, for example, as the breakdown of a +tyrannical system of government, state indebtedness so vast that it +swallowed up private capital, the depreciation of money, and the +corresponding appreciation of labor. It is fair, therefore, to say that +a rise in the cost of production and the temporary substitution of one +class for another mark the extent to which political forces +revolutionized the social fabric. Beyond these limits they did not go. +The notion had been widespread in most countries, and deep-rooted in +Russia, that a political upheaval would effect a root-reaching and +lasting alteration in the forces of social development. It was adopted +by Lenin, a fanatic of the Robespierre type, but far superior to +Robespierre in will-power, insight, resourcefulness, and sincerity, who, +having seized the reins of power, made the experiment. + +It is no easy matter to analyze Lenin's economic policy, because of the +veil of mist that conceals so much of Russian contemporary history. Our +sources are confined to the untrustworthy statements of a censored press +and travelers' tales. + +But it is common knowledge that the Bolshevist dictator requisitioned +and "nationalized" the banks, took factories, workshops, and plants from +their owners and handed them over to the workmen, deprived landed +proprietors of their estates, and allowed peasants to appropriate them. +It is in the matter of industry, however, that his experiment is most +interesting as showing the practical value of Marxism as a policy and +the ability of the Bolsheviki to deal with delicate social problems. The +historic decree issued by the Moscow government on the nationalization +of industry after the opening experiment had broken down contains data +enough to enable one to affirm that Lenin himself judged Marxism +inapplicable even to Russia, and left it where he had found it--among +the ideals of a millennial future. That ukase ordered the gradual +nationalization of all private industries with a capital of not less +than one million rubles, but allowed the owners to enjoy the gratuitous +usufruct of the concern, provided that they financed and carried it on +as before. Consequently, although in theory the business was transferred +to the state, in reality the capitalist retained his place and his +profits as under the old system. Consequently, the principal aims of +socialism, which are the distribution of the proceeds of industry among +the community and the retention of a certain surplus by the state, were +missed. In the Bolshevist procedure the state is wholly eliminated +except for the purpose of upholding a fiction. It receives nothing from +the capitalist, not even a royalty. + +The Slav is a dreamer whose sense of the real is often defective. He +loses himself in vague generalities and pithless abstractions. Thus, +before opening a school he will spin out a theory of universal +education, and then bemoan his lack of resources to realize it. True, +many of the chiefs of the sect--for it is undoubtedly a sect when it is +not a criminal conspiracy, and very often it is both--were not Slavs, +but Jews, who, for the behoof of their kindred, dropped their Semitic +names and adopted sonorous Slav substitutes. But they were most +unscrupulous peculators, incapable of taking an interest in the +scientific aspect of such matters, and hypnotized by the dreams of lucre +which the opportunity evoked. One has only to call to mind some of the +shabby transactions in which the Semitic Dictator of Hungary, Kuhn, or +Cohen, and Braunstein (Trotzky) of Petrograd, took an active part. The +former is said to have offered for sale the historic crown of St. +Stephen of Hungary--which to him was but a plain gold headgear adorned +with precious stones and a jeweled cross--to an old curiosity dealer of +Munich,[278] and when solemnly protesting that he was living only for +the Soviet Republic and was ready to die for it, he was actively +engaged in smuggling out of Hungary into Switzerland fifty million +kronen bonds, thirty-five kilograms of gold, and thirty chests filled +with objects of value.[279] His colleague Szamuelly's plunder is a +matter of history. + +To such adventurers as those science is a drug. They are primitive +beings impressible mainly to concrete motives of the barest kind. The +dupes of Lenin were people of a different type. Many of them fancied +that the great political clash must inevitably result in an equally +great and salutary social upheaval. This assumption has not been borne +out by events. + +Those fanatics fell into another error; they were in a hurry, and would +fain have effected their great transformation as by the waving of a +magician's wand. Impatient of gradation, they scorned to traverse the +distance between the point of departure and that of the goal, and by way +of setting up the new social structure without delay, they rolled away +all hindrances regardless of consequences. In this spirit of absolutism +they abolished the services of the national debt, struck out the claims +of Russia's creditors to their capital or interest, and turned the shops +and factories over to labor boards. That was the initial blunder which +the ukase alluded to was subsequently issued to rectify. But it was too +late. The equilibrium of the forces of production had been definitely +upset and could no longer be righted. + +One of the basic postulates of profitable production is the equilibrium +of all its essential factors--such as the laborer's wages, the cost of +the machinery and the material, the administration. Bring discord into +the harmony and the entire mechanism is out of gear. + +The Russian workman, who is at bottom an illiterate peasant with the old +roots of serfdom still clinging to him, has seldom any bowels for his +neighbor and none at all for his employer. "God Himself commands us to +despoil such gentry," is one of his sayings. He is in a hurry to enrich +himself, and he cares about nothing else. Nor can he realize that to +beggar his neighbors is to impoverish himself. Hence he always takes and +never gives; as a peasant he destroys the forests, hewing trees and +planting none, and robs the soil of its fertility. On analogous lines he +would fain deal with the factories, exacting exorbitant wages that eat +up all profit, and naïvely expecting the owner to go on paying them as +though he were the trustee of a fund for enriching the greedy. The only +people to profit by the system, and even they only transiently, were the +manual laborers. The bulk of the skilled, intelligent, and educated +artisans were held up to contempt and ostracized, or killed as an odious +aristocracy. That, it has been aptly pointed out,[280] is far removed +from Marxism. The Marxist doctrine postulates the adhesion of +intelligent workers to the social revolution, whereas the Russian +experimenters placed them in the same category as the capitalists, the +aristocrats, and treated them accordingly. Another Marxist postulate not +realized in Russia was that before the state could profitably proceed to +nationalization the country must have been in possession of a +well-organized, smooth-running industrial mechanism. And this was +possible only in those lands in which capitalism had had a long and +successful innings, not in the great Slav country of husbandmen. + +By way of glozing over these incongruities Lenin's ukase proclaimed that +the measures enacted were only provisional, and aimed at enabling Russia +to realize the great transformation by degrees. But the impression +conveyed by the history of the social side of Lenin's activity is that +Marxism, whether as understood by its author or as interpreted and +twisted by its Russian adherents, has been tried and found +impracticable. One is further warranted in saying that neither the +visionary workers who are moved by misdirected zeal for social +improvement nor the theorists who are constantly on the lookout for new +and stimulating ideas are likely to discover in Russian Bolshevism any +aspect but the one alluded to above worthy of their serious +consideration. + +A much deeper mark was made on the history of the century by its +methods. + +Compared with the soul-searing horrors let loose during the Bolshevist +fit of frenzy, the worst atrocities recorded of Deputy Carrier and his +noyades during the French Revolution were but the freaks of +compassionate human beings. In Bolshevist Russia brutality assumed forms +so monstrous that the modern man of the West shrinks from conjuring up a +faint picture of them in imagination. Tens, perhaps hundreds, of +thousands were done to death in hellish ways by the orders of men and of +women. Eyes were gouged out, ears hacked off, arms and legs torn from +the body in presence of the victims' children or wives, whose agony was +thus begun before their own turn came. Men and women and infants were +burned alive. Chinese executioners were specially hired to inflict the +awful torture of the "thousand slices."[281] Officers had their limbs +broken and were left for hours in agonies. Many victims are credibly +reported to have been buried alive. History, from its earliest dawn down +to the present day, has recorded nothing so profoundly revolting as the +nameless cruelties in which these human fiends reveled. One gruesome +picture of the less loathsome scenes enacted will live in history on a +level with the _noyades_ of Nantes. I have seen several moving +descriptions of it in Russian journals. The following account is from +the pen of a French marine officer: + +"We have two armed cruisers outside Odessa. A few weeks ago one of them, +having an investigation to make, sent a diver down to the bottom. A few +minutes passed and the alarm signal was heard. He was hauled up and +quickly relieved of his accoutrements. He had fainted away. When he came +to, his teeth were chattering and the only articulate sounds that could +be got from him were the words: 'It is horrible! It is awful!' A second +diver was then lowered, with the same procedure and a like result. +Finally a third was chosen, this time a sturdy lad of iron nerves, and +sent down to the bottom of the sea. After the lapse of a few minutes the +same thing happened as before, and the man was brought up. This time, +however, there was no fainting fit to record. On the contrary, although +pale with terror, he was able to state that he had beheld the sea-bed +peopled with human bodies standing upright, which the swaying of the +water, still sensible at this shallow depth, softly rocked as though +they were monstrous algæ, their hair on end bristling vertically, and +their arms raised toward the surface.... All these corpses, anchored to +the bottom by the weight of stones, took on an appearance of eerie life +resembling, one might say, a forest of trees moved from side to side by +the wind and eager to welcome the diver come down among them.... There +were, he added, old men, children numerous beyond count, so that one +could but compare them to the trees of a forest."[282] + +From published records it is known that the Bolshevist thugs, when +tired of using the rifle, the machine-gun, the cord, and the bayonet, +expedited matters by drowning their victims by hundreds in the Black +Sea, in the Gulf of Finland, and in the great rivers. Submarine +cemeteries was the name given to these last resting-places of some of +Russia's most high-minded sons and daughters.[283] It is not in the +French Revolution that those deeds of wanton destruction and revolting +cruelty which are indissolubly associated with Bolshevism find a +parallel, but in Chinese history, which offers a striking and curious +prefiguration of the Leninist structure.[284] Toward the middle of the +tenth century, when the empire was plunged in dire confusion, a mystical +sect was formed there for the purpose of destroying by force every +vestige of the traditional social fabric, and establishing a system of +complete equality without any state organization whatever, after the +manner advocated by Leo Tolstoy. Some of the dicta of these sectarians +have a decidedly Bolshevist flavor. This, for example: "Society rests +upon law, property, religion, and force. But law is injustice and +chicane; property is robbery and extortion; religion is untruth, and +force is iniquity." In those days Chinese political parties were at +strife with each other, and none of them scorned any means, however +brutal, to worst its adversaries, but for a long while they were divided +among themselves and without a capable chief. + +At last the Socialist party unexpectedly produced a leader, Wang Ngan +Shen, a man of parts, who possessed the gift of drawing and swaying the +multitude. Of agreeable presence, he was resourceful and unscrupulous, +soon became popular, and even captivated the Emperor, Shen Tsung, who +appointed him Minister. He then set about applying his tenets and +realizing his dreams. Wang Ngan Shen began by making commerce and trade +a state monopoly, just as Lenin had done, "in order," he explained, "to +keep the poor from being devoured by the rich." The state was proclaimed +the sole owner of all the wealth of the soil; agricultural overseers +were despatched to each district to distribute the land among the +peasants, each of these receiving as much as he and his family could +cultivate. The peasant obtained also the seed, but this he was obliged +to return to the state after the ingathering of the harvest. The power +of the overseer went farther; it was he who determined what crops the +husbandman might sow and who fixed day by day the price of every salable +commodity in the district. As the state reserved to itself the right to +buy all agricultural produce, it was bound in return to save up a part +of the profits to be used for the benefit of the people in years of +scarcity, and also at other times to be employed in works needed by the +community. Wang Ngan Shen also ordained that only the wealthy should pay +taxes, the proceeds of which were to be employed in relieving the wants +of the poor, the old, and the unemployed. The theory was smooth and +attractive. + +For over thirty years those laws are said to have remained in force, at +any rate on paper. To what extent they were carried out is +problematical. Probably a beginning was actually made, for during Wang's +tenure of office confusion was worse confounded than before, and misery +more intense and widespread. The opposition to his régime increased, +spread, and finally got the upper hand. Wang Ngan Shen was banished, +together with those of his partizans who refused to accept the return to +the old system. Such would appear to have been the first appearance of +Bolshevism recorded in history. + +Another less complete parallel, not to the Bolshevist theory, but to the +plight of the country which it ruined, may be found in the Chinese +rebellion organized in the year 1850 by a peasant[285] who, having +become a Christian, fancied himself called by God to regenerate his +people. He accordingly got together a band of stout-hearted fellows whom +he fanaticized, disciplined, and transformed into the nucleus of a +strong army to which brigands, outlaws, and malcontents of every social +layer afterward flocked. They overran the Yangtse Valley, invaded twelve +of the richest provinces, seized six hundred cities and towns, and put +an end to twenty million people in the space of twelve years by fire, +sword, and famine.[286] To this bloody expedition Hung Sew Tseuen, a +master of modern euphemism, gave the name of Crusade of the Great Peace. +For twelve years this "Crusade" lasted, and it might have endured much +longer had it not been for the help given by outsiders. It was there +that "Chinese" Gordon won his laurels and accomplished a beneficent +work. + +There were politicians at the Conference who argued that Russia, being +in a position analogous to that of China in 1854, ought, like her, to be +helped by the Great Powers. It was, they held, quite as much in the +interests of Europe as in hers. But however forcible their arguments, +they encountered an insurmountable obstacle in the fear entertained by +the chiefs of the leading governments lest the extreme oppositional +parties in their respective countries should make capital out of the +move and turn them out of office. They invoked the interests of the +cause of which they were the champions for declining to expose +themselves to any such risk. It has been contended with warmth, and +possibly with truth, that if at the outset the Great Powers had +intervened they might with a comparatively small army have crushed +Bolshevism and re-established order in Russia. On the other hand, it was +objected that even heavy guns will not destroy ideas, and that the main +ideas which supplied the revolutionary movement with vital force were +too deeply rooted to have been extirpated by the most formidable foreign +army. That is true. But these ideas were not especially characteristic +of Bolshevism. Far from that, they were incompatible with it: the +bestowal of land on the peasants, an equitable reform of the relations +between workmen and employers, and the abolition of the hereditary +principle in the distribution of everything that confers an unfair +advantage on the individual or the class are certainly not postulates of +Lenin's party. It is a tenable proposition that timely military +assistance would have enabled the constructive elements of Russia to +restore conditions of normal life, but the worth of timeliness was never +realized by the heads of the governments who undertook to make laws for +the world. They ignored the maxim that a statesman, when applying +measures, must keep his eye on the clock, inasmuch as the remedy which +would save a nation at one moment may hasten its ruin at another. + +The expedients and counter-expedients to which the Conference had +recourse in their fitful struggles with Bolshevism were so many +surprises to every one concerned, and were at times redolent of comedy. +But what was levity and ignorance on the part of the delegates meant +death, and worse than death, to tens of thousands of their protégées. In +Russia their agents zealously egged on the order-loving population to +rise up against the Bolsheviki and attack their strong positions, +promising them immediate military help if they succeeded. But when, +these exploits having been duly achieved, the agents were asked how soon +the foreign reinforcements might be expected, they replied, calling for +patience. After a time the Bolsheviki assailed the temporary victors, +generally defeated them, and then put a multitude of defenseless people +to the sword. Deplorable incidents of this nature, which are said to +have occurred several times during the spring of 1919, shook the credit +of the Allies, and kindled a feeling of just resentment among all +classes of Russians. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[273] In the _Biessy_ (Devils). + +[274] _Russian Characteristics_, by E.B. Lanin (Eblanin, a Russian word +which means native of Dublin, Eblana). + +[275] Educational reforms have been mentioned among its achievements and +attributed to Lunatcharsky. That he exerted himself to spread elementary +instruction must be admitted. But this progress and the effective +protection and encouragement which he has undoubtedly extended to arts +and sciences would seem to exhaust the list of items in the credit +account of the Bolshevist régime. + +[276] _Frankfurter Zeitung_, February 28, 1919. + +[277] A succinct but interesting study of this question appeared in the +_Handels-Zeitung_ of the _Berliner Tageblatt_, over the signature of Dr. +Felix Pinner, July 20, 1918. + +[278] Cf. _Bonsoir_, July 29, 1919. The price was not fixed, but the +minimum was specified. It was one hundred thousand kronen. + +[279] Cf. _Der Tag_, Vienna, August 13, 1919. _L'Echo de Paris_, August +15, 1919. + +[280] By Dr. F. Pinner, H. Vorst, and others. + +[281] The condemned man is tied to a post or a cross, his mouth gagged, +and the execution is made to last several hours. It usually begins with +a slit on the forehead and the pulling down of the skin toward the chin. +After the lapse of a certain time the nose is severed from the face. An +interval follows, then an ear is lopped off, and so the devilish work +goes on with long pauses. The skill of the executioner is displayed in +the length of time during which the victim remains conscious. + +[282] Cf. _Le Figaro_, February 18, 1919. + +[283] I do not suggest that these crimes were ordered by Lenin. But it +will not be gainsaid that neither he nor his colleagues punished the +mass murderers or even protested against their crimes. Neither can it be +maintained that massacres were confined to any one party. + +[284] This pre-Bolshevist movement is described in an interesting study +on the socialist movement and systems, down to the year 1848, by El. +Luzatto. Cf. _Der Bund_, August 16, 1918. + +[285] Hung Sew Tseuen. The rebellion lasted from 1850 to 1864. + +[286] The superb city of Nankin, with its temples and porcelain towers, +was destroyed. + + + + +XII + +HOW BOLSHEVISM WAS FOSTERED + + +The Allies, then, might have solved the Bolshevist problem by making up +their minds which of the two alternative politics--war against, or +tolerance of, Bolshevism--they preferred, and by taking suitable action +in good time. If they had handled the Russian tangle with skill and +repaid a great sacrifice with a small one before it was yet too late, +they might have hoped to harvest in abundant fruits in the fullness of +time. But they belonged to the class of the undecided, whose members +continually suffer from the absence of a middle word between yes and no, +connoting what is neither positive nor negative. They let the +opportunity slip. Not only did they withhold timely succor to either +side, but they visited some of the most loyal Russians in western Europe +with the utmost rigor of coercion laws. They hounded them down as +enemies. They cooped them up in cages as though they were Teuton +enemies. They encircled them with barbed wire. They kept many of them +hungry and thirsty, deprived them of life's necessaries for days, and in +some cases reduced the discontented--and who in their place would not be +discontented?--to pick their food in dustbins among garbage and refuse. +I have seen officers and men in France who had shed their blood joyfully +for the Entente cause gradually converted to Bolshevism by the misdeeds +of the Allied authorities. In whose interests? With what helpful +results? + +I watched the development of anti-Ententism among those Russians with +painful interest, and in favorable conditions for observation, and I say +without hesitation that rancor against the Allies burns as vehemently +and intensely among the anti-Bolshevists as among their adversaries. "My +country as a whole is bitterly hostile to her former allies," exclaimed +an eminent Russian, "for as soon as she had rendered them inestimable +services, at the cost of her political existence, they turned their +backs upon her as though her agony were no affair of theirs. To-day the +nation is divided on many issues. Dissensions and quarrels have riven +and shattered it into shreds. But in one respect Russia is still +united--in the vehemence of her sentiment toward the Allies, who first +drained her life-blood and then abandoned her prostrate body to beasts +of prey. Some part of the hatred engendered might have been mitigated if +representatives of the provisional Russian government had been admitted +to the Conference. A statesman would have insisted upon opening at least +this little safety-valve. It would have helped and could not have harmed +the Allies. It would have bound the Russians to them. For Russia's +delegates, the men sent or empowered by Kolchak and his colleagues to +represent them, would have been the exponents of a helpless community +hovering between life and death. They could and would have gone far +toward conciliating the world-dictators, to whose least palatable +decisions they might have hesitated to offer unbending opposition. And +this acquiescence, however provisional, would have tended to relieve the +Allies of a sensible part of their load of responsibility. It would also +have linked the Russians, loosely, perhaps, but perceptibly, to the +Western Powers. It would have imparted a settled Ententophil direction +to Kolchak's policy, and communicated it to the nation. In short, it +might have dispelled some of the storm-clouds that are gathering in the +east of Europe." + +But the Allies, true to their wont of drifting, put off all decisive +action, and let things slip and slide, for the Germans to put in order. +There were no Russians, therefore, at the Conference, and there lies no +obligation on any political group or party in the anarchist Slav state +to hold to the Allies. But it would be an error to imagine that they +have a white sheet of paper on which to trace their line of action and +write the names of France and Britain as their future friends. They are +filled with angry disgust against these two ex-Allies, and of the two +the feeling against France is especially intense.[287] + +It is a truism to repeat in a different form what Messrs. Lloyd George +and Wilson repeatedly affirmed, but apparently without realizing what +they said: that the peace which they regard as the crowning work of +their lives deserves such value as it may possess from the assumption +that Russia, when she recovers from her cataleptic fit, will be the ally +of the Powers that have dismembered her. If this postulate should prove +erroneous, Germany may form an anti-Allied league of a large number of +nations which it would be invidious to enumerate here. But it is +manifest that this consummation would imperil Poland, Czechoslovakia, +and Jugoslavia, and sweep away the last vestiges of the peace +settlement. And although it would be rash to make a forecast of the +policy which new Russia will strike out, it would be impolitic to blink +the conclusions toward which recent events significantly point. + +In April a Russian statesman said to me: "The Allied delegates are +unconsciously thrusting from them the only means by which they can still +render peace durable and a fellowship of the nations possible. +Unwittingly they are augmenting the forces of Bolshevism and raising +political enemies against themselves. Consider how they are behaving +toward us. Recently a number of Russian prisoners escaped from Germany +to Holland, whereupon the Allied representatives packed them off by +force and against their will to Dantzig, to be conveyed thence to Libau, +where they have become recruits of the Bolshevist Red Guards. Those men +might have been usefully employed in the Allied countries, to whose +cause they were devoted, but so exasperated were they at their forcible +removal to Libau that many of them declared that they would join the +Bolshevist forces. + +"Even our official representatives are seemingly included in the +category of suspects. Our Minister in Peking was refused the right of +sending ciphered telegrams and our chargé d'affaires in a European +capital suffered the same deprivation, while the Bolshevist envoy +enjoyed this diplomatic privilege. A councilor of embassy in one Allied +country was refused a passport visa for another until he declared that +if the refusal were upheld he would return a high order which for +extraordinary services he had received from the government whose embassy +was vetoing his visa. On the national festival of a certain Allied +country the chargé d'affaires of Russia was the only member of the +diplomatic corps who received no official invitation." + +One day in January, when a crowd had gathered on the Quai d'Orsay, +watching the delegates from the various countries--British, American, +Italian, Japanese, Rumanian, etc.--enter the stately palace to safeguard +the interests of their respective countries and legislate for the human +race, a Russian officer passed, accompanied by an illiterate soldier who +had seen hard service first under the Grand Duke Nicholas, and then in a +Russian brigade in France. The soldier gazed wistfully at the palace, +then, turning to the officer, asked, "Are they letting any of our people +in there?" The officer answered, evasively: "They are thinking it over. +Perhaps they will." Whereupon his attendant blurted out: "Thinking it +over! What thinking is wanted? Did we not fight for them till we were +mowed down like grass? Did not millions of Russian bodies cover the +fields, the roads, and the camps? Did we not face the German great guns +with only bayonets and sticks? Have we done too little for them? What +more could we have done to be allowed in there with the others? I fought +since the war began, and was twice wounded. My five brothers were called +up at the same time as myself, and all five have been killed, and now +the Russians are not wanted! The door is shut in our faces...." + +Sooner or later Russian anarchy, like that of China, will come to an +end, and the leaders charged with the reconstitution of the country, if +men of knowledge, patriotism, and character, will adopt a program +conducive to the well-being of the nation. To what extent, one may ask, +is its welfare compatible with the _status quo_ in eastern Europe, which +the Allies, distracted by conflicting principles and fitful impulse, +left or created and hope to perpetuate by means of a parchment +instrument? + +The zeal with which the French authorities went to work to prevent the +growth of Bolshevism in their country, especially among the Russians +there, is beyond dispute. Unhappily it proved inefficacious. Indeed, it +is no exaggeration to say that it defeated its object and produced the +contrary effect. For attention was so completely absorbed by the aim +that no consideration remained over for the means of attaining it. A few +concrete examples will bring this home to the reader. The following +narratives emanate from an eminent Russian, who is devoted to the +Allies. + +There were scores of thousands of Russian troops in France. Most of them +fought valiantly, others half-heartedly, and a few refused to fight at +all. But instead of making distinctions the French authorities, moved by +the instinct of self-preservation, and preferring prevention to cure, +tarred them all with the same brush. "Give a dog a bad name and hang +him," says the proverb, and it was exemplified in the case of the +Russians, who soon came to be regarded as a _tertium quid_ between +enemies of public order and suspicious neutrals. They were profoundly +mistrusted. Their officers were deprived of their authority over their +own men and placed under the command of excellent French officers, who +cannot be blamed for not understanding the temper of the Slavs nor for +rubbing them against the grain. The privates, seeing their superiors +virtually degraded, concluded that they had forfeited their claim to +respect, and treated them accordingly. That gave the death-blow to +discipline. The officers, most of whom were devoted heart and soul to +the cause of the Allies, with which they had fondly identified their +own, lost heart. After various attempts to get themselves reinstated, +their feelings toward the nation, which was nowise to blame for the +excessive zeal of its public servants, underwent a radical change. +Blazing indignation consumed whatever affection they had originally +nurtured for the French, and in many cases also for the other Allies, +and they went home to communicate their animus to their countrymen. The +soldiers, who now began to be taunted and vilipended as Boches, threw +all discipline to the winds and, feeling every hand raised against them, +resolved to raise their hands against every man. These were the +beginnings of the process of "bolshevization." + +This anti-Russian spirit grew intenser as time lapsed. Thousands of +Russian soldiers were sent out to work for private employers, not by the +War Ministry, but by the Ministry of Agriculture, under whom they were +placed. They were fed and paid a wage which under normal circumstances +should have contented them, for it was more than they used to receive in +pre-war days in their own country. But the circumstances were not +normal. Side by side with them worked Frenchmen, many of whom were +unable physically to compete with the sturdy peasants from Perm and +Vyatka. And when propagandists pointed out to them that the French +worker was paid 100 per cent. more, they brooded over the inequality and +labeled it as they were told. For overwork, too, the rate of pay was +still more unequal. One result of this differential treatment was the +estrangement of the two races as represented by the two classes of +workmen, and the growth of mutual dislike. But there was another. When +they learned, as they did in time, that the employer was selling the +produce of their labor at a profit of 400 and 500 per cent., they had no +hesitation about repeating the formulas suggested to them by socialist +propagandists: "We are working for bloodsuckers. The bourgeois must be +exterminated." In this way bitterness against the Allies and hatred of +the capitalists were inculcated in tens of thousands of Russians who a +few months before were honest, simple-minded peasants and +well-disciplined soldiers. Many of these men, when they returned to +their country, joined the Red Guards of Bolshevism with spontaneous +ardor. They needed no pressing. + +There was one young officer of the Guards, in particular, named G----, +who belonged to a very good family and was an exceptionally cultured +gentleman. Music was his recreation, and he was a virtuoso on the +violin. In the war he had distinguished himself first on the Russian +front and then on the French. He had given of his best, for he was +grievously wounded, had his left hand paralyzed, and lost his power of +playing the violin forever. He received a high decoration from the +French government. For the English nation he professed and displayed +great affection, and in particular he revered King George, perhaps +because of his physical resemblance to the Tsar. And when King George +was to visit Paris he rejoiced exceedingly at the prospect of seeing +him. Orders were issued for the troops to come out and line the +principal routes along which the monarch would pass. The French +naturally had the best places, but the Place de l'Étoile was reserved +for the Allied forces. G----, delighted, went to his superior officer +and inquired where the Russians were to stand. The general did not know, +but promised to ascertain. Accordingly he put the question to the French +commander, who replied: "Russian troops? There is no place for any +Russian troops." With tears in his eyes G---- recounted this episode, +adding: "We, who fought and bled, and lost our lives or were crippled, +had to swallow this humiliation, while Poles and Czechoslovaks, who had +only just arrived from America in their brand-new uniforms, and had +never been under fire, had places allotted to them in the pageant. Is +that fair to the troops without whose exploits there would have been no +Polish or Czechoslovak officers, no French victory, no triumphal entry +of King George V into Paris?" + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[287] It is right to say that during the summer months a considerable +section of the anti-Bolshevists modified their view of Britain's policy, +and expressed gratitude for the aid bestowed on Kolchak, Denikin, and +Yudenitch, without which their armies would have collapsed. + + + + +XIII + +SIDELIGHTS ON THE TREATY + + +From the opening of the Conference fundamental differences sprang up +which split the delegates into two main parties, of which one was +solicitous mainly about the resettlement of the world and its future +mainstay, the League of Nations, and the other about the furtherance of +national interests, which, it maintained, was equally indispensable to +an enduring peace. The latter were ready to welcome the League on +condition that it was utilized in the service of their national +purposes, but not if it countered them. To bridge the chasm between the +two was the task to which President Wilson courageously set his hand. +Unluckily, by way of qualifying for the experiment, he receded from his +own strong position, and having cut his moorings from one shove, failed +to reach the other. His pristine idea was worthy of a world-leader; had, +in fact, been entertained and advocated by some of the foremost spirits +of modern times. He purposed bringing about conditions under which the +pacific progress of the world might be safeguarded in a very large +measure and for an indefinite time. But being very imperfectly +acquainted with the concrete conditions of European and Asiatic +peoples--he had never before felt the pulsation of international +life--his ideas about the ways and means were hazy, and his calculations +bore no real reference to the elements of the problem. Consequently, +with what seemed a wide horizon and a generous ambition, his grasp was +neither firm nor comprehensive enough for such a revolutionary +undertaking. In no case could he make headway without the voluntary +co-operation of the nations themselves, who in their own best interests +might have submitted to heavy sacrifices, to which their leaders, whom +he treated as true exponents of their will, refused their consent. But +he scouted the notion of a world-parliament. Whenever, therefore, +contemplating a particular issue, not as an independent question in +itself, but as an integral part of a larger problem, he made a +suggestion seemingly tending toward the ultimate goal, his motion +encountered resolute opposition in the face of which he frequently +retreated. + +At the outset, on which so much depended, the peoples as distinguished +from the governments appeared to be in general sympathy with his +principal aim, and it seemed at the time that if appealed to on a clear +issue they would have given him their whole-hearted support, provided +always that, true to his own principles, he pressed these to the fullest +extent and admitted no such invidious distinctions as privileged and +unprivileged nations. This belief was confirmed by what I heard from men +of mark, leaders of the labor people, and three Prime Ministers. They +assured me that such an appeal would have evoked an enthusiastic +response in their respective countries. Convinced that the principles +laid down by the President during the last phases of the war would go +far to meet the exigencies of the conjuncture, I ventured to write on +one of the occasions, when neither party would yield to the other: "The +very least that Mr. Wilson might now do, if the deadlock continues, is +to publish to the world the desirable objects which the United States +are disinterestedly, if not always wisely, striving for, and leave the +judgment to the peoples concerned."[288] + +But he recoiled from the venture. Perhaps it was already too late. In +the judgment of many, his assent to the suppression of the problem of +the freedom of the seas, however unavoidable as a tactical expedient, +knelled the political world back to the unregenerate days of strategical +frontiers, secret alliances, military preparations, financial burdens, +and the balance of power. On that day, his grasp on the banner relaxing, +it fell, to be raised, it may be, at some future time by the peoples +whom he had aspired to lead. The contests which he waged after that +first defeat had little prospect of success, and soon the pith and +marrow of the issue completely disappeared. The utmost he could still +hope for was a paper covenant--- which is a different thing from a +genuine accord--to take home with him to Washington. And this his +colleagues did not grudge him. They were operating with a different cast +of mind upon a wholly different set of ideas. Their aims, which they +pursued with no less energy and with greater perseverance than Mr. +Wilson displayed, were national. Some of them implicitly took the ground +that Germany, having plunged the world in war, would persist +indefinitely in her nefarious machinations, and must, therefore, in the +interests of general peace, be crippled militarily, financially, +economically, and politically, for as long a time as possible, while her +potential enemies must for the same reason be strengthened to the utmost +at her expense, and that this condition of things must be upheld through +the beneficent instrumentality of the League of Nations. + +On these conflicting issues ceaseless contention went on from the start, +yet for lack of a strong personality of sound, over-ruling judgment the +contest dragged on without result. For months the demon of +procrastination seemed to have possessed the souls of the principal +delegates, and frustrated their professed intentions to get through the +work expeditiously. Even unforeseen incidents led to dangerous delay. +Every passing episode became a ground for postponing the vital issue, +although each day lost increased the difficulties of achieving the +principal object, which was the conclusion of peace. For example, the +committee dealing with the question of reparations would reach a +decision, say, that Germany must pay a certain sum, which would entail a +century of strenuous effort, accompanied with stringent thrift and +self-denial; while the Economic Committee decided that her supply of raw +material should be restricted within such narrow limits as to put such +payment wholly out of her power. And this difference of view +necessitated a postponement of the whole issue. Mr. Hughes, the Premier +of Australia, commenting on this shilly-shallying, said with truth:[289] +"The minds of the people are grievously perturbed. The long delay, +coupled with fears lest that the Peace Treaty, when it does come, should +prove to be a peace unworthy, unsatisfactory, unenduring, has made the +hearts of the people sick. We were told that the Peace Treaty would be +ready in the coming week, but we look round and see half a world engaged +in war, or preparation for war. Bolshevism is spreading with the +rapidity of a prairie fire. The Allies have been forced to retreat from +some of the most fertile parts of southern Russia, and Allied troops, +mostly British, at Murmansk and Archangel are in grave danger of +destruction. Yet we were told that peace was at hand, and that the world +was safe for liberty and democracy. It is not fine phrases about peace, +liberty, and making the world safe for democracy that the world wants, +but deeds. The peoples of the Allied countries justifiably desire to be +reassured by plain, comprehensible statements, instead of +long-drawn-out negotiations and the thick veil of secrecy in which +these were shrouded." + +It requires an effort to believe that procrastination was raised to the +level of a theory by men whose experience of political affairs was +regarded as a guarantee of the soundness of their judgment. Yet it is an +incontrovertible fact that dilatory tactics were seriously suggested as +a policy at the Conference. It was maintained that, far from running +risks by postponing a settlement, the Entente nations were, on the +contrary, certain to find the ground better prepared the longer the day +of reckoning was put off. Germany, they contended, had recovered +temporarily from the Bolshevik fever, but the improvement was fleeting. +The process of decomposition was becoming intenser day by day, although +the symptoms were not always manifest. Lack of industrial production, of +foreign trade and sound finances, was gnawing at the vitals of the +Teuton Republic. The army of unemployed and discontented was swelling. +Soon the sinister consequences of this stagnation would take the form of +rebellions and revolts, followed by disintegration. And this conjunction +would be the opportunity of the Entente Powers, who could then step in, +present their bills, impose their restrictions, and knead the Teuton +dough into any shape they relished. Then it would be feasible to +prohibit the Austrian-Germans from ever entering the Republic as a +federated state. In a word, the Allied governments need only command, +and the Teutons would hasten to obey. It is hardly credible that men of +experience in foreign politics should build upon such insecure +foundations as these. It is but fair to say the Conference rejected this +singular program in theory while unintentionally carrying it out. + +Although everybody admitted that the liquidation of the world conflict +followed by a return to normal conditions was the one thing that pressed +for settlement, so intent were the plenipotentiaries on preventing wars +among unborn generations that they continued to overlook the pressing +needs of their contemporaries. It is at the beginning and end of an +enterprise that the danger of failure is greatest, and it was the +opening moves of the Allies that proved baleful to their subsequent +undertakings. Germany, one would think, might have been deprived +summarily of everything which was to be ultimately and justly taken from +her, irrespective of its final destination. The first and most important +operation being the severance of the provinces allotted to other +peoples, their redistribution might safely have been left until +afterward. And hardly less important was the despatch of an army to +eastern Europe. Then Germany, broken in spirit, with Allied troops on +both her fronts, between the two jaws of a vise, could not have said nay +to the conditions. But this method presupposed a plan which unluckily +did not exist. It assumed that the peace terms had been carefully +considered in advance, whereas the Allies prepared for war during +hostilities, and for peace during the negotiations. And they went about +this in a leisurely, lackadaisical way, whereas expedition was the key +to success. + +As for a durable peace, involving general disarmament, it should have +been outlined in a comprehensive program, which the delegates had not +drawn up, and it would have become feasible only if the will to pursue +it proceeded from principle, not from circumstances. In no case could it +be accomplished without the knowledge and co-operation of the peoples +themselves, nor within the time-limits fixed for the work of the +Conference. For the abolition of war and the creation of a new ordering, +like human progress, is a long process. It admits of a variety of +beginnings, but one can never be sure of the end, seeing that it +presupposes a radical change in the temper of the peoples, one might +almost say a remodeling of human nature. It can only be the effect of a +variety of causes, mainly moral, operating over a long period of time. +Peace with Germany was a matter for the governments concerned; the +elimination of war could only be accomplished by the peoples. The one +was in the main a political problem, the other social, economical, and +ethical. + +Mr. Balfour asserted optimistically[290] that the work of concluding +peace with Germany was a very simple matter. None the less it took the +Conference over five months to arrange it. So desperately slow was the +progress of the Supreme Council that on the 213th day of the Peace +Conference,[291] two months after the Germans had signed the conditions, +not one additional treaty had been concluded, nay, none was even ready +for signature. The Italian plenipotentiary, Signor Tittoni, thereupon +addressed his colleagues frankly on the subject and asked them whether +they were not neglecting their primary duty, which was to conclude +treaties with the various enemies who had ceased to fight in November of +the previous year and were already waiting for over nine months to +resume normal life, and whether the delegates were justified in seeking +to discharge the functions of a supreme board for the government of all +Europe. He pointed out that nobody could hope to profit by the state of +disorder and paralysis for which this procrastination was answerable, +the economic effects making themselves felt sooner or later in every +country. He added that the cost of the war had been calculated for every +month, every week, every day, and that the total impressed every one +profoundly; but that nobody had thought it worth his while to count up +the atrocious cost of this incredibly slow peace and of the waste of +wealth caused every week and month that it dragged on. Italy, he +lamented, felt this loss more keenly than her partners because her peace +had not yet been concluded. He felt moved, therefore, he said, to tell +them that the business of governing Europe to which the Conference had +been attending all those months was not precisely the work for which it +was convoked.[292] + +This sharp and timely admonition was the preamble of a motion. The +Conference was just then about to separate for a "well-earned holiday," +during which its members might renew their spent energies and return in +October to resume their labors, the peoples in the meanwhile bearing the +cost in blood and substance. The Italian delegate objected to any such +break and adjured them to remain at their posts. Why, he asked, should +ill-starred Italy, which had already sustained so many and such painful +losses, be condemned to sacrifice further enormous sums in order that +the delegates who had been frittering away their time tackling +irrelevant issues, and endeavoring to rule all Europe, might have a +rest? Why should they interrupt the sessions before making peace with +Austria, with Hungary, with Bulgaria, with Turkey, and enabling Italy to +return to normal life? Why should time and opportunity be given to the +Turks and Kurds for the massacre of Armenian men, women, and children? +This candid reminder is said to have had a sobering effect on the +versatile delegates yearning for a holiday. The situation that evoked it +will arouse the passing wonder of level-headed men. + +It is worth recording that such was the atmosphere of suspicion among +the delegates that the motives for this holiday were believed by some to +be less the need of repose than an unavowable desire to give time to +the Hapsburgs to recover the Crown of St. Stephen as the first step +toward seizing that of Austria.[293] The Austrians desired exemption +from the obligation to make reparations and pay crushing taxes, and one +of the delegates, with a leaning for that country, was not averse to the +idea. As the states that arose on the ruins of the Hapsburg monarchy +were not considered enemies by the Conference, it was suggested that +Austria herself should enjoy the same distinction. But the Italian +plenipotentiaries objected and Signor Tittoni asked, "Will it perhaps be +asserted that there was no enemy against whom we Italians fought for +three years and a half, losing half a million slain and incurring a debt +of eighty thousand millions?" + +A French journal, touching on this Austrian problem, wrote:[294] +"Austria-Hungary has been killed and now France is striving to raise it +to life again. But Italy is furiously opposed to everything that might +lead to an understanding among the new states formed out of the old +possessions of the Hapsburgs. That, in fact, is why our transalpine +allies were so favorable to the union of Austria with Germany. France on +her side, whose one overruling thought is to reduce her vanquished enemy +to the most complete impotence, France who is afraid of being afraid, +will not tolerate an Austria joined to the German Federation." Here the +principle of self-determination went for nothing. + +Before the Conference had sat for a month it was angrily assailed by the +peoples who had hoped so much from its love of justice--Egyptians, +Koreans, Irishmen from Ireland and from America, Albanians, Frenchmen +from Mauritius and Syria, Moslems from Aderbeidjan, Persians, Tartars, +Kirghizes, and a host of others, who have been aptly likened to the halt +and maimed among the nations waiting round the diplomatic Pool of Siloam +for the miracle of the moving of the waters that never came.[295] + +These peoples had heard that a great and potent world-reformer had +arisen whose mission it was to redress secular grievances and confer +liberty upon oppressed nations, tribes, and tongues, and they sent their +envoys to plead before him. And these wandered about the streets of +Paris seeking the intercession of delegates, Ministers, and journalists +who might obtain for them admission to the presence of the new Messiah +or his apostles. But all doors were closed to them. One of the +petitioners whose language was vernacular English, as he was about to +shake the dust of Paris from his boots, quoting Sydney Smith, remarked: +"They, too, are Pharisees. They would do the Good Samaritan, but without +the oil and twopence. How has it come to pass that the Jews without an +official delegate commanded the support--the militant support--of the +Supreme Council, which did not hesitate to tyrannize eastern Europe for +their sake?" + +Involuntarily the student of politics called to mind the report written +to Baron Hager[296] by one of his secret agents during the Congress of +Vienna: "Public opinion continues to be unfavorable to the Congress. On +all sides one hears it said that there is no harmony, that they are no +longer solicitous about the re-establishment of order and justice, but +are bent only on forcing one another's hands, each one grabbing as much +as he can.... It is said that the Congress will end because it must, but +that it will leave things more entangled than it found them.... The +peoples, who in consequence of the success, the sincerity, and the +noble-mindedness of this superb coalition had conceived such esteem for +their leaders and such attachment to them, and now perceive how they +have forgotten what they solemnly promised--justice, order, peace +founded on the equilibrium and legitimacy of their possessions--will end +by losing their affection and withdrawing their confidence in their +principles and their promises." + +Those words, written a hundred and five years ago, might have been +penned any day since the month of February, 1919. + +The leading motive of the policy pursued by the Supreme Council and +embodied in the Treaty was aptly described at the time as the systematic +protection of France against Germany. Hence the creation of the powerful +barrier states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, Greater Rumania, and +Greater Greece. French nationalists pleaded for further precautions more +comprehensive still. Their contention was that France's economic, +strategic, financial, and territorial welfare being the cornerstone of +the future European edifice, every measure proposed at the Conference, +whether national or general, should be considered and shaped in +accordance with that, and consequently that no possibility should be +accorded to Germany of rising again to a commanding position because, if +she once recovered her ascendancy in any domain whatsoever, Europe would +inevitably be thrust anew into the horrors of war. Territorially, +therefore, the dismemberment of Germany was obligatory; the annexation +of the Saar Valley, together with its six hundred thousand Teuton +inhabitants, was necessary to France, and either the annexation of the +left bank of the Rhine or its transformation into a detached state to be +occupied and administered by the French until Germany pays the last +farthing of the indemnity. Further, Austria must be deprived of the +right of determining her own mode of existence and constrained to +abandon the idea of becoming one of the federated states of the German +Republic, and, if possible, northern Germany should be kept entirely +separate from southern. The Allies should divide the Teutons in order to +sway them. All Germany's other frontiers should be delimitated in a like +spirit. And at the same time the work of knitting together the peoples +and nations of Europe and forming them into a friendly sodality was to +go forward without interruption. + +"How to promote our interests in the Rhineland," wrote M. Maurice +Barrès,[297] "is a life-and-death question for us. We are going to carry +to the Rhine our military and, I hope, our economic frontier. The rest +will follow in its own good time. The future will not fail to secure for +us the acquiescence of the population of the Rhineland, who will live +freely under the protection of our arms, their faces turned toward +Paris." + +Financially it was proposed that the Teutons should be forced to +indemnify France, Belgium, and the other countries for all the damage +they had inflicted upon them; to pay the entire cost of the war, as well +as the pensions to widows, orphans, and the mutilated. And the military +occupation of their country should be maintained until this huge debt is +wholly wiped out. + +A Nationalist organ,[298] in a leading article, stated with brevity and +clearness the prevailing view of Germany's obligations. Here is a +characteristic passage: "She is rich, has reserves derived from many +years of former prosperity; she can work to produce and repair all the +evil she has done, rebuild all the ruins she has accumulated, and +restore all the fortunes she has destroyed, however irksome the burden." +After analyzing Doctor Helfferich's report published six years ago, the +article concluded, "Germany must pay; she disposes of the means because +she is rich; if she refuses we must compel her without hesitation and +without ruth." + +As France, whose cities and towns and very soil were ruined, could not +be asked to restore these places at her own expense and tax herself +drastically like her allies, the Americans and British, the prior and +privileged right to receive payment on her share of the indemnity should +manifestly appertain to her. Her allies and associates should, it was +argued, accordingly waive their money claims until hers were satisfied +in full. Moreover, as France's future expenditure on her army of +occupation, on the administration of her colonies and of the annexed +territories, must necessarily absorb huge sums for years to come, which +her citizens feel they ought not to be asked to contribute, and as her +internal debt was already overwhelming, it is only meet and just that +her wealthier partners should pool their war debts with hers and share +their financial resources with her and all their other allies. This, it +was argued, was an obvious corollary of the war alliance. Economically, +too, the Germans, while permitted to resume their industrial occupations +on a sufficiently large scale to enable them to earn the wherewithal to +live and discharge their financial obligations, should be denied free +scope to outstrip France, whose material prosperity is admittedly +essential to the maintenance of general peace and the permanence of the +new ordering. In this condition, it is further contended, our chivalrous +ally was entitled to special consideration because of her low +birth-rate, which is one of the mainsprings of her difficulties. This +may permanently keep her population from rising above the level of forty +million, whereas Germany, by the middle of the century, will have +reached the formidable total of eighty million, so that competition +between them would not be on a footing of equality. Hence the chances +should be evenly balanced by the action of the Conference, to be +continued by the League. Discriminating treatment was therefore a +necessity. And it should be so introduced that France should be free to +maintain a protective tariff, of which she had sore need for her foreign +trade, without causing umbrage to her allies. For they could not gainsay +that her position deserved special treatment. + +Some of the Anglo-Saxon delegates took other ground, feeling unable to +countenance the postulate underlying those demands, namely, that the +Teuton race was to be forever anathema. They looked far enough ahead to +make due allowance for a future when conditions in Europe will be very +different from what they are to-day. The German race, they felt, being +numerous and virile, will not die out and cannot be suppressed. And as +it is also enterprising and resourceful it would be a mistake to render +it permanently hostile by the Allies overstepping the bounds of justice, +because in this case neither national nor general interests would be +furthered. You may hinder Germany, they argued, from acquiring the +hegemony of the world, but not from becoming the principal factor in +European evolution. If thirty years hence the German population totals +eighty million or more, will not their attitude and their sentiment +toward their neighbors constitute an all-important element of European +tranquillity and will not the trend of these be to a large extent the +outcome of the Allies' policy of to-day? The present, therefore, is the +time for the delegates to deprive that sentiment of its venomous, +anti-Allied sting, not by renouncing any of their countries' rights, but +by respecting those of others. + +That was the reasoning of those who believed that national striving +should be subordinated to the general good, and that the present time +and its aspirations should be considered in strict relation to the +future of the whole community of nations. They further contended that +while Germany deserved to suffer condignly for the heinous crimes of +unchaining the war and waging it ruthlessly, as many of her own people +confessed, she should not be wholly crippled or enthralled in the hope +that she would be rendered thereby impotent forever. Such hope was vain. +With her waxing strength her desire of vengeance would grow, and +together with it the means of wreaking it. She might yet knead Russia +into such a shape as would make that Slav people a serviceable +instrument of revenge, and her endeavors might conceivably extend +farther than Russia. The one-sided resettlement of Europe charged with +explosives of such incalculable force would frustrate the most elaborate +attempts to create not only a real league of nations, but even such a +rough approximation toward one as might in time and under favorable +circumstances develop into a trustworthy war preventive. They concluded +that a league of nations would be worse than useless if transformed into +a weapon to be wielded by one group of nations against another, or as an +artificial makeshift for dispensing peoples from the observance of +natural laws. + +At the same time all the governments of the Allies were sincere and +unanimous in their desire to do everything possible to show their +appreciation of France's heroism, to recognize the vastness of her +sacrifices, and to pay their debt of gratitude for her services to +humanity. All were actuated by a resolve to contribute in the measure of +the possible to compensate her for such losses as were still reparable +and to safeguard her against the recurrence of the ordeal from which she +had escaped terribly scathed. The only limits they admitted to this +work of reparation were furnished by the aim itself and by the means of +attaining it. Thus Messrs. Wilson and Lloyd George held that to +incorporate in renovated France millions or even hundreds of thousands +of Germans would be to introduce into the political organism the germs +of fell disease, and on this ground they firmly refused to sanction the +Rhine frontier, which the French were thus obliged to relinquish. The +French delegates themselves admitted that if granted it could not be +held without a powerful body of international troops ever at the beck +and call of the Republic, vigilantly keeping watch and ward on the banks +of the Rhine and with no reasonable prospect of a term to this +servitude. For the real ground of this dependence upon foreign forces is +the disproportion between the populations of Germany and France and +between the resources of the two nations. The ratio of the former is at +present about six to four and it is growing perceptibly toward seven to +four. The organizing capacity in commerce and industry is said to be +even greater. If, therefore, France cannot stand alone to-day, still +less could she stand alone in ten or fifteen years, and the necessity of +protecting her against aggression, assuming that the German people does +not become reconciled to its status of forced inferiority, would be more +urgent and less practicable with the lapse of time. For, as we saw, it +is largely a question of the birth-rate. And as neither the British nor +the American people, deeply though they are attached to their gallant +comrades in arms, would consent to this arrangement, which to them would +be a burden and to the Germans a standing provocation, their +representatives were forced to the conclusion that it would be the +height of folly to do aught that would give the Teutons a convenient +handle for a war of revenge. Let there be no annexation of territory, +they said, no incorporation of unwilling German citizens. The Americans +further argued that an indefinite occupation of German territory by a +large body of international troops would be a direct encouragement to +militarism. + +The indemnities for which the French yearned, and on which their +responsible financiers counted, were large. The figures employed were +astronomical. Hundreds of milliards of francs were operated with by +eminent publicists in an offhand manner that astonished the survivor of +the expiring budgetary epoch and rejoiced the hearts of the Western +taxpayers. For it was not only journalists who wrote as though a stream +of wealth were to be turned into these countries to fertilize industry +and commerce there and enable them to keep well ahead of their pushing +competitors. Responsible Ministers likewise hall-marked these forecasts +with their approval. Before the fortune of war had decided for the +Allies, the finances of France had sorely embarrassed the Minister, M. +Klotz, of whom his chief, M. Clemenceau, is reported to have said: "He +is the only Israelite I have ever known who is out of his element when +dealing with money matters." Before the armistice, M. Klotz, when +talking of the complex problem and sketching the outlook, exclaimed: "If +we win the war, I undertake to make both ends meet, far though they now +seem apart. For I will make the Germans pay the entire cost of the war." +After the armistice he repeated his promise and undertook not to levy +fresh taxation. + +Thus, despite fitful gleams of idealism, the atmosphere of the Paris +Conclave grew heavy with interests, passions, and ambitions. Only people +in blinkers could miss the fact that the elastic formulas launched and +interpreted by President Wilson were being stretched to the +snapping-point so as to cover two mutually incompatible policies. The +chasm between his original prospects and those of his foreign associates +they both conscientiously endeavored to ignore, and after a time they +hit upon a _tertium quid_ between territorial equilibrium and a +sterilized league tempered by the Monroe Doctrine and a military +compact. This composite resultant carried with it the concentrated evils +of one of these systems and was deprived of its redeeming features by +the other. At a conjuncture in the world's affairs which postulated +internationalism of the loftiest kind, the delegates increased and +multiplied nations and states which they deprived of sovereignty and +yoked to the first-class races. National ambitions took precedence of +larger interests; racial hatred was raised to its highest power. In a +word, the world's state system was so oddly pieced together that only +economic exhaustion followed by a speedy return to militarism could +insure for it a moderate duration. + +Territorial self-sufficiency, military strength, and advantageous +alliances were accordingly looked to as the mainstays of the new +ordering, even by those who paid lip tribute to the Wilsonian ideal. The +ideal itself underwent a disfiguring change in the process of +incarnation. The Italians asked how the Monroe Doctrine could be +reconciled with the charter of the League of Nations, seeing that the +League would be authorized to intervene in the domestic affairs of other +member-states, and if necessary to despatch troops to keep Germany, +Italy, and Poland in order; whereas if the United States were guilty of +tyrannical aggression against Brazil, the Argentine Republic, or Mexico, +the League, paralyzed by that Doctrine, must look on inactive. The +Germans, alleging capital defects in the Wilsonian Covenant, which was +adjusted primarily to the Allies' designs, went to Paris prepared with a +substitute which, it must in fairness be admitted, was considerably +superior to that of their adversaries, and incidentally fraught with +greater promise to themselves. + +It is superfluous to add that the continental view prevailed, but Mr. +Wilson imagined that, while abandoning his principles in favor of +Britain, France, and Bulgaria, he could readjust the balance by applying +them with rigor to Italy and exaggerating them when dealing with Greece. +He afterward communicated his reasons for this belief in a message +published in Washington.[299] The alliance--he was understood to have +been opposed to all partial alliances on principle--which guarantees +military succor to France, he had signed, he said, in gratitude to that +country, for he seriously doubted whether the American Republic could +have won its freedom against Britain's opposition without the gallant +and friendly aid of France. "We recently had the privilege of assisting +in driving enemies, who also were enemies of the world, from her soil, +but that does not pay our debt to her. Nothing can pay such a debt." His +critics retorted that that is a sentimental reason which might with +equal force have been urged by France and Britain in justification of +their promises to Italy and Rumania, yet was rejected as irrelevant by +Mr. Wilson in the name of a higher principle. + + +The President of the United States, it was further urged, is a +historian, and history tells him that the help given to his country +against England neither came from the French people nor was actuated by +sympathy for the American cause. It was the vindictive act of one of +those kings whose functions Mr. Wilson is endeavoring to abolish. The +monarch who helped the Americans was merely utilizing a favorable +opportunity for depriving with a minimum of effort his adversary of +lucrative possessions. Moreover, the debt which nothing can pay was +already due when in the years 1914-16 France was in imminent danger of +being crushed by a ruthless enemy. But at that time Mr. Wilson owed his +re-election largely to his refusal to extricate her from that peril. +Instead of calling to mind the debt that can never be repaid he merely +announced that he could not understand what the belligerents were +fighting for and that in any case France's grateful debtor was too proud +to fight. The motive which finally brought the United States into the +World War may be the noblest that ever yet actuated any state, but no +student of history will allow that Mr. Wilson has correctly described +it. + +The fact is that the French delegates and their supporters were +consistent and, except in their demand for the Rhine frontier, +unbending. They drew up a program and saw that it was substantially +carried out. They declared themselves quite ready to accept Mr. Wilson's +project, but only on condition that their own was also realized, +heedless of the incompatibility of the two. And Mr. Wilson felt +constrained to make their position his own, otherwise he could not have +obtained the Covenant he yearned for. And yet he must have known that +acquiescence in the demands put forward by M. Clemenceau would lower the +practical value of his Covenant to that of a sheet of paper. + +A blunt American journal, commenting on the handiwork of the Conference, +gave utterance to views which while making no pretense to courtly +phraseology are symptomatic of the way in which the average man thought +and spoke of the Covenant which emanated from the Supreme Council. "We +are convinced," it said, "that the elder statesmen of Europe, typified +by Clemenceau, consider it a hoax. Clemenceau never before was so +extremely bored by anything in his life as he was by the necessity of +making a pious pretense in the Covenant when what he wanted was the +assurance of the Triple Alliance. He got that assurance, which, along +with the French watch on the Rhine, the French in the Saar Valley and +in Africa, with German money going into French coffers, makes him +tolerably indulgent of the altruistic rhetoricians. + +"The English, the intelligent English, we know have their tongues in +their cheeks. The Italians are petulant imperialists, and Japan doesn't +care what happens to the League so long as Japan says what shall happen +in Asia."[300] + +Peace was at last signed, not on the basis of the Fourteen Points nor +yet entirely on the lines of territorial equilibrium, but on those of a +compromise which, missing the advantages of each, combined many of the +evils of both and of others which were generated by their conjunction, +and laid the foundations of the new state fabric on quick-sands. That +was at bottom the view to which Italy, Rumania, and Greece gave +utterance when complaining that their claims were being dealt with on +the principle of self-denial, whereas those of France had been settled +on the traditional basis of territorial guaranties and military +alliances. Further, the Treaty failed to lay an ax to the roots of war, +did, in fact, increase their number while purporting to destroy them. +Far from that: germs of future conflicts not only between the late +belligerents, but also between the recent Allies, were plentifully +scattered and may sprout up in the fullness of time. + + +The Paris press expressed its satisfaction with France's share of the +fruits of victory. For the provisions of the Treaty went as far as any +merely political arrangement could go to check the natural inequality, +numerical, economical, industrial, and financial, between the Teuton and +French peoples. To many this problem seemed wholly insoluble, because +its solution involved a suspension or a corrective of a law of nature. +Take the birth-rate in France, for example. Before the war it had long +been declining at a rate which alarmed thoughtful French patriots. And, +according to official statistics, it is falling off still more rapidly +to-day, whereas the increase in other countries is greater than ever +before.[301] Thus, whereas in the year 1911 there were 73,599 births in +the Seine Department, there were only 47,480 in 1918. Wet nurses, too, +are disappearing. Of these, in the year 1911, in the same territory +there were 1,363, but in 1918 only 65. The mortality among foundlings +rose from 5 per cent. before the war to 40 per cent. in the year +1918.[302] M. Bertillon calculates that for France to increase merely at +the same rate as other nations--not to recover the place among them +which she has already lost, but only to keep her present one--she needs +five hundred thousand more births than are registered at present. A +statistical table which he drew up of the birth-rate of four European +nations during five decades, beginning with the year 1861, is unpleasant +reading[303] for the friends of that heroic and artistic people. France, +containing in round numbers 40,000,000 inhabitants, ought to increase +annually by 500,000. Before the war the total number of births in +Germany was computed at one million nine hundred and fifty thousand, but +hardly more than one million of the children born were viable.[304] The +general conclusion to be drawn from these figures and from the +circumstances that the falling off in the French population still goes +on unchecked, is disquieting for those who desire to see the French +race continue to play the leading part in continental Europe. One of the +shrewdest observers in contemporary Germany--himself a distinguished +Semite--commented on this decisive fact as follows:[305] "Within ten +years Germany will contain seventy million inhabitants, and in the +torrent of her fecundity will drown anemic and exhausted France.... The +French nation is dying of exhaustion. There is no reason, however, for +the world to get alarmed ... for before the French will have vanished +from the earth, other races, virile and healthy, will have come to their +country to take their place." That is what is actually happening, and it +is impressively borne in upon the visitor to various French cities by +the vast number of exotic names over houses of business and in other +ways. + +With this formidable obstacle, then, the three members of the Supreme +Council strenuously coped by exercising to the fullest extent the power +conferred on the victors over the vanquished. And the result of their +combinations challenged and received the unstinted approval of all those +numerous enemies of Teutondom who believe the Germans to be incapable of +contributing materially to human progress, unless they are kept in +leading-strings by one of the superior races. The Treaty represents the +potential realization of France's dream, achieved semi-miraculously by +the very statesmen on whom the Teutons were relying to dispel it. +Defeated, disarmed, incapable of military resistance, and devoid of +friends, Germany thought she could discern her sheet-anchor of salvation +in the Wilsonian gospel, and it was the preacher of this gospel himself +who implicitly characterized her salvation as more difficult than the +passage of a camel through the eye of a needle. The crimes perpetrated +by the Teutons were unquestionably heinous beyond words, and no +punishment permitted by the human conscience is too drastic to atone for +them. How long this punishment should endure, whether it should be +inflicted on the entire people as well as on their leaders, and what +form should be given to it, were among the questions confronting the +Secret Council, and they implicitly answered them in the way we have +seen. + +People who consider the answer adequate and justified give as their +reason that it presupposes and attains a single object--the efficacious +protection of France as the sentinel of civilization against an +incorrigible arch-enemy. And in this they may be right. But if you +enlarge the problem till it covers the moral fellowship of nations, and +if you postulate that as a safeguard of future peace and neighborliness +in the world, then the outcome of the Treaty takes on a different +coloring. Between France and Germany it creates a sea of bitterness +which no rapturous exultation over the new ethical ordering can sweeten. +The latter nation is assumed to be smitten with a fell moral disease, to +which, however, the physicians of the Conference have applied no moral +remedy, but only measures of coercion, mostly powerful irritants. The +reformed state of Europe is consequently a state of latent war between +two groups of nations, of which one is temporarily prostrate and both +are naïvely exhorted to join hands and play a helpful part in an idyllic +society of nations. This expectation is the delight of cynics and the +despair of those serious reformers who are not interested politicians. +Heretofore the most inveterate optimists in politics were the +revolutionaries. But they have since been outdone by the Paris +world-reformers, who tempt Providence by calling on it to accomplish by +a miracle an object which they have striven hard and successfully to +render impossible by the ordinary operation of cause and effect. Thus +the Covenant mars the Treaty, and the Treaty the Covenant. + +In Weimar and Berlin the Treaty was termed the death-sentence of +Germany, not only as an empire, but as an independent political +community. Henceforward her economic efforts, beyond a certain limit, +will be struck with barrenness, her industry will be hindered from +outstripping or overtaking that of the neighboring countries, and her +population will be indirectly kept within definite bounds. For, instead +of exporting manufactures, she will be obliged to export human beings, +whose intellect and skill will be utilized by such rivals of her own +race as vouchsafe to admit them. Already before the Conference was over +they began to emigrate eastward. And those who remain at home will not +be masters in their own house, for the doors will be open to various +foreign commissions. + +The assumption upon which the Treaty-framers proceeded is that the +abominations committed by the German military and civil authorities were +constructively the work of the entire nation, for whose reformation +within a measurable period hope is vain. This view predominated among +the ruling classes of the Entente peoples with few exceptions. If it be +correct, it seems superfluous to constrain the enemy to enter the league +of law-abiding nations, which is to be cemented only by voluntary +adherence and by genuine attachment to liberty, right, and justice. +Hence the Covenant, by being inserted in the Peace Treaty, necessarily +lost its value as an eirenicon, and became subsequent to that +instrument, and seems likely to be used as an anti-German safeguard. But +even then its efficacy is doubtful, and manifestly so; otherwise the +reformers, who at the start set out to abolish alliances as recognized +causes of war, would not have ended by setting up a new Triple +Alliance, which involves military, naval, and aerial establishments, and +the corresponding financial burdens inseparable from these. An alliance +of this character, whatever one may think of its economic and financial +aspects, runs counter to the spirit of the Covenant, but was an obvious +corollary of the Allies' attitude as mirrored in the Treaty. And the +spirit of the Treaty destroys the letter of the Covenant. For the world +is there implicitly divided into two camps--the friends and the enemies +of liberty, right, and justice; and the main functions of the League as +narrowed by the Treaty will be to hinder or defeat the machinations of +the enemies. Moreover, the deliberate concessions made by the Conference +to such agencies of the old ordering as the grouping of two or three +Powers into defensive alliances bids fair to be extended in time. For +the stress of circumstance is stronger than the will of man. At this +rate the last state may be worse than the first. + +The world situation, thus formally modified, remained essentially +unchanged, and will so endure until other forces are released. The +League of Nations forfeited its ideal character under the pressure of +national interests, and became a coalition of victors against the +vanquished. By the insertion of the Covenant in the Treaty the former +became a means for the execution of the latter. For even Mr. Wilson, +faced with realities and called to practical counsel, affectionately +dismissed the high-souled speculative projects in which he delighted +during his hours of contemplation. Although the German delegates signed +the Treaty, no one can honestly say that he expects them to observe it +longer than constraint presses, however solemn the obligations imposed. + +In the press organ of the most numerous and powerful political party in +Germany one might read in an article on the Germans in Bohemia annexed +by Czechoslovakia: "Assuredly their destiny will not be determined for +all time by the Versailles peace of violence. It behooves the German +nation to cherish its affection for its oppressed brethren, even though +it be powerless to succor them immediately. What then can it do? Italy +has given it a marvelous lesson in the policy of irredentism, which she +pursued in respect of the Trentino and Trieste."[306] + +With the Treaty as it stands, nationalist France of this generation has +reason to be satisfied. One of its framers, himself a shrewd business +man and politician, publicly set forth the grounds for this +satisfaction.[307] Alsace and Lorraine reunited to the metropolis, he +explained, will assist France materially with an industrious population +and enormous resources in the shape of mineral wealth and a fruitful +soil. Germany's former colonies, Kamerun and Togoland, are become +French, and will doubtless offer a vast and attractive field for the +expansion and prosperity of the French population. Morocco, freed from +German enterprise, can henceforth be developed by the French population +alone and without let or hindrance, for the benefit of the natives and +in the true sense of Mr. Wilson's humanitarian ordinances. The potash +deposits, to which German agriculture largely owed its prosperity, will +henceforward be utilized in the service of French agriculture. "In iron +ore the wealth of France is doubled, and her productive capacity as +regards pig-iron and steel immensely increased. Her production of +textiles is greater than before the war by about a third."[308] In a +word, a vast area of the planet inhabited by various peoples will look +to the French people for everything that makes their collective life +worth living. + +The sole arrangement which for a time caused heart-burnings in France +was that respecting the sums of money which Germany should have been +made to pay to her victorious enemies. For the opinions on that subject +held by the average man, and connived at or approved by the authorities, +were wholly fantastic, just as were some of the expectations of other +Allied states. The French people differ from their neighbors in many +respects--and in a marked way in money matters. They will sacrifice +their lives rather than their substance. They will leave a national debt +for their children and their children's children, instead of making a +resolute effort to wipe it out or lessen it by amortization. In this +respect the British, the Americans, and also the Germans differ from +them. These peoples tax themselves freely, create sinking funds, and +make heavy sacrifices to pay off their money obligations. This habit is +ingrained. The contrary system is become second nature to the French, +and one cannot change a nation's habits overnight. The education of the +people might, however, have been undertaken during the war with +considerable chances of satisfactory results. The government might have +preached the necessity of relinquishing a percentage of the war gains to +the state. It was done in Britain and Germany. The amount of money +earned by individuals during the hostilities was enormous. A +considerable percentage of it should have been requisitioned by the +state, in view of the peace requirements and of the huge indebtedness +which victory or defeat must inevitably bring in its train. But no +Minister had the courage necessary to brave the multitude and risk his +share of popularity or tolerance. And so things were allowed to slide. +The people were assured that victory would recompense their efforts, not +only by positive territorial gains, but by relieving them of their new +financial obligations. + +That was a sinister mistake. The truth is that the French nation, if +defeated, would have paid any sum demanded. That was almost an axiom. It +would and could have expected no ruth. But, victorious, it looked to the +enemy for the means of refunding the cost of the war. The Finance +Minister--M. Klotz--often declared to private individuals that if the +Allies were victorious he would have all the new national debt wiped out +by the enemy, and he assured the nation that milliards enough would be +extracted from Germany to balance the credit and debit accounts of the +Republic. And the people naturally believed its professional expert. +Thus it became a dogma that the Teuton state was to provide all the cost +of the war. In that illusion the nation lived and worked and spent money +freely, nay, wasted it woefully. + +And yet M. Klotz should have known better. For he was supplied with +definite data to go upon. In October, 1918, the French government, in +doubt about the full significance of that one of Mr. Wilson's Fourteen +Points which dealt with reparations, asked officially for explanations, +and received from Mr. Lansing the answer by telegraph that it involved +the making good by the enemy of all losses inflicted directly and +lawlessly upon civilians, but none other. That surely was a plain answer +and a just principle. But, in accordance with the practice of secrecy in +vogue among Allied European governments, the nation was not informed of +these restrictive conditions, but was allowed to hug dangerous +delusions. + +But the Ministers knew them, and M. Klotz was a Minister. Not only, +however, did he not reveal what he knew, but he behaved as though his +information was of a directly contrary tenor, and he also stated that +Germany must also refund the war indemnities of 1870, capitalized down +to November, 1918, and he set down the sum at fifty milliards of +francs. This procedure was not what reasonably might have been expected +from the leader of a heroic nation stout-hearted enough to face +unpleasant facts. Some of the leading spirits in the country, despite +the intensity of their feelings toward Germany, disapproved this kind of +bookkeeping, but M. Klotz did not relinquish his method of keeping +accounts. He drew up a bill against the Teutons for one thousand and +eighty-six milliards of francs. + +The Germans at the Conference maintained that if the wealth of their +nation were realized and liquid, it would amount at most to four hundred +milliards, but that to realize it would involve the stripping of the +population of everything--of its forests, its mines, its railways, its +factories, its cattle, its houses, its furniture, and its ready money. +They further pleaded that the territorial clauses of the Treaty deprived +them of important resources, which would reduce their solvency to a +greater degree than the Allies realized. These clauses dispossessed the +nation of 21 per cent. of the total crops of cereals and potatoes. A +further falling off in the quantities of food produced would result from +the restrictions on the importation of raw materials for the manufacture +of fertilizers. Of her coal, Germany was forfeiting about one-third; +three-fourths of her iron ore was also being taken away from her; her +total zinc production would be cut down by over three-fifths. Add to +this the enormous shortage of tonnage, machinery, and man-power, the +total loss of her colonies, the shrinkage of available raw stuffs, and +the depreciation of the mark. + +At the Conference the Americans maintained their ground. Invoking the +principle laid down by Mr. Wilson and clearly formulated by Mr. Lansing, +they insisted that reparations should be claimed only for damage done to +civilians directly and lawlessly. After a good deal of fencing, +rendered necessary by the pledges given by European statesmen to their +electors, it was decided that the criteria provided by that principle +should be applied. But even with that limitation the sums claimed were +huge. It was alleged by the Germans that some of the demands were for +amounts that exceeded the total national wealth of the country filing +the claim. And as no formula could be devised that would satisfy all the +claimants, it was resolved in principle that, although Germany should be +obliged to make good only certain classes of losses, the Conference +would set no limits to the sums for which she would thus be liable. + +At this juncture M. Loucheur suggested that a minimum sum should be +demanded of the enemy, leaving the details to be settled by a +commission. And this was the solution which was finally adopted.[309] It +was received with protests and lamentations, which, however, soon made +place for self-congratulations, official and private. + +The French Minister of Finances, for example, drew a bright picture in +the Chamber of the financial side of the Treaty, so far as it affected +his country: "Within two years," he announced, "independently of the +railway rolling stock, of agricultural materials and restitutions, we +receive a part, still to be fixed, of the payment of twenty milliards of +marks in gold; another share, also to be determined, of an emission of +bonds amounting to forty milliard gold marks, bearing interest at the +rate of 2 per cent.; a third part, to be fixed, of German shipping and +dyes; seven million tons of coal annually for a period of ten years, +followed by diminishing quantities during the following years; the +repayment of the expenses of occupation; the right of taking over a part +of Germany's interests in Russia, in particular that of obtaining the +payment of pre-war debts at the pre-war rate of exchange, likewise the +maintenance of such contracts as we may desire to maintain in force and +the return of Alsace-Lorraine free from all incumbrances. Nor is that +all. In Morocco we have the right to liquidate German property, to +transfer the shares that represent Germany's interests in the Bank of +Morocco, and finally the allotment under a French mandate of a portion +of the German colonies free from incumbrances of any kind.... We shall +receive four hundred and sixty-three milliard francs, payable in +thirty-six years, without counting the restitutions which will have been +effected. Nor should it be forgotten that already we have received eight +milliards' worth of securities stolen from French bearers. So do not +consider the Treaty as a misfortune for France."[310] + +Soon after the outburst of joy with which the ingathering of the fruits +of France's victory was celebrated, clouds unexpectedly drifted athwart +the cerulean blue of the political horizon, and dark shadows were flung +across the Allied countries. The second-and third-class nations fell out +with the first-class Powers. Italy, for example, whose population is +almost equal to that of her French sister, demanded compensation for the +vast additions that were being made to France's extensive possessions. +The grounds alleged were many. Compensation had been promised by the +secret treaty. The need for it was reinforced by the rejection of +Italy's claims in the Adriatic. The Italian people required, desired, +and deserved a fair and fitting field for legitimate expansion. They are +as numerous as the French, and have a large annual surplus population, +which has to hew wood and draw water for foreign peoples. They are +enterprising, industrious, thrifty, and hard workers. Their country +lacks some of the necessaries of material prosperity, such as coal, +iron, and cotton. Why should it not receive a territory rich in some of +these products? Why should a large contingent of Italy's population have +to go to the colonies of Spain, France, and Britain or to South American +republics for a livelihood? The Italian press asked whether the Supreme +Council was bent on fulfilling the Gospel dictum, "Whosoever hath, to +him shall be given...." + +One of the first demands made by Italy was for the port and town of +Djibouti, which is under French sway. It was rejected, curtly and +emphatically. Other requests elicited plausible explanations why they +could not be complied with. In a word, Italy was treated as a poor and +importunate relation, and was asked to console herself with the +reflection that she was working in the vineyard of idealism. In vain +eminent publicists in Rome, Turin, and Milan pleaded their country's +cause. Adopting the principle which Mr. Wilson had applied to France and +Britain, they affirmed that even before the war France, with a larger +population and fewer possessions, had shown that she was incapable of +discharging the functions which she had voluntarily taken upon herself. +Tunis, they alleged, owed its growth and thriving condition to Italian +emigrants. With all the fresh additions to her territories, the +population of the Republic would be utterly inadequate to the task. To +the Supreme Council this line of reasoning was distinctly unpalatable. +Nor did the Italians further their cause when, by way of giving emphatic +point to their reasoning, their press quoted that eminent Frenchman, M. +d'Estournelles de Constant, who wrote at that very moment: "France has +too many colonies already--far more in Asia, in Africa, in America, in +Oceania than she can fructify. In this way she is immobilizing +territories, continents, peoples, which nominally she takes over. And it +is childish and imprudent to take barren possession of them, when other +states allege their power to utilize them in the general interest. By +acting in this manner, France, do what she may, is placing herself in +opposition to the world's interests, and to those of the League of +Nations. In the long run it is a serious business. Spain, Portugal, and +Holland know this to their cost. Do what she would, France was not able +before the war to utilize all her immense colonial domain ... for lack +of population. She will be still less able after the war...."[311] + +The discussion grew dangerously animated. Epigrams were coined and sent +floating in the heavily charged air. A tactless comparison was made +between the French nation and a _bon vivant_ of sixty-five who flatters +himself that he can enjoy life's pleasures on the same scale as when he +was only thirty. Little arrows thus barbed with biting acid often make +more enduring mischief than sledge-hammer blows. Soon the estrangement +between the two sister nations unhappily became wider and led to marked +divergences in their respective policies, which seem fraught with grave +consequences in the future. + +The Italy of to-day is not the Italy of May, 1915. She now knows exactly +where she stands. When she unsheathed her sword to fight against the +allies of the state that declared a treaty to be but a scrap of paper, +she was heartened by a solemn promise given in writing by her comrades +in arms. But when she had accomplished her part of the contract, that +document turned out to be little more than another scrap of paper. Thus +it was one of the piquant ironies of Fate, Italian publicists said, that +the people who had mostly clamored against that doctrine were indirectly +helping it to triumph. Mr. Wilson, unwittingly sapping public faith in +written treaties, was held up as one of the many pictures in which the +Conference abounded of the delegates refuting their words by acts. The +unbiased historian will readily admit that the secret treaties were +profoundly immoral from the Wilsonian angle of vision, but that the only +way of canceling them was by a general principle rigidly upheld and +impartially applied. And this the Supreme Council would not entertain. + +With her British ally, too, France had an unpleasant falling out about +Eastern affairs, and in especial about Syria and Persia. There was also +a demand for the retrocession by Britain of the island of Mauritius, but +it was not made officially, nor is it a subject for two such nations to +quarrel over. The first rift in the lute was caused by the deposition of +Emir Faisal respecting the desires of the Arab population. This +picturesque chief, the French press complained, had been too readily +admitted to the Conference and too respectfully listened to there, +whereas the Persian delegation tramped for months over the Paris streets +without once obtaining a hearing. The Hedjaz, which had been independent +from time immemorial, was formally recognized as a separate kingdom +during the war, and the Grand Sheriff of Mecca was suddenly raised to +the throne in the European sense by France and Britain. Since then he +was formally recognized by the five Powers. His representatives in Paris +demanded the annexation of all the countries of Arabic speech which were +under Turkish domination. These included not only Mesopotamia, but also +Syria, on which France had long looked with loving eyes and respecting +which there existed an accord between her and Britain. The project +community would represent a Pan-Arab federation of about eleven million +souls, over which France would have no guardianship. And yet the +written accord had never been annulled. Palestine was excluded from +this Pan-Arabian federation, and Syria was to be consulted, and instead +of being handed over to France, as M. Clemenceau demanded, was to be +allowed to declare its own wishes without any injunctions from the +Conference. Mesopotamia would be autonomous under the League of Nations, +but a single mandatory was asked for by the king of the Hedjaz for the +entire eleven million inhabitants. + +The comments of the French press on Britain's attitude, despite their +studied reserve and conventional phraseology, bordered on recrimination +and hinted at a possible cooling of friendship between the two nations, +and in the course of the controversy the evil-omened word "Fashoda" was +pronounced. The French _Temps's_ arguments were briefly these: The +populations claimed occupy such a vast stretch of territory that the +sovereignty of the Hedjaz could hardly be more than nominal and +symbolical. In fact, they cover an area of one-half of the Ottoman +Empire. These different provinces would, in reality, be under the +domination of the Great Power which was the real creator of this new +kingdom, and the monarch of the Hedjaz would be a mere stalking-horse of +Britain. This, it was urged, would not be independence, but a masked +protectorate, and in the name of the higher principles must be +prevented. Syria must be handed over to France without consulting the +population. The financial resources of the Hedjaz are utterly inadequate +for the administration of such a vast state as was being compacted. Who, +then, it was asked, would supply the indispensable funds? Obviously +Britain, who had been providing the Emir Faisal with funds ever since +his father donned the crown. If this political entity came into +existence, it would generate continuous friction between France and +Britain, separate comrades in arms, delight a vigilant enemy, and +violate a written compact which should be sacred. For these reasons it +should be rejected and Syria placed under the guardianship of France. + +The Americans took the position that congruously with the high ethical +principles which had guided the labors of the Conference throughout, it +was incumbent on its members, instead of bartering civilized peoples +like chattels, to consult them as to their own aspirations. If it were +true that the Syrians were yearning to become the wards of France, there +could be no reasonable objection on the part of the French delegates to +agree to a plebiscite. But the French delegates declined to entertain +the suggestion on the ground that Syria's longing for French guidance +was a notorious fact. + +After much discussion and vehement opposition on the part of the French +delegates an Inter-Allied commission under Mr. Charles Crane was sent to +visit the countries in dispute and to report on the leanings of their +populations. After having visited forty cities and towns and more than +three hundred villages, and received over fifteen hundred delegations of +natives, the commission reported that the majority of the people "prefer +to maintain their independence," but do not object to live under the +mandatory system for fifty years _provided the United States accepts_ +the mandate. "Syria desires to become a sovereign kingdom, and most of +the population supports the Emir Faisal as king.[312] The commission +further ascertained that the Syrians, "who are singularly enlightened as +to the policies of the United States," invoked and relied upon a +Franco-British statement of policy[313] which had been distributed +broadcast throughout their country, "promising complete liberation from +the Turks and the establishment of free governments among the native +population and recognition of these governments by France and +Britain."[314] + +The result of the investigation by the Inter-Allied commission reminds +one of the story of the two anglers who were discussing the merits of +two different sauces for the trout which one of them had caught. As they +were unable to agree they decided to refer the matter to the trout, who +answered: "Gentlemen, I do not wish to be eaten with any sauce. I desire +to live and be free in my own element." "Ah, now you are wandering from +the question," exclaimed the two, who thereupon struck up a compromise +on the subject of the sauce. + +The tone of this long-drawn-out controversy, especially in the press, +was distinctly acrimonious. It became dangerously bitter when the French +political world was apprised one day of the conclusion of a treaty +between Britain and Persia as the outcome of secret negotiations between +London and Teheran. And excitement grew intenser when shortly afterward +the authentic text of this agreement was disclosed. In France, Italy, +Germany, Russia, and the United States the press unanimously declared +that Persia's international status as determined by the new diplomatic +instrument could best be described by the evil-sounding words +"protectorate" and the violation of the mandatory system adopted by the +Conference. + +This startling development shed a strong light upon the new ordering of +the world and its relation to the Wilsonian gospel, complicated with +secret negotiations, protectorates without mandates, and the one-sided +abrogation of compacts. + +Persia is one of the original members of the League of Nations,[315] and +as such was entitled, the French argued, to a hearing at the +Conference. She had grievances that called for redress: her neutrality +had been violated, many of her subjects had been put to death, and her +titles to reparation were undeniable. President Wilson, the comforter of +small states and oppressed nationalities, having proclaimed that the +weakest communities would command the same friendly treatment as the +greatest, the Persian delegates repaired to Paris in the belief that +this treatment would be accorded them. But there they were +disillusioned. For them there was no admission. Whether, if they had +been heard and helped by the Supreme Council, they would have contrived +to exist as an independent state is a question which cannot be discussed +here. The point made by the French was that on its own showing the +Conference was morally bound to receive the Persian delegation. The +utmost it obtained was that the Persian Minister of Foreign Affairs, +Monalek, who was head of the delegation, had a private talk with +President Wilson, Colonel House, and Mr. Lansing. These statesmen +unhesitatingly promised to help Persia to secure full sovereign rights, +or at any rate to enable her delegates to unfold their country's case +and file their protests before the Conference. The delegates were +comforted and felt sure of the success of their mission. They told the +American plenipotentiaries that the United States would be Persia's +creditor for this help and that she would invite American financiers to +put her money matters in order, American engineers to develop her mining +industries, and the American oil firms to examine and exploit her petrol +deposits.[316] In a word, Persia would be Americanized. This naïve +announcement of the rôle reserved for American benefactors in the land +of the Shah might have impressed certain commercial and financial +interests in the United States, but was wholly alien to the only order +of motives that could properly move the American plenipotentiaries to +interpose in favor of their would-be wards. + +The promises made by Messrs. Wilson, House, and Lansing came to nothing. +For months the Persian envoys lived in hope which was strengthened by +the assurances of various members of the Conference that the +intervention of Mr. Wilson would infallibly prove successful. But events +belied this forecast, whereupon the head of the Persian delegation, +after several months of hopes deferred, quitted France for +Constantinople, and his country's position among the nations was settled +in detail by the new agreement. + +That position does undoubtedly resemble very closely Egypt's status +before the outbreak of the World War. And Egypt's status could hardly be +termed independence. Henceforward Great Britain has a strong hold on the +Persian customs, the control of the waterways and carriage routes, the +rights of railway construction, the oil-fields--these were ours +before--the right to organize the army and direct the foreign policy of +the kingdom. And it may fairly be argued that this arrangement may prove +a greater blessing to the Persians than the realization of their own +ambitions. That, at any rate, is my own personal belief, which for many +years I have held and expressed. None the less it runs diametrically +counter to the letter and the spirit of Wilsonianism, which is now seen +to be a wall high enough to keep out the dwarf states, but which the +giants can easily clear at a bound. + +Against this violation of the new humanitarian doctrine French +publicists flared up. The glaring character of the transgression +revolted them, the plight of the Persians touched them, and the right of +self-determination strongly appealed to them. Was it not largely for the +assertion of that right that all the Allied peoples had for five years +been making unheard-of sacrifices? What would become of the League of +Nations if such secret and selfish doings were connived at? In a word, +French sympathy for the victims of British hegemony waxed as strong as +the British fellow-feeling for the Syrians, who objected to be drawn +into the orbit of the French. Those sharp protests and earnest appeals, +it may be noted, were the principal, perhaps the only, symptoms of +tenderness for unprotected peoples which were evoked by the great +ethical movement headed by the Conference. + +The French further pointed out that the system of Mandates had been +specially created for countries as backward and helpless as Persia was +assumed to be, and that the only agency qualified to apply it was either +the Supreme Council or the League of Nations. The British press answered +that no such humiliating assumption about the Shah's people was being +made, that the Foreign Office had distinctly disclaimed the intention of +establishing a protectorate over Persia, who is, and will remain, a +sovereign and independent state. But these explanations failed to +convince our indignant Allies. They argued, from experience, that no +trust was to be placed in those official assurances and euphemistic +phrases which are generally belied by subsequent acts.[317] They further +lamented that the long and secret negotiations which were going forward +in Teheran while the Persian delegation was wearily and vainly waiting +in Paris to be allowed to plead its country's cause before the great +world-dictators was not a good example of loyalty to the new cosmic +legislation. Had not Mr. Wilson proclaimed that peoples were no longer +to be bartered and swapped as chattels? Here the Italians and Rumanians +chimed in, reminding their kinsmen that it was the same American +statesmen who in the peace conditions first presented to Count +Brockdorff-Rantzau made over the German population of the Saar Valley to +France at the end of fifteen years as the fair equivalent of a sum of +money payable in gold, and that France at any rate had raised no +objection to the barter nor to the principle at the root of it. They +reasoned that if the principle might be applied to one case it should be +deemed equally applicable to the other, and that the only persons or +states that could with propriety demur to the Anglo-Persian arrangements +were those who themselves were not benefiting by similar transactions. + +At last the Paris press, laying due weight on the alliance with Britain, +struck a new note. "It seems that these last Persian bargainings offer a +theme for conversations between our government and that of the Allies," +one influential journal wrote.[318] At once the amicable suggestion was +taken up by the British press. The idea was to join the Syrian with the +Persian transactions and make French concessions on the other. This +compromise would compose an ugly quarrel and settle everything for the +best. For France's intentions toward the people of Syria were, it was +credibly asserted, to the full as disinterested and generous as those of +Britain toward Persia, and if the Syrians desired an English-speaking +nation rather than the French to be their mentor, it was equally true +that the Persians wanted Americans rather than British to superintend +and accelerate their progress in civilization. But instead of harkening +to the wishes of only one it would be better to ignore those of both. By +this prudent compromise all the demands of right and justice, for which +both governments were earnest sticklers, would thus be amply satisfied. + +Our American associates were less easily appeased. In sooth there was +nothing left wherewith to appease them. Their press condemned the +"protectorate" as a breach of the Covenant. Secretary Lansing let it be +known[319] that the United States delegation had striven to obtain a +hearing for the Persians at the Conference, but had "lost its fight." A +Persian, when apprized of this utterance, said: "When the United States +delegation strove to hinder Italy from annexing Fiume and obtaining the +territories promised her by a secret treaty, they accomplished their aim +because they refused to give way. Then they took care not to lose their +fight. When they accepted a brief for the Jews and imposed a Jewish +semi-state on Rumania and Poland, they were firm as the granite rock, +and no amount of opposition, no future deterrents, made any impression +on their will. Accordingly, they had their way. But in the cause of +Persia they lost the fight, although logic, humanity, justice, and the +ordinances solemnly accepted by the Great Powers were all on their +side." ... One American press organ termed the Anglo-Persian accord "a +coup which is a greater violation of the Wilsonian Fourteen Points than +the Shantung award to Japan, as it makes the whole of Persia a mere +protectorate for Britain."[320] + +Generally speaking, illustrations of the meaning of non-intervention in +the home affairs of other nations were numerous and somewhat perplexing. +Were it not that Mr. Wilson had come to Europe for the express purpose +of interpreting as well as enforcing his own doctrine, one would have +been warranted in assuming that the Supreme Council was frequently +travestying it. But as the President was himself one of the leading +members of that Council, whose decisions were unanimous, the utmost +that one can take for granted is that he strove to impose his tenets on +his intractable colleagues and "lost the fight." + +Here is a striking instance of what would look to the average man very +like intervention in the domestic politics of another nation--well-meant +and, it may be, beneficent intervention--were it not that we are assured +on the highest authority that it is nothing of the sort. It was devised +as an expedient for getting outside help for the capture of Petrograd by +the anti-Bolshevists. The end, therefore, was good, and the means seemed +effectual to those who employed them. The Kolchak-Denikin party could, +it was believed, have taken possession of that capital long before, by +obtaining the military co-operation of the Esthonians. But the price +asked by these was the recognition of their complete independence by the +non-Bolshevist government in the name of all Russia. Kolchak, to his +credit, refused to pay this price, seeing that he had no powers to do +so, and only a dictator would sign away the territory by usurping the +requisite authority. Consequently the combined attack on Petrograd was +not undertaken. The Admiral's refusal was justified by the circumstances +that he was the spokesman only of a large section of the Russian people, +and that a thoroughly representative assembly must be consulted on the +subject previous to action being taken. The military stagnation that +ensued lasted for months. Then one day the press brought the tidings +that the difficulty was ingeniously overcome. This is the shape in which +the intelligence was communicated to the world: "Colonel Marsh, of the +British army, who is representing General Gough, organized a republic in +northwest Russia at Reval, August 12th, _within forty-five minutes_, +General Yudenitch being nominally the head of the new government, which +is affiliated with the Kolchak government. Northwest Russia opposes the +Esthonian government only in principle because it wants guaranties that +the Esthonians will not be the stepping-stone for some big Power like +Germany to control the Russian outlet through the Baltic. If the +Esthonians give such guaranties, the northwestern Russians are perfectly +willing to let them become an independent state."[321] + +Here then was a "British colonel" who, in addition to his military +duties, was, according to this account, willing and able to create an +independent republic without any Supreme Council to assist him, whereas +professional diplomatists and military men of other nations had been +trying for months to found a Rhine republic under Dorten and had failed. +Nor did he, if the newspaper report be correct, waste much time at the +business. From the moment of its inception until northwestern Russia +stood forth an independent state, promulgating and executing grave +decisions in the sphere of international politics, only forty-five +minutes are said to have elapsed. Forty-five minutes by the clock. It +was almost as quick a feat as the drafting of the Covenant of Nations. +Further, the resourceful statemaker forged a republic which was +qualified to transfer sovereignly Russian territory to unrecognized +states without consulting the nation or obtaining authority from any +one. More marvelous than any other detail, however, is the circumstance +that he did his work so well that it never amounted to +intervention.[322] + +One cannot affect surprise if the distinction between this amazing +exploit of diplomatico-military prestidigitation and intermeddling in +the internal affairs of another nation prove too subtle for the mental +grasp of the average unpolitical individual. + +It is practices like these which ultimately determine the worth of the +treaties and the Covenant which Mr. Wilson was content to take back with +him to Washington as the final outcome of what was to have been the most +superb achievement of historic man. Of the new ethical principles, of +the generous renunciation of privileges, of the righting of secular +wrongs, of the respect that was to be shown for the weak, which were to +have cemented the union of peoples into one pacific if not blissful +family, there remained but the memory. No such bitter draught of +disappointment was swallowed by the nations since the world first had a +political history. Many of the resounding phrases that once foretokened +a new era of peace, right, and equity were not merely emptied of their +contents, but made to connote their opposites. Freedom of the seas +became supremacy of the seas, which may possibly turn out to be a +blessed consummation for all concerned, but should not have been +smuggled in under a gross misnomer. The abolition of war means, as +British and American and French generals and admirals have since told +their respective fellow-citizens, thorough preparations for the next +war, which are not to be confined, as heretofore, to the so-called +military states, but are to extend over all Anglo-Saxondom.[323] "Open +covenants openly arrived at" signify secret conclaves and conspirative +deliberations carried on in impenetrable secrecy which cannot be +dispensed with even after the whole business has passed into +history.[324] The self-determination of peoples finds its limit in the +rights of every Great Power to hold its subject nationalities in thrall +on the ground that their reciprocal relations appertain to the domestic +policy of the state. It means, further, the privilege of those who wield +superior force to put irresistible pressure upon those who are weak, and +the lever which it places in their hands for the purpose is to be known +under the attractive name of the protection of minorities. Abstention +from interference in the home affairs of a neighboring community is made +to cover intermeddling of the most irksome and humiliating character in +matters which have no nexus with international law, for if they had, the +rule would be applicable to all nations. The lesser peoples must harken +to injunctions of the greater states respecting their mode of treating +alien immigrants and must submit to the control of foreign bodies which +are ignorant of the situation and its requirements. Nor is it enough +that those states should accord to the members of the Jewish and other +races all the rights which their own citizens enjoy--they must go +farther and invest them with special privileges, and for this purpose +renounce a portion of their sovereignty. They must likewise allow their +more powerful allies to dictate to them their legislation on matters of +transit and foreign commerce.[325] For the Great Powers, however, this +law of minorities was not written. They are above the law. Their warrant +is force. In a word, force is the trump card in the political game of +the future as it was in that of the past. And M. Clemenceau's reminder +to the petty states at the opening of the Conference that the wielders +of twelve million troops are the masters of the situation was +appropriate. Thus the war which was provoked by the transformation of a +solemn treaty into a scrap of paper was concluded by the presentation of +two scraps of paper as a treaty and a covenant for the moral renovation +of the world. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[288] _The Daily Telegraph_, March 28, 1919. + +[289] In a speech delivered at a dinner given in Paris on April 19, +1919, by the Commonwealth of Australia to Australian soldiers. + +[290] In March, 1919. + +[291] August 19, 1919. + +[292] Cf. _Corriere delta Sera_, August 20, 1919. + +[293] _Ibidem_ (_Corriere della Sera_, August 20, 1919). + +[294] _L'Humanité,_ May 21, 1919. + +[295] _The Nation_, August 23, 1919. + +[296] Chief of the Austrian police at Vienna Congress in the years +1814-15. + +[297] In _L'Echo de Paris_, March 2,1919. Cf. _The Daily Telegraph_, +March 4th. + +[298] _Le Gaulois_, March 8, 1919. Cf. _The Daily Telegraph_, March +10th. + +[299] Cf. _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 21, 1919. + +[300] Cf. _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 23, 1919 + +[301] Report of Dr. Jacques Bertillon. Cf. _L'Information_, January 20, +1919. + +[302] Cf. _Le Matin_, August 13, 1919. + +30 +3: Excess of births over deaths (yearly average).--Cf. +_L'Information,_ January 20, 1919: + + Germany Great Britain Italy France +1861-70 408,333 365,499 183,196 93,515 +1871-80 511,034 431,436 191,538 64,063 +1881-90 551,308 442,112 307,082 66,982 +1891-1900 730,265 430,000 339,409 23,961 +1901-10 866,338 484,822 369,959 46,524 + +[304] Professor L. Marchand. Cf. _La Démocratie Nouvelle_, April 26, +1919. + +[305] Dr. Walter Rathenau, in a book entitled _The Death of France_. I +have not been able to procure a copy of this book. The extracts given +above are taken from a statement published by M. Brudenne in the _Matin_ +of February 16, 1919. + +[306] _Germania_, August 11, 1919. Cf. _Le Temps_, September 9, 1919. + +[307] M. André Tardieu in a speech delivered on August 17, 1919. Cf. +Paris newspapers of following two days, and in particular _New York +Herald_, August 19th. + +[308] Cf. speech delivered by M. André Tardieu on August 17, 1919. + +[309] On this subject of reparations the _Journal de Genève_ published +several interesting articles at various times, as, for example, on May +15, 1919. + +[310] Speech of M. Klotz in the Chamber on September 5, 1919. Cf. +_L'Echo de Paris_, September 6, 1919. + +[311] D'Estournelles de Constant. _Bulletin des Droits de l'Homme_, May +15, 1919. + +[312] _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 24, 1919. + +[313] Issued on November 9, 1918. + +[314] See _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 30, 1919. + +[315] An American Senator uncharitably conjectured that she received +this honorable distinction in order to contribute an additional vote to +the British. + +[316] Cf. interview with a Persian official, published in the Paris +edition of _The Chicago Tribune_, August 19, 1919. + +[317] "Unfortunately, Mr. Lloyd George, who has stripped the Foreign +Office of real power, has frequently given assurances of this nature, +and his acts have always contradicted them. As a proof, his last +interview with M. Clemenceau will serve." Cf. _L'Echo de Paris_, August +15, 1919, article by Pertinax. + +[318] _Le Journal des Débats_, August 15, 1919. + +[319] In Washington on August 16, 1919. + +[320] _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 19, 1919. + +[321] _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 24, 1919. + +[322] After the above was written, a French journal, the _Echo de Paris_ +of September 19, 1919, announced that General Marsh declares that his +agents acted without his instructions, but none the less it holds him +responsible for this Baltic policy. + +[323] Marshal Douglas Haig, Lord French, the American pacifist, Sydney +Baker, Senator Chamberlain, Representative Kahn, and a host of others +have been preaching universal military training. The press, too, with +considerable exceptions, favors the movement. "We want a democratized +army, which represents all the nation, and it can be found only in +universal service.... Universal service is our best guaranty of peace." +Cf. _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 22, 1919. + +[324] President Wilson, when at the close of his conference with the +Senate Committee on Foreign Relations--at the White House--asked how the +United States had voted on the Japanese resolution in favor of race +equality, replied: "I am not sure of being free to answer the question, +because it affects a large number of points that were discussed in +Paris, and in the interest of international harmony I think I had better +not reply."--_The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), August 22, 1919. + +[325] In virtue of Article LX of the Treaty with Austria. + + + + +XIV + +THE TREATY WITH GERMANY + + +To discuss in detail the peace terms which after many months' desultory +talk were finally presented to Count Brockdorff-Rantzau would transcend +the scope of these pages. Like every other act of the Supreme Council, +they may be viewed from one of two widely sundered angles of +survey--either as the exercise by a victorious state of the power +derived from victory over the vanquished enemy, or as one of the +measures by which the peace of the world is to be enforced in the +present and consolidated in the future. And from neither point of view +can it command the approval of unbiased political students. At first the +Germans, and not they alone, expected that the conditions would be based +on the Fourteen Points, while many of the Allies took it for granted +that they would be inspired by the resolve to cripple Teutondom for all +time. And for each of these anticipations there were good formal +grounds. + +The only legitimate motive for interweaving the Covenant with the Treaty +was to make of the latter a sort of corollary of the former and to +moderate the instincts of vengeance by the promptings of higher +interests. On this ground, and only on this, did the friends of +far-ranging reform support Mr. Wilson in his contention that the two +documents should be rendered mutually interdependent. Reparation for the +damage done in violation of international law and sound guaranties +against its recurrence are of the essence of every peace treaty that +follows a decisive victory. But reparation is seldom this and nothing +more. The lower instincts of human nature, when dominant as they are +during a bloody war and in the hour of victory, generally outweigh +considerations not only of right, but also of enlightened egotism, +leaving justice to merge into vengeance. And the fruits are treasured +wrath and a secret resolve on the part of the vanquished to pay out his +victor at the first opportunity. The war-loser of to-day aims at +becoming the war-winner of to-morrow. And this frame of mind is +incompatible with the temper needed for an era of moral fellowship such +as Mr. Wilson was supposed to be intent on establishing. Consequently, a +peace treaty unmodified by the principles underlying the Covenant is +necessarily a negation of the main possibilities of a society of nations +based upon right and a decisive argument against joining together the +two instruments. + +The other kind of peace which Mr. Wilson was believed to have had at +heart consisted not merely in the liquidation of the war, but in the +uprooting of its permanent causes, in the renunciation by the various +nations of sanguinary conflicts as a means of determining rival claims, +and in such an amicable rearrangement of international relations as +would keep such disputes from growing into dangerous quarrels. Right, or +as near an approximation to it as is attainable, would then take the +place of violence, whereby military guaranties would become not only +superfluous, but indicative of a spirit irreconcilable with the main +purpose of the League. Each nation would be entitled to equal +opportunity within the limits assigned to it by nature and widened by +its own mental and moral capacities. Thus permanently to forbid a +numerous, growing, and territorially cramped nation to possess overseas +colonies for its superfluous population while overburdening others with +possessions which they are unable to utilize, would constitute a +negation of one of the basic principles of the new ordering. + +Those were the grounds which seemed to warrant the belief that the +Treaty would be not only formally, but substantially and in its spirit +an integral, part of the general settlement based on the Fourteen +Points. + +This anticipation turned out to be a delusion. Wilsonianism proved to be +a very different system from that of the Fourteen Points, and its author +played the part not only of an interpreter of his tenets, but also of a +sort of political pope alone competent to annul the force of laws +binding on all those whom he should refuse to dispense from their +observance. He had to do with patriotic politicians permeated with the +old ideas, desirous of providing in the peace terms for the next war and +striving to secure the maximum of advantage over the foe presumptive, by +dismembering his territory, depriving him of colonies, making him +dependent on others for his supplies of raw stuffs, and artificially +checking his natural growth. Nearly all of them had principles to invoke +in favor of their claims and some had nothing else. And it was these +tendencies which Mr. Wilson sought to combine with the ethical ideals to +be incarnated in the Society of Nations. Now this was an impossible +synthesis. The spirit of vindictiveness--for that was well represented +at the Conference--was to merge and lose itself in an outflow of +magnanimity; precautions against a hated enemy were to be interwoven +with implicit confidence in his generosity; a military occupation would +provide against a sudden onslaught, while an approach to disarmament +would bear witness to the absence of suspicion. Thus Poland would +discharge the function of France's ally against the Teutons in the east, +but her frontiers were to leave her inefficiently protected against +their future attacks from the west. Germany was dismembered, yet she +was credited with self-discipline and generosity enough to steel her +against the temptation to profit by the opportunity of joining together +again what France had dissevered. The League of Nations was to be based +upon mutual confidence and good fellowship, yet one of its most powerful +future members was so distrusted as to be declared permanently unworthy +to possess any overseas colonies. Germany's territory in the Saar Valley +is admittedly inhabited by Germans, yet for fifteen years there is to be +a foreign administration there, and at the end of it the people are to +be asked whether they would like to cut the bonds that link them with +their own state and place themselves under French sway, so that a +premium is offered for French immigration into the Saar Valley. + +Those are a few of the consequences of the mixture of the two +irreconcilable principles. + +That Germany richly deserved her punishment cannot be gainsaid. Her +crime was without precedent. Some of its most sinister consequences are +irremediable. Whole sections of her people are still unconscious not +only of the magnitude, but of the criminal character, of their misdeeds. +None the less there is a future to be provided for, and one of the +safest provisions is to influence the potential enemy's will for evil if +his power cannot be paralyzed. And this the Treaty failed to do. + +The Germans, when they learned the conditions, discussed them angrily, +and the keynote was refusal to sign the document. The financial clauses +were stigmatized as masked slavery. The press urged that during the war +less than one-tenth of France's territory had been occupied by their +countrymen and that even of this only a fragment was in the zone of +combat. The entire wealth of France, they alleged, had been estimated +before the war at from three hundred and fifty milliard to four hundred +milliard francs, consequently for the devastated provinces hardly more +than one-twentieth of that sum could fairly be demanded as reparation, +whereas the claim set forth was incomparably more. They objected to the +loss of their colonies because the justification alleged--that they were +disqualified to administer them because of their former cruelties toward +the natives--was groundless, as the Allies themselves had admitted +implicitly by offering them the right of pre-emption in the case of the +Portuguese and other overseas possessions on the very eve of the war. + +But the most telling objections turned upon the clauses that dealt with +the Saar Valley. Its population is entirely German, yet the +treaty-makers provided for its occupation by the French for a term of +fifteen years and its transference to them if, after that term, the +German government was unable to pay a certain sum in gold for the coal +mines it contained. If that sum were not forthcoming the population and +the district were to be handed over to France for all time, even though +the former should vote unanimously for reunion with Germany. Count +Brockdorff-Rantzau remarked in his note on the Treaty "that in the +history of modern times there is no other example of a civilized Power +obliging a state to abandon its people to foreign domination as an +equivalent for a cash payment." One of the most influential press organs +complained that the Treaty "bartered German men, women, and children for +coal; subjected some districts with a thoroughly German population to an +obligatory plebiscite[326] under interested supervision; severed others +without any consultation from the Fatherland; delivered over the +proceeds of German industry to the greed of foreign capitalists for an +indefinite period; ... spread over the whole country a network of alien +commissions to be paid by the German nation; withdrew streams, rivers, +railways, the air service, numerous industrial establishments, the +entire economic system, from the sovereignty of the German state by +means either of internationalization or financial control; conferred on +foreign inspectors rights such as only the satraps of absolute monarchs +in former ages were empowered to exercise; in a word, they put an end to +the existence of the German nation as such. Germany would become a +colony of white slaves...."[327] + +Fortunately for the Allies, the reproach of exchanging human beings for +coal was seen by their leaders to be so damaging that they modified the +odious clause that warranted it. Even the comments of the friendly +neutral press were extremely pungent. They found fault with the Treaty +on grounds which, unhappily, cannot be reasoned away. "Why dissimulate +it?" writes the foremost of these journals; "this peace is not what we +were led to expect. It dislodges the old dangers, but creates new ones. +Alsace and Lorraine are, it is true, no longer in German hands, but ... +irredentism has only changed its camp. In 1914 Germany put her faith in +force because she herself wielded it. But crushed down under a peace +which appears to violate the promises made to her, a peace which in her +heart of hearts she will never accept, she will turn toward force anew. +It will stand out as the great misfortune of this Treaty that it has +tainted the victory with a moral blight and caused the course of the +German revolution to swerve.... The fundamental error of the instrument +lies in the circumstance that it is a compromise between two +incompatible frames of mind. It was feasible to restore peace to Europe +by pulling down Germany definitely. But in order to accomplish this it +would have been necessary to crush a people of seventy millions and to +incapacitate them from rising to their feet again. Peace could also have +been secured by the sole force of right. But in this case Germany would +have had to be treated so considerately as to leave her no grievance to +brood over. M. Clemenceau hindered Mr. Wilson from displaying sufficient +generosity to get the moral peace, and Mr. Wilson on his side prevented +M. Clemenceau from exercising severity enough to secure the material +peace. And so the result, which it was easy to foresee, is a régime +devoid of the real guaranties of durability."[328] + +The judge of the French syndicalists was still more severe. "The +Versailles peace," exclaimed M. Verfeuil, "is worse than the peace of +Brest-Litovsk ... annexations, economic servitudes, overwhelming +indemnities, and a caricature of the Society of Nations--these +constitute the balance of the new policy,"[329] The Deputy Marcel Cachin +said: "The Allied armies fought to make this war the last. They fought +for a just and lasting peace, but none of these boons has been bestowed +on us. We are confronted with the failure of the policy of the one man +in whom our party had put its confidence--President Wilson. The peace +conditions ... are inacceptable from various points of view, financial, +territorial, economic, social, and human."[330] + +It is in this Treaty far more than in the Covenant that the principles +to which Mr. Wilson at first committed himself are in decisive issue. +True, he was wont after every surrender he made during the Conference to +invoke the Covenant and its concrete realization--the League of +Nations--as the corrective which would set everything right in the +future. But the fact can hardly be blinked that it is the Treaty and its +effects that impress their character on the Covenant and not the other +way round. As an eminent Swiss professor observed: "No league of nations +would have hindered the Belgian people in 1830 from separating from +Holland. Can the future League of Nations hinder Germany from +reconstituting its geographical unity? Can it hinder the Germans of +Bohemia from smiting the Czech? Can it prevent the Magyars, who at +present are scattered, from working for their reunion?"[331] + +These potential disturbances are so many dangers to France. For if war +should break out in eastern Europe, is it to be supposed that the United +States, the British colonies, or even Britain herself will send troops +to take part in it? Hardly. Suppose, for instance, that the Austrians, +who ardently desire to be merged in Germany, proclaim their union with +her, as I am convinced they will one day, does any statesman believe +that democratic America will despatch troops to coerce them back? If the +Germans of Bohemia secede from the Czechoslovaks or the Croats from the +Serbs, will British armies cross the sea to uphold the union which those +peoples repudiate? And in the name of which of the Fourteen Points would +they undertake the task? That of self-determination? France's interests, +and hers alone, would be affected by such changes. And France would be +left to fight single-handed. For what? + +It is interesting to note how the conditions imposed upon Germany were +appreciated by an influential body of Mr. Wilson's American partizans +who had pinned their faith to his Fourteen Points. Their view is +expressed by their press organ as follows:[332] + +"France remains the strongest Power on the Continent. With her military +establishment intact she faces a Germany without a general staff, +without conscription, without universal military training, with a +strictly limited amount of light artillery, with no air service, no +fleet, with no domestic basis in raw materials for armament manufacture, +with her whole western border fifty kilometers east of the Rhine +demilitarized. On top of this France has a system of military alliances +with the new states that touch Germany. On top of this she secured +permanent representation in the Council of the League, from which +Germany is excluded. On top of that economic terms which, while they +cannot be fulfilled, do cripple the industrial life of her neighbor. +With such a balance of forces France demands for herself a form of +protection which neither Belgium, nor Poland, nor Czechoslovakia, nor +Italy is granted." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[326] One of the three districts of Schleswig. A curious phenomenon was +this zeal of the Supreme Council for Denmark's interests, as compared +with Denmark's refusal to profit by it, the champions of +self-determination urging the Danes to demand a district, as Danish, +which the Danes knew to be German! + +[327] _Das Berliner Tageblatt_, June 4, 1919. + +[328] _Le Journal de Genève_, June 24, 1919. + +[329] Cf. _L'Echo de Paris_, May 12, 1919. + +[330] _Ibidem_. + +[331] In a monograph entitled _Plus Jamais_. + +[332] Cf. _The New Republic_, August 13, 1919, p. 43. + + + + +XV + +THE TREATY WITH BULGARIA + + +Among all the strange products of the many-sided outbursts of the +leading delegates' reconstructive activity, the Treaty with Bulgaria +stands out in bold relief. It reveals the high-water mark reached by +those secret, elusive, and decisive influences which swayed so many of +the mysterious decisions adopted by the Conference. As Bulgaria disposed +of an abundant source of those influences, her chastisement partakes of +some of the characteristics of a reward. Not only did she not fare as +the treacherous enemy that she showed herself, but she emerged from the +ordeal much better off than several of the victorious states. Unlike +Serbia, Rumania, France, and Belgium, she escaped the horrors of a +foreign invasion and she possessed and fructified all her resources down +to the day when the armistice was concluded. Her peasant population made +huge profits during the campaign and her armies despoiled Serbia, +Rumania, and Greek Macedonia and sent home enormous booty. In a word, +she is richer and more prosperous than before she entered the arena +against her protectors and former allies. + +For, owing to the intercession of her powerful friends, she was treated +with a degree of indulgence which, although expected by all who were +initiated into the secrets of "open diplomacy," scandalized those who +were anxious that at least some simulacrum of justice should be +maintained. Germany was forced to sign a blank check which her enemies +will one day fill in. Austria was reduced to the status of a parasite +living on the bounty of the Great Powers and denied the right of +self-determination. Even France, exhausted by five years' superhuman +efforts, beholds with alarm her financial future entirely dependent upon +the ability or inability of Germany to pay the damages to which she was +condemned. + +But the Prussia of the Balkans, owing to the intercession of influential +anonymous friends, had no such consequences to deplore. Although she +contracted heavy debts toward Germany, she was relieved of the effort to +pay them. Her financial obligations were first transferred[333] to the +Allies and then magnanimously wiped out by these, who then limited all +her liabilities for reparations to two and a quarter milliard francs. An +Inter-Allied commission in Sofia is to find and return the loot to its +lawful owners, but it is to charge no indemnity for the damage done. Nor +will it contain representatives of the states whose property the Bulgars +abstracted. Serbia is allowed neither indemnity nor reparation. She is +to receive a share which the Treaty neglected to fix of the two and a +quarter milliard francs on a date which has also been left undetermined. +She is not even to get back the herds of cattle of which the Bulgars +robbed her. The lawgivers in Paris considered that justice would be met +by obliging the Bulgars to restore 28,000 head of cattle in lieu of the +3,200,000 driven off, so that even if the ill-starred Serbs should +identify, say, one million more, they would have no right to enforce +their claim.[334] + +Nor is that the only disconcerting detail in the Treaty. The Supreme +Council, which sanctioned the military occupation of a part of Germany +as a guaranty for the fulfilment of the peace conditions, dispenses +Bulgaria from any such irksome conditions. Bulgaria's good faith +appeared sufficient to the politicians who drafted the instrument. "For +reasons which one hardly dares touch upon," writes an eminent French +publicist,[335] "several of the Powers that constitute the famous world +areopagus count on the future co-operation of Bulgaria. We shrink in +dismay from the perspective thus opened to our gaze."[336] + +The territorial changes which the Prussia of the Balkans was condemned +to undergo are neither very considerable nor unjust. Rumania receives no +Bulgarian territory, the frontiers of 1913 remaining unaltered. Serbia +nets some on grounds which cannot be called in question, and a large +part of Thrace which is inhabited, not by Bulgars, but mainly by Greeks +and Turks, was taken from Bulgaria, but allotted to no state in +particular. The upshot of the Treaty, as it appeared to most of the +leading publicists on the Continent of Europe, was to leave Bulgaria, +whose cruelty and destructiveness are described by official and +unofficial reports as unparalleled, in a position of economic +superiority to Serbia, Greece, and Rumania. And in the Inter-Allied +commission Bulgaria is to have a representative, while Serbia, Greece, +and Rumania, a part of whose stolen property the commission has to +recover, will have none. + +A comparison between the indulgence lavished upon Bulgaria and the +severity displayed toward Rumania is calculated to disconcert the +stanchest friends of the Supreme Council. The Rumanian government, in a +dignified note to the Conference, explained its refusal to sign the +Treaty with Austria by enumerating a series of facts which amount to a +scathing condemnation of the work of the Supreme Council. On the one +hand the Council pleaded the engagements entered into between Japan and +her European allies as a cogent motive for handing over Shantung to +Japan. For treaties must be respected. And the argument is sound. On the +other hand, they were bound by a similar treaty[337] to give Rumania the +whole Banat, the Rumanian districts of Hungary and the Bukovina as far +as the river Pruth. But at the Conference they repudiated this +engagement. In 1916 they stipulated that if Rumania entered the war they +would co-operate with ample military forces. They failed to redeem their +promise. And they further undertook that "Rumania shall have the same +rights as the Allies in the peace preliminaries and negotiations and +also in discussing the issues which shall be laid before the Peace +Conference for its decisions." Yet, as we saw, she was denied these +rights, and her delegates were not informed of the subjects under +discussion nor allowed to see the terms of peace, which were in the +hands of the enemies, and were only twice admitted to the presence of +the Supreme Council. + +It has been observed in various countries and by the Allied and the +neutral press that between the German view about the sacredness of +treaties and that of the Supreme Council there is no substantial +difference.[338] Comments of this nature are all the more distressing +that they cannot be thrust aside as calumnious. Again it will not be +denied that Rumania rendered inestimable services to the Allies. She +sacrificed three hundred thousand of her sons to their cause. Her soil +was invaded and her property stolen or ruined. Yet she has been deprived +of part of her sovereignty by the Allies to whom she gave this help. The +Supreme Council, not content with her law conferring equal rights on +all her citizens, to whatever race or religion they may belong, ordered +her to submit to the direction of a foreign board in everything +concerning her minorities and demanded from her a promise of obedience +in advance to their future decrees respecting her policy in matters of +international trade and transit. These stipulations constitute a +noteworthy curtailment of her sovereignty. + +That any set of public men should be carried by extrinsical motives thus +far away from justice, fair play, and good faith would be a misfortune +under any circumstances, but that at a conjuncture like the present it +should befall the men who set up as the moral guides of mankind and +wield the power to loosen the fabric of society is indeed a dire +disaster. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[333] In June, 1919. + +[334] The comments on these terms, published by M. Gauvain in the +_Journal des Débats_ (September 20, 1919), are well worth reading. + +[335] M. Auguste Gauvain. + +[336] _Le Journal des Débats_, September 20, 1919. + +[337] Concluded in the year 1916. + +[338] Cf. _The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), September 21, 1919. + + + + +XVI + +THE COVENANT AND MINORITIES + + +In Mr. Wilson's scheme for the establishment of a society of nations +there was nothing new but his pledge to have it realized. And that +pledge has still to be redeemed under conditions which he himself has +made much more unfavorable than they were. The idea itself--floating in +the political atmosphere for ages--has come to seem less vague and +unattainable since the days of Kant. The only heads of states who had +set themselves to embody it in institutions before President Wilson took +it up not only disappointed the peoples who believed in them, but +discredited the idea itself. + +That a merely mechanical organization such as the American statesman +seems to have had in mind, formed by parliamentary politicians +deliberating in secret, could bind nations and peoples together in moral +fellowship, is conceivable in the abstract. But if we turn to the +reality, we shall find that in that direction nothing durable can be +effected without a radical change in the ideas, aspirations, and temper +of the leaders who speak for the nations to-day, and, indeed, in those +of large sections of the nations themselves. For to organize society on +those unfamiliar lines is to modify some of the deepest-rooted instincts +of human nature. And that cannot be achieved overnight, certainly not in +the span of thirty minutes, which sufficed for the drafting of the +Covenant. The bulk of mankind might not need to be converted, but whole +classes must first be educated, and in some countries re-educated, which +is perhaps still more difficult. Mental and moral training must +complement and reinforce each other, and each political unit be brought +to realize that the interests of the vaster community take precedence +over those of any part of it. And to impress these novel views upon the +peoples of the world takes time. + +An indispensable condition of success is that the compact binding the +members together must be entered into by the peoples, not merely by +their governments. For it is upon the masses that the burden of the war +lies heaviest. It is the bulk of the population that supplies the +soldiers, the money, and the work for the belligerent states, and +endures the hardships and makes the sacrifices requisite to sustain it. +Therefore, the peoples are primarily interested in the abolition of the +old ordering and the forging of the new. Moreover, as latter-day +campaigns are waged with all the resources of the warring peoples, and +as the possession of certain of these resources is often both the cause +of the conflict and the objective of the aggressor, it follows that no +mere political enactments will meet contemporary requirements. An +association of nations renouncing the sword as a means of settling +disputes must also reduce as far as possible the surface over which +friction with its neighbors is likely to take place. And nowadays most +of that surface is economic. The possession of raw materials is a more +potent attraction than territorial aggrandizement. Indeed, the latter is +coveted mainly as a means of securing or safeguarding the former. On +these and other grounds, in drawing up a charter for a society of +nations, the political aspect should play but a subsidiary part. In +Paris it was the only aspect that counted for anything. + +A parliament of peoples, then, is the only organ that can impart +viability to a society of nations worthy of the name. By joining the +Covenant with the Peace Treaty, and turning the former into an +instrument for the execution of the latter, thus subordinating the ideal +to the egotistical, Mr. Wilson deprived his plan of its sole +justification, and for the time being buried it. The philosopher +Lichtenberg[339] wrote, "One man brings forth a thought, another holds +it over the baptismal font, the third begets offspring with it, the +fourth stands at its deathbed, and the fifth buries it." Mr. Wilson has +discharged the functions of gravedigger to the idea of a pacific society +of nations, just as Lenin has done to the system of Marxism, the only +difference being that Marxism is as dead as a door-nail, whereas the +society of nations may rise again. + +It was open, then, to the three principal delegates to insure the peace +of the world by moral means or by force. Having eschewed the former by +adopting the doctrines of Monroe, abandoning the freedom of the seas, +and by according to France strategic frontiers and other privileges of +the militarist order, they might have enlarged and systematized these +concessions to expediency and forged an alliance of the three states or +of two, and undertaken to keep peace on the planet against all marplots. +I wrote at the time: "The delegates are becoming conscious of the +existence of a ready-made league of nations in the shape of the +Anglo-Saxon states, which, together with France, might hinder wars, +promote good-fellowship, remold human destinies; and they are delighted +thus to possess solid foundations on which a noble edifice can be raised +in the fullness of time. Tribunals will be created, with full powers to +adjudge disputes; facilities will be accorded to litigious states, and +even an obligation will be imposed to invoke their arbitration. And the +sum total of these reforms will be known to contemporary annals as an +inchoate League of Nations. The delegates are already modestly +disavowing the intention of realizing the ideal in all its parts. That +must be left to coming generations; but what with the exhaustion of the +peoples, their aversion from warfare, and the material obstacles to the +renewal of hostilities in the near future, it is calculated that the +peace will not soon be violated. Whether more salient results will be +attained or attempted by the Conference nobody can foretell."[340] + +This expedient, even had it been deliberately conceived and skilfully +wrought out, would not have been an adequate solution of the world's +difficulties, nor would it have commended itself to all the states +concerned. But it would at least have been a temporary makeshift capable +of being transmuted under favorable circumstances into something less +material and more durable. But the amateur world-reformers could not +make up their minds to choose either alternative. And the result is one +of the most lamentable failures recorded in human history. + +I placed my own opinion on record at the time as frankly as the +censorship which still existed for me would permit. I wrote: "What every +delegate with sound political instinct will ask himself is, whether the +League of Nations will eliminate wars in future, and, if not, he will +feel conscientiously bound to adopt other relatively sure means of +providing against them, and these consist of alliances, strategic +frontiers, and the permanent disablement of the potential enemy. On one +or other of these alternative lines the resettlement must be devised. To +combine them would be ruinous. Now of what practical use is a league of +nations devoid of supernational forces and faced by a numerous, virile, +and united race, smarting under a sense of injustice, thirsting for the +opportunities for development denied to it, but granted to nations which +it despises as inferior? Would a league of nations combine militarily +against the gradual encroachments or sudden aggression of that Power +against its weaker neighbors? Nobody is authorized to answer this +question affirmatively. To-day the Powers cannot agree to intervene +against Bolshevism, which they deem a scourge of the world, nor can they +agree to tolerate it. + +"In these circumstances, what compelling motives can be laid before +those delegates who are asked to dispense with strategic frontiers and +rely upon a league of nations for their defense? Take France's outlook. +Peace once concluded, she will be confronted with a secular enemy who +numbers some seventy millions to her forty-five millions. In ten years +the disproportion will be still greater. Discontented Russia is almost +certain to be taken in hand by Germany, befriended, reorganized, +exploited, and enlisted as an ally."[341] + + +Conscious of these reefs and shoals, the French government, which was at +first contemptuous of the Wilsonian scheme, discerned the use it might +be put to as a military safeguard, and sought to convert it into that. +"The French," wrote a Francophil English journal published in Paris, +"would like the League to maintain what may be called a permanent +military general staff. The duties of this organization would be to keep +a hawklike eye on the misdemeanors, actual or threatened, of any state +or group of states, and to be empowered with authority to call into +instant action a great international military force for the frustration +or suppression of such aggression. The French have frankly in mind the +possibility that an unrepentant and unregenerate Germany is the most +likely menace not only to the security of France, but to the peace of +the world in general."[342] + +And other states cherished analogous hopes. The spirit of right and +justice was to be evoked like the spirit that served Aladdin, and to be +compelled to enter the service of nationalism and militarism, and +accomplish the task of armies. + +The paramount Powers prescribed the sacrifices of sovereignty which +membership of the League necessitated, and forthwith dispensed +themselves from making them. The United States government maintained its +Monroe Doctrine for America--nay, it went farther and identified its +interests with the Hay doctrine for the Far East.[343] It decided to +construct a powerful navy for the defense of these political assets, and +to give the youth of the country a semi-military training.[344] Defense +presupposes attack. War, therefore, is not excluded--nay, it is admitted +by the world-reformers, and preparations for it are indispensable. +Equally so are the burdens of taxation. But if liberty of defense be one +of the rights of two or three Powers, by what law is it confined to them +and denied to the others? Why should the other communities be +constrained to remain open to attack? Surely they, too, deserve to live +and thrive, and make the most of their opportunities. Now if in lieu of +a misnamed League of Nations we had an Anglo-Saxon board for the better +government of the world, these unequal weights and measures would be +intelligible on the principle that special obligations and +responsibilities warrant exceptional rights. But no such plea can be +advanced under an arrangement professing to be a society of free +nations. All that can with truth be said is what M. Clemenceau told the +delegates of the lesser states at the opening of the Conference--that +the three great belligerents represent twelve million soldiers and that +their supreme authority derives from that. The rôle of the other peoples +is to listen to the behests of their guardians, and to accept and +execute them without murmur. Might is still a source of right. + +It is fair to say that the disclosure of the true base of the new +ordering, as blurted out by M. Clemenceau at that historic meeting, +caused little surprise among the initiated. For there was no reason to +assume that he, or, indeed, the bulk of the continental statesmen, were +converts to a doctrine of which its own apostle accepted only those +fragments which commended themselves to his country or his party. Had +not the French Premier scoffed at the League in public as in private? +Had he not said in the Chamber: "I do not believe that the Society of +Nations constitutes the necessary conclusion of the present war. I will +give you one of my reasons. It is this: if to-morrow you were to propose +to me that Germany should enter into this society I would not +consent."[345] + +"I am certain," wrote one of the ablest and most ardent champions of the +League in France, Senator d'Estournelles de Constant--"I am certain that +he [M. Clemenceau] made an effort against himself, against his entire +past, against his whole life, against all his convictions, to serve the +Society of Nations. And his Minister of Foreign Affairs followed +him."[346] Exactly. And as with M. Clemenceau, so it was with the +majority of European statesmen; most of them made strenuous and, one +may add, successful efforts against their convictions. And the result +was inevitable. + +"The governments," we read in the organ of syndicalists, who had +supported Mr. Wilson as long as they believed him determined to redeem +his promises--"the governments have acquiesced in the Fourteen +Points.... Hypocrisy. Each one cherished mental reservations. Virtue was +exalted and vice practised. The poltroon eulogized heroism; the +imperialist lauded the spirit of justice. For the past month we have +been picking up ideas about the worth of the adhesions to the Fourteen +Points, and never before has a more sinister or a more odious comedy +been played. Territorial demands have been heaved one upon the other; +contempt of the rights of peoples--the only right that we can +recognize--has been expressed in striking terms; the last restraints +have vanished; the masks have fallen."[347] + + +From every country in Europe the same judgment came pitched in varying +keys. The Italian press condemned the proceedings of the Conference in +language to the full as strong as that of the German or Austrian +journals. The _Stampa_ affirmed that those who, like Bissolati, were in +the beginning for placing their trust in one of the two coteries at the +Conference were guilty of a fatal mistake. "The mistake lay in their +belief in the ideal strivings of one of the parties, and in the horror +with which the cupidity of the others was contemplated, whereas both of +them were fighting for ... their interests.... In verity France was no +less militarist or absolutist than Germany, nor was England less avid +than either. And the proof is enshrined in the peace treaties which have +masked the results of their respective victories. _Versailles is a +Brest-Litovsk_, aggravated in the same proportion as the victory of the +Entente over Germany, is more complete than was that of Germany over +Russia. Cupidity does not alter its character, even when it seeks to +conceal itself under a Phrugian cap rather than wear a helmet."[348] + +M. Clemenceau's opening utterance about the twelve million men, and the +unlimited right which such formidable armies confer on their possessors +to sit in judgment on the tribes and peoples of the planet, was the true +keynote to the Conference. After that the leading statesmen trimmed +their ship, touched the rudder, and sailed toward downright absolutism. + +The effect of such utterances and acts on the minds of the peoples are +distinctly mischievous. For they tend to obliterate the sense of public +right, which is the main foundation of international intercourse among +progressive nations. + +And already it had been shaken and weakened by the campaigns of the past +fifty years, and in particular by the last war. In the relations of +nation to nation there were certain principles--derivatives of ethics +diluted with maxims of expediency--which kept the various governments +from too flagrant breaches of faith. These checks were the only +substitute for morality in politics. Their highest power was connoted by +the word Europeanism, which stood for a supposed feeling of solidarity +among all the peoples of the old Continent, and for a certain respect +for the treaties on which the state-system reposed. But it existed +mainly among defeated nations when apprehensive of being isolated or +chastised by their victors. None the less, the idea marked a certain +advance toward an ethical bond of union. + + +Now this embryonic sense, together with respect for the binding force of +a nation's plighted troth, were numbered by the demoralizing influence +of the wars of the last fifty years. And one of the first and peremptory +needs of the world was their restoration. This could be effected only by +bringing the peoples, not merely of Europe, but of the world, more +closely together, by engrafting on them a feeling of close solidarity, +and impressing them with the necessity of making common cause in the one +struggle worth their while waging--resistance to the forces that +militate against human welfare and progress. The feeling was widespread +that the way to effect this was by some form of internationalism, by the +broadening, deepening, and quickening all that was implied by +Europeanism, by co-ordinating the collective energies of all progressive +peoples, and causing them to converge toward a common and worthy goal. +For the working classes this conception in a restricted form had long +possessed a commanding attraction. What they aimed at, however, was no +more than the catholicity of labor. They fancied that after the passage +of the tidal wave of destructiveness the ground was cleared of most of +the obstacles which had encumbered it, and that the forward advance +might begin forthwith. + +What they failed to take sufficiently into account was the _vis +inertiæ_, the survival of the old spirit among the ruling orders whose +members continued to live and move in the atmosphere of use and wont, +and the spirit of hate and bitterness infused into all the political +classes, to dispel which was a herculean task. It was exclusively to the +leaders of those classes that Mr. Wilson confided the realization of the +abstract idea of a society of nations, which he may at first have +pictured to himself as a vast family conscious of common interests, bent +on moral and material self-betterment, and willing to eschew such +partial advantages as might hinder or retard the general progress. But, +judging by his attitude and his action, he had no real acquaintance +with the materials out of which it must be fashioned, no notion of the +difficulties to be met, and no staying power to encounter and surmount +them. And his first move entailed the failure of the scheme. + +As a matter of fact, Mr. Wilson came to the Conference with a home-made +charter for the Society of Nations, which, according to the evidence of +Mr. Lansing, "was never pressed." The State Secretary added that "the +present league Covenant is superior to the American plan." And as for +the Fourteen Points, "They were not even discussed at the +Conference."[349] Suspecting as much, I wrote at the time:[350] "The +President has pinned himself down to no concrete scheme whatever. His +method is electric, choosing what is helpful and beneficent in the +projects of others, and endeavoring to obtain from the dissentients a +renunciation of ideas belonging to the old national currents and +adherence to the doctrines he deems salutary. It is, however, already +clear that the highest ideal now attainable is not a league of nations +as the masses understand it, which will abolish wars and likewise put an +end to the costly preparations for them, but only a coalition of +victorious nations, which may hope, by dint of economic inducements and +deterrents, to draw the enemy peoples into its camp in the not too +distant future. This result would fall very short of the expectations +aroused by the far-resonant promises made at the outset; but even it +will be unattainable without an international compact binding all the +members of the coalition to make war simultaneously upon the nation or +group of nations which ventures to break the peace. I am disposed to +believe that nothing less than such an express covenant will be regarded +by the continental Powers of the Entente as an adequate substitute for +certain territorial readjustments which they otherwise consider +essential to secure them from sudden attack. + +"Whether such a condition would prevent future wars is a question that +only experience can answer. Personally, I am profoundly convinced, with +Mr. Taft, that a genuine league of nations must have teeth in the guise +of supernational, not international, forces. In these remarks I make +abstraction from the larger question which wholly absorbs this--namely, +whether the masses for whose behoof the lavish expenditure of time, +energy, and ingenuity is undertaken, will accept a coalition of +victorious governments against unregenerate peoples as a substitute for +the Society of Nations as at first conceived." + +The supposed object of the League was the substitution of right for +force, by debarring each individual state from employing violence +against any of the others, and by the use of arbitration as a means of +settling disputes. This entails the suppression of the right to declare +war and to prepare for it, and, as a corollary, a system of deterrents +to hinder, and of penalties to punish rebellion on the part of a +community. That in those cases where the law is set at naught +efficacious means should be available to enforce it will hardly be +denied; but whether economic pressure would suffice in all cases is +doubtful. To me it seems that without a supernational army, under the +direct orders of the League, it might under conceivable circumstances +become impossible to uphold the decisions of the tribunal, and that, on +the other hand, the coexistence of such a military force with national +armaments would condemn the undertaking to failure. + +An analysis of the Covenant lies beyond the limits of my task, but it +may not be amiss to point out a few of its inherent defects. One of the +principal organs of the League will be the Assembly and the Council. The +former, a very numerous and mainly political body, will necessarily be +out of touch with the peoples, their needs and their aspirations. It +will meet at most three or four times a year. And its members alone will +be invested with all the power, which they will be chary of delegating. +On the other hand, the Council, consisting at first of nine members, +will meet at least once a year. The members of both bodies will +presumably be appointed by the governments,[351] who will certainly not +renounce their sovereignty in a matter that concerns them so closely. +Such a system may be wise and conducive to the highest aims, but it can +hardly be termed democratic. The military Powers who command twelve +million soldiers will possess a majority in the Council.[352] The +Secretariat alone will be permanent, and will naturally be appointed by +the Great Powers. + +Instead of abolishing war, the Conference described its abolition as +beyond the power of man to compass. Disarmament, which was to have been +one of its main achievements, is eliminated from the Covenant. As the +war that was to have been the last will admittedly be followed by +others, the delegates of the Great Powers worked conscientiously, as +behooved patriotic statesmen, to obtain in advance all possible +advantages for their respective countries by way of preparing for it. +The new order, which in theory reposes upon right, justice, and moral +fellowship, in reality depends upon powerful armies and navies. France +must remain under arms, seeing that she has to keep watch on the Rhine. +Britain and the United States are to go on building warships and +aircraft, besides training their youth for the coming Armageddon. The +article of the Covenant which lays it down that "the members of the +League recognize that the maintenance of peace requires the reduction +of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with national +safety,"[353] is, to use a Russian simile, written on water with a fork. +Britain, France, and the United States are already agreed that they will +combine to repel unprovoked aggression on the part of Germany. That +evidently signifies that they will hold themselves in readiness to +fight, and will therefore make due preparation. This arrangement is a +substitute for a supernational army, as though prevention were not +better than cure; that it will prove efficacious in the long run very +few believe. One clear-visioned Frenchman writes: "The inefficacy of the +organization aimed at by the Conference constrains France to live in +continual and increasing insecurity, owing to the falling off of her +population."[354] He adds: "It follows from this abortive expedient--if +it is to remain definitive--that each member-state must protect itself, +or come to terms with the more powerful ones, as in the past. +Consequently we are in presence of the maintenance of militarism and the +régime of armaments."[355] This writer goes farther and accuses Mr. +Wilson of having played into the hands of Britain. "President Wilson," +he affirms, "has more or less sacrificed to the English government the +society of nations and the question of armaments, that of the colonies +and that of the freedom of the seas...."[356] This, however, is an +over-statement. It was not for the sake of Britain that the American +statesman gave up so much; it was for the sake of saving something of +the Covenant. It was in the spirit of Sir Boyle Roche, whose attachment +to the British Constitution was such that, to save a part of it, he was +willing to sacrifice the whole. + +The arbitration of disputes is provided for by one of the articles of +the Covenant;[357] but the parties may go to war three months later with +a clear conscience and an appeal to right, justice, self-determination, +and the usual abstract nouns. + +In a word, the directors of the Conference disciplined their political +intelligence on lines of self-hypnotization, along which common sense +finds it impossible to follow them. There were also among the delegates +men who thought and spoke in terms of reason and logic, but their voices +evoked no echo. One of them summed up his criticism somewhat as follows: + +"During the war our professions of democratic principles were far +resonant and emphatic. We were fighting for the nations of the world, +especially for those who could not successfully fight for themselves. +All the peoples, great and small, were exhorted to make the most painful +sacrifices to enable their respective governments to conquer the enemy. +Victory unexpectedly smiled on us, and the peoples asked that those +promises should be made good. Naturally, expectations ran high. What has +happened? The governments now answer in effect: 'We will promote your +interests, but without your co-operation or assent. We will make the +necessary arrangements in secret behind closed doors. The machinery we +are devising will be a state machinery, not a popular one. All that we +ask of you is implicit trust. You complain of our action in the past. +You have good cause. You say that the same men are about to determine +your future. Again you are right. But when you affirm that we are sure +to make the like mistakes, you are wrong, and we ask you to take our +word for it. You complain that we are politicians who feel the weight of +certain commitments and the fetters of obsolete traditions from which we +cannot free ourselves; that we are mainly concerned to protect and +further the interests of our respective countries, and that it is +inconceivable we should devise an organization which looks above and +beyond those interests. We ask you, are you willing, then, to abandon +the heritage of our fathers to the foreigner?' + +"That the downtrodden peoples in Austria and Germany have been +emancipated is a moral triumph. But why has the beneficent principle +that is said to have inspired the deed been restricted in its +application? Why has the experiment been tried only in the enemies' +countries? Or are things quite in order everywhere else? Is there no +injustice in other quarters of the globe? Are there no complaints? If +there be, why are they ignored? Is it because all acts of oppression are +to be perpetuated which do not take place in the enemy's land? What +about Ireland and about a dozen other countries and peoples? Are they +skeletons not to be touched? + +"By debarring the masses from participation in a grandiose scheme, the +success of which depends upon their assent, the governments are +indirectly but surely encouraging secret combined opposition, and in +some cases Bolshevism. The masses resent being treated as children after +having been appealed to as arbiters and rescuers. For four and a half +years it was they who bore the brunt of the war, they who sacrificed +their sons and their substance. In the future it is they to whom the +states will look for the further sacrifices in blood and treasure which +will be necessary in the struggles which they evidently anticipate. +Well, some of them refuse these sacrifices in advance. They challenge +the right of the governments to retain the power of making war and +peace. That power they are working to get into their own hands and to +wield in their own way, or at any rate to have a say in its exercise. +And in order to secure it, some sections of the peoples are making +common cause with the socialist revolutionaries, while others have gone +the length of Bolshevism. And that is a serious danger. The agitation +now going on among the people, therefore, starts with a grievance. The +masses have many other grievances besides the one just sketched--the +survivals of the feudal age, the privileges of class, the inequality of +opportunity. And the kernel formed by these is the element of truth and +equity which imparts force to all those underground movements, and +enables them to subsist and extend. Error is never dangerous by itself; +it is only when it has an admixture of truth that it becomes powerful +for evil. And it seems a thousand pities that the governments, whose own +interests are at stake, as well as those of the communities they govern, +should go out of their way to provide an explosive element for +Bolshevism and its less sinister variants." + +The League was treated as a living organism before it existed. All the +problems which the Supreme Councilors found insoluble were reserved for +its judgment. Arduous functions were allotted to it before it had organs +to discharge them. Formidable tasks were imposed upon it before the +means of achieving them were devised. It is an institution so elusive +and elastic that the French regard it as capable of being used as a +handy instrument for coercing the Teutons, who, in turn, look upon it as +a means of recovering their place in the world; the Japanese hope it may +become a bridge leading to racial equality, and the governments which +devised it are bent on employing it as a lever for their own +politico-economic aims, which they identify with the progress of the +human race. How the peoples look upon it the future will show. + +On the Monroe Doctrine in connection with the League of Nations the less +said the soonest mended. But one cannot well say less than this: that +any real society of peoples such as Mr. Wilson first conceived and +advocated is as incompatible with "regional understandings like the +Monroe Doctrine" as are the maintenance of national armaments and the +bartering of populations. It is immaterial whether one concludes that a +Society of Nations is therefore impossible in the present conjuncture or +that all those survivals of the old state system are obsolescent and +should be abolished. The two are unquestionably irreconcilable. + +It would be a mistake to infer from the unanimity with which Mr. +Wilson's Covenant was finally accepted that it expressed the delegates' +genuine conceptions or sentiments. Mr. Bullitt, one of the expert +advisers to the American Peace Delegation, testified before the Senate +committee in Washington that State-Secretary Lansing remarked to him: "I +consider the League of Nations at present as entirely useless. The Great +Powers have simply gone ahead and arranged the world to suit themselves. +England and France, in particular, have gotten out of the Treaty +everything they wanted. The League of Nations can do nothing to alter +any unjust clauses of the Treaty except by the unanimous consent of the +League members. The Great Powers will never consent to changes in the +interests of weaker peoples."[358] + +This opinion which Mr. Bullitt ascribed to Mr. Lansing was, to my +knowledge, that of a large number of the representatives of the nations +at the Conference. Among them all I have met very few who had a good +word to say of the scheme, and of the few one had helped to formulate +it, another had assisted him. And the unfavorable judgments of the +remainder were delivered after the Covenant was signed. + + +One of those leaders, in conversation with several other delegates and +myself, exclaimed one day: "The League of Nations indeed! It is an +absurdity. Who among thinking men believes in its reality?" "I do," +answered his neighbor; "but, like the devils, I believe and tremble. I +hold that it is a corrosive poison which destroys much that is good and +will further much that is bad." A statesman who was not a delegate +demurred. "In my opinion," he said, "it is a response to a demand put +forward by the peoples of the globe, and because of this origin +something good will ultimately come of it. Unquestionably it is very +defective, but in time it may be--nay, must be--changed for the better." +The first speaker replied: "If you imagine that the League will help +continental peoples, you are, I am convinced, mistaken. It took the +United States three years to go to the help of Britain and France. How +long do you suppose it will take her to mobilize and despatch troops to +succor Poland, Rumania, or Czechoslovakia? I am acquainted with British +colonial public opinion and sentiment--too often misunderstood by +foreigners--and I can tell you that they are misconstrued by those who +fancy that they would determine action of that kind. If England tells +the colonies that she needs their help, they will come, because their +people are flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood, and also because +they depend for their defense upon her navy, and if she were to go under +they would go under, too. But the continental nations have no such +claims upon the British colonies, which would not be in a hurry to make +sacrifices in order to satisfy their appetites or their passions." + +The second speaker then said: "It is possible, but nowise certain, that +the future League may help to settle these disputes which professional +diplomatists would have arranged, and in the old way, but it will not +affect those others which are the real causes of wars. If a nation +believes it can further its vital interest by breaking the peace, the +League cannot stop it. How could it? It lacks the means. There will be +no army ready. It would have to create one. Even now, when such an army, +powerful and victorious, is in the field, the League--for the Supreme +Council is that and more--cannot get its orders obeyed. How then will +its behest be treated when it has no troops at its beck and call? It is +redrawing the map of central and eastern Europe, and is very satisfied +with its work. But, as we know, the peoples of those countries look upon +its map as a sheet of paper covered with lines and blotches of color to +which no reality corresponds." + +The constitution of the League was termed by Mr. Wilson a Covenant, a +word redolent of biblical and puritanical times, which accorded well +with the motives that decided him to prefer Geneva to Brussels as the +seat of the League, and to adopt other measures of a supposed political +character. The first draft of this document was, as we saw, completed in +the incredibly short space of some thirty hours, so as to enable the +President to take it with him to Washington. As the Ententophil _Echo de +Paris_ remarked, "By a fixed date the merchandise has to be consigned on +board the _George Washington_."[359] + + +The discussions that took place after the President's return from the +United States were animated, interesting, and symptomatic. In April the +commission had several sittings, at which various amendments and +alterations were proposed, some of which would cut deep into +international relations, while others were of slight moment and gave +rise to amusing sallies. One day the proposal was mooted that each +member-state should be free to secede on giving two years' notice. M. +Larnaude, who viewed membership as something sacramentally inalienable, +seemed shocked, as though the suggestion bordered on sacrilege, and +wondered how any government should feel tempted to take such a step. +Signor Orlando was of a different opinion. "However precious the +privilege of membership may be," he said, "it would be a comfort always +to know that you could divest yourself of it at will. I am shut up in my +room all day working. I do not go into the open air any oftener than a +prisoner might. But I console myself with the thought that I can go out +whenever I take it into my head. And I am sure a similar reflection on +membership of the League would be equally soothing. I am in favor of the +motion." + +The center of interest during the drafting of the Covenant lay in the +clause proclaiming the equality of religions, which Mr. Wilson was bent +on having passed at all costs, if not in one form, then in another. This +is one example of the occasional visibility of the religious thread +which ran through a good deal of his personal work at the Conference. +For it is a fact--not yet realized even by the delegates +themselves--that distinctly religious motives inspired much that was +done by the Conference on what seemed political or social grounds. The +strategy adopted by the eminent American statesman to have his +stipulation accepted proceeded in this case on the lines of a +humanitarian resolve to put an end to sanguinary wars rather than on +those which the average reformer, bent on cultural progress, would have +traced. Actuality was imparted to this simple and yet thorny topic by a +concrete proposal which the President made one day. What he is reported +to have said is briefly this: "As the treatment of religious confessions +has been in the past, and may again in the future be, a cause of +sanguinary wars, it seems desirable that a clause should be introduced +into the Covenant establishing absolute liberty for creeds and +confessions." "On what, Mr. President," asked the first Polish delegate, +"do you found your assertion that wars are still brought about by the +differential treatment meted out to religions? Does contemporary +history bear out this statement? And, if not, what likelihood is there +that religious inequality will precipitate sanguinary conflicts in the +future?" To this pointed question Mr. Wilson is said to have made the +characteristic reply that he considered it expedient to assume this +nexus between religious inequality and war as the safest way of bringing +the matter forward. If he were to proceed on any other lines, he added, +there would be truth and force in the objection which would doubtless be +raised, that the Conference was intruding upon the domestic affairs of +sovereign states. As that charge would damage the cause, it must be +rebutted in advance. And for this purpose he deemed it prudent to +approach the subject from the side he had chosen. + +This reply was listened to in silence and unfavorably commented upon +later. The alleged relation between such religious inequality as has +survived into the twentieth century and such wars as are waged nowadays +is so obviously fictitious that one can hardly understand the line of +reasoning that led to its assumption, or the effect which the fiction +could be supposed to have on the minds of those legislators who might be +opposed to the measure on the ground that it involved undue interference +in the internal affairs of sovereign states. The motion was referred to +a commission, which in due time presented a report. Mr. Wilson was +absent when the report came up for discussion, his place being taken by +Colonel House. The atmosphere was chilly, only a couple of the delegates +being disposed to support the clause--Rumania's representative, M. +Diamandi, was one, and another was Baron Makino, whose help Colonel +House would gladly have dispensed with, so inacceptable was the +condition it carried with it. + +Baron Makino said that he entirely agreed with Colonel House and the +American delegates. The equality of religious confessions was not merely +desirable, but necessary to the smooth working of a Society of Nations +such as they were engaged in establishing. He held, however, that it +should be extended to races, that extension being also a corollary of +the principle underlying the new international ordering. He would +therefore move the insertion of a clause proclaiming the equality of +races and religions. At this Colonel House looked pensive. Nearly all +the other opinions were hostile to Colonel House's motion. + +The reasons alleged by each of the dissenting lawgivers were +interesting. Lord Robert Cecil surprised many of his colleagues by +informing them that in England the Catholics, who are fairly treated as +things are, could not possibly be set on a footing of perfect equality +with their Protestant fellow-citizens, because the Constitution forbids +it. Nor could the British people be asked to alter their Constitution. +He gave as instances of the slight inequality at present enforced the +circumstance that no Catholic can ascend the throne as monarch, nor sit +on the woolsack as Lord Chancellor in the Upper House. + +M. Larnaude, speaking in the name of France, stated that his country had +passed through a sequence of embarrassments caused by legislation on the +relations between the Catholics and the state, and that the introduction +of a clause enacting perfect equality might revive controversies which +were happily losing their sharpness. He considered it, therefore, +inadvisable to settle this delicate matter by inserting the proposed +declaration in the Covenant. Belgium's first delegate, M. Hymans, +pointed out that the objection taken by his government was of a +different but equally cogent character. There was reason to apprehend +that the Flemings might avail themselves of the equality clause to raise +awkward issues and to sow seeds of dissension. On those grounds he +would like to see the proposal waived. Signor Orlando half seriously, +half jokingly, reminded his colleagues that none of their countries had, +like his, a pope in their capital. The Italian government must, +therefore, proceed in religious matters with the greatest +circumspection, and could not lightly assent to any measure capable of +being manipulated to the detriment of the public interest. Hence he was +unable to give the motion his support. It was finally suggested that +both proposals be withdrawn. To this Colonel House demurred, on the +ground that President Wilson, who was unavoidably absent, attached very +great weight to the declaration, to which he hoped the delegates would +give their most favorable consideration. One of the members then rose +and said, "In that case we had better postpone the voting until Mr. +Wilson can attend." This suggestion was adopted. When the matter came up +for discussion at a subsequent sitting, the Japanese substituted +"nations" for "races." + +In the meantime the usual arts of parliamentary emergency were practised +outside the Conference to induce the Japanese to withdraw their proposal +altogether. They were told that to accept or refuse it would be to +damage the cause of the future League without furthering their own. But +the Marquis Saionji and Baron Makino refused to yield an inch of their +ground. A conversation then took place between the Premier of Australia, +on the one side, and Baron Makino and Viscount Chinda, on the other, +with a view to their reaching a compromise. For Mr. Hughes was +understood to be the leader of those who opposed any declaration of +racial equality. The Japanese statesmen showed him their amendment, and +asked him whether he could suggest a modification that would satisfy +himself and them. The answer was in the negative. To the arguments of +the Japanese delegates the Australian Premier is understood to have +replied: "I am willing to admit the equality of the Japanese as a +nation, and also of individuals man to man. But I do not admit the +consequence that we should throw open our country to them. It is not +that we hold them to be inferior to ourselves, but simply that we do not +want them. Economically they are a perturbing factor, because they +accept wages much below the minimum for which our people are willing to +work. Neither do they blend well with our people. Hence we do not want +them to marry our women. Those are my reasons. We mean no offense. Our +restrictive legislation is not aimed specially at the Japanese. British +subjects in India are affected by it in exactly the same way. It is +impossible that we should formulate any modifications of your amendment, +because there is no modification conceivable that would satisfy us +both." + +The Japanese delegates were understood to say that they would maintain +their motion, and that unless it passed they would not sign the +document. Mr. Hughes retorted that if it should pass he would refuse to +sign. Finally the Australian Premier asked Baron Makino whether he would +be satisfied with the following qualifying proviso: "This affirmation of +the principle of equality is not to be applied to immigration or +nationalization." Baron Makino and Viscount Chinda both answered in the +negative and withdrew. + +The final act[360] is described by eye-witnesses as follows. Congruously +with the order of the day, President Wilson having moved that the city +of Geneva be selected as the capital of the future League, obtained a +majority, whereupon he announced that the motion had passed. + +Then came the burning question of the equality of nations.[361] The +Polish delegate arose and opposed it on the formal ground that nothing +ought to be inserted in the preamble which was not dealt with also in +the body of the Covenant, as otherwise it would be no more than an +isolated theory devoid of organic connection with the whole. The +Japanese delegates delivered speeches of cogent argument and impressive +debating power. Baron Makino made out a very strong case for the +equality of nations. Viscount Chinda followed in a trenchant discourse, +which was highly appreciated by his hearers, nearly all of whom +recognized the justice of the Japanese claim. The Japanese delegates +refused to be dazzled by the circumstances that Japan was to be +represented on the Executive Council as one of the five Great Powers, +and that the rejection of the proposed amendment could not therefore be +construed as a diminution of her prestige. This consideration, they +retorted, was wholly irrelevant to the question whether or no the +nations were to be recognized as equal. They ended by refusing to +withdraw their modified amendment and calling for a vote. The result was +a majority for the amendment. Mr. Wilson thereupon announced that a +majority was insufficient to justify its adoption, and that nothing less +than absolute unanimity could be regarded as adequate. At this a +delegate objected: "Mr. Wilson, you have just accepted a majority for +your own motion respecting Geneva; on what grounds, may I ask, do you +refuse to abide by a majority vote on the amendment of the Japanese +delegation?" "The two cases are different," was the reply. "On the +subject of the seat of the League unanimity is unattainable." This +closed the official discussion. + +Some time later, it is asserted, the Rumanians, who had supported Mr. +Wilson's motion on religious equality, were approached on the subject, +and informed that it would be agreeable to the American delegates to +have the original proposal brought up once more. Such a motion, it was +added, would come with especial propriety from the Rumanians, who, in +the person of M. Diamandi, had advocated it from the outset. But the +Rumanian delegates hesitated, pleading the invincible opposition of the +Japanese. They were assured, however, that the Japanese would no longer +discountenance it. Thereupon they broached the matter to Lord Robert +Cecil, but he, with his wonted caution, replied that it was a delicate +subject to handle, especially after the experience they had already had. +As for himself, he would rather leave the initiative to others. Could +the Rumanian delegates not open their minds to Colonel House, who took +the amendment so much to heart? They acted on this suggestion and called +on Colonel House. He, too, however, declared that it was a momentous as +well as a thorny topic, and for that reason had best be referred to the +head of the American delegation. President Wilson, having originated the +amendment, was the person most qualified to take direct action. It is +further affirmed that they sounded the President as to the advisability +of mooting the question anew, but that he declined to face another vote, +and the matter was dropped for good--in that form. + +It was publicly asserted later on that the Japanese decided to abide by +the rejection of their amendment and to sign the Covenant as the result +of a bargain on the Shantung dispute. This report, however, was +pulverized by the Japanese delegation, which pointed out that the +introduction of the racial clause was decided upon before the delegates +left Japan, and when no difficulties were anticipated respecting +Japan's claim to have that province ceded to her by Germany, and that +the discussion on the amendment terminated on April 11th, consequently +before the Kiaochow issue came up for discussion. As a matter of fact, +the Japanese publicly announced their intention to adhere to the League +of Nations two days[362] before a decision was reached respecting their +claims to Kiaochow. + +This adverse note on Mr. Wilson's pet scheme to have religious equality +proclaimed as a means of hindering sanguinary wars brought to its climax +the reaction of the Conference against what it regarded as a systematic +endeavor to establish the overlordship of the Anglo-Saxon peoples in the +world. The plea that wars may be provoked by such religious inequality +as still survives was so unreal that it awakened a twofold suspicion in +the minds of many of Mr. Wilson's colleagues. Most of them believed that +a pretext was being sought to enable the leading Powers to intervene in +the domestic concerns of all the other states, so as to keep them firmly +in hand, and use them as means to their own ends. And these ends were +looked upon as anything but disinterested. Unhappily this conviction was +subsequently strengthened by certain of the measures decreed by the +Supreme Council between April and the close of the Conference. The +misgivings of other delegates turned upon a matter which at first sight +may appear so far removed from any of the pressing issues of the +twentieth century as to seem wholly imaginary. They feared that a +religious--some would call it racial--bias lay at the root of Mr. +Wilson's policy. It may seem amazing to some readers, but it is none the +less a fact that a considerable number of delegates believed that the +real influences behind the Anglo-Saxon peoples were Semitic. + +They confronted the President's proposal on the subject of religious +inequality, and, in particular, the odd motive alleged for it, with the +measures for the protection of minorities which he subsequently imposed +on the lesser states, and which had for their keynote to satisfy the +Jewish elements in eastern Europe. And they concluded that the sequence +of expedients framed and enforced in this direction were inspired by the +Jews, assembled in Paris for the purpose of realizing their carefully +thought-out program, which they succeeded in having substantially +executed. However right or wrong these delegates may have been, it would +be a dangerous mistake to ignore their views, seeing that they have +since become one of the permanent elements of the situation. The formula +into which this policy was thrown by the members of the Conference, +whose countries it affected, and who regarded it as fatal to the peace +of eastern Europe, was this: "Henceforth the world will be governed by +the Anglo-Saxon peoples, who, in turn, are swayed by their Jewish +elements." + +It is difficult to convey an adequate notion of the warmth of +feeling--one might almost call it the heat of passion--which this +supposed discovery generated. The applications of the theory to many of +the puzzles of the past were countless and ingenious. The illustrations +of the manner in which the policy was pursued, and the cajolery and +threats which were said to have been employed in order to insure its +success, covered the whole history of the Conference, and presented it +through a new and possibly distorted medium. The morbid suspicions +current may have been the natural vein of men who had passed a great +part of their lives in petty racial struggles; but according to common +account, it was abundantly nurtured at the Conference by the lack of +reserve and moderation displayed by some of the promoters of the +minority clauses who were deficient in the sense of measure. What the +Eastern delegates said was briefly this: "The tide in our countries was +flowing rapidly in favor of the Jews. All the east European governments +which had theretofore wronged them were uttering their _mea culpa_, and +had solemnly promised to turn over a new leaf. Nay, they had already +turned it. We, for example, altered our legislation in order to meet by +anticipation the legitimate wishes of the Conference and the pressing +demands of the Jews. We did quite enough to obviate decrees which might +impair our sovereignty or lessen our prestige. Poland and Rumania issued +laws establishing absolute equality between the Jews and their own +nationals. All discrimination had ceased. Immigrant Hebrews from Russia +received the full rights of citizenship and became entitled to fill any +office in the state. In a word, all the old disabilities were abolished +and the fervent prayer of east European governments was that the Jewish +members of their respective communities should be gradually assimilated +to the natives and become patriotic citizens like them. It was a new +ideal. It accorded to the Jews everything they had asked for. It would +enable them to show themselves as the French, Italian, and Belgian Jews +had shown themselves, efficient citizens of their adopted countries. + +"But in the flush of their triumph, the Jews, or rather their spokesmen +at the Conference, were not satisfied with equality. What they demanded +was inequality to the detriment of the races whose hospitality they were +enjoying and to their own supposed advantage. They were to have the same +rights as the Rumanians, the Poles, and the other peoples among whom +they lived, but they were also to have a good deal more. Their religious +autonomy was placed under the protection of an alien body, the League, +which is but another name for the Powers which have reserved to +themselves the governance of the world. The method is to oblige each of +the lesser states to bestow on each minority the same rights as the +majority enjoys, and also certain privileges over and above. The +instrument imposing this obligation is a formal treaty with the Great +Powers which the Poles, Rumanians, and other small states were summoned +to sign. It contains twenty-one articles. The first part of the document +deals with minorities generally, the latter with the Jewish elements. +The second clause of the Polish treaty enacts that every individual who +habitually resided in Poland on August 1, 1914, becomes a citizen +forthwith. This is simple. Is it also satisfactory? Many Frenchmen and +Poles doubt it, as we do ourselves. On August 1st numerous German and +Austrian agents and spies, many of them Hebrews, resided habitually in +Poland. Moreover, the foreign Jewish elements there, which have +immigrated from Russia, having lost--like everybody else before the +war--the expectation of seeing Polish independence ever restored, had +definitely thrown in their lot with the enemies of Poland. Now to put +into the hands of such enemies constitutional weapons is already a +sacrifice and a risk. The Jews in Vilna recently voted solidly against +the incorporation of that city in Poland.[363] Are they to be treated as +loyal Polish citizens? We have conceded the point unreservedly. But to +give them autonomy over and above, to create a state within the state, +and enable its subjects to call in foreign Powers at every hand's turn, +against the lawfully constituted authorities--that is an expedient which +does not commend itself to the newly emancipated peoples." + +The Rumanian Premier Bratiano, whose conspicuous services to the Allied +cause entitled him to a respectful hearing, delivered a powerful +speech[364] before the delegates assembled in plenary session on this +question of protecting ethnic and religious minorities. He covered +ground unsurveyed by the framers of the special treaties, and his +sincere tone lent weight to his arguments. Starting from the postulate +that the strength of latter-day states depends upon the widest +participation of all the elements of the population in the government of +the country, he admitted the peremptory necessity of abolishing +invidious distinctions between the various elements of the population +there, ethnic or religious. So far, he was at one with the spokesmen of +the Great Powers. Rumania, however, had already accomplished this by the +decree enabling her Jews to acquire full citizenship by expressing the +mere desire according to a simple formula. This act confers the full +rights of Rumanian citizens upon eight hundred thousand Jews. The Jewish +press of Bucharest had already given utterance to its entire +satisfaction. If, however, the Jews are now to be placed in a special +category, differentiated and kept apart from their fellow-citizens by +having autonomous institutions, by the maintenance of the German-Yiddish +dialect, which keeps alive the Teuton anti-Rumanian spirit, and by being +authorized to regard the Rumanian state as an inferior tribunal, from +which an appeal always lies to a foreign body--the government of the +Great Powers--this would be the most invidious of all distinctions, and +calculated to render the assimilation of the German-Yiddish-speaking +Jews to their Rumanian fellow-citizens a sheer impossibility. The +majority and the minority would then be systematically and definitely +estranged from each other; and, seeing this, the elemental instincts of +the masses might suddenly assume untoward forms, which the treaty, if +ratified, would be unavailing to prevent. But, however baneful for the +population, foreign protection is incomparably worse for the state, +because it tends to destroy the cement that holds the government and +people together, and ultimately to bring about disintegration. A classic +example of this process of disruption is Russia's well-meant protection +of the persecuted Christians in Turkey. In this case the motive was +admirable, the necessity imperative, but the result was the +dismemberment of Turkey and other changes, some of which one would like +to forget. + + +The delegation of Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, and Poland upheld M. +Bratiano's contentions in brief, pithy speeches. President Wilson's +lengthy rejoinder, delivered with more than ordinary sweetness, +deprecated M. Bratiano's comparison of the Allies' proposed intervention +with Russia's protection of the Christians of Turkey, and represented +the measure as emanating from the purest kindness. He said that the +Great Powers were now bestowing national existence or extensive +territories upon the interested states, actually guaranteeing their +frontiers, and therefore making themselves responsible for permanent +tranquillity there. But the treatment of the minorities, he added, +unless fair and considerate, might produce the gravest troubles and even +precipitate wars. Therefore it behooved the Powers in the interests of +all Europe, as of each of its individual members, to secure harmonious +relations, and, at any rate, to remove all manifest obstacles to their +establishment. "We guarantee your frontiers and your territories. That +means that we will send over arms, ships, and men, in case of necessity. +Therefore we possess the right and recognize the duty to hinder the +survival of a set of deplorable conditions which would render this +intervention unavoidable." + +To this line of reasoning M. Bratiano made answer that all the helpful +maxims of good government are of universal application, and, therefore, +if this protection of minorities were, indeed, indispensable or +desirable, it should not be restricted to the countries of eastern +Europe, but should be extended to all without exception. For it is +inadmissible that two categories of states should be artificially +created, one endowed with full sovereignty and the other with +half-sovereignty. Such an arrangement would destroy the equality which +should lie at the base of a genuine League of Nations. + +But the Powers had made up their minds, and the special treaties were +imposed on the unwilling governments. Thereupon the Rumanian Premier +withdrew from the Conference, and neither his Cabinet nor that of the +Jugoslavs signed the treaty with Austria at St.-Germain. + +What happened after that is a matter of history. + +Few politicians are conscious of the magnitude of the issue concealed by +the involved diplomatic phraseology of the obnoxious treaties, or of the +dangers to which their enactment will expose the minorities which they +were framed to protect, the countries whose hospitality those minorities +enjoy, and possibly other lands, which for the time being are seemingly +immune from all such perilous race problems. The calculable, to say +nothing of the unascertained, elements of the question might well cause +responsible statesmen to be satisfied with the feasible. The Jewish +elements in Europe, for centuries abominably oppressed, were justified +in utilizing to the fullest the opportunity presented by the +resettlement of the world in order to secure equality of treatment. And +it must be admitted that their organization is marvelous. For years I +championed their cause in Russia, and paid the penalty under the +governments of Alexander II and III.[365] The sympathy of every +unbiased man, to whatever race or religion he may belong, will naturally +go out to a race or a nation which is trodden underfoot, as were the +ill-starred Jews of Russia ever since the partition of Poland. But +equality one would have thought sufficient to meet the grievance. Full +equality without reservation. That was the view taken by numerous Jews +in Poland and Rumania, several of whom called on me in Paris and urged +me to give public utterance to their hopes that the Conference would +rest satisfied with equality and to their fear of the consequences of an +attempt to establish a privileged status. Why this position should exist +only in eastern Europe and not elsewhere, why it should not be extended +to other races with larger minorities in other countries, are questions +to which a satisfactory response could be given only by farther-reaching +and fateful changes in the legislation of the world. + +One of the statesmen of eastern Europe made a forcible appeal to have +the minority clauses withdrawn. He took the ground that the principal +aim pursued in conferring full rights on the Jews who dwell among us is +to remove the obstacles that prevent them from becoming true and loyal +citizens of the state, as their kindred are in France, Italy, Britain, +and elsewhere. "If it is reasonable," he said, "that they should demand +all the rights possessed by their Rumanian and Polish fellow-subjects, +it is equally fair that they should take over and fulfil the correlate +duties, as does the remainder of the population. For the gradual +assimilation of all the ethnic elements of the community is our ideal, +as it is the ideal of the French, English, Italian, and other states. + +"Isolation and particularism are the negative of that ideal, and operate +like a piece of iron or wood in the human body which produces ulceration +and gangrene. All our institutions should therefore be calculated to +encourage assimilation. If we adopt the opposite policy, we inevitably +alienate the privileged from the unprivileged sections of the community, +generate enmity between them, cause endless worries to the +administration and paralyze in advance our best-intentioned endeavors to +fuse the various ethnic ingredients of the nation into a homogeneous +whole. + +"This argument applies as fully to the other national fragments in our +midst as to the Jews. It is manifest, therefore, that the one certain +result of the minority clause will be to impose domestic enemies on each +of the states that submits to it, and that it can commend itself only to +those who approve the maxim, _Divide et impera_. + +"It also entails the noteworthy diminution of the sovereignty of the +state. We are to be liable to be haled before a foreign tribunal +whenever one of our minorities formulates a complaint against us.[366] +How easily, nay, how wickedly such complaints were filed of late may be +inferred from the heartrending accounts of pogroms in Poland, which have +since been shown by the Allies' own confidential envoys to be utterly +fictitious. Again, with whom are we to make the obnoxious stipulations? +With the League of Nations? No. We are to bind ourselves toward the +Great Powers, who themselves have their minorities which complain in +vain of being continually coerced. Ireland, Egypt, and the negroes are +three striking examples. None of their delegates were admitted to the +Conference. If the principle which those Great Powers seek to enforce be +worth anything, it should be applied indiscriminately to all minorities, +not restricted to those of the smaller states, who already have +difficulties enough to contend against." + +The trend of continental opinion was decidedly opposed to this policy of +continuous control and periodic intervention. It would be unfruitful to +quote the sharp criticisms of the status of the negroes in the United +States.[367] But it will not be amiss to cite the views of two moderate +French publicists who have ever been among the most fervent advocates of +the Allied cause. Their comments deal with one of the articles[368] of +the special Minority Treaty which Poland has had to sign. It runs thus: +"Jews shall not be compelled to perform any act which constitutes a +violation of their Sabbath, nor shall they be placed under any +disability by reason of their refusal to attend courts of law or to +perform any legal business on their Sabbath. This provision, however, +shall not exempt Jews from such obligations as shall be imposed upon all +other Polish citizens for the necessary purposes of military service, +national defense, or the preservation of public order. + +"Poland declares her intention to refrain from ordering or permitting +elections, whether general or local, to be held on a Saturday, nor will +registration for electoral or other purposes be compelled to be +performed on a Saturday." + +M. Gauvain writes: "One may put the question, why respect for the +Sabbath is so peremptorily imposed when Sunday is ignored among several +of the Allied Powers. In France Christians are not dispensed from +appearing on Sundays before the assize courts. Besides, Poland is +further obliged not to order or authorize elections on a Saturday. What +precautions these are in favor of the Jewish religion as compared with +the legislation of many Allied states which have no such ordinances in +favor of Catholicism! Is the same procedure to be adopted toward the +Moslems? Shall we behold the famous Mussulmans of India, so opportunely +drawn from the shade by Mr. Montagu, demanding the insertion of clauses +to protect Islam? Will the Zionists impose their dogmas in Palestine? Is +the life of a nation to be suspended two, three, or four days a week in +order that religious laws may be observed? Catholicism has adapted +itself in practice to laic legislation and to the exigencies of modern +life. It may well seem that Judaism in Poland could do likewise. In +Rumania, the Jews met with no obstacle to the exercise of their +religion. Indeed, they had contrived in the localities to the north of +Moldavia, where they formed a majority, to impose their own customs on +the rest of the population. Jewish guardians of toll-bridges are known +to have barred the passage of these bridges on Saturdays, because, on +the one hand, their religion forbade them to accept money on that day, +and, on the other hand, they could allow no one to pass without paying. +The Big Four might have given their attention to matters more useful or +more pressing than enforcing respect for the Sabbath. + +"It is comprehensible that M. Bratiano should have refused to accept in +advance the conditions which the Four or the Five may dictate in favor +of ethnic and religious minorities. Rumania before the war was a free +country governed congruously with the most modern principles. The +restrictions which she had enacted respecting foreigners in general, and +which were on the point of being repealed, did not exceed those which +the United States and the Dominion of Australia still apply with +remarkable tenacity. Why should the Cabinets of London and Washington +take so much to heart the lot of ethnic and religious minorities in +certain European countries while they themselves refuse to admit in the +Covenant of the Society of Nations the principle of the equality of +races? Their conduct is awakening among the states 'whose interests are +limited' the belief that they are the victims of an arbitrary policy. +And that is not without danger."[369] + +Another eminent Frenchman, M. Denis Cochin, who until quite recently was +a Cabinet Minister, wrote: "The Conference, by imposing laws in favor of +minorities, has uselessly and unjustly offended our allies. These laws +oblige them to respect the usages of the Jews, to maintain schools for +them.... I have spent a large part of my career in demanding for French +Catholics exactly that which the Conference imposes elsewhere. The +Catholics pay taxes in money and taxes in blood. And yet there is no +budget for those schools in which their religion is taught; no liberty +for those schoolmasters who wear the ecclesiastical habit. I have seen a +doctor in letters, fellow of the university, driven from his class +because he was a Marist brother and did not choose to repudiate the +vocation of his youth. He died of grief. I have seen young priests, +after the long, laborious preparation necessary before they could take +part in the competition for a university fellowship, thrust aside at the +last moment and debarred from the competition because they wore the garb +of priests. Yet a year later they were soldiers. I have seen Father +Schell presented unanimously by the Institute and the Professional Corps +as worthy to receive a chair at the Collège de France, and refused by +the Minister. Yet I hereby affirm that if foreigners, even though they +were allies, even friends, were to meddle with imposing on us the +abrogation of these iniquitous laws, my protest would be uplifted +against them, together with that of M. Combes.[370] I would exclaim, +like Sganarelle's wife, 'And what if I wish to be beaten?' I hold +tyranny in horror, but I hold foreign intervention in greater horror +still. Let us combat bad laws with all our strength, but among +ourselves."[371] + +The minority treaties tend to transform each of the states on which it +is imposed into a miniature Balkans, to keep Europe in continuous +turmoil and hinder the growth of the new and creative ideas from which +alone one could expect that union of collective energy with individual +freedom which is essential to peace and progress. Modern history affords +no more striking example of the force of abstract bias over the +teachings of experience than this amateur legislation which is +scattering seeds of mischief and conflict throughout Europe. + + * * * * * + +Casting a final glance at the results of the Conference, it would be +ungracious not to welcome as a precious boon the destruction of Prussian +militarism, a consummation which we owe to the heroism of the armies +rather than to the sagacity of the lawgivers in Paris. The restoration +of a Polish state and the creation or extension of the other free +communities at the expense of the Central Empires are also most welcome +changes, which, however, ought never to have been marred by the +disruptive wedge of the minority legislation. Again, although the League +is a mill whose sails uselessly revolve, because it has no corn to +grind, the mere fact that the necessity of internationalism was solemnly +proclaimed as the central idea of the new ordering, and that an effort, +however feeble, was put forth to realize it in the shape of a covenant +of social and moral fellowship, marks an advance from which there can be +no retrogression. + +Actuality was thereby imparted to the idea, which is destined to remain +in the forefront of contemporary politics until the peoples themselves +embody it in viable institutions. What the delegates failed to realize +is the truth that a program of a league is not a league. + +On the debit side much might be added to what has already been said. The +important fact to bear in mind--which in itself calls for neither praise +nor blame--is that the world-parliament was at bottom an Anglo-Saxon +assembly whose language, political conceptions, self-esteem, and +disregard of everything foreign were essentially English. When speaking, +the faces of the principal delegates were turned toward the future, and +when acting they looked toward the past. As a thoroughly English press +organ, when alluding to the League of Nations, puts it: "We have done +homage to that entrancing ideal by spatchcocking the Convention into the +Treaty. There it remains as a finger-post to point the way to a new +heaven on earth. But we observe that the Treaty itself is a good old +eighteenth-century piece, drawing its inspiration from mundane and +practical considerations, and paying a good deal more than lip service +to the principle of the balance of power."[372] + +That is a fair estimate of the work achieved by the delegates. But they +sinned in their way of doing it. If they had deliberately and +professedly aimed at these results, and had led the world to look for +none other, most of the criticisms to which they have rendered +themselves open would be pointless. But they raised hopes which they +refused to realize, they weakened if they did not destroy faith in +public treaties, they intensified distrust and race hatred throughout +the world, they poured strong dissolvents upon every state on the +European Continent, and they stirred up fierce passions in Russia, and +then left that ill-starred nation a prey to unprecedented anarchy. In a +word, they gathered up all the widely scattered explosives of +imperialism, nationalism, and internationalism, and, having added to +their destructiveness, passed them on to the peoples of the world as +represented by the League of Nations. Some of them deplored the mess in +which they were leaving the nations, without, however, admitting the +causal nexus between it and their own achievements. + +General Smuts, before quitting Paris for South Africa, frankly admitted +that the Peace Treaty will not give us the real peace which the peoples +hoped for, and that peace-making would not begin until after the signing +of the Treaty. The _Echo de Paris_ wrote: "As for us, we never believed +in the Society of Nations."[373] And again: "The Society of Nations is +now but a bladder, and nobody would venture to describe it as a +lantern."[374] The Bolshevist dictator Lenin termed it "an organization +to loot the world."[375] + +The Allies themselves are at sixes and sevens. The French are suspicious +of the British. A large section of the American people is profoundly +dissatisfied with the part played by the English and the French at the +Conference; Italy is stung to the quick by the treatment she received +from France, Britain, and the United States; Rumania loathes the very +names of those for whom she staked her all and sacrificed so much; in +Poland and Belgium the English have lost the consideration which they +enjoyed before the Conference; the Greeks are wroth with the American +delegates; the majority of Russians literally execrate their ex-Allies +and turn to the Germans and the Japanese. + +"The resettlement of central Europe," writes an American journal,[376] +"is not being made for the tranquillity of the liberated principles, +but for the purposes of the Great Powers, among whom France is the +active, and America and Britain the passive, partners. In Germany its +purpose is the permanent elimination of the German nation as a factor in +European politics.... We cannot save Europe by playing the sinister game +now being played. There is no peace, no order, no security in it.... +What it can do is to aggravate the mischief and intensify the schisms." + +A distinguished American, who is a consistent friend of England,[377] in +a review article affirmed that the proposed League of Nations is slowly +undermining the Anglo-American Entente. "There is in America a growing +sense of irritation that she should be forever entangled in the +spider-web of European politics." ... And if the Senate in the supposed +interests of peace should ratify the League, he adds, "In my judgment no +greater harm could result to Anglo-American unity than such reluctant +consent."[378] + +Some of Mr. Wilson's fellow-countrymen who gave him their whole-hearted +support when he undertook to establish a régime of right and justice sum +up the result of his labors in Paris as follows:[379] + +"His solemn warning against special alliances emerged as a special +alliance with Britain and France. His repeated condemnations of secret +treaties emerges as a recognition that 'they could not honorably be +brushed aside,' even though they conflicted with equally binding public +engagements entered into after they had been written. Openly arrived at +covenants were not openly arrived at. The removal, so far as possible, +of all economic barriers was applied to German barriers, and +accompanied by the blockade of a people with whom we have never been at +war. The adequate guaranties to be given and taken as respects armaments +were taken from Germany and given to no one. The 'unhampered and +unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own +political development' promised to Russia, and defined as the 'acid +test,' has been worked out by Mr. Wilson and others to a point where so +cautious a man as Mr. Asquith says he regards it with 'bewilderment and +apprehension.' The righting of the wrong done in 1871 emerges as a +concealed annexation of the boundary of 1814. The 'clearly recognizable +lines of nationality' which Italy was to obtain has been wheedled into +annexations which have moved Viscount Bryce to denounce them. 'The +freest opportunity of autonomous development' promised the peoples of +Austria-Hungary failed to define the Austrians as peoples...." + +Whatever the tests one applies to the work of the Conference--ethical, +social, or political--they reveal it as a factor eminently calculated to +sap high interests, to weaken the moral nerve of the present generation, +to fan the flames of national and racial hatred, to dig an abyss between +the classes and the masses, and to throw open the sluice-gates to the +inrush of the waves of anarchist internationalities. Truth, justice, +equity, and liberty have been twisted and pressed into the service of +economico-political boards. In the United States the people who prided +themselves on their aloofness are already fighting over European +interests. In Europe every nation's hand is raised against its +neighbors, and every people's hand against its ruling class. Every +government is making its policy subservient to the needs of the future +war which is universally looked upon as an unavoidable outcome of the +Versailles peace. Imperialism and militarism are striking roots in soil +where they were hitherto unknown. In a word, Prussianism, instead of +being destroyed, has been openly adopted by its ostensible enemies, and +the huge sacrifices offered up by the heroic armies of the foremost +nations are being misused to give one half of the world just cause to +rise up against the other half. + +THE END + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[339] A contemporary of Goethe. His works were republished by Herzog in +the year 1907. + +[340] _The Daily Telegraph_, January 28, 1919. + +[341] _The Daily Telegraph_, January 31, 1919. + +[342] _The Daily Mail_ (Paris edition), February 13, 1919. + +[343] State-Secretary Hay addressed a note to the Powers in September, +1899, setting forth America's attitude toward China. It is known as the +doctrine of the "open door." In a subsequent note (July 3, 1900) he +enlarged its scope and promulgated the integrity of China. But Russia +ignored it and flew her flag over the Chinese customs in Newchwang. It +was Japan who, on that occasion, asserted and enforced the doctrine +without outside help. + +[344] General March intimated, when testifying before the House Military +Committee, that President Wilson approved of universal training, +indorsing the War Department's army program.--_New York Herald_ (Paris +edition). + +[345] _Bulletin des Droits de l'Homme_, No. 10, May 15, 1919. + +[346] _Journal Officiel_, November 21, 1917. + +[347] _Le Populaire_, February 10, 1919. + +[348] _La Stampa_, June 11, 1919. Cf. _L'Humanité,_ June 13, 1919. + +[349] Cf. _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), August 27, 1919. + +[350] In _The Daily Telegraph_, February 8, 1919. + +[351] The Covenant leaves the mode of recruiting them undetermined. + +[352] Article IV. + +[353] Article VIII. + +[354] M. d'Estournelles de Constant, _Bulletin des Droits de l'Homme_, +May 15, 1919, p. 450. + +[355] _Ibid._ + +[356] _Ibid._, p. 457. + +[357] Article XII. + +[358] Cf. _The New York Herald_ (Paris edition), September 14, 1919. + +[359] _L'Echo de Paris_, February 17, 1919. + +[360] On April 11, 1919. + +[361] The wording of the final Japanese amendment was: "By the +endorsement of the principle of equality of nations and just treatment +of their nationals." + +[362] On April 28, 1919. + +[363] The Jewish coalition in Vilna inscribed on its program the union +of Vilna with Russia.... There was an overwhelming majority in favor of +its retention by Poland.--_Le Temps_, September 14, 1919. The election +took place on September 7th. + +[364] On Saturday, May 31, 1919. + +[365] I published several series of articles in _The Daily Telegraph_, +_The Fortnightly Review_, and other English as well as American +periodicals, and a long chapter in my book entitled _Russian +Characteristics_. + +[366] "Poland agrees that any member of the Council of the League of +Nations shall have the right to bring to the attention of the Council +any infraction, or _any danger of infraction_, of any of these +obligations, and that the Council may thereupon take such action and +give such direction as it may deem proper and effective in the +circumstances."--Article XII of the Special Treaty with Poland. + +[367] Cf. _La Gazette de Lausanne_, April 24, 1919. + +[368] Article XI of the Special Treaty, _L'Etoile Belge_, August 17, +1919. + +[369] _Le Journal des Débats_, July 7, 1919. + +[370] M. Emile Combes was the author of the laws which banished +religious congregations from France. + +[371] _Le Figaro_, August 21, 1919. _L'Echo de Paris_, August 22, 1919. + +[372] _The Morning Post_, July 21, 1919. + +[373] _L'Echo de Paris_, April 29, 1919. + +[374] _Ibid._, April 14, 1919. + +[375] _The Chicago Tribune_ (Paris edition), September 17, 1919. + +[376] _The New Republic_, August 6, 1919. + +[377] Mr. James B. Beck. + +[378] _The North American Review_, June, 1919. + +[379] Cf. _The New Republic_, August 6, 1919, pp. 5, 6. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Inside Story Of The Peace +Conference, by Emile Joseph Dillon + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14477 *** |