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The Peace Conference of Paris, 1919

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Geo. A. Finch
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Extract

On January 18, 1919, the forty-eighth anniversary of the proclamation of the German Empire at Versailles after the invasion of France in 1870-1871, there assembled in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Paris a meeting of the representatives of the Allied and Associated belligerent Powers, as well as the Powers which had broken off diplomatic relations, to decide upon the terms of peace to be offered to Germany and her allies.

Emulating Bismarck, who used the emasculated telegram of Ems as the pretext of waging a war of conquest upon France, William II and his General Staff seized upon the rupture between Austria-Hungary and Serbia growing out of the assassination of the Austrian Crown Prince at Serajevo in June, 1914, as the pretext for launching Germany upon a carefully prepared program of world domination. Fearful lest delay might result in the loss of the opportunity for which she had deliberately planned and anxiously awaited, within a week after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, Germany had declared war on Russia and France and had shamelessly violated the neutrality of Belgium which she had solemnly undertaken to respect. Great Britain, for self-protection and in response to treaty obligations, immediately entered the war against Germany, and was successively followed from time to time, as Germany evinced her disregard of international law, the laws of war and the dictates of humanity, by all the other large Powers and many of the smaller ones whose interests were jeopardized or rights infringed upon by Germany’s increasingly reckless and ruthless conduct.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , April 1919 , pp. 159 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1919 

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References

1 See translation from Bismarck, , Gedanken und Erinnerungen , in A Survey of International Relations between the United States and Germany , by J. B. Scott. New York: Oxford University Press. 1917, pp. 359–362.Google Scholar

2 For a summary of the terms of the armistice with Bulgaria, see the New York Times, October 18, 1918.

3 For the text of the armistice with Turkey, see Pamphlet No. 133 of the American Association for International Conciliation, New York.

4 For the official text of the armistice with Austria, see Supplement to this Journal, p. 80.

5 See a Documentary History of the German. Revolution in Pamphlet No. 137 of the American Association for International Conciliation.

6 For the official text of the armistice with Germany, see Supplement to this Journal, p. 97.

7 President Wilson’s Foreign Policy—Messages, Addresses, Papers. Edited by J. B. Scott. New York: Oxford University Press. 1918, pp. 359–362.

8 Note of October 14, 1918, together with text of this entire correspondence, printed in Supplement to this Journal, p. 85 et seq.

9 The text of the modus vivendi is printed herein, infra, p. 319.

10 In the official communiqué of the meeting of the representatives of the Great Powers on the afternoon of January 22d, it is stated that the plenary session of the Conference on January 25th, would discuss the subject of the League of Nations upon the basis of the proposals made by Mr. Lloyd George. The proposal presented to the Conference on January 25th took the form of the resolution authorizing the appointment of the Commission on the League. The official communiqué of the first meeting of the Commission announced that “it was agreed that an accord in principle had been reached by the resolution previously passed by the Conference, and that discussion would proceed accordingly at the next meeting.” According to an unofficial report of the first meeting of the Commission, the draft plan for the League of Nations which they agreed to use as the basis of discussion was laid before the Commission by President Wilson.