Antagonists face to face
How the terms were presented
Allied leaders at Versailles. Photograph: Corbis
The first step in the final stage of the establishment of an enduring peace was taken this afternoon in the Trianon Palace hotel at Versailles. For the first time Allied and enemy plenipotentiaries were face to face; those who had the privilege of witnessing the memorable scene could not avoid associating the proceedings in the dining hall of the palace with those of a court of justice.
Round the room sat representatives of an outraged world. The German plenipotentiaries facing them occupied seats at a little table at the bottom of the hall, placed there in the manner of those called upon to answer an indictment.
There was throughout a certain tension. One was acutely conscious of antagonists brought face to face, although there was no attempt on the part of the Allies to emphasise this. They extended to Germany's representatives in every particular "the courtesy of privileged nationals" - yet the impression of adversaries was distinctly there. One heard it in the clearcut, precise tones of the president, France's veteran statesman. Monsieur Clemenceau, in his opening words, struck the note of the afternoon: "The time has come when we must settle our account. You have asked for peace. We are ready to give you peace."
Contrasting with the president's clear, articulate voice was the guttural baritone of Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau, who throughout his long statement conveyed the feeling of a certain emotional strain. In the main we seemed to be hearing a desperate plea for leniency from one not accustomed to speak in such terms, but at times the tone seemed to change suddenly, and the count became accusative, protesting that not Germany alone was guilty.
The Draft Treaty of Peace now handed to the Germans is designed to set forth the conditions upon which alone the Allied and associated powers will make peace with Germany, and to establish those international arrangements which the allies have devised for the prevention of wars in the future and the betterment of mankind.
The Draft Treaty, however, does not deal, except incidentally, with the problems arising out of the liquidation of the Austrian empire, nor with the territories of two enemy powers, Turkey and Bulgaria.
The official summary of the Preliminary Treaty of Peace includes the following terms:
• Germany is to acknowledge responsibility for causing all the war loss and damage suffered by the Allies. As an immediate step, Germany is to pay within two years £1,000,000,000 in either gold, goods, ships or other forms of payment.
• Bond issues "are presently to be required of Germany in acknowledgment of her debt" of £3,000,000,000 sterling, bearing 2½% interest between 1921 and 1926; and an undertaking to deliver an additional amount of £2,000,000,000 sterling, bearing interest at 5%, under terms to be fixed by the commission.
• In addition, Germany is to bind herself to repay all Belgium's war debt to the Allies. The total of the war loans to Belgium up to the date of the armistice is not given, but it is understood to be over £200,000,000.
• Germany is to abolish compulsory military service, to limit her army to 100,000, and to limit her production of war material.
• The Dutch government are to be asked to surrender the ex-kaiser, and a special tribunal composed of one judge from each of the five great powers are to try him for "a supreme offence against International Morality and the Sanctity of Treaties." Military tribunals are to try other war criminals.
• Alsace-Lorraine returns to France.
•Extract from the Manchester Guardian, May 8 1919
A warning from John Maynard Keynes
Moved by insane delusion and reckless self-regard, the German people overturned the foundations on which we all lived and built. But the spokesmen of the French and British peoples have run the risk of completing the ruin, by a peace which, if it is carried into effect, must impair yet further, when it might have restored, the delicate, complicated organisation through which alone the European peoples can employ themselves and live.
In this lies the destructive significance of the Peace of Paris. If the European civil war is to end with France and Italy abusing their momentary victorious power to destroy Germany and Austria-Hungary now prostrate, they invite their own destruction also, being so deeply and inextricably intertwined with their victims by hidden psychic and economic bonds.
• The economist John Maynard Keynes represented the Treasury at Versailles. In his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), he correctly forecast it would lead to economic disaster.
Letter of complaint by the leader of the German delegation
We came to Versailles in the expectation of receiving a peace proposal based on the agreed principles. We were firmly resolved to do everything in our power with a view of fulfilling the grave obligations which we had undertaken. We hoped for the peace of justice which had been promised to us.
We were aghast when we read in documents the demands made upon us, the victorious violence of our enemies. The more deeply we penetrate into the spirit of this treaty, the more convinced we become of the impossibility of carrying it out. The exactions of this treaty are more than the German people can bear.
Although the exaction of the cost of the war has been expressly renounced, yet Germany, thus cut in pieces and weakened, must declare herself ready in principle to bear all the war expenses of her enemies, which would exceed many times over the total amount of German state and private assets. Meanwhile her enemies demand, in excess of the agreed conditions, reparation for damage suffered by their civil population. No limit is fixed, save the capacity of the German people for payment.
The reconstruction of our economic life is at the same time rendered impossible. We must surrender our merchant fleet. We are to renounce all foreign securities. We must thus renounce the realisation of all our aims in the spheres of politics, economics, and ideas.
The German people are excluded from the League of Nations, to which is entrusted all work of common interest to the world. Thus must a whole people sign the decree for its proscription - nay, its own death sentence.
• Extract from a formal letter of complaint sent by Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau to the conference president, Georges Clemenceau
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