The daily banner., 1919-06-30
GERMANS SIGN
PEACE TREATY
The Hun Delegates Leave Ver-
SaiIleS For Home.
CEREMONY SEVERELY Plain

II Was Brisk and Business Like and
Totally Lacking in Oratory-Chi.
nese did not Sign.
Versailles, France, June 3O.-A score
or more German secretaries are mere
to conclude the affairs of the German
peace delegation.
DR.. Herman Mueller and over fifty
members of the delegation have left
for Berlin.
The treaty was signed ON Saturday
afternoon in the Hall of Mirrors.
The absence of the Chinese dele
gates. who at the last moment were
unable to reconcile themselves TO the
Shantung settlement, and left the
eastern empire outside the formal pur-
views of peace, struck the first discor-
dant note in the assembly.
A written protest which General Jan
Christian Smuts lodged with his sig
nature was another disappointment TO
the makers of the treaty.
But, bulking larger, was the atti-
tude of Germany and her plenipoten-
tiaries, which left them, as evident
from the official program of the day
and from the expression of Premier
Clemenceau, still outside any formal
reconciliation, and made actual restor-
alton to regular relations and inter-
course with the allied nations depend
ent, not upon the signature of the
''preliminarieS of peace" but upon
ratificat ton by the national assembly.
To NJ Clemenceau's stern warning,
in his opening remarks, that they
would be expected, and held, to OBJ
serve the treaty provisions loyalty and
completely, the German delegates,
through DR.. Haniel Won HaimhauSen,
replied after returning to their hotel,
that had they known they would be
treated on a different status after
signing than the allied representatives,
as shown by their separate exit before
the general body Of the conference,
they never would have signed.
Under the circumstances, the gen.
eral tone Of sentiment in the historic
sitting was one rather of relief at the
uncontrovertible end of hostilities than
of complete and unalloyed satisfac-
ton.
The ceremony came to a dramatic
close-in fact, cached its highest dra-
matte pitch with the wild enthusiastic
reception of President Wilson, NJ.
Clemenceau and Mr.. Lloyd George by
the crowds outside the palace, who
ignored or disregarded the minor dis
cords of the day. They tore the three
statesmen from their escorts and al
most carried them bodily in their pro-
gress through the chateau grounds, to
watch the playing of the fountains
a part of the program which had been
planned as dignified state procession
al of all the plenipotentiaries.
Germany and the allied and asS0ci-
ated powers signed the peace terms in
the same imperial hall where the Ger
mans humbled the French SO ignomin-
iously forty-eight years ago. This act
formally ended the world war, which
lasted just thirty-seven days less than
five years.
The ceremony of signing the peace
terms was brief. Premier Clemen-
ceau called the session to order in the
Hall of Mirrors of the Chateau of Yer
sailles. The signing began when DR..
Herman Mueller and Johannes Bell,
the German signatories, affixed their
names. President Wilson, first Of the
allied delegates, signed a minute later.
At 3.45 o'clock the momentous session
was concluded.
All the diplomats and members Of
their parties wore conventional civil
ian clothes. There was a marked lack
of gold lace and pageantry. There
were few of the fanciful uniforms of
the middle ages whose traditions and
practices are so sternly condemned in
lhA great, Seal-covered document.