Norwich bulletin., 1919-06-11
FACTS AND COMMENT

rumors as to the ultimate fate of the peace treaty. Ne party nor admins tration is eager for the responsibility of accepting the hard terms nor will ing to face the consequences of a re- fusal. Count Brockdorff- -Rantzau threatens to resign from the head of the peace delegation rather than sign the treaty in it's present form, thus showing the desire to save his face rather than aid his country amid the difficulties into which men of his ilk have brought her. The proposal to put von Bernstoff in his place has met with indignation in the press of the al- lied countries, thus making it clear even to the Germans that he would not be received in Paris. Yet the se- lection of Brockdorff and Bernstoff is in itself instructive. It shows that the junker tradition is strong in the new government even though the hated socialists are numerically superior. The junkers apparently hope to force the Ebert -Scheidemann government to accept the treaty and thereby sign their own political death warrant. The government on its own part dares do naught else but sign, knowing full well that the population would be faced with starvation should the allies re- sume the blockade. In spite of all protestations the treaty will be signed when the time comes. Meanwhile it is only natural that better terms are being sought.
 It is a wise move on the part of the peace conference to permit no oral l discussion of the treaty by the Ger mans. Bernstoff's activities in Ameri- ca, Boloism in France. the deliberate | propagation of bolshevism in Russia and the treacherous undermining of | the Italian morale that led to the de- 1 feat of Caporetto were all acts that i showed the interruptions character of l the defeated foe. Deprived of his arms, he would rely even more on his vil- | lainy. Open discussion of the treaty l could easily be conducted so as to l bring dissension among the allies. In- ] deed it is morally certain that the Ger l mans are even now taking advantage | of the hostility of the United States senate to President Wilson. Cheated 1 in their fond hope that he would stand 1 between them and their merited pun | ishment, they are doubtless trying in | every way to have his treaty rejected l Certainly they have nothing to lose | One can hardly ask a higher price 1 than the one first named. It was Bern
 stoff himself who said during the pe-
 riod of his Washington treachery: Tn
 this land of infinite possibilities, every l thing is possible And Bernstoff is
 not the only Prussian who is ac- | quainted with the inside of American
 politics.
 The senate has at last succeeded ir
 getting the full text of the peace treaty
 despite the presidents refusal to di- 1 vulge the terms until the German signatures were attached For some 1 time there has been a shrewd suspicion that copies of the treaty were in this country, and this week Senator Boral l secured one which the senate ordered
 printed immediately, unheeding tho protests of the presidents supporters
 The official text now published for the l first time serves to show how Ver1
 exact was the summary given out Ions since by the peace conferenme. Th' few who have the patience to reat through the 100 00G words will learn
 what a mass of details had to be
 studied out. For example, the Rhine | now becomes once more an interna
 tional boundary, is to ba administered i by a commission from all the adjoining
 and interested states. so that navi
 ation, power and irrigation rights ma. be equitably apportioned. The Kie canal, the status of Poland and 1 thousand other matters only remotel, connected with the war are covered il this comprehensive volume.
 The president was well within hi
 constitutional rights in negotiating th
 treaty in any way that he saw fit, bu
 it is an open question whether hi
 natural obstinacy has not prevailet
 over his political shrowdness. It wcul,
 have been the part of wisdom to hay
 yielded to the senate's request fo
 the full text of the treaty, rather tfa1
 to wait until it was discovered in un official hands Having once been pu
 into type absolute secrecy was n
 longer possible and a grand chanc
 to win the favor Of the senate com
 mittee on foreign relations was pre- : sented Instead of that, the commit , tee on whose favor the presidents sue cess depends has been made more hos , tile than ever and the president him self is open to the charge of havin played false His insistence that tn Big Four Eve pledged themselves [ secrecy does not help his case. l the pledge meant absolute secrecy was impossible of fulfilment am r ought never to have been made; if
 ' f not appear in the public press. tn senate committee was certainly en , titled to see it before it got into pri vate hands. The text has been i , circulation in Germany for some time From there if from no other source : was inevitable that it should get { ' America, especially as every wide ] awake American newspa per man va
 keen after all the details, and nor
 especially as the Germans knew tha
 President Wilson didn't want it pub
 lished.
 Austria Hungary has disintegrate to such an extent that only a sma
 part of the former empire remain
 from which to exact restitution. I'll S Italian speaking provinces are to l = handed over to King Victor Emanu e and a considerable portion of territor
 goes into the new Poland. Hungar
 has deserted the former alliance and 7, at present given over to bolsheviSr , Rumania is to annex Pennsylvania tt Il other side of the Carpathian Mour 5 tains, and Bosnia and Herzegovina be
 come part of the new and enlarge
 1 Serbia Hungary will doubtless I t obliged to assume part of the fnanci }, burden that the allies will impose, bl a the regions allotted to Serbia. Rume
 nia and Poland were unwilling partic
 pants in the war and should not I
 saddled with any part of Austria's ws
 debt Austria proper had visions C joining the new federation of Gel n man states and thus disappearing fro
 the map as a separate nation I
 this France objected on the grour e that S,000.ooo people would thus ] d added to the population of German W -------- n
 &E