The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-02-18
CONFERENCE NOT
APPROACHING END
According to Precedent
Paris Sessions Should
Last Many Weeks
PAST CONGRESSES
HAVE BEEN LONG
Negotiations of Recent Years, However,
Have Been Less Prolonged Than
Those of Eighteenth and Early Nine
teenth Centuries.

WASHINGTON, d. c., Feb. ls.-Ihe
fact that President Wilson Is coming
home does not signify that the peace con-
ference is near the end of its deliberations
and conclusions If the end Of the con-
ference now in session in Paris were TO
he reached within few weeks it would
be contrary to all precedent, for similar
conferences in the past. none OF winch
approached the present conference IN SIZE
or Importance almost invariably occupied
| longer period than has the present great
gathering of the diplomatic representatives
OF nearly all the world.
The Great congress of Vienna, which
| undertook the task OF rearranglng the
man so as to look as it did before Napo-
| leon obliterated the boundaries and set
up new kingdoms, held its first session IN
| September. 1874 Six months later, on
March IL, 1915, Talleyrand, the French rep.
resentative, announced that the emperor
had escaped from Elba With one accord
the members broke into roar of laughter
their work of months was rendered use
| less Disregarding this interruption which
ended at Waterloo. when Napoleon was
finally defeated, the total length of the
congress of Vienna was from September
1914, to June, l8l5-about nine months.
( The Peace of Utrecht, which brought tc
a close the long war of the Spanish Sue
cession, was signed after a conference
lasting from Jan %, l7l2, to April IL
| l7l3-nearly Is months in all. As re
suit of the long deliberations the belhg
erents gained nothing more than coulC
! have been peaceably coded by conference
in l702, the year in which the war wa
started.
Another notable peace conference il
which nearly all of the principal Europeai
powers participated was the congress o
| Aix-la- Chaperle, which brought to a con
cllision the wars of the Austrian Success
sion. The conference was begun on Ma,
Is, l74S, and peace was signed in October
l14s. This conference lasted about |
months -
Coming down to a later date, the Peae
OF Campo Forfno, between France an
Austria was signed in October, 1877, tn
conference having begun on April Is, 49,
!; thus lasting six months.
History shows that few peace confer
ences in the past have concluded thei
work short OF SIX months, while many {
them have been strung out over a niue
longer period 1t is gratifying to not,
however that the peace negotiations {
later years, including those ending tn
Spanish-American war and the war b
tween Russia. and Japanss have oecupie
I considerably less time, than did the sin
lar conferences held in the eighteenth an
arfer part of the nineteenth centurie
This is probably to be accounted for. b
The fact that travel and communicate
IRE much more rapid than in the Garlic
lays, before the fast railways and steam
hips, the telegraph, the telephone an
he wireless, and even the aeropane has
t been employed in the diplomatic sersic
{ SO there is reason to expect that t
present peace conference viii be shortt
than its many predecessors, to which ma
be added the hope that it win have mol
n lasting effect. 81.