The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-03-29
GERMANY TO
LOSE A FIFTH
OF LAND BY
PEACE TERMS
Creation of Rhenish Republic
Will Meet Peril of Strong
Germany-Lack of Policy
Menaced Allies.
BALTIC HOLD:WEAKENED
BY FRANK n. SIMONDS.

month Of the Paris Conference the
general lines of the Peace of Yer
sailles are at last becoming clear
Certainly before the first of April the
decision of the victors as to Germany
will have been taken and the world
will know substantially what are to
be the frontiers of the German people
for the future, what in territory and
population are to be subtracted from
what was the Hohenzollern Empire
and what II any gain there is to be
as result of the prospective annexa-
tion of Austrian Germany. Similarly
we shall know to what extent the civ
ilized world is going to demand that
the German tribes shall disarm and
approximately what is to be the pay
ment by Germany to the nations she
has devastated and plunged into a
sea of debt.
Perhaps the most striking thing of
all In the Paris Conference has been
the absence of any settled policy as
to Germany. Precisely as Germany
surprised the Allies in March of last
year in her Somme offensive she sur
prised them in November by her pre-
cipitate surrender. In March she eX.
posed them as lacking unity of COM
mand. in November she revealed them
as without a clearly reasoned policy
for the exploitation of that vicinity
which was just becoming unmistake-
able.
Policies ConfIcted.
We have had therefore over the last
three months two conceptions curious
ly conflicting each in turn influencing
the minds and shaping the policies of
those whose power it was to impose
peace upon Germany and whose neces-
sity 1t was to fix terms which should
guarantee for the future protection
against German attack and reparation
for the German destruction of the
war.
At the moment when the Allies pre-
sented to Germany the terms of the
first arInistice neither Foch nor any
of his military or political associates
believed the actual extent of the vic
tory. Foch like the rest expected
Germany to reject the terms which
we offered and so great was the de-
sire for peace among the masses of
the people in the Allied countries that
the original peace terms fell far short
of what was necessary and Of what
Germany, actually helpless, would
have expected. In November Ger
many had to accept whatever was Of
fered and knew it. Unhappily the AL
lies were not equally informed on the
German situation.
In the frst phase following the Ger
man surrender victorious Europe, tenn
porarily escaping from the fear which
militaristic Germany had inspired
during four and a half years of war,
gave itself up to the equally paralyz-
ing nightmare of German Bolshevism.
IL neglected TO take an n
against militaristic Germany in the
future because it was afraid of con-
tributing to producing a Bolshevist
Germany in the present.
German Spirit Revived.
The result of these hesitations was
n temporary revival of the old Ger
man spirit probably far more appa-
rent than real. Despite their domes-
tic cnaos and their ever mounting
internal disorders the Germans tenn
porarily talked in the tone and in the
language which for more than four
y and 4 half years had alarmed Eu-
rope which had then perceived these
words to be backed up by all the
enormous forces of the armies of Hin
denburg and Ludendorff Apprehen-
sion or Bolshevism in Germany disap-
1eared. Fear of Bismarckian Ger
many returned tenfold and at this
stage the Entente hesitated to take
steps calculated to check Bolshevism
such as feeding the Germans, lest they
should in fact save militarism.
We have come now to the third
phase. Today it is becoming clearer
and clearer that the old Germany is
doomed, that the disintegration
marches day by day, that something
aproximating Russian chaos, however
temporary, is now wellnigh inevitable.
Unlike Russia, Germany is not yet
breaking up into separate states.
There is no evidence available that
there IS any probability of a break
between the North and South, be-
tween Protestant and Catholic Ger
many, between Prussia on the one
hand and Bavaria, Baden and Wurten-
burg on the other, such as was widely
expected at an earlier period. What
is apparent is that the economic and
social d'sintegration of the whole Ger
man Empire is becoming more and
more complete.
In this situation the Allies have at
last undertaken to do little of what
they should have done in totality
three months ago. They now purpose
to serve upon Germany preliminary
terms of peace which shall be in fact
in all hut name the definitive terms.
They have practically decided the
frontiers of the new Germany, they
are approaching an agreement upon
the sum which Germany must pay and
the manner in which it must be paid.
They are practically finished with fix
ing the regulation to cover German
disarmament now and future military
impotence.
Yet it is plain now in Paris how
great was the blunder in November
and In all the subsequent weeks.
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