The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-03-20

NR&~&9A ClTCuulSldnCPS might easily
WEJEA have been the most serious
~ crisis of the whole peace
conference. That a crisis
was avoided was due to a single fact
the unshaken decision of the British
and French to preserve the solidarity
of Observation-Disclosures relations at
amy price.
What happened is simply told ::
When the president reached Paris he
found program completely arranged
by which, before March 81, prelim-
mary peace was to be made with Ger
many. This preliminary peace was to
include military, naval, economic and
geographic terms. 1t was to be in a
sense preliminary, but in reality it was
to be in substance the final. peace
terms.
Agreement Almost Reached
In this treaty the covenant of the
league of nations was not to appear;
to this program the American commits
zion had practically agreed. There
had been no difference of opinion, no
debate. The American commissioners
felt that there was not the smallest
Intention to seek to defeat the league
of nations by indirection or to evade
The question even temporarily.
The single notion of the Paris con-
ference in preparing the preliminary
peace draft was to put an end to the
period of unsettlement, to give Ger
many something approximating the
terms of her enemies, to give Poland
her western frontiers, to disarm Ger
many, thus to permit the completion
of British and French rehabilitation
which would have to be interrupted
tn
disarm by that time. The best evi-
dence of the good faith of the Euro
pean nations was the tacit agreement
to the program by the American COM
missioners.
Wilson Calls Halt at Once
But no sooner had the president ar
rived than he almost abruptly vetoed
the program for any preliminary peace
arrangements which did not include
the covenant of the league Of nations.
A public statement made in his name
Saturday decisively disposed Of any
question of his approval of prelim-
mary peace plan unless it should in.
clude the covenant of the league of
nations.
In reality this put an end to any
hope of the proposed action. The
president took his position that pre-
lminary treaty OF peace would have
to go to the senate, that il the senate
got this without the league of nations
covenant included exactly the oppor-
tunity sought by the Republican ma
jority would be provided and his fight
would be gravely compromised.
This was the Saturday situation. On
Sunday there existed the possibility
of difference of opinion, since both
p,{f oh, MI ont =
attached very great value to the pro-
posed prompt actions. But on Sun
day night the situation was ironed out
once more: the British and French
accepted Mr.. Wilson's leadership, the
proposed program went into the dis
card.
No Treaty Before April
Here, after all, was a final demon
stration of the extent to which both
the British and the French are pre-
pared to accept Mr.. Wilson's views
as the ultimate, accurate expression
of Americas wishes. BY Monday morn
ing all Paris knew that Mr. Wilson had
successfully broken the slate Of the
peace conference.
The consequences of this dramatic
episode are plain. There will be no
preliminary peace treaty with Ger
many before April and possibly not
until May, when the President expects
to go back to America. But by the
latter date he expects to have treaty
completed ready to submit to an ex-
traordinary session Of the senate,
which he intends to call for June l.
In the meantime the work of revis-
ing the league of nations covenant for
inclusion in the treaty has actually be-
gun and will be completed with the
utmost dispatch in Difference to the
presidents wishes. At the same time,
decision will be made in all matters
concerning Germany. Austrian, Bull
garian and Turkish matters will be left
for the final settlement.
Once the preliminary treaty is sign
ed and the league of nations thus
created, it is the presidents idea that
it will deal with all Asiatic and Afri-
can problems, the questions of colo
nies and mandatories, and such other
questions as remain unsettled.
Wilson's Program Stands.
But this bare narration of facts
does not in any sense give the real
picture of what has happened. The
extraordinary determination of the
president to create his league Of ma
tions, to include it in the peace treaty,
to make good his declaration in his
New York speech, has in less than
twenty-four hours, with a dramatic
suddenness hardly to be described,
transformed the whole progress OF
events in Paris. We have laid aside
an glo-French-American program
for a Wilson program; we have reach
ed with the result with little more than
a ripple on the surface, however great
the sub-surface activity for a few
hours.
Once more the British have adhered