The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-04-16
PEACE CRISIS
[Continued From Page One.l

pie Of Hungary, Germany was contem-
plating refusal to sign the treaty of
peace which had been PRACTICAL for
mulated during the Presidents alb
sence, and would offer passive resist
ance to its enforcement.
Peace Conference Panic.
Then there was a panic. In this
panic there were at least signs which
seemed to indicate that Lloyd George
and Mr.. Wilson were agreed in a pol
icy which consisted in reducing the
terms which had been sketched so far
as Germany was concerned in the
hope Of persuading Germany to sign.
An official commission was sent to
Hungary and semiofficial or unofficial
delegates were dispatched to Russia
with the apparent purpose Of seeking
to find basis for a peace between
Bolshevism and the alliance repre-
scented at Paris.
The result was almost instantaneous
the French had not yet received the
judgment Of the peace conference on
any one Of the great questions which
were for them matter of life and
death. There was no settlement OF
the Rhine frontier as a military queS-
ton, of the Saar coal region as an
economic question, of indemnities and
reparations as a financial question and
rightly or wrongly the French decided
that their interests were being sacri-
feed by America and by Britain to the
desire to get prompt peace with the
Germans and to effect at least a
truce with Bolshevism. AS a result,
there was immediate and inconceiv-
ably strong French reaction and pro-
test and bitterness against both the
United States and Great Britain which
grew out of the feeling that France
after her terrible sacrifices, was aban-
doned. French unrest reacted almost
Immediately In Great Britain. Lloyd
George had come to power once more
in the recent elections in which he
had pledged himself to make a strong
peace against Germany, by which
Germany would be made to pay the
costs of the war. British conserva-
tive members Of parliament, British
conservative journals and at least a
very large part of British opinion. be-
lieved that Mr.. Lloyd George was en-
gagged in making an easy peace for
Germany which would let Germany es-
cape from paying the costs of war;
and they recognized that as a result
of the progress Of events in Paris,
France was rapidly becoming alienat-
ed from Great Britain and the alliance
which had saved the world from Ger
manism was cracking.
Lloyd George Bows.
Thereupon there was an immediate
storm in Great Britain, and every sort
of emphatic notice came to Lloyd
George In Paris that he must change
his policy, that he must restore the
understanding between Great Britain
and France by supporting French
claims, and that he must drop even
the appearance Of willingness to deal
with Bolshevism. To this storm Lloyd
George bowed. He had been carrying
on a bitter and unwise quarrel with
the French journalists, which had cul-
minated in threat to take the con-
ference away from Paris. Almost
overnight he shifted his course, began
issuing interviews praising France,
and proclaiming British agreement
with France, advocating in the council
of four French demands which he had
hitherto looked on at least coldly.
In the meantime. in France similar