Republican farmer., 1920-01-16
WERE
 EXCHANGED IN PARIS
 CEREMONY WAS BRIEF

of the peace conference the invitations
 that had been sent him.
 Peaceful relations between Ger
 many and the great number of the nations engaged in the great war
 with her are esta blished by the az.
 tion taken at Paris today. The peace
 treaty now goes into effect as be-
 tween Germany and those powers
 that have finally ratified it-Great
 Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Bel gium, Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala. Peru, Poland, Siam, CEecho-Slovakia and Uruguay.
 Great Britain was the first Of tha five great powers represented in the supreme council of the peace confer ence to take such action, being fol. lowed in succession by France, Italy
 and Japan The United States, alone of the big hve,'' has not ratified the treaty. As the list shows formal ratifcations have been given by most of the smaller powers signatory to the treaty. China did not sign the doe ument, because of her objections ra the Shantung provisions, but pro- claimed a state of peace with Ger i many.
 The all-irnportant ratification by Germany was given on July g. 191a i the day following which President | Wilson presented the treaty to the i United States Senate.
 1 The making of the peace y=adcI7 uovr
 becomes effective vas begun shortly
 after the conclusion of the armistice of November Il, 1918. which ended the great war. The treaty of Versailles
 as tt had become known, was signed 1 in the historic Versailles Palace on
 June 2S, 1919.
 l The long interval between the as Isep1bling of the peace conference at Versailles on January Is, 1918, and the tsigning of the treaty, was o,@ar;ed with almost daily conferences on hs provisions between the representa- tives of the nations which had been at war with Germany or fad t+<.ken re- latlons with her, the principal parts ibeing taken by delegates of France Great Britain, italy, Japan and the United States. The first important
 work completed was the drawing up 1 of the covenant of the League of Ma tions, which was finished on February IA The German representatives were invited to Versailles during April, af- ter the draft of the terms of peace had been completed. They received the treaty on May '.
 1 The treaty not only defines the
 terms of peace with Germany but contains the League of Nations GOV tenant and the provisions for the inter
 national labor organization. The docu- ment comprises fifteen parts, with numerous annexes. It provided that las soon as it had been ratified by Ger Imany and three of the principal AL
 lied and associated powers a process
 verbal of the deposit of notifications
 should be drawn up, from the date oi which the treaty would come into force as-being the powers which had
 ratified it. The treaty will enter into force for each other power at the date
 of the deposit of its ratification.
 In October last, a sufficient number
 of powers had ratified the treaty to
 comply with the requirements for it's
 effectiveness. Because of the sinking
 of the interned German warships b,s
 their officers and crews at Scapa Flow, however, and the failure of the Germans to live up to some of the , armistice terms, the Allies on Nov. l demanded that before the treaty was l put into effect Germany should sign a protocol providing for reparation
 l for the destruction of the warships | and guaranteeing the carrying out ot the armistice terms.
 | Since that time the question of the protocol, and particularly reparatfon  3 1 gotiation between the Allied Supreme f Council and the German government t It was only within the last fortnight , that the situation began to clear, ar i; adjustment of the tonnage demand: f upon Germany being reached. With the taking effect of the treaty ] a number of commissions created b! l lit spring into existence. the League l of Nations will begin to function bl 2 the calling of the first meeting Of it: council, and preparations will bt
 hastened for the taking of p1ebiscite: l in the areas where the population i : to have the opportunity of deternin
 ing whether their territories shal : separate from Germany and take oI 2 another allegiance
 8 Of the commissions now begiDnirs their work probably the most import ' ant is the separations commfssio:
 i which will do a great amount of tSa . labor incident to the execution of tin o treaty, it's special duty being to regu e Hate GerT1any's payment of indemni # 1cation during the next thirty years = Important also will be the commis :. sions dealing with the Sarre Valley = Rhenntsh ,territorities, upper Silesia y lTeschen and Schleswig.