Evening star., 1920-01-10

Senate, have no illusions about the
danger or delay for Europe and the
effect it has had upon American
prestige"
Powers Most Interested.
Peaceful relations between Ger
many and the greater number of the
| nations engaged in the great war
with her are established by the action
taken at Paris today. The peace
| treaty now goes into effect as be-
tween Germany and those powers
| that have finally ratified threat
Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium.
Bolivia. Brazil. Guatemala. Panama,
Peru. Poland. Siam, CzechosloVakla
and Uruguay.
Great Britain was the first of the
five great powers represented in the
supreme council of the peace con-
ference to take such action being fol-
| lowed in succession by France, Italy
and Japan. The United States alone
of the big Ave" has not ratified the
, treaty. AS the list shows. formal rat
ifications have been given by most
of the smaller powers signatory TO
the treaty China did not sign the
document because of her op)ectlons
to the Shantung provisions, put
proclaimed state of peace with Ger
many.
Germany Ratiaes in July.
The all important ratification by
| Germany was given on July 3. 1919,
the day following which President
! Wilson presented the treaty to the
| United States Senate.
The making of the peace, which now
! becomes effective was begun shortly
after the conclusion of the arinlstlce
of November II, 1918, which ended the
great war. The treaty of Versailles.
as it has become known, was signed
| in the historic Versailles palace on
June 2S, 1919.
| The long interval between the as
sembling of the peace conference at
Versailles on January Is, 1919, and the
signing of the treaty was occupied
with almost daily conferences on IT'S
provisions between the representa-
tives of the nations which had peeh
at war with Germany or had broken
relations with her, the principal parts
being taken by delegates of France,
Great Britain, Italy, Japan and the
United States. The first important
work completed was the drawing up
of the covenant OF the league OF na.
tions, which was finished on February
IL The German representatives were
invited to Versailles during April
after the draft of the terms Of peace
had been completed. They received
the treaty on May Z.
Make-Up of Treaty.
The treaty not only defines the
terms OF peace with 1eTIudNy, Jul
contains the league of nations cove
lnant and the provisions for the inter-
national labor organization. The doc
ument comprises fifteen parts with
numerous anneXes. 1t provided that
as soon as it had been ratified by
iGermany and three of the principal
allied and associated powers a proc
less verbal of the deposit of ratifica-
tions should be drawn up, from the
date of which the treaty would come
into force as between the powers
which had ratified 1t. The treaty will
enter into force for each other power
at the date of the deposit of it's rati-
fication.
In october last a sufficient number
of powers had ratified the treaty to
comply with the requirements for its
effectiveness. Because of the sinking
of the interned German warships by
their officers and crews at Scapa Flow,
however. and the failure of the Ger
mans to live up to some OF the ar
mistice terms, the allies on November
II demanded that before the treaty
was put into effect Germany should
sign a protocol providing for repara-
ton for the destruction of the war
ships and guaranteeing the carrying
out of the armistlce terms
Situation Cleared Recently.
Since that time the question of the
protocol and particularly the repara-
negotiations between the allied su-
preme council and the German gov
ernment. 1t was only within the past
fortnight that the situation began 10
clear, an adjustment of the tonnage
demands upon Germany being reached.
With the taking effect of the treaty
a number of commissions created by 1t
spring into existence, the league OF
nations will begin to function by the
calling of the first meeting of It's
! inn vxrtt a q c.
tened for the taking of plebiscites in
the areas where the population Is TO
have the opportunity to determine
whether their territories shall sepa-
rate from Germany and take on an
other allegiance.
OF the commissions now beginning
their work probably the most impor-
| tant is the reparattons commission
which will do a great amount OF the
labor incident to the execution of the
treaty, its special duty being to regu-
late Germany's payment of indemni-
fication during the next thirty years.
Important also will be the commits
sions dealing with the Sarre valley,
Teschen and Schleswig. Boundary
commissions, which are to fix upon
the spot the new boundaries of Ger
many with Belgium. the Sarre basin,
Poland and CZechoslovakia, are to be
appointed within fifteen days.
A speedy development following the
action of today is expected to be the
presentation to Germany of the list
of war criminals to be demanded by
the allies for trial under the treaty.
1t has been reported recently that this
list has been considerably cut down
frem the originally proposed 1900
, names.
1t will still name the former Ger
man crown prince and Crown Prince
Rupprecht of Bavaria, however, 1t is
reported. while the treaty itself ar
raigns former Emperor William "for
a supreme offense against international
morality and the sanctity of treaties"
and proyides for a special tribunal to try