The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1921-03-25
LANSING REVEALS
SOME SECRETS OF
PEACE CONFERENCE
Book Tells How He Came
Near Resigning From Com
mission Because of Diff
ferenceS With Wilson
BY Associated Press


Boston. March 24.-Robsrt Lansing,
of the American peace commission,
will reveal in his forthcoming book on
The Peace Negotiations" which will
be published by Houghton Mifflin
company, March 25, how close he came
to resigning from the commission be-
cause of differences with President
Wilson over the Shantung decision
and his belief that many Of the terms
of peace imposed on Germany were
harsh, humiliating and seemingly i'm
possible of performance.
The publishers of this book, whlch
has been eagerly awaited by histor~
rians and the public. have carefully
guarded the text of the manuscript,
but they have permitted the general
trend of Mr.. Lansing's argument to
become known.
President Wilson, according to Mr..
LaDsing's belief, at one time during
the peace conference purposed to nego-
tiate a preliminary treaty, which
start the League of Nations function
ing without laying the document be-
fore the United States Senate, and evil
Secretary of State told him that the
only way to change the status from
war to peace was by a ratified treaty
or joint resolution of Congress.
WHY HE REMAINED
A profound conviction that immedi-
ate peace was the primary need of the
world, Mr.. Lansing implies, was all
that kept him from resigning from the
peace commission because of funda>
mental disagreements with the Presi-
dent on principles. The former Secre-
tary discloses that in 1916, shortly
before a meeting in Washington of the
League to Enforce Peace at which the
President was to speak, Mr.. Lansing
wrote to Mr.. Wilson, Directing to the
use of force to settle international
disputes. In this letter, he pointed
to the menace to the Monroe doctrine
contained in such plan.
Alarmed at the complications OF
war and foreign entanglements in the
guarantee of territorial integrity and
political independence of members of
the league, guarantee that finally
was embodied in Article X of the cove
nant, M Lansing says that at Paris
he tried to have substituted negative
pledge that the members would not
infringe upon each others territorial
integrity or political independence. He
became convinced that Col Edward NJ
House. then President Wilson's closest
adviser. was completely converted with
regard to this question.
JAPANESE BLUFF
1t Is in relation to Shantung Mr.
Lansing discloses the sharpest differ
ences between himself and President
Wilson. Mr.. Lansing gives as his opin-
ion that blackmail and bluff by Japan
impelled the President to agree to sur
render to that country such rights IN
Shantung as before the war were held
by Germany and automatically an
nulled when China declared hostilities
In his opinion only secret diplomacy
made 1t possible for Japan to threaten
to leave the peace conference unless
its demands were granted, a threat Mr.
Lansing believed would not have beer
executed because of the appreciation
by Japan that the only benefits OF a
new and powerful world position could
be retained only by membership in
the League of Nations.
That other members of the American
commission shared his view that the
Shantung decision as rendered by the
council of four was a fragrant wrong
and were prevented from resignine
only by the critical conditions in tho
world situation is clearly implied by
Mr.. Lansing. He describes the indig-
nation felt by himself and by Henry
White and Gen. Tasker H. Bliss and
in this connection publishes the letter
written by General Bliss to the Pres
dent, in which Mr.. Lansing and M
White concurred, stating that to sup
port the Japanese claim would be tc
abandon Chinese democracy to domi.
nation Of Japan's Prussianized mill
tarism.
oLIGARCHY OF POWERS
1t was impossible, in Mr.. Lansing's
opinion to make the League of Ma
tions covenant the greatest interna
tional compact ever written, as wa.
intended, in the IL days given to thu
drafting. This is established by tn,
document itself, he says. which pro