Evening star., 1945-09-17
l91oPeuce Conference
Compared to YoItu
Making of Another War Seen
in Terms Imposed on Foe
BY David La.orence

BY David Lawrence
Publicity has come at last for the
official records of what happened be-
hind the scenes at the Paris Peace
Conference in 1919 and the amazing
thing about the documents is that they
resemble the very comments that are
being made today in some quarters
about the future arrangement for
Germany.
Substitute for Paris the name Yalta--
where the Big Three decided the biggest
issues-and substitute for President Will
son the name of President Roosevelt
and there is curious similarity. Only
the protest made by Secretary of State
Lansing in 1919 is paralleled this time
by a small minority and there is even
less awareness of the impra ctiCability
of the peace terms than there was 26
years ago.
The terms of peace" wrote Secretary
OF Lansing in a memorandum that sees
the light of day for the first time this
week as an authorized and official docu-
| ment, appear immeasurably harsh and
humiliating while many of them seem
w IilC AHlJOoolUlc vi pei L1UI
The League of Nations created by
the treaty is relied upon to preserve
the artificial structure which has been
erected by compromise of the conflict
ing interests of the great powers and
to prevent the termination of the seeds
of war which are sown in so many
articles and which under normal con-
ditions would soon bear fruit. The
League might as well attempt to pre-
vent the growth of plant life in a
tropical jungle. Wars will come sooner
| or later
Justice Secondary.
Examine the treaty and YOU will
! find peoples delivered against their
wills into the hands Of those whom
| they hate, while their economic re-
| sources are torn from them and given
/ to others. Resentment and bitterness.
| If not desperation, are bound to be
| the consequences of such provisions 1t
| may be years before these oppressed
| peoples are able TO throw off the yoke,
| but as sure as day follows night the
| time will come when they will make
| the effort.
1T is useless to close our eyes to the
fact that the power to compel obedience
| by the exercise Of the united strength
| Of The Five is the fundamental prin-
| ciple of the League. Justice is secondary.
| Might is primary"
| The words might have been written
! the day after Yalta or the day after
! Potsdam. In 1919, however, there were
many voices raised in protest. Presi-
| dent Wilson conceded the weaknesses
| in the Paris treaty but hoped the League
of Nations would operate as a corrective
| force. Even this hope. however went
! by the boards because the United States
refused to join the League.
/ Today there are not many voices
! raised IN protest against the imprac-
| ticable terms of peace imposed on the
! German people. There is a tendency to
/ conform-to accept what has been done
| as an example of Allied unity" Mis-
takes have been CLOSED over, public
opinion is indifferent, and the spirit
| of hate and vengeance is dominant.
/ Out of precisely this sort of hodge
| podge called peace" came the economic
disorder that brought chaos to Gef-
! many the last time and gave the mill
tarists and Hitler their chance The
! Allied peoples in decade and half
/ became sick and tired of policing Ger
many-as they doubtless will again,
| Judging by the demands in Congress
that all troops be brought home within
/ a year.
| Forerunner of War.
There is no zest in democratic coun-
tries for permanently policing enemy
countries. Hence a peace based on
justice and fair dealing rather than
revenge would probably be more readily
| attained. But public opinion has be-
come emotional and the probabilities are
that world war will come sooner this
time because the injustices perpetrated
by the major powers upon the defeated
are even more provocative of trouble
than were the provisions of the 1919
treaty.
Recently the London Economist spoke
out frankly and called the Potsdam
terms a forerunner of another war.
American and British technical experts
told the Associated Press correspondent
in Berlin month ago that the repara-
ton terms wouldn't work and that the
whole thing had been bungled. Are
the American people interested in how
| the seeds of World War III are being
soWn? Most Of the documents and Sc
cret understandings have been sup
pressed once more.
! Perhaps quarter of a century from
now the truth will be revealed. Thus
do nations drift into war and then call
on their patriotic youth to make sacri-
fees. promising them that it will not
| happen again. And when it does hap
pen, scapegoats are found in other
| lands and the real causes of the war
| and the failures of ones own governing
authorities are never brought to light
! in time to prevent another war.
| Reproduction Rights Reserved)
Loss in Art
| From the Manchester Guardian.
| The cost of the war in dead and