Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/868

CHAPTER XLVIII THE PEACE OF VERSAILLES; EUROPE AFTER THE WORLD WAR I. TERMS OF THE PEACE 1176. The Peace Conference. The Allies decided that their representatives should meet in Paris and the neighboring Versailles to settle the terms of peace that they would impose on the van- quished. Five great powers Great Britain, France, the United States, Italy, and Japan took a dominant part in all the dis- cussions and in the final decisions. But there were delegates from the British dominions, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India ; from Brazil and eleven other of the Latin- American republics ; from Belgium, Serbia, Greece^ and Rumania ; from the new states of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hejaz ; from the republic of China, Siam, and the African state of Liberia. So thirty-two states, scattered all over the globe, had their representa- tives on hand to take part in, or at least watch, the momentous proceedings. No nation which had remained neutral in the war was included in the negotiations. 1177. How the Treaty was Drafted. The public sessions the first of which was held January 18, 1919 were rare and ac- complished little. The work was done by committees reporting to the "Big Five." President Wilson, Lloyd George, and the aged Clemenceau were by far the most conspicuous personalities in the deliberations. President Wilson was especially intent on having his plan of a League of Nations incorporated in the treaty as a safeguard against future wars. Clemenceau represented the great anxiety of his nation so to weaken Germany that she could never again attack France as she had done in 1914. At one time it seemed as if the five powers would fall out among themselves 652