Justice is what Germany shall have.

Lloyd George thought Clemenceau a "disagreeable and bad-tempered old savage" who, despite his large head, "had no dome of benevolence, reverence or kindliness".

He had to reconcile two colleagues, one of whom wanted a peace to be based almost wholly on force, and the other a peace based almost wholly on idealism. We cherish no illusions as to the extent of our defeat, or the degree of our impotence.

Womens Suffrage: Campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment, The Rise of Italian Fascism and Its Influence on Europe, Reservations, Resistance, and the Indian Reorganization Act, 1900-1940, Feeding the Hungry with Food Stamp Programs, Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern American Architecture, Fake News in the 1890s: Yellow Journalism, Japanese American Internment During World War II, The Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, When Miners Strike: West Virginia Coal Mining and Labor History, Patronage and Populism: The Politics of the Gilded Age, Immigration and Americanization, 1880-1930, Environmental Preservation in the Progressive Era, Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, Boomtimes Again: Twentieth-Century Mining in the Mojave Desert, Attacks on American Soil: Pearl Harbor and September 11, American Imperialism: The Spanish-American War, These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the, The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930), Albert Robertson, Lexington School District One, South Carolina. In the view of the Allied and Associated Powers the war which began on August 1st, 1914, was the greatest crime against humanity and the freedom of peoples that any nation, calling itself civilised, has ever consciously committed.

Of course he had to capitulate, and he replied that he would keep his pledge. An excerpt from a pamphlet featuring President Woodrow Wilsons Fourteen Points, 1919. (6), Clemenceau and Lloyd George both hated each other.

A German response to the Treaty of Versailles, tendered by delegates to the Paris Peace Conference in May 1919: We came to Versailles in the expectation of receiving a peace proposal based on the agreed principles. (17), David Lloyd George eventually agreed that he been wrong to demand such a large figure and told Dulles he "would have to tell our people the facts".

(10), Lloyd George argued that Germany should pay the costs of widows' and disability pensions, and compensation for family separations.

We are under nodelusions regarding the strength of the hatred and bitterness which this war has engendered, and yet the forces whichare at work for a union of mankind are stronger now than ever they were before.

Germany and its allies in the Central Powers had lost the war, so representatives of the victorious Allied Powers including the United States, France, and Britain negotiated the terms of the treaty.

They were the first to use poisonous gas, notwithstanding the appalling suffering it entailed. Only the cooperation of all nations, a cooperation of hands and spirits, can build up a durable peace. If Wilson ended his allocution without doing any perceptible harm, Clemenceau's stern face temporarily relaxed, and he expressed his relief with a deep sigh. The exactions of this treaty are more than the German people can bear, Although the exaction of the cost of the war has been expressly renounced, yet Germany, thus cut in pieces andweakened, must declare herself ready in principle to bear all the war expenses of her enemies, which would exceedmany times over the total amount of German State and private assets. If these were the difficulties created for Lloyd George at home, they were equally great abroad.

The Australian prime minister, William Hughes, joined the French in claiming the whole cost of the war, his argument being that the tax burden imposed on the Allies by the German aggression should be regarded as damage to civilians.

Although we have the utmost confidence in your intentions to fulfil your pledges to the country, may we, as we have to meet innumerable inquiries from our constituents, have your renewed assurances that you have in no way departed from your original intention." If they do sign, that will really be the worst thing that could happen, as they can't possibility keep some of the terms, and general disorder and unrest will result everywhere.

He went to Paris with no clear idea of what was either desirable for the future peace of the world or necessary to recompense Britain for the cost of the war and neutralise the demands for retribution. There are points in which he is liable to severe criticism.

We are to hand over to our enemiesour property in all German enterprises abroad, even in the countries of our allies.Even after the conclusion of peace, the enemy States are to have the right of confiscating all German property.

Yet he succeeded in many instances.

Lloyd George is a trickster. There must be justice for the dead and wounded and for those who have been orphaned and bereaved that Europe might be freed from Prussian despotism. The terrible responsibility which lies at her doors can be seen in the fact that not less than seven million dead lie buried in Europe, while more than twenty million others carry upon them the evidence of wounds and sufferings, because Germany saw fit to gratify her lust for tyranny by resort to war.

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(7) Occupation and special status for the Saar under French control. An excerpt from a pamphlet titled What Everyone Should Know about the Treaty of Peace, issued by Berlins National Citizens Council, 1921.

He tried to broker a compromise between reason and prejudice.

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Her population was undernourished and contained many impoverished widows, orphans, and disabled veterans. Little did the Big Four negotiators of the treaty, David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, and Georges Clemenceau of France, or Woodrow Wilson of the US, know that they were sowing the seeds for World War II, an even more devastating conflict that would consume them all once more only two decades later. There never was a greater contrast, mental or spiritual, than that which existed between these two notable men. It is estimated that by December, 1918, there were 763,000 civilian famine related deaths. This development added to Germanys economic hardship. (9), David Lloyd George put in a claim for 25 billion of reparations at the rate of 1.2 billion a year.

The Treaty includes no provision for the economic rehabilitation of Europe - nothing to make the defeated Central Powers into good neighbours, nothing to stabilise the new States of Europe, nothing to reclaim Russia; nor does it promote in any way a compact of economic solidarity amongst the Allies themselves; no arrangement was reached at Paris for restoring the disordered finances of France and Italy, or to adjust the systems of the Old World and the New.

(22), Eventually it was agreed that Germany should pay reparations of 6.6 billion (269bn gold marks).

Read a selection of firsthand accounts describing the catastrophic period of inflation the Weimar Germany experienced after World War I. (11) An acceptance of Germany's guilt in causing the war.

(1), These measures were also opposed by Georges Clemenceau. (15), Lloyd George made a speech in the House of Commons where he argued that it was wrong to suggest that he was willing to accept a lower figure. The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay vast sums of money for the damage caused by the war, accept full responsibility for the conflict, reduce its military, and forfeit colonial territories, among other measures. This World War I website is created and maintained by Alpha History.

That is why the Allied and Associated Powers have insisted as a cardinal feature of the Treaty that Germany must undertake to make reparation to the very uttermost of her power; for reparation for wrongs inflicted is of the essence of justice.

In other spheres also Germanys sovereignty is abolished. There must be justice for those millions whose homes and land, ships and property German savagery has spoliated and destroyed. Picture taken in the municipal refuge for the homeless. It was that which made Keynes find `in his company, that flavour of final purposelessness, inner irresponsibility, existence outside or away from Saxon good and evil, mixed with cunning, remorselessness and love of power' which fascinated even his most bitter critics.

They were not satisfied with that growing prosperity and influence to which Germany was entitled, and which all other nations were willing to accord her, in the society of free and equal peoples. "Was it sensible," he said later, "to treat her as a cow from which to extract milk and beef at the same time?" Germans also expected that the Fourteen Points would be the basis for the peace talks when they signed the armistice in November 1918. He also thought any attempt to collect all the debts arising from the First World War would poison, and perhaps destroy, the capitalist system.

This was an attempt to undermine the British Empire.

Some favoured a system where tariffs were placed on countries outside the British Empire.

I am going to include pensions." Logic!

It was then only that one caught a glimpse of the ferocity of The Tiger. Their preoccupations, good and bad alike, related to frontiers and nationalities, to the balance of power, to imperial aggrandisement, to the future enfeeblement of a strong and dangerous enemy, to revenge and to the shifting, by the victors, of their own unbearable financial burdens on to the shoulders of the defeated.

(3) Cession of Eupen-Malmedy to Belgium, Memel to Lithuania, the Hultschin district to Czechoslovakia. We werefirmly resolved to do everything in our power with a view of fulfilling the grave obligations which we had undertaken.We hoped for the peace of justice which had been promised to us.

Lloyd George has deceived me.

1871.

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That, too, is why Germany must submit for a few years to certain special disabilities and arrangements. Fortunately, I think that at the moment we can count on American support."

An excerpt from a speech by President Woodrow Wilson in support of the League of Nations, September 5, 1919.

In addition to the military restrictions which were placed upon Germany, the war guilt clause was perhaps the biggest source of outrage. "After the millions who have died and the millions who have suffered, I believe - indeed I hope - that my successor in office would take me by the nape of the neck and have me shot." I've on hoping even though these last dreadful weeks that you'd find some way to make of the Treaty a just and expedient document. Clemenceau wanted 44 billion, whereas Wilson said that all Germany could afford was 6 billion.

An advertisement for a mass meeting about the League of Nations titled Give Her the Key and Lock Him Up, 1919.

Not content with this, they deliberately carried out a series of promiscuous shootings and burnings with the sole object of terrifying the inhabitants into submission by the very frightfulness of their action.

(2), While the discussions were taking place, the Allies continued the naval blockade of Germany.

Opened on 12th January 1919, meetings were held at various locations in and around Paris until 20th January, 1920.

Keynes wrote to Lloyd George explaining why he was resigning: "I can do no more good here.

(23), The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919.

The main terms of the Versailles Treaty were: (1) The surrender of all German colonies as League of Nations mandates. But now it's apparently too late. It is probably true to say that, in so far as Lloyd George had a bad influence on the Treaty, it was because he faithfully reflected these forces.

I said to Clemenceau: " Does disarmament then seem to him to give the same guarantees?

However, it is to be doubted whether this could have been done, even if those in authority had so decreed, for the peoples back of them had to be reckoned with. The terrible responsibility which lies at her doors can be seen in the fact that not less than seven million dead lie buried in Europe, while more than twenty million others carry upon them the evidence of wounds and sufferings, because Germany saw fit to gratify her lust for tyranny by resort to war. The hundreds of thousands of non-combatants who have perished since November 11 through the blockade were killed with cold deliberation after victory had been won and assured to our adversaries.

They required that they should be able to dictate and tyrannise to a subservient Europe, as they dictated and tyrannised over a subservient Germany. The Allied and Associated Powers believe that they will be false to those who have given their all to save the freedom of the world if they consent to treat this war on any other basis than as a crime against humanity. (14)Will Dyson, Daily Herald (17th May, 1919), When it was rumoured that Lloyd George was willing to do a deal closer to the 6 billion than the sum proposed by the French, The Daily Mail began a campaign against the Prime Minister.

But if the President took a flight beyond the azure main, as he was occasionally inclined to do without regard to relevance, Clemenceau would open his great eyes in twinkling wonder, and turn them on me as much as to say: "Here he is off again!".

He was especially worried about having to "face up" to the "400 Members of Parliament who have sworn to exact the last farthing of what is owing to us."

It seems to me that the Peace Treaty can be viewed from two points of view, the moral and the purely utilitarian. To give feedback, contact us at education@dp.la. At last I am no longer anxious.

They do not square with human nature or march with the spirit of the age." John Maynard Keynes suggested to Edwin Montagu that whereas Germany should be required to "render payment for the injury she has caused up to the limit of her capacity" but it was "impossible at the present time to determine what her capacity was, so that the fixing of a definite liability should be postponed." Explore resources and ideas for Using DPLA's Primary Source Sets in your classroom. Its means of livelihood was not their anxiety.

", Clemenceau then went on to argue: "Justice, therefore, is the only possible basis for the settlement of the accounts of this terrible war. He listened with eyes and ears lest Wilson should by a phrase commit the Conference to some proposition which weakened the settlement from the French standpoint. "Under these conditions I am prepared to make allowance, but let me say that when that kind of diseased vanity is carried to the point of sowing dissension between great allies whose unity is essential to the peace of the world then I say, not even that kind of disease is a justification for so black a crime against humanity." ", Seven of Wilson's points demanded or implied support for "autonomous development" or "self-determination".

I leave the twins to gloat over the devastation of Europe, and to assess to taste what remains for the British taxpayer."

This included Point II "Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants."

Wilson with his high but narrow brow, his fine head with its elevated crown and his dreamy but untrustful eye - the make-up of the idealist who is also something of an egoist; Clemenceau, with a powerful head and the square brow of the logician - the head conspicuously flat topped, with no upper storey in which to lodge the humanities, the ever vigilant and fierce eye of the animal who has hunted and been hunted all his life. There must be justice for those millions whose homes and land, ships and property German savagery has spoliated and destroyed. Boston Spa, Lloyd George saw this as undermining the country's ability to protect the British Empire. It meant self-effacement on his part, sacrifice of his pledges, of his consistency, sometimes even of his dignity. It is only justice that restitution should be made and that these wronged peoples should be safeguarded for a time from the competition of a nation whose industries are intact and have even been fortified by machinery stolen from occupied territories. If Germany does not fulfil the treaty, there will be no evacuation either partial or definitive. Reparations were also seen as unfair as the economy of Germany was not strong enough after the war to sustain such levels of reparations. (6) Plebiscites to be held in northern Schleswig to settle the Danish-German frontier.

We were aghast when we read in documents thedemands made upon us, the victorious violence of our enemies.

A photograph of German diplomats Hermann Mueller and Johannes Bell leaving Versailles after signing the Treaty of Versailles, 1919.

A postcard titled A German Matter of Existence, 1934.

The charge that will lie against him in history is that he neglected nobler and more universal interests.

The hundreds of thousands of non-combatants who have perished since November 11 through the blockade were killed with cold deliberation after victory had been won and assured to our adversaries."

The future life of Europe was not their concern.

There must be justice for the peoples who now stagger under war debts which exceed 30,000,000,000 that liberty might be saved.

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(3) Robert Smillie, the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB), in June, 1919, issued a statement condemning the blockade claiming that another 100,000 German civilians had died since the armistice.

Lloyd George had no thought of exacting impossible amounts of reparation from Germany.

"I do not believe that any of these tributes will continue to be paid, at the best, for more than a very few years. I don't like being double-crossed. It can keep the whole German people in mentalthraldom. 214 High Street,

That is why they insist that those individuals who are most clearly responsible for German aggression and for those acts of barbarism and inhumanity which have disgraced the German conduct of the war, must be handed over to a justice which has not been meted out to them at home. World War I, or the Great War, lasted from 1914 to 1918, and claimed the lives of nearly ten million soldiers and approximately thirteen million civilians.

He showed patience and consideration towards his colleagues and seldom spoke until the others had expressed their views.

June 29, 1919: I am leaving Paris, after eight fateful months, with conflicting emotions.

The sum to be paid is to be fixed by ourenemies unilaterally, and to admit of subsequent modification and increase. Germany emerged from World War Iwith huge debts incurred to finance a costly war for almost five years. - I won't budge," he said, - I will act like a hedgehog and wait until they come to talk to me. Wilson wanted to the peace to be based on the Fourteen Points published in October 1918.

The bitterness engendered by the war, the hopes raised high in many quarters because of victory, the character of the men having the dominant voices in the making of the Treaty, all had their influence for good or for evil, and were to be reckoned with. He had of course been partly responsible for this viewpoint. His government was split on the subject.

(16), Negotiations continued in Paris over the level of reparations. And yet I wish we had taken the other road, even if it were less smooth, both now and afterward, than the one we took.

He has managed to turn me into a "Syrian". He was not at his best in a council of equals. A 1919 map of new national boundaries in Europe as proposed by the Treaty of Versailles.

Company Reg no: 04489574.

Ordinary Germans were furious with the government for agreeing to the ceasefire.

Temperament as well as judgement allowed him only one way of dealing with the popular demand that Germany should pay the full cost of the war.

Hungry boys eating a school lunch in Weimar-era Germany during its years of hyper-inflation and malnutrition (1921).

(27). This site was updated last on May 15th 2021. This commission has unlimited control over the economic life of the State, of communities, and of individuals.Further, the entire educational and sanitary system depends on it.

In order to increase the payments due, by the thrall, the commission can hamper measures for the socialprotection of the German worker.

Within the council chamber his domineering manner, his brusqueness of speech, and his driving methods of conducting business disappeared. A photograph of German delegates listening to the terms of the treaty at the Trianon Palace Hotel, 1919. Lloyd George has deceived me. (11) He argued that if reparations were set at a crippling level the banking system, certainly of Europe and probably of the world, would be in danger of collapse.

A political cartoon about German attitudes towards the treaty titled Dr.

NoGerman trader in their countries will be protected from these war measures. (21), Keynes argued that it was in the best interest of the future of capitalism and democracy for the Allies to deal swiftly with the food shortages in Germany: "A proposal which unfolds future prospects and shows the peoples of Europe a road by which food and employment and orderly existence can once again come their way, will be a more powerful weapon than any other for the preservation from the dangers of Bolshevism of that order of human society which we believe to be the best starting point for future improvement and greater well-being."