serve the above obligations, it will be open to the governing body to appoint a Commission of Inquiry, as a result of whose findings the League of Nations may take economic measures against the offending State.

4. Special provision is made to prevent any conflict with the constitution of the United States or other Federal States.

5. To meet the case of countries where climate, imperfect industrial development, or other special circumstances render labor conditions substantially different from those obtaining elsewhere, the Conference must take the difference into account in framing the Convention. A protocol attached to the Convention provides that the first meeting shall be at Washington in the present year, and sets up an International Organizing Committee for that purpose. The protocol also contains the agenda for the first meeting, which include the principle of the eight-hours day, the question of unemployment, and of the employment of women and children, especially in dangerous trades.

Appended to the section containing the Labour Convention is an affirmation by the High Contracting Parties of the methods and principles for regulating labour conditions, which all industrial communities should endeavor to apply so far as their special circumstances permit. Amongst these are that labour should not be regarded merely as a commodity or article of commerce; the right of association for all lawful purposes for the employer as well as for the employed; the payment to the employed of a wage implying a reasonable standard of life, as understood in their time and country. The adoption of an eight-hours day or a forty-eight hours week where it has not already been attained; the adoption of a weekly rest of at least twenty-four hours, including Sunday where practicable. The abolition of child labour and the limitation of the labour of the young, so as to permit the continuance of their education and proper physical development. The principle of equal pay for men and women for equal work. Any legal standard for conditions of labour to have regard in each country to the equitable economic treatment of all workers resident therein. The provision by each State of a system of inspection for the protection of the employed, in which women should take part.

SECTION XIV.
GUARANTEES.

Western Europe. As a guarantee for the execution of the Treaty, German territory to the west of the Rhine, together with the bridgeheads, will be occupied by Allied and Associated troops for fifteen years. If the conditions are faithfully carried out by Germany, certain districts, including the bridgehead of Cologne, will be evacuated at the expiration of five years; certain other districts, including the bridgehead of Coblenz, will be evacuated after ten years, and the remainder, including the bridgehead of Mainz, will be evacuated after fifteen years. In case the Inter-Allied Reparation Committee finds that Germany has failed to observe the whole or part of her obligations, either during the occupation or after the fifteen years have expired, the whole or part of the areas specified will be reoccupied immediately. If before the expiration of the fifteen years Germany complies with all the undertakings resulting from the present Treaty, the occupying forces will be withdrawn immediately.

Eastern Europe. - Similarly, all German troops at present in the territories to the east of the new frontier shall return as soon as the Allies think the moment suitable. They are to abstain from all requisitions, &c., and are in no way to interfere with such measures for national defence as may be adopted by the provisional Governments concerned.

All questions regarding occupation not provided for by the Treaty will be regulated by a subsequent Convention or Conventions which will have similar force and effect.

SECTION XV.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Germany agrees to recognize the full validity of the Treaties of Peace and additional conventions to be concluded by the Allied and Associated Powers with the Powers allied with Germany, to agree to the decisions to be taken as to the territories of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and to recognize the new States in the frontiers to be fixed for them.

The High Contracting Parties note the Treaty of July, 1918, between France and the Principality of Monaco.

They agree that chairmen of Commissions shall under certain circumstances have a casting vote.

The work of religious missions maintained by German Societies in territory transferred to or belonging to the Allied or Associated Powers is to be continued under trustees appointed by those Powers.

In a Barrer Clause, Germany undertakes not to put forward any pecuniary claim against any Allied Power signing the present Treaty, based on events previous to the coming into force of the Treaty.

Germany accepts all decrees, &c., as to German ships and goods made by any Allied Prize Court, and the Allies reserve the right to examine all decisions of German Prize Courts.

The present Treaty, of which the French and English texts are both authentic, shall be ratified, and the deposit of ratification made in Paris, as soon as possible. Various diplomatic provisions as to ratification follow. The Treaty is to enter into force in all respects for each Power on the date of deposit of its ratification.

-From the time the treaty was transmitted to the German peace delegation until it was signed on June 28, Germany made desperate efforts to induce the Council of Four to modify its stringent terms. To this end a series of notes were exchanged between Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, head of the German delegation and M. Clemenceau, president of the Conference. On May 29 the German delegation, after characterizing the treaty draft of May 7 as "victorious violence" and a thing impossible of attainment, submitted an elaborate series of counter-proposals: (1) Germany agreed to the reduction of her standing army to 100,000 men and the disarmament of all German battleships on condition that she be allowed to retain part of her merchant fleet; (2) she offered to surrender sovereignty over Alsace, North Schleswig and Posen but requested a plebiscite for them; (3)

she agreed to the neutralization of the Vistula but stipulated that Danzig become a free port; the cession of Upper Silesia and parts of East and West Prussia, without consulting the populations affected, she uncompromisingly rejected; (4) she held that the annexation of the Saar basin to France would create another Alsace-Lorraine and that the whole question, therefore, should be reconsidered; (5) she asked that occupied territory should be evacuated within six months, and, if a League of Nations should be established, with Germany as a member, that she continue to administer her colonies as mandatary; (6) she rejected the "penal stipulations" and demanded a neutral tribunal to try all violations of the laws of war; (7) as to reparation, she asked that a definite sum be fixed and the date of payment postponed. She suggested that she pay twenty billion marks before May 1, 1926, and the remainder in annual payments, without interest, beginning May 1, 1927, the total not to exceed one billion marks per year. In reply to these counter-proposals the Allies, after reasserting that the responsibility for the war rested with Germany, declared that the trial of the Kaiser by an allied tribunal "would represent the deliberate judgment of the greater part of the civilized world." "Superior control" of the Saar basin, they stated, was left entirely to the League of Nations, and the inhabitants, at the end of fifteen years, were given the right to decide their future for themselves. Germany's claim to her colonies was rejected, nor would the Allies agree to a plebiscite for Alsace. At the suggestion of the Danish government modifications had been made, the reply stated, in regard to a Schleswig plebiscite. Germany's objection to a plebiscite in East Prussia was declared to be "inexplicable ". The Peace Conference made some concessions, chief of which were (1) that Danzig be a free city and a plebiscite be taken in Upper Silesia; (2) that in regard to reparation, Germany might submit proposals within four months; within another two months the Allies would reply, and the final amount would then be fixed; (3) that Germany might be admitted to membership in the League of Nations "at an early date" if she proved by her acts that she intended to fulfil the conditions of the treaty; (4) that she would be permitted to reduce her army to 200,000 men within three months, the rate of reduction to the stipulated 100,000 men to be reviewed every three months. A new version of the treaty, in which all modifications and alterations were incorporated, was handed to the German delegation on June 16. Under threat of terminating the armistice and invading Germany, an expression of the latter's willingness to sign was required by June 23. After long deliberation the German National Assembly (see infra, p. 139) on the last day of the stated period, accepted unconditionally the allied terms. On June 28 the treaty was signed at Versailles by Dr. Hermann Müller, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Johannes Bell, the two German delegates substituted

for the former German delegation which had withdrawn (see infra, p. 138), and by the representatives of the Allied and Associated Powers.The Chinese delegation, as a protest against the Shantung award (see infra, p. 145) refused to sign the treaty. As early as March they had sent a memorial to the Peace Conference demanding the restoration of Kiao-Chau and the evacuation of Shantung, and as soon as the decision of the conference regarding Shantung became known, they registered a formal protest with the Supreme Council against the proposed settlement. Later they made repeated efforts to secure the consent of the Council to their signing the treaty with reservations on the disputed points. But they were denied this privilege, nor were they allowed to make a declaration in the event of signing the treaty. Accordingly on June 27 the Chinese delegation officially announced that China would not sign. - Of great significant was the action of General Smuts of the South African delegation, who, though he signed the treaty, protested against some of its terms, holding that the indemnities stipulated could not be accepted without grave injury to the industrial revival of Europe, that there were territorial settlements which would need revision, and that punishments were foreshadowed over which a calmer mood might yet prefer to pass the "sponge of oblivion". To him it seemed a statesmen's peace which would need amendment by a "real peace of the people ".-The treaty of peace with Austria was handed to the Austrian delegation on June 2. The document, as delivered, was incomplete, the terms relative to finance, reparation and frontier boundaries being held in reserve for further consideration. On July 20, however, the Austrian delegates received the full text of the treaty and were given a fifteen-day period in which to file final statements. By the terms of the document, which follows the same outline as the treaty with Germany, Austria is recognized as a republic whose frontiers on the Bavarian, Bohemian and Hungarian sides remain substantially as they were. Trentino, Southern Tyrol, Carinthia and the lower part of Styria go to Italy and Jugoslavia. It is stipulated that Austria recognize the complete independence of the new states formed out of the former Austrian empire as well as those which constituted a part of the former Russian empire. Elaborate provisions are laid down for the protection of minorities. The entire Austrian navy together with arms and ammunition are to be surrendered and Austria is forbidden to build or possess naval or military air forces. Her army is to be reduced to a volunteer organization of 30,000 men. She must make reparation for damages to invaded areas, the Reparation Commission provided for in the treaty with Germany to fix the amount. Each of the states to which Austrian territory is transferred and each of those arising out of the dismemberment of the former empire are to assume part of the pre-war debt. The Allies are

to receive compensation for ships lost or destroyed in the war. Austria must restore all records, documents and art treasures taken from invaded or ceded territories.-The Bulgarian and Turkish treaties had not been completed at the end of July.

IV. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC RELATIONS. — During the past twelve months international relations were for the most part concerned with questions growing out of three major problems: the conclusion of the war, the peace settlement and attempts at world reconstruction. Of these, certain aspects such as shipping, trade, food supply, intervention in Russia and the recognition of newly created states and governments were especially important. During August and September England, France and the United States, through agreements with the Scandinavian countries, furnished them food in return for the use of shipping. On February 2 the Allies lifted the blockade on the importation of many commodities to Holland and Scandinavia, but the guarantees against reëxportation of commodities to enemy countries continued in effect.-In central Europe the three new independent states, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia (see infra, p. 129 et seq.), whose combined territories stretch from the Baltic to the Adriatic, were officially recognized by France, Italy, Great Britain and Japan. An informal union or alliance of the newly liberated nations of central Europe was created at Philadelphia on October 26. This mid-European union, as it was called, was formed to protect the new states against future aggression by Germany or any reactionary power. The plan for joint intervention in Russia by the United States and Japan, agreed to in July, 1918 (see last RECORD, p. 28), was officially announced on August 3. The Allies were to make Vladivostok their base and were to cooperate with the Czechoslovaks in a movement for self-government, Russia being assured that the intervening powers had no aggressive designs or territorial ambitions. The military forces were to be accompanied by a relief expedition and a commission of American agricultural and industrial experts, who were to assist in the economic rehabilitation of Russia. The plans were approved in principle by Great Britain, France and Italy, all of which, together with China, sent small contingents of troops to Siberia. Considerable anxiety was manifested by the Allies when it became apparent that the policy of Japan in Siberia was not in accord with that of the Allies; instead of sending 7,000 men as agreed upon the Japanese military party, then in control in Tokio, sent upwards of 70,000. This led to dissatisfaction and dissension, and by November 2 the situation had become so serious that Secretary Lansing, in an interview with Viscount Ishii, Japanese Ambassador, called his attention to the Siberian crisis; as a result a large number of the