May 7, 1919. War and Peace

On this day,, at 3:00 p.m., the German delegation to the Paris Peace Conference received the text of the treat for the first time.

For that matter, a lot of the world was seeing it for the first time, and the treaty's terms proved to be surprising even in Allied countries.

After a speech by Clemenceau and one by the chief of the German delegation, which acknowledged that the text was received and not yet reviewed, the Conference adjourned for the day.

In Paris, British, American and French delegates executed the Treaty of Guaranty, which guaranteed the French border against German aggression.  Of course, the delegates executing it did not bind nations such as the United States which required legislative ratification for a treaty to take effect. The U.S. Senate did not ratify the treaty.

The treaty had been created to address the concerns of the French over the possibility of renewed German aggression.  In exchange for the guaranty of the French border, the French relented on wanting to redraw the French border all the way to the Rhine.

It's doubtful that the Germans would have willingly agreed to the loss of the Rhineland, and frankly the proposal, in my view, may have caused the war to resume.  The Allies, given Germany's condition, could likely have won it in rapid fashion, but then they would have found themselves occupying a collapsed, unhappy, German state.  The French demands, while understandable, were unrealistic.

Also unrealistic was Wilson's thought that the United States Senate, in 1919, would have ratified a treaty committing the United States to the defense of France.  1945 was one thing, 1919, quite another.

Communications staff at the American Red Cross Home Service Station, Brest, France.

An uprising in the southern Ukraine tossed the Reds out in that region. . . only temporarily, of course.