myself, exclaimed one day: "The League of Nations indeed! It is an
absurdity. Who among thinking men believes in its reality?" "I do,"
answered his neighbor; "but, like the devils, I believe and tremble. I
hold that it is a corrosive poison which destroys much that is good and
will further much that is bad." A statesman who was not a delegate
demurred. "In my opinion," he said, "it is a response to a demand put
forward by the peoples of the globe, and because of this origin
something good will ultimately come of it. Unquestionably it is very
defective, but in time it may be--nay, must be--changed for the better."
The first speaker replied: "If you imagine that the League will help
continental peoples, you are, I am convinced, mistaken. It took the
United States three years to go to the help of Britain and France. How
long do you suppose it will take her to mobilize and despatch troops to
succor Poland, Rumania, or Czechoslovakia? I am acquainted with British
colonial public opinion and sentiment--too often misunderstood by
foreigners--and I can tell you that they are misconstrued by those who
fancy that they would determine action of that kind. If England tells
the colonies that she needs their help, they will come, because their
people are flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood, and also because
they depend for their defense upon her navy, and if she were to go under
they would go under, too. But the continental nations have no such
claims upon the British colonies, which would not be in a hurry to make
sacrifices in order to satisfy their appetites or their passions."
The second speaker then said: "It is possible, but nowise certain, that
the future League may help to settle these disputes which professional
diplomatists would have arranged, and in the old way, but it will not
affect those others which are the real causes of wars. If a nation
believes it can further its vital interest by breaking the peace, the
League cannot stop it. How could it? It lacks the means. There will be
no army ready. It would have to create one. Even now, when such an army,
powerful and victorious, is in the field, the League--for the Supreme
Council is that and more--cannot get its orders obeyed. How then will
its behest be treated when it has no troops at its beck and call? It is
redrawing the map of central and eastern Europe, and is very satisfied
with its work. But, as we know, the peoples of those countries look upon
its map as a sheet of paper covered with lines and blotches of color to
which no reality corresponds."
The constitution of the League was termed by Mr. Wilson a Covenant, a
word redolent of biblical and puritanical times, which accorded well
with the motives that decided him to prefer Geneva to Brussels as the
seat of the League, and to adopt other measures of a supposed political
character. The first draft of this document was, as we saw, completed in
the incredibly short space of some thirty hours, so as to enable the
President to take it with him to Washington. As the Ententophil _Echo de
Paris_ remarked, "By a fixed date the merchandise has to be consigned on
board the _George Washington_."[359]
The discussions that took place after the President's return from the
United States were animated, interesting, and symptomatic. In April the
commission had several sittings, at which various amendments and
alterations were proposed, some of which would cut deep into
international relations, while others were of slight moment and gave
rise to amusing sallies. One day the proposal was mooted that each
member-state should be free to secede on giving two years' notice. M.
Larnaude, who viewed membership as something sacramentally inalienable,
seemed shocked, as though the suggestion bordered on sacrilege, and
wondered how any government should feel tempted to take such a step.
Signor Orlando was of a different opinion. "However precious the
privilege of membership may be," he said, "it would be a comfort always
to know that you could divest yourself of it at will. I am shut up in my
room all day working. I do not go into the open air any oftener than a
prisoner might. But I console myself with the thought that I can go out
whenever I take it into my head. And I am sure a similar reflection on
membership of the League would be equally soothing. I am in favor of the
motion."
The center of interest during the drafting of the Covenant lay in the
clause proclaiming the equality of religions, which Mr. Wilson was bent
on having passed at all costs, if not in one form, then in another. This
is one example of the occasional visibility of the religious thread
which ran through a good deal of his personal work at the Conference.
For it is a fact--not yet realized even by the delegates
themselves--that distinctly religious motives inspired much that was
done by the Conference on what seemed political or social grounds. The
strategy adopted by the eminent American statesman to have his
stipulation accepted proceeded in this case on the lines of a
humanitarian resolve to put an end to sanguinary wars rather than on
those which the average reformer, bent on cultural progress, would have
traced. Actuality was imparted to this simple and yet thorny topic by a
concrete proposal which the President made one day. What he is reported
to have said is briefly this: "As the treatment of religious confessions
has been in the past, and may again in the future be, a cause of
sanguinary wars, it seems desirable that a clause should be introduced
into the Covenant establishing absolute liberty for creeds and
confessions." "On what, Mr. President," asked the first Polish delegate,
"do you found your assertion that wars are still brought about by the
differential treatment meted out to religions? Does contemporary
history bear out this statement? And, if not, what likelihood is there
that religious inequality will precipitate sanguinary conflicts in the
future?" To this pointed question Mr. Wilson is said to have made the
characteristic reply that he considered it expedient to assume this
nexus between religious inequality and war as the safest way of bringing
the matter forward. If he were to proceed on any other lines, he added,
there would be truth and force in the objection which would doubtless be
raised, that the Conference was intruding upon the domestic affairs of
sovereign states. As that charge would damage the cause, it must be
rebutted in advance. And for this purpose he deemed it prudent to
approach the subject from the side he had chosen.
This reply was listened to in silence and unfavorably commented upon
later. The alleged relation between such religious inequality as has
survived into the twentieth century and such wars as are waged nowadays
is so obviously fictitious that one can hardly understand the line of
reasoning that led to its assumption, or the effect which the fiction
could be supposed to have on the minds of those legislators who might be
opposed to the measure on the ground that it involved undue interference
in the internal affairs of sovereign states. The motion was referred to
a commission, which in due time presented a report. Mr. Wilson was
absent when the report came up for discussion, his place being taken by
Colonel House. The atmosphere was chilly, only a couple of the delegates
being disposed to support the clause--Rumania's representative, M.
Diamandi, was one, and another was Baron Makino, whose help Colonel
House would gladly have dispensed with, so inacceptable was the
condition it carried with it.
Baron Makino said that he entirely agreed with Colonel House and the
American delegates. The equality of religious confessions was not merely
desirable, but necessary to the smooth working of a Society of Nations
such as they were engaged in establishing. He held, however, that it
should be extended to races, that extension being also a corollary of
the principle underlying the new international ordering. He would
therefore move the insertion of a clause proclaiming the equality of
races and religions. At this Colonel House looked pensive. Nearly all
the other opinions were hostile to Colonel House's motion.
The reasons alleged by each of the dissenting lawgivers were
interesting. Lord Robert Cecil surprised many of his colleagues by
informing them that in England the Catholics, who are fairly treated as
things are, could not possibly be set on a footing of perfect equality
with their Protestant fellow-citizens, because the Constitution forbids
it. Nor could the British people be asked to alter their Constitution.
He gave as instances of the slight inequality at present enforced the
circumstance that no Catholic can ascend the throne as monarch, nor sit
on the woolsack as Lord Chancellor in the Upper House.
M. Larnaude, speaking in the name of France, stated that his country had
passed through a sequence of embarrassments caused by legislation on the
relations between the Catholics and the state, and that the introduction
of a clause enacting perfect equality might revive controversies which
were happily losing their sharpness. He considered it, therefore,
inadvisable to settle this delicate matter by inserting the proposed
declaration in the Covenant. Belgium's first delegate, M. Hymans,
pointed out that the objection taken by his government was of a
different but equally cogent character. There was reason to apprehend
that the Flemings might avail themselves of the equality clause to raise
awkward issues and to sow seeds of dissension. On those grounds he
would like to see the proposal waived. Signor Orlando half seriously,
half jokingly, reminded his colleagues that none of their countries had,
like his, a pope in their capital. The Italian government must,
therefore, proceed in religious matters with the greatest
circumspection, and could not lightly assent to any measure capable of
being manipulated to the detriment of the public interest. Hence he was
unable to give the motion his support. It was finally suggested that
both proposals be withdrawn. To this Colonel House demurred, on the
ground that President Wilson, who was unavoidably absent, attached very
great weight to the declaration, to which he hoped the delegates would
give their most favorable consideration. One of the members then rose
and said, "In that case we had better postpone the voting until Mr.
Wilson can attend." This suggestion was adopted. When the matter came up
for discussion at a subsequent sitting, the Japanese substituted
"nations" for "races."
In the meantime the usual arts of parliamentary emergency were practised
outside the Conference to induce the Japanese to withdraw their proposal
altogether. They were told that to accept or refuse it would be to
damage the cause of the future League without furthering their own. But
the Marquis Saionji and Baron Makino refused to yield an inch of their
ground. A conversation then took place between the Premier of Australia,
on the one side, and Baron Makino and Viscount Chinda, on the other,
with a view to their reaching a compromise. For Mr. Hughes was
understood to be the leader of those who opposed any declaration of
racial equality. The Japanese statesmen showed him their amendment, and
asked him whether he could suggest a modification that would satisfy
himself and them. The answer was in the negative. To the arguments of
the Japanese delegates the Australian Premier is understood to have
replied: "I am willing to admit the equality of the Japanese as a
nation, and also of individuals man to man. But I do not admit the
consequence that we should throw open our country to them. It is not
that we hold them to be inferior to ourselves, but simply that we do not
want them. Economically they are a perturbing factor, because they
accept wages much below the minimum for which our people are willing to
work. Neither do they blend well with our people. Hence we do not want
them to marry our women. Those are my reasons. We mean no offense. Our
restrictive legislation is not aimed specially at the Japanese. British
subjects in India are affected by it in exactly the same way. It is
impossible that we should formulate any modifications of your amendment,
because there is no modification conceivable that would satisfy us
both."
The Japanese delegates were understood to say that they would maintain
their motion, and that unless it passed they would not sign the
document. Mr. Hughes retorted that if it should pass he would refuse to
sign. Finally the Australian Premier asked Baron Makino whether he would
be satisfied with the following qualifying proviso: "This affirmation of
the principle of equality is not to be applied to immigration or
nationalization." Baron Makino and Viscount Chinda both answered in the
negative and withdrew.
The final act[360] is described by eye-witnesses as follows. Congruously
with the order of the day, President Wilson having moved that the city
of Geneva be selected as the capital of the future League, obtained a
majority, whereupon he announced that the motion had passed.
Then came the burning question of the equality of nations.[361] The
Polish delegate arose and opposed it on the formal ground that nothing
ought to be inserted in the preamble which was not dealt with also in
the body of the Covenant, as otherwise it would be no more than an
isolated theory devoid of organic connection with the whole. The
Japanese delegates delivered speeches of cogent argument and impressive
debating power. Baron Makino made out a very strong case for the
equality of nations. Viscount Chinda followed in a trenchant discourse,
which was highly appreciated by his hearers, nearly all of whom
recognized the justice of the Japanese claim. The Japanese delegates
refused to be dazzled by the circumstances that Japan was to be
represented on the Executive Council as one of the five Great Powers,
and that the rejection of the proposed amendment could not therefore be
construed as a diminution of her prestige. This consideration, they
retorted, was wholly irrelevant to the question whether or no the
nations were to be recognized as equal. They ended by refusing to
withdraw their modified amendment and calling for a vote. The result was
a majority for the amendment. Mr. Wilson thereupon announced that a
majority was insufficient to justify its adoption, and that nothing less
than absolute unanimity could be regarded as adequate. At this a
delegate objected: "Mr. Wilson, you have just accepted a majority for
your own motion respecting Geneva; on what grounds, may I ask, do you
refuse to abide by a majority vote on the amendment of the Japanese
delegation?" "The two cases are different," was the reply. "On the
subject of the seat of the League unanimity is unattainable." This
closed the official discussion.
Some time later, it is asserted, the Rumanians, who had supported Mr.
Wilson's motion on religious equality, were approached on the subject,
and informed that it would be agreeable to the American delegates to
have the original proposal brought up once more. Such a motion, it was
added, would come with especial propriety from the Rumanians, who, in
the person of M. Diamandi, had advocated it from the outset. But the
Rumanian delegates hesitated, pleading the invincible opposition of the
Japanese. They were assured, however, that the Japanese would no longer
discountenance it. Thereupon they broached the matter to Lord Robert
Cecil, but he, with his wonted caution, replied that it was a delicate
subject to handle, especially after the experience they had already had.
As for himself, he would rather leave the initiative to others. Could
the Rumanian delegates not open their minds to Colonel House, who took
the amendment so much to heart? They acted on this suggestion and called
on Colonel House. He, too, however, declared that it was a momentous as
well as a thorny topic, and for that reason had best be referred to the
head of the American delegation. President Wilson, having originated the
amendment, was the person most qualified to take direct action. It is
further affirmed that they sounded the President as to the advisability
of mooting the question anew, but that he declined to face another vote,
and the matter was dropped for good--in that form.
It was publicly asserted later on that the Japanese decided to abide by
the rejection of their amendment and to sign the Covenant as the result
of a bargain on the Shantung dispute. This report, however, was
pulverized by the Japanese delegation, which pointed out that the
introduction of the racial clause was decided upon before the delegates
left Japan, and when no difficulties were anticipated respecting
Japan's claim to have that province ceded to her by Germany, and that
the discussion on the amendment terminated on April 11th, consequently
before the Kiaochow issue came up for discussion. As a matter of fact,
the Japanese publicly announced their intention to adhere to the League
of Nations two days[362] before a decision was reached respecting their
claims to Kiaochow.
This adverse note on Mr. Wilson's pet scheme to have religious equality
proclaimed as a means of hindering sanguinary wars brought to its climax
the reaction of the Conference against what it regarded as a systematic
endeavor to establish the overlordship of the Anglo-Saxon peoples in the
world. The plea that wars may be provoked by such religious inequality
as still survives was so unreal that it awakened a twofold suspicion in
the minds of many of Mr. Wilson's colleagues. Most of them believed that
a pretext was being sought to enable the leading Powers to intervene in
the domestic concerns of all the other states, so as to keep them firmly
in hand, and use them as means to their own ends. And these ends were
looked upon as anything but disinterested. Unhappily this conviction was
subsequently strengthened by certain of the measures decreed by the
Supreme Council between April and the close of the Conference. The
misgivings of other delegates turned upon a matter which at first sight
may appear so far removed from any of the pressing issues of the
twentieth century as to seem wholly imaginary. They feared that a
religious--some would call it racial--bias lay at the root of Mr.
Wilson's policy. It may seem amazing to some readers, but it is none the
less a fact that a considerable number of delegates believed that the
real influences behind the Anglo-Saxon peoples were Semitic.
They confronted the President's proposal on the subject of religious
inequality, and, in particular, the odd motive alleged for it, with the
measures for the protection of minorities which he subsequently imposed
on the lesser states, and which had for their keynote to satisfy the
Jewish elements in eastern Europe. And they concluded that the sequence
of expedients framed and enforced in this direction were inspired by the
Jews, assembled in Paris for the purpose of realizing their carefully
thought-out program, which they succeeded in having substantially
executed. However right or wrong these delegates may have been, it would
be a dangerous mistake to ignore their views, seeing that they have
since become one of the permanent elements of the situation. The formula
into which this policy was thrown by the members of the Conference,
whose countries it affected, and who regarded it as fatal to the peace
of eastern Europe, was this: "Henceforth the world will be governed by
the Anglo-Saxon peoples, who, in turn, are swayed by their Jewish
elements."
It is difficult to convey an adequate notion of the warmth of
feeling--one might almost call it the heat of passion--which this
supposed discovery generated. The applications of the theory to many of
the puzzles of the past were countless and ingenious. The illustrations
of the manner in which the policy was pursued, and the cajolery and
threats which were said to have been employed in order to insure its
success, covered the whole history of the Conference, and presented it
through a new and possibly distorted medium. The morbid suspicions
current may have been the natural vein of men who had passed a great
part of their lives in petty racial struggles; but according to common
account, it was abundantly nurtured at the Conference by the lack of
reserve and moderation displayed by some of the promoters of the
minority clauses who were deficient in the sense of measure. What the
Eastern delegates said was briefly this: "The tide in our countries was
flowing rapidly in favor of the Jews. All the east European governments
which had theretofore wronged them were uttering their _mea culpa_, and
had solemnly promised to turn over a new leaf. Nay, they had already
turned it. We, for example, altered our legislation in order to meet by
anticipation the legitimate wishes of the Conference and the pressing
demands of the Jews. We did quite enough to obviate decrees which might
impair our sovereignty or lessen our prestige. Poland and Rumania issued
laws establishing absolute equality between the Jews and their own
nationals. All discrimination had ceased. Immigrant Hebrews from Russia
received the full rights of citizenship and became entitled to fill any
office in the state. In a word, all the old disabilities were abolished
and the fervent prayer of east European governments was that the Jewish
members of their respective communities should be gradually assimilated
to the natives and become patriotic citizens like them. It was a new
ideal. It accorded to the Jews everything they had asked for. It would
enable them to show themselves as the French, Italian, and Belgian Jews
had shown themselves, efficient citizens of their adopted countries.
"But in the flush of their triumph, the Jews, or rather their spokesmen
at the Conference, were not satisfied with equality. What they demanded
was inequality to the detriment of the races whose hospitality they were
enjoying and to their own supposed advantage. They were to have the same
rights as the Rumanians, the Poles, and the other peoples among whom
they lived, but they were also to have a good deal more. Their religious
autonomy was placed under the protection of an alien body, the League,
which is but another name for the Powers which have reserved to
themselves the governance of the world. The method is to oblige each of
the lesser states to bestow on each minority the same rights as the
majority enjoys, and also certain privileges over and above. The
instrument imposing this obligation is a formal treaty with the Great
Powers which the Poles, Rumanians, and other small states were summoned
to sign. It contains twenty-one articles. The first part of the document
deals with minorities generally, the latter with the Jewish elements.
The second clause of the Polish treaty enacts that every individual who
habitually resided in Poland on August 1, 1914, becomes a citizen
forthwith. This is simple. Is it also satisfactory? Many Frenchmen and
Poles doubt it, as we do ourselves. On August 1st numerous German and
Austrian agents and spies, many of them Hebrews, resided habitually in
Poland. Moreover, the foreign Jewish elements there, which have
immigrated from Russia, having lost--like everybody else before the
war--the expectation of seeing Polish independence ever restored, had
definitely thrown in their lot with the enemies of Poland. Now to put
into the hands of such enemies constitutional weapons is already a
sacrifice and a risk. The Jews in Vilna recently voted solidly against
the incorporation of that city in Poland.[363] Are they to be treated as
loyal Polish citizens? We have conceded the point unreservedly. But to
give them autonomy over and above, to create a state within the state,
and enable its subjects to call in foreign Powers at every hand's turn,
against the lawfully constituted authorities--that is an expedient which
does not commend itself to the newly emancipated peoples."