Peace conference

Good evening, everybody.

The so-called Peace Conference of Paris has almost finished its work.

During the last few days, it has approved the draft treaties for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary, leaving only Finland to be settled, and Finland is the le- least controversial of the five.

In any case, the conference is bound to adjourn on Tuesday so that the statesmen can arrive in New York in time for the opening of the United Nations Assembly on October 23rd.

It is in New York that the Council of Foreign Ministers may be able to finish their work on the treaties, for it is they, the Big Four, who have the final say, unless, of course, one of them prevents agreement by using the veto power.

Now, that is why the Paris Conference can rank as a peace conference even less than Versailles, which concluded World War I.

Even though Versailles, too, was dominated by a Big Four, the final decisions were recorded in plenary sessions of all the victor nations.

This time, the final decisions, if any, will be taken in the Council of Foreign Ministers charged at Potsdam with the task of drawing up the terms of peace with the minor and satellite enemies.

It is called the Panthéon de Guerre and is a marvelous cycloramic painting of the war.

It was opened up to the public soon after the armistice was signed and the writer saw it while attending the peace conference.

Many remember the wonderful representation of the Battle of Gettysburg which used to be in Chicago.

This Paris cyclorama is along the same line, but ten times more wonderful.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Bird's-Eye Views of Far-Off Lands by James T. Nichols.

Chapter 11.

Some Impressions of the Great Peace Conference.

For a month the writer listened to the heartbeat of nations as their representatives were gathered in the city of Paris.

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Section One of Ukraina and the Peace Conference.

This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Ukraina and the Peace Conference by Stanislav DenysRyansky.

The Right of Self-Determination of Peoples.

Important and difficult problems are put before the Peace Conference of the Allied Powers.

There is urgent need of establishing a new system of the world on the ruins of old ones, broken down by the war.

It is called the Pantheon de Guerre and is a marvelous cycloramic painting of the war.

It was opened up to the public soon after the armistice was signed and the writer saw it while attending the peace conference.

Many remember the wonderful representation of the Battle of Gettysburg which used to be in Chicago.

This Paris cyclorama is along the same line, but ten times more wonderful.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Bird's-Eye Views of Far-Off Lands by James T. Nichols.

Chapter eleven.

Some Impressions of the Great Peace Conference.

For a month the writer listened to the heartbeat of nations as their representatives were gathered in the city of Paris.

Russia had still great resources and might have sent new armies and fleets to the Far East.

But both the German emperor and President Roosevelt urged peace, and at Roosevelt's invitation, a peace conference was held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in April nineteen oh five.

The Treaty of Portsmouth, September fifth of nineteen oh five, signed only after long haggling, transferred to Japan Russia's lease of the Liaotung Peninsula, including Port Arthur and Dalny, renamed Dairen by the Japanese, along with the Russian railway extending north from Port Arthur to Changchun, and Russian coal-mining rights in southern Manchuria.

Southern Manchuria thus became a Japanese sphere of influence.

It was not well that China should organize an efficient army.

China did enter the war later in August 1917 but by that time China had been so weakened by internal civil strife that Japan was fairly confident of being able to control the situation.

Moreover, Japan had succeeded in extracting from the Allies secret promises to support her claims at the peace conference.

The United States government too was disinclined after entering the war to oppose Japan for Japan was one of the Allies.

Here was a body of keen and enthusiastic men, devoting their lives to the restoration of the Holy Land to its rightful owners, and yet they shied when the one essential weapon that could have given it to them was being virtually thrust into their hands.

How different would have been the position of the Zionists at the Peace Conference after the Armistice was signed if they had been able to point proudly to 50,000 Jewish troops in Palestine instead of the 5,000 who were actually serving there at the close of the war.

I know that Dr. Weizmann had vision enough to foresee the strength which such a legion could give to his diplomacy, but unfortunately his colleagues on the Zionist Council did not see eye to eye with him in this matter until it was too late.

I tried to do what in me lay with certain of the leaders of Zionism, and spent some time endeavoring to enthuse a devoted and spiritual Jew who was deeply interested in the restoration.

Some of the Zionists, men such as Mr. Joseph Cohen, fully realized all the advantages which would accrue from a Jewish legion helping to win Palestine from the enemy, and these were eager workers towards this end.

Vladimir Jabotinsky always believed in the proverb that the Lord helps those who help themselves, and therefore he felt that it was essential that a Jewish legion should fight for the redemption of Israel's ancient heritage.

And it was well for Jewry that Jabotinsky was a chosen instrument, because if no Jewish troops had fought in Palestine, and no Jewish graves could be seen in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives, and in every military cemetery in Egypt and Palestine, it would have been, for all time, a reproach unto Israel, and I have grave doubts whether the Peace Conference would have considered the time ripe for the Jewish people to be restored to their ancient land.

I am certain of this, that if Jabotinsky's ideals of a powerful legion had been more fully realized, Dr. Weizmann's position at the table of the Peace Conference would have been immeasurably strengthened.

For the ones who get it done.

THE RITE OF SELF-DETERMINATION OF PEOPLES important and difficult problems are put before the peace conference of the allied powers there is urgent need of establishing a new system of the world on the ruins of old ones broken down by the war the first task must be to bring a general and permanent peace to the peoples stirred up by the great war and it is obvious that this object cannot be secured by merely proclaiming the ideas of right and justice and the principle of self-determination of peoples but those ideas and that principle which have to be realized to lead the peoples of the universe into the peaceful paths of order and of pacific and orderly international traffic even the idea of a genuine league of nations can only be accomplished if provision is made that all peoples who as members of the league of nations must on principle enjoy the same rights shall obtain equal rights and no people shall be ruled by another people or dependent on another people's mercy without solving and actually carrying through the problems which help to bring about the great war permanent peace is an impossible thing from the defeat of imperialism and militarism all consequences must be drawn and an order must be established which shall raise the nations again on the basis of genuine democracy liberty and national independence though the catchword of self-determination of peoples was coined only during the war the problem itself was not new on the contrary it had been alive already before the war and was the fundamental idea which brought about the Great War.

A short glance at the history of the past and the present century will suffice to convince oneself of the fact that the striving of the nations for political and cultural emancipation was one of the principal causes of the Great War.

There is in modern times no closer tie than of the community of men, which is called a people or a nation.

to this is opposed the so-called historical principle which aims at granting their former state territories to peoples who in former historical periods united also foreign nations into their political organisms including the territories of foreign nations as, for instance, the Poles lay claim to the recreation of the old Polish Empire from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with annexation of Lithuania, White Russia, and Ukrainian territories.

This principle is utterly inconsistent with the idea of self-determination of peoples, since to some peoples it grants the privilege of ruling over others, while it excludes others from self-determination on their own national territories.

justly therefore president wilson's formula apportions to the poles the undoubtedly polish territories i e the territories ethnographically belonging to poland if therefore the peace conference wishes a just solution of the national problem if they will solve it thoroughly conforming with the proper meaning of the victory gained by the peoples of europe and america they must on creating new national states and establishing their frontiers have regard only for the national territories of the peoples and in doing so make valid the pure ethnographical principle and the above sense by the ethnographical principle all annexations by foreign peoples are undone and thus it is decided for the future that no people is justified in enriching itself at another people's expense and that no people must strive for the territory of another people so much of the delimitation of the frontiers of new national states but it must be observed that the peoples ought to be at liberty to unite with other peoples and to establish common political organisms with them.

Such is the case at present in Belgium and Switzerland, and for the future the Slovenes, Croats, and Servians wish to form a joint Yugoslav state.

Russia had still great resources and might have sent new armies and fleets to the Far East.

But both the German Emperor and President Roosevelt urged peace, and at Roosevelt's invitation a peace conference was held at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in April 1905.

The Treaty of Portsmouth, September 5th, 1905, signed only after long haggling, transferred to Japan Russia's lease of the Liaotong Peninsula, including Port Arthur and Dalny, renamed Dairen by the Japanese, along with the Russian railway extending north from Port Arthur to Changchun and Russian coal mining rights in southern Manchuria.

Southern Manchuria thus became a Japanese sphere of influence.

It was not well that China should organize an efficient army.

China did enter the war later in August 1917, but by that time China had been so weakened by internal civil strife that Japan was fairly confident of being able to control the situation.

Moreover, Japan had succeeded in extracting from the Allies secret promises to support her claims at the peace conference.

The United States government too was disinclined after entering the war to oppose Japan, for Japan was one of the Allies.