The Dominion. MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1919. THE TREATY AND RATIFICATION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 235, 30 June 1919, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1919. THE TREATY AND RATIFICATION

There is-official news to-day that the Peace Treaty with Germany was signed early on Saturday afternoon. Already, the incidental circumstances of this historic event are reported in fairly full detail. The document was first signed on behalf of Germany, by Mueller, a Social Democrat, and Bell, a member of tile Centre Party. M. Clemenceau,' President Wilson, 'and Mr. Lloyd George then signed on behalf of their respective countries. Presumably the signature for Italy is delayed by the recent change of Government in that country. Even as regards the completion of the Treat}', a good deal still' remains to be done. Japan and the _ smaller Allied nations have yet to sign, and one rather serious impediment is raised by China's persistent and determined protests against the transfer to Japan of the concessions formerly granted to Germany in the Shantung Peninsula. In essentials however, the Treaty will be completed when .it has been ratified by the four chief Allied Powers.'. The question of ratification by Germany, of course, does hot arise; The Allied terms were laid before the 'Weimar Assembly, and it voted for their acceptance. The German plenipotentiaries wore thus agents authorised to take the final step in completing the Treaty so far as their own country is concerned. In Great Britain, France, Italy, and the_ United States the final step of ratification devolves upon the respective Parliaments. 'What information is available goes to support the opinion expressed in one of today's cablegrams, that ratification' by the United States Senate is likely to involve some delay, whereas the Treaty will be ratified speedily Jby Britain, France, and Italy. Against any disabilities attaching to delay in ratifying the Treaty ■ the Allies are safeguarded to an extent' owing to the fact that they are well placed to take coercive measures against Germany should these become necessary. It is mentioned tpday that the blockade of Germany, in its present modified form, is to continue until the Treaty has been ratified.

Obviously, however, it is in the interests of all concerned that ratification should be effected as speedily as'possible. The Allies cannot maintain a partial blockadc of Germany without detriment to their own trading and industrial interests. Much, therefore, depends upon the line of action taken by the United States' Senate. In America it is this body that determines finally whether treaties shall be ratified or rejected. Under tho.Constitution, the President has power to make treaties only if two-thirds of the Senators concur. The present Senate, as a result of the elections held last year, is dominated by a Republican majority. Tho expectation of a delayed ratification of tho Peace Treaty by tho United States is based upon the fact that not a few of the Republican Senators, President Wilson's political opponents, arc hostile critics of some aspects of his peace policy and find Serioufe fault with the Treaty as it is drawn. In its extreme form as a protest against the abandonment by the United States of it? traditional policy of isolation, the apritation against thc President and his peace policy is to be summed up as a somewhat s'ordid exhibition of party rancour. It has been said of the President's noisier critics in tho Senate that they are under a stern necessity of finding <i party issue and finding it in a hurry. The Senators who are uncompromising in their opposition to what they call the internationdisacion of American politics seem to be few in number. Able and influential critics of the

President, like Senators Lodge and Knox, base their dissent from his policy on matters rather of detail than of principle. Senator Lodge., who is now Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, declared some time ago, for instance, that it was worse than idle, it was dishonest, to deny that entry into the League under the terms of the draft as submitted meant abandonment of the policies enjoined by Washington in his Farewell Address and by Moneok in his equally famous Message to Congress. At the same time Senator Lodge admitted that "perhaps the time has conle to do. this." What he insisted upon was that in departing from its traditional policy the country should know just,what it was doin f" To an extent the objections of the President's more moderate critics and opponents in the' Senate have been met by the insertion in tho League .Covenant of amendments explicitly recognising the Monroe Doctrine and setting some limit to the obligations • incurred by nations which join the League. Some grounds of difference remain, however, and there are corresponding possibilities at least of delay in ratifying the Treaty. The prospect was summed up in the following terms by a London Times correspondent in New York just after the terms of the projected settlement had been made public in America: —

As regards the terms of the Peace to be imposed 011 Germany there is practically no division of opinion in the Senate, which shares the feeling of tho entire country that they are drastic and just. But the Eepublieans are unwilling to havo'tlie League of Nations ratified by this country as an integral part of the Peace Treaty. They are studying the Treaty with the utmost care in tho hope of discovering some means of separating the League from the main body of the Treaty and of thus rendering vain the declaration with which President Wilson left these shores fin setting out a second time for Paris], that the League of Nations would be so interwoven with the Treaty that the utmost ingenuity of the Senators would, be unable to disentanglo it. So far they have hit upon no other method than that, of moving for a referendum. To what extent this move wilt have the support of the Senate the future atone can show. No one for a moment believes President Wilson will 6anctio'ii it, and there is no evidence at present that more than a handful of Republican Senators will definitely associate themselves with it. Most experienced observors believe that the sentiment of the country for a speedy poaee will make itself felt with steudily increasing pressure upon tho Senate when that body, reassembles.

Apart from tho suggestions thus 1 rnacle, another bone of contention between President and-Senate may appear in the Anglo-American engagement to aid and support France in case of a German attack. This undertaking, according to observers on the spot, has not caused as much opposition in America as might have been expected. It has, of course, drawn some criticism. The Washi-nt/lon Post- declared recently that ''the President's recommendation concerning a future declaration of war by Congress in remote times is one of the crowning absurdities of the proceedings at Paris." The same paper added, however, that "no paper pledge is needed to keep the United States on the side of France, ready to annihilate the Huns 1 if they' should again presume to assail human liberty." Obviously the state of public sentiment in America thus implied clears the way for the ratification of the undertaking given to Franco and at the saffle. time confers upon it all tho force it could possibly hold. The formal ratification is important, not as an attempt to bind Congress in a remote future, but as making possible the practical steps in military organisation which would give the pledge to France coneretc value. The position as far as it can bo summed tip 'at present seems to be that; undoubtedly there is a strong inclination on the part of the Republican Senators (possibly also 6f a few Democrats) to freely invoke the powers tho Senate enjoys'under the Constitution of varying the peace arrangements provisionally made by the President. On the other hand, an overwhelming public sentiment in the United States approves the peace terms, including the establishment of a League of Nations. The. argument has been freely employed and emphasised that anything less than outan'd-out ratification of the Treaty by the Senate would be equivalent to rejection, and would entail serious consequences. These considerations and the known statu of public feeling seem likely to weigh heavily with the Senate when its time for action arrives.