PEACE CONGRESS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 April 1919, Page 3

PEACE CONGRESS.

NEW ZEALAND DELEGATION. HISTORIC PLENARY SESSION. A PAGEANT OF THE WORLD ALLIANCE. (From R. Riley, Official Journalist) Paris, 19th February. The New Zealand delegates reached Paris in time to attend the second plenary session of the preliminary Peace Conference, which was held on January 25th, in the stately Hall of the Clock in the French Foreign Office, Quai d'Orsay. Mr Massey represented New Zealand and took his place among the representatives of the Dominions, and Sir Joseph Ward attended as a member of Great Britain's delegation. The session was opened under the presidency of M. Clemenceau, President of the Conference, the "Grand Old Man" of Europe, as Mr Lloyd George had affectionately described him, the "Father of Victory," as his French admirers call him, and, as he is best known in the French political arena, where nicknames are inevitable, the "Tiger." The assembly was a wonderful pageant of the world alliance, which had saved humanity from the curse of Prussian domination. There were assembled together from the far places of the earth no fewer than sixty-five representatives of twenty-one free nations. Those whose rare privilege it was to be a part of it, or even to see it all, will never forget the scene as long as memory lasts. Even the most phlegmatic temperament must have leaped to lofty imagination in realising, howe>er leebly, that within the compass of a single chamber—so ornate in gilt and crimson to be a Hall of Peace—were gathered together all the elements of the Tower of Kabel, but with the means of reducing a confusion of tongues to a common understanding. All sorts of statesmen and diplomats talked in all sorts of languages and accents, yet in the end everyone understood. In itself a wonderful achievement!

One was conscious of a rare impression in watching the procession of delegates, leisurely and briskly, silently and volubly, as temperament dictated, form into a sort of world Parliament, representing more than a score of nations. The final formation, one noticed, was a horse shoe of international representation—was it an augury of good luck! There was a noteworthy simplicity in the attire of the delegates. Many were of course in the formal garb of diplomacy and statesmanship, with a fine sheen on their silk hats and the lapels of their frock coats, but quite as many more were in plain tweeds, while a few brought into the haunts of western civilisation something of the color and gorgeous raiment of the junny East — the shrine and fountain of dreams and philosophy. The most arresting, and by far the most picturesque, personages in the beautiful chamber with the grey light of a fading winter day struggling past heavy hangings of crimson and deep cream-colored tapestries, were Major-General H. 11. Maharajah Sir Ganga Singh Bahadur of Biranir, of the great warrior clan of Rathore Eajputs, a stately descendant of the ancient Kings of Kanauj, a soldier with a fine record of service ranging from the relief of the Legations at Pekin to brilliant leadership more recently in France, Egypt, and Palestine; and the Emir Feisul, "the hero of the Arab epic," son of the K'mg of the Hedjaz. His turban was a wonderful thing of a silk that would have made a thief of a noble woman, while his sword, worn in front with its jewelled hilt guarding the heart, was surely, one likes to think, one of the famous blades of old Damascus.

In a less prominent place, near the bend of the horse shoe table, and representing achievement as well as the war. ■rior spirit of fair France, sa,t the greatest of ten tliouFuinl—-Marshal Focli. He sat silent, but VDenly observant with a steady vision of a soldier who has scanned many a crimson horizon, but without fear of the coming day, for the signs of victory and defeat. A grim warrior with a face that would never betray his mind, and with a mind, obviously, that had never betrayed his face, for its lines and markings are the outward and visible signs of strength of will, and a noble character.

It may be of interest to place on record the nations which were represented at this historic plenary session of the Peace Conference. As a matter of fact the representation was practically complete, and was as follows: —

United States of America.—The President (Dr Wilson), lions. Robert Lansing, Henry White. Colonel House, and General Tasker H. Bliss. Here it may be mentioned that at the Peace Conference and also in all the deliberations of the Council of the Allied and Associated Powers, America has precedence. The British Empire: Great Britain— Rt. Hons. D. Lloyd George, A. J. Balfour, G. N. Barnes, C. J. Doherty (Minister of Justice, Canada), and Sir Joseph Ward (Minister of Finance, New Zealand). Dominions and India: Canada, —Rt. Hons. Sir Robert Borden (Prime Minister), and Sir George Eulas Foster. Australia.—Rt. Hons. W. M. Hughes and Sir-Joseph Cook.

South Africa.—General the Rt. Hon. Louis Botha, and Lieut.-General J. C. Smuts. New Zealand—Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey, Prime Minister. India—Rt. Hon. E. S. Montagu (Secretary of State for India), and Major-: General H. H. the Maharaja of Bikanir. France.—M. Clemenccau, M. Pichon, M. L. L. Klotz, M. Andre Tardieu, and M. Jules Cambon, who was the strong Ambassador of France at Berlin up to the outbreak of war, and who showed n keen and deep knowledge of the Prussian policy of world conquest, and Marshall Foch, representing the Supreme Allied War Council. M. Leon Bourgeois, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, was in the French delegation as Technical delegate for the League of Nations,

Italy.—Mr. V. E. Orlando (President of the Council of Ministers), Baron S. Sonnino, Marquis Salvago Raggi, and Deputies A. Salandra and S. Burzali, and Senator Scialoja, Technical Delegate for the League of Nations.

Japan.—Baron Makino (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Viscount Chinda, Mr. K. Matsui, and Mr If. Ijuin (Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and the Emperor's Plenipotentiary at Rome). Belgium. Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece, The Hedjaz, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, Serbia, Slam, the Czecho-Slovak republic, and j Uruguay,

In addition there were present many diplomats and generals of world-wide reputation. Last, but not altogether aegli|ibl«, u far m tis jew« of the

pen, which is supposed to be mightier than the sword, is concerned, waß a brigade of French and Allied and neutral journalists—jußt about three hundred of them, content with standing room only, each writer using for a desk the friendly back of the colleague in front. At the head table Bat M. Clemenceau, a Napoleon of chairmen, with President Wilson on his right, and Mr Lloyd George, greater in political power than ever, and with his mane even more like a lion's than ever before, on his left. To the right and left of the President's table, there were four rows of delegates. There you have a picture of the world's most remarkable assembly—a sort of living cinematograph display, one might say, of contemporary history. Several gaps in the lines of delegates recalled the unfortunate fact that Russia was not represented. |