1. INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON LEAGUE OF NATIONS.... Frontispiece. 2. DUSSELDORF, IN THE HANDS OF THE ALLIES 3. BRITISH PEACE SALUTE AT COLOGNE... SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT SAN REMO, ITALY.. Importance of Making Peace, 1914 1919. THE great World War and the work of restoring peace during the period from August 4, 1914 to June 28, 1919, have been among the most momentous events in the history of the world. Part of the importance lies in the very significant character of the questions involved in the war itself, such as the questions of territory, national safety, economic independence, and access to the sea. Important also is the great cost of the war, a cost which for a long time seemed certain to bankrupt the nations engaged. Equally significant is the heartless and savage way in which Germany carried on the war, and the terrible fear and distrust among the nations of Europe engendered through the preceding period of peace and a long, bitter war. Finally, the importance of the events may be traced in the moral and spiritual awakening which has come to all the nations of the world as a result of the war, which the governments of all the warring nations have felt keenly; and though they have used it partly for their advantage, it is to be hoped that they have also made use of it for the purpose of securing peace upon a basis of justice and fair dealing. This appeal has given moral force to the Western Allies, especially, and has, since the armistice, restrained many natural desires for revenge and for gain at the expense of the beaten foe. If sometimes selfishness and fear seemed to dictate the work of the Peace Congress also, it is only necessary to try to picture a peace congress under the old conditions, in which each nation engaged consciously aimed at getting as much as possible for itself without any consideration for the rights of other states, to realize that this persistent moral demand for a righteous peace has been at work in the negotiations at Versailles. It is to be the purpose of the first section of this volume to trace the peace developments from the early part of the war to their final culmination in the peace with Germany signed on June 28, 1919, and |