he could easily be made
malleable by other means. In her case, therefore, Mr. Wilson's ethical
notions might be fearlessly applied. That this was the idea which
underlay the President's policy is the obvious inference from the calm,
unyielding way in which he treated the Italian delegation. In this
connection it should be borne in mind that there is no more important
distinction between all former peace settlements and that of the Paris
Conference than the unavowed but indubitable fact that the latter rests
upon the hegemony of the English-speaking communities of the world,
whereas the former were based upon the balance of power. So immense a
change could not be effected without discreetly throwing out as useless
ballast some of the highly prized dogmas of the accepted political
creeds, even at the cost of impairing the solidarity of the Latin races.
This was effected incidentally. As a matter of fact, the French are not,
properly speaking, a Latin race, nor has their solidarity with Italy or
Spain ever been a moving political force in recent times. Italy's
refusal to fight side by side with her Teuton allies against France and
her backers may conceivably be the result of racial affinities, but it
has hardly ever been ascribed to that sentimental source. Sentiment in
politics is a myth. In any case, M. Clemenceau discerned no pressing
reason for making painful efforts to perpetuate the Latin union, while
solicitude for national interests hindered him from making costly
concessions to it.

Naturally the cardinal innovation of which this was a corollary was
never invoked as the ground for any of the exceptional measures adopted
by the Conference. And yet it was the motive for several, for although
no allusion was made to the hegemony of Anglo-Saxondom, it was ever
operative in the subconsciousness of the two plenipotentiaries. And in
view of the omnipotence of these two nations, they temporarily
sacrificed consistency to tactics, probably without conscientious
qualms, and certainly without political misgivings. That would seem to
be a partial explanation of the lengths to which the Conference went in
the direction of concessions to the Great Powers' imperialist demands.
France asked to be recognized and treated as the personification of that
civilization for which the Allied peoples had fought. And for many
reasons, which it would be superfluous to discuss here, a large part of
her claim was allowed. This concession was a