damage done to the civilian population. This claim was
utterly illogical, for pensions fall properly into the category of
military expenses, but it was pressed with such skill and determination
by Lloyd George and General Smuts that President Wilson finally gave
his assent.

From the first the American delegates and experts were in favor of
fixing definitely the amount that Germany was to pay in the way of
reparations and settling this question once for all. They hoped to
agree upon a sum which it was within Germany's power to pay. But
Clemenceau and Lloyd George had made such extravagant promises to their
people that they were afraid to announce at this time a sum which would
necessarily be much less than the people expected. They, therefore,
insisted that the question should be left open to be determined later
by a Reparations Commission. They declared that any other course would
mean the immediate overthrow of their governments and the
reorganization of the British and French delegations. President Wilson
did not care to put himself in the position of appearing to precipitate
a political crisis in either country, so he finally gave way on this
point also. These concessions proved to be the most serious mistakes
that he made at Paris, for they did more than anything else to
undermine the faith of liberals everywhere in him.

The Italian delegation advanced a claim to Fiume which was inconsistent
both with the Treaty of London and the Fourteen Points. When
disagreement over this question had been delaying for weeks the
settlement of other matters, President Wilson finally made a public
statement of his position which was virtually an appeal to the Italian
people over the heads of their delegation. The entire delegation
withdrew from the Conference and went home, but Premier Orlando
received an almost unanimous vote of confidence from his parliament,
and he was supported by an overwhelming tide of public sentiment
throughout Italy. This was the first indication of Wilson's loss of
prestige with the peoples of Europe.

As already stated, the Japanese had insisted on the insertion in the
Covenant of the League of the principle of racial equality. It is very
doubtful whether they ever expected to succeed in this. The
probability is that they advanced this principle in order to compel
concessions on other points. Japan's main demand was that the German
leases and concessions in the Chinese province of Shantu