early eight weeks of uncertainty
followed, taken up with the study of German protests, the construction of
the treaty with Austria, and finally the last crisis that preceded the
signature. The terms were drastic and the German Government, in the
persons of Scheidemann, the Premier, and Brockdorff-Rantzau, Minister for
Foreign Affairs, seemed determined that, helpless as she was, Germany
should not accept them without radical modifications. Their protests
touched chiefly upon the economic clauses and reparations, the solution of
the Saar problem, the cession of so much German territory to Poland, and
the exclusion of Germany from the League of Nations. Ample opportunity was
given their delegates to formulate protests, which, although they rarely
introduced new facts or arguments that had not been discussed, were
carefully studied by Allied experts. Week after week passed. In certain
quarters among the Allies appeared a tendency to make decided concessions
in order to win the consent of the German delegates. No one wanted to
carry out an invasion of the defeated country, and there was no guarantee
that a military invasion would secure acquiescence. Germany's strength was
in sitting still, and she might thus indefinitely postpone the peace. Was
it not the wise course, one heard whispered in Paris, to sugar the
bitterness of the treaty and thus win Germany's immediate signature?

Early in June, Lloyd George, evidently under pressure from his Cabinet,
declared himself for a decided "softening" of the peace terms in order to
secure the acceptance of the enemy. What would Wilson do? He had been
anathematized at home and abroad as pro-German and desirous of saving
Germany from the consequences of her misdeeds; here was his chance. Would
he join with the British in tearing up this treaty, which after four
months of concentrated effort had just been completed, in order to secure
the soft peace that he was supposed to advocate? His attitude in this
contingency showed his ability to preserve an even balance. In the
meeting of the American delegation that was called to consider the
British proposal, he pronounced himself as strongly in favor of any
changes that would ensure more complete justice. If the British and
French would consent to a definite and moderate sum of reparations (a
consent which he knew was out of the question) he would gladly agree. But
he would not agree to any concessions to Germany that were not based upon
just