eld
by Great Britain on the seas, was never seriously debated, and Wilson
himself, in an interview given to the London _Times_, sanctioned
"Britain's peculiar position as an island empire." Adequate guarantees
for the reduction of armaments were certainly not taken at Paris; all
that was definitely stipulated was the disarmament of the enemy, a step
by no means in consonance with the President's earlier policy which aimed
at universal disarmament. An "absolutely impartial adjustment of all
colonial claims" was hardly carried out by granting the German colonies
to the great powers, even as mandatories of the League of Nations.

Nevertheless the future historian will probably hold that the Peace
Conference, with all its selfish interests and mistakes, carried into
effect an amazingly large part of President Wilson's programme, when all
the difficulties of his position are duly weighed. The territorial
settlements, on the whole, translated into fact the demands laid down by
the more special of Wilson's Fourteen Points. France, Belgium, and the
other invaded countries were, of course, evacuated and their restoration
promised; Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France and the wrong of 1871
thus righted; an independent Poland was recognized and given the assured
access to the sea that Wilson had insisted upon; the subject nationalities
of Austria-Hungary received not merely autonomy but independence. Even as
regards the larger principles enunciated in the Fourteen Points, it may at
least be argued that President Wilson secured more than he lost. Open
diplomacy in the sense of conducting international negotiations in an open
forum was not the method of the Peace Conference; and it may not be
possible or even desirable. The article in the Covenant, however, which
insists upon the public registration of all treaties before their validity
is recognized, goes far towards a fulfillment of the President's pledge of
open covenants, particularly if his original meaning is liberally
interpreted. Similarly the Covenant makes provision for the reduction of
armaments. If the treaty did not go far in assuring the "removal of
economic barriers," at all events the Conference did much to provide for
an international control of traffic which would ensure to all European
countries, so far as possible, equal facilities for forwarding their
goods.

Apart from the Fourteen Points Wilson had emphasized two other principles
as necessary to a just and