It is not too much to say that the main lines of the future treaty
with Germany were settled by the verdict of the British election. Mr.
Lloyd George and his associates, against their own better judgment and
convictions, appealed to the passions and prejudices of the masses to
secure a parliamentary majority. Since both Mr. Lloyd George and Mr.
Bonar Law have repeatedly repudiated by acts, speeches, and written
statements their own policies and arguments advanced in December, 1918,
there could be no doubt of the fairness and accuracy of this assertion.
On December 10 Mr. Lloyd George summed up the Coalition program in
the following points of treaty policy: (1) trial of the Kaiser; (2)
punishment of those responsible for atrocities; (3) fullest indemnities
from Germany. Speaking at Bristol the next day Mr. Lloyd George, on
the eve of the election, declared that “we propose to demand the whole
cost of the war from Germany,” that this was “an absolute right,” and
that a financial committee appointed by the British Cabinet believed
that all the costs of the war could be extracted from Germany. After
his triumphant return to power Mr. Lloyd George explained that the sole
guilt and responsibility of Germany for the war was to be the basis of
the peace treaty, and not Mr. Wilson’s principles. Nearly a year after
the Treaty of Versailles was signed (in May, 1920) he repeated that the
Treaty of Versailles was built upon the assumption of Germany’s sole
guilt and had no other jurisdiction. The practicability of trying the
Kaiser and of extracting from Germany the total expenses of the war was
not questioned by responsible British statesmen of the Coalition party
until long after the Treaty of Versailles had been made.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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