This brutal policy of dealing with the world and its people was accepted by the United States. Throughout the Conference her representatives occupied a commanding position; at any time they would have been able to speak with a voice of almost conclusive authority; they chose, nevertheless, to play their part in this imperial spectacle. To be sure the Senate refused to ratify the Treaty,--not because of its imperial iniquities, but rather because there was nothing in it for the United States. 3. _Italy, France and Japan_ The shares of spoil falling to Italy and France as a result of the treaty are comparatively small although both countries--and particularly France--carried a terrific war burden. Japan, the least active of any of the leading participants in the war, received territory of vast importance to her future development. Italy,--under the secret treaty of London, signed April 26, 1915, by the representatives of Russia, France, Great Britain and Italy,--was to receive that part of Austria known as the Trentine, the entire southern Tyrol, the city and suburbs of Trieste, the Istrian Islands and the province of Dalmatia with various adjacent islands. Furthermore, Article IX of the Treaty stipulated that, in the division of Turkey, Italy should be entitled to an equal share in the basin of the Mediterranean, and specifically to the province of Adalia. Under Article XIII, "In the event of the expansion of French and English colonial domains in Africa at the expense of Germany, France and Great Britain recognize in principle the Italian right to demand for herself certain compensations in the sense of expansions of her lands in Erithria, Somaliland, in Lybia and colonial districts lying on the boundary, with the colonies of France and England." Substantially, this plan was followed in the Peace Treaty. The territorial claims of France were simple. The secret treaties include a note from the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French Ambassador at Petrograd, dated February 1-14, 1917, which stated that under the Peace Treaty: "(1) Alsace and Lorraine to be returned to France. "(2) The boundaries will be extended at least to the limits of the former principality of Lorraine, and will be fixed under the direction of the French Government. At the same time strategic demands must be taken into consideration, so as to include within the French territory the whole of the industrial iron basin of Lorraine and the whole of the industrial coal-basin of the Saar." The Peace Treaty confirmed these provisions, with the exception of the Saar Valley, which is to go to France for 15 years under conditions which will ultimately cause its annexation to France if she desires it. France also gained some slight territorial concessions in Africa. Her real advantage--as a result of the peace--lies in the control of the three provinces with their valuable mineral deposits.