The Treaty of Versailles and those which have followed with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey have been validly signed, and they pledge the good faith of the countries which have signed them.  But in the application of them there is need of great breadth of view; there is need of dispassionate study to see if they can be maintained, if the fulfilment of the impossible or unjust conditions demanded of the conquered countries will not do more harm to the conquerors, will not, in point of actual fact, pave the way to their ruin.

If there is one thing, Lloyd George has said, which will never be forgotten or forgiven, it is arrogance and injustice in the hour of triumph.  We have never tired of saying that Germany is the most barbarous among civilized countries, that under her civilization is hidden all the barbarism of mediaeval times, that she puts into practice the doctrine of might over right.  At the present moment it is our duty to ask ourselves if something of the principles which we have for so long been attributing to Germany has not passed over to the other side, if in our own hearts there is not a bitterness of hatred clouding our judgment and robbing our programme of all action that can do real good.

Prussia won the war against Austria-Hungary in 1866, and did not ask for or impose any really onerous terms.  It was contented with having regained hegemony among the German people.  Prussia conquered France in 1870.  It was an unjust war, and Prussia laid down two unjust conditions:  Alsace-Lorraine and the indemnity of five milliards.  As soon as the indemnity was paid—­and it was an indemnity that could be paid in one lump sum—­Prussia evacuated the occupied territory.  It did not claim of France its colonies or its fleet, it did not impose the reduction of its armaments or control of its transport after the peace.  The Treaty of Frankfort is a humanitarian act compared with the Treaty of Versailles.

If Germany had won the War—­Germany to whom we have always attributed the worst possible intentions—­what could it have done that the Entente has not done?  It is possible that, as it is gifted with more practical common sense, it might have laid down less impossible conditions in order to gain a secure advantage without ruining the conquered countries.

There are about ninety millions of Germans in Europe, and perhaps fifteen millions in different countries outside Europe.  But in the heart of Europe they represent a great ethnic unity; they are the largest and most compact national group in that continent.  With all the good and bad points of their race, too methodical and at the same time easily depressed by a severe setback, they are still the most cultivated people on earth.  It is impossible to imagine that they can disappear, much less that they can reconcile themselves to live in a condition of slavery.  On the other hand, the Entente has built on a foundation of shifting sand a Europe full of small States poisoned with imperialism and in ruinous conditions of economy and finance, and a too great Poland without a national basis and necessarily the enemy of Russia and of Germany.