Enforcing morals overseas – a difficult situation

The American delegation

It was a great victory for President Woodrow Wilson of the United States to achieve so many of his controversial aims. He managed to secure the creation of a “League of Nations” to “afford mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity” (Motion 3) and to form a Court of Justice under this new body of equally represented nations of the world. War trials of the German Kaiser and the military will be the first cases in this International Court of Law.

Territorially, his points of returning Alsace-Lorraine to France, creating and independent Poland with access to the sea, restoring Belgium to her neutrality and generally allowing peoples in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire the right to self-determination were successful. For example, the Port of Trieste on the Dalmatian coast was to hold a plebiscite to decide which country to belong to: Italy or Serbia. However, this motion was repealed unanimously, a contradiction in Wilson’s policies that can perhaps be justified in the Italian and Serbian threat to go to war over the port if it was not unquestioningly given over to Serbia (while Italy would receive the German naval bases along that coast).

Wilson did manage to get the promise of the reduction of world armaments to a minimum for self-defence.

The United States was also disappointed by the Treaty of Versailles. Reparations from Germany were assured to all nations proportionally to their need, the German navy was to be split up among the Allied powers, and Germany was annihilated. By the end of the half-day session, Germany had been partly given over to Poland, and the rest was broken into 3 small states. The most crushing blow to the United States and which left Mr. Wilson in a state of shock, and then anger, was the “cleaning” of all debts within the Allied powers, including those to the USA. Wilson was grumpy and for the rest of the session remained very bitter.

Mr Wilson opposing the "cleaning of all debts" motion

Mr. Wilson had the misfortune of being caught on camera making a secret deal with Mr. Orlando of Italy.