Chapter 5 Volume 1 Chapter 1 The Folly of the Winner

1919｜1929 Fighting to eradicate wars Bloodshed French Rhine borders Economic clauses of the Treaty of Versailles Ignorance of reparations Treaties of Saint-Germain and Trianon wiped out the Austro-Hungarian Empire Weimar Republic United States Rejection of Anglo-American Warrants to France Clay The Fall of Manceau Poincare's Occupation of the Ruhrmark The Collapse of the American Isolation Policy The End of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance The reason for the moral decay of the Second World War was the failure to disarm Germany. After the First World War, there was a strong belief, and an almost universal hope, that the world would enjoy peace.This heartfelt desire of the peoples of all countries would have been easily realized if everyone had adhered to the belief in justice and dealt with matters according to common sense and prudence.The phrase "fighting to abolish war" has become a common phrase, and steps have been taken to make it a reality.President Wilson, who was considered to hold the power of the United States at the time, had made the idea of ​​the League of Nations deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.The British delegation at Versailles shaped and concretized his vision into an institution that will forever remain a milestone in the arduous progress of mankind.The victorious Allies were now, at least as far as their foreign enemies were concerned, extremely powerful.They had to deal with serious difficulties at home and with many difficult questions which they did not know how to answer.The Teutonic countries, which were the culprits of the turmoil in most of Central Europe, have prostrated themselves before them; Russia, which suffered a great deal from the heavy blow of Germany, has fallen into civil war and turmoil, and has gradually fallen into the hands of the Bolsheviks or the Communist Party.

In the summer of 1919, Allied troops were stationed along the Rhine, their bridgeheads wedged deep into defeated, disarmed, and starving Germany.Leaders of the victorious nations discussed and debated future measures in Paris.Before them was a map of Europe, which they could redraw almost at will.After fifty-two months of hardship and risk, the Teutonic League, of which not one of the four countries offered the slightest resistance to the will of the Entente, bowed to them at last.Germany, the chief culprit, recognized as responsible for the devastation upon the world, was now at the mercy of the conqueror, who himself seemed reeling from the ordeal.This time the war is not a war between governments, but a war between nations.All the life energies of the great powers are poured into anger and killing.The wartime leaders assembled in Paris felt at that time the pressure of a current as powerful and violent as never before in human history.Gone are the days of the peace of Utrecht and of Vienna, when aristocratic statesmen and diplomats, victors and losers alike, met and discussed with the courteous deliberations of a less democratic politics. In such a rowdy dispute, they are free to reform institutions on the basis of commonly recognized fundamental principles.

Now, the suffering peoples of all countries have been agitated by a mass of propaganda and education, so that hundreds of millions of people are unanimously insisting that complete revenge must be carried out.It will be unlucky for the leader on the summit of dizzying triumph to give up at the table what his warriors have won in the bloody battle of the battlefield. France, by virtue of its efforts and sacrifices, is rightfully in the lead.The French lost almost one and a half million men in defense of their homeland against invaders.The bell tower of Notre Dame de Paris has witnessed the dazzling swords of Prussia five times in a hundred years (1814, 1815, 1870, 1914 and 1918) , heard the deafening roar of guns.And this time, the thirteen departments of France were under the harsh military rule of Prussia for four miserable years.Large tracts of land were devastated by the enemy one after another, or reduced to scorched earth in fierce battles between the two armies.Nearly every farmhouse and family between Verdun and Toulon is mourning the death of a loved one, or caring for a disabled survivor.

To the French who fought in and suffered from the War of 1870, many of whom have become prominent figures, France's participation in this war which has just ended was incomparably more brutal. It is almost a miracle that China actually won.All their lives they had been terrified of the German Reich.They did not forget Bismarck's attempt at preventive war in 1875; Both the Agadir crisis of 1911 and the Agadir crisis made them shudder.The speeches of the Kaiser's iron fists and shining armor, which may be ridiculed to the English and American ears, are, to the French, a sure harbinger of disaster.For almost fifty years they lived under the terror of German force.Now at the cost of blood, this long-term repression has been lifted.Peace and security have finally been achieved.The French people shouted with enthusiasm:

There must never be a second time! But the future is full of ominous signs.France's population is less than two-thirds that of Germany's.France's population is unchanged, while Germany's is growing.In ten years or less, a large number of young Germans will reach military service every year, surely twice as many as in France.Germany once almost single-handedly fought against almost the whole world, and almost conquered the world.Those who know the situation well know that there have been many occasions when the outcome of a great war was so close that only chance and chance brought it about.However, if there are any disturbances in the future, will the powerful Allied Powers send millions of troops to the French battlefield or the Eastern Front again?Russia is in disintegration and turmoil, beyond recognition.Italy is quite likely to stand on the side of the enemy.Britain and the United States are separated from Europe by oceans or seas.The British Empire seemed to be held together by ties hardly understood by anyone but the citizens of the Empire.Under what circumstances will the mighty Canadians at Vimy Hill, the honorable Australians at Villers-Bretonneau, the fearless New Zealanders at bomb-cratered Parsondale, and Will the staunch Indian regiments that held the Armantières line in the harsh winter of 1914 come again to France and Flanders?When will peace-loving, insensitive, and anti-militarist Britain once again send two or three million troops across the plains of Artois and Picardy?When will the two million outstanding children of the United States cross the ocean again and drive to Champagne and Argonne?France, though the undisputed master, was exhausted and depopulated; and it looked to the future with a mixture of gratitude and trepidation.Where is the safety?Without security, all that is gained seems meaningless, and life itself, even amid the cheers of victory, is unbearable.The most pressing need is security, and it must be obtained at any cost and by any means, even harsh, even cruel.

On the day of the armistice, the German troops returned home in order.At this time, Marshal Foch, the commander-in-chief of the Allied Powers, wearing the crown of glory, said with military style: They fought well, let them keep their weapons.But he demanded that in the future the border of France must be moved to the Rhine.Germany would be disarmed; her military system would be smashed; her fortresses would be destroyed; Germany would be impoverished; In ten years, it will all be a thing of the past.The indestructible might of all the Germanic peoples will return, and the flames of the unquenched Prussian warriors will be kindled again, but the Rhine, wide and deep and fast-flowing, can be a defense, once it is garrisoned and fortified by a French army. The natural moat of France, the French on the other side of the river can live a peaceful life for generations.But the feelings and opinions of the English-speaking world were very different from those of France, which had long since been conquered without their aid.The territorial provisions in the Treaty of Versailles actually left the German territory intact.It remains the largest single-ethnic state in Europe.When Marshal Foch heard the news of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, he said with great precision: this is not peace.It was a twenty-year truce.

The economic provisions of the peace treaty were so severe and stupid that they were obviously impossible to implement.Germany was sentenced to pay staggeringly large reparations.This regulation reflects the anger of the victors, and it also reflects the ignorance of the people of the victorious country that in fact no defeated country can afford the amount of reparations equivalent to the cost of modern wars. The masses have always been ignorant of this simplest economic fact; and the leaders, bent on winning votes, dare not explain it to them.Newspapers, like leaders, reflect and emphasize popular opinion.Almost no one came out to explain: the repayment of indemnity can only be realized by providing military service or exporting materials by vehicles or ships to foreign countries; and when these materials are shipped to the country claiming compensation, unless the country is extremely Primitive or tightly controlled society whose domestic industry would otherwise be disrupted.In fact, the only way to plunder a defeated country is to carry away what is needed and moveable, and to drive a part of the defeated country into permanent or temporary labor.Even Russia has now learned this, but the benefits obtained in this way cannot be compared with the cost of war.But no one in power in every country at that time realized this, and was able to go beyond or get rid of the ignorance of the public to announce this basic and ruthless truth to the voters; even if they said it, no one would believe it.The victorious Entente continued to insist on squeezing Germany until the little ones squeaked.All this had a profound effect on the prosperity of the world and the mood of the Germanic peoples.

However, these provisions have never been implemented in practice.On the contrary, although the victorious powers confiscated about one billion pounds of German assets, a few years later, the loans to Germany, mainly from Britain and the United States, amounted to more than one billion and fifty million pounds, thus enabling Germany to quickly recover from the ruins of the war. Zhong revived.This is obviously generous, but at the same time, in the victorious countries, the wretched and unhappy people continue to cry out in the same way, while their politicians promise that Germany will hand over the last penny. It is impossible to expect and obtain the gratitude or goodwill of Germany.

Germany ended up paying only, and only, the reparations that were later stipulated, because the United States was generously extending Europe, and Germany in particular, enormous loans.In fact, in the three years from 1926 to 1929, the reparations recovered by the United States in the form of amortized repayments in various ways were only about one-fifth of the loans to Germany that had no hope of being repaid. , yet everyone seemed happy and seemed to think this could go on forever. History will judge all of these practices as acts of madness.They help breed the plague of war and economic storms (more on this later).Germany now borrows from all directions, greedily devouring every credit that is generously extended to it.Misconceptions about aiding the defeated countries, combined with the favorable rate of interest on such loans, brought in British investors, though on a much smaller scale than in the United States.In this way, Germany received a loan of 1.5 billion pounds. In contrast, it paid only 1 billion pounds in reparations, and the payment methods were various, either by giving away its assets and foreign exchange abroad, or by using the U.S. The huge loan juggle.All this is a miserable tale of every kind of folly, and what labors and virtues have been lost in its writing!

The second major tragedy was the complete dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by the Treaty of St. Germain and the Treaty of Trianon.For centuries, this surviving incarnation of the Holy Roman Empire had enabled many different peoples to enjoy a common life, and enjoy the benefits of trade and security.But in our time none of these peoples has the strength and vigor to resist the pressure of a revived Germany or Russia in its own right.All these peoples wished to secede from the federal or imperial system, and this wish was encouraged by a policy which was regarded as liberal. The rapid fragmentation of southeastern Europe into smaller states resulted in the relative enlargement of the Prussian and German empires, worn out and scarred by defeat, but still territorially intact and overwhelmingly preponderant there.All the peoples and provinces of the Habsburg Empire, who gained their independence, fell into the same miserable situation as the ancient poets and theologians described the ghosts in hell.

The splendid capital of Vienna, home to long-preserved culture and traditions and the center of many roads, railways and rivers, has become desolate and starving, like a giant in a ghetto where most of its inhabitants have been dispersed. shopping mall. The victors imposed upon the Germans the long-sought ideals of the liberal nations of the West.The Germans have since been relieved of the burden of forced military service and no longer need to maintain a huge armament.Although they have no credit at all, a large number of American loans have flowed in.In Weimar, a democratic constitution was drawn up with the final amendments.The emperor was deposed, and the non-nobles were elected.Beneath this fragile structure, the enthusiasm of the mighty, defeated but virtually intact German nation surged.Americans have long had a prejudice against the monarchy, and Lloyd George has no attempt to resist it. This is like telling the defeated empire that establishing a republic will get better treatment from the Allied Powers than maintaining the monarchy.In fact, the wise policy would be to transform the Weimar Republic into a constitutional monarchy, with the Kaiser's young grandson as constitutional monarch, and a separate Regent to govern, so that it could be strengthened and consolidated.Unfortunately, this was not done, and a vacuum was created in the state life of the German people.All powerful factions, including feudal forces and soldiers, could have gathered under the constitutional monarchy and respected and supported the new democratic parliamentary system for this system, but now they are temporarily falling apart.The Weimar Republic, with all its liberal trappings and blessings, was seen as imposed on them by the enemy, unable to command the loyalty and imagination of the German people.For a while, the German people had to pin their hopes on the aging Marshal Hindenburg.Shortly thereafter, the mighty forces were vacillated, the vacuum was exposed, and a moment later, a madman of a savage nature, a concentrated representative of the most venomous hatred ever seen to eat into the human heart, appeared The man who strode into this vacuum was Corporal Hitler. France has been devastated by war.The generation that had wanted to fight a war of vengeance since 1870 had been victorious, but its national power had been severely depleted.It was an exhausted France that greeted the dawn of victory. From the day of her brilliant victory, France had a great fear of Germany.It was precisely because of this fear that Marshal Foch demanded that France's borders be pushed to the Rhine for France's security and to deal with its far more powerful neighbors.However, British and American politicians believed that if the areas inhabited by Germans were merged into French territory, it would violate the fourteen points proposed by President Wilson and also violate the principles of nationalism and national self-determination based on the Versailles Peace Treaty.So they rejected Foch's and France's demands.In order to fight for Clemenceau, they promised: first, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly ensure the security of France; second, the establishment of a demilitarized zone; third, the complete and permanent disarmament of Germany.Clemenceau accepted, despite his own reluctance and Foch's objections.So Wilson, Lloyd George, and Clemenceau signed the Treaty of Guarantee, but the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty, vetoing Wilson's signature. Throughout the course of the conclusion of the peace treaty, with the utmost respect for the opinions and wishes of President Wilson, we were at last not very politely informed that we should have a better understanding of the Constitution of the United States. In the midst of the fear, anger, and confusion of the French people, Clemenceau, a world-renowned authority, with special contacts with Britain and America, was suddenly abandoned by the French.Plutarch [1] said: Ingratitude to their great men is the mark of a strong nation.It would be imprudent for France to fall into such a temper when she was so severely weakened.In the Third Republic the intrigues of political blocs were revived again, and the frequent changes of ministers in the government, which were either profitable or enjoyed by those who participated in them, were, at any rate, characteristic of the Third Republic. , in this case, it is very difficult to find a strong figure equivalent to Clemenceau to replace him. 【1】Ancient Greek writer (about AD 46 | 120 AD).translator The most powerful figure after Clemenceau was Poincaré, who attempted to establish an independent Rhineland under French patronage and domination.It is simply impossible to succeed.He did not hesitate to march on the Ruhr in order to force Germany to pay reparations.This was of course to force Germany to abide by the peace treaty, but it was severely condemned by public opinion in Britain and the United States.The general financial and political chaos in Germany, coupled with the payment of several reparations between 1919 and 1923, resulted in a rapid collapse of the Mark.The French occupation of the Ruhr aroused great indignation in Germany, and consequently led to a mass flood of paper money, which systematically and purposefully destroyed the basis of this currency.At the last stage of inflation, forty-three trillion marks were worth a pound.This inflation had extremely nasty and far-reaching social and economic consequences.The savings of the middle class were wiped out, which provided a natural follower for the banner of National Socialism.The trusts have grown so rapidly that they have destroyed the entire structure of German industry.All working capital is gone.Domestic debts and industrial debts secured and mortgaged by fixed capital must of course also be liquidated or written off at the same time, but this is not enough to compensate for the loss of working capital.The immediate result of all these circumstances was the massive foreign borrowing by a bankrupt country which characterized the next few years.The Germans grieve as much as they do now. The attitude of the British towards Germany, initially very harsh, soon turned in the other direction and went too far.Lloyd George was at odds with Poincare, whose excitable character had become an obstacle to his firm and far-sighted policies.The two countries were at odds in thought and deed; and the British sympathy, or even admiration, for Germany had been strongly expressed. The League of Nations suffered an almost fatal blow when it was just established.The United States has abandoned the principles laid out by President Wilson.The president himself was ready to continue to fight for his ideals, but when he was starting an election campaign, he suffered a stroke. After that, for nearly two long and important periods, he was entangled in illness and became a disabled person who could not work. Until 1920, the Republican Party won the presidential election, which replaced his party and his policies.Immediately after the Republican victory, isolationist thinking prevailed across the Atlantic.Leave Europe to its own devices, but the legal debt must be repaid.At the same time, tariffs have been raised to hinder the importation of goods, but only by these goods can the debt be repaid.At the Washington Conference of 1921, the United States proposed far-reaching naval reductions, and the British and American governments zealously scuttled their ships and demolished their military installations.According to a curious logic, there is no moral justification for disarming the defeated country unless the victorious country disarms itself.Not only did France completely fail to claim the Rhine frontier and guarantee treaties, but because she still maintained a greatly reduced army based on universal service, France became the object of Anglo-American criticism. The United States made it clear to Britain that the continuation of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, to which Japan had adhered, would become an obstacle to Anglo-American relations.And so the alliance came to an end. The abolition of the alliance caused strong repercussions in Japan, who believed that the Western world had kicked an Asian country away.Many links were severed, and these links may well be of decisive value for the subsequent peace.But at the same time, Japan also has something to comfort itself: the defeat of Germany and Russia has made it rise to the third place in the ranking list of world naval powers within a certain period of time.According to the provisions of the Washington Naval Agreement on the ratio of five, five, and three capital ships, although Japan's capital ship strength is relatively low compared with that of the United Kingdom and the United States, the ratio stipulated for it depends on its shipbuilding capabilities and In terms of financial capacity, it will take many years to achieve.Japan also watched closely that the two largest naval powers, Britain and the United States, were reducing each other's strengths far short of what their resources could supply and what their obligations demanded.Thus, whether in Europe or Asia, the conditions quickly created by the victorious Allies in the name of peace cleared the way for a new war. While all these unfortunate events were happening, and people on both sides of the Atlantic were endlessly talking about well-intentioned platitudes, a new source of strife arose in Europe, a new source of strife than the tsar and the tsar. The Kaiser's imperialism was even more terrifying.The Russian Civil War ended with the absolute victory of the Bolshevik Revolution.The Soviet Russian army set out to conquer Poland was indeed repulsed at the Battle of Warsaw, but Germany and Italy were all but conquered by Communist propaganda and intrigue, and Hungary did for a time fall to the hands of the Communist dictator Bela Kuhn. under the rule.Although Marshal Foch wisely said that Bolshevism had never crossed the border of victory, in the first few years after the war the foundations of European civilization appeared to be in jeopardy.Fascism is the shadow or ugly son of communism.Corporal Hitler in Munich tried his best to incite soldiers and workers to a mad hatred of Jews and Communists, saying that they were responsible for Germany's defeat, so as to enable himself to serve the German officer class; while another adventurer, Benito Messo Lini provided Italy with a new set of governance plans, claiming that it could save the Italian people from communism and take the opportunity to seize dictatorship for itself.Fascism grew out of Communism, and Nazism grew out of Fascism.then.These movements of the same blood came to life, and soon threw the world into a still more terrible strife; no one can now say that this strife has ended by the destruction of these movements. Even so, a credible guarantee of peace remains.Germany has been disarmed; all her guns and weapons have been destroyed; her ships have scuttled themselves at Scapa Flow in England; her great army has been disbanded.According to the Treaty of Versailles, in order to maintain domestic order, Germany was only allowed to have a long-serving professional army with a number of no more than 100,000, and it could not be used as a basis to increase reserve personnel.The recruits recruited within the quota each year are no longer receiving military training; the cadres who trained the army have been dismissed.Every effort was made to reduce the number of officers to one-tenth. Any military aircraft are prohibited.Submarines were banned, and the German navy was limited to a few ships under 10,000 tons.Several countries vehemently opposed to the Bolsheviks formed a defensive line separating Soviet Russia from Western Europe, countries that had just shaken off the Tsarist Empire, now in a new and more terrifying form.Poland and Czechoslovakia held their heads high and seemed to stand tall in Central Europe.Hungary recovered from a mess that took Bella Kuhn's medication wrongly.The French army, contented with its laurels, was the most powerful military force unrivaled in Europe; and for some years thereafter it was believed that the French air force was also of the first class. Until 1934, the power of the conquerors was unconquerable in Europe, and one might say in the whole world.During these sixteen years, the three countries of the former Entente, or even only Britain and France and their partners in Europe, can use the name of the League of Nations, the moral force of the League of Nations and the international Backed by strength, to control the military power of Germany.Unfortunately, neither did.On the contrary, until 1931, the victorious powers, especially the United States, made every effort to extort annual reparations from Germany by means of annoying foreign control.And the fact that Germany was able to pay was dependent on a much larger loan from the United States, which made the whole process absurd.Got nothing but resentment.On the other hand, by 1934, if the terms of the peace treaty concerning the disarmament of Germany had been strictly implemented, the peace and security of mankind could have been safeguarded for a long time without the use of force and without the shedding of blood.However, when the breach of contract is still minor, no one cares about it; and when the breach of contract reaches a serious level, it is ignored.In this way, the last guarantee of a lasting peace is in vain.In the folly of the victor the crime of the vanquished finds its conditions and explanations, though by no means excuses, in the folly of the victor. Without these follies, crime has neither temptation nor opportunity. I have narrated events and impressions in this chapter, in order to illustrate, in my mind, how a tragedy unprecedented in the tumultuous history of mankind befell. This tragedy is not only manifested in the loss of life and property inevitably caused by war.In the First World War, soldiers committed horrific carnage, and the accumulated wealth of nations was wiped out, but, apart from the extreme excesses of the Russian Revolution, the basic structure of European civilization stood firm until the end of the war .When the smoke and dust of the bombardment of the cannon suddenly dissipated, the belligerent countries, although their enemies remained, still recognized each other's time-honored racial personality.The laws of war were largely respected.There is also a common ground of professionalism between soldiers on both sides of the war.Regardless of the victorious country or the defeated country, they all maintain the demeanor of a civilized country.A solemn peace was established, which, apart from the impracticable economic terms, conformed to the principles of relations between civilized nations which were constantly adjusted in the nineteenth century.The rule of law was recognized, and worldwide institutions were formed to safeguard us all, and Europe in particular, from a recurrence of the turmoil. However, in the Second World War, all relationships between people disappeared.The Germans, who voluntarily placed themselves under Hitler, committed a heinous crime on a scale and a heinous character that no dark record in human history has ever known.Germany's concentration camps massacred six or seven million men, women, and children in a systematic and large-scale manner. The degree of horror is even more terrifying than Genghis Khan's indiscriminate killing. Even more insignificant.During the war on the Eastern Front, both Germany and Russia planned and carried out total population annihilation.The atrocities of air raids on undefended cities, once begun by Germany, were retaliated on twenty times the scale by the increasingly powerful Allies, culminating in the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bombs. Now we are at last freed from a catastrophe of material destruction and moral degradation such as has been unimaginable for centuries. But after all our sufferings and successes come our problems and dangers, not less, but much greater, than those we have overcome with difficulty. It is my purpose, as a man who lived and worked in those days, to show the reader how the tragedy of the Second World War could have been easily avoided; How, if not united into a larger institution, its institutions and customs lack those qualities of fortitude and confidence which alone give security to the common people.How can we have no policy on self-defense for a period of ten or fifteen years.In this book we shall see how prudent and restrained opinions can be the chief factor in causing serious dangers;We will also see how, during these years, regardless of political changes in various countries, it is absolutely necessary for countries to take broad international action together. The simplest policy would be to have Germany disarmed within thirty years, while the victorious powers would maintain full military strength; and during this period, if no agreement could be reached with Germany, a stronger real League of Nations would be established , the League of Nations must be able to guarantee the implementation of the treaty, or it must be discussed and agreed by all parties before it can be modified.Since the governments of three or four great powers once demanded the greatest sacrifice from their own people, and the people did not hesitate to go all out for the common cause and finally achieved the long-awaited result; then, the countries should maintain a coordinated It should be said that it is a very reasonable requirement to act so that at least the most fundamental things are not lost. However, for this not excessive requirement, the victor's strength, civilization, learning, knowledge and science cannot satisfy it.They still go from day to day, from one election to the next, and it turns out that just two decades later, the dire signs of the Second World War appeared. I can only describe it like this: They marched on aching shoulders, with heavy steps, Leave the bright wilderness of life. 【１】 [1] Quoted from Siegfried Sassoon.