The United States and French security 1917-1921: A study of the Treaty of Guarantee

323 Pages·014.581 MB·English

by  Yates, Louise Allmond Richard

THE UNITED STATES AND FRENCH SECURITY, 1917-1921
A STUDY OF THE TREATY OF GUARANTEE ‘
A Dissertation
Presented to
the Faculty of the Graduate School
University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
t>y
Louis Allmond Richard Yates
May 1950
UMI Number: DP28680
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This dissertation, written by
Loui.s. .Allmond_RichaM .......
under the guidance of h.%3.... Faculty Committee
on Studies, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the Council
on Graduate Study and Research, in partial ful­
fillment of requirements for the degree of
DO CTO R OF P H ILO S O P H Y
Committee on Studies
(I.
airman
PREFACE
In this study I attempted to do three things: First,
to show why the French attitude on security in general and
against Germany in particular was inconsistent with many of
the ideas of President Wilson and Lloyd George as they ex­
pressed them at Versailles; second, to show the extreme im­
portance of the Guarantee Treaty in resolving the deadlock
in point one; third, to show the reactions of the British
and the French (briefly) to the Aid Pact, and also that of
the United States because of the revolutionary import which
the Pact held in American foreign policy.
While it is true that many detailed analyses have
been made of the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations
Covenant, yet heretofore there has been little study devoted
to the Guarantee Treaty, Although the aid treaty was a
supplemental one, nevertheless it was one of the most im­
portant agreements made at the conference. By means of it
the French, British, and Americans were able to compromise
their disagreements and thus enable the Peace of 1919 to be
formally defined in treaty form.
In the preparation of this study the author has made
use of many documents, histories, memoirs, reports, official
papers, diaries, and letters. In order to study many offi­
cial French reports and documents, the author was permitted
to use the excellent facilities of the Hoover Library on War,
Revolution and Peace. A partial list of the French records
includes: Journal Officiel de la R^publique Francaise.
Chamhre des D^put^s, D^bats Parlementaires. 19199 1920, 1921;
J ournal Officiel de la H^publiaue Francaise, Chamhre des
D^put^s, D^bats Parlementaires. 1919, Tome LXXXXIII, 1919,
Session Ordinaire, Documents Parlementaires: Journal Officiel
de la R^publique Franpaise. Chambre des D^put^s, Documents
Parlementaires. 1919; J ournal Officiel de la R^publique
Francaise. Chambre des D6put£s, Documents Parlementaires. 1919,
Session Ordinaire; Annales du S^nat. D^bats Parlementaires.
Documents Parlementaires. Session Ordinaire de 1919, Paris,
1920; J ournal Officiel de la R^publique Francaise, S^nat,
D^bats Parlementaires. 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921; J ournal
Officiel de la R6publique Francaise. S^nat, Documents
Parlementaires. Paris, 1919, 1920, 1921; J ournal Officiel
de la R^publique Francaise. S^nat, Documents Parlementaires.
Paris, 1919, Session Ordinaire, Annexe No. 562; J ournal
Officiel de la R6publique Francaise. Slnat, Documents Parle­
mentaires, 1920, Session Ordinaire; fetat des Pro.iets et
Propositions de Loi Soumis a L rExamen Du S^nat, . . . 1920-
1922; Comit6 d'Etudes, Travaux du Comitl d'Etudes. and
several of the leading French newspapers. Likewise at the
Hoover Library the author had access to the British and
Foreign State Papers. the Parliamentary Debates of the House
of Lords and the House of Commons, as well as complete files
of the Parliamentary (Command) Papers for the period under
study, and a complete set of the privately printed limited
edition of Hunter Miller's My Diary at the Conference of
Paris. which was found to contain invaluable materials.
Furthermore, many documents and records of the American
government were available there. For all the kindnesses
and the unusual courtesy extended to me by the staff of the
Hoover Library at Leland Stanford Jr. University, I am
extremely grateful. Generous appreciation is also due to
the staff members of the Doheny Memorial Library of the
University of Southern California for their assistance in
making available the official documents of the United States
in the field of the Paris Peace Conference, the Papers
Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States.
Senate Documents, and the Congressional Record. Also, the
extensive documentary collections and related works on the
Versailles Treaty and the Paris Peace Conference which were
provided by the Library of International Affairs at the
University of Southern California were very helpful. The
Los Angeles Public Library and the Library at George Pepper-
dine College gave valuable assistance. Finally, the mater­
ials made available at the University of California, Los
Angeles branch, Bradley University, and the Library of
Congress have been greatly appreciated.
The author wishes also to express his deep appreciation
V
to the many professors at the University of Southern
California who have actively helped me and encouraged me in
this work* Especial thanks are due to Professor Richard W. .
Van Alstyne who has given unstintingly of his time and
ability to assist me in this undertaking.
There has been no intention of doing other than
showing the basic relationship between the Guarantee Pact and
the manner in which it enahled the greater peace treaty to be
written. Implicit in this is the meaning of the pact to the
United States and to Prance in the field of foreign relations.
No attempt was made to analyze the many other difficult
problems confronting the Conference in 1919. Some attention
is devoted to the League of Nations because of its direct
bearing on the question under investigation. Other aspects
of this study are: when, by whom, why, and how did the idea
of assisting Prance develop into a Guarantee Pact? Were
there instances of the attitudes of the American or the
British delegates on this subject of French aid being trans­
lated into an article or part of the treaty? Can one account
for the variations in phraseology between the British and
the American versions? To what extent did the Treaty serve
to exemplify a radical departure from the conventional or
traditional foreign policies of the United States? It is
well understood that motives may be impugned, defended, and
(at times) supplied. Motives exist even when no evidence
vi
can be shown as authority for them.
It is the desire of the author that this study may
dispel much of the relative obscurity which has shrouded the
Guarantee Pact and in perspective give the pact greater
importance than it has enjoyed so far.
TABLE OP CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE............................................... ii
INTRODUCTION .......................................... ix
CHAPTER
I, THE PAST IS PROLOGUE............. * ............ 1
II. THE VERSAILLES CONFERENCE--A QUEST FOR PEACE
AND SECURITY............................... 10
III. THE GUARANTEE TREATY
PART A. Its Origin and H istory......... 3&
PART B. Its Analysis and Importance..... 90
IV. HOW THE FRENCH REACTED TO THE SECURITY. PACT . . 117
V. HOW THE BRITISH REACTED TO THE GUARANTEE PACT . 13^
VI. THE GUARANTEE TREATY--HOW THE UNITED STATES
REACTED TO IT ............................... lljlj.
VII. SOME OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS ON THE IMPOR­
TANCE OF THE GUARANTEE TREATY........... 189
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................... 200
APPENDIX A. Outline of the Contents of the Treaty of
Versailles.......................... 228
APPENDIX B. Memorandum of Marshal F o c h ............... 233
APPENDIX C. Some Considerations for the peace Con­
ference Before They Draft Their Terms . . 2I4I4.
APPENDIX D. The Fourteen Points......................‘ 251
APPENDIX E. The French Memorandum on the Rhineland
Question............................ 2514-
viii
APPENDIX P. French Note of* Reply to the March llj.,
1919, Letter of President Wilson and
Prime Minister Lloyd George .............. 278
APPENDIX G. The Covenant of the League of Nations . . 283
APPENDIX H. The Treaties of Guarantee......... 295
APPENDIX I# Treaty of Peace between the United States
and Germany (short outline) .............. 302