"PRESIDENT SAID FRANCE MADE WASTE PAPER OF TREATY"

FRENCH RESENT WILSON'S ARMISTICE DAY REMARKS REGARDING VERSAILLES TREATY 

Paris, France (JFK+50) On November 12, 1923, The Evening Star reports "the tenor of former President (Woodrow) Wilson's address, broadcast throughout the United States Saturday night, created a disagreeable impression" here in Paris.

In the broadcast, Mr. Wilson referred to France as "making waste paper" of the Treaty of Versailles*.  This, the French found "particularly" resentful.

*Treaty of Versailles (1919) ended the state of war between Germany & most of the Allied powers.  The U.S. did not ratify the treaty & signed a separate peace with Germany.  French Marshall Foch criticized the treaty for being too lenient on the Germans.

SOURCE

"Wilson Remarks Resented In Paris," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., November 12, 1923, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Evening News Placard

Imperial War Museum

"TO PAY 30 BILLION GOLD MARKS"

GERMAN GOVERNMENT PROPOSES NEW REPARATIONS OFFER 

Berlin,Germany (JFK+50) On May 2,1923, the German government made a new reparations* offer proposing to pay thirty billion gold marks to cover the total amount owed according to the Treaty of Versailles**.

A bond issue at normal interest rates will be the proposed means of covering the amount of payment.

According to the Alaska Daily Empire, if the proposed amount is unsatisfactory, the matter will fall into the hands of an "unprejudiced international commission" which has been the suggestion of U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes.

*reparations-compensation given for an abuse or injury

**The Treaty of Versailles (1919) required Germany to pay 133 billion German marks, equivalent to 33 billion US dollars, to cover civilian damage caused in WWI. 

SOURCE

"New Reparations Proposals Are Made By German Government," The Alaska Daily Empire, May 2, 1923, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

Coat of Arms of the Weimar Republic

by David Liuzzo (2006)