greatly in excess of the numbers for which a liveli-hood was available; its organisation was destroyed,its transport system ruptured, and its food suppliesterribly impaired.
It was the task of the Peace Conference to honourengagements and to satisfy justice; but not lessto re-establish life and to heal wounds. These taskswere dictated as much by prudence as by the mag-nanimity which the wisdom of antiquity approvedin victors. We will examine in the following chaptersthe actual character of the Peace.