Ill

THE CONFERENCE

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in excess of that of France ; she had become oneof the first manufacturing and trading nations ofthe world; her technical skill and her means forthe production of future wealth were unequalled.France on the other hand had a stationary or de-clining population, and, relatively to others, hadfallen seriously behind in wealth and in the powerto produce it.

In spite, therefore, of France 's victorious issuefrom the present struggle (with the aid, this time,of England and America ), her future position re-mained precarious in the eyes of one who took theview that European civil war is to be regarded as anormal, or at least a recurrent, state of affairs forthe future, and that the sort of conflicts betweenorganised great powers which have occupied thepast hundred years will also engage the next.According to this vision of the future, European history is to be a perpetual prize-fight, of whichFrance has won this round, but of which this roundis certainly not the last. From the belief thatessentially the old order does not change, beingbased on human nature which is always the same,and from a consequent scepticism of all that classof doctrine which the League of Nations stands for,the policy of France and of Clemenceau followedlogically. For a Peace of magnanimity or of fairand equal treatment, based on such " ideology " asthe Fourteen Points of the President, could only