58 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE ch.

to whom we do not wish to be just." (2) " Nospecial or separate interest of any single nation orany group of nations can be made the basis of anypart of the settlement which is not consistent withthe common interest of all." (3) "There can be noleagues or alliances or special covenants and under-standings within the general and common family ofthe League of Nations ." (4) " There can be no specialselfish economic combinations within the League andno employment of any form of economic boycott orexclusion, except as the power of economic penaltyby exclusion from the markets of the world may bevested in the League of Nations itself as a meansof discipline and control." (5) " All internationalagreements and treaties of every kind must be madeknown in their entirety to the rest of the world."

This wise and magnanimous programme for theworld had passed on November 5, 1918, beyond theregion of idealism and aspiration, and had becomepart of a solemn contract to which all the GreatPowers of the world had put their signature. But itwas lost, nevertheless, in the morass of Paris;—thespirit of it altogether, the letter in parts ignored andin other parts distorted.

The German observations on the draft Treaty ofPeace were largely a comparison between the terms ofthis understanding, on the basis of which the German nation had agreed to lay down its arms, and the actualprovisions of the document offered them for signature