3* Proposals for the Reconstructionof Europe (1919)

(i) The Revision of the Treaty

Are any constitutional means open to us foraltering the Treaty? President Wilson andGeneral Smuts, who believe that to have securedthe Covenant of the League of Nations out-weighs much evil in the rest of the Treaty , haveindicated that we must look to the League forthe gradual evolution of a more tolerable lifefor Europe . “There are territorial settle-ments,” General Smuts wrote in his statementon signing the Peace Treaty , “which will needrevision. There are guarantees laid downwhich we all hope will soon be found out ofharmony with the new peaceful temper andunarmed state of our former enemies. Thereare punishments foreshadowed over most ofwhich a calmer mood may yet prefer to passthe sponge of oblivion. There are indem-nities stipulated which cannot be exactedwithout grave injury to the industrial revival ofEurope , and which it will be in the interests ofall to render more tolerable and moderate. . . .I am confident that the League of Nations willyet prove the path of escape for Europe out of

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