14 A REVISION OF THE TREATY chap.

tive ; and by gradual stages the project of revisingthe Treaty gained ground in every quarter. TheConferences furnish an extraordinary example ofMr. Lloyd George's methods. At each of them hepushed the French as far as he could, but not as faras he wanted ; and then came home to acclaim thesettlement provisionally reached (and destined to bechanged a month later) as an expression of completeaccord between himself and his French colleague,as a nearly perfect embodiment of wisdom, and asa settlement which Germany would be well advisedto accept as final, adding about every third time that,if she did not, he would support the invasion of herterritory. As time went on, his reputation with theFrench was not improved ; yet he steadily gainedhis object,—though this may be ascribed not to thesuperiority of the method as such, but to facts beingimplacably on his side.

The first of the series, the Conference of San Remo(April 19-26, 1920), was held under the presidencyof the Italian Premier, Signor Nitti, who did notconceal his desire to revise the Treaty . M. Millerandstood, of course, for its integrity, whilst Mr. LloydGeorge (according to The Times of that date) occupieda middle position. Since it was evident that theFrench would not then accept any new formula,Mr. Lloyd George concentrated his forces on arrangingfor a discussion face to face between the SupremeCouncil and the German Government, such a meeting,