OCR Text |
Show SIGNING WILL CLOSE THE WAR ! Greatest Conflict of World's , History Will Be Finished at Versailles. WILSON SAILS TONIGHT ' i Center of Interest Shifts to ' Ratification by U. S. and Other Nations. 1 i WASHINGTON, .Tune 2 Signing ' at Versailles of the peace treaty with Germany, arranged for today, formally , brniKs to a close the world's greatest war. Although technical termination of tho war will come to each nation only j when tho treaty is approved by tho , ratifying power of that nation, to all . intents and purposes the conflict that began in August, 1914, will end when ( in tho historic Hall of Mirrors the accredited ac-credited peace commissioners aftix their signatures to the treaty Like wise will be brought to an end the armistice arm-istice granted Germany last Novcm ber 11. Portions of the treaty with Austria yet remain to be completed and negotiations nego-tiations with Turkey and Bulgaria si ill must be conducted, but as to Germany, Ger-many, chief of the enemy powers, only the work of carrying out through the long series of years of the provisions of the treaty will remain. With the departure from Pans tonight to-night of President Wilson preparatory to sailing tomorrow from Brest on the ioorgc Washington, the center of in-1 in-1 1 rest as regards the treaty shifts to the senate, ratification by which, is necessary for actual termination of tho war between this country and Germany. Ger-many. Due to opposition to the league of nations covenant a part of the treaty and to certain provisions of the treaty itself, the contest in the stn-ate stn-ate is expected to be iong and bitter. As the signing of the treaty must bo followed bv formal ratification before commercial relations with Germany may be resumed, a spirit of rivalrv among the entente allies to file notice of ratification with the French secretariat secre-tariat in Paris may be expected to develop de-velop The first nation to resume relations re-lations with Germany, therefore, probably prob-ably will be among those whose form of government admit of speedy action such as Great Britain, which may ratify rati-fy the treaty through a mere ordei of the privy council WASHINGTON, June 28 The German Ger-man plenipotentiaries will be the first to sign the peace treaty, according to an official dispatch to the state department de-partment today from the American mission at Paris. The associated na-1 tions will then sign by delegations, with the Americans first. Tho dispatch follows: "Premier Clemenceau will call the meeting to order and say that they have assembled for the purpose of j signing the treaty, the protocol and ' tho Rhine aangement The German ; plenipotentiaries, Mueller and Bell, will then be invited to sign all three documents, and when they have done so the allies will commence signing, 'doing so by delegations Thus all the j Americans will sign and be followed by the other delegations." |