Chapter 347 Peaceful Era

After integrating France's opinions, a new version of the League of Nations consultations quickly started discussions between China, the United States and Germany. Germany was naturally the opposing party, but this actually did not become a big problem. The previous plan was indeed difficult for the Allies to accept. Yes, Germany was the winning party, but this does not mean that Britain and France have fallen to the position in the previous framework.

The Americans' considerations are basically similar to ours. For them, the first question that needs to be determined is where they can gain those benefits after the peace framework is established. The north and south ends of Africa are one of their goals. South Africa and Germany have the chess piece of Boer. The Germans also target North Africa. They have their own historical factors in Algeria, Libya, Morocco and other places. For them, a new suggestion to weaken Germany's advantage can easily resonate with them.

In fact, this plan was also submitted to the General Assembly by representatives of the warring countries and mediation parties at the joint meeting, Clemenceau, who is known for his strength at home. Of course, the review power is in the hands of China, the United States, Germany and the Pope. After a week of consultations, when the United States made some unknown concessions to Germany, and Germany also requested and obtained the Chinese promise that Germany could station troops in two seaports in Kuwait and Singapore, Germany agreed to increase the seats of Europe's second-class countries to four seats, namely Britain, France, Austria and Russia. Because the Russian civil war has not yet ended, Russia's rights and interests are temporarily managed by Germany until Russia returns to a stable state.

In Asia, the representatives of the lower-class countries were replaced by Siam and Arabia, while Brazil and Argentina took office, forming a situation where three first-class countries, China, the United States, and Germany, and the lower-class countries, Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Siam, Ababa and the eight countries jointly rule the world.

By the end of March, diplomatic consultations had been basically announced. The remaining tasks were to end the state of war, withdraw troops, select a site to establish an international alliance, formulate alliance rules and authority, representatives of various countries arrived, resolve the legacy of war issues in accordance with the new alliance norms, negotiate disarmament, restore peace and order in the international community, etc.

The top priority is to end the state of war. The current situation in Europe is that nearly three million German troops are in France, Belgium and other countries. The total number of British and French coalition forces is almost the same as this number. It is dangerous and irresponsible to continue to maintain such a large military force on such a crowded ground.

Another problem is the restoration of French territory. Germany will naturally require a lot, but the French will never agree to the German army stationed on the ground less than 100 kilometers away from Paris. It is impossible to maintain the status quo. It is just the question of how much compensation the French have paid for.

France's decline is an inevitable trend, but if this negotiation bullies them too harshly, their role as another European force outside the United Kingdom that restrains Germany will be weakened, and the French will not accept such a talk, and peace may not come so quickly.

Therefore, on this issue, the Pope also personally met with representatives from China and the United States, hoping that the two major powers of China and the United States could put some pressure on Germany on the issue of peace. His Majesty Benedict XV also sent his own private envoy to Berlin, trying to put some pressure on Germany before the peace negotiations ending the war state at the end of April.

After multiple rounds of negotiations, finally on April 20, China, the United States and Germany reached a consensus on the French border issue. France ceded Verdun to Germany, and the German army north of Paris retreated to Belgium. The Kingdom of Belgium was restored, but the German army could belong to a unit of no more than 100,000 people within Belgium to ensure the security of Germany itself.

In the documents sent to France, the provisions on Belgium were deleted and received the conservative consent of France. No matter how radical Clemencer was, he could not change the reality that Verdun had to be separated from France. In fact, it was indeed difficult to do his position. Both sides were not human. Under the strong attitude of Germany, in order to preserve Paris, Clemencer had to sign the Three Kingdoms Agreement, clearing the biggest obstacle to peace. But when Clemencer returned to Paris, he had to face the current situation that his home was burned into white land by angry Parisian citizens, and his political life ended. More than ten years later, his death became the fuse of a new round of war.

According to the current agreement and peace agreement, the war between Germany and France can end. If Germany wants to attack Paris, it will directly send troops from Verdun to pass through the Champagne area. It can reach the city of Paris in less than 300 kilometers. This is the best guarantee for Germany's security.

France lost an important defensive stronghold, and the border between Paris and Germany is not safe to defend. In the future, France's security can only be guaranteed by the international alliance system. This is why the French quickly heated up with the United States in the short term, and quickly forgot the key point of the war between Asia and China not long ago and the dispatch of diplomatic personnel in Beijing.

For them, since they cannot defend themselves, it is necessary to rely on a mechanism appropriately. To survive happily in this architecture, it is natural to establish good relations with key countries in this mechanism.

As for the problems between Germany and Britain, there are not many. Germany declared that Germany had no intention of changing India's current status. All Germany had to do was to maintain a lifeline of Germany. The war between Germany and Britain in the Middle East had stopped, and what Germany had to do now was to strengthen its existence in northern Africa.

As for Italy's status, it was directly rewritten by reference to the agreement between France and Germany. Austria controlled the Alps pass area and Italy restored the territory of the Po River Plain area. Relatively speaking, the allies made many concessions in this diplomatic consultation to restore peace.

Serbia and other countries were tragically abandoned. Their former master, Russia, was unable to take care of themselves, and the new master, the French, were powerless. In the absence of new and powerful countries running around and shouting for them, their fate has been decided.

The only one among the Allies who did not suffer any loss was Greece. The Greeks did not show any vitality in the war. Perhaps it was for this reason that they lost nothing except the islands that did not belong to them and were very close to Turkey. But they were probably missing their share of the war reparations that were preparing for.

On April 30, the second phase of the agreed peace conference continued to be held in Bern. The main issue was that countries began to withdraw troops in accordance with existing agreements to ensure that no dangerous conflicts occurred. Then there was a fierce debate on the issue of war compensation. According to Germany's request, the Allies such as Britain and France, as the party that provoked the war, should bear the losses of the war between Germany, Austria-Hungarian Empire and Turkey. As exhibitors, representatives of China and Siam also put forward compensation claims that were not too large.

The figure proposed by Germany, Austria and Turkey was as high as 1.7 billion pounds, which is equivalent to the pre-war exchange rate of nearly 40 billion marks and about 11 billion taels of silver. The compensation figures for China and Siam are relatively smaller, and Britain and France only need to compensate about 17 million pounds of war reparations. However, after full consideration, Wu Tingfang, Secretary of the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informed Britain and France on behalf of the Chinese Empire government and canceled the compensation requirement.

In any case, the number proposed by Germany is completely beyond the capacity of Britain. Britain, France and other countries will have to be poor for decades to repay the huge sum. Moreover, with factors such as exchange rate changes, the debt will basically be hollowed out. On the day Germany announced this compensation claim, Britain, France, Italy and other countries expressed their anger and claimed that it was completely naked blackmail. In order to show protest, representatives of the Allied countries stopped attending the meeting on the next day and issued a statement saying that if this number cannot be reduced to a reasonable level, they would collectively withdraw from the meeting and would rather lose their last pair of pants in the war than give the Germans a son on the negotiating table.

This is certainly unforgivable. Representatives of China, the United States and the Holy See had to conduct urgent consultations and mediation, and finally ensured that the talks would resume in a week and Germany also lowered the number to 1 billion pounds, but they demanded some of the interests of southern Africa as a replacement.

The bargaining continued until mid-May. As a failed party in the war that had not fought hard and barely ended, it naturally would not cooperate with the winner's request. Therefore, after more than ten days of mediation, the compensation amount was finally finalized on a not-so-excessive number - 600 million pounds + South Africa. Although this number was also not something that the UK could afford. It was just that they could pay in installments, and the United States and China jointly provided guarantees.

On May 19, the first peace agreement signed by all countries was finally formed, that is, the "Bern Agreement", which limited the time and bottom line of the national boundary stipulated in the agreement between warring parties, as well as the compensation figures for the westward, detailed border descriptions of each country, and other contents.

The next thing is easy to deal with. On June 1, the League of International was officially announced in Bern. The chairman was taken in turn by China, the United States and Germany. Each term was held for three years. The first president was chosen to be given to the Chinese Wu Tingfang. As an arbitration institution for a new world order, the League of International officially began to be responsible for global security affairs from this day.

Under this basic framework, the International Peace and Disarmament Conference, which gathers all member states of the League of Nations, is also being prepared. The site of the first session is still set in Bern. All major countries in the world will make their own contributions to world peace in the autumn and winter of this year.
Chapter completed!