They might be
described as a statement of the popular generalizations in which
everyone at that time professed to believe. But number three is more
specific. It was aimed consciously and directly at the resolutions of
the Paris Economic Conference, and was meant to relieve the German
people of their fear of suffocation.
Number six is the first point dealing with a particular nation. It was
intended as a reply to Russian suspicion of the Allies, and the
eloquence of its promises was attuned to the drama of Brest-Litovsk.
Number seven deals with Belgium, and is as unqualified in form and
purpose as was the conviction of practically the whole world,
including very large sections of Central Europe. Over number eight we
must pause. It begins with an absolute demand for evacuation and
restoration of French territory, and then passes on to the question of
Alsace-Lorraine. The phrasing of this clause most perfectly
illustrates the character of a public statement which must condense a
vast complex of interests in a few words. "And the wrong done to
France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has
unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be
righted. ..." Every word here was chosen with meticulous care. The
wrong done should be righted; why not say that Alsace-Lorraine should
be restored? It was not said, because it was not certain that all of
the French _at that time_ would fight on indefinitely for
reannexation if they were offered a plebiscite; and because it was
even less certain whether the English and Italians would fight on.
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