The Trial of the Kaiser by Schabas William A.;

Author:Schabas, William A.; [Schabas, William A.;]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780198833857
Publisher: OxfordUP
Published: 2015-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

The first version of the paragraph contained, as its penultimate sentence, the words: ‘They cannot entertain the proposal to admit to the tribunal the representatives of countries which have taken no part in the war.’ The Council decided that it was better to delete the sentence. The covering letter concluded: ‘The Allied and Associated Powers must make it clear that this letter and the memorandum attached constitute their last word.’29

Robert Lansing cited the Allied reply in a speech to the American Bar Association in Boston, in September 1919. Lansing insisted that Article 227 reflected the vision of the American reservations to the report of the Commission on Responsibilities. ‘Manifestly the tribunal thus created is not a court of legal justice, but rather an instrument of political power’, he said. Lansing explained that Article 227 ‘was in accordance with the suggestion made in the American memorandum that there might be a political sanction but no judicial sanction for the offences of having caused the war and violated the neutrality of Belgium and Luxemburg’.30

On 21 June, the Conference was rocked by news from Orkney, in the northern reaches of Scotland. Following the armistice of 11 November 1918, the German fleet had been impounded at Scapa Flow, a deep-water British naval base. The vessels continued to be manned by German sailors, many of them in a revolutionary mood. The French, in particular, hoped to claim some of the warships as a reparation payment. Early in the morning of 21 June, the German admiral in charge ordered the sailors to scuttle the vessels. Seacocks, valves, and pipes were opened. The ships slowly filled with water. The once mighty German Navy sunk to the seabed. More than fifty of the seventy-four German ships at Scapa Flow were damaged in this way, many of them beyond repair. The scuttling of the fleet was not strictly prohibited by the armistice, but there was a sense that it showed bad faith and was contrary to general principles governing armistices.31 The events at Scapa Flow brought an end to any goodwill from which the German delegation at Versailles might have benefitted.

The same day, the German delegation answered the Allied reply: ‘The Government of the German Republic is ready to sign the Treaty of Peace without, however, recognising thereby that the German people was the author of the war and without undertaking any responsibility for delivering persons in accordance with Articles 227 to 230 of the Treaty of Peace.’32 In more detailed comments, the Germans said it was impossible to reconcile the penalty clauses, Articles 227 to 230, with their ‘dignity and honour’. Germany also objected to the ‘war guilt clause’, Article 231, by which the State assumed responsibility for the loss and damage resulting from ‘the aggression of Germany and her allies’. Article 231 was the first provision in the part of the treaty dealing with reparations. Finally, Germany also protested the loss of all of its colonies.33

Although the German reply mentioned Article 227 expressly, the fate of the ex-Kaiser was hardly a priority.

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