Versailles

1919 · 190322 — London: His Majesty's Stationery Office 1919. Presented by one of the architects of the Treaty First edition presentation copy inscribed warmly on a preliminary blank by David Lloyd George: "For the Henry Richard Library from one of his admiring countrymen D. Lloyd George July 26th 1927". The Henry Richard Library of the Peace Society was named after its long-serving secretary the Welsh MP of that name. "Certainly Lloyd George had his full share of responsibility for the harsher features of the treaty. He took a strongly nationalist position on issues deemed to be affecting Britain's national security or other interests … Yet Lloyd George was also the most flexible of the peacemakers sometimes taking an intermediate line between the nationalism of Clemenceau and the sometimes high-flown generalities of Woodrow Wilson … Lloyd George fiercely though unavailingly condemned decisions such as the so-called Polish corridor the Saarland or placing the Sudeten Germans under the regime of the new hybrid Czechoslovakia … He urged the dangers of creating a sense of mass grievance at a time when Russia and perhaps Europe were gripped by 'the spirit of revolution' as he put it … On his return Lloyd George hailed a peace with honour … Nevertheless both in terms of frontier settlements and of reparations the Versailles treaty appeared harsh and vindictive to many observers" ODNB. Most controversially the treaty enshrined the concept of German "War Guilt". Article 231 printed here stipulated that "Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies". This clause and its associated reparations led John Maynard Keynes to declare the treaty a "Carthaginian Peace". In 1923 Lloyd George published The Truth about Reparations and War-Debts and in 1938 one of his two "massive works of reminiscence" ODNB The Truth About the Peace Treaties. At the time of presentation the secretary of the Henry Richard Library was another Welshman Herbert Dunnico 1875-1953 Labour MP knighted in 1938 with whom Lloyd George conducted a lengthy correspondence. One of Dunnico's initiatives was the launch of the Peace Negotiations Committee in March 1916 "which met regularly organized meetings and promoted a petition that attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures. Dunnico addressed hundreds of meetings in the final years of the war and following a speech at Aberdare in January 1918 was summoned under the Defence of the Realm Act charged with attempting to cause disaffection among the civilian population though the case was dropped" ODNB. Small folio in eights 336 x 200 mm. With 9 double-sided leaves of facsimile signatures and 5 folding maps depicting West and East Germany the Saar Basin Danzig and Schleswig; parallel text in English and French. Contemporary blue calf spine with five gilt-decorated raised bands gilt lettered direct in second and fourth compartments remaining compartments with gilt foliate lozenge covers with border of gilt paired fillets enclosing blind scrolling roll gilt lettered on front cover blind edge roll and turn-ins gilt-veined blue marbled endpapers. A few scratches and abrasions to binding neatly refurbished scattered foxing some short tears to folding maps. A handsome copy. hardcover