Mr. Edward Dillon, in his book “The Inside Story of the Peace Conference,” referring to these national rights and to the support which was extended to the Jewish demands, stated that the Allied policy was “looked upon as anything but disinterested.” Mr. Dillon further said:
“Unhappily this conviction was subsequently strengthened by certain of the measures decreed by the Supreme Council between April and the close of the Conference. The misgivings of other delegates turned upon a matter which at first sight may appear so far removed from any of the pressing issues of the twentieth century as to seem wholly imaginary. They feared that a religious—some would call it racial—bias lay at the root of Mr. Wilson’s policy. It may seem amazing to some readers, but it is none the less a fact, that a considerable number of delegates believed that the real influences behind the Anglo-Saxon peoples were Semitic.
“They confronted the President’s proposal on the subject of religious inequality, and, in particular, the odd motive alleged for it, with the measures for the protection of minorities which he subsequently imposed on the lesser states, and which had for their keynote to satisfy the Jewish elements in eastern Europe. And they concluded that the sequence of expedients framed and enforced in this direction were inspired by the Jews, assembled in Paris for the purpose of realizing their carefully thought-out program, which they succeeded in having substantially executed. However right or wrong these delegates may have been, it would be a dangerous mistake to ignore their views, seeing that they have since become one of the permanent elements of the situation. The formula into which this policy was thrown by the members of the Conference, whose countries it affected, and who regarded it as fatal to the peace of eastern Europe, was this: ‘Henceforth the world will be governed by the Anglo-Saxon peoples, who, in turn, are swayed by their Jewish elements.’” (Pages 496, 497.)
Mr. Dillon emphasizes that the Jewish demands for special national privileges were largely fomented by western Jews, including those of the United States. He even states that among the many Jews who were present at the Paris Peace Conference “the largest and most brilliant contingent was sent by the United States.” (Page 12.) According to this author, “Their principal mission, with which every fair-minded man sympathized heartily, was to secure for their kindred in Eastern Europe rights equal to those of the populations in whose midst they reside. And to the credit of the Poles, Rumanians, and Russians, who were to be constrained to remove all the existing disabilities, they enfranchised the Hebrew elements spontaneously. But the western Jews who championed their eastern brothers, proceeded to demand a further concession which many of their own co-religionists hastened to disclaim as dangerous—a kind of autonomy which Roumanian, Polish and Russian statesmen, as well as many of their Jewish fellow-subjects, regarded as tantamount to the creation of a state within a state.” (Page 13.)
The treaties imposed by the Allies upon Poland, Rumania, Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia and Greece granted all, or nearly all the demands of the Jews contained in the above “Bill of Rights,” while Austria and Hungary gave pledges in their treaties with the Allied and Associated Powers, that they would protect “minority rights” in the same general way defined in the treaties with the other five powers.
These treaties, as Mr. Dillon correctly points out, go much further than to guarantee to the Jews residing in these several countries full political equality with other citizens, and freedom from persecution or discrimination on account of race or religion. Not only did the treaties contain such guarantees,—which, Mr. Dillon states, the small powers in question were quite willing to give,—but they contained a principle new to international law, viz. that a racial minority should be treated in various relations as a separate entity within the State, with separate rights of its own, which it is permitted to enforce against the national government. An illustration of this new principle is found in certain articles of the treaty with Poland relating to educational matters. By these articles the Polish State is actually compelled to permit the Jews, in towns and districts where they constitute “a considerable proportion” of the population, to administer primary education in their own language in the Jewish schools, supported by an allocated part of the state funds. The articles of the treaty which create this extraordinary “minority right” are quoted verbatim below. The two articles must be read together and compared with each other to bring out their full meaning.
“Article 9
“Poland will provide in the public educational system in towns and districts in which a considerable proportion of Polish nationals of other than Polish speech are residents adequate facilities for ensuring that in the primary schools the instruction shall be given to the children of such nationals through the medium of their own language. This provision shall not prevent the Polish Government from making the teaching of the Polish language obligatory in the said schools.
“In towns and districts where there is a considerable proportion of Polish nationals belonging to racial, religious or linguistic minorities, these minorities shall be assured an equitable share in the enjoyment and application of the sums which may be provided out of the public funds under the State, municipal or other budget, for educational, religious or charitable purposes.
“The provision of this article shall apply to Polish citizens of German speech only in that part of Poland which was German territory on August 1, 1914.