Representatives of France, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Spain, Japan and Brazil, members of the Council of the League of Nations, met on January 16, 1920, in the "cloak room" of the French Foreign Office for the first meeting in the history of the League.
The Council organized by electing Leon Bourgeois Chairman and confirming the choice of Sir Eric Drummond of Great Britain as General Secretary. The first official act of the League Council was the appointment of a commission to trace upon the spot the frontiers of the territory of the Saar Basin.
All the members of the Council called for by the covenant of the League, with the exception of the representative of the United States, were present. Beside M. Bourgeois, the members were Earl Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, for Great Britain; Premier Venizelos, for Greece; Carlo Ferraris, Italian Minister of Industry, Commerce, Labor and Food, for Italy; Paul Hymans, the Belgian Foreign Minister, for Belgium; Baron Matsui, Ambassador to France, for Japan; Dr. Gastoa da Cunha, Ambassador to France, for Brazil; Count Quinones de Leon, Ambassador to France, for Spain.
PEACE BY CONGRESSIONAL ENACTMENT FAILS
President Wilson Vetoes Knox Resolution Declaring State of War Ended
The failure of the Peace Treaty of ratification for the second time on March 19, 1920, with the Lodge reservations attached, and the determined refusal of the Republican majority to ratify it in the form desired by President Wilson, showed quite conclusively that under existing political alignment no peace might be expected for the country through the Treaty of Versailles. The Republicans, therefore, turned their efforts in a new direction to bring about peace without yielding to the President.
On April 1st the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives reported favorably a joint resolution declaring the state of war between Germany and the United States at an end and terminating the operation of all Congressional acts and Presidential proclamations dependent for their duration on the termination of the war or of the "present or existing emergency." It gave Germany forty-five days in which similarly to declare the ending of the war with the United States, and to waive all claims against this country, which she would not have had the right to assert had the United States ratified the Treaty of Versailles. For failure to comply with this provision, all commercial intercourse and the furnishing of loans and other financial assistance by this country to Germany were prohibited, except by license of the President. In answer to Democratic criticisms that the resolution was not only insincere, but also unconstitutional in arrogating to Congress the treaty-making power of the President, the Republican leaders conceded that, while the negotiation of peace terms rested with the President, the declaration of a status of peace was quite within the proper functions of Congress.