Contents of the Treaty (July 28,1919)
General Smuts87 said: “I have signed the Peace Treaty, not because I consider it
a satisfactory document, but because it is imperatively necessary to close the war.”
He also said, “The promise of a new life, the victory of the great human ideals,…
the fulfilment of [the peoples’] aspirations toward a new international order, are not
written in this Treaty… A new spirit of generosity and humanity, born in the hearts of
the peoples … can alone … be the solvent for the problems which statesmen have found
too hard at the Conference.” He further stated: “I deeply regret that in the treaty the
abolition of militarism is limited to the enemy.”88 Smuts is a British military man, one
of the signers of the treaty, and these, his comments delivered after signing the treaty,
give us an idea of the contents of the treaty.