Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1919 — GENERAL AND STATE NEWS [ARTICLE]

GENERAL AND STATE NEWS

Telegraphic Reports From Many Parts of the Country. SHORT BITS OF THE UNUSUAL Happenings in the Nearby Cities and Towns—Matters of Minor Mention From Many LocalitiesFRANCE RATIFIES THE TREATY J'- ■ - Action in Upper Branch is Unanimous—Deputies Also Ratify. Paris, Oct. 13- —The French senate unanimously ratified the peace treaty Saturday afternoon, 217 members voting. The French chamber of deputies ratified the treaty several days ago. The discussion on ratification of the peace treaty eame to a prompt termination after President Clemenceau asked the senators not to lose any time, but to pass on the treaty Immediately. There was no trace of bitterness and criticism which characterized the discussion in the chamber, all the senators being evidently of the intention to put the treaty into force at the earliest possible moment. The debate occupied three sessions of the senate, and one of these was taken up- entirely with the bourgeois report. M. Clemenceau spoke briefly, saying there was no need to go over the discussion in the chamber and repeat the arguments in favor of the treaty as the senators were such sensible persons that they would realize these themselves. Premier Clemenceau defended various clauses of the peace treaty and particularly one permitting Germany to retain cannon and fortresses on her eastern frontier. The premier explained this by saying if was to Germany’s interest to defend herself on the east and that France had no desire to see Germany lapse into bolshevism. Referring to the Anglo-French and Franco-American agreements M. Clemenceau declared that he had not asked for a British-Amer-ican alliance, but that he had accepted it quite willingly. “The best justification of the peace treaty,’’ said M. Clemenceau, “is that if at any time we had been asked if we wanted the present treaty nobody would have refused it.” Great Britain and Italy are the other leading powers that have ratified the treaty.