new ordering of
the world and its relation to the Wilsonian gospel, complicated with
secret negotiations, protectorates without mandates, and the one-sided
abrogation of compacts.

Persia is one of the original members of the League of Nations,[315] and
as such was entitled, the French argued, to a hearing at the
Conference. She had grievances that called for redress: her neutrality
had been violated, many of her subjects had been put to death, and her
titles to reparation were undeniable. President Wilson, the comforter of
small states and oppressed nationalities, having proclaimed that the
weakest communities would command the same friendly treatment as the
greatest, the Persian delegates repaired to Paris in the belief that
this treatment would be accorded them. But there they were
disillusioned. For them there was no admission. Whether, if they had
been heard and helped by the Supreme Council, they would have contrived
to exist as an independent state is a question which cannot be discussed
here. The point made by the French was that on its own showing the
Conference was morally bound to receive the Persian delegation. The
utmost it obtained was that the Persian Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Monalek, who was head of the delegation, had a private talk with
President Wilson, Colonel House, and Mr. Lansing. These statesmen
unhesitatingly promised to help Persia to secure full sovereign rights,
or at any rate to enable her delegates to unfold their country's case
and file their protests before the Conference. The delegates were
comforted and felt sure of the success of their mission. They told the
American plenipotentiaries that the United States would be Persia's
creditor for this help and that she would invite American financiers to
put her money matters in order, American engineers to develop her mining
industries, and the American oil firms to examine and exploit her petrol
deposits.[316] In a word, Persia would be Americanized. This naive
announcement of the role reserved for American benefactors in the land
of the Shah might have impressed certain commercial and financial
interests in the United States, but was wholly alien to the only order
of motives that could properly move the American plenipotentiaries to
interpose in favor of their would-be wards.

The promises made by Messrs. Wilson, House, and Lansing came to nothing.
For months the Persian envoys lived in hope which was strengthened by
the assurances of