gh both countries--and particularly
France--carried a terrific war burden. Japan, the least active of any of
the leading participants in the war, received territory of vast
importance to her future development.

Italy,--under the secret treaty of London, signed April 26, 1915, by
the representatives of Russia, France, Great Britain and Italy,--was to
receive that part of Austria known as the Trentine, the entire southern
Tyrol, the city and suburbs of Trieste, the Istrian Islands and the
province of Dalmatia with various adjacent islands. Furthermore, Article
IX of the Treaty stipulated that, in the division of Turkey, Italy
should be entitled to an equal share in the basin of the Mediterranean,
and specifically to the province of Adalia. Under Article XIII, "In the
event of the expansion of French and English colonial domains in Africa
at the expense of Germany, France and Great Britain recognize in
principle the Italian right to demand for herself certain compensations
in the sense of expansions of her lands in Erithria, Somaliland, in
Lybia and colonial districts lying on the boundary, with the colonies of
France and England." Substantially, this plan was followed in the Peace
Treaty.

The territorial claims of France were simple. The secret treaties
include a note from the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to the French
Ambassador at Petrograd, dated February 1-14, 1917, which stated that
under the Peace Treaty:

"(1) Alsace and Lorraine to be returned to France.

"(2) The boundaries will be extended at least to the limits of the
former principality of Lorraine, and will be fixed under the
direction of the French Government. At the same time strategic
demands must be taken into consideration, so as to include within
the French territory the whole of the industrial iron basin of
Lorraine and the whole of the industrial coal-basin of the Saar."

The Peace Treaty confirmed these provisions, with the exception of the
Saar Valley, which is to go to France for 15 years under conditions
which will ultimately cause its annexation to France if she desires it.
France also gained some slight territorial concessions in Africa. Her
real advantage--as a result of the peace--lies in the control of the
three provinces with their valuable mineral deposits.

The territorial ambitions of Japan were confined to the Far East. The
former Russian Ambassador to Tokio, under date of February 8,