The Council of Virgins
All of the serious decision-making at the Peace Conference fell to four leaders, Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Orlando. Known semi-officially as the Council of Four, they were sometimes called the ‘Council of Virgins’. Meeting in April 1919, they essentially discarded the recommendations of the Commission on Responsibilities. Lloyd George and Clemenceau returned to the idea of prosecuting the Kaiser for starting the war. After lengthy debate, Wilson abandoned US opposition to trial and on his own drafted a paragraph for the treaty. The new text that he prepared provided for an international tribunal that would be authorised to try Kaiser Wilhelm for a ‘supreme offence against international morality and the sanctity of treaties’, although it insisted that this was not to be viewed as a criminal offence.