The most important changes were the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to France and of a large stretch of territory in West Prussia, Posen, and Upper Silesia to Poland.

Finally, the coal-producing valley of the Saarland, which had been provisionally separated from Germany, was to be the subject of a referendum after the lapse of fifteen years.

[5] The Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha split into two halves; Coburg voluntarily united with Bavaria, and Gotha entered into negotiations with a number of the other small states of central Germany to bring about a general union of the little republics concerned.

Six states took part in these negotiations, which were brought to a successful conclusion at the end of December 1919, when Schwarzburg, Reuss, Gotha, Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Altenburg united.

In March, following months of instability, the president asked Hermann Müller, who had previously held the office of minister for foreign affairs, to form an administration.

The new cabinet was composed as follows: Müller's tenure of the Foreign Office was only temporary, and before the middle of April he relinquished that position to Dr. Adolf Köster.

The German government applied to the Allies for permission to send troops into the disturbed districts in excess of the numbers allowed by the Treaty of Versailles.

On 3 April, German regular troops of the Reichswehr, under General Oskar von Watter, entered the neutral zone in force, and experienced little difficulty in dealing with the armed leftist workers.

The San Remo conference, a meeting of the Supreme Council, consisting of the British, French, and Italian prime ministers, was opened on 19 April; it dealt, among other questions, with the German invasion of the Ruhr Valley, and with the problem of disarmament.

David Lloyd George, with the support of Francesco Saverio Nitti, proposed that the German government should be invited to attend the conference; but this was opposed by Alexandre Millerand.

At the end of April the foreign minister, Adolf Köster, declared that the French ought now to evacuate Frankfurt, Darmstadt, and Homburg, because the German troops had been reduced to 17,500.

The Communists enteredthe contest, and a rout of the Spartacists, who won only two seats, was tempered by the success of the Independent Social Democrat, one of the most extreme Socialist parties in Europe, who increased their membership of the house from 22 to 80.

After several politicians had attempted in vain to form a new cabinet, Constantin Fehrenbach, one of the most respected leaders of the Centre Party, succeeded in doing so.

The Majority Social Democrats would not join a ministry which included the German People's Party, but agreed to lend the new government their general support in the Reichstag.

At the meeting of the Supreme Council at San Remo in April it was decided to invite the German government to a conference at Spa, in Belgium, in order to settle the questions relating to disarmament and reparations which arose under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

Thus France was to receive 52%, the British Empire 22%, Italy 10%, Belgium 8%, and Serbia 5%, the small remaining proportion to be divided amongst other claimants.

On the following day Gessler arrived, and he proceeded at once to make a formal request that the 100,000 men, which was the limit of the German army allowed by the treaty, should continue to be exceeded, on the ground that it was impossible for the government to keep order with such a small force.

A discussion upon this matter took place between the Allies, and it was decided that Germany should be given until January 1, 1921, to reduce the strength of the Reichswehr to the treaty figure of 100,000 men.

The later sittings of the conference were concerned with the question of the trial of the German "war criminals", the delivery of coal as a form of reparation, and various other financial matters.

However, the ex-Emperor Wilhelm had fled to the Netherlands, and since the Dutch government definitely declined to hand him over to the Allies, it was generally held, especially in Britain, that it was difficult to press forward very vigorously with the punishment of those who, however important their positions, had only been the emperor's servants.