for all the pensions of the veterans, widows and orphans for the entire British empire, a demand that caused the breakdown on any sort of agreement on reparations. The draft version of the Treaty of Versailles spoke of compensation for German "invasions"; Kerr had the final version speak of German "aggression" as part of the British bid to secure more reparations at the expense of France. On 18 February 1919, Kerr advised Lloyd George that the only way to persuade the French to drop their demand for severing the Rhineland from Germany would be for an Anglo-American commitment to defend France against renewed German aggression. Kerr was very strongly opposed to the French plans to separate the Rhineland from the Reich as "unreasonable", writing in a letter to Lloyd George on 3 March 1919 he favored peace "terms which gave the German people some hope and some independence". Ultimately, the French accepted the Rhineland would remain part of Germany in exchange for keeping the Rhineland demilitarised, under Allied occupation for 15 years (through the occupation actually ended in 1930) and a military alliance with Britain and the United States. However, the American Senate failed to ratify the alliance, which became moot as a result. Besides for the Rhineland issue, Kerr was highly concerned that the United States would not join the League of Nations as several senators felt the covenant of the league would threaten American sovereignty. To ensure the American Senate would vote to join the League of Nations, Kerr favored changing the covenant to address the concerns of the senate, advice that was not followed and led to the senate rejecting joining the League. In March 1919, the proclamation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic led by Bela Kun in response to the Vix note shocked the British delegation, which became very concerned that harsh peace terms might led to the German Communists taking power. The British delegation saw Soviet Russia as its principal concern, which governed their attitude towards Germany. Lloyd George retired for a weekend to the Hotel d'Angleterre in the Paris suburb of Fontainebleau together with Kerr and his closest advisers to discuss what peace terms should be sought with the main fear being of having driving Germany towards Soviet Russia. In March 1919, Kerr was the man who typed up the Fontainebleau Memorandum setting out British goals at the peace conference. At the Paris peace