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Fig. 2

          starting with the history of the hotel industry (in particular luxury  ‘scientific’ (by drawing on the advice of different experts to tackle   street, and not captioned save for numbers which were probably   points to another major change: the transparency demanded by
          hotels) which remains largely the preserve of art and architectural   specific issues); it favoured new negotiation methods (round-            added to help identify them; and a press dossier with reports of the   the new diplomacy brought it into the public arena, and therefore
          historians whose work relies for the most part on material kept in   table forums) and called for debates to be publicised (via the press      proceedings and news articles commenting on the negotiations as   created new security issues.
          archives and libraries (equally helpful to economic and financial   and the publication of verbal proceedings). The new diplomacy              they took place (fig. 2). The gaping holes in the archives indicate
          historians). The archives cannot paint the whole picture, however,  required new kinds of venues: dedicated, permanent buildings for           that the hotel considered this to be a one-off event at the time   LAUSANNE: DIPLOMATIC CHOICES
          although historians have shown a questionable reluctance to pursue   professional diplomacy such as Geneva’s Palais des Nations, and           (although subsequently, it has almost always drawn attention to this   AND THE HOTEL SET-UP
          other lines of enquiry which may actually prove to be extremely   non-dedicated venues, such as the grand hotels, which had the                type of event in its promotional literature and commemorative   The Lausanne negotiations, which began in November 1922,
          illuminating. While hotels do not ‘produce’, in the strictest sense   facilities needed to organise occasional ‘round-table’ negotiations.     brochures).                                             were international in scope. The partitioning of the Ottoman
          of the term, they belong to a wider network of service industries   Conferences effectively provided the opportunity for the                       For their own part, the diplomatic archives scarcely mention   Empire had been settled by the Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920),
         whose activities form a complex economic and social microcosm.  hotel industry and the diplomatic world to meet, united by                      the role of the hotel industry in the negotiations: reports published   which outlined the territories to be divided between France, Great
         Whether family-run or owned by an anonymous conglomerate,  space, timing and specific activities which help us to understand                    after the conference  only feature documents relating to the work   Britain and Greece. The different nations invited to Lausanne were
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          hotels are big business: they bring together a range of different   the  ‘events’  themselves. Yet  these  events  are  seldom  referred  to   of the delegations and commissions themselves. Here again, the   anxious to create stability in the Balkans. However, the situation
          jobs and services, often employ a large number of people, and have   in hotel archives, day books or board meeting minutes, which              scant documentary evidence of the relationship between the   gradually deteriorated in 1922, and in the autumn of that year the
          a high financial turnover. Of course, the hotel industry cannot be   in itself suggests that they were considered  ‘exceptional’ by the        hotel industry and the diplomatic community shows that it was   Turkish nationalists won a complete military victory over Greece,
          considered as a homogenous whole, since it is hierarchical by its   hotels themselves. Indeed, conferences have little to do with the          not deemed important enough to warrant a permanent record. In   leading to political crises in Greece and Britain and also serious
         very nature. Furthermore, during the period we are discussing, the   day-to-day running of hotels, their business development, the              short, if we were to rely on the evidence kept by the hotel’s and   repercussions in France. The new Turkish leader, Mustafa Kemal
          industry was still fragmentary and diverse. Luxury hotels, like the   maintenance and restructuring of their buildings, or the upgrading       diplomatic archives alone, the present discussion would remain   Atatürk, sought to capitalise on his military advantage and exploit
         ‘luxury industry’ they are part and parcel of, are not so much driven   and improvement of their facilities, all issues which are discussed,    largely speculative and incomplete.                     the Allies’ disunity by rushing them into negotiating an armistice
          by competition, but operate in a complex world where subtle   planned and accounted for during board meetings. The Beau-                           Fortunately, we can draw on other sources: firstly, the press,  (at Mudanya on 11 October 1922) and then demanding that new
          categories and distinctions define a particular hotel’s core identity.  Rivage Palace’s own board meeting minutes contain just a few           which played a crucial role in diplomatic affairs by ‘publicising’ the   peace talks be opened.
         The volatile global situation makes it difficult for grand hotels   short entries about the Conference of Lausanne, relating to the             conference, providing daily coverage on the negotiations them-   Lausanne was chosen as the venue by process of elimination.
          to devise concrete business strategies and make accurate financial   money the hotel made from the event. The hotel’s guest book,              selves, and (often) the gossip surrounding them.  The media   The Turks had wanted the conference to take place in Smyrna,
          predictions. On the other hand, hosting diplomatic events can add   which was started in 1939, has a handful of comments from clients          effectively became  ‘partners’ with the conference organisers:  which they had just liberated from the Greek army, but this was
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          to the prestige and ‘unique selling proposition’ of a particular hotel,  and families who remembered the event.  The most consistent           members of the press not only stayed on site, but were given their   out of the question. London and Paris were also excluded, since
          although historians of tourism and hotel architecture have paid   record of the conference is provided by the guest arrivals register:         own dedicated area in one of the hotels. Journalists, particularly   Britain and France had widely diverging views on the issues to be
          little attention to this specific role, probably because it is regarded   conference attendees are described as ‘delegation members’ and there   those working for the regional newspapers, often embellished   discussed. Venice was ruled out as it would have given Italy’s new
          as the exception rather than the rule.                  is little distinction made between them and the hotel’s regular                        their news reports with titbits or anecdotes about the hotel or the   dictator Mussolini a golden opportunity to act as chair. Although
              In the field of international relations, the new diplomatic   clients (of whom there were few that November). Unfortunately,               progress of the talks, which are invaluable in tracing the relationship   Geneva was home to the League of Nations, it was vetoed by
          blueprint proposed by  us president  Woodrow  Wilson in  his   there is no trace of any correspondence between the hotel                       between the hotel industry and the diplomatic world.    the Americans and Russians, powerful political observers of the
          fourteen-point programme for world peace of 1918 (which   management and the local, regional or federal government, or                             The conference did not just attract the attention of the   negotiations. Britain’s proposal of Lausanne was weakly contested
          subsequently led to the creation of the League of Nations in   the delegations themselves, which might have provided more                      press; it was also followed closely by the police, who provided   by the Turks, who proposed Lugano maybe because they had
         Geneva), has been the subject of much analysis by historians. As   information on the way they interacted or on how the conference              the security. In the archives of the Vaudois police in Switzerland   bad memories of the city (they had been made to concede
          they have pointed out, the ‘new diplomacy’ was designed to be   was organised.                                                                 (responsible for the Lausanne area) are five boxes of important   their rights to Tripoli in an earlier Treaty of Lausanne of 1912).
          more transparent (in other words, less secretive), more politically   A few documents have survived, notably a briefcase                       documents relating to the Conference of Lausanne, offering   However, this precedent was, conversely, cited by the British
          orientated (by involving politicians in the process more directly,  containing numerous caricatures sketched during the conference;            a different perspective on the  relationship between the  hotel   foreign secretary Lord Curzon as a point in favour of holding
          even if that meant flying in the face of classic diplomacy) and more   an album of photographs of the delegates, mostly taken in the           industry and the diplomatic world. The way security was handled   the conference in Lausanne, along with a number of other points:

          Series of photographs showing delegates to the 1923 Lausanne Conference
          in the grounds of the Château d’Ouchy.



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