PEACE TALK.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16148, 28 February 1918, Page 7

PEACE TALK.

I GERMANY'S ATTITUDE 5 OUTLINED. b 0 3 NO DESIRE TO RETAIN BELGIUM. V (By Cable— Press Awodatton*—Copyright.) (Australiun and N.Z. Cafcl® Association.) AMSTERDAM, February 26. Count von Hertling, in his speech tc the Reichstag, said that every durable peace must be built upon justice. He agreed with President Wilson s declaration that nations and provinces ought not to be shifted from one State to another. Ho rejoiced in President Wilson's statement rejecting the. idea of the balancc of power. _ Germany's advance eastward was .) only aimecl at securing peace with Russia. Her aim was not conquest; she merely wanted to restore order without fixing herself in Esthonia or I- Livonia. As to Courland, he had non thing to say. The people there ware ?t already successfully creating bodies foi self-government. Respecting Roumania, he woulo g state that "we must and will make friends for all time." h He doubted the utility of public j speeches by statesmen, but the cause of peace could be furthered by privato discussions between responsible representatives of the belligerents. The question of Belgium should be discussed in a friendly manner, in order to arrive at an understanding. Germany had repeatedly declared that she did not think of retaining Belgium, but Germany must be protected against Belgium's being used as a deploying ground for enemy machinations.