MR. ASQUITH'S REPLY TO THE GERMAN CHANCELLOR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2744, 12 April 1916, Page 5

MR. ASQUITH'S REPLY TO THE GERMAN CHANCELLOR

■/;•', , CYNICISM AND PRETENCE DISSECTED CRUSHING RETORT TO HERR VON BETHMANN' HOLLWEG v ■. ■ v '■. ' ' , . By Telegraph—Press .Aseooiation-Oopnigot., . ''"< , (Rec. April 11, 9.20 p.m.) '■'-.--•:■ : .. London, April 11. Mr. Asquith (the British Premier) presided at a dinner to the French Parliamentarians at a representative gathering of. politicians. Mr. Asquith, proposing the toast of "Our Guests, said: "Our relations with France and Britain for many years past have been established upon an unshakable foundation, and have now become relations of intimacy and affection. Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg declares that on December 9 he expressed his readiness to enter into: peace negotiations, in which we were to assume the attitude of a defeated nation to a victorious adversary.' But we were not defeated, and wo ar,e not going to be, defeated. The Allies are bound by a solemn pact not to seek or accept a. separate peace. The terms upon which we will conclude peace are the accomplishment of the purposes for Avnich we took up arms. The Allies'intend to pave the way to an international system of ■ securing the rights of all - civilised States, and intend to establish the principle that international problems must be,. handled by free negotiations on equal terms between free peoples, unhampered, unswayed by. the over-mastering dictation of a Government controlled by a military caste. That is what I mean by the destruction-of Prussian militarism—nothing more and nothing less'. We are in this struggle as champions, not only of treaty rights, but of the independent status and free development of the weaker countries. Colossal Presumption. > "Cynicism can hardly, go further than Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg's claim for "Germany, of all Powers, to insist, when peace comes, upon giving the various races a chance of free evolution along the lines of national individuality. Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg says that Belgium is not to become a Franco-English vassal, but to become Germany's neighbour. A new development, indeed, of the theory of the rights arid duties of neighbourhood. My answer is very simple. The Allies desire, and are determined to 6ee, that old Belgium must not allowed to suffer from the wanton and wicked invasion of her freedom. What has been broken down must be repaired and restored. The attempt to Germanise Prussian Poland for the last twenty years has been both the strenuous purpose and a colossal failure of Prussian policy. No one knows this better.than Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg. The wholesale strike of Polish children, their barbarous floggings, tho arrest, and imprisonment of their mothers form black chapters even in tho annals of Prussian culture: With this record Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg sheds tears over what he terms the longsuppressed Flemish race! ■ "I need not dwell on Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg's attempt to justify the submarine policy. We have carried out our naval policy in the spirit of international law. I need not dwell upon Germany's flagrant violations of the law and dictates of humanity. We are fighting side by side with the Allies, in a great cause, with clean hands, and a clean conscience, and I am confident that we have the will and the power to vindicate tho liberties of Europe." M. Pichon (Franco), replying, said that they had entered the war together, fought together, and together they would win. France admired the Englishmen's nobility under arms.