The Dominion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1916. A FALSE MOVE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2958, 22 December 1916, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1916. A FALSE MOVE

The action of the American Government in addressing a Note .to belligerents and neutrals containing what is practicaly an offer to mediate between the Powers at war must be regarded, in existing circumstances, as ill-timed. In reports dealing with Germany's so-called peace proposal emphasis has been laid upon the fact that the American Government played a purely formal part. It transmitted. the enemy Note to. the Allied capitals without comment. This undoubtedly was the right procedure to adopt. It indicated an appreciation on America's part that neutral interference was not called, for or admissible at this stage of the war, and the American Government. would obviously have been wise to leave matters in this state. Instead, it has addressed a Note to belligerents and neutrals in which, according to the latest report on the subject in hand at time of writing,

The President suggests that an early occasion be sought to call from all nations now at war an avowal of their respective views as to the terms upon which the war might be concluded, and the arrangements which would be deemed satisfactory as a guarantee against its renewal.

President AVilson will no doubt maintain that he is acting quite independently of anything Germany has done or may do, but in so far as the Note sent out by his Government carries- any weight at all it will be taken at the present juncture as seconding what has been justly denounced in all the Entente countries as an attempt by Germany to obscure the real facts of the situation and escape the punishment of her crimes. The Allies have intimated clearly enough that they will not make peace until they are in a position to exact from Germany complete restitution, full reparation and effectual guarantees for tho future. That declaration should leave President Wilson no room for doubt on the question of peace terms so far as the Entente Powers are concerned

One of the most astounding features of President Wilson's attitude throughout the war, and one which places him quite out of court as a mediator, is his total inability to weigh the moral issues at stake. This was indicated months' ago in his oft-quoted statement "with its [the war's] causes and its objects we are not concerned." It is still moro clearly brought out in a speech lie made at Cincinnati on October 26. On that occasion he said:

Have you ever heard what started the present war? If you havei I wish you wuld publish it, because nobody else has, so far as I can gather. Nothing in particular started it, but everything in general. There had been growing up in Europe a mutual suspicion, an interchange of conjecture about what this Government and that Government was going to do, an interlacing of alliances and understandings, a complex web of intrigue and spying, that presently was sure to entangle the whole of the family of mankind on that side of the water m its meshes.

As was remarked at the time by the New York Outlook, the President's conclusions are logical only upon the assumption that all the nations of Europe have been equally guilty, that there is no difference between the moral position of Prussia and the moral position of Belgium. In a word, the position taken by President Wilson is that the criminal and his intended victims are on an equal moral plane. Knowing as we do, and as the whole world knows, that Germany made long and organised preparations for this war and that the nations she sought to strike down so little emulated her intention that they were each and all taken unprepared and unawares, it is not easy to believe that such views are held by any reasonable and fairminded man. They are voiced, however, by President Wilson, and full weight must be givento the fact in considering the position created by the latest American Note. Wo are not called upon to penetrate the complexities of President Wilson's intellect, but it is a matter of very serious importance that his i.utlook upon the war enables and even impels him to adopt a course calculated to encourage the efforts Germany

is at present making to escape from the toils ia which she is enclosed. President Wilson will no doubt be made to understand that his tentative niovc towards intervention is untimely and unwelcome Probably a plain intimation of this kind will have the desired effect, more especially as the extraordinary . views of the President are certainly repudiated and condemned by a very great body of Americans