PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 94, 14 January 1918, Page 5

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

GERMAN REPORTS GARBLED

VULGAR COMMENT OF ANGRY PRESS

Amsterdam, January 11.

President Wilsons Message appears in a mutilated form, or with parts suppressed, in many of tho German newspapers. The "Cologne Volkszcitung" says: —"In tho interests of our readers, wo do not give a full report to that bloated individual whose Message contains impertinent insinuations which do not possess tho slightest value. It shows that President 1 Wilson is posing as a world-judge, to„whose. decisions every living creature is supposed,to bow." The entire German comment indicates that tho Central Powers are suffering from swelled head, all the greater because of tho prospect of a separate peace with Russia. The High Command has determined on ono more appeal to the God of Battles, Imlieving that it will succeed, but that, in the event of failure, conditions will, not be much worse than they are now* —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

[The German newspapers also published in a mutilated form the address of President Wilson to Congress on April 2, and the American Committee on Public Information issued a publication displaying in parallel columns the address as delivered by tho President, with a German translation, and indicating the passages suppressed by the Wolff Telegraph Bureau, which is a publicity agency of tho Imperial Government, both in the reception of news and imparting it to the German public. A memorandum which introduces the texts declares that the German Government "feared tho influenco which the unabridged text of this niessago might have upon the opinion of the people. Therefore, tho official message of the President of tho United States was presented to Germany in an abridged and distorted form." Somo of tho omissions seem to show a careless attempt to condense; others are vital to the serious meaning tho President wishes to convey. Examples, of tho latter are the categorical enumeration cf Germany's broken promises of April, 1916, made after ths Sussex disaster; the President's oxpressed astonishment that a Government hitherto considered civilised could so defy tho laws of nations and of htir inanity; the President's repetition of his declaration of April, 1916, in a Note to the Imperial Government, that tho submarine as a weapon of war against merchant ships could not possibly, conform to the laws and customs of the seas; the President's description of "the wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut to the very, roots of human life," and the foregoing passage itself; the history of tho crisis both in diplomatic Notes ex-: changed and the acts of Germany;' and, finally, the last thousand words of the address; where the President' appeals directly to the German people, ending with a paraphrase _of Luther's famous answer, "God helping her (America), she enn do no other" (so Gott will, kann es nicht anders handein) are entirely suppressed.]

VIEW OF A ROME JOURNAL

"RESPONSIBILITY FOR. PEACE RESTS ON GERMAN PEOPLE." Rome, January 11. The "Osservatoro Romano," in an inspired article, points out tho fundamental agreement of President Wilson's speech with the Pope's last peace appeal. . It declares that the road to an early peace is open.

The article implies that the responsibility for peace now rests on the German people.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.