AUSTRO-GERMAN PEACE SPEECHES ANSWERED

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 125, 13 February 1918, Page 5

AUSTRO-GERMAN PEACE SPEECHES ANSWERED

PRESIDENT WILSON STATES HIS PRINCIPLES • CRUSHING, REJOINDER TO GERMAN CHANCELLOR By Telegraph-Press Aesociation-Copiriffht (Rec. February 12, 5.5 p.m.) Washington, February 11. President Wilson to-day addressed Congress as follows:— Gentlemen of the Congress,—On January S I had tho honour of addressing you on the objects of the war as our people conceive them. The Prime Minister of Great Britain has spoken in similar terms on January 5., To these addresses the German Chancellor replied on January 24, and Count Czernin, for on tho same day. It is gratifying to have- our desire so promptly' rehoved, and that nil exchanges of view on this great matter should be made in the hearing of all tho world. Count Czernin's reply, which is directed chielly to my own address of January 8, is uttered in a very friendly tone. He finds in my statement a sufficiently encouraging approach to tho views of his own Government to justify him in believing that it furnishes a basis for a more detailed discussion of purposes by tho two Governments. Hβ is represented to havp iatimated that the views ho was expressing had boon communicated to me before—and that I was aware of them at the timo ho was uttering them—hut in this I am suro I was misunderstood. I had received no intimation of what he intended to say. There was, of course, no reason why he should communicate privately with mo. . I am quite content to ho one of his public audience. But Count von Hcrtling's 1 Count von Hertling's reply is, I must say, very vogue and very confusing. It is full of equivocal phrases and leads it is not clear where, But it is certainly in a verjr different tone from that of Count Czernin, and apparently of an opposite purpose. It confirms, I am sorry to say, rather than removes, the unfortunate impression made by what wo had learned of the conference at Brest Litovsk. His discussion and acceptance of our general principles lead him to no practical conclusions. He refuses to apply them to the substantive items which must constitute the body of any final settlement. He is jealous of international action and of international counsel. Ho accepts, lie says, the principle of public diplomacy, but he appears to insist that it be confined, at any rato in this case, to generalities, and that the several particular questions of territory and sovereignty—the several questions upon whose settlement must depend the acceptance of peace by the twenty-three States now engaged in the war— must be discussed and settled, not in general. council, but severally by the nations most immediately concerned by interest or neighbourhood. He agrees that the seas should bo free, but looks askance at any limitation to that freedom by international action in tho interest of the common order. He would without reserve be glad to see economic barriers removed between nation and nation, for that could in no way impede tho ambitions of the military party with whom he seems constrained to keep on terms. Neither does ho raise objection to a limitation of armaments. That matter will he settled of itself, ho thinks, by the economic conditions which must foTlow the war. But the German colonios, he demands, must be returned without debate. He will discuss with no one but tho representatives of Russia what disposition shall be made of the peoples and the lands of the Baltic provinces; with no one but the Government of France the "conditions" under which French territory shall be evacuated; and only with Austria what shall bo done with Poland. In tho determination of all questions affecting the Balkan States ho defers, as I understand him, to Austria and to Turkey; and with regard to tho agreements to be entered into concerning the non-Turkish peoples of the present Ottoman Erapiro to the Turkish authorities themselves. After a settlement all round, affected in_ this_ fashion, by individual barter and concession, ho would have no objection, if I correctly interpret his statement, to a League of Nations which would undertake to hold the new balance of power steady against external disturbance. No peaco Possible on Such a Basis. > It must be evident to everyone who understands what this war hae wrought in tho opinion and temper of the world that no general peace, no peaco. worth the infinite sacrifices of these years of tragical sufferings, can possibly be arrived at in any such fashion. The method the German Chancellor proposes is tho method of tho Congress of Vienna (see note Delow). "Wo cannot and will not return to that. What is at stake now is the peace of the world. What wo are striving for is a new international order based upon tho broad and universal principles of right and justice—no mere peace of shreds and patches. Is it possible that Count von Hertling does not seo that, does uot grasp it, is, in fact, living in his thought in a world dead and gone? Has he utterly forgotten the Reichstag resolutions of July 19 (sec note below) or does ho deliberately ignore them? They spoke, of the conditions of a general peace, riot of national aggrandisement or of arrangements betweon State and State. The peace of the world depends upon the just settlement of each of the several problems to which I adverted in my recent address to tho Congress. The V/orld's Business. I, of course, do not mean that tho peace of tho world depends upon the acceptance of any particular set of sugestions as to the way in which thoso problems are to be dealt with. I mean only that those problems each and all affect tho whole world; that_unless thoy are dealt with in a spirit of unselfish and unbiased justice, with a view to the wishes, the natural connections, the racial aspirations, tho security, and tho peace of mind of the peoples involved, no permanent peaco will have been attained. They cannot bo discussed separately or in corners. Nono of them constitutes a private or separate interest from which the opinion of the world may be shut out. Whatever affects the peaco affects mankind, and nothing settled by military force, if nettled wrong, is settled at all. Tt will presently have to bo reopened. . , Is Count von Hertling not a warp that he is speaking in tho court of mankind, that nil tho awakened nations of tho world now sit in judgment oti what every public man, or whatever nation, may say on the issues of a conflict which has spread to every reign of tho world ?__ The Reichstag resolutions of July themselves frankly accepted the decisions of that court. There shall be no annexations, no contributions, no punitive damages. Peoples are not to be handed about from one sovereignty to another by an ■ international conference or an understanding between rivals and antagonists. National aspirations must be respected; peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. "Self-de-termination" is not a mero phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril. We cannot' have general peace for tho asking, or by the mero arrangements of a peaco conference. It cannot be pieced together out of individual understandings between powerful States. All tho parties to this war must join in the settlement of every issue anywhere involved in it: because what we arc seeking is a peaco that we can all unite to guarantee

and maintain, and every item of it must he submitted to tho common judgment whether it bo right and fair, nn act of justice, rather than a bargain between sovereigns. Tho Roll of America. The United Stales has no desire, to interfere in European affairs, or to aofc as arbiter in European territorial disputes. Sho would disdain to take advantage of any internal weakness or disorder to impose her own will upon another people. Sho is quite ready to be shown that tho settlements she has suggested arc, not the brst or tho most enduring. They aro only her own provisional sketch of principles and of the way in which they should be applied. Hut sho entered this war because she was made a partner, whether she would or not, in the sufferings and indignities inflicted by tho military masters of Germany against the peace and security of mankind; and the conditions of peace will'touch her as nearly; as they will touch any other nation to which is entrusted a loading part in the maintenance of civilisation,. She cannot seo her way to peaco until the pauses of this war are removed, its renewal rendered, as nearly as niiiy be, impossible. This war had its roots in the disregard of tho rights of small nations and of nationalities which lacked the union and the force to make good their claim to determine their own allcgianco and their own forms of political government. ' Covenants must now ho entered into which will render such things impossible for the future; and those covenants must bo backed l>y tho united force of all the nations that lovo justice and are willing to maintain it at any cost. If territorial settlements and tho political relations of great populations which have not the organised power to resist are to be determined by tho contracts of tho powerful Governments which consider themselves most directly affected, as (.mint von Hertling proposes, why may not economic questions also? It has come about in the altered world in which wo now find ourselves that justice and tho rights of peoples affect the world fiold of international dealing as much as access to raw materials and fair and equal conditions of trade. Von Hurtling and Czernin Contrasted. Count von Hertling wants tho essential bases of commercial and industrial life to bo safeguarded by common agreement and guarantee, but he cannot expect that to lie conceded him if tho other matters to be determined by tho Articles of I'eaco are not handled in the same way as items in the final accounting. Ho cannot ask tho benefit of common agreement in the one field without according it in ihe other. I take it for granted that ho sees that separate and selfish compacts with regard to trado and the essential materials of manufacture would afford no foundation for peace. Neither, he may rest assured, will separate and selfish compacts with regard to provinces and peoples. Count Czernin seems to seo the fundamental elements of pence with clear eyes, and does not seem to obscure them. He sees that an independent Poland, made up of all the indisputably Polish peoples who lie contiguous to one another, is a matter of European concern, and must, of course, be conceded; that Belgium must bo evacuated and restored, no matter what sacrifices and concessions that may involve; and that national aspirations must bo satisfied, even within his own empiro in the common interest of Europe and mankind. If he is silent nbout questions which touch the interest and purpose of his allies more clearly than they touch thoso of Austria only, it must, of course, be because ho feels constrained, I suppose, to defer to Germany and Turkoy in the circumstances. Seeing and conceding, as he docs the essential principles involved and tho necessity of candidly applying them, he naturally feels that Austria can respond to tho purpose of peace as expressed by the United States with less embarrassment than could Germany. Ho would probably have gone much farther had it not been for the embarrassments of Austria's alliances and of hor dependence upon Germany. Simple and Obvious Principles of Negotiation. After all, the test of whether it is possible for either Government to go any further in this comparison (f views is simple and obvious. The principles to be applied are these:— (1) That each part of the final settlement must be based upon the essential justice of that particular case and upon such adjustments as arc most likely to bring a peace that will be permanent, (2) That peoples and provinces are not to be bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were mere chattels and pawns in a game, even the great game, now for ever discredited, of the balance of power; but '*-- (3) That territorial settlement Involved in this war must bo made in the interest and for the benefit of the populations concerned, and not as a part of any mere adjustment or compromise or claims amongst rival States; (4) That all well-cicfined national aspirations shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction that can bo accorded them without introducing new or perpetuating old elements of discord and antagonism that would be likely in time to break the peace of Europe, and consequently of the world. A general peaco erected upon such foundations can he discussed. Until such a peaco can be secured wo have no choico but to go on. So far as we can judge, the principles that wo regard as fundamental are already everywhere accepted as imperative except among tho spokesmen of the military and annexationist party in Germany. If thoy have anywhere else been rejected, tho objectors have not hcou sufficiently numerous or influential to mako their voices audible. Tho tragic circumstanco is" that this one party in Gormany is apparently willing and able to send millions of men to their death to prevent what all the world now sees to be just. America in Earnest. I would not bo a true spokesman of tho people of the United States if I did not say once more that wo entered this war upon no small _ occasion, and that we can never turn back from a course chosen upon principle. Our resources aro in part mobilised now, and we shall not pause until they are mobilised in their entirety. Our armies are rapidly going to tho fighting front, and will go more and more- rapidly. Our whole strength will be put into this war of emancipation—emancipation from tho threat and attempted mastery of selfish groups of autocratic rulers—whatever the difficulties and present partial delays. Wo are indomitable in our power of independent action, and enn in no circumstances consent to live in a world by intrigue and force. Wo believe that our own desire for a new international order, under which reason and justice and tho common interest of mankind shall prevail, is the desiro of enlightened men everywhere. Without that new order tho world will bo without peace, and human life will lack tolerable conditions of existence and development. Having sot our hand to the task of achieving it, we shall not turn buck. I hope it is not necessary for mo to add that no word of what I have said is intended as a threat. That is not the temper of our people. I have spoken thus only that tho whole world may know the truo spirit of America—that men everywhere may know that'our passion for justice and for self-government is no inero passion of words, but a passion which once set in action must he satisfied. Tho. power of the United States is _a menace to no nation or people. It will never be used in aggression or for tho aggrandisement of any selfish interest of our own. It springs out of freedom, and is for tlio service of freedom.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.-Reutcr. REFEREN E NOTES 1. THE CON CRESS OF VIENNA.—The Congress of Vienna wan held in 1814-1815, after AVaterloo was fought. Great Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Eussia wero represented at this gathering, which was convened "to settle the affairs of Europe." It confirmed in its main features the Treaty of Paris of 1815, with the following additional provisions :—Onethird of the Kingdom of Saxony was surrendered to Prussia; the Duchy of Posen was retained by Prussia, and part of Gnlicia by Austria, while Russia secured the rest of Poland; the Bourbons were restored to Naples, tho Tyrol was given back to Austria, and certain arrangements wero made as to tho minor German and Italian States. The Congress further decided in favour of tho free navigation of rivers and of the suppression of tho slave trade. (2) REICHSTAC RESOLUTIONS OF JULY 19, 1917.—Th0 re-drafted and final peace formula of the majority of tho Reichstag is as follows:— (1) Germany is fighting for freedom, independence, and the maintenance of her territory. (2) Tho Reichstag desires a- lasting peaco secured on the good understanding of all peoples. The forced-acquisition of territory, political, economic, and financial disabilities are inconsistent with such a.pencei (3) Tho Reichstag protests against all plans for economic blockades, and demands freedom of tho seas after tho war. It advocates the establishment of an International Court. (4) Whilst enemy Governments do not accept such a peace the German people unanimously agree to continue the fight. KAISER STILL WARLIKE AND ARROGANT "VIOLENT POWERS OF HEAV EN MUST ASSIST US." (Rec. February 13, 0.30 a.m.) Amsterdam, February 12. Tho Kaiser, in a speech at Hamburg, declared: "I wish to live at peace with my neighbours, but a German victory must first be acknowledged. Our troops will gain it under our great Hindenburg. Then will come the peace we need for a strong future. To this end the violent powers of Heaven must assist us. Everyone, from the schoolboy to the greybeard, must set his thoughts on conquest and a German peace. The Fatherland will live!"— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. ■