WAR AIMS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 42, 13 November 1918, Page 10

WAR AIMS

SUMMARISED BY PRESIDENT WILSON In a. speech delivered at the grave of Washington on July -i, 101S, Presidoni Wilson said: "This is sur.;ly a fitting place from which calmly to" look out i poll our task, that \\n may tortily u;r spirits for its accomplishment. And this is tlio appropriate place from vhich to avow, alike to me Iriends who look on and to the friends with whom wo have the happiness to be associated ill action, Iho faith- and purpose with which we. act. "This, then, is our ocuweptij.'i of the groat struggle in which we are engaged. The plot is written plain upon every scene and every act of t-lio supreme tragedy. On the me hand stand the peoples of the world—not only the peoples actually engaged, but

ma:!y others, also, who suffer under :nasu:ry hut cannot act; people's of i uiiiity raccs and ii> every »i the world—the people of' stricken Russia still, among the rest, thougn they are ,for the Dtumeiit unorganised and help-1 less, Opposed to tnem, masters i many armies, stand an isolated, friendless 'group of Govurninonis, why ,-peak rio common purpose, but only selfish ajubitions of tlioir own. by which none can. profit, but themselves, and whose peoples are fuel in their hands: Governmonts w'hich fear their, people, ami yet are tor the time being sovereign lords, making every choice for ■ them and disposing of their lives and for-tunes-as they will, as well as of the lives and fortunes of every- people who fall under their power—Governments clothed with the strange trapping* and tbe primitive authority of an age that is altogether A lien and Iwstile to cur mvn. The I'ast and the Present are ill deadly grapple, and the peoples e.f the world are being done to death .hetiveen them. "There can be but one issue. The settlement must be fine], ''.here can be no compromise. No hallway decision ivoukl be tolerable. No halfway decision is.conceivable. These areVthc ends for which the associate''] peoples of the. world ar" fightirc and which must be conceded them before there can be peace: "l.Tlte destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can r-epa-isti'lv, secretly, and of its single choice disturb the pear? of the world : or, if it cannot be presently destroyed, at the least its reduction to virtual impotence. "'2. The settlement of every (inestion, whether of territory, of sovereignty, of economic arrangement, or of political

relationship, upon the basis of the free acceptance of that setth'.nent ly the people immediately concerned, (.nil not upon, the basis of -the material interest or advantage of any other nation or people which may desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery. ''3. The consent of all nations to ho governed in their conduct toward eaeli other by the Mine principles of honour and of respect for the'eominon laiv of civilised 'society that govern il:o individual citizen* i.if all modern States in their relations with one another; to the end that all promises and covenants may lie sacredly observed, no private plots or conspiracies hiuejicd,

no selfish injuries wrought with impunity. and a mutual trust i stablished upon the handsome inundation of a mutual respect for right. "■I. The establishment of an organisation of peace which shall make it certain that the combined power of tree nations will cheek every invasion of right, and serve, to make peace and justice the more secure by affording a definite tribunal of opinion to which all must submit and by which every international readjustment that cannot be amicably agreed upon by ihc peoples directly concerned shall be sanctioned.

"These great objects can be put. into a single sentence. What we. seek is the reim of law, based upon the consei'l, of the governed and sustained by ilhe organised opinion of mankind.

"These great ends cannot, he achieved by debating : a;id serkinn ;o reconcile and accommodate what statesmen may wish with their projects for balances of power and of national opportunity. They can be realised oi.ly bv the determination of what the thinking iroplcs of the. world desire, with their longing hope for justice and for social freedom and opportunity."