THE PEACE MEETING.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 December 1917, Page 3

THE PEACE MEETING.

fAUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION]

(Received this day at 1.30 p.m.) AMSTERDAM, December 27

M. Czornin presiding at the plenary’ meeting of Rnsso-German peace delegates, declared first that the Central Powers did not intend to violently annext the regions occupied during the war. The withdrawal of troops from those regions could be arranged for in the peace treaty. In the event of failure to agree to a certain point before the treaty was signed .

Secondly, the Central Powers had no intention of depriving of their political independence any nation which bad independence.

Thirdly, the problem of deciding to which Power any State, which did not possess political independence, should belong, would not be solved internationally but must in some cases be decided by the individual state. ■Fourthly—The safeguarding of minorities must be the right of every nation to decide its own destiny.

Hfthly—The Central Powers had repeatedly declared no indemnities should be paid by either side, each belligerent paying only the expenses of its respective war prisoners and compensation to civilian prisoners, with a special fund for this purpose, suggested by Russia should only he considered if other than belligerents participated in the peace negotiations within a reassurable period.