PEACE MOVEMENT.

Taihape Daily Times, 21 January 1918, Page 5

PEACE MOVEMENT.

THE BREST LITOVSK CONFER-

ENCE.

TROTSKY AND KUHLMANN IN

DEBATE

LONDON, Jan 19

A -wireless German report from Brest Litovsk says that a private meeting between Czernin and tne Ukranians on the 16th January, settled in principle the future political relations between the Central Powers and Ukraine. Trotsky, at Monday's sitting of the Austro-German-Russian commission, took note of Kuhlmann's declaration that the territorial negotiations rested exclusively upon the political will of the German Government. Trotsky denied that his Government outlawed anyone differing from it He added that when Roumani a resorted to force, on Russian territory, against the revolutionary soldiers and workmen, he and his feylow delegates recommended the Petrograd Government to arrest the Roumanian Ambassador and his staff, and he was informed that this -had already been done. Kuhlmann emphasises the fact that Hertling had issued instructions regarding the whole field of foreign policy. There was no divergence between Kuhlmann's and Hoffmann's conceptions. The fundamental difference between the Central Powers and the Russian delegation was that the Central Powers wished to see an orderly state arising in those regions without a break or violent transition. They were opposed to the idea of creating a vacuum and allowing the establishment c 1 a state within that vacuum > Trotsky denied that the withdrawal of the army of occupation would create a •aouum. The people of Poland, Lithuania, and Courland would nowise find themselves in a difficult political situation if the army was withdrawn. Finally, at Kuhlmann's instance, it was agreed to discuss the four Russian points seriatim.

A wireless Russian message states that Trotsky, in a proclamation, accuses the Germans of misrepresenting the Brest-Litovsk proceedings with the intention of misleading the German public.

THE BONE OF CONTENTION

LONDON, Jan 19

Admiralty per wireless. —The Russian report of the Brest Litovsk Con ference states that Kuhlmann indicated that Germany was willing to organise not later than one year after the declaration of a general peace, an extensive consultation of the peoples

of Poland, Lithuania and Courland

for their self-determination

Trotsky urged that the date should

depend upon the agreement of peace upon the Eastern front, and not a gen-

eral peace

Kuhlmann, after several attempts at evasion, declared that Germany could not undertake any obligation to recall her army in occupation.

GERMANY PACIFICATING UKRAINE.

LONDON, Jan 19

The German report of the separate negotiations between the Central Powers and the Ukranians states that the results achieved justify the hope that a satisfactory conclusion will be reached