THE PROGRAMME FOR PEACE.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 September 1916, Page 4

THE PROGRAMME FOR PEACE.

Hero, in brief, is Mr. Steed's programme for peace: I. The British Empire, as a whole, shall concert with its Allies a scheme for economic defence against Germany find her allies both during and after the war. The objects o£ this scheme would be— Ia) To tighten the 'blockade' of Germany; (b) to convince Germany and her allies that the longer they continue the struggle the more complete will be their economic ruin, and the more protracted the period of ecoromie servitude through which they must pass until they have fully indemnified' those of the Allies who have most suffered from Germany's action; (c) 4o establish, as a settled principle of Allied policy, {bat, until these

indemnities have been fully paid, the British and Alliad Navies will not recognise the German or any enemy flag upon the high seas; and that the Allies will exact such additional guarantees of the payment of those indemnities, by occupation of territory or otherwise, as may be deemed essential.

11. That, simultaneously with the formulation of an Allied economic policy, there shall be ta l ' m in hand the establishment of a deiinite scheme of European reconstruction, territorial and political, such a scheme to include:— (a) The restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France;

(b) The adjustment of Belgian territory in accordance with Belgian requirements ;

(c) The constitution of an ethnically complete Serbia in the form of a United States of Yugoslavia; (d) The constitution of a unified selfgoverning Poland under the Russian sceptre; (e) The constitution of an independent, or at least autonomous, Bohemia, including Moravia and the Slovak country of north-western Hungary; (f) The allotment to Routnaim of the Rounmne regions of Hungary and Bukovina, provided that Roumania shall have helped effectively to liberate those regions from Austro-Hungariaii rule;

'(g) The establishment of the freedom of the Bosphorus and of the Dardanelles to shipping, after Russia has secured, or has been given, possession of Constantinople. (h) The completion of Italian unity by the. inclusion within the frontiers of the kingdom of Italy of all Italian districts in the Trentino and the Carnic Alps, on the Triestine littoral and the Is'.rian coast; the establishment of Italian naval control in the Adriatic by the possession of 'l'ola, Lissa and Valona.