WILSON'S PROPOSAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 January 1917, Page 5

WILSON'S PROPOSAL.

fEACE WITHOUT VICTORY" EXPLAINED. NO CONQUEROR'S TERMS, Received Jan. 25, 5.5 p.m. New \ r ork, Jan. 24. There ia still the widest difference of opinion among newspapers and publicists as to the desirability of President Wilson's proposal for America to enter Into a 'eague to enforce peace after the war The New York World, which u 1:1 President Wilson's confidence, endeavors to explain tho phrase, "Peace without victory," by stating that that it means the peace would be such as that which .was made in the American Civil War, wfoerein the miEtary power of the South was crushed, but no conqueror's terms *vere imposed President Wilson means ihato a permanent peace cannot be imposed by the Bword. He does not mean that the Allies .Bill not crush Prussian pulitariam. \ '; —: THE SPEECH NOT DEBATED.' Received Jan, 25, 5.5 p.m. ' Washington, Jan. 24. The Senate decided not to debate President Wilson's speech at present. BONAR LAW'S REPLY TO WILSON. A WAR OF NAKED AGGRESSION. £ QUESTION OF LIFE AND nEATH. ALLIES FIGHTING FOR PEACE. Received Jan. 25, 9.55 p.m. Londpn, Jan. 25. Mr. A. Bonar Law at Bristol, in replying to President Wilsons spcwli, declared that the Germans' so-called peace offer had received from the Allies the only possible reply. "We believe that the essence of this conflict is a .question which is as old as time, namely, it-he difference between right and wrung We know this is a war of naked sggre/-f-ion; that the crimes, which accompanied the conduct of tilic wai, which were unknown in the world for centuries, were small as compared with (the initial crime of plunging the worrl tnto a, war by cold-blooded ca'.cti'mtioii. ibecanse those responsible thought it would pay. Our aim would coineic'.e ;with President Wilson in the effort to wcurc the present and future peace o' [the world. It was not right to regard (President WilsoK's effort in regard to a iLeague of Peace as altogether Utopian, (mt the subject was not an abstract question for the future, but was a question of life and death now. Proceeding, Mr. Bonar Law dealt with the past efforts to render war impossible, or at least in some measure to toiitigate its horrors. It showed that Germany had wholesalely violated her Convention pledges in connection therewith, and that no neutral Power had been able to stop,her, also that no .jeutral had, indeed, protested, so we must take other means to secure the future peace of the world. We iejected the German iffcr to negotiate, bee ••« peace now would mean peace based on German victory, and would leave the jmilitary machine unbrqken, with the Jialo of success surrounding it. Tho controllers of that machine would again prepare for war, choosing a convenient time, to begin. What President Wilson was longing for we are fighting for, our menfolk risking bheir lives for it, and we mean to secure it.