THE FUTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1918, Page 7

THE FUTURE.

WILSON'S FINEST PASSAGES. STRIVING FOR NEW ORDER. BEETLING'S DEAD WORLD. Washington. Feb. 11. p .'issages from the full text of President Wilson's speech before Congress in which lie laid down the basis of. future negotiations for peace, are as follows:

Whet is at stake now is the peace of tut world. What we are striving for is b new international order based upon the broad and universal principles of ri?ht and justice—-no mere peace of isflreds and patches. Is it possible that Count von Hertling does not see that, does not qrasp it. is, in fact, living in his thowjd in a world dead and gone? Has he utterly forgotten the Reichstag resolutions of July 10, or does he deliberately ignore them?

WHAT PEACE DEPENDS ON.They spoke of the conditions of, a general peace, not of national aggrandisement or of arrangements between State and State. The peace of the world de-icnds upon the just settlement of escli of the several problems to which J adverted in my recent address to the Congress. Unless they are dealt 'with it a spirit of unselfishness, and unbiased justice, with a view to the wishes, the natural connections, the racial aspira* tiens, and security, and the peace of rc'nd or the peoples involved, no permanent peace will have been attained. They cannot be discussed separately or in corners'

or in corners. THE COURT OF MANKIND. Is Count von Hertling not aware that he is speaking in the court of mankind, tljat all the awakened nations of the world now sit in judgment on what every public man, of whatever nation, many say on the issues of a conflict which has spread to every region of tho world?

The Eeichstag resolutions of July themselves frankly accepted the decisions of that court. There shall be no annexations, no contributions, no punitive damages. Peoples are not to be handed about from one sovereignty to another, by an international conference, or an understanding between rivals and antagonists.

SELF-DETERMINATION. National aspirations must be respected, peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. "Self-determination" is not a mere phrase. 'lt is a n imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril.

This war had its roots in the disregard of the rights of small natons, and of nationalities which lacked the union and the force to make good their claims t'i determine their own allegiance and their own form of political life.

BACKED BY FORCE. Covenants must now be entered into which will render such things impossible for the future; and those covenants must be backed by the united force of all the nations that, love justice and are willing to maintain it at any cost. If territorial settlements and the'political relations of great populations which have not the organised power to resist am to be determined by the contracts of the powerful Governments which consider themselves most directly affected, as o'iint von Hertling proposes, why may not economic questions also

THE ALTERED WORLD. 7t has come about in the altered world in which we now find ourselves that justice and the rights of peoples affect the whole field of international dealings as much as access t.O raw material and fair and equal conditions of trade. "o far 3iiv« can judge, the principles .that, we regard as fundamental are already everywhere accepted as imperative except among the spokesmen of the military and annexationist party in Germany. THE TRAGEDY. ' The tragical circumstances is that this one party in Germany is apparently wi'Ung and able to s'end millions of men to their death to prevent what all the world now sees to be just. I would not be a true spokesman of the people of the United States if I did not say once more that, we entered this wjr upon no small occasion, and that we can never turn back from a course chosen upon principle. Our resources a?° in part, mobilised now, and we shall not pause until they are mobilised in their entirety.

ARMIES FOR THE FRONT. Onr armies are rapidly going to the fighting front, and will go more and more rapidly. Our whole strength will he put into this war of emancipation—emancipation from the threat and attempted mastery of selfish groups of autocratic rulers—whatever the difficulties, and present partial delays. We are indomitable in our power of independent action, and can in no circumstances consent to live in a world governed by intrigue and force.

Without that new order tho world will be without peace, and human life will lack tolerable conditions of existence and development. Having set our hand to the task of achieving it, we shah net turn back.

PASSION THAT MUST BE SATISFIED. '

I hope that it is not necessary for r.ie f.i.add that no word of what I have said is intended as a threat. That is not the ten.per of our' people. I have spokenthis only that the whole, world may '■.' now that our passion for justice and" for self-government is no mere passion of words, hut a passion which, once set in action, must be satisfied. The power of the United States is a menace to no n*t>on or people. It will never be. used 'in aggression or for the aggrandisement of any selfish interest of our own. It springs ,out of freedom, and is for ,t>.'e frvioe of freedom.