THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 October 1918, Page 3

THE WAR.

PEACE MATTERS;

PRESIDENT WILSON'S VIEWS, CENTRAL POWERS OUTLAWS. MUST BE READY TO PAY TUB , ...... PRICE,

New York, Se.pt. 28. President" Wilson in his loan speech saul: Individual statesmen may have started tho war, but neither they nor their opponents can stop it as they please. It has become a people's war, People of all sorts and races of every degree are involved and the issues have become suck that they must be settled by no arrangement or compromise or adjustment of interests, but definitely once for oil and with an unequivocal of the principle that the interest of the weakest is as saered as the interest of the strongest. The Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest treaties and peace arrangements convinced us that the Governments of the •Central Empires are without honoT, and accept no principle but force and +heir own interest. They have made it impossible for us to come to terms with them.

If it be indeed, and I trust it is, the common objects of the Governments associated against Germany and the nations they govern to achieve and by the coming settlements to secure a lastin"' peace, it will be necessary that tliey all sit at the peace table and shall come ready and willing to pay the price that

will secure it and also create in some virile fashion,- the only instrumentality whereby it can be made certain tliat agreements of peace will be honored and fulfilled. That price is impartial justice in every item of settlement, no matter whose interests are crossed.

That indispensable instrumentality is a League of Nations formed under covenants that will be efficacious. Without such instrumentality the peace of the world will rest in part, upon the word of outlaws and only upon that word, for Germany will have to redeem Iter character, not by what happens at the peace table, 'but by what follows. Such a league cannot be formed now, If so formed it would be merely a new allance confined to the nations associated against the common enemy. It is not likely it could be formed aftef that settlement. Peace cannot be guaranteed as an afterthought.

IMPARTIAL JUSTICE IMPERATIVE. Dealing with some particulars President Wilson declared that he spoke with the greatest confidence because he could state them authoritatively as the Government's interpretation of its own duty with regard to peace. These particulars were that the impartial justice meted out must involve no discrimination as to those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not wish to ibe just. We must know no standard but the equal rights of the several peoples involved. No special or separate interest of any single nation or group of nations can be made the basis of any part of a settlement consistent with the common interest of all. There can be no leagues or alliances or special covenants and understanding within the general and common family of the League of Nations; no special selfish economic combinations v/itliin the League and no employment of any form of economic boycott or exclusion, except in so far as the power of economic penalty l»y exclusion from the markets of the world may be vested in the League of Nations itself as a means of discipline of control. MAINTENANCE OF COMMON RIGHTS. 1

All international treaties of every kind, must lie made known entirely to the rest of the world. Special alliances, economic rivalry and hostilities have 'been a prolific source of the passions producing war. It would be an insincere and insecure peace which did notexclude them in definite binding terms. The United States was prepared to assume its full share of the responsibility for the maintenance of the common covenants and understandings wlietaon peace henceforth must rest. Tliev couhl still read Washington's warning against entangling alliances with full comprehension, but only special and limited alliances entangle and we recognise and 'accept the duty of the new days in which wo are permitted to hope for a general alliance which would avoid entanglements and clear the air of the world for common understandings and til®' maintenance of common rights. He made this analysis of the internal situation which the war bad created both because he was doubtful whether the leaders of the great nations rl>d the people with whom they are associated were of the same mind and entertained a like purpose, and to clear the air of most groundless doubthigs. and mise'liievous perversions of counsel and irresponsible talk about peace intriguePresident Wilson then strongly urged the necessity of placing the whole issues clearly and openly before the peop'es of the world in language tiiey could translate and from which they could gather the .replies to the questions tbev were asking. He added: "My one thought is to satisfy those who struggle in the ranks and are perhaps above all others entitled to a reply whose meaning none can have any excuse for misunderstanding."

He Relieved the leaders of t!ie Governments with which the United States was associated would sneak as they had occasion plainly, as he tried to speak. The only real peace wou.Hl be an assurance which would make tl>e recurrence nf such a struggle of pitiless force and ii'oodshed forever impossible.—Aus.-N.Z. Ci>lle Assn.

spoke simply and unaffectedly and his speech rang in the people's ears like the words of a prophet. The audience was greatly stirred. A vivid feature of the meeting was President Wilson's utter democratic spirit, which seems to make him one of the natural leaders of the world's enlightened people. The President appeared to be one of the most interested spectators of the great gathering and one of the most interested listeners to other ' speakers. President Wilson speech has been approved by ; the press throughout the country.

The New York Sun says the fact that President Wilson'came before the people with a programme for the peace of the future, is a sign that he is confident that victory is not far distant.

The New York World says: "President Wilson believed that the League of Nations can no longer be regarded but as one of the essentials of peace." The New York Times says: "In the President's view the League of Nations must be part of the peace settlement."— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assoc.

MR, ASQUITH'S VIEWS. SECURITY FOR ALL NATIONS. London, Sept. 29. Mr. Asquith, addressing the Federation, said they must be 011 their guard, so that the unexampled sacrifices would not be frittered away unless they could procure a clean peace which did not offend the conscience either of the victim or of the rest of mankind. They could have no clean peace if there were a continuation of veiled war or a peace designed to inflict permanent humiliation and dismemberment.

■ The Austrian peace note was impracticable. The only acceptable peace was one giving self-determination and security to all nations, large and small. It waa in the highest degree undesirable to have a general election during the war to dissipate energy and break up national unity. Nothing during the war suggested that they would be better oil' after *peace by any sjrstem of tariffs, either preferential, differential, punitive, or prohibitive.—Aus. N.Z. Cable Assoc.