PEACE TREATY.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1919, Page 5

PEACE TREATY.

THE PRESIDENT'S ATTITUDE. REJECTION OR COMPROMISE! STRENGTH OF PARTIES. py Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. i Received Nov. 19, 9 p.m. New York, No.. 11. The New York Times' Washington correspondent states that President Wilson's determination to reject the Treaty if the Senate adopts it with Senator Lodge's reservations, seems to leave compromise as the only other alternative. Senator Hitchcock announced that he was organising the minority forces to reject the ratification resolution. There are 45 Democratic votes, of which some will probably be cast with the Republicans, but there are sufficient remaining, however, to defeat ratification. The basis of a possible compromise has not yet been formulated. There is an unconfirmed rumor that President Wilson might possibly accept the Treaty if the reservation requiring the assent of three other Powers were omitted. The Democrats, before they succeeded, in passing any compromise programme, would be compelled to obtain the support of more than a third of the Republican senators. Senator Hitchcock has intimated that President Wilson was unalterably opposed to reservation requiring the assent of other powers to the reservation, because Britain and France would object! Senator Hitchcock said that *.ho Democrats, after, defeating the Treaty with the Lodge reservations, would attempt to gain the ratification with Hitchcock's mild reservations, but, in the event of the latter being defeated, they will then sock a compromise. He added that President Wilson would prefer to have the Treaty defeated in the Senate, rather than assume the responsibility of rejecting it himself.—Aus.-NZ. Cable Assn. TAFT AND THE TREATY TERMS. SENATE RESERVATIONS. Washington, Nov. 10. Regarding the League to Enforce Peace Mr. Taft has made a statement urging the Senate to reject tho Peace Treaty in the'event of the adoption of tho reservation by which the United States declines to arbitrate or submit to the League of Nations questions affecting the honor and vital interests of the United States. Mr. Taft points out that the reservation would mean the repudiating of .a principle of more than twenty of the Bryan treaties negotiated since 1913. The United States reserves the right to increase armaments without the League's consent, the United States to decide whether to continue financial and personal relations with a hovcotted nation and the rights of United States citizens under the alien property clauses to be preserved.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. The Senate rejected the reservation excluding the United Stntes from the Labor provisions of the treaty and adopted a reservation making Congress the deciding authority. The .Military Affairs Committee of thp House of Representatives has reached an agreement that the peace armv shall be 300,000 men. BULGARIA TO SIGN TERMS. Received Nov. ]f», 5.5 p.m. By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Paris, Nov. IS. The Bulgarian peace treaty will be signed on the 27th.