The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-08-03
WITTE denies THAT HE
Predicted A failure
KNOWS NOTHING YET OF PEACE
TERMS FIXED UPON
By JAPAN.

Did Not Say That They Were IntOIer-
able and That the Conference Would
Break Up in a Week-Issues ofiiciai
Statement in Which He Refers to the
Japanese rs sour Gallant Adversary"
Hopes Motives Powerful Enough
VIII be Found to Lead to a Lasting
Friendship.
New York, Aug. 2.-Sergius Witte,
the Russian peace plenipotentiary, on
his arrival here this afternoon on the
Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse, emphatic
ally denied having said that Japan's
peace terms were intolerable. He also
denied positively that he had predicted
that the conference would break up
in a week.
d, When the Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse
arrived at her pier M. witte handed to
Professor De Martens the following
statement which Professor De Mar
tens read aloud.
"For the friendly greetings of the
American newspapers upon my first
visit to the hosDitable shores of the
United States offer my heartfelt
thanks. This kind attention touches
me all the more profoundly because !
realize the vastness of the power
welded by the press of the United
States and the keen intelligence with
which it is uniformly directed. am
glad to be able to add that 1 also ap-
preciate the ethical worth of the aims
for the attainment of which that power
is so often and so successfully applied.
one of the noblest of these aims is
the establishment of peace and friend
ship among nations, and it is to the
praiseWorthy efforts of the people of
the United States in this direction that
my visit to the new world is attribut-
able. For it is in compliance with the
American peoples desire for peace, Of
which President Roosevelt was the au-
thorized exponent that his majesty the
czar has empowered me to come hither
and ascertain the conditions which
our gallant adversary deems necessary
and adequate at a basis for peace ne
gotiations. I need hardly point out
that 1t is my ardent desire that the
two cIlivaIrous foes, who first became
acquainted on the field Of battle may
have found in each other sterling
qualities, motives powerful enough to
cultivate that acqdaintanceship until
it ripens into lasting friendship.
Meanwhile, however, the terms offered
must first be ascertained, weighed and
judged admissible by Russia before
she can proceed to formal negotiations.
Hitherto, as you are aware, it was GUS
tomary' in cases like this to settle all
prelininaries before the plenipotenti-
aries, whose task it was to come to a
final agreement on the matters under
discussion. Now the very fact that his
majesty the czar consented to take a
course involving departure from this
ancient diplomatic usage and to ap-
point a mission to learn the nature of
our brave e1lemy's terms is an elo-
quent token Of the friendly feeling
which he and his subjects continue to
cherish towards the people of the Unit
ed States. I say continue to cherish,
because at no epoch in our history
have our traditional relations with this
great republic been other than cordial.
And now should like to say, aye, and
to prove to your people, who live less
in the past than in the present and
the future, that it is the fervent wish
of the emperor and the people of Rus
sia further to strengthen the ties of
friendship which have hitherto SUBJ
sisted between the two nations.
: 1T Is in virtue Of that sincere desire
that his majesty the czar, waiving all
other considerations, has unhesitating-
ly accepted the cordial invitation of
your first citizen and genial leader.
And If my mission should prove in all
other respects barren, and the endeav-
sor to find common basis for peace ne
gotiations should fail for the time be-
ing, the signal proof of friendship given
by his majesty the czar and the RUS
sian nation would stand out as a mem
orable event fraught, trust, with far
reaching and beneficent results to the
two great peoples Of the west and the