The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1905-06-15
PRESIDENT SENDS
STRONG NOTE
Urges Them to Open Peace
Negotiations Delicate
Diplomacy.

An luentlcal nOte, the Je&G OF WnlCn,
by authority of President Roosevelt,
was made public late Saturday night
at the White House by Secretary Loeb,
has been forwarded to the governments
of Russia and Japan by the President.
In the interest of humanity he urges
the warning nations to conclude peace.
1t is suggested by the President that
the negotiations for peace be conduct
ed directly and exclusively" between
the belligerent nations. The note in
dicates the Presidents belief that an
intermediary may not be necessary to
effect conclusive negotiations, but like
wise expresses the Presidents willing
ness to do all that he may properly do
to promote the preliminary arrange
ments for a time and place for the
meeting of representatives of the Rus
sian and Japanese governments.
The following is the text of the note
as given out;
"The President feels that the time
has come when the interest of all man
kind must endea7or to see if it is not
possible to bring to an end the terrible
and lamentable conflict now being
waged. With both Russia and Japan
the United States has inherited ties of
friendship and good will. 1t hopes for
the prosperity and welfare of each, and
it feels that the progress of the world
is set back by the war between these
two great nations.
"lhe President accordingly urges
the Russian and japanese govern
ments, not only for their own sakes,
but in the interest of the whole civil
lied world, to open direct negotiations
for peace with one another. The Pres
ident suggests that these peace nego-
tiations be conducted directly and ex-
clusively between the belligerents; in
other words that there may be a meet
ing of Russian and Japanese plenipo-
tentlaries or delegates without any
intermediary, in order to see if it is not
possible for these representatives Of
the two powers to agree to terms of
peace.
"The President earnestly asks that
the Russian and japanese governm ents
do now agree to such meeting. While
the President does not feel that any
intermediary should be called in, in
respect to the peace negotiations them
selves, he is entirely willing to do what
he properly can if the two powers con-
cerned feel that his services will be of
aid in arranging the preliminaries as to
the place and time of meeting, but even
if these preliminaries can be arranged
directly between the two powers or in
any other way, the President will be
glad, as his sole purpose is to bring
about a meeting which the whole civil
lied world will pray may result in
peace"
The foregoing note was forwarded to
the Russian and japanese governments
Friday afternoon. 1t is rendered es.
pecially significant by the fact that il
was prepared and sent only after assur.
ances had been received from Toxic
and st. Petersburg that such a propo-
sition would be welcomed.
While both Count Cassini, the Rus
sian ambassador, and Minister Taxa
hira, of Japan, were cognizant of thC
nature of the note, it was not sent tC
their respective governments through
them. 1t was cabled by direction o
the President to ST. Petersburg anC
Toxic and there delivered directly tt
the Russian and Japanese government
respectively by Ambassador Meyer ant
Minister Griscom.