, 1916-12-23

RSGOA - W ASts hO Il1IA6u oNCII-
where indicates the readiness Of the nation
to mobilize. The description by Mr.. Rowland
Prothero, President of the Board of Agricnl-
ture, of Britain as a beleaguered city and
his dictum 'the war may be won III our
cornhelds and potato lnnd'' are featured as
furnishing the key note to a situation which
calls for the utmost national efforts.
Berlin, Dec. 20th.--A German submarine
torpedoed and sunk the French batlteship
"Sufren" according to an official statement
given out tonight. The statement reads "One
of our submarines sank on November Goth
by q torpedo an enemy ship of the line north.
west of Lisbon. 1t was the French battleship
"Suffren" reported lost with the entire crew
by the French Admiralty on December 9Th.
Washington, December 2Oth.-Mr. Will
sons note to the beiligerents as prefaced
with this instruction by Secretary Of State,
MI Lansing, to the Ameticnn Ambassadors
presenting them. The President directs me
to send yon the following communication to
be presented Immediately to the Miuist er of
Foreign Affairs of the Government to which
you are accredited. The note in part says.
The President takes the liberty of calling
attention to the fact that the objects which
the statesmen Of the bel|igerents on both
sides have in mind in this war are virtually
the same as stated in general terms 10 their
own people and to the world. Each side
desires to make The rights aud privileges of
weak peoples and small states as secure
against aggression or denial in the future as
the rights and privileges of the great and
powerful states now ut war. r CHI wishes
itself to be nude secure III the future along
with all other nations and peoples against the
recurrence Of wars like this and against
GIL n~-
kind. Each would be jealous of the for
nation of any more rival leagues to preserve
an uncertain balance of power amidst multi
plying suspicious, but each is ready to con-
slider the formation Of a league of notions
to insure peace and justice throughout the
W rid. The President therefore feels alto
gether justified III suggesting an immediate
opportunity for a comparison of views as to
the terms which must proceed the ultimate
arrangements for the peace of the world
which all desire and IN which the neutral
nations as we'll as those at war are ready to
play their full responsible part. If the COO
test must continue to proceed towards un-
defined ends by slow attrition until the one
group of belligerents or the other IS exhaust
ed, if million after million of human lives
must continue to be offered up until on the
one side or the other there are no more to
offer, if resentments must be klndled that
can never cool aud despair engendered from
which there can be no recovery, hopes of
peace and of the willing concert of free peo-
pies will be rendered vain and idle. The Pre-
sident is not proposing peace, be is not even
offering mediation. He is merely proposing
that soundings be taken III order that we may
learn from the neutral nations with the bel
ligerents, how near The vein Of peace may be for
which all mankind longs with an intense and
increased longing. He believed that the
spirit in which be speaks and the objacts
which be seeks will be understood by all
concerned, and he confidently hopes for a
response which will bring a new light into
the affairs of The world.
London, Dec. 21st-The suggestion of the
United States for an exchange of views
among the belligerents has been received
at the Foreign Office and is now under con-
sideratlon pending which no statement will
be made.
Vienna, Dec. 21st--Herr Alexander Spitz-
muller has failed III his effort 10 construct a
New Cabinet and the task has been turned
over to Count Clau Martinez, former Minis
ter of Agriculture in whose Cabinet Herr
Spitzmulfer will have the finance portfolio.
London, Dec. 21st-The correspondents
of the Morning Papers in the lobby of Par
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