Norwich bulletin., 1916-12-21

the issues of the present war upon terms which will certainly safeguard the independence. the territorial in tegrity and the political and commer- cial freedom of the nations involved.
 Measure to Secure Future Peace.
 ''In the measures to be taken to se- cure the future peace of the world, the people and government of the United States are as vitally and as directly interested as the governments now at war. Their interest, more over, in the means to be adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples of the world of the peril of wrong and violence is as quick and ardent as that of any other people or govern ment. They stand ready. and even eager, to cooperate in the accomplish ment of these ends, when the war is over, with every influence and re- source at their command. But the war must first be concluded.
 The terms upon which it is to be concluded are not at liberty to sug
 gest; but the president does feel that
 it is his right and his duty to point out their intimate interest in its con-
 clusion, lest it should presently be
 too late to accomplish the greater things which lie beyond it's con- cluaion, lest the situation of neutral nations, now exceedingly hard to en- dure, be rendered altogether intoler-
 able, and lest more than all. an in-
 jury be done civilization itself which can never be atoned for or repair ed
 Comparison of Views.
 "The president therefore feels alto
 gether justified in suggesting an inn
 mediate opportunity for a compari son of views as to the terms which must precede those ultimate arrange ments 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 re- sponsfble part If the contest must continue to proceed. towards unde- fined ends by slow attrition, until the one group of belligerents or the other is exhausted 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. ii
 resentments must be killed that car l never cool and despairs engendered from which there can be no recovery hopes of peace and of the willing con- cert of free peoples will be rendered vain and idle.
 Life of World Affected.
 'The life of the entire world has been profoundly affected. Every part of the great family of mankind unprecedented contest Of arms. Nc
 nation in the civilized world can be | said in truth to stand outside it's in- f1uence or to be safe against it's dis turbing effects. And yet the concrete objects for which it is being waged have never been definitely stated. Actual Exchange of Guarantees. "The lea/ers of the several belliger- ents have, as has been said, stated their objects in general terms. But stated in general terms. they seem the same on both sides. Never yet have the authoritative spokesmen of either side avowed the precice objects which would, if attained, satisfy them and their people that the war had been fought out The whole world has been left to conjecture what .definitive re- suits, what actual exchange of guar antees, what political or territorial
 changes or readjustments, what stage of military success even. would
 bring the war to an end.
 Excanse of Views Necessary.
 "It may be that peace is nearer than we know; that the terms which
 tho belligerents on the one side and
 on the other would deem it necessar.
 to insist Epon are not so irreeoncilia
 ble as some have feared; that an in terchange of views would clear ths way at least for conference and make the permanent concord Of fh nations