The Alaska citizen., 1916-12-18
PEACE.

from the Outside and printed in yes terday mornings paper, indicate that Germany, through her highest public official, has expressed desire to alake peace with the Entente Allies. They also say that the other three nations composing the Central bow CTS are ready to make peace. the terms. as stated, are the restoration
 f the boundaries of all of the coun ries engaged in the fighting. as the. atIe before the war commenced, aith the exception of Poland anu .jtluania, which the Central powers
 evidently desire to be taken from
 Russia and given independence.
 Since the first day that the war ,tarted, in the first week of August
 n 1914, peace" is a word which
 aas probably been uttered more
 times than any word in general
 Use, except war" For no sooner
 had the war started than the paci- lists of the world were at work,
 rying to see if they could not do ,omething toward ending what has proven to be two long years of strife md boodshed. the like of which he world has never known. But to late no pacifist, whether he was of me of the nations engaged in the ,truggle or a neutral, has been able to help the cause of peace. Fol lone could suggest terms which met with the approval of the nations en- aged in the strife.
 And on account of the fact that
 lot only the pacifists. but the public
 )f all nations in general, wanted to
 zee the war end, rumors of over
 Ires for peace have been circulated
 t various times during the past two
 ears. But it was not until last
 tuesday that an a, thentiC proposal
 or peace was made by the repre- 5entatives of any nation. and The associated Press announced the fact -o it's correspondents throughout the
 nited States, even before it Wa ,licially announced in Washington, j. C., in a telegram to German Am jassador von Bernstorff from Herr
 on Bethmann-Hollweg, chancellor oi
 he German empire.
 The representatives of the nations
 orming the Entente Allies have made no answer to the peace pro posal of the Central powers, as ia; Is can be learned. The dispatches say that the general public in Eng land, as well as the press. is op rosed to peace under the terms laid down by Germany and her allies But the new ministry of Great Brit aIur "uItu VIII, III dlI p4oUdpil'tS dictate any action which the Allies i may take in the matter, has re- mained silent.
 Therefore nobody can say just what the outcome of the peace pro posal will be- But the fact remains tb will tall, 1.n the nation which will sway the is sue. For unless the various em piIce of the Central powers are dis | irtegrated, should the war br fought | to finish and the Allies win, she 1 has nothing to gain oy further fight | ing.
 On the other hand, it would be | but natural for Russia and France. | particularly the former. to oppose | the proposition made by the Gen tral towers France is fighting to | recoN CT the provinces of Aisace and i Lorraine, lost by her to Germany 1 in 1870, and Russia is fighting for | a southern exit to the Mediterranean | sea and the Atlantic ocean. The | proposal of Germany includes the | taking from Russia of Poland and | Lithuania, just how much territory. | is not stated in the dispatches. But | it is probable that Russia will also | fight against this feature of the pro | posal, for if a peace were concluded | under such terms she would be the | loser, not the gainer, as she expected, | by the war. For she will have lost | territory and will not have gained | her point, as the German proposal specifically states that the Central | powers will insist on their boun- daries being allowed to remain the same as they were before the war.
 If Germany secures an everlasting | peace by her proposals, 1t will be master stroke. For, while she will have lost nothing except the lives of thousands upon thousands of her people, she will have gained at least part of what she was seeking, the