Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-12-22
BRITAIN NOT READY TO
ACCEPT PEACE TERMS

London, Dec. 19.-Premicr Lloyd
George referring in the House of
Commons today to German proposals
for u peace. conference, declared that
peace without complete restitution,
rcparation and eifectual guarantees
for the future" was impossible.
The Premier quoted Abraham Lin
coin, when he said:
I'VE accepted this war for an OBJ
jo:t, and Il world object, and the war
will end when the object is attained
Under God.
1T will never end until that time "
10 enter into Il conference on the
invitation of Gerany, proclaiming her
sci victorious, without any knowl-
edge of what proposals she propos-
IS to make, the Primo Minister said,
was to "put our heads into IL moose
with the rope end in the hands Of
Germany"
The Premicr's Speech.
Rising in the House afew minutes
after O'Clock, the Prime Minister
said:
ii appear before the House of Com
a:on5 today with the most terrible
responsibility that can fail upon the
shoulders of any living man as chief
adviser to the crown, in the most ri
eantic war in which this country was
ever engaged, Il war upon the events
of which its destiny depends. 1t is
the greatest war ever waged; the bur-
dens are the heaviest thai have been
cast upon this or any other country,
and the issues the gravest that have
been attached to any conflict in which
lllmanllV aVnr ipNOINnI
"The responsibilities Of the new
government have been suddenly &C
centuatcd by the declaration made
by the German chancellor The s:a;e
ment made by him in the Rcichstrn
has been followed by Il nc.3 present
Cd by the United States wi lout MT
or comment. The answer rivcn h
tins government will be given in full
accord with our allies.
Naturally there has been IN i:
tercllange of views. not upon the note
because it has only recently arrived
but upon the speech which implied
1t, and. as the note itself is practi-
caliy only Il reproduction or Il para
phrase of the speech, the sui ject mat
ter Of the note i,se!f has been dis
.usscd informally between the allies
am glad TO be able TO state that we
each separately and independently ar
rived at Identical conclusions.
81 am very glad that the first an
swer given to the statement of the
German chancellor was given by
France and Russia. They have the
questionable right to give the first
answer to such an invitation. The
enemy is still on their soil and their
sacrifices have been greater.
In Complete Agreement.
"The answers they have given have
already appeared in the papers, and
| simply stand here to give clear and
definite support to the statement they
have already made.
"Any man OF set of men who wan
tonly OF without sufficient cause pro-
longed a terrible conflict like this
would have on his soul crime that
oceans could not cleanse.
"On the other hand, it is equally
true that any man or set of men who
from Il sense of WEAKNESS or despair
abandoned the struggle without
achieving the high purposes for which
we entered it, would be guilty of the
costliest act of poltroonery ever per-
petrated by any statesman. | should
like to quote het words of Abraham
Lincoln under similar conditions:
"'We accepted this war for an OBJ
ject, and a world object, and the war
will end when the object is attained
under God. hope it will never end
until that time
care we likely to attain the object
by accepting the invitation of the
German Chancellor? What are the
proposals? They are none.
"To enter, on the invitation of Ger
many proclaiming herself victorious,
without any knowledge of what pro-
posals she proposes to make, into a
conference is to put our heads into
a nose with the rope end in the
hands of Germany.