Connecticut western news., 1917-08-02
REJECT TEU7ON
 HINT FOR PEACE
Administration Sees a Re.
 ViVaI of Did Trick.
MICHAELlS' PLEA IGNORED

Belief In White House That Bid Is Put
 Forward to Ascertain If Allies Would
 Agree to Settlement of Conflict on
 Terms Dictated by the Berlin War
 Faction.
 A revival of an old trick is the ad- ministration comment on the bid for peace made by Chancellor Michaelis in his reichstag speech.
 It is now announced in official quar- ters that Germany tried to play fast and loose with President Wilson and the American public at the time she put forth her first formal suggestion for peace on Dec. 12, 1916. Informa- tiOn to this effect was disclosed in con- ment ill official quarters on the latest Is of Germany and Count CZernin, the Austrian foreign minister.
 How nearly the German foreign office succeeded in deceiving the United States is indicated by the fact that President Wilson did go so far as to back up the German move at the time by sending to the powers his peace note of Dec. IS, 1916. -.
 In making this note, however, a de- mand on both sides for a statement of their peace terms, it is stated, the presi dent likewise disclosed the general dis trust prevailing at the state department concerning the genuineness of the Ger man overtures.
 Not the Real Terms.
 It now develops, according to inti- nations at the state department, that between the time that Von Bethmann- Hollweg put out his peace note to the neutrals on Dec F and the time that the president sent his commupication of Dec IS discovery was made that the peace terms which Count von Bern storff, the German ambassador, was in- structed to use in getting the indorse- ment of the United States were not those which Germany actually intended to present at the peace conference. The outline of terms cabled to Count yon Bernstorff from Berlin at that time provided for complete restoration of Belgium and northern France, recogni- tion of autonomous governments in Po- land and Lithuania and an agreement that details concerning the Balkans should be left to settlement at the peace conference. t.sas ssz ..,
 It Is now stated that at tho very time that Count von Bernstorff was using these terms as lever on the American government Germany was preparing, if successful in bringing on the confer ence, to impose terms far different and far more drastic.
 Only Vague Phrases. Regarding the latest peace speeches of Michaelis and CZernin, the Washing ton government refuses to be impress ed. Officials at the state department failed to discover anything new in the talk of either spokesman for the central powers except a tendency to play up to 1 the kind of peace talk that is being cir culated in the allied countries by such men as Amos Pinchot and Morris Hill quit in the United States and to sow.if possible seeds of dissension among the allied peoples
 The state department can see nothing but vagueness in the phrase, Peace by understandings" as used by Czernin, though it is conceded that it might be such a phrase as to catch the fancy of pacific idealists in this and other coun- tries.
 In the references of Michaelis to the alleged "secret understanding" existing 1 between France and the czar before the Russian revolution is seen the deliber- ate effort to stir up suspicion in the United States and Russia of the mo- tives of France
 In questioning the sincerity of the peace talk from Berlin and Austria. of ficials here do not for a moment ques- tion the evidence thus presented that the German and. Austrian governments want peace.
 They simply fail to find any evidence that these governments have given up thought of dicta ting the terms of peace.