New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-17
No.!

SAGE of the Pope which must doom the
entire proposal, so far as the American
neople and the American government are
concerned In the matter of Belgium this
is written:
aTF for certain cases there exist particu-
lar reasons, they would be dellberated upon
with Justice and equity, but these PACING
agreements, with the immense advantages
70 be derived from them, are not possible
without a reciprocal restitution OF the ter
ritory at present occupied
consequently, on the part OF GermanV'
4ho complete evacuation of Belgium, with
the guarantee of her full political, military
and economic independence toward IT,
II comes down to this then, that after
three wears in which Germany has wreaked
her will upon helpless people, upon
people invaded in defiance of justice and
RIGHT. abused without regard to the laws
of humanity or of civilization, plundered
both as to public property and as to pri-
vate resources. that empty shell which is
Belgium is to be evacuated by Germany,
and this is all.
The German soldiers and the German
officers who stole the honor Of women and
the lives of children were followed by those
commercial agents who stripped Belgium
shops of their machinery, the very bells OF
the churches have been taken away to
make German ammunition; nothing that
could be useful to the German government,
whether it be money or property, has been
left. All the tangible wealth of Belgium
has been swept into German Golfers; the
slaves who have been driven in chain gangs
to Germany have been worked to the point
of exhaustion and then, broken in health
and starving, thrown back upon Belgium
to die.
What would it mean in the world if, to-
day, peace were to be restored on the basis
that the German army should go home,
leaving behind it desert and ruin, and
for all this wrong, wantonly wrought
upon Belgium, there should be no restora-
ton and no restitution? What of justice,
what of right, what of humanity, is there
in such a proposal?
Let us put it on the lowest possible basis
of expediency. Is it conceivable that the
. Belgian people, thus deserted by Great Brit
ain and France, thus deserted by all the
great powers of the world, would ever
again interpose their feeble strength to
German armies? Would any small people
in this world, with the Belgian atrocity in
their mind, with the desertion of Belgium
proposed in the present peace terms, ever
resist a strong invader or oppose might in
the hope and in the faith that aid would
come from without?
To let Germany 90 home now, having
wrecked Belgium, would be to establish the
fact that there is no punishment for crime.
The German attack upon France through
Belgium failed, but it almost succeeded,
and it would bring, under this proposal, no
permanent warning to the German. Next
time Belgium would not resist. Next time
the armies Of Germany might get to Paris
before the English armies could land in
France or the French armies organize for
defence. Next time Belgium would sub
NIT. The lesson would be for Belgium and
not for Germany. The moral of the war
would be for the nation which was attacked
and not for the nation which assaulted.
The German has proclaimed the gospel
Of force in this world. He has said that
what the strong man can do and the great
nation accomplish by the use Of its force
20 the uttermost degree they have the
light to do The civilized nations of the
world denied this doctrine. They have as
serted that small, large, all nations and
races have right 70 their liberties, right
10 their existence, a right 10 live even when
they lie along the pathway Of the mighty
and the INSCRIPTIONS. But if the proposal
Of the Pope is TO be accepted then the Ger
man principle is established.
We are all weary Of war. There is not
line in the eloquent description Of the
present situation by the Pope which will!
not awaken immediate and sympathetic
hearing from one end Of the earth TO the
other But we are not weary enough OF
the strife, Of the struggle and Of the sscri-
fee 70 surrender, 10 lay down our arms, 10
abandon the fight when such surrender