The Washington herald., 1917-01-10
emocratic sympathies and humane feel

democratic sympathies and humane feel
ings.
| e'For this reason we believe that the
note, II coolly considered and wisely
answered, can only help our cause and
throw into stronger relief the moral
weakness of the German position"
Another view is that Of the London
Times:
I'VE share in full President Wilson s
humanitarian feelings; we are even fight
| ing for them, but while We are fighting
| for peace we mean il 10 be Just and
abiding peace Germans, our enemy,
the enemy of humanity. Hre posing as
the victorious aggressorsD in the very
document in which they condescendingly
summon the allies to just such confer
ence as President Wilson desires.
I'VE have to demonstrate to them that
! frightfulness is a blunder as well as a
crime and TO do that we must exact full
| repara.ion for that crime For
! these reasons, among others, We cannot
! listen to President Wilson's pleading"
The French have their own Times, the
! Faris Temps, which now apparently oc-
cuples as much Of a position of prestige
In France as the London Times has en-
joyed in England. This is the view OF
lie Temps:
1T certainly seems that the Washington
| Cabinet in its desire for peace has ne
elected to look the problem in the face
and weigh the real evidence. President
Wilson'S fundamental error dates far
| hack to his refusal to pass Upon the initial
responsibility for the war. Judge what
| the two groups of beligerents say and
| think about peace; can one forget that
one OF them deliberately broke the peace
| while the other did everything to keep
It? The wish of the United States
for peace was ours and that of our allies
| thirty months ago. The war was i'm
| posed on US by a people eager for con-
quest, and now We want that victory
which alone viii create a durable peace"
Since Baron Connino became Italian
foreign minister his paper. the Giornale
d'Italia, of Rome, receives specially re-
spectful attention. 1t says:
Three mistakes are observable in the
case of the American note: First, II was
sent when the allies were about to reject
Germany's peace proposal; second. it
makes no distinction between savages
| and civilized people; third, 1t proposes
peace twenty-eight months too late"
In Germany the Liberal Berliner Tage-
| blatt (reputed to reflect the opinions Of
| Chancellor -Hollweg) and the
| Socialist Vorwarts hail the Wilson pro-
! pOsal with Joy: the conservative DeUtsch
Tageszeitung and the Kreuzzeitung.~how
| England from catastrophe and the Co
, logne Volkszeitung thinks that "AnIeri-
ca has put her money in entente business,
, therefore America must try In the inter
| est of her debtors to obtain the best pos
| sible conditions so that they may be
| able later to fulfill their financial obliga-
| tions toward the United States" Finally,
another Cologne paper, the Kolnische
Zeitung, suggests that IF Wilson tries to
| bring about the publication Of the peace
conditions on which the groups are in
clined to make peace. he will aggravate,
! instead of soothing over, the contrasts
| and only prolong the war"
| Neutral opinion is also divided. One
| side is expressed by the Swiss Journal de
I Geneve:
whatever results President Wilson OBJ
tains. We Swiss and other neutrals must
= salute him with respect. Presi-
dent Wilson has dared to propose some
thing precise in order to realize his spe-
Cific aspirations. He has caused during
! this dark Christmas a gleam of hope in a
gloomy sky
| The sther view is expressed by the
Amsterdam Telegraaf:
| Zone need not Immediately think the
worst of President Wilson's intentions
but the form is clumsy. If this note had
been drawn up by the German govern
ment itself. it could hardly have shown
greater lack of the most elementary con-
| ception of tact. For President Wilson
there is not the slightest difference be-
tween Germany. which destroyed Bel
gium, and England which drew the
sword to redeem Belgium. The Outlook