New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-16
Peace and the Pope

statement of the Pope in his peace
rescript that The Tribune does not pro
pose to discuss this document in advance
Of an examination of it. 1t is idle and
il NAV be dangerous to announce IN
advance a policy of hostility to pro-
nasal which. whatever else may be said
of II seeks to reach that end which is
close to the thought and the heart OF
evervbodv in this world, namely, the
restoration of peace. The approval or
rejection of the Papal proposal must be
based upon what it actually says and not
on what advance rumor or report declares
that 1t suggests. In so vital matter as
the question Of Belgium, for example,
we must know whether restoration means
naturalization as well as evacuation, or
only evacuation, before we can pretend
to discuss the question at all
But it is well, in advance Of an exam
nation of the Papal document, to recall
again the precise and all-essential pur-
nose which underles all the policies OF
the nations now at war with Germany.
We are all fighting Germany because Ger
many attacked US. We are at war with
Germany because of deliberate German
policy of aggression, deliberate German
policy adopted and followed for forty
wears which prepared the way for Ger
man assault upon the world and the
attempted attainment of world supremacy
by the German Empire.
The Papal document must be examined
primarily with the idea in mind as to
whether it proposes sort of peace which
will protect us from another German
assault by bringing not truce but per-
manent end to German ambitions and
German methods.
The world has many landmarks in the
past which should serve to warn 1t at
the present hour. Louis XIV, setting
forth on his career of European conquest
seeking to attain for France the ends and
the aims of contemporary Germany
invaded Belgium in the War of Devolu-
ton as the Germans invaded Belgium in
1914. His armies were at the outset as
victorious as were the Germans, but ulti-
mately, in the presence Of a rising Europe
and an alliance Of many nations, he made
2 peace substantially without annexation,
and devoted the next few years to prepare
ton for new assault upon the liberties
of Europe, which in due course came.
Napoleon made the Peace Of Amiens in
a similar fashion and with a similar pur-
pose. Pausing for few months to pre-
pare, he promptly burst upon Europe
again with new attack, and ten years
Of war ended only at Waterloo.
The end of the wars of Louis XIV left
France territorially intact but, by reason
of the strain and exhaustion, incapable
again for many years of threatening the
independence Of Europe. 1t is plain that
the present war must end either in a
military defeat for Germany of the
Napoleonic character or else a defeat such
as Louis XIV endured, unless there shall
be a change in German purpose and pol
icy such as no man has yet been able
TO perceive.
We are faced by two perils at the pres
ent time-the danger that war WEAKNESS
shall lead those who have fought the war
10 a temporary truce and ultimately to
more war because the immediate agony
seems insupportable, and the danger
that passions and bitterness excited by
the war may lead to an unwillingness to
consider on its merits such proposal as
the present Papal document.
The world which has fought this war
the nations which have borne the burden
of the German attack-are entitled TO
exact those terms Of peace which shall
make a repetition impossible. We must
never forget in the consideration of peace
that the three years Of horror that we
have undergone we're the deliberate result
Of German policy. The question Of the
right Of the nations allied against Ger
many 70 protect the future by making a
repetition Of the past impossible cannot
be questioned and should not be ques-
toned.
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