Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-01-04
ALLIES REFUSE
PEACE OFFER
FROM GERMANY
Reparation and Security or the
War Continues.
CALL FOE PERIL TO WORLD
Entente's Answer Asserts Berlin Must
Give Acceptable Terms Before Con-
ference Is Held-Note Called
War Maneuver.

fers of Germany and her allies for a
peace conference the entenet allies, in
a collective note, declare that they ire
empty and insincere." The note was
handed to the American ambassador,
William Graves Sharp, by Premier Bri-
and, and was made public simultane-
ously in London and Paris.
Reparation Asked First.
The entente allied governments in
sist that no peace is possible so long as
they have not secured reparation for
violated rights and liberties and the
free existence OF small states and have
not brought about settlement for the
future security of the world.
The note declares that the proposal
of the central powers is not an offer
of peace but 'war maneuver." 1t is
declared to be founded on calculated
misinterpretatiOn of the character of
the struggle in the past, the present
and the future"
A peace concluded upon the German
idea would be only to the advantage of
the central powers, says the note, while
disasters caused by the war demand
penalties, reparation and guarantees.
Entente's Reply to Germany.
The text of the allies note in reply
to the German peace proposals fol-
lows:
"The allied governments of Belgium,
France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan,
Montenegro, Portugal, Roumania, Rus
STA and Serbia, united for the defense
of the liberty of their peoples and
faithful to engagements taken not to
lay down their arms separately, have
resolved to reply collectively to the
pretended propositions of peace which
were addressed to them on behalf of
the enemy governments through the in
termediary of the United States, Spain,
Switzerland and Holland.
Before making any reply the allied
powers desire particularly to protest
against the two essential assertions of
the note of the enemy powers that pre-
tend to throw upon the allies respon-
sibility for the war and proclaim the
victory of the central powers.
'The allied governments cannot adj
NIT an affirmation doubly tnexact and
which suffices to render sterile all ten
tative negotiation. The allied nations
have sustained for 80 months a war
they did everything to avoid. They
have shown by their acts their attach
ment to peace. That attachment is as
4oI to D,,4
is not upon the word of Germany, after
the violation Of it's engagements, that
the peace broken by her may be based.
"Sham Proposal" Not Peace Offer.
ga mere suggestion, without a state
ment of terms that negotiations should
be opened is not an offer Of peace. The
putting forward by the imperial gov
eminent of sham proposal lacking all
substance and precision would appear
to be less an offer of peace than war
maneuver 1t is founded on calculated
misinterpretation Of the character of
the struggle in the past, the present
and the future.
GAS for the past, the German note
takes no account of the facts, dates and
figures which establish that the war
was desired, provoked and declared by
Germany and Austria Hungary.
"At The Hague conference it was a
German delegate who refused all pro-
posals for disarmament. In July, 1914,
it was Austria-Hungary who, after hav-
ing addressed to Serbia an unpre-
cedented ultimatum, declared war upon
her in spite Of the satisfaction which
had at once been accorded.
"The central empires then rejected
all attempts made by the entente to
bring about a pacific solution of pure
" local conflict Great Britain sug-
gested a conference; France proposed
an international commission; the en-
peror of Russia asked the German en-
peror to go to arbitration, and Russia
and Austria-Hungary came to an un-
Outstanding on the eve Of the conflict.
But to all these efforts Germany gave
neither answer nor effect.
Recalls Invasion of Belgium.
Belgium was invaded by an empire
which had guaranteed her neutrality
cAO "A1SA Adu LAAC ooouA ohSO W 80
claim that treaties were scraps OF
paper and that necessity knows no
Jaw
"At the present moment these sham
offers on the part of Germany rest on
the war map of Europe alone, which
represents nothing more than super
fetal and passing phase Of the situa-
tion and not the real strength of the
belligerents. A peace concluded upon
these terms would be only to the adj
vantage Of the aggressors, who, after
Imagining that they would reach their
goal in two months, discovered after
two years that they could never attain
It..
GAS for the future. the disasters