Norwich bulletin., 1917-08-15

see the possibility of embarrassments in declining to disc0ss proposals which the president himself brought before the world. The allied statesmen realize that once consideration of any part of the pope's proposals begins, pacif1sts and socialist elements are at once enabled to take up discussion which will embarrass their govern mentS.
 President Wilson's View.
 President Wilson's own view of what reply shall be made obviously cannot be accurately assessed at present His latest public announcements on the most vital of the proposals Pope Ben edict makes are interesting.
 When the new Russian government was wavering on the point of making a separate peace and declaring for no no anneXationS and no indemnitieS the president, in a message to the Russian people, declared:
 "Of course the imperial German gov ernment and those whom it is using for their own undoing are seeking to obtain pledges that the war will end in the restoration of the status quo ante bellum. It was the status quo ante out of which this iniquitouS war issued forth; the power of the impe- rial German government within the empire and its widespread domination and influence outside of that empire That status must be altered in such
 
 thing from happening again.
 Text Not Received.
 An official outline of the pope's communication was received here this morning. Members of the presidents cabinet said it had not been discussed at this aftrenoon's meeting but some Of the presidents official family gave signs of the difficulty it has presented. Tonight the official text had not been received and it had not been estab- hshed whether it would come through the Spanish or the Swiss minister. Spain and Switzerland are the only two European neutralS having relations with the Vatican.
 The first appraisal of the proposal by officials and diplomats was that it was another attempt by Germany this time working through Austria because Vatican to accomplish what she failed In her first offer of peace-the as- sembling of peace delegates at a round table conference, where the in terests of one ally could be played off against the other. with the disruption of the grand alliance as the stake. Tn no qurater is there any disposition to question in any way the good faith of the Vatican although the peace activi- ties of the Roman Catholic clements in Germany and Austrian have been prominent for several months.
 Similar to Wilson's Declarations.
 But as the unofficial outline disclos- ed the terms of Pope Benedict's pro- pOSal, officials were aStOniShed to re- Hlize it's similarity with some of Pres ident Wilson's declarations on the sub 5ect- International agreement to en- force peace, reduction of armament and recognition of the national aspirations of the small peoples all were brought forward by the president in his epocha1 addresses before congress.
 Two days later in his Flag Day ad- dress. the president, referring to the ma sterS of Germany said:
 eff they can secure peace now with the immense advantages still in their hands which they have up to this point apparently gained, they will have justified themselves before the German people; they will have gained by force what they promised to gain by it; an immense expansion of German pow CT; an immense enlargement of Ger man industrial and commercial op- portunities. Their prestige will be se- cure and with their prestige their po- litical power"
 In his war address to congress the president declared for spending the whole force of the nation if need be to power of the German military autoc- racy. This phrase now universally as the war aim of all the all lies. the entente diplomats here con tend hardly htS in with a restoration Of the status quo before the war, a re- turn of Germany's colonies and no res titution for Belgium
 One Point Against Germany.
 The one point on which Germany night stick diplomats feel. is the res soration of Alsace Lorraine. These provinces, because of their mineral de- Dosits, are not only necessary to the existence of Germany, they say, but in the hands of France again would constitute a military menace to he whole German scheme on the west IT frontier. A neutral diplomat today ventured the opinion that Germany, beaten, would coocade all but the loss 1f Alsace Lorraine.
 G. M. STAPLIN, BRAKEMAN, ass'