The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1917-01-05
Entente Powers Declare Propo-
sitioa for Conference Empty
and Insincere.
PREPARATION DEMANDED
Disclaim Responsibility for War
and Deny Foes Assertion
That Victory Is Theirs.


Paris. Jan. 3-The text of the re-
ply OF the allied governments to the
German peace proposals. given on Dec.
20. follows:
'"The allied governments OF Belgium,
France. Great Britain. Italy, Japan.
Montenegro. Portugal. Rumania, Rus
sia 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
Intermediary of the United States.
Switzerland and Holland.
Before making any reply the allied
powers desire particularly to protes,
against the two essential assertions OF
the note of the enemy powers. that
pretend to throw upon the allies re-
6ponsibility for the war and proclaim
the victory Of the central powers.
"The allied governments cannot ad.
NIT An affirmation doubly inexact and
which suffers to render sterile all ten
tative negotiations.
THE allied nations have sustained
for thirty months 4 war they did ev.
erything to avoid. They have shown
by their acts their attachment to
peace. That attachment is as strong
today as II was In 1914.
But It 10 not upon the word OF
Germany. after the violation OF en-
gagements, that the peace broken by
her may be based"
"A mere suggestion, without = state
ment of terms, that negotiations should
be opened, IL not An offer of peace.
The putting forward by the imperial
government of a sham proposal lack
ing all substance and precision would
appear to be less an offer OF peace
than a war maneuver 1t is founded on
calculated misinterpretation Of the
character Of the struggle in the past,
the present and the future.
"As for the past, the German note
takes no account Of the facts. dates
and figures which establish that the
clared. by Germany and Austria-Hun-
gary.
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
having addressed to Serbia an unpre-
cedented ultimatum, declared war
upon her In spite OF the satisfaction
which had been accorded at once.
THE central empires then rejected
all attempts made by the entente to
bring about pacific solution of q
purely local conflict: Great Britain
suggested a conference; France pro.
posed an international commission:
the emperor of Russia asked the Ger
man Emperor to go to arbitration, and
Russia and Austria Hungary came to
an understanding on the eve of the
conflict But to all these efforts Ger.
many gave neither answer nor effect
Belgium was invaded by an EN-.
pire which had guaranteed her neu
trality. and which had the assurance
to proclaim that treaties were scraps
of paper and that necessity knows nc
law
"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
ficial and passing phase of the situa
ton and not the real strength of the
belligerents. A peace concluded upon
these terms would be only to the ad