Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1917-01-01
Entente Reject
TeutOniC Offer
PEACE ovERTuREs ARE REGARD.
ED AS INsINcERE
INFLUENCE NEUTRALs
Jointly the Allies Declare There viii
g 10 Peace Without Penalties, Rep
Aratien and Guarantees on the Part
81 Germany

Paris, Dec. s0.-The joint reply of all
the Entente Allies to Germanys peace
note of December II was handed to-
night to Ambassador Sharp 1t viii be
transmitted through President Wilson
and the American diplomatic corps to
the Teutonic allies. The note in full
follows:
The allied governments of Belgium,
France, Great Britain Italy, Japan,
Montenegro, Portugal. Rumania, Rus
sia9 and Serbia, united for the defence
of the liberty of their peoples and
faithful to gements taken not to
have resolved to reply collectively to
the pretended propositions of peace
which were addressed to them on be-
half of the enemy governments
through the intermediary of the Unit
ed States. Spain. Switzerland and Ho1-
land.
Before making any reply the allied
powers desire particularly to protest
against the two essential assertions
of the note of the enemy powers that
pretend to throw upon the allies the
responsibility for the war, and pro-
claim the victory of the central pow
ers. The allied governments cannot
admit an affirmation doubly inexact,
and which suffices to render sterile all
tentative negotiations.
Germany's Word Considered WORTH
less.
The allied nations have sustained
for thirty months a war they did ev-
erything to avoid. They have shown
by their acts their attachments to
peace. That attachment is as strong
today as it was in 1914. But it is not
upon the word of Germany. after the
violation of its engagements. that the
peace br1ken by her may be based.
A mere suggestion, without a state
nlent of terms. that Negotiations
should be opened, is not an offer of
peace. The putting forward by the
imperial government of a sham pro-
posal lacking all substance and pre-
cision would appear to be less an Of
fer of peace than a, war manoeuvre. It
is founded on calculated misinterpre-
tation of the character of the strug-
gle 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
war was desired. provoked and de-
gary.
At The Hague conference 1t was
German delegate who refused all
proposals for disarmament. In July,
1914, it was Austria Hungary, who,
after having addressed to SerbiS an
unprecedented ultimatum, declared
var upon Ter in spite of the satisfac-
ton H'cich' had at once been accord
Rejected Peace Efforts in 1914.
the central empires then rejected
al attempts made by the Entente to
bring about a pacific solution of a
purely local conflict. Great Britain
suggested conference; France pro-
posed an international commission;
the emperor Of Russia asked the Ger
man empire 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 empire
which had guaranteed her neutrality
and which had the assurance to pro-
claim that theaties were scraps of
paper and that necessity knows no
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 a su-
perfcia1 and passing phase of the sit |
uation, and not the real strength of
the belligerentS. A peace concluded |
upon these terms would be only to the |
advantage of the aggressors. who, aft |
er imagining that they would reach |
their goal n two months, discovered |
after two years that they could never |
attain it
Penalties, Reparation, Guarantees, De- !
nanded.
As for the future, the disasters |
caused by the German declaration of |
war and the innumerable outrages |
committed by Germany and her allies
against both beIligerents and neutrals |
guaTa ntees. Germany avoids mention |
of any of these.
In reality these overtures made by |
the central powers are nothing more |
than a calculated attempt to influence
the future course of the war and to |
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