Cresco plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1913-1945, 1917-01-05
Entente Declares Germany Must
State Terms.
OFFICIAL TEXT OF ANSWER
Ten Foes Spurn Offer of Teutons as
Insincere and Characterize the
Same as War Maneuver.

Paris, Jan. Ten entente govern.
ments, replying in one note to German
offers of peace, declare their refusal
to consider Germany's "insincere and
ineffective proposition for a confer.
ence."
Demands for reparation, as stated in
speeches by premiers of the allied ma.
tions, are reiterated in the note. Bel
GUM, especially, seeks safeguards for
the future. The suggested conference,
without conditions, is not peace Of
fer, the entente holds, but is a war
maneuver designed for it's effect on
home and neutral opinion. The text
of the note follows:
"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
the enemy governments through the
intermediary of the United States,
Spain, Switzerland and Holland. Be-
fore making any reply the allied pow.
ers desire particularly to protest
against the two essential assertions Of
the note of the enemy powers that
pretend to throw upon the allies re-
sponsibility for the war and proclaim
the victory of the central powers.
Are Suspicious Of Germany.
1.-THE allied governments cannot ad-
nit an affirmation doubly inexact and
which suffices to render sterile all ten.
tative negotiations. The allied nations
have sustained for thirty months a
war they did everything to avoid.
They have shown by their acts their
attachment to peace. That attachment
is as strong today as it was in 1914.
But it is not upon the word Of Ger
many, after the violation of its en-
gagements, that the peace broken by
her may be based.
"A mere suggestion, without state
ment Of terms, that negotiations
should be opened, is not an offer of
peace. The putting forward by the
imperial government Of sham pro-
posal lacking all substance and pre-
cision would appear to be less an Of
fer Of peace than a war maneuver. It
is founded on calculated misinterpre-
tation of the character of the struggle
in the past, the present and the fu.
ture.
CAS- for the past, the German note
takes no account of the facts, dates
and figures which establish that the
war was desired, provoked and declar-
ed by Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Refers to Belgian Invasion.
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
no law
Fully conscious Of the gravity of
lAAS ulOLlcut, UuI S4udily SOuSSAOuS VI
its requirements, the allied govern
ments, closely united to one another
and in perfect sympathy with their
people, refuse to consider proposal
which is empty and insincere.
"Once again the allies declare that
no peace is possible so long as they
have not secured reparation for violat-
ed rights and liberties, the recognition
Of the principle of nationalities and
of the free existence of small states;
so long as they have not brought
about a settlement calculated to end
once and for all, forces which have
constituted a perpetual menace to the
nations and to afford the only effective
guarantee for the future of the
world"