Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1917-01-05
ALLIES Reject
PEACE PROPOSAL
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.
OFFICIAL TEXT OF ANSWER

Paris, Jan. 2.-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 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. A partial
text of the note follows:
1.-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
intermediary of the United States
Spain, Switzerland and Holland. Be
fore making any reply the allied pow
ers desire particularly to sprOtest
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.
"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 it's 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 a sham pro
posal lacking all substance and pre-
| cision would appear to be less an OF
fer Of peace than a war maneuver Il
is founded on calculated misinterpre
| tatiOn of the character of the struggle
in the past, the present and the flu
| tare.
LAS 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 bad guaranteed her neu
trality and which had the assurance
| to proclaim that treaties were scrap:
Of paper and that necessity knows
no law
Fully conscious Of the gravity o
this moment, but equally conscious o
| its requirements, the allied govern
ments, closely united to one another
and in perfect sympathy with theil
people, refuse TO consider a propose
which is empty and insincere.
"Once again the allies declare tina
10 peace is possible so long as the!
have not secured reparation for yiolat
ed rights and liberties, the recognition
Of the principle of natiOnalities an(
Of the free existence of small states
SO long as they have not brough
about a settlement calculated to enc
once and for all, forces which have
constituted a perpetual menace to th'
nations and to afford the only effective
| guarantee for the future OF thu
| world"