Middletown transcript., 1917-01-06

Rights and Liberties and Effective
Guarantee For Future Security OF
the World.
Paris.-In reply to the proffer OF
Germany and her allies for peace
conference, the Entente Allies, In a
collective note, declare that they re
fuse to consider a proposal which is
empty and insincere." The note was
handed to the American ambassador.
William Graves Sharp, by Premier
BRAND, and was made public stimuli
taneously in London and Paris.
The Entente Allied governments in
sist that no peace is possible so long
as they have not secured reparation
for violated rights and liberties and
the free existence Of small states and
have not brought about settlement
for the future security Of the world.
The note declares that the proposal
of the Central Powers is not an offer
of peace, but a "war maneuver." 1t Is
misinterpretation of the character of
the struggle in the past, the present
and the future"
Finally" it is asserted, these over
sures attempt to justify in advance
in the eyes of the world, new series
of crime-submarine warfare, deporta-
tions, forced labor and forced enlist
ment of the inhabitants against their
own countries and violations Of neu-
trality.
Full Text Of the Note.
"The allied governments Of Bel
gium, France, Great Britain, Italy,
Japan, Montenegro, Portugal, Rou-
mania, Russia and Serbia, united for
the defense of the liberty of their peo'
pies and faithful to engagements
taken not to lay down their arms
separately, have resolved to reply col
lectively to the pretended propositions
of peace which were addressed to
them on behalf of the enemy govern
ments through the intermediary of the
United States, Spain, Switzerland and
Holland.
Before making any reply the Allied
Powers desire particularly to protest
against the two essential assertions
of the notes of the enemy powers that
pretend to throw upon the Allied re-
sponsibility for the war and proclaim
the victory of the Central Powers.
"The Allied governments cannot ad-
NIT an affirmation doubly ineXact and
which suffices to render sterile all ten
tative negotiation. The Allied nations
have sustained for 80 months a war
they did everything to avoid. They
have shown by their acts their attach
ment 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 broken by her may be
based"
Not An Offer OF Peace.
"A mere suggestion, without a
statement 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 war maneuver.
1t is founded on calculated misinter-
pretation 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
clared by Germany and Austria-Hun
gary.
"At The Hague conference it was q
German delegate who refused all pro
posals for disarmament. In July,
1914, it was Austria-Hungary, who,
after having addressed to Serbia an
unprecedented ultimatum, declared
war upon her in spite of the satisfac-
tion which had at once been accorded.
.. Germany Ignored Treaties.
1.-THE Central Empires then rejected
all attempts made by the Entente to
bring about pacific solution of a
purely local conflict. Great Britain
suggested a conference; France pro
posed an international commission; !;
the Empire of Russia asked the Ger
man Emperor to go to arbitration, and
Russia and Austria-Hungary came te
an understanding on the eve Of the
conaict 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 treaties were scraps of pa
per- and that necessity knows no
law"
Calls Them "Sham Offers"
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 super
fetal 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
vantage of the aggressors, who, after
imagining that they would reach their
: goal in two months, discovered after
two years that they could never at
tain 1t.
FOR PAN-AMERlcAN UNION.