The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-01-11
RUSSIA TO FIGHT
TO THE END
fCoptjnued from page IL pt

|
fatty refused the Russian demands
| for transfer of the conferences 10
neutral soil.
| Foreign Secretary Kuehlman de-
| clared in Thursdays session that the
central powers maintained their
Fixed determination not to negotiate
peace elsewhere than at Brest-
Litovsk" Kuehlman was presiding
at the conference.
Russian Foreign Minister Trotsky,
head of the Bolsbeviki conferees re-
Piled On his motion, the sitting
was suspended.
Whether the suspension is indef-
mite or final, was not made known
in the dispatches received here.
Count Czernin, Austrian foreign
minister, followed Kuehlmann.
"The ten days which the central
powers allotted within which the
entente were to participate In the
peace proceedings have expired" he
asserted, "and the entente have not
replied to the invitation to take part
Therefore the central powers are
no longer concerned with general
peace, but only with a separate
peace.
Removal of these negotiations to
neutral soil would enable the entente
| to interfere with the central powers.
! However, we are willing to meet
finally and formally elsewhere to
/ sign peace treaty"
| Czechs Want Republic.
! AMSTERDAM, Jan. 11.-Czech
| leaders of Silesia and Moravia met
!
buttons demanding a Czech republic,
! according to information reaching
here today.
| The government, it was stated, was
exhibiting alarm over growth or
such republican sentiment and mad
doubled the garrison at Prague.
! German and Austrian newspapers
received here point to growth OF the
Czech movement and demand govern
ment action to curb it.
Awaiting Replies.
! PETROGRAD, Jan. 11.-Russian
Foreign Minister Trotsky formally
asked suspension of the Brest-
Litovsk peace conference until Rus-
STA and Ukrainian delegates could
formulate replies to central powers
proposals, according to an official
statement tOOdy.
The reply will be read at further
sitting at IL o'clock today, it was
stated. The Ukrainians and Rus
slams recently decided upon joint
action at Brest-LitovSk.
Conferences Terminated.
AMSTERDAM, Jan. 1.-THE Rus
so-German peace conferences at
Brest-Litovsk have been terminated.
The sittings were suspended yester-
day, according to dispatches received
here today when the Germans fatty
and finally refused to transfer nego-
tiations to neutral soil.
Bolsheviki Foreign Minister Trot-
sky himself moved the conclusion oil
the meeting.
The German delegates formally an
nounced that all plans for a general
peace meeting were considered as
definitely off by the central powers,
because of the failure of the entente
powers to respond within ten days to
the invitation to participate. Count
Czernin, Austrian foreign minister,
formally announced that henceforth
the central powers were willing to
negotiate only a separate peace with
Russia.
That the session was more or less
| bitter was evident from dispatches
quoting General Hoffman, one of the
| German delegates, as protesting
angrily to the conference against
wireless messages signed by the rep
resentatives of the Russian govern
ment which he says 'insulted" the
German military command by urging
the German troops to revolt
Hoffman protested that such mes
sages "transgressed the spirit of the
armistice."
Other central powers delegates
! Joined in this protest.
1t was Immediately following this
assault on the Russian plan to estab-
fish harmony of effort between the
plain people of Germany and the
Russian poletariat. that Foreign Min
! lister Trotsky formally moved suspen-
| sion of the sittings.
! Immediately before this, however,
! German Foreign Minister Kuehlmann
asserted positively
81 do not consider the difficulties
now developed as great enough to
make our peace efforts fail. or to
force resumption at the front"
Count Czernin said formally that
! henceforth only the question of sepa-
rate peace could be considered by
! the BreSt-LitovSk conference, the ten
days limit within which the German
delegates granted the entente allies
time to join the general peace de-
I alterations having expired. He In
sisted the Russian scheme for trans
! fer of negotiations to neutral soil
would simply grant the allies a
! chance to interfere with the Russo
German separate peace negotiations,
although he expressed willingness to
conclude the last step for signing
such a peace agreement on neutral
| soil.
Regarding the points in disagree
ment between the two sides, Count
CZernin recalled that it had been de-
cided at a previous session to place
them in the hands of committee.
| The central powers, he said had now
decided to conclude the negotiations
on the basis which Foreign Secretary
Kuehlmann and the Russian commit