New-York tribune., 1918-05-05
Ludendorff, Baked in Battle,
Starts German Peace Drive
Famous Prussian General Turns to Fields of Diplomacy
When He Fails to Accomplish Decisive Victory
on BloodSt Fields of France

nit that he cannot win the war. Let
him add, If he will, that it will take
the Allies years more Of suffering and
sacrifice before they can beat Ger
many.
Kaiser Must Abandon
Scheme Of Conquest
"Let him catcgorically abandon his
scheme OF conquest, and let him offer
TO withdraw his armies within ms own
frontiers. After that the Allies will
talk. They will agree to an armistice.
If Germany can produce guarantees
of her good behavior, they Will go no
further. They will barter the supply
of raw material, without which Ger
many's economic ruin Is assured,
against full reparation and restoration
in the countries which The German
armies have harried and spoiled. Let
us negotiate along these lines as soon
as possible"
Under the caption, "The Diplomacy
of the Allies" "The Westminster Gaz-
ette," representing the Liberal group
of which Asquith is the loader, says
that it regrets Lord Robert Cecils
statement, and declares:
"lt has become necessary to speak
plainly on this subject, for Allied di-
p!omacy seems to be at once reduced
to fumbling and laundering when the
idea of negotiations Is mentioned. On
the assumption that the enemy is dis
honest, this is stupid; on the assump-
ton that he is honest, it would be
much worse.
"F'or our part, we do not believe that
any serious opportunity for making q
peace such as we could accept has been
missed. During the first eight months
of last year the Germans were conf
dent that they could force us into sub
mission by the submarine campaign,
and before that hope was blightcd they
had become equally confident that the
collapse of Russia gave them the whip
hand on the West front
"While either of these beliefs per-
sisted, it was at least very unlikely
that they would propose or accept any
thing except a German peace But it
would have been an enormous ad-
strate this publicly. instead of being
obliged merely to infer it from the
facts. Wise diplomacy would, in our
opinion, seize every opportunity to
record it publicly and keep it on record
This we shall never do if we are so
afraid ourselves of the enemy that we
think it necessary to stop our ears be-
fore he begins to talk"
The STAR" which speaks for the ad-
vocates of peace negotiations, says:
ut is plain we may be forgiven if we
ASK some pointed questions. Why is
Lord Robert Cecil so feverishly nervous
and SO absurdly anxious? Why does
he trouble to assume the mantle of a
prophet? How can he possibly know of
alleged offers to be made within fort
night. since they will mot approach
anything we can look at? And why
does he take all this trouble to prove
that peace is a plague about which we
must live in panic-stricken terror
Why does he not at least pretend to
trust the British people?
~ IS necessary to say boldly that the
British people do not regard a clean
peace as a plague or poison. On the
contrary. clean peace is the supreme
end of the aim in war. 1t isn't dig
nltied or even wise to create the i'm
preston that Britons regard a clean
peace as pestilence. Let us be vigi-
liant, skeptical, watchful and resolute
but let us not tolerate the Prussian
idea that peace is curse"
Finally, "The Globe" which is op-
posed to any compromise, says:
ut is highly satisfactory to learn
from Lord Robert Cecil that the po-
itlCs'i CoillIolleIS OIL our FOrelgn Of-
tice arc alive to the peace push which
the enemy had opened in London via
the usual neutral as we were able to
notify yesterday. Lord Robert recog.
nizes it as an incident of German
strategy which he thinks lis intended
mainly for home consumption.
I'VE agree but we cannot forget
that past experience, including very
recent experience, has convinced the
powers that be in Berlin that there
are so many simpletons in and around
Downing Street that there is always a
fair chance that one or another of them
will walk into any diplomatic traps
however transparent.
The popular publication of the
Llchnowsky memorandum shows us
that our unfortunate Foreign Office
was allowed to remain in the hands
of minister (Sir Edward Grey) whose
intentions were so unimpeachable as
to unfit him to see what his opponent
was driving at
I'VE have similar fear to-day
when our amiablc Right Honorables
are plttcd against the crafty and sim
lister Won Kuehlmann."