New-York tribune., 1918-10-25
Perilous Diplomacy

feat for a position in peace discussions
based upon President Wilson's condi-
tions. That, as we said yesterday morn
ing, would be a political triumph for
Germany. She may not succeed. The
Allies have yet to be heard from.
But Germany has already scored an
amazing diplomatic stroke. In the Pres
ident's note to the German government
there is challenge to our allies--studi-
ously referred to in all formal corre-
spondence not as allies but as those
with whom we are associated in this
war The President says he has sub
mitted his correspondence with the Ger
man government to the Allied govern
ments, with suggestion that the mill
tary advisers be asked to arrange the
terms of an armistice-"if those gouer1,-
ments are disposed to effect peace upon
she terms and principles indicoted.''
The challenge is in the "if." The terms
and principles indicated are Mr. Will
sons own. Germany has officially ac-
cepted them. The Allies have not. They
have unofficially appreciated them, they
have rhetorically supported them, but
there is not and never has been any def
mite united peace policy In The London
Times Lord Northcliffe writes:
~ shudder to think Of what our plight
might be representatives of the
peoples who have borne SO nobly the
trials and sacrifices of this great to
enter with divided counsels or divergent
aspirations into negotiations with sub
tie, cunning and interruptions enemy.
That peril must at all costs be avoided"
Mr. David Lawrence, whose articles
derive their Importance and much Of
their interest from the fact that his Gin
terpretations' of President Wilson are
known to be generally acceptable puts
it very much stronger. In yesterdays
dispatch from Washington to The EUen-
sng Post he said:
"The latest note may be described as
bringing the diplomacy of the war to q
real crisis, for, if the Presidents demo-
cratic aims are not shared by the Allies,
1t is possible that the prestige of our CO.
belligerents will not be as great as it
has been before, and the interest of the
American people for aims now revealed
In selfish terms may be considerably al
tered"
So Germany, according to his account
Of the situation. has forced diplomatic
crisis between the American government
and the Allies He reminds US of the
fact that in his Metropolitan Opera
House speech on September 27. Mr..
Wilson asked the Allied statesmen to
speak their minds on the fundamentals
Of peace, and adds: But no explicit re-
sponse came back"
Mr.. Lawrence proposes a solution. eff
the Allies at this time discussed those
fourteen articles" he says, land revealed
plainly their disagreement, Germany
would use their replies in an effort to
divide the Allies and to show her people
that England and France are really
blocking peace" That is very clear.
But he contipues: "If the Allies con-
fine themselves at this time to an accept
ance of Mr.. Wilson's fourteen principles,
reserving to themselves the right at the
proper time and occasion to speak their
Interpretation Of those principles, Allied
unity will have been preserved"
Does it follow that if they refuse to
accept those principles, with silent reser-
vations, Allied unity will not be pre-
served?
And this is open diplomacyi
Nothing Is very clear. Everything
that seems to be so presently moves off
in dimness. Yet it is possible to see
that we have put upon the Allies the
choice of either embracing ME- Wilson's
conditions Of peace without discussion or
accepting the onus of rejecting them,
thereby continuing the war under diff
cult, not to say hazardous. political con-
ditions. That is MIR. Wilson's triumph.
~