Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-17

Vienna, working hand in hand, arc not
vet ready to deal sincerely and have
nothing more in view in the proposed
peace parley than the sowing Of dsesen-
sion among the allied powers, through
discussion OF principles, and the
making of better terms for the Central
Powers.
PEACE or 4 CoNoUERoR.
The point is made by leaders that any
peace parlcy undertaken at this time
would be held while the Central Powers
still remained in occupation of Belgian,
French. Italian. Serbian, Rumanian, Mon
tenegrin. and Russian soil. A glance at
the map, il was pointed out, would dis
close that the Central Powers occupied
more of Central Europe than was con
templated in their Mitteleuropa dream
Of conquest and that, while the path
To Bagdad had been blocked by the
British Mcsopotamlan Expedition,
qud pro quo had been furnished to
Germany in the more direct route to In
dia that would be opened through Ger
man control of the Black and Caspian
seas 1t is firmly believed by pubic
men here that in any peace parley held
now Germany would seek to negotiate
the peace formula on the basis OF the
map as if stands today.
President Wilson has made II PLAIN
that he does not look upon Belgium as
n mere chattci 10 be given up "copdl-
tionally' by Germany, but that he feels
that there must be an unconditional sur
render Of Belgium, and complete rcpara-
ton and restitution.
The German peace offer TO Belgium,
reported from London. If officially con-
frmcd, will be regarded here not only
as part of the general peace drive but
also as evidence that Berlin is deter
mined to make fight for the return
of lost German colonies. II IS looked
upon rs conditional offer OF Independ-
ence To Belgium IN return for an effort
bv Belgium to do her best to secure the
return of German colonies
Wholly aside from all other questions,
the effect Of an aCceptan &C OF Aus
trias offer upon the morale Of the Amer
lean army IN the field has not been
overlooked From many quarters the
suggestion has been made that hold
ing peace conference at this time would
create among our forces overseas the
suspicion that war was TO end IN 81 COM
promise, without achievement of the
results for which they had been fighting
and for which heroic comrades had gwen
their lives
GERMAN WORDS AND DEEDS.
The Aust rian notes allusion to presi-
dent Wilson's speech Of Feb VI, m
which he announced four principles as
being. after ALL the test Of whether II
was possible 10 90 any further IN
comparison Of views with the Central
Powers j. not Const rlled here as point
ing he way To greater concessions than
Germany and Austria have Indicated
willingness 10 make IN tho past The
Aus rian notes statement that tho four
principles formulated by the President
arc not likely 10 meet with objection on
the part Of tho quadruplc alliance Is
merely rcstatcment
The record shows that replies to the
Presidents : speech of Feb II were made
bv the German chancellor and the Aus
tro-Hungarian foreign minister. Chan
ccllor Won Hcrtllng on Fcb p declared
in the RcichStag that he could "funda-
mentally agree with the four prinCi-
pies laid down hy the President and that
peace could he discussed on such a basis
Count Czcrnin. speaking on April , 10
the Vienna City Council and the
wider public, expressed similar agree
mCnt Both however. doubted whether
President Wilson could unite his allies
upon such basis. Meanwhile Germany
and Austria had forced the signing Of
the peace treaties at RrcSt-lItovsk,
which wrestcd large areas Of territory
from Russia under the gu,sc Of cstab-