The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-10-12
GERMAN CHANGES
NOT OF THE HEART
Balfour Says Constitutional
Shifts DO Not Alter
Brutality.
APPROVE WILSON IDEAL
British Journals Declare That
League of Nations Is
Assured.
APPROVE WILSON IDEAL

LONDON, Oct. ia. J. Balfour. Brit
ish Foreign Secretary, speaking at a
luncheon given to a party Of American
editors to-day said:
1--WE have to make a right peace, and
do not think right peace Is n very
easy thing to make. Our enemies are
attempting to change their Constitution.
but appear to have no notion that what
We call change is not so much a change
in the formal purpose of the Government
as change of hearts whereby that
Government is to be directed and ami
mated"
Mr.. Baiour said the Germans had
shown no material improvement In their
disposition during the four years of the
war "Brutes they were when they be-
gan the war. So far as | can Judge
brutes they remain at the present mo-
ment."
The Foreign Secretary said that per-
haps he spoke with a warmth and in
dlgnation unbefitting his position. but
with the news of the Leinster outrage
thet.
Cannot Blame Small Caste.
zone would have thought" continued
Mr.. Balfour, that those who brought in
America to their own undoing by crimes
OF this sort would have shrunk a little
from repeating them at the moment
when their fate is to be decided by
America, perhaps even more than by
any other of the cobelligerents"
Mr.. Balfour said he wished he could
think crimes of this kind were those of
a small dominant military caste. but Il
was incredible that they could be re-
peated through four years of embittered
warfare II they did not commend them
selves to the population which committed
them.
Commenting on the speech made last
night at Westminster by Viscount Grey,
former Secretary of Foreign Affairs, on
the subject of a league of nations, the
Daily Telegraph refers to criticisms that
the allied Governments had not devoted
much thought to league of nations. a
criticism with which Lord Grey disso-
ciated himself. The newspaper says:
The Ministers are fully occupied with
the war. but the Prime Minister has
most strongly declared himself a believer
in the project. and Lord Curzon has
given considered statement in the
House Of Lords on behalf of the Govern
ment favoring the league. while Lord
Robert Cecil has declared he would Join
no Government opposed to the realiza-
ton Of this IDEAL.
Relieve Lon nus t. A..ur.a
There have been many references by
Ministers and political leaders to the
same effect and none In the opposite
sense. The ideal, OF which President
Wilson is the foremost advocate. Is al
ready in the possession of the people,
and We believe its practical realization
is assured
The Daily MGii says: Lord Grey sup
ported President Wilson's views on every
important point and he did we'll to en-
lhasize that the League of Nations is
not substitute for victory. Meantime
we have in the present great alliance the
germ Of a league, and there is no reason
why its twenty-one members should not
devise machinery for using their i'm
mense power against malefactors among
the nations"
The Daily Nous says: "Viscount Grey
voiced the unhesitating Endorsement by
every element of sober opinion in this
country of President Wilson's historic
definitions of the purposes of this war
and the conditions of peace"
The Times says: mo public man not
in office could have spoken more author
itatlvely or with a better right to in
terpret the national thought and feeling
than Viscount Grey. His speech lifted
the League of Nations ideal TO the level
on which it Is essential that 1t should
be kept
I'VE associate ourselves very heartily
with Lord Grey's conclusion that the
main hope for a peaceful development of
mankind lies in an enhanced sense of
International security which a we'll or
ganized league of nations alone can
give. With his treatment of the fiscal
Issue and the question of disarmament
we fully agree"