The Cordova daily times., 1918-02-16
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1918.
BREsT-LIToVsk CONFERENCE

In view of the Associated Press dis patch in yesterdays Daily Times an- nouncing the complete collapse of the
 peace" conference at Brest-Litovsk and the plan of the Teutons to resume
 hostilities against Russia, the follow ing excerpt from the monthly review of the war situation by Frank Simonds
 will be of particular interest MT
 Simonds believes that the Germans come out of the conference with less
 of glory and advantage than do the
 Russians. The article is from the February Review of Reviews
 Turning now to the actual negotia- tiOns of Brest-LitOvsk, I desire to warn my readers in advance against regard ing the results of these exchanges as having any military value Russia is out of the war. A certain number of German and Austrian troops will have to be maintained in the East to garri- son the occupied districts. Even if the Russians should refuse to make peace this number of troops would not have to be increased, because the Rus sian army has ceased to exist as a 1 force and a factor. Germany and Austria will have to police the Rus. sian districts they have cOnGuered-I police them very heavily, since the populations are hostile; but nothing mat happens in the peace conferen. e. so far as one can see. will chanea the situation.
 we shall do well to cease to regard f6nssta one day with hope and the next Ttg Tn despair Russia is out and that is all there is about it. A separate peace might end in giving Germany good deal of food next summer. if communications could be restored bv that time, which is excessively un- likely, given present Russian anarchy. but, granted that Germany may gain some material aid for the fight against { the West, if she gets peace in the East it cannot come soon, while nei- ther more war nor immediate peace i can offer her any change in burdens t $t2 the east front. I >['hat, then, does Brest-Litovsk s mean Just this: The Germans went a there with the hope of using the Rus r sian revolutionists as catspaws in [ their general scheme of a peace of | fensive. They hoped to take the Rus sian Reds into camp, persuade them | to make a separate peace and to be- Il come peace agents in the allied coun- | tries, working among the same ele- ment in. the allied publics. This was | the real purpose of Brest-LitOVsk and | when it was not realized Brest-Litovsk e lost all it's value and much of it's in t terest for the German leaders. Unfortunately for them, they could l not end it when it ceased to be use { fuI. Their own populations now ( looked to Brest-Litovsk and discov- l cred that peace was not to be had | because of the anneXationist plans of
 
 proval began to be heard and it be- r came incumbent upon German leader I ship to find a way out of the mess T which should enable them to escape the condemnation of their own public, who expected peace and wanted it.
 Tt is hard to imagine a more hu- initiating or intolerable position than that in which German leadership found itself at Brest-Litovsk. It was nego- tiating with anarchy, itself the cham piOn of autocracy. It was listening to threats and insults from the repre- sentatives of mob, not nation. It was compelled to solemnly debate with men who had no army and no real force behind them, and it was com pelled to da all this because it had in- volved itself in game designed to strike at allied morale. but, as 1t turned out, destined to affect the mo- rale of it's own populations.
 German terms at Brest-Litovsk are not interesting as such. Germany IS demanding the war map and little more. She is seeking to erect Bal tic state, under her control, in which 25O,0O0 Germans shall rule 5,OOO,OOO Slavs She is endeavoring to construct a new Poland in which Hapsburg power shall prevail for the present
 She refuses all evacuation until after the war. She insists upon self-deter- imitation of political allegiance by the people, while her armies guard the ballot boxes, and she refuses to let her own Poles share in the same self