New Britain herald., 1918-02-27

game, even the great game, now for ever discredited, of the balance Of power.
 This clause, too, can be uncon- ditionally assented to. Indeed, one wonders that the president of the United States considered 1t neces- sary to emphasize it anew. ms clause contains a poiemtc against conditions long vanished F1e"s against cabinet politics ana caolhet wars, against mixing state terr1tofy and princely and private property, which belong to past that IS far behind us
 .sI do not want to be dfscourteous, hut when one remembers earlier ut +erances of President Wilson, one uie<ht think that he is 1aboring under the illusion that there exists in Ger many an antagonism between an autocratic government and a mass of people without rights.
 And yet President Wilson knows as, at any rate, the German edi- tion of his book on the state proves German political literature, and he knows therefore that with us princes and governments are the highest members of the nation as 8 whole, organized in the form of 8 state, the highest mem bers, with whom the final decision lies. But, seeing that they also, as the supreme organs, belong to the whole, the decision is Of such a nature that only the welfare of the whole is the guiding line for decision to be taken. It may be useful expressly to point this out to President Wilson's countrymen.
 England Accused.
 Then finally, at the close of the second clause, the game of the bal ance of power is declared to be for ever discredited. We, too, can only gladly applaud. As is we'll known, it was England who invented the prin- ciple of the maintenance of the bal ance of power, in order, especially to apply it when one of the states on the European continent threat ened to become too powerful for her. It was only another expression for Englands domination.
 '"The third clause, according to which every territorial settlement in- volved in this war must be made in the interest and for the benefit of the populations concerned, and not as part of any mere adjustment or compromise of claims among rival states, is only the application of the foregoing in a definite direction, or a deduction from it, and is, therefore, included in the assent given to that clause
 Now, in the fourth clause, he demands that all we'll defined na- tiona1 aspirations shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction that can be accorded them without introducing new or perpetuating old elements of discord and antagonisms that would be likely in time to break the peace of Europe and consequently of the world. Here, also, I can give as sent in principle, and I declare, therefore, with President Wilson, that a general peace on such a basis is discussabIe.
 Only one reservation is to be made. These principles must not be proposed by the president of the United States alone, but they must also be recognized definitely by all states and nations. President Will son, who reproaches the German chancellor With a certain amount of backwardness, seems to me in his flight of ideas to have hurried far in advance of existing realities.
 "Certainly a League of Nations erected upon justice and mutual un- selfish appreciation, a condition of humanity in which war, together with all that remains of the earliest barbarism should have completely disappeared and in which there should be no bloody sacrifices, no self-mutilation of peoples, no de- 1ot tura1 values-that would be an aim devout1y to be desired.
 But that aim has not yet been reached. There does not yet exist 9 court of arbitration set up by all nations for the safeguarding of peace in the name of justice. When Presi- dent Wilson incidentally says that the German chancellor is speaking to the court of the entire world, I must, as things stand today, in the name of the German empire and her allies, decline this court as prejudiced, joy fully as I would greet it if an impar- tia1 court of arbitration existed and gladly as I would cooperate to rea- lize such ideals.
 "Unfortunately, however, there is no trace of a similar state of mind on the part of the leading powers in the entente. Englands war aim, as re- gently expressed in Lloyd Georges speeches, are still thoroughly imper- ialistic and want to impose on the world a peace according to England's good pleasure. When England talks about peoples right of self-deternin- ation she does not think of applying the principle to Ireland, Egypt or lndia.''
 No Conquest of Russia.
 Declaring that the new German operations against Russia were taken at the request of the population to restore order, and that they did not aim at conquests, the chancellor con- tinued: