The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1918-02-11


of congress today, spoke az follows;
sGentlemen Of the congress: On
the 9th Of January ! had the honor
of addressing you on the objects
of the war as our people conceive
them. The prime minisser of
Great Britain had spoken in sim
liar terms on the 9Th of January.
To those addresses the German
chancellor replied on the 24sn and
Count Cxernin for Austria on the
same day. II 10 gratifying to
have our desire 80 promptly real
lied that all exchanges of views on
this great matter should be made
in the hearing of all the world.
Count Czernin's reply, which is
directed chiefly to my own address
of the sth of January, is uttered
in a very friendly tone. He finds
in my statement a sufficiently en-
couraging approach to the views
of his own government to justify
him in believing that 1t furnishes
a basis for more detailed dis
cussion of purposes by the two
governments. He is represented
to have intimated that the views
he was expressing had been COM
municated to me beforehand and
that l was aware of them mt the
time he was uttering them; but
in this | am sure he was misun-
derstood. j received no in
timation Of what he intended to
say There was, OF course, no
Z reason why he should -comnsai-
cate privately with me. / am quite
content to be one of his public
audience.
Very Vague, Very Confusing.
Count Won Hertling's reply is,
I must say, very vague and very
confusing. 1t is full of equivocal
phrases and leads it is not clear
where. But it Is certainly in a
very different tone from that Of
Count Czernin, and apparently Of
an opposite purpose. 1t confirms,
L am sorry to say, rather than re-
moves, the unfortunate impression
made by what we had learned of
the conferences at Brest- Litovsk.
His discussion and acceptance of
our general principles lead him to
no practical conclusions. He re-
fuses to apply them to the sub
stantive items which must consti-
tute the body of any final settle
ment. He Is jealous Of interna-
tional action and of international
counsel. He accepts, he says. the
principle of public diplomacy, buc
he appears to insist that it he
confined, at any rate in this case,
to generalities and that the sew
eral particular questions of terri
fnrV
questions upon whose settlement
must depend the acceptance of
peace by the twenty three states
now engaged in the war, must be
discussed and settled, not in gen.
eral council, but severally by the
nations most Immediately con-
cerned by interest or neighbor-
hood. He agrees that the seas
should be free. but looks askance
at any limitation to that freedom
by international action in the in
terest of the common order. He
would without reserve be glad to
see economic barriers removed be-
tween nation and nation, for that
could in no way impede the am
billions of the military party with
whom he seems constrained to
keep on terms. Neither does he
d |
That matter will be
settled of itself, he thinks. by the
economic condition which must
follow the war.
BY Individual Barter.
'But the German colonies, he
demands, must be returned with
put debate. He will discuss with
no one but the representatives of
Russia what disposition shall be
made of the peoples and the lands
Of the Baltic provinces; with no
)ne but the government of France
he conditions under which
French territory shall be evacu-
tied: and only with Austria what
hall be done with Poland. In the
of all questions af-
Getting the Balkan states he de-
ers, as I understand him, to Aus
ria and Turkey; and with regard
o the agreements to be entered
nto concerning the non Turkish
'eoples of the present Ottoman
mpire. to the Turkish authorities
themselves. After a settlement all
round, effected in this fashion,
y individual barter and conces-
ion, he would have no objection,
/ correctly interpret his state
lent, TO leaBue OF nations
yhich would undertake to hold
he new balance of power steady
gainst external disturbance. l.
Cannot Reach Peace That Way.
at must be evident to every one
-ho understands what this war :
as wrought in the opinion and 4
,n1per of the world that no gen. y
raj peace. no peace worth the in
mite sacrifices of these years of
'agicA suffering, can possibly be
rrived at in any such fashion.
he method the German chancel- r.
II proposes is the method of the A
,ngress of Vienna. We cannot n
nd will not return to that. What p'
at stake now is the peace of a.
le world. What we are striving b,
IT is a new international order al
lsed upon broad and universal b,
-inciples of right and justice-no cl
ere peace of shreds and patches. m
it possible that Count Won Il