Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-11-19
Righteousness, Not ReVenge.


Premier Lloyd Georges latest utterance on
peace conditions shows how heartily in ac-
cord are his views and President Wilson'S
The conditions of peace, says the Premier,
must lead to a settlement which will be
fundamentally JUST"
mo settlement that contravenes
principles of eternal justice will be
permanent one. We must not allow any
sense of revenge, any spirit of greed OF
any grasping desire to override the funda-
mental principles OF righteousness.
This conception, emphasized by the Presi-
dent throughout the war, is the high, COM
mon ground of Allied thought Britain,
France. Italy and America fought as one
power and counseled as one mind, not TO get
German territory or 10 crush the German peo-
pie, but to save civilization from German
miiitarism and to exalt justice among nations.
Now that they come in the light Of glorious
victory TO make the future secure, they will
not depart from the principle that inspired
their arms. They will deal with the van
pushed enemy in a spirit of firm and work
manly righteousness, not of turbulent revenge.
This in no wise means that wrongs will
law itself requires that the Christening of the
guilty be unsparing and sure. The Allies
dare not fail, as they are true to their high
mission, to enforce restitution and reparation
and secure ample guarantees for the future.
This implies indemnities, as adequate as pos
sible, for the ruthless destruction the Huns
have wrought on land and sea; it implies, of
course, the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine, of
Italia Irredenta, of the Rumanian, Serbian
and Russian lands brigandishly seized; and It
implies the vouchsafement of full freedom to
those suppressed and prosecuted nationalitiIs
which the Teutons and Magyars and Turks
have held virtually enslaved 1t is essential
that peace terms be defined and administered
with as strict prudence as the terms of the
armistice. There should be not the smallest
loophole for Prussianisms escape, not the
slenderest possibility of Germany's being able
to treat her part of the international compact
as a scrap of paper. All that is needful for
this purpose must be done.
But the Allies, America included, will pro-
ceed in these matters, not as hunters of prey,
but as ministers of justice They will seek
to settle affairs so equitably to all concerned
that there will be no rancors left, no seed for
"a future dragons harvest. Every principle to
which they are pledged, indeed every instinct
of their national natures, inhibits them from
initiating German avarice and cruelty. 1t is
not a question of what the Huns deserve; it
is question of what civilization and the cause
OF permanent peace require. Therefore it is
that the craftsmanship of Britain and America
and France and Italy stand united upon the
idea that 1--WE must not allow any sense Of
revenge. any spirit of greed or any grasping
desire to override the fundamental principles
of righteousness"
1t is on these principles that Allied steps
are being taken to provision the German peo-
pie now in peril of starvation. Humanity
cannot play the part of Hunnism; nations that
fought and suffered in defense of civilization
cannot let women and children starve. Our
first great duty was to lay German miitarism
low; how decisively that has been done, the
acceptance of Foch's armistice terms of I'M
conditional surrender bears witness. That
accomplished, our next great duty is to exalt
the faith that has sustained us and the prin-
ciples that have inspired us, so that they may
shine as a beacon to all mankind, the people
of Germany included.
N