Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-09-27
If Germany Were Sincere.

If the German Chancellor speaks with any meas
ure of sincerity responsibility when he says he
is ready for peace based in principle President
Wilson's fourteen points" he can have objection
to demonstrating his good faith through particular
instances At the very heart of the fourteen propo
sitions up by the President in address to Con-
gress January the eighth, we find this:
Belgium, the whole world will agree, must
be evacuated and restored without any at
tempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys
in common with all other free nations. No
other single act will serve as this will serve
to restore confidence among the nations in the
laws which they themselves made and deter
mined for the government of their relations
with one another. Without this healing act
the whole structure and validity of interna-
tional law is forever impaired"
Germany, of course need not expect her words
regarding a matter of importance to be taken at
face value. To win credence or trust she must give
guarantees beforehand, must pay strictly in adj
vance If, then, there is any honesty of purpose in
this latest peace talk from Berlin, why does not
Germany evacuate Belgium forthwith, and not wait
to be driven out by Allied bayonets?
1t is stipulated Furthermore in the fourteen
points," to which the Imperial Chancellor says he
is willing to subscribe, that French territory shall
be freed and the invaded portions restored and
that the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871
in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has
settled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years.
should be righted." The German army, it will be
granted is quitting France at rather lively pace;
but its deeds of foul brutality retreats sug
gestive of anything but the freeing" and the
restoration" for which the American terms so
plainly call.
There is another of the Presidents propositions
which afford Germany ample opportunity to prove
in advance, she must prove. her readiness for
just settlement That is the evacuation of all Rus
sian territory, and such adjustment of all ques-
tions affecting Russia "as will secure the best and
freest cooperation of the other nations of the world
in obtaining for her unhampered and unem-
barrassed opportunity for the independent deter
minaton of her own political development" Is
Germany ready to cancel the infamous Brest-Litovsk
Is she ready to surrender the huge booty which she
would repay her a thousand times over for the
largest accomplishments she might make in the
West?
The President declared also for the restoration
of Serbia, Montenegro and Rumania for the re-
adjustment of Italys frontiers on Clearly
recognizable lines of nationality" for the estab-
lishment of independent Polish State and for the
emancipation with rights of self-determined gov
eminent, for the Slavic peoples of Austria-Hun-
gary. When Germany is minded to make the sort
of pace the Allies afford to accept she will not
talk in vague and really meaningless generaItes as
her Imperial Chancellor and other spokesman now
do. She will give definite evidences of good faith
and bring forth fruits meet for repentance