Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1918-02-15
President Lays Down Basis
for Peace Negotiations in
Remarkable Address.
WORLD PEACE AT STAKE
Final Settlement Must be Based Upon
Justice, and Peoples and Provinces
are Not to be Battered About
as PaWns In a Game.

Observation-Disclosures has been in
lvited to further discussion of peace
with the United States.
In a remarkable address to congress
IN joint session on February IL, Presi-
uent Wilson laid down the basis for
such negotiations. Austria" he said
seeing and conceding the essential
principles involved and the necessity
OF candidly applying them, can respond
20 the purpose Of peace as expressed
by the United States with less embar-
basement than could Germany"
The presidents speech follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress
"On the eighth of January, / had
the honor of addressing you on the OBJ
Jects OF the war as our people con-
ceive them. The prime minister of
Great Britain had spoken in similar
terms on the fifth Of January. To these
addresses the German chancellor re-
piled on the oath and Count Czernin for
Austria on the same day.
1T is gratifying to have our desire
so promptly realized that all exchanges
of views on this great matter should
be made in the hearing OF all the
world.
czernin's Reply Friendly In Tone.
Count Czernin's reply, which IS
directed chiefly to my own address on
the eighth of January, is uttered In
very friendly tone. He finds in my
statement sufficiently encouraging
approach to the. views of his own gov
eminent to justify him in believing that
1t furnishes basis for a more detailed
discussion of purposes by the two gov
ernments. He Is represented to have
animated that the views he was ex-
pressing had been communicated to
me beforehand, and that was aware
of them at the time he was uttering
them but in this / am sure he was
misunderstood. had received no init
nation of what he intended to say
There was, of course, no reason why
he should communicate privately with
me. | am quite content to be one of
his public audience.
Count Won Hertling's reply is, must
say, very vague and very confusing
1t is full of equivocal phrases and
leads, it is not clear where. But 1t is
certainly in a very different tone from
that of Count Czernin and apparently
of an opposite purpose. 1t confirms.
am sorry to say, rather than removes.
the unfortunate impression made by
what he had learned of the conferences
at BreSt-Litovsk. His discussion and
acceptance of our general principles
lead him to no practical conclusions.
He refuses to apply them to the sub
stantive items which must constitute
the body of any final settlement. He
is jealous Of international action and
of international counsel He accepts,
he says, the principle of public diplo-
macy. but he appears to insist that II
be confined, at any rate In this case,
to generalities and that the several
particular questions of territory and
sovereignty, the several questions upon
whose settlement must depend the ac-
ceptance 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 ma
lions most Immediately concerned by
interest or neighborhood.
Peace Of World at Stake.
"He agrees that the seas should be
free, but locks askanee at any limita-
ton TO that freedom by international
action in the interest of the common
order. He would without reserve be
between nation and nation for that
could In no way impede the ambitions
of the military party with whom he
seems constrained to keep on terms.
Neither does he raise objection to n
limitation of ornaments. That mat
ter will be settled Of Itself, he thinks
by the economic conditions which must
follow the war.
trn..A a. ro,noar ooIonfne he a.
mands. must be returned without de-
bate. He will discuss with no one but
the representatives OF Russia what
disposition shall be mAde of the peo-
nles and the lands of the Baltic pro-
yinces; with no one but the govern
ment of France the conditions under
which French territory shall be eYacu-
ated, aud only with Austria what shall
be done with Poland
an the determination Of all ques-
fions affecting the Balkan states he
defers, as / understand him.. to Aus
tria and Turkey, and with regard to
the agreement to be entered into con-
corning the non-Turkish people of the
present Ottoman empire, to the Tur-
kish authorities themselves. After q
settlement all around, effected In this
fashion BY individual barter and con.
cession, he would have no objection,
IL correctly interpret his statement,
TO a league of nations which would
undertake to hold the new balance Of
power. steady against external disturb
ance.
''Tt must be evident to everyone who
understands what this war has
Mexican General Slain.