The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-03-08
Peace Advocates
Hated in France:
People Resolved
BY George Randolph Chester.

ny 0eoT0o VanCotPh Chester.
Paris, March "A man who should
have known better. or whose sympa-
| thies We're in the wrong place, said, in
the cabinet Of certain high officials
here, that Germany was in worse way
| than anyone knew. and that when she
| came forward with offers of peace,
humanity should prompt the allies to
| listen.
! There was a moment of rather awk-
ward silence, in which brows knotted
and lips Strengthened and faces grew
| tense; then one French gentleman who
has very important position in the
government, who has 25 male rela-
| tives dead in this war, whose infirmity
alone prevents him from completing the
number with 26, and who spent years
enough in America to talk that Lam
guage fluently, turned slowly in his
| chair and said:
| IF German came to me with
an offer of peace, l would knock
| him senseless Immediately and
! turn him over to see whether he
| had a gas bomb or plain bludgeon
| concealed behind him when he held
| out the olive branch There will
| never be any bonafide German
offer of peace until it is coupled
/
even then the appeal is more than
/ likely to be an attempt at decep-
ton.
/ Germany talked peace with Russia
across the trenches until the resist
ance of Russia was weakened, and her
| first acts, when she considered Russia
supine were acts of greed and con-
| tempt.
/ Her soldiers talked peace with the
| soldiers of Italy across the trenches
while they We're preparing for the Of
| fensive which undid all that Italy had
poured out hei. best blood to attain
And each of Germany's peace talks
across the diplomatic trenches had. in
| view the same object; to weaken the
determination of one or another of the
allies, or to cause a split among them.
1.-The replies Of Count Hertling and
Count Czernin to the speeches or
President Wilson and Mr.. Lloyd George
were the most insolent of all in their
assumption of stupidity on the part OF
the allies.
Promptly on receipt of these replies,
it was announced, in this room, that,
in the opinion of France, neither in the
speech of the German chancellor nor
in the Czernin speech was there any
|
swer to the very definite proposals OF
President Wilson; that Count Hert-
Nng's speech was notable for the alb
sence, for the first time, in any recent
speech of German chancellor, OF the
words without annexation and with
iout indemnity
France was in no doubt about the
intentions of Counts Czernin and Hert-
ling, either severally or in conJunc-
ton Hertling spoke as soldier,
Czernin as a diplomat, but both con-
veyed the imperial will of those mill
= tary masters OF Germany, Ludendort
| and Hindenberg. . 80
Il so WE MUST NOT BE DE-
II CEIVED.
II THE poisonous monster which seeks
Il to destroy the world must have It's
II fangs removed and it's body Gagged be-
fore any of us can sleep in safety.
= Peace? The world cries for
e peace, but there is only ONE
:. WAY to secure it, We must WIN
|, IT. for ii is impossible to bargain
: with a liar. We must win our
peace. and it Is better TO die than
r to fall"
> Strange; not an hour before this, a
crippled concierge had told me the
: same thing!
- They all speak alike, farmer or busi-
y ness man, shopkeeper or waiter, cab
driver or official; and they all mean
= alike.
"a A peace which the masters of Ger
II tmany would encourage now would re-
:, suit in the ultimate slavery of man
,s kind; and better oblivion.
If Never was anything more unanimous
than the undaunted spirit of France
never anything quite equally unani-
y nous except the unqnenchable desire
!. for freedom IN the breasts of the great
e. men of all ages, and, in one form or
another. they have all expressed the
ot same uncomfortable determination.
lie Give me liberty, or give me DEATH
Mt
ar Another Chester article on France