Norwich bulletin., 1919-06-20
Wilson's s Address to
 Belgian Deputies
Declared It Was the Violation
 of Belgium by the Germans That Awakened the World.

The king and queen of the Belgians | sad goodbye to President and Mrs. | Wilson tonight after a day of func- | tons and sightseeing that taxed the | American party.
 The president made three speeches | and an extended tour of the battle helds, and attended a luncheon and i formal dinner by the king. In the 1 chamber of deputies he brought them to the realization that America was not dealing with the past; that now is the time for credits, and it is proposed to extend them
 He said he had in mind to suggest to congress to elevate the legation at Brussels to an embassy and the post Of minister to ambassador. The appearance of President Wilson before the chamber was the most i'm portant feature of the days program. In his address before the Belgian chamber of deputies. President Wilson 1 said:
 The enemy committed many out rages in this war. gentlemen. but the initial outrage was the fundamental
 outrage of all. They. with that inso- lent indifference, violated the sacred 1 ness of treaties. They showed that | they did not care for the honor of any l pledge. They showed that they did
 not care for the independence of any 1 nation, whether it had raised it's hand | against them or not; that they were ruthless in their determination to have | their whim at their pleasure. There 1 fore, it was the violation of Belgium | that awakened the world to the real | iZation of the character of the struggle.
 "A very interesting thing came out | of that struggle, which seems almost like an illogical consequence One of the first things that the representa- tives of Belgium said to me after the
 war began was that they did not want their neutrality guaranteed. They did | not want any neutrality. They wanted | equality, not because. as I understood
 them, their neutrality was insecure, but because their neutrality put them
 upon different basis of action from l other peoples. In their natural and
 proper pride they desired to occupy a place that was not exceptional, but in
 the ranks of free peoples under all ; governments.
 q honored this instinct in them, and
 it was for that reason that the first
 time 1 had occasion to speak of what the war might accomplish for Belgium, I spoke of her winning place of
 equality among the nations. So Bel
 gium has. so to say. once more come
 into her own through this deep valley
 of suffering through which she has
 gone.
 Not only that, but her cause has linked the governments of the civilized world together. They have realized
 their common duty They have drawr ? league, of right. They have put the ) whole power of organized manhood t behind this conception of justice 1 which is common to mankind.
 "That is the significance. gentlemen s of the league of nations. The league S of nations was an inevitable conse- s quence of this war. It was a league O
 rights, and no thoughtful statesman s who let his thought run into the flu t ture, could wish for a moment tC : slacken those bonds. His first though s would be to strengthen them and t'
 perpetuate this combination of tn e great governments of the world for tn . maintenance of justice.
 f "The league of nations is the chill q of this great war, for it is the expres : sion of those permanent resolution
 l which grew out of the temporary ne d cessities of this great struggle, an = any nation which declines to adher h to this covenant deliberately turn - away from the most telling appeal tha
 has ever been made to it's conscienc
 and to it's manhood.
 "The nation that wishes to use tn TT league of nations for it's convenience ,+ and not for the service of the rest c the world deliberately chooses to tur = back to those bad days of selfish con
 test, when every nation thought frs ',, and always of itself. and not of it ,ss neighbors: thought of it's rights, an ,- forgot it's duties; thought of it's powe :, and overlooked it's responsibility. i- Those bad days, 1 hope, are gon N and the great moral power backed. need be. by the great physical powe
 of the civilized nations of the worl'
 will now stand firm for the mainte
 nance of the fine partnership which W have thus inaugurated.
 IN Tt cannot be otherwise. PerhaI le the conscience of some chancellery wa 3. asleep and the outrage of German le awakened it. You cannot see one gres J. nation violate every principle of rigf t without beginning to know what tf v principles of right are and to loI a them, to despise those who Viola1 ,- them and to form the firm resolve ths 10 such a violation shall now be punlshe
 and in the future be prevented