The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-06-20

President Wilson addressed the
 chamber of deputies, Belgium, yes terday, replying to expressions Of
 gratitude rendered for Belgium. to
 America, by Foreign Minister Fly
 mans MT. Wilson's. speech was a
 plea for the League of Nations, and an expression of his belief that Amer ican friendship for Belgium should be
 expressed in appropriate actions
 MT. Wilson said:
 ''It is very delightful to find myself
 at last in Belgium. I have come at the first moment that I was relieved from imperative duty. could not come TOT my own pleasure, and in neglect or duty, to a country, where knew that l should meet men who had done thelr duty; where I knew l should meet l,soyerejgn who had constantly identi- fled himself with the interests and the life of his people at every sacrifice to himself: where I should be greeted by a Burgomaster who never allowed the enemy to thrust aside, and always asserted the majority and authority of the municipality which he repre- sented; where I should have the priv l ilege of meeting a cardinal who was shepherd of his flock, the majesty or whose spiritual authority awed even the interruptions enemy himself, who | upon this servant of God, and where | I should have the privilege of grasp | ing the hand of a general who never
 surrendered, and on every hand | should meet men who had known | their duty and had done it.
 ] ''I could not come to Belgium until I felt I was released from my duty.
 q would rather turn for a. moment with you to the significance of the | place which Belgium bears in this | contest, which, thank God, is ended. l I came here because I wished to asso- I ciate myself in counsel with the men | who I knew had felt so deeply the
 pulse of this terrible struggle, and 4 l wanted to come also because I realiz- | ed, I believe, that Belgium and her part in the war is in one sense the
 key of the whole struggle, because | the violation of Belgium was the call | to duty which aroused the nations.
 "The enemy committed many out | rages in this war, gentlemen, but the | initial outrage was the fundamental
 outrage of all. They, with isolent in l difference, violated the sacredness of | treaties. They showed they did not care for the honor of any pledge. lThey showed that they did not care
 for the independence of any nation. I Lthem or not; that they were ruthless l in their determination to have their | whim at their pleasure.
 | Therefore it was the violation of lBelgium that awakened the world to the realization of the character of the struggle.
 l "A very interesting thing came out of that struggle, which seems almost like an illogical consequence. One of the first things that the representa- lives of Belgium said to me after the war began was that they did not want jtheir neutrality guaranteed. They did not want any neutrality. They want ed equality, not because. as I under lstand them, their neutrality was inse- lcure, but because their neutrality put them upon a different basis of action from other peoples In their natural land proper pride they desired to oc- lcupy a place that was not exceptional. but in the ranks of free peoples under all governments.
 T honored this instinct in them. land it was for that reason that the first time I had occasion to speak of lwhat the war might accomplish for Belgium spoke of her winning a lplace of equality among the nations. Ieo BelEfum has, so to says once more tcoma Into her own thfuukh thiS neep