Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-18
POINCARE ADDRESS
TO PEACE CONGRESS
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TO PEACE CONGRESS
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France on. land and we will not enter
the channel and when they instruct
ed their ambassador to say to France:
I'VE will only accept a declaration
of neutrality on your part If you sur
render to US Briey, Toul and yerdun.'
1t is in the light Of these things, gen.
tlemen. that all the conclusions you
will have to draw from the war will
take shape.
"Your nations entered the-war sue
cessively, but came. n and all to the
help Of threatened right. Like Ger
many, Great Britain had guaranteed
the independence of Belgium. Ger
many sought to crush Belgium. Great
Britain and France both swore to ave
her.
Thus. from the very beginning Of
hostilities there came into the. con-
fiict the two ideas which for fifty
months were to struggle for the
domination of the world-the idea of
sovereign force, which accepts neither
control nor check, and the idea Of
justice, which depends on the sword
OtlAy ~ pIctOlll vi IepI6SS Iu0 dUuSc
Pof strength" !.
Faithfully supported by her
dominicns and her col0nies.- Great
Britain decided that she could not re-
main aloof from a struggle in which
the fate of every country was in
volved. She has made, and her do
minions and colonies have made with
her, p%rodigious efforts to prevent the
war from ending in the triumph Of
the spirit of conquest and the destruc-
ton of right.
Japan, in her turn, only decided
to taxi up arms out of loyalty to
Great Britain, her ally. and from the
consciousness of the danger in which
both, Asia and Europe would have
stood of the hegemony of which the
Germanic empires dreamed.
Italy, who from the first had re-
fused to lend a helping HAND to Ger
man ambition, against an age.
long foe only to answer the call of
oppressed populations and to destroy
at the cost of her blood the artificial
political combinations which took no
account of human liberty.
"Rumania resolved to fight only to
realize that national unity which was
opposed by the same powers of arbi-
trary force. Abandoned,> betrayed
n strangled. she had to submit to
an abominable treaty, the revision Of
which you will exact.
Greece, whom the enemy for many
months tried to turn from her tradi-
tions and destinies> raised an army
only to escape attempts at domination
of which she felt the growing threat.
Portugal, China n Siam aban-
doned neutrality only to escape the
stransling pressure of the central
powers.
"Thus, it, was the extent Of German
ambitions that brought so many peo-
| pies, great or small, to align them
selves against the same adversary.
And what shall ! say Of the solemn
resolutions taken by the United States
in the spring of 1a17, under the au-
spices of it's illustrious president, Mr..
| Wilson, ~vhom 1 am happy to greet
here in the name of grateful France,
and, if you will allow me to say SO,
gentlemen, in the name. of all the ma
tions represented in this room.
What shall I say OF the many 9TH
ert American powers which either de-
clared themselves against Germany
Brazil. Cuba, Panama, Guatemala.
Nicaragua, Haiti; Honduras-or at
least broke off diplomatic relations
Bolivia, Peru. Ecuador, Uruguay.
From the north to the south the New
World O with indignation when it
Saw LHe EMPIRES u CetIITdl 6uTOpS
after having let loose the wa without
pr%ovocation and without excuse, carry
it or with fire, pillage and the massa-
ere of inoffensive beings.
"The intervention of the United
States was something more, son1e-
thing greater than a great political
and military event 1t was a supreme
Judgment, passed at the bar of history
hy'the lofty conscience of a free peo-
pic and their chief magistrate on the
enormous responsibilities incurred in
the %frightful conflict which was
decorating humanity.
"It was not only to protect itself
from the audacious aims of German
megalomania that the United States
armies, but also and above all, to de-
>fend an ideal of liberty over which
it saw the huge shadow of the i'm
perial eagle ~encroaching further ev-
cry day. America, the daughter of
Europe, crossed the ocean to rescue
her mother from the humiliation Of
thraldom and to save civilization.
put an end to the greatest scandal
that has yer sullied the annals of
mankind. Autocratic governments.
having prepared in the secrecy OF the
chancellories and the general staff a
mad program of universal dominion,
let loose their packs at the time fixed
by their genius for intrigue and sound
ed the horns for the chase, ordering
science Cat the very time it was be-
ginning to abolish distances to bring
men closer together and make life
sweeter) to leave the bright sky to-
ward which it was soaring and to
place itself submissively at the serv-
ice of violence; debasing the religious
idea. to the extent of making God the
complacent auxiliary of their passions
and the accomplice of their crimes
in short, counting as nought the ira
ditions and Wills of peoples. the lives
of citizens. the honor Of women and
all those principles of public and> pri-
vate morality which we for our part
have endeavored to keep unaltered
throughout the war and which neither
nations nor industries can repudiate
or disregard with IMMUNITY.
While the conflict was gradually
extending over the entire surface OF
the earth, the clanking of chains was
heard here and there and captive
nationalities from. tie depths of their
age-long jails cried put to US for
help. Yes, more, they escaped to come
to our aid.
"Poland came to live again and sent
us troops. The Czecho-Slovaks won
their right to independence, in Isl
IBERIA, in France, and in Italy. THE
Jugo-Slavs, the Armenians, the Syri-
ans and Levantines, the, Arabs, all the
victims. long helpless or resigned, of
n historic deeds of injustice; all the
martyrs Of the past, all the outraged
In conscience. all the strangled in lib
erty, viewed the clash of arms and
turned to us as their natural defend
erS. IL - s 80 TO-.