The Washington herald., 1919-07-11

gagements which contemplated
any dispositions of territory,
any extensions of sovereignty
that might seem to be to the
interest of those who had the
power to insist upon them, had
been entered into without
thought of what the peoples
concerned might wish or profit
by; and these could not always
be honorably brushed aside. 1t
was not easy to graft the new
order of ideas on the old, and
some of the fruits of the graft
ing may. 1 fear. for a time be
bitter. But. with very few ex-
ceptions. the men who sat with
US at the peace table desired as
sincerely as we did to get away
from the bad influences, the ille-
Ultimate purposes. the demon
alizing ambitions. the interna-
tional counsels and expedients
out of which the sinister de-
signs of Germany had sprung
as a natural growth.
Formulated Principles.
1t had been our privilege to for
mulate the principles which were
accepted as the basis of the peace.
but they had been accepted not
because we had come in to hasten
and assure the victory and in
sisted upon them. but because they
were readily acceded to as the
principles to which honorable and
enlightened minds everywhere had
been bred. They spoke the oon-
science of the world as well as the
conscience of America. and I am
happy to pay my tribute Of re-
spect and gratitude to the able,
forward-looking men with whom
II was my privilege to cooperate
for their unfailing spirit Nof CO.
operation, their constant effort to
accommodate the interests they
represented to the principles we
were all agreed upon. The diff
culties, which were many, lay in
the circumstances, not often in the
men. Almost without exception the
men who led had caught the true
and full vision of the problem OF
peace as an indivisible whole, a
problem not of mere adjustments
VI ihlSltSl, pul VI JuSlCC anu iiehN
action.
The atmosphere in which the
conference worked seemed ere
ated not by the ambitions OF
strong governments. but by the
hopes and aspirations or small ma
lions and of peoples hitherto I'M
der bondage to the power that
victory had shattered and de-
stroyed. Two great empires had
been forced into political bank
ruptcy, and we were the receivers.
Our task was not only to make
peace with the central empires
and remedy the wrongs their ar
mics had done.
Had No Right to Rule.
The central empires had lived
in open violation of many. of
the very rights for which the
war had been fought, dominat-
ing alien peoples over whom
they had no natural right to
rule. enforcing. not obedience,
but veritable bondage. exploit
ing those who were weak for
the benefit of those who were>
force of arms. There could be,
no peace until the whole order
of central Europe-was set right.
That meant that new nations
were to be created-Poland,
Czecho-Slovakia, Hungary itself.
No part ct ancient Poland had
ever in any true sense become
a part of Germany. or of Aus
tria. or of Russia. Bohemia was
alien in every thought and hope
to the monarchy of which she
had so long been an artificial
part: and the uneasy partner
ship between Austria and Hun
gary had been one rather of in
terest than of kinship or SYM
pathy. The Slavs whom Austria
had chosen to force into her en-
pire on the south were kept to
their obedience by nothing but
fear. Their hearts were with
their kinsmen in the Balkans.
These were all arrangements Of
power, not arrangements Of
natural union or association. 1t
was the imperative task of those
who would make peace. and
make it intelligently. to estab-
lish a new order which would
rest upon the free choice of peo-
pies rather than upon the ar
bitrary authority of Hapsburgs
or Hohenzollerns.
Linked Against viii.
More than that, great populations
bound by sympathy and actual
kin to Rumania were also linked
against their will to the conglom-
crate Austro-Hungarian monarchy
or to other alien sovereignties,
and it was part of the task of
peace to make a new Rumania as
well as new Slavic state cluster
ing about Serbia.
And no natural frontiers could
be found to these new fields of
adjustment and redemption 1t
was necessary to look constantly
forward to other related tasks.
The German colonies were to be
disposed of. They had not been
governed; they had been exploited
merely, without thought of the in
terest or even the ordinary human
rights of their inhabitants.
The Turkish empire. moreover,
had fallen apart, as the Austro-
Hungarian had. 1t had never had
any real unity. 1t had been held
together only by pitiless, inhuman
force. Its peoples cried aloud for
release, for succor from unspeak-
able distress. for all that the new
day of hope seemed at last to
bring within its dawn. PEOPLES