Arizona republican., 1919-07-13
LANSING MAKES LAST STATEMENT LIN PEACE MEET I
A Farewell Speech to Press As He Sails for Home Pleased But Not Over
 Complacent at Treaty Sees Many Crises Ahead
TRepubIican A. p. Leased Wire1

tOillSUl OtCltldIN 11dllSAllsS tooCh message to the French people acknowl edging the courtesies extended to him during his sojourn HN expressed re- gret that he was obliged to leave Paris on the eve of the fete in honor of vic tory. in spite of the great temptation to remain.
 Before leaving for the United States tonight. Secretary Lansing made the following statement to the American correspondents:
 Many thoughts rush to mind on leaving the peace conference after six months of effort Never before haf such an international gathering been held for here has been the meeting ground of twenty seven nations to h- quidate world war and establish new order and a laboratory where all ready a system of world cooperation has been born, out of necessity.
 Out of it all has come the most im- portant international document ever drawn-the treaty of peace with Ger many, a document which not only meets the issue of the present war, but also lays down new agreements of the most helpful and most hopeful character. The nations are bound to- gether to avert another world catas- ! trophe backward peoples are given a new hope for their future; several ra- cial entities are liberated to form new states-a beginning is made toward re- moving unjust economic restrictions. and the great military autocracies of Central Europe, are destroyed as the first step in a general disarmament.
 "The treaty is. of course not all that we had hoped for. It could hardly be expected to be. Too many conflicting interests were involved as well as too many legitimate documents which would tax the most perfectly balanced mind. Nearly every one will find in it weaknesses both of omission and com mission. provisions inserted which might better have been left out, and provisions left out which might better have been inserted.
 Treaty a Stepping Stone
 Such a document, must, however, be examined both against the back ground of its creation and in the large sweep of it's spirit. From that point of | view, we may call it a stepping stone from the old international methods to the new. If it still holds some of the distrusts and hatreds of the war which Germany has full well earned for her self if it's construction has been hin-
 
 promises, it must be borne in mind that it carries with it the evident nur- pose to throw off the old methods of international intrigue and plotting.
 But the present treaties are hui the starting point of world reconstruction Now that the general principles have been laid down it remains to execute them And by that mean not so much retributive action against nations which have recently run amuck in the world, but rather the cleansing and healing processes that shall really make good our hopes and aspirations.
 Undoubtedly there is a great danger in the world today. Many people have thought that the mere signing of the treaty with Germany marks the ending of the world peril. Public opinion seems to have breathed a sigh of re- lief and relapsed into apathy. Concen- tration of thought on world problems IS weakening now when it is most es- sential, and the forces of disintegra tion and reaction have been given a freedom of action far greater than when the world was on it's guard.
 Situation Serious
 The situation today is serious Western civilization is still dazed by | the shock Of four and a half years of destruction Industry and commerce. are not yet restored. All of Europe is impoverished; parts of it are starv ing. Its whole political fibre has been shot through. Russia and Hungary are grlpped by subversYve political trou- bles, Austro- Hungary and Turkey as empires, nave ceased to be; Poland and Czecno-Slovak1a are struggling to their rect as members of the family of na- ] tons. III that or society which took decades to eIabo- rate and world war to tear down cannot be replaced over night by wholly different machinery.
 Many problems remain unsettled territorial adjustments to secure the rights of peoples to live under their own flag as far as possible in the | tangled skein of European nationali ties may be made effective. Attain ment of the Polish frontiers on all sides, particularly in East Prussia, is very difficult. The Teschen coal fields are still a source of contention be- l tween Poland and Czecho- -Slavia. Hun gary is interrupting the trade of all central Europe. The Adriatic problem is still unsolved. as well as the fate of those large territories formerly un- der the Turk, including especially Asia Minor and Armenia.
 Statesmen Will Be Sorely Tried
 World statesmanship will be soreIv 1 tried in the next few years Two things are essential: First. ar alert. intel ligent interested public opinion and. second, cooperation of the nations The former is needed both as a check on any sinister purposes that may crop up and as the great support for com mon action. The second is essential unless the nations are to return to a selfish particularism which can only breed the most dangerous disputes
 "The peace conference has been his 1 tory's greatest instance of unified world statesmanship directing the moral and material resources of the worlds family of nations. To allow the spirit behind it to disintegrate at this moment of emergency, when united action is imperative, would be fatal to all the hopes of permanent peace with which we entered the war.
 If it is true that one nation can destroy the equilibrium of all it is all the more true that each nation is bound by it's own law of self-preser- vation to cooperate with the others to check troubles before they get their headway.
 'So. leave for home tonight pleased but not over -complacent with the out come of the past six months and hope i ful, but not in the least unmindful, of the problems of the next few years"