The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-06-17

man people as principle covering tn
peace.
Germany has despoied her neigh
bors of everything she could make us'
| of or carry away. Germany has de
| stroyed the shipping of all nations OF
the high seas. where there was M
| chance or rescue for their passenger
| and crews.
Not to do justice to all concerned
| would only leave the world open K
fresh calamities. If the German peo.
| pie themselves, or any other nation
| are to be deferred from following the
| footsteps of Prussia: il mankind is tc
| be lifted out of the belief that war fol
| selfish ends Is legitimate to any state
| If the old era is to be left behind and
| nations. as well as individuals. are to
| be brought beneath the reign of law
even If there is to be early r6concilia-
ton and appeasement, 1t will be be-
cause those responsible for concluding
the war have had the courage TO see
that justice is not detected for the
lack of a convenient peace.
1T is said that the German revolu-
ton ought to make a difference. and
that the German people are not respon-
sible for the policy of the rulers whom
they have thrown from power. The
allied and associated powers recog-
nize and welcome the change. 1t rep
resents great hope for peace and a
new European order in the future.
Foe Cannot Escape.
But it cannot affect the settlement
of the war itself. The German revolu-
armies had been defeated in the field,
and all hope of profiting by a war OF
conquest had vanished. Throughout the
war, as before the war, German people
and their representatives supported the
war, voted the credits, subscribed to the
xurar nrdar hnm-
ever savage, of their government. They
shared the responsibility for the policy
of the government, for at any moment,
had they willed it. they could have re-
versed it. Had that policy succeeded
they would have acclaimed it with the
same enthusiasm with which they well
coined the outbreak OF the war. They
cannot now pretend, having changed
their rulers after the war was lost, that
it is justice that they should escape
the consequences of their deeds.
THE allied and associated powers,
therefore, believe that the peace they
have proposed is fundamentally a peace
of justice.
PebiscIte Provided.
Accordingly the allied and associated
powers have provided for the recon-
struction of Poland as an independent
state, with free and secure access to
the sea-" All territories inhabited by
Polish populations" have
been accorded to Poland. All territories
inhabited by German ma jorities, save
for a few isolated towns and for colonies
established on land recently forcibly eX-
propriated and situated in the midst of
Polish territory, have been
left. to Germany. Wherever the will of
the people is in doubt plebiscite has
been provided for.
"Danzig has been constituted as a
free city. so that the inhabitants will
be autonomous. and do not come under
Polish rule or form any part of the !
Polish state. Poland has been given |
certain economic rights in Danzig, and |
the city itself has been severed from !
Germany, because in no other way was
i possible to provide for that free and |
secure access to the sea" which Ger |
many has promised to concede.' |
Admission TO League.
Clause VI of the treaty says the al |
led and associated powers have given |
,areful consideration to the request of |
he German delegation that Germany be |
admitted to the league Of nations as one
If the conditions of peace. but that the
lilies are unable to accede to this re-
Iuest It adds that the German revo-
ution was postponed to the last mo-
nent of the war and that there is no
that it represents a perma- /
ent change, and that it is impossible
n the present temper of international Il
ceiling ito expect the free nations of
he world to sit down Immediately in |
quail association with those by whom
hey have been so grievously wronged."
Clause VII refers to the denunciation