Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1919-06-19
TEXT OF ENEMY
REPLY GIVEN OUT
German Answer to Peace Treaty
Is Made Public.
WANTS VOICE IN PREPARATION
Document ;;:r-- Justice Of Treaty ~
it's Present Form-charges Origin
al Treaty Constitutes Breach
of the Armistice. ,


military and political position. IT she
is not admitted Ito the League of Ma
tiOns) Immediately on the signing OF
peace it is impossible to speak Of q
League of Nations"
This is one of the points raised by
Germany in her 60,GO0-word reply to
the peace treaty, in which she makes
a long series Of contemporaries. A
summary of that reply was issued by
the committee on public information in
the eve of the delivery to Count Won
Brockdorff- Rantzau by the allies OF
the amended pact.
On the whole the summary covers
little new ground, the main points OF
the German arguments having been
covered in press dispatches during the
last few weeks. Beyond putting off,
cial stamp on those dispatches the sum-
mary reveals, however, some interest
ing details. 1t shows, also, that the
German reply was much stronger
both in text and tenor of protests and
cOunter-demands, than hitherto indi-
Gated.
Main Thread Of Reply.
The main thread of the German an
swer is the charge that the original
peace treaty constitutes breach OF
the solemn armistice agreement, based
on the WilsOnian IA points. 1t says
the treaty would mean 'the complete
ensla'vement of the German people and
| the betrayal of all the worlds cher
ished hopes Of peace" The right Of
self-determination the Germans assert,
has been "wilfully violated through
out"
1t is difficult to see, Germany AYERS,
how any harsher terms could have
been dictated to the former imperial
! istic and irresponsible government.
Many speeches of allied statesmen and
of President Wilson are then quoted
as saying the war was against that
| government, not against the German
people. In the words of the summary:
| To-day, however, the allied powers
are facing not an irresponsible Ger
| man government but the German peO-
| pie ruling it's own future for itself.
| This has been utterly disregarded in
the draft treaty"
The treaty is described as merely
a celebration of the last triumph Of inn
perialist and capitalist tendencies" :
Won't Barter Human Beings. ..5
In another passage the reply Says
Germany cannot consent to the bar
tering of human beings" and later:
1.-THE German government declines
to make any reparation In the form of
punishment, and still more emphatical-
| lY declines to pass on to individual
parts of the population the punishment
intended for the whole of the COM
munity." ~
Annexation of the Saar district is
called the creation of another Alsace-
Lorraine. AS for those provinces, Ger
many claims their cession without
consulting the population would be
new wrong She admits that, accord
| ing to present conceptions of right, an
| injustice was committed in 1871, when
the people were not consulted"
Acceptance of the trial of the ex-
kaiser and sanction of his extradition
from Holland are fatty refused on the
ground that mo German subject can
be brought before foreign court with
out established law or legal basis"
Nor will she consent to the extradition
of other subjects accused Of war
crimes, but instead proposes an inter-
national court of neutrals ito Judge
the fact of crime" The punishment,
however, she claims, must remain with
the national courts"
The document bitterly assails the
abolition of all German rights outside
Europe as "irreconcilable with the pre-
liminary negotiations and as wholly
impossible to a great people who not
only have supreme needs for markets
and supplies but who have shown
themselves capable Of sharing the
worlds task of colonization"