The Columbus dispatch. (Columbus, Miss.) 19??-1922, 1919-05-25
GERMANY REFUSES
PEACE TREATY
CABINET ISSUES OFFICIAL
STATEMENT TO THIS EFFECT.
SAYS MEANS HER
DESTRUCTION.
Claim TO be Standing Upon VIII
sons Fourteen Peace Points.
Addressed TO AmeFi-
can People.

lSIIuS ldlu DSAOlc IL bCSouoO thSy
spell the economic destruction, polit-
ical dishonor and moral degradation
of the entire German nation, not on
ly for the present, but also for still
unborn generations" was a state
ment authorized by the cabinet this
morning through the Associated
Press. -
THAT these consequences must
logically follow acceptance of the
peace conditions the American dele
cation itself has recognized without
question" the statement continues.
Toward them Germany took the
standpoint that acceptance of such
conditions could not be demanded
and that the entente was unjustifed
in proposing such demands"
Germany has not only moral
right to compliance with the general
grounded, definite, clearly defined
claim, according to the basic rules
of international law, on all the en-
tente powers, and especially on the
United States.
A specific recognition of the right
of Germany and of the German peo-
pile to a peace of right, justice and
reconciliation, instead of the para
graphed song of hate which was
written at Versailles, is contained in
the note of the American secretary
of state, Lansing, of Nov. 5, 1918.
''In it the secretary of state noti-
fed the Swiss minister in Washing
ton Internationally that the estab-
lished basis of president Wilson's
fourteen points should be authorita-
tive for the peace conditions. Secre-
tary Lansing announced further that
the entente governments after care
full consideration also were prepared
to recognize the conditions set up
by President Wilson as the basis for
the conclusion of peace.
THE declaration of right emanat-
ing from these specific declarations
OF III the entente Towers and the
United states constitutes Cermany's
sole asset in the general moral
breakdown of all International poll
cies which has found indispensable
expression in the Versailles terms.
Germany answers them with its
clearly iuristic right in information
al law Toward the polite moral
bankruptcy of Versailles the German
nation stands as a creditor with un-
deniable rights, and it is not in a po-
sition to yield on this chief point
Germany concludes peace on the ba-l
sis of President Wilson's IA points,
which all Americans had made its
own, and all America, every individ-
ual, is responsible for the fulfllment
Of it's claims.
1T is not the German peoples
business to indicate how it's rights
shall be realized by the IA points,
or especially by the note of Secre-
tary Lansing. That, rather, is the
task of those who constructed the IA
points and brought them to accept
ance, thereby inducing Germany to
lay down her weapons. We do not
believe that President Wilson, Sec
retary Lansing and the American
people can take other than this Ger
man standpoint, if they do not wish
to do that which President Wilson
in his message of December 4, 1917,
condemned categorically when he
said, We would dishonor our own
cause if we treated Germany any
other than justly and in a nonparti-
san manner and did not insist upon
justice toward all, no matter how
the war ended We demand nothing
which we are not ready ourselves to
admit
And the German people demand
nothing more than that which Pres
ident Wilson announced in this
declaration. We demand nothing
more than that Americans place the
II points opposite the peace terms.
We do not believe that anyone in the
United States will then have the
courage to claim that there can be
found in the peace conditions one
single trace left of President Viii
sons program.
And here begins Americas |
definite duty to step in. America
either must put its IA points through |
or il must declare that it is unable
to do so or that it does not want
to do so, 30 that in no case may the