Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1919-06-25
TEXT OF ENEMY
REPLY GIVEN OUT
German Answer to Peace Treaty
Is Made Public.
WANTS VOICE IN PREPARATION
Document Cites Injustice Of Treaty In
Its Present Form-charges Origin
al Treaty Constitutes a Breach
of the Armistice.


Paris, June 16.-"Germany's impor-
tance is Independent of her temporary
military and political position. If she
is not admitted Ito the League of Ma
tions) Immediately on the signing of
peace it is impossible to speak Of a
League of Nations"
This is one of the points raised by
Germany in her 60O0O-word reply to
the peace treaty, in which she makes
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
Observation-Disclosures 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 q breach of
the solemn armistice agreement, based
on the Wilsonian II points. 1t says
the treaty would mean 'the complete
enslavement 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 its own future for itself.
This has been utterly disregarded in
the draft treaty"
The treaty is described as merely
celebration of the last triumph of i'm
perialist and capitalist tendencies"
Won't Barter Human Beings.
In another passage the reply says
Germany cannot consent TO the bar
tering Of human beings" and later:
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 a
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 extraditlon
from Holland are fatty refused on the
ground that mo German subject can
be brought before a foreign court with
out established law or legal basis"
Nor win she consent to the extraditioa
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 kvnaln with
the national courts"
The document bitterly assails the
abolition of all German rights outside
Europe as ''lrreconcilable with the pre-
liminary negotiations anu as wholly
impossible 10 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"
A summary of the German protests
and contemporaries as computed
from today's official resume, follows:
Reparation.
Germany accepts responsibility only
for civilian losses in the Belgian and
French areas occupied by her In the
war. She agrees to pay not more than
S25,000,000 provided her other coun-
ter-proposals are accepted. Character
izing the allied plan for PREPARATIONS
commission as infringing on German
sovereignty, she proposes a 'co-opera-
tive German commission" to work
alongside the allied body.
Germany accepts the obligation TO
pay for all damages sustained by the
civil populations in the occupied parts
of Belgium and France, inasmuch as
she brought upon them the terrors Of
war by breach of international law
through the violation of neutrality.
The Germans refuse. however. to
pay reparation to other occupied ter
ritories In Italy, Montenegro. Serbia,
Roumania and Poland. on the ground
that mo attack in contradiction TO in.
ternational law was involved.
She refuses TO pay the costs of the