Norwich bulletin., 1919-07-11

them of calling myself their leader. But I speak now of what they meant to the men by whose sides they fought and to the people with whom they mingled with such utter simplicity as friends who asked only to be of ser vice. They were for all the visible embodiment of America. What they did made America and all that she stood for a living reality in the thoughts not only of the people of France but also of tens of millions of men and women throughout all the toiling nations of q world standing eE-s anywhere in peril of it's freedom and of the loss of everything 1t held dear. in deadly fear that it's bonds were never to be loosed, it's hopes forever to be moclzed and disappointed.
 Must AIIay Europe's Fears.
 And the compulsion of what they stood for was upon us who represent ed America at the peace table. It was our duty to see to it that every decis
 ion we took part in contributed. so far as we were able to influence it. to quiet the fears and realize the hopes of the peoples who had been living in that shadow. the nations that had come by our assistance to their free dom. It was our duty to do every
 do to make the triumph of freedom and Of right a lasting triumph in the assurance of which men might every where live without fear.
 Entanglements Faced.
 Old entanglements of every kind stood in the way-promises which governments had made to one another in the days when might and right were confused and the power of the victor was without restraint. Engage mentS which contemplated any diSpo- sitionS of territory, any extensions of sovereignty that might seem to be to the interest of those who had the power to insist upon them. had been entered into without thought of what the peoples concerned might wish or profit by: and these could not always be- honorably brushed aside. It was not easy to graft the new order of ideas on the old. and some of the fruits of the grating may, I fear, for a time be bitter. But, with very few exceptions the men who sat with us at the peace table desired as sincerely as we did to get away from the bad influences, the illegitimare purposes, the demoraIizing ambitions. the inte< national counsels and expedients. oe4C of which the sinister designs of Ger many had sprung as natural growth.
 It had been our privilege to form ulate the principles which were ac- cepted as the basis of the peace, but they had been accepted, not because we had come in to hasten and as sure the victory and insisted upon them, but because they were readily acceded to as the principles to which honorable and enlightened minds ev- anywhere had been bred.
 They spoke the conscience of the world as well as the conscience of America, and I am happy to pay my tribute of respect and gratitude to the able forward looking men with whom it way my privilege to cooperate for their unfailing spirit of cooperation, their constant effort to accommodate the intersts they represented to the l principles we were all agreed upon. 1 The difficulties, which were many, lay | in the circumstances, not often in the i men. Almost without exception the i full vision of the problem of peace | aSan indivisible whole, a problem, not l of mere adjustments of interest, but l or Justice and right action.
 The atmosphere in which the con- l ference worked seemed created, not by | the ambitions of strong governments, l but by the hopes and aspirations of | small nations and of peoples hitherto | under bondage to the power that vis- i tory had shattered and destroyed. Two | great empires had been forced into | political bankruptcy and we were the l receivers. Our task was not only to 1, make peace with the Central Empires | and remedy the wrongs their armies !! had done. The Central Empires had | lived in open violation of many of the | very rights for which the war had | been fought. dominating alien peoples l over whom they had no natural right | to rule: enforcing. not obedience. but l veritable bondage, exploiting those l who were weak for the benefit of those | who were masters and overlords only | by force of arms. There could be | no peace until the whole order of Cen l tral Europe was set right.
 New Nations Had to Be Created.
 That meant that new nations were | to be created = Poland, Czecho-Slo- ] vakio, Hungary itself. No part of