Republican farmer., 1919-06-06

St. Germain, Monday, June - Upon receiving the treaty from the Allies here today, Dr. Karl Renner, chairman of the Austrian delega tion, outlined briefly the history of the es- tablishment of the German-Austrian republic and declared it had no re- lation with the former Hapsburg em- pire. He spoke as follows:
 For a long time the people of German Austria were waiting in dis tress for this present-day to come, which shall relieve the tension caus- ed by the uncertainty as to the peo- ple's future state. We were longin g for the hour of decision because it was to render peace at last to our hard-tried country and to offer us an opportunity to proclaim before this illustrious tribunal, the worlds high est authority, what our country is. and what the conditions are under which we may hope to organize the possibilities for the existence of an independent republic.
 "There remained only eight nation- alities deprived of any public orga ni- zation and overnight they created their own parllaments, their own gov- ernment and their own armies; in snort, InelT own ueptIOtilI Sbctl In the same way as the other na- tional states our new republic, too. has sprung into life. Consequently, she can no more than the former be considered the successor of the latc monarchy From this very point arises the fundamental contradiction under which we are laboring the most, and which is waiting to be cleared before this high assembly.
 "On the one hand, no one could. from the judicious statement recently proclaimed by the chairman of this conference, reason that a nnodihca ton of political form of government or a change of its leading persons would suffice to release a nation from assumed obligations. This en- tails the conclusion that all the ter ritories of the ancient monarchy and their peoples could be made respon- sible for the consequences of the war which was forced upon them all by their former governments. Thus is weighing upon us, as upon all the other nationalities established on the territory of the former Austro-Hun- garian monarchy, a portion of the dreadful inheritance left us by the fallen empire, the inheritance of war, the inheritance of exhaustion and the inheritance of the more cum berSOne economic obligations. But the new republic has freed herself from all these imperia1istic aspirations which have become 50 fatal to the existence of the ancient monarchy. She has rid herself once and for ever of all the reactionary traditions which had turned the former monarchy into Q prison for its people. She is, alas, the unfortunate victim of that horri- ble crime of 1914-a crime committed by the former government, however, and not by tho people.
 "On the other hand, all the sue ceeding states have in the light of in ternational law come into existence after the cessation of hostilities en- tirely.
 'The German Austrian republic in its present shape, has never declared war, never carried on a war and, in relation with the western powers. never had the position of a warning power from an international point of view. And there, could be no doubt as to the fact that our republic never was at war with the new national states. On the contrary, in Vienna various commissions appointed by the succeeding states have met to set tie the estate left by the late empire. and to divide in mutual agreement among themselves all the rights and assets of this estate.
 we are before you as one of the