Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-09-03
Opening Of Hosti|ities Against
Serbia After Refusing All
Offers of Conference of
Cancellation Referred To.
EXTENSION OF TIME FOR
REPLY MAY BE GRANTED
General Assembly Expected
to Meet on Saturday and
Sunday to Discuss Terms
and Frame a Reply.

ciated Press.) - Chancellar Karl
Renner. head of the Austrian peace
delegation, has left for Vienna with
the peace treaty, which was handed
to the Austrians Tuesday. He indi-
Gated that he probably would ask
for an extension of time, as the
Austrian general assembly would
meet on Saturday and Sunday ID
discuss the terms
The supreme council, it is saidj
will extend the time if Austria 50
requinS.
THE note transmitting the allied
reply to the observations Of the
Austrian delegation on the condi-
tons of peace addressed to Karl
Renner and signed by M. Ciem-
enceau, as president of the council,
follows: IS.
Draft of the covering letter. (lJ'
The allied and associated powers
have given most careful .censidera-
ton to the observatio1s Of the
Austrian delegation on the draft
treaty of peace. The reply of the
Austrian delegation objects to the
draft treaty on the grounds that in
view of the dissolution of the Aus|
hungarian monarchy, Ausfff fs
ought not to be treated as Al enen1, \
state at all and that in CONSEQUENCE.
she ought not to be made in any
SPECIAL way inheritor of response
bllities IN regard to reparation, to
which the Austro- Hungarian n1of1xz
archy would undoubtedly be liable.
did it still exist
Austrians Responsible.
"As these observations point to
fundamental misconception of the
responsibilities of the people Of
Austria, the allied and associated
powers feel it necessary to state as
briefly as may be the principles
which they consider must be applied
to the settlement of the late war So
tar as Austria is concerned. The
people of Austria, together With
their neighbors, the people of Hum
gary, bear in a peculiar degree re-
sponsibility for the calamities which
have befallen Europe, during. the
last five years. A
The war was precipitated by an
ultlmatum presented to Serbia by
the government at Vienna requiring
acceptance within 48 hours of
series of demands which amounted
to the destruction of the independ-
ence Of a neighboring sovereign
state The royal government Of
Serbia accepted within the prescribed
time all the demands except those
which involved the virtual surrender
of its independence.
Opened Hostilities.
Yet the then Austro- H hungarian
government, refusing all offers Of !
conference of conciliation on the
basis of that reply, Immediately
opened hostilities against Serbia.
thereby deliberately setting light ID;
a train, which led directly to I uni-.
versal war.
1T is now evident that this ulti4t
matum was no more than an insihsa
cere excuse for beginning war fors
which the late autocratic governsa
ment at Vienna, in close associationI
with the rulers of Germany, had long!
and which it considered
the time had arrived. The presencA
of Austrian guns at the siege od
L1ege and Namur is further proofJ
Il proof were required, of the ii,.l
Innate association of the governl
ment of Vienna with the government
of Berlin in its plea (plot?l against
public law and the Liberties ofl
Europe.
The Austrian delegation appeaf
10 think that responsibility for these
acts rested <soly on the Hapsburg
dynasty and its satellites and thar
by reason of the dissolution of that
through the victory uf
he allies the people of Austria can
escape responsibility for the deedd
of the government which was theid
own government and which had it'd
home in their capital.
Domineering Spirit.
Had the people of Austria in
he years preceding endeavored to
;urb the militarist and domineerink
spirit by which the government Of
he Hapsburg monarchy was ahis
mated; had they made an effective
protest against the war, or refused
% assist or support their rulers III
prosecuting it, some attention might
now be paid to this plea. But tho
act that the war was acclaimed on
is outbreak in Vienna; that tho
people of Austria were its ardenf
supporters from start to finish and
hat they did nothing to disassociatd
themselves from the policy of their
and its allies until the8
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