Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-06-06
Germans Hand in Their Counter
Proposals for Peace to
Council of Four.
WANT TO RETAIN COLONIES
Make Many Other Demands to Which
Allies Will Not Yield-Adriatic Cues
ton Settled, Fiume Becoming In
dependent city-Western Can
ada Strike Spreads.
BY EDWARD W. x A

The Germans have handed in their
counter-proposals-10S printed pages
Of them-with the evident and pre-
sumably justified feeling that they
won't do Germany any particular good.
If the replies of the allies to Brock
dorff- Rantzau's preliminary notes fur
nish any basis for prediction. it is safe
to say that this bunch of counter-pro-
posals will in the main be turned down
fiat by the council of four.
AS was easily foreseen, the Germans
predicate their propositions largely on
the fourteen points and on various
-idealistse- HtteFahees of President VIII
son and others, and quotations from
these are used literally. The ideas
Of territorial self-determination and
opportunities for economic develop
ment are played upon strongly, and
the peace terms prepared by the al
lies are declared to be In contradiction
to a just peace and dominated by the
might greater than right" principle.
Germany refuses absolutely to cede
Upper Silesia, and declines to give up
the Saar basin, Posen and other terri
tory unless a plebiscite is held. Dan
zig, she says, must be a free port and
must not be In any way controlled by
the Poles, but 1t is agreed that the
vistula river may be neutralized as
far as the Polish border. She agrees
70 surrender her warships and to dis
solv< the rest of her navy, but de-
mands merchant shipping in exchange,
saying this is necessary to her COM
mercial life. She accepts the limita-
ton of the army to 100000 men, but
wants more than that for the present
to maintain order. She offers to pay
an indemnity of $4,000, 100000 in gold
by 1926 and to make annual payments
thereafter up to a total of $25,OOO,OOo,-
600, but puts in a counter-claim OF
about $4,000, 100000 for damages from
the allied blockade.
The Germans refuse to admit that
Germany is alone to blame for the war
and its damage, and take a slap at
Italy and Roumania, which. they as
sert, entered the conflict for terrific
rial conquest. AS for personal respon-
sibility, they declare they will not sur
render the former kaiser and others
for trial by the allies, asserting they
can be tried only by Germans or leu
trails.
Return of Germany's colonies is de.
manded, though it is agreed that Ger.
many might be willingg to act as man
datory for them under the league OF
nations. and the right Of Germany to
enter the league at once on an equal
ity with other nations is asserted. All
occupied territories, say the counter
proposals, must be evacuated within
six months. In claiming the return OF
the colonies the Germans call atten-
ton to the fact that an impartial set
Element Of all colonial claims was
promised in number five of the four
teen points. This reads:
"Free, open-minded, and absolutely
impartial adjustment of all colonial
claims, based upon a strict observance
Of the principle that In determining all
such questions of sovereignty the in
terests of the population concerned
must have equal weight with the equi-
table claims Of the government whose
title is to be determined"
Since Germany's administration Of
her colonial possessions, especially
those in Africa, was VIGOROUSLY op-
pressive to the natives, 1t is hard
to see how she can gain much by an
appeal to an agreement that the inter-
ests Of the people concerned shall be
given full weight.
Germany's claim for damages due to
the blockade is based or the alleges