CHAPTER XVII FUTILE EFFORTS FOR PEACE - Their Germany's Cynical Overtures Their Rejection by the Allied Powers Purposes Disclosed President Wilson's Peace Note- His Conception of the Objects of the Belligerents - The Interests of the United States Involved - Seeking Acceptable Terms- Equivocal Acceptance by Germany - Rejection by the Allies The President's Peace Message to the Senate Proposing the Principles of the Monroe Doctrine for All the World. WE TRIED peace first. That fact must be remembered, and it will be well to turn back a moment and recall the various overtures which were made for peace only a little while before Germany forced America into this monstrous war. Germany and her allies themselves suggested peace, in characteristic fashion. On December 12, 1916, they issued an identic note to the United States and other neutral powers, for transmission to the opposing belligerents, proposing a peace conference. They said: "The four allied powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey) have been obliged to take up arms to defend justice and the liberty of national evolution. The spiritual and material progress which were the pride of Europe are threatened with ruin. . . . If, in spite of this offer of peace and reconciliation, the struggle should go on, the four allied powers are resolved to continue to a victorious end, but they disclaim responsibility for this before humanity and history." REJECTED BY THE ALLIES This cynically insincere proposal, with its unblushing perversions of truth, was emphatically rejected by the Allies on December 30th. In their note of reply they said: "The putting forward by the Imperial Government of a sham proposal lacking all substance and precision would appear to be less an offer of peace than a war It is founded on calculated misinterpretation of the character of the struggle in the past, the present, and the future. manœuvre. "As for the past, the German note takes no account of the facts, dates, and figures, which establish that the war was desired, provoked, and declared by Germany and Austria-Hungary. "At The Hague Conference it was a German delegate who refused all proposals for disarmament. In July, 1914, it was Austria-Hungary, who, after having addressed to Serbia an unprecedented ultimatum, declared war upon her in spite of the satisfaction which had at once been accorded. "The Central Empires then rejected all attempts made by the Entente to bring about a pacific solution of a purely local conflict. Great Britain suggested a conference; France proposed an international commission; the Emperor to go to arbitration, and Russia and Austria. Hungary came to an understanding on the eve of the conflict. But to all these efforts Germany gave neither answer nor effect. "Belgium was invaded by an empire which had guaranteed her neutrality and which had the assurance to proclaim that treaties were 'scraps of paper,' and that 'necessity knows no law.' . . PURPOSE OF THE OVERTURES "In reality these overtures made by the Central Powers are nothing more than a calculated attempt to influence the future course of war and to end it by imposing a German peace. The object of these overtures is to create dissension in public opinion in the allied countries. But that public opinion has, in spite of all the sacrifices endured by the Allies, already given its answer with admirable firmness, and has denounced the empty pretense of the declaration of the enemy powers. "Finally, these overtures attempt to justify in advance in the eyes of the world a new series of crimes-submarine warfare, deportations, forced labor and forced enlistment of the inhabitants against their own countries, and violations of neutrality. "Fully conscious of the gravity of this moment, but equally conscious of its requirements, the allied governments, closely united to one another and in perfect sympathy with their peoples, refuse to consider a proposal which is empty and insincere. "Once again the Allies declare that no peace is possible so long as they have not secured reparation for violated rights and liberties, the recognition of the principle of nationality and of the free existence of small states, so long as they have not brought about a settlement calculated to end once and for all forces which have constituted a perpetual menace to the nations, and to afford the only effective guarantee for the future security of the world. . . ." PRESIDENT WILSON'S PEACE NOTE At the very time when that German note was issued, President Wilson, in entire ignorance of it, had in preparation a note addressed to all the belligerent powers, inviting them to make an exchange of declarations of purposes and of terms on which peace would be acceptable. This was issued by him on December 18th, with a brief explanation that it had absolutely no connection whatever with the German note which had been issued a few days before. This note, signed by the Secretary of State, ran in part as follows: "The President suggests that an early occasion be sought to call out from all the nations now at war such an avowal of their respective views as to the terms upon which the war might be concluded, and the arrangements which would be deemed satisfactory as a guaranty against its renewal or the kindling of any similar conflict in the future as would make it possible frankly to compare them. He is indifferent as to the means taken to accomplish this. He would be happy himself to serve, or even to take the initiative in its accomplishment, in any way that might prove acceptable, but he has no desire to determine the method or the instrumentality. One way will be as acceptable to him as another, if only the great object he has in mind be attained. OBJECTS OF THE BELLIGERENTS "He takes the liberty of calling attention to the fact that the objects, which the statesmen of the belligerents on both sides have in mind in this war, are virtually the same, as stated in general terms to their own people and to the world. Each side desires to make the rights and privileges of weak peoples and small states as secure against aggression or denial in the future as the rights and privileges of the great and powerful states now at war. Each wishes itself to be made secure in the future, along with all other nations and peoples, against the recurrence of wars like this and against aggression or selfish interference of any kind. Each would be jealous of the formation of any more rival leagues to preserve an uncertain balance of power amid multiplying suspicions; but each is ready to consider the formation of a league of nations to insure peace and justice throughout the world. INTERESTS OF THE UNITED STATES "In the measures to be taken to secure the future peace of the world the people and Government of the United States are as vitally and as directly interested as the governments now at war. Their interest, moreover, in the means to be adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples of the world of the peril of wrong and violence, is as quick and ardent as that of any other people or government. They stand ready, and even eager, to co-operate in the accomplishment of these ends, when the war is over, with every influence and resource at their command. But the war must first be concluded. The terms upon which it is to be concluded they are not at liberty to suggest; but the President does feel that it is his right and his duty to point out their intimate interest in its conclusions, lest it should presently be too late to accomplish the greater things which lie beyond its conclusion, lest the situation of neutral nations, now exceedingly hard to endure, be rendered altogether intolerable, and lest, more than all, an injury be done civilization itself which can never be atoned for or repaired. "The President therefore feels altogether justified in suggesting an immediate opportunity for a comparison of views as to the terms which must precede those ultimate arrangements for the peace of the world, which all desire and in which the neutral nations as well as those at war are ready to play their full responsible part. DEFINITE TERMS SOUGHT "The leaders of the several belligerents have, as has been said, stated those objects in general terms. But, stated in general terms, they seem the same on both sides. Never yet have the authoritative spokesmen of either |