UNITED STATES REFUSES TO SUGGEST AN ARMISTICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16982, 16 October 1918, Page 7

UNITED STATES REFUSES TO SUGGEST AN ARMISTICE.

p?:. 'JUDGMENT OF MILITARY ADVISEES MUST PREVAIL, nil ' • • " till GERMAN OUTRAGES BY LAND AND SEA FORBID ACTION. ' - . • ■• • • ,^ N ., . . - - SI CESSATION OF AUTOCRACY A CONDITION PRECEDENT liw §o*f||P- " . • ',■ » • fIIS&RATE;- REPLY TO' BE MADE TO, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, WaßMmfc'" r ' ' •" . . . ■ • - * ' . "• ' 'By Telegraph— Association—Copyright. . - SMSPife • • ■ 1 ."; v- . Anitialiau and N.Z (Reteired 8.30 p.m.) . - "WASHINGTON* Oct,. 14, " ' | If!® s Tie President's reply to the German Peace. N6te is as follows , .The unqualified acceptance by the present German Government and Hflpjihiß;-large majority of the Reichstag of the terms laid /down by; the , President of the United States in his address to Congress of January .^">^B,o6lß, , and subsequent addresses, justifies the President in making .-••itfrank and direct statement of his decision with regard to the German communications of October 8 and October 12. i ? * It must be thoroughly understood that the process of evacuation \ and . the conditions of any armistice are matters which must be left "4f pi to the judgment and advice of the military advisers of the United , s States and the allied Governments, The President feels it his duty merit which does not provide absolutely satisfactory safeguards and guarantees of the maintenance of the present supremacy of the armies' fi%fof- f th'e United States and the- Allies in the field. He feels' confident that he can safely assume that nothing but this will also be the judg,v ment and decision of the allied Governments.-SN-'i" The President also feels it his duty to state that neither the _ $1 ; United States Government nor the Governments with which it .is HHH * associated as a belligerent will consent to consider an armistice so 'i , long as the armed forces of Germany continue the illegal and inhumane practices in which they still persist. At the very time the German sogf§Government lias approached the 'United States with proposals of peace its submarines are engaged in sinking passenger ships at sea, j|ffs•.and not ships alone, but the very boats in which the passengers and crew seek to make their way to safety, and in the present enforced If-;": withdrawal from Flanders and France the German armies are pur|o§] suing a course of destruction which has always been regarded as a 'so*' direct violation of the rules and practices of civilised warfare. Cities fP.n£and villages, if not destroyed, are stripped of everything they contain, {£ ' <•-" even the inhabitants. The nations associated against Germany can- :;;>.';::; be expected to agree to the cessation of arms while acts of i: f-inhumanity, spoliation, and desolation are beKg continued, which they li'-.t justly look upon with burning hearts. Ifffe The President's words that autocracy must cease constitute a VV-i condition precedent to peacc if peace is to come by the action of the |p' German Government'itself. The President feels bound to say that the whole process of peace will depend, in his judgment, upon the f?/ definiteness and satisfactory character of the guarantee:? which can V •••' be given in this fundamental matter. It is indispensable that the i'S v Governments associated against Germany should know, beyond per- •- * adventure, with whom they are dealing. x Mr. Wilson will make a separate reply to Austria.