WILSON'S SPEECH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 9263, 8 April 1918, Page 5

WILSON'S SPEECH.

HUN ■ DOMINION CONDEMNED

(Received April 8, 2.30 p.in)

NEW YORK, April 7

President Wilson's speech syf; Baltimore Avas made on the occasion of a celebration of America's acceptance of the German challenge t'a fight, and on the inauguration of the third Liberty Loan. - ' The President declared that the nation was awake. There was no need to call it. They know the war must cost the utmost sacrifice of the lives of their best- men, and if need bo, all they possess. .-■'■■''

Our people are ready, he said, to lend their utmost, even where it meant sharp skimping and daily sacrifice. The cause for which they were fighting stands moro sharply revealed now than ever before. Americans were now more sure than ever before that tile cause is their own, and .ir*,iib should be lost their own great national place and mission in the world would be lost.

Ho reminded the audience tliat he had never judged, Germany's purposes jintemperately. v^He would be ashamed to speak with turbulence and the weak language of hatred or vindictive purpose He sought to learn the objects of Germany from her own spokesmen, and to deal frankly with them, as he wished them to deal with him. America proposed no injustice and no aggression. She was ready whenever the final reckoning was^made, to be just to the German people, and deal fairly with German power. The .German leaders have answered in unrnistakeable terms that not justice but dominion and the unhindered ■'execution of their own will is what they want. This avowal ' comes not from Germany's statesmen but, from her. military leaders, who 'are her real rulers. :,-, - After reviewing the various German peace offers, the •President compared, them with the actions in Russia, Finland, and elsewhere which followed these professions. Are we not justified, he asked, in believing they would ao the same things on their western front if not face to face with armies which their countless divisions cannot overcome. If when they have felt their check to be final, they should propose favourable, equitable terms regarding Belgium, .France, and Italy, could they blame us if we concluded they did so only to assure themselves a free hand in Russia and in the East. Their purposes undoubtedly would make all Slavic peoples, all the free ambitious nations of the Baltic peninsula, all the lands Turkey has dominated and misruled, subject to their will and ambition, and. build upon that dominion an empire of force whereupon they fancy they can erect an empire of gain and commercial supremacy, an empire as hostile to America as to Europe, winch it will overawe, an empire which ultimately . would master Persia, Indty, and the peoples of the Far East. / That programme once carried out America, and all who tare for. or dare stand for her,.-must : arm themselves to contest the "ma-story of the world, a mastery wherein the rights of men and women arid all who were welik enfugh, must for the time being \be trodden under foot, and .the old agelong struggle for freedom and vv'ht,\ must begin again. He was ready, even now, to discuss a. fair. just, and honest peace if put forward with sincere purpose, but the answer when he proposed such a peace oame from the German commanders in .Russia.. --Tlie President added :—I accepted the challenge, and. >I, know .-.,-you will 'accept'it.'.' All the world Kba.H; sec tho sacrifice, and utter self-forgetf illness with which we .shall give all that we love and all we have, to renew tho world, to make it fit for free men like purselve-s to live in. My follow countrymen, henceforth, lot everything wo pkm to accomplish ring trim to this response, till the majesty and might of our concerned power fill tho thoughts, and utterly defeat the force of those who liont 'and misprifco what we honour and hold dear. Therefore there is but one response.'possible from us, force. Force to the utmost, ,fom> without .stint or lirnit^ the righteous and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world, and cast evefy selfish Dominion down in the dust.