The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1918. MR WILSON'S TERMS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 9, 10 January 1918, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1918. MR WILSON'S TERMS.

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President Wilson's idea of a just and lasting peace is in almost complete agreement with that of Mr. Lloyd George. The programme laid down by the British Prime Minister was briefly this:—evacuation and restoration of Allied territory, return of Alsace-Lor-raine to France, recognition of the rights of nationalities under enemy rule, separation of Armenia. Mesopotamia; and Palestine from Turkey, freedom of passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, reparation for injuries inflicted in violation of internationa' law. destiny of the German colonies to be decided according to, the wishes of the natives, and international organieataon for the limitation of armaments and settlement of disputes. In his message to Congress outlining hie ideas, Mr Wilson includes all these points. He goes further than Mt Lloyd George in recommending "the freedom of the seas," trade equality, and international Free Trade. British people are suspicious of the phrase- "freedom of the seas," because the Germans have used it so freely to mean a condition of things that would handicap the strongest naval Power in exerting its full strength of war, while leaving the strongest military Power free to do go. If there is to bo trade equality the Allies must abandon the resolutions of the Paris Economic Conference. We may go into this-question more fully at another time, but we may remark here that, being an American, Mi-. Wileon has naturally been less impressed by the economic, political, and military dangers of Germany's "peaceful penetration" policy than men in Britain, France, and Italy have been. A proposal for Free Trade between nations comes strangely* from the leader of a people so wedded to Protection as the Americans.

Americans rightly acclaim this statement of President Wilson ac momentous. The "Tribune" compares it with one of Lincoln's famous declarations. But Lincoln's directly affected only one nation; Mr. Wilson's affects the world. This outline of the aims that America considers necessary for the peace of the world, and for which she is prepared to fight, ranks next in importance to the message to Congress asking for authority to declare war. In the interval Mr. WUeon hae roughly indicated his views on the car settlement, in statements that -will also be historic, but he has not before dealfc with the question in such a combination of principle and practical detail. It is the voice !of a hundred million people declaring that in the greatest struggle in hietory fright must be vindicated, wrongdoers punished, the map of the world redrawn on just lines, and arrangements made for doing away with war or minimising' the risk of it. The spokesman of this hundred millions again declares, in the clearest and most emphatic terms, that the isolation of America from the problems of the Old World is for ever 'destroyed, and that henceforth the Republic niuflt concern itself most vitally with the peace of Europe and of the Hvorld. In the introduction he has written for a collection of Mr. Wileon'e war speeches, Lord Grey of Fallotlon describes in impressive language tho motive that, in his opinion, led the United States into the war. The motive that forced "thie tremendous national decision" was:

A growing conviction, which gradually became settled, deep, and paramount, that this terrible war is a

desperate and critical struggle against something evil and intensely dangerous to moral law, to international good faith, to everything that is essential if different nations are to live together in the world in equal freedom and friendship. The will to power—it is a German phrase—has shown in tho course of this war that it knows neither mercy, pity, nor limits. Militarism is one quality of it, and it stands for things that all democracies, if they wish to remain free and to be part of a world that is free, must hate. This conviction, and a sense that the old barriers of the world are broken down by modern conditions, that the cause of humanity is one, and that no nation so great and free as the United States could stand aside in this crisis without sacrificing its honour and losing its soul, are—so we believe—the real motive and cause of the decision of the United States. Democracies are reluctant to take such decisions until they are attacked, or until their own material interests are directly and deeply involved, and the United States did not take the decision till German action in the war made it imperative; but then they took it with a clearness, an emphasis, and a declaration of principle that -will be one of the landmarks and shining examples of all human history.

The impressive qualities that Lord Grey finds in America's decision are seen again in this statement of what this mighty democracy insists upon ac the essentials of a just and lasting peace. Mr. Wilson refers to the extremists in Russia in terms that will strike many people as extravagant. But there is a clear purpose in these passages, and it is thought in America that the message may have a good effect in that tragically disturbed and helpless country. It is also thought thai German opinion may be impressed. The opinion of Mr. Gerard, the ex-Ambassador to Berlin, on this point, reported in our news to-day, is particularly interesting, because since lie returned to the United States he hue repeatedly; warned hie

countrymen that the centripetal forces in Germany are very strong. He has declared that there will be no revolution in Germany during the war. But the most valuable comment on Mr. Wilson's speech is that of the paper which says that now that the nation hae defined its war aims, let it speed up its preparations for defeating the enemy. The Hungarian view of the Allies' terms ie that they are such that only a victor could offer to a completely defeated enemy. Very well, let us not waste any time in waiting for the replies from the more important of our enemies, ibut proceed with all dispatch with the work of bringing about the condition mentioned.