STRICTLY DEMOCRATIC

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 127, 29 May 1919, Page 5

STRICTLY DEMOCRATIC

■■ GERMANY'S CLAIM. FOR BLOCKADE. PROTEST AGAINST TERMS. (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 28. The German counter-proposals demand peace in accordance with President Wilson's fourteen points, and an indemnity | for the British blockade. They point] out that Germany is now a strictly j democratic country. I ilr. Lloyd George is visiting the Rhine. Forty thousand people in Berlin took part in a demonstration protesting against Germany's disarmament, and j expressed confidence that the Govern- ! ment would only accept peace based on right. General Hoffmann, addressing the Bavarian Assembly at Bamberg, violently protested against the terms, and rejected the idea of seeking a separate Bavarian peace.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) CLEMENCEATJ'S REMINDEIf. RUTHLESS AGGRESSIONS. PARIS, May 28. Replying to Count Brockdorff-Rant-zau> Note regarding economic questions, SI. Clemenceau says the Note ignores the origins and results of the war. The Allies are only asking Germany to hand over 4.000,000 tons of ship- | ping. whereas Germany had sunk 12,000,000 during the war. M. Clemenceau admits that important ; ■wheat and potato areas are being taken ! from Germany, but these areas would remain free to export their products to Germany. Replying to the complaints about the lives being lost owing to the blockade, M. Clemenceau reminds the Germans that there were greater losses of lives caused by their ruthless aggrtesion. The reply concludes: 'Nothing can pre- I vent Germany from regaining a position I of prosperity in Europe. Her territories j have suffered less during the war than i those of the other belligerents. Ger- j many possesses resources intact which, i together with importations, should suf-1 See to reconstitute her. Moreover, the great reduction in armaments will mean a huge economy. Germany's sufferings arise, not from the conditions of the peace, but from the acts of those who provoked and prolonged the war, the authors of which will not be able to escape its just consequences."—(Reuter.) M. Clemenceau, in reply to the German Note asking for the repatriation of prisoner, says the Allies cannot release those guilty of crimes. He is not aware that any alleviation of their position is possible, since their treatment has always observed the laws of humanity. The Allies will restore person and property when the prisoners are repatriated. He agrees to the appoint- ! ment of a mixed commission when peace is signed, but must refuse complete reciprocity in the return of prisoners in view of the treatment received by the Allies interned in Germany during the war.—(A. and NX Cable.), An insistent minority in Germany favours the signature of the Peace Treaty. The Government's encouragement of the popular agitation against signature cmharasses its freedom of action. Some correspondents consider that the Government will yield only after an actual further invasion. The general consensus of opinion is that the military machine is in ruins. The arrest of extremists in Bavaria is regarded as the final suppression of Bolshevism. Serious riots occurred in Stettin. Prisoners released from the barracks besieged the shops and looted some. Germany generally, however, seems responding to the new national feeling. The fact that the Red Army in Bavaria has already surrendered 169 field-guns, 21,352 rifles. 760 machine-guns, 300,000 grenades, and 8,000,000 cartridges shows the magnitude of the peril that has been averted. ("Times.' - ) BULGARIAN TERMS. PARIS, May 23. It is semi-officially denied that an invitation has been sent to the Bulgaeian plenipotentiaries to come to Paris. — (A. and NX Cable.)