PRINCIPLES OF PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16980, 14 October 1918, Page 6

PRINCIPLES OF PEACE.

ME. WILSON'S SPEECHES, FOURTEEN POINTS. DEFINED.

BASIS OP IMPARTIAL JUSTICE.

RESTORING THE REIGN OF LAW. j The Note addressed to the President of the United States on October 5, by the Gorman Chancellor, proposed "as the basis of negotiations," the programme of general peace set forth by Mr. Wilson in his speeches of January 8 and September 27. Last Tuesday, Mr. Wilson sent a Note to Prince Maximilian, in which, as a preliminary to a general reply, he asked : —" Does the Imperial Chancellor mean that the Imperial German Government accepts the terms laid down by the President in his address to the Congress of the United States on January 8 last, and' in subsequent addresses, and that the object of entering into discussion would be only to agree upon the practical details of their application?" Replying to the suggestion of an armistice he wrote : ".The President does not feel at-liberty to propose the cessation 'of arms to the other Governments so long as the German armies are upon their soil. The good faith of any discussion would manifestly depend upon the consent of the Central Powers immediately to withdraw their forces everywhere from invaded territory. Tho President also feels justified in asking whether] the Imperial Chancellor is speaking merely for the constituted authorities of the Empire, who have bo far conducted the war. !}e deems the answer to these questions vital from every point of view." Mr. Wilson's peace programme was set out in. greatest detail in his message of January 8, in which he enumer-1 ated fourteen conditions. These arc u follow . , 1 Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always franklv and in the public view. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. :< The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. ' Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to tho lowest point consistent with domestic, safety. Colonies and Allied Territory. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of thepopulations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the Government whose title is to be determined. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest co-operation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may " neod and may herself desire. Tho treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their goodwill, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. Bolglum, tho whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit tho sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired. French and Italian Claims. ' All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to Franco by Prussia in 1871! in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the World for nearly 50' years, should be righted in order that peace may once more be more secure in the interest of all. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognisable lines of nationality. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development. Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro should bo evacuated, occupied territories restored, Servia accorded free and secure access to the sea, and the relations of £he several Balkan States to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality, and international guarantees of the. political and economic independence and territorial integrity 'of the several Balkan States should be entered into. The portions of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the' ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantee. An independent Polish State should bo erected which should include the territories inhabited, by indisputably Polish! populations, which should, be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whoso political and economic independ-1 euce and territorial integrity should be] guaranteed by international covenant I A general association of nations -must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small States alike. Imperative Principles. The "fundamental principles" of a general peaco were set forth by Mr Wilson in an address to Congress on February 12, as follows:— ' Each nut of tho final settlement must be based upon the essential justice of that particular case and upon such adjustments as. are most likely to bring a peace that will be permanent. ' Peoples and provinces are not to bo bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were mere chattels and pawns in a game, even the great came i now forever discredited; but ' '' Evory territorial settlement must be made in the interest and for tho benefit of the populations concerned, and not as a part of any mere adjustment or compromise of claims among rival States; and All well-defined national aspirations shall be accorded the utmost satisfaction that can be accorded them without introducing new or perpetuating old elements of dis-| cord and antagonism that would be likely in time to break tho peace of Europe and, consequently, of the world. End. of Arbitrary Power. A further definition of the foundations off peace was given by Mr. Wilson in his address on the Fourth of July. " There can be but one issue," he said. "The settlement must be final, 'There can be no compromise. No half-way decision would be tolerable. No half-way decision 13 conceivable, Jhesa m the ends, for i ■ ' j,

which the associated peoples of tiki woila 1 $ are fighting and which must be conceded : S them More there can bo peace;*- •• IP 1. The destruction of every arbitral ■' power anywhere that can separately secretly, and of its single choice disturb the peace of the world; or, if it cannot ! be presently destroyed, at the least itjftf reduction to virtual impotence. '"■■'f®! 2. The settlement of every question "I*l whether of territory, of sovereignty, 0 \ i economic arrangement, or of nolitical rda.'•-1 tionship, upon the basis of the free accept* M l ance of that settlement by the people im. ; mediately concerned, and not upon the basis of the material interest or advantage : of anv other nation or people which may desire a different settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence or mastery, 3. The _ consent of all nations to b» governed in their conduct toward each other by the same principles of honour and _of respect for the common law of civilised society that govern the individual citizens of all modem States in their rela. tions with one another; to the end that all promises and covenants may be sacredly observed, no private plots or conspiracies hatched, no selfish injuries wrought with impunity, and a mutual tmst established upon the handsome foundation of a mutual respect for right ! _ 4. The establishment of an organisation of peace which shall make it certain that the combined power of free nations will check every invasion of right and servo to make peace and justice the morn secure by affording a definite tribunal of opinion to which all must submit, and by which every international readjustment that cannot be amicably agreed upon by the peoples directly concerned shall be. sanctioned. These great objects can be put into a single sentence. What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organised opinion of mankind.' 1 J Central Empires Without Honour. ' The President's latest speech on the oiic«tion of peace terms was delivered on September 27. In the course of thia address, M;. Wilson said:—lndividual statesmen may have started the war, but neither th:y ;i. r their opponents can stop it as they please. It has become a peoples-' war, peoples of all sorts and races of overy degree are involved, and the issues have become such thai, they must be settled by no arrangement or cnr.lpromise or adjustment of interests, hut definitely, once for all, and with an unequivocal acceptance of the principle that the interest of the weakest is as sacred -a the interest of the strongest. The Brest Litovsk and Bucharest treaties and peace agreements convinced us that j the Governments of the Central Empires 1 are without honour, and do not intend justice. They observe no covenants, and ' accept no principle but force and their own ; interest. , They have made it impossible. [ for us to come to terms with them. If it bo, indeed, ( and I trust it is, the common I object of tho Governments associated against Germany and the nations they govern to achieve by the coming settleI ments a lasting peace, it will be necessary I that they all sb|il sit at tho peace table I and shall come ready and willing to pay the price that will secure it, and also create in some virile fashion the only in. strumentality by which it can bo made certain that the agreements of peace will' be honoured and fulfilled. That price is impartial justice in every item of settlement, no matter whose interests axe | crossed. I "rr*r , . ~