PRESIDENT WILSON'S TOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3383, 15 January 1919, Page 25

PRESIDENT WILSON'S TOUR.

THE VISIT TO ITALY. ..:' ::',"- (By Cable.) President Wilson was warmly welcomed at Genoa and Milan, and received the citizenship of each city. Italian wounded men presented a memorial, stating: "Your ideals are ours. We don't want another war." A.delegation of mourning mothers and widows said: "Americans came to Europe to free the world; we pray that there be no further wars." Mr Wilson replied that he would make his utmost efforts to that end. He took off his hat to the people whose spirit had not flagged despite their being without bread for days together. President Wilson laid a wreath on the statue of Columbus. A driving rainstorm spoiled the reception; nevertheless, the thousands there to greet him sought to shake hands. In a speech from the Columbus statue Mr Wilson said: " Being free, America desires to show others how they may also share in the world's freedom." President Wilson, in the course of his speech at Milan, asserted that those at the Peace Table were not mast ei-s of any peoples, but their servants. They were not following special interests, but only general interests. The people of the world must dictate the peace settlement, not statesmen. In receiving a memorial in favour of a League Peace from wounded soldiers, President Wilson said: We must do more than effect a settlement:. we must prevent further wars. President Wilson, during his visit to Turin, paid a tribute to Cavour, pointing out that the great achievements of Italy would have been impossible without his work of inspiration. Referring to the business of the Peace Conference, Mr Wilson said the pulses of the modern world beat in business houses. The men who did the business of the world shaped the destinies of the world, and peace and war issues were largely in the hands of those controlling the world's commerce. "You cannot trade with a man who cannot trust you, and you will not trade with a man whom you cannot trust. Trust is the life and breath of a nation's relations. Foreign capital takes hold in modern States; its processes are actually the processes of conquest." Mr "David Lawrence, the New York Evening Post's Paris correspondent, states that it would not be surprising to find that President Wilson is a sympathiser with the Italian aspirations in the Adriatic because there is ample evidence that Liberalism is growing in Italy, and there will probably be less danger of any misuse of power than Americans have usually been led to believe. President Wilson has returned to Paris from Italy.