PEACE CONFERENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3414, 20 August 1919, Page 21

PEACE CONFERENCE.

(By Cable.)

RATIFIED BY BELGIAN PARLIAMENT. LONDON, August 15. The Belgian Chamber unanimously adopted the Peace Treaty. PARIS, August 12. It is understood that the Peace Conference -will consent to important modifications in the treaty in favour of Austria, notably in regard to financial and reparation claims and the allocation of the old Austrian debt. The Allied Supreme Couneil has decided to recognise the new Austria as an Austrian Republic, but not a German Austria. August 16. It is expected that the Austrian Peace Treaty -will be signed in 10 days' time. EASING TERMS. BERLIN, August 17. The Interallied Commission, finding Germany unable to deliver the Entente 40 million tons of coal, has consented to a reduction of 21 million tons. AMERICA AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS. WASHINGTON, August 11. President Wilson has sent to Congress the American draft of the Covenant of the League of Nations, showing the wide difference between it and that adopted at the Conference of Paris, especially the Provision securing freedom of the seas. here is no reference to the Monroe Doctrine in the American draft. President Wilson refused to send General Tasker Bliss's letter to the Senate on the ground that it contained confidential references to other Governments. August 12. Senator Lodge states that it is impossible to accept the League of Nations, as the Covenant would kill Monroism, would be unfair to America's sovereign power, and would plunge the United States into every controversy on the face of the globe. If the United States falls, he adds, the hopes of mankind fall with her. Senator Lodge quoted a British delegate's assertion that in case of a dispute as to the application of. Monroeism the League of Nations would settle that also. Senator Poindexter arraigned President Wilson in a scathing speech as the author of the discontent and unsettlement which to-day are sweeping the world. He charged -Mr Wilson with having usurped every right of Congress, declaring that the President took the world apart like a new toy and cannot put it together again. August 14. Congressman Heulin created a sensation by charging Republicans with using German money to fight the League of Nations. He asserted that opposition to the league was largely from districts benefited by the manufacture of munitions. In order to prevent further delays in the Senate the Foreign Relations Committee has decided to hold a conference with President Wilson with the object of obtaining further information regarding the League of Nations. President Wilson has not changed his attitude against the proposed Senatorial reservations. During the House of Representatives session Mr Blanton accused a fellow Democrat (Mr Hardy) of being a rubber stamp for supporting everything that President Wilson did. Mr Hardy attempted to assault his colleague, but was forcibly prevented. PROPOSED AMERICAN MANDATE. PARIS, August 13. An American Mission is proceeding to Armenia to inquire into the obligations involved should America accept a mandate for Armenia under the League of Nations. PLIGHT OF THE ARMENIANS. AN APPALLING ACCOUNT. LONDON, August 14. A member of the American Armenian Commission, who has returned to London, gives an appalling account of the plight of the Armenians, who live in misery, suffering from starvation and typhus. Cannibalism was witnessed,' the Armenians devouring cooked grasses mixed with women's flesh.

The Armenians in the Caucasus are surrounded by hordes of Kurds, Turks, Tartars, and Bolshevist-Georgian's. Enver Pasha commands the Turks, who are in constant communication with Lenin and Trotsky, planning tq attack Quikan in the rear in the event of a British withdrawal. It is understood that there is a possibility that the Allied Supreme Council will postpone the withdrawal pending arrangements for substitute troops. GENERAL ZOLLNER "WANTED." PARIS, August 14. The newspaper Liberie announces that warrants have been issued against the German general Zollner, who ordered the Lille deportations. 'Le Matin's' Berlin correspondent states that the German Constitutional Commission reports that no German ought to be surrendered to any foreign government for trial. JAPANESE SECRET TREATIES. WASHINGTON, August 11. President Wilson, replying to the Senate resolution, said he did not know of any Japo-German treaty during the war. Though he heard rumours, he had no information that the Japanese delegates in Paris attempted to intimidate Chinese peace representatives. In the Senate Mr R. Lansing (Chief Secretary of State) reiterated that Viscount Ishii, former Japanese Ambassador to the United States, failed 'to tell him that Japan had secret treaties with the Allies for the division of the Chinese territory captured from Germany. Mr A. Balfour and Lord Reading also had kept silent about Britain's secret treaty with Japan. He knew nothing of the secret agreement till February, 1919, and did not know whether Viscount Ishii deliberately con-. cealed the secret treaties. Mr Lansing added that he did not know three years ago that Britain and Japan had agreed to divide the Pacific Islands taken from Germany. Regarding the Lansing-Ishii agreement, Mr Lansing stated that he suggested to Viscount Ishii that it would be well for the two Government to reaffirm the opendoor policy for China on the grounds of reports being spread that Japan purposed to take advantage of war conditions to spread her influence in China. Viscount Ishii thought that Japan's special interest in China should be recognised. Mr Lansing replied that the United States recognised that her geographical position gave her a peculiar interest in China, but that the danger of putting it in any agreement was that it might be misconstrued. Therefore he objected to it. He also told Viscount Ishii that if a special interest meant a paramount interest he could not discuss the matter further.