IMPUDENT GERMAN BLUFF.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14841, 19 February 1919, Page 3

IMPUDENT GERM AN BLUFF.

HUNS COMPLAIN OF PRESSURE. WANT TO BE TREATED AS EQUALS. "" ADHERE TO WILSONTAN PROGRAMME. (Australian ana N.Z. Cable Association) (Received Feb. 19, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 16. A German wireless message states : "Herr Rantzau, m the National Assembly, bitterly complained of the Entente's further pressure and threats to obtain fresh concessions from Germany, instead^ of hastening peace on the agreed Wilsonian basis of justice and reciprocity. He emphasised that Germany was demobilising nd replacing her old peace army by new Republican troops. 'The most important points of the Wilsonian programme, as recognised by both sides, imposed an obligation to submit their differences with other States to an International Court of Arbitration and to renounce armaments m order to prevent a surprise attack on a neighbor. "We are prepared for both of these humiliations if our former enemies and future neighbors are subjected to the same conditions. "Wo are prepared to submit the question of blame for the war to impartial men, enjoying the confidence of all belligerents. Hence our firm adhesion to the Wilsonian principles that no war costs shall go to the victor and no-ter-ritory be evacuated by the conquered. Wer are pledged to repair the damage caused to civilians owing to attacks on the territory we occupied, and are prepared to rebuild with our free labor. We protest against the enemy retaining our prisoners of war to do such work as slaves. "Our enemies, owe their victory mainly not to their military but to their economic conduct of the war ; hence peace must not only be political but essentially economical. President Wilson rightly characterised economic freedom and equal ■ rights as the main condition of a i just and lasting peace. It may therefore be assumed that the resolution of' the Paris Economic Conference m 1916 will be dropped."