UNITED STATES.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14155, 18 April 1916, Page 5

UNITED STATES.

CABLE NEWS.

IMPORTANT MANIFESTO CITIZENS' SYMPATHY WITH . ALLIES. (Received April 16, 6 p.m.) London, April 16. Five hundred of the most prominent citizens of the United States are forwarding to Great Britain a manifesto expressing sympathy with the Allies and the hope that they will achieve victory. The signatories include 212 university professors, many politicians, lawyers and writers, thirty-two bishops and twenty-seven judges. They claim to bo expressing the feelings of an overwhelming majority of Americans. They say they refrained from an earlier expression of their views, because they were expecting their Government to speak. They refrained later for fear of embarrassing their Government in its difficult negotiations. Consequent on' the coiilitniiUK'c of Gorman offences, however, they cannot remain any longer silent, and now express their ardent sympathy Avith the Allies iv.xl their horror ai'.d detestation of Teuton methods. Some of the signatories of the manifesto are ol' Gorman birth, but realise that the welfare of civilisation, for which Germany in the past has done so nnu-h, demands the defeat of AustroGermany. The manifesto says: f'The invasion of Belgium, was a crime which can never bo justified and will remain a blot on the history of Europe. A peace which did not restore Belgium or v. lAch. did not provide for an indemnity *o reconstruct her ruined, cities would be a! disaster instead of a blessing. The conscience of American people cries out in protest against Austro-German outrages noon civilisation, their methods of warfare, and their breaking of international laws and the morai laws of humanity. The final decision of the

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war involves the sanctity of treaties, the rights of small nations, and the question whether militarism shall dominate civilisation. We hope the Allies will have, success, ..believing, that..their success would mean the restoration of Belgium and Serbia and the suppes-, sion of militarism." i