THE CENTRAL POWERS.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14621, 28 January 1918, Page 5

THE CENTRAL POWERS.

SPEECH BY THE GERMAN CHANCELLOR.

REPLY TO BRITAIN AND

AMERICA.

TERMS SETTLED BY CROWN

COUNCIL

GERMANY'S CONSCIOUSNESS OF

RECTITUDE

ALLIES' CHARGES INCOMPREHEN-

SIBLE

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association and Reuter.) I ! ———• I Amsterdam, Jan. 25. I

The Kaiser presided at a Crown Council, at which Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Baron Hertling, Imperial Chan- ( cellor, and Kuhlmann, Foreign Minister, Vi ere present. The Council settled the terms of Hertling's speech. } Hertling, addressing the Main Com-: mittee of the Reichstag, said the negotiations at Brest Litovsk were proceeding slo-wly and with difficulty, but he clung to the hope of a coming agreement with the Russians. Tte negotiations' with the Ukrainians continued favourably. He hoped soon to conclude a treaty mutually satisfactory, especially from an economic point of view. The period in which the Entente might have co-operated in general peace negotiations expired on January 3rd, after wtich Germany was free; to proceed •. with separate negotiations vath Russia, Mr Lloyd George and President Wilson had announced their war aims. Mr Lloyd George showed an-alteration in tone, no. longer abusive, and showing an inclination to negotiate, but not showing an earnest desire for peace. Mr Lloyd George, while appreciating Germany's political, economic, and cultivated position, adjudged her guilty of the utmost possible crimes. They could not understand such feelings. Tte Chancellor reviewed the situation I>efore the war, and stated that the alliance with Austria was purely defensive and was never misused for aggressive purposes. He declared that Edward VII endeavoured to create an enemy coalition. President "Wilson's tone had changed since replying to the Pope, and he now tried to sow dissension between tho German Government and the people. He no longer talked of an autocratic German, Government suppressing the people, and did not repeat tis attacks on the House of Hohenzollern.