UNITED STATES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 146000, 5 December 1917, Page 3

UNITED STATES.

PRESIDENT WILSON’S SPEECH. A CLEAR STATEMENT. -OF THE ALLIES’ AIMS. Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. " Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn. (Received Dee. 5, 1-5 P- m -) WASHINGTON, Dec. 4. In bis message to Congress, President Wilson, said; “Peace can only come when the German people make it through rulers the world can trust, when they make reparation for the destruction their present rulers have wrought, and when Germany recedes from all the territory acquired by armed conquest. The people of the United States are determined that this intolerable thing whose ugly face Germany has shown them, tins menace of combined intrigue and force which we now see clearly as the German power, without conscience or honour or capacity for a. covenanted peace, must be crushed or, if not utterly brought to an end at least shut out from friendly intercourse with other rations. When this has been accomplished justice must he done everywhere to every nation. The final settlement must affect enemies and friends. No nations nor people ought to ho robbed or punished because irresponsible rulers ha.ve done abominable wrongs. The policy of no annexations, no contributions, and no punitive indemnities had been used to lead Russia, astray, but the idea was a just one if rightly applied. That application could only come when autocracy had been overthrown. Right would then be set up as arbiter between nartions.

.America's present task was the winhing of the war, from which nothing could turn them aside. Those who talked peace before that had been accomplished must talk elsewhere. Germany must repair the wrong done to Belgium, relinquish the power gained over the Balkans and Turkey, even over Austria-Hungary. The German people had been deceived by their masters into thinking they wore fighting for their lives. The fact was far otherwise, and it was the duty of the Allies to undeceive them. It might be impossible at first to admit Germany to free economic intercourse with other nations in the untoward circumstances after the war had ended. The United States had no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of Germany or Austria-Hungary, hut they hoped to secure for the Balkan peoples and the Turkish Empire the right and opportunity to make their lives safe against oppression and injustice. ■The Russian people had been poisoned by the same dark falsehoods that kept the German people in the dark. The poison was administered by the same hand.

The President emphasised the necessity of legislation to control alien enemies and to suppress profiteers. Mr. Wilson continued: “The supreme moment of our history has come. The eyes of the people have been opened, and thev see the hand of God laid upon the nations. He will show them favour if they rise to the clear heights of His justice and mercy.” Mr. Wilson’s reference to the freedom of the seas contained a sentence in which he intimated that the nations were .entitled to free pathways upon the sea, and also assured access to those pathways. Austria, Poland and Serbia. must have these equally with the United States and the Allies.