"MAY BE DRAWN IN."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11948, 6 March 1917, Page 1

"MAY BE DRAWN IN."

NOT FOR AGGRANDISEMENT. j AiißtTihisn *nd X.Z. Cable. Association. [ (Received March 6, noon.) i WASHINGTON, Match 5. | President. Wilson, :i: his inaugural address, referring io the prospect of | war, said:— " We may br> even drawn upon by circumstances;, and not by our own j purpose or desire, to u. more active ; assertion of our u.s we see < them, and a more immediate asso- ; ciation with the stnurcde iti self. : "Any such step, however, will be j with unselfish purpose and not with any view to co?iqucst or national aggrandisement." i THE RIGHTS OF NATIONS. | luciraliivn *cd N.Z. Cabl» AMoeiatioa, (Received March 6, 11.35 a.m.) WASHINGTON, March 5. President Wilson, in his inaugural i address, said that the blood of all naj tions now lighting made the Americans ) ; :>. composite and cosmopolitan people. They were no longer provincial, but i were affected as to their minds, indus- | tries, commerce and .social action by | great world currents. America, howj ever, could demand nothing herself that she was unwilling to give other nations. She had been deeply wronged upon the seas, but refrained from wronging and injuring in return. She was now compelled to stand firm in armed neutrality, but- might be' drawn on by circumstances in a more

' active assertion of her rights. America in peace or war stood for the principles that all nations equally were interested in the world's peace, in the political stability of free jteoples. and were equally responsible for their maintenance. " She realised that the essential principle of peace was actual equality of nations in all matters of rights or privileges, that peace could not rest upon a balance of armed power., and that Governments not deriving their j powers from the just consent of the ! ..rovernod oujdit not to be .supported by ■ Vho eon i moii thought, purposes or j powers of a family of nations; that the i seas ought to be equally free and safe for the use of all peoples under rules set up by common agreement and consent, and a far as practicable 'equally accessible to all; that national armaments should ho limited to tho necessities of national order and domestic j .safety; and that one State ought . sternly to discourage anything Jikely to \ encourage revolution in other States.