THE PRESIDENT SPEAKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12755, 26 September 1919, Page 7

THE PRESIDENT SPEAKS.

REPLY TO OPPONENTS OF THE LEAGUE. HYPHENATED CITIZENS ENEMIES OF THE UNION. THE NATION’S RESPONSIBILITIES. B j T«l«gzfcpfa—Press lesoeintien—Copyriflit Aattealias ud K.Z. Ot.W» Association. (Received September 26, 8.50 a.m.) WASHINGTON, September 25. At Denver President Wilson said that the heart of discussion was now Article 10. The adoption by the Senate of any reservation in connection with this article would be equivalent to the rejection of the Treaty. The Shantung difficulty was now cleared away, as well as the bitter objections to the British voting power, which had been exploded. The only persons trying to effect reservations were those desirous of defeating American purposes in entering the war. “ Hyphens are the knives being stuck into this document,” he said. The Labour section of the Treaty gave the United States the opportunity of raising Labour standards throughout the world. If it forfeited the world’s confidence, the United States would find itself industrially and morally outside world society, and the next world war would be more terrible than the last. If the United States remained outside the League it would require the greatest army the world could raise, and impose conscription and the heaviest taxation. The League constituted a wholesale moral clearing* house for world disputes.

RUMOURED ASSASSINATION OF LENIN. (Received September 26, 8.50 a.m.) PARIS, September 25. There is a rumour on tbe Stock Exchange that Lenin has been assassinated. COMPLICATED SITUATION IN SIBERIA. “ The Times " Service. (Received September 26, 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, September 25. Tbe Pekin correspondent of the “ Times ” states that the? situation in the Far East is complicated by developments .in Siberia, where large Czech forces are? guarding the railway westward of Irkutsk. These forces will shortly he withdrawn, and Bolshevik irregulars are likely to cut the railway, jeopardising Omsk. Japanese are the only troops available to replace the Czechs, and the question of using them in the Chinese portion of North Manchuria needs carefhl consideration; otherwise the Allies may precipitate another Chinese imbroglio, rivalling Shantung.