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Show PEACE NOW BEING CONSIDERED. Something more than mere sugges lions of the possibility of peace overtures over-tures being successful, were given out last week, the most important pro ) posal coming from Germany. In order to keep our record of the war complete. The Standard reproduces repro-duces this chronolog ical record of the negotiations: Saturday. Sept. 5 Count von Bern-storff, Bern-storff, the German ambassador, dined with James Speyer, the banker, at the latter'? residence In New York. Oscar Straus. American member ot The Hague tribunal and former cnbl net officer, was present. During the evening, as the conversation turned to the subject of p'jace in Europe, the German ambassador said that while he had no advices from his government govern-ment since '' .M ine Berlin, he recalled a Conversation with the imperial chancellor there in which the latter said he believed the emperor would bo willing to discuss peace measures through mediation. Previous to the ambassador's conversation con-versation with the chancellor, Emptor Empt-or William had already acknowledged President Wilson's tender of good offices of-fices but had been non-committal as to its acceptance. Mr, Straus Immediate!) Imme-diate!) asked the German ambassador tot permission to repeat the conversation conver-sation to Secretary Bryan at Wash Ington. County von Bernstorff gavo his consent. Sunda. Sept 6. Mr. Straus arrived ar-rived ;n Washington ami went to the home of Secretary Bryan, where they secretly conferred. Tho secretary communicated later with President Wilson. It was decided to get the Gorman ambassador s consent to for ward a report of the incident to Ambassador Am-bassador Gerard for discussion with the German foreign office. In the! meantime ,ir. Straus was anvisen uj talk the situation over with the British Brit-ish and French ambassadors here. He saw each that da. Monda. Sept 7. The German am-basador am-basador reached Washington and con fcrred privately with Mr. Bryan. As a result of the conference the secretary secre-tary cabled Ambassador Gerard to convey to Emperor William an inquiry in-quiry from the American government as to whether he desired to confirm the statement reported to have been made by him to the imperial chan cellor and repeated by the chancellor to Count von Bernstorff In private" conversation Copies of the message to Ambassador Gerard were sent by Secretary Bryan to Ambassador Page at London and Ambassador Herrick at Paris. Meanwhile Mr. Straus had talked with the British and French nmbassadors, both of whom said they could make no definite statement without instructions, as they had heard nothing from their cocrnments on the subject of peace. They were acquainted by Mr. Straus with what had occurred at the dinner In New York Both the French and British ambassadors reported the incident unofficially un-officially to their respective foreign oflices, Tuesday. Sept. 6 Secretary Bran told the British ambassador, Sir Cecil Spring Bice, what had occurred in de tail and learned that the ambassador similarly had made Inquiry of his government to learn its attitude toward to-ward peace. Wednesday, ' September 9. Sir Edward Grey discussed with Ambassador Am-bassador Page the inquiry which the latter had received from Secretary Bryan. On the same day Sir Edward urejr caoieu uiu Lsruisii mddmmwiui here thut as Great Britain, Fiance and Russia, in the preceding week, agreed not to make peace without common consent, the position of the triple entente v. us unanimous on the question of terms Sir Edward said what the powers wanted was no tern porary truce, but a permanent peace In Europe, so that the world could be insured against the sudden outbreak of war after Germany had recouped herself. The British foreign 6ecre tary added, moreover, that England had from the first tried to avoid war aud wanted peace, but before the subject sub-ject could be considered seriously def Inite terms would hae to bo submitted submit-ted Great Britain. Sir Edward point ed out, would insist that Belgium be fully compensated by Germany for her losses. This information was communicated com-municated to Secretary Bryan by the British ambassador Thursday. Sept. 10 The French ambassador called on Secretary Bryan and, It Is understood, discussed the point of view of France. Ambassador Ambas-sador Herrick coincidentally reported the earnest wish of France that there might be peace, but pointed out. that until the Frenchbad driven the invaders in-vaders from their territory and Belgium Bel-gium had been compensated, terms of peace could not be negotiated. During Dur-ing the afternoon Ambasador Page's report of his conversation with Sir Edward Grey also reached the White House. Great Britain, according to Mr. Page, was determined to make no peace until German militarism had been crushed of its danger to the world's civilization. On the same day came personal messages from Emperor Emper-or William and President Poincare of France concerning the use of dum dum bullets. Friday, Sept. 11 President Wilson and Secretary Bryan conferred on tho general situation and, it is .understood, determined to await the reply of the German emperor to the inquiry sent on the previous Monday before acknowledging the two personal messages mes-sages from Emperor William and President Poincare. Should the emperor's em-peror's reply be a favorable one, the president may take advantage of the message addressed to him to express a hope that the atrocities complained of may be ended through the making of peace. Since then German bankers are said to be lining up on the side or peace and to bo using pressure on the government to open the way for negotiations. With the German army in France in retreat and Russia hammering at the fortifications of Germany in sast Prussia, and with German commerce strangled by Great Britain's control of the seas, the Kaiser would be most fortunate If he could, with honor, bring about a cessation of hostilities. The allies, now filled with high bopi B Oi delivering a crushing blow on at least a part of the German forces in France, wil be slow to ac cept any peace which does not carry with it a big Indemnity to be paid by Germany, and yet, they should be so fair iii their treatment of the Teutons that after the war there would be lert no such lasting sting as Bismarck Inflicted on France. |