Show THE POPE AND PEACE The Offer of His Holiness to Ac as Mediator BETWEEN EUROPEAN NATIONS With O View to Bringing About a SImnlta tancons Disarmament Negotiations Between the Vatican and Berlin Special to TIE HERALD Examiner Dispatch ROME March 19By cable to the New York HeraldlI have the authority of the Vatican to announce through the Herald that the Pope would consent to act as mediator me-diator through which a simultaneous disarmament dis-armament of the European nations might be brought about The question was put directly by the Herald correspondent and the answer was equally direct Leo XII has taken a bold stand Ho holds that th existence of the immense armies whet are draining the wealth of Europe and inflicting in-flicting great suffering upon the toiling masses is antiChristian The German Emperor wrote nn autograph letter inviting invit-ing the Pope to send an ambassador to the Berlin Labor conference In reply the Pope sent an autograph letter saying he could no take part unless his representative was given precedence over all delegates Then the Emperor wrote another letter urging the Pope in the interest of mankind to take part in the conference so far as ha could and at least give it his moral support To this the pontiff has warmly responded I am authorized to announce that the Pope has written a letter dealing with the entire problem raised at Berlin This has been diplomatically communicated to the papal nuncio in Germany and will be laid before the International Labor conference There is no doubt but that a movement is on foot to give the Pope a leading part in the effort to deal with the universal labot troubles His holiness recognized this as a great opportunity for the church to put itsell at the head of the world the wide reform demanded by organized labor He holds that the nations must adopt the principles of Christianity and that the church is tht only power competent to deal with the tremendous tre-mendous issues involved in the social and industrial movement The German Emperor Em-peror has frankly admitted that govern meats cannot accomplish much unless or cauized Christianity comes to their aid In this crisis the Pope has snoken in n < uncertain voice It is admitted that if tht millions of armed men who trample upon the bread trays of the poor were stripped of their uniforms and set to work creating wealth a great deal of the present distress in Europe would disappear Ono nation dare not begin to disarm before another and the Pope is now in a position to negotiate nego-tiate between the nations for a general disarmament dis-armament Up to the present time the Vatican Vat-ican has managed to keep its negotiations with the German ambassador secret |