Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-12-24 | Page 3 | Wilson's Note is Received with Varying Views

WILSON'S NOTE IS RECEIVED WITH VARYING VIEWS BERLIN, Friday, Dec. 22, 5 p. m., via London, Dec. 23, 11:20 a. m The Berlin Ber-lin press receives President Wilson's note to the belligerent powers with varying views, scarcely any two papers looking alike at the proposition. The views range from, the enthusiastic welcome wel-come accorded the play by the Tage-blatt, Tage-blatt, to the unexpectedly cynical c-uasi-acquiescence of the Vossische Zeitung, with the middle ground represented by the Lokal Anzeiger, which prefers to await the answer of the entente powers to the emperor's note before deciding for or against it. George Beruhard, in the Vossische Zeitung, views President Wilson's proposal pro-posal as actuated purely from American selfish motives. America, he says, finds itself in the position of having passed tli e heyday point in its financial operations opera-tions with the entente, and now wants peace and- the co-operation of England in preparing for what it alludes 'to as the inevitable Japanese trouble. Herr Beruhard refers to Secretary Lansing's statement regarding America J being drawn to the verge of war as a ; distinct fling at Germany yet he is convinced that America desires to avoid 1 such a conflict, primarily for selfish j reasons. The suggestion that neutrals , as well as combatants participate in the 1 peace conference is energetically and I vigorously rejected by the newspaper, which declares that this must not come to pass in any circumstances. What in ay come up between Germany and her foes is not the business of neutrals, it insists, and Germany has learned in addition, by bitter experience, what she might expect in a court in which the judges were neutrals under the pressure of England. Eng-land. In such a case the world would be against her, it adds. The Vossische Zeitung declares also that President Wilson cannot deceive himself into thinking that he can lay down any precepts for the conference. There will" be ho truce, it says, but the fighting will continue, with Germany's Ger-many's terms increasing1 in severity as she achieves military successes. "President Wilson's step we welcome," wel-come," are the words with which Theodore Theo-dore Wolff opens his comment in the Tageblatt. He adds that, quite regardless , of feeling for or against President Wilson Wil-son or the desires in some circles for war with America, no responsible politician politi-cian capable of thinking, has the right to reject peace proposals because thov come from Washington. Herr Wolff points out that President Wilson undoubtedly un-doubtedly has many sources of information infor-mation as to the feeling towards peace in various warring countries, and therefore there-fore is not guided by parliamentary speeches delivered for home and enemy consumption. If the real peace conditions con-ditions of fhe entente are actually reflected re-flected in the speeches of M. Pokrovsky, the Russian foreign minister, or David Lloyd George, the British premier, he asserts, then the path to peace is not a smooth one, for such a peace would be merely a humiliation. President. Wilson, Wil-son, however, he concludes, is obviously aiming for a peace that would be a reconciliation and Germany, despite what the writer alludes to as the angry elnmor of the greedy, dosires an understanding under-standing for such a peace. Hi ending his article. Herr Wolff declares de-clares that whatever may be the outcome out-come of the proposition the discussion of peace has in any event begun and cannot be hushed.