Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-04-01 | Page 51 | Says Proposal for Peace Holds Good

SAYS PROPOSAL FOR ' PEACEJIOLDS GOOD Count Czernin, Austrian I Foreign Minister, Does ! Not Fear Defeat. AMSTERDAM, March 31, via London, Lon-don, 2:11 p. m. -A Vienna dispatch quotes Count Czernin, the Austro-Hun-garian foreign minister, as saying in an interview with the Fremdenblatt that the entente could conclude an honorable peace with the central powers at any time and that the proposal of the central cen-tral empires for a peace conference still held good. "We are not going to be destroyed, but neither do we wish to destroy,'' Count Czernin is quoted as declaring. "Our fronts are stronger than ever. Our economic situation is secured. We must take our hats off to the millions in the trenches and to those at home on the battlefield of labor. The day will come when the peoples of t he monarchy will receive the rewards of their heroism." hero-ism." After stating that the proposals of the central powers for a peace conference confer-ence still held good Count CzerniD added : "We occupy extensive territories of our enemies and they occupy extensive districts of ours. On the sea's the blockade block-ade of our enemies is fighting against our submarine war. All international treaties are being torn up. It is impossible im-possible to settle some of these questions ques-tions apart from the whole subjects. If the peace conference should show that an agreement was impossible the fight, which will not have been interrupted, will continue." Replying to the question as to whether it was not possible to outline the central cen-tral powers ' peace condition?. Count Czernin said this had already been done, adding: "We have openly declared that we are waging a war' which has bepn forced upon us. Our aim is to gain the assurance of the free and un- disturbed development of the monarchy. We must receive guarantees for our existence ex-istence and for our means of existence. As aoon as our enemies abandon their unrealizable ideas of smashing us up, as soon as they are ready to negotiate for a peace honorable to them and to us', then nothing stands in the way of negotiations. ' '