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Show TEXT OF REPLY TO GERMAN CHANCELLOR v WASHINGTON, Oct. 14. President Vilson today answered Germany's peace proffer with a : note declaring' anew that there can be no peace with a German government controlled by a military ; ; autocracy and no thought of an armistice while German atrocities continue on land and sea. : ;i The text of the president's answer follows: : Sirs: ; In reply to the communication of the German government, dated the 12th instant, which ; you handed me today, I have the honor to request you to transmit the following answer: The unqualified acceptance by the present German government and by a large majority of the rcichstag of the terms laid down by the president of the United States of America in his address to the congress of the United States on the 8th of January, 1918, and in his sub- sequent addresses justifies the president in ma'ring a frank and direct statement of his de- ! j; cision with regard to the communications of the German government of the 8th and 12th of October, 1918. . It must be clearly understood that the pro;ess of evacuation and the conditions cf an j; armistice are matters which must be left to ths judgment and advice of the military ad- ! vii;crs of the government of the United States and the allied governments, and the president : feels it his duty to say that no arrangement can be accepted by the government of the ; United States which does not provide absolutely satisfactory safeguards and guarantees of ' the maintenance of the present military supremacy of the armies of the United States and ! the allies in the field. ; He feels confident that he can safely assume that this will also be the judgment and de- ; cision of the allied governments. ! ; The president feels that it is also his duty to add that neither the government of the I 1; United States nor, he is quite sure, the governments with which the government of the ; ; United States is associated as a belligerent will consent to consider an armistice so long as : '; the armed forces of Germany continue the ilhgal and inhuman practices which they still j: : persist in. : At the very time that the German government approaches the government of the United ; : States with proporals of peace, its submarine; are engaged in sinking passenger ships at ; sea, and not the ships alone, but the very boa's in which their passengers and crews seek to ;j make their way to safety; and in their present enforced withdrawal from Flanders and ! France the German armies are pursuing a cou"se of wanton destruction, which has always ; been regarded as in direct violation of the rulis and practices of civilised warfare. Cities ' and villages, if not destroyed, are being stripped of all they contain, not only, but often of s their very inhabitants. The nations associate! against Germany cannot be expected to agree to a cessation of arms while acts of inhumanity, spoliation and desolation are being 5 continued, which they justly look upon with horror and with burning hearts. s : It is necessary, also, in order that there may be no possibility of misunderstanding, that , the president should very solemnly call the attention of the government of Germany to the language and plain intent of one of the term? of peace which the German government has ' now accepted. It is contained in the address of the president delivered at Mount Vernon s ;! on the 4th of July, last. j It is as follows: "The destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can sep- y arately, secretly and of its single 'choice disturb the peace of the world; or, if it cannot be y presently destroyed, at least its reduction to virtual impotency." jl ; The power which has hitherto controlled the German nation is of the sort here de- jj scribed. It is within the choice of the German nation to alter it. The president's words just quoted naturally constitute a condition precedent to peace, if peace is to come by the action of the German people themselves. Th2 president feels bound to say that the whole ; process of peace will, in his judgment, depend upon the definiterfess and the satisfactory !; character of the guarantees which can be given in this fundamental matter. It is indis- : pensable that the governments associated against Germany should know beyond a peradven- s : ture with whom they are dealing. ' !; The president will make a separate reply to the royal and imperial government of Austria-Hungary. s j: Accept, Sir, the renewed assurances of my high consideration. (Signed.) ROBERT LANSING. Mr. Frederick Oederlin, i j: Charge d'affaires, ad interim, in charge of German interests in the United States. |