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Show White House Reply to Senator Fall's Inquiries Covers Score of Points WASHINGTON, Aug. 21. Following is the text of President Wilson's letter answering questions propounded by Senator Fall of New Mexico: j My dear Senator Fall: You left yes-i yes-i terday in my hands certain written ques-1 ques-1 tions which I promised you I would an-1 an-1 swer. I am hastening to fulfill that prom-, prom-, ise. ' I feel constrained to say in reply to your . first question not only that in my judgment judg-ment I have not the power by proclamation proclama-tion to declare that peace exists, but that I could in no circumstances consent to take such a course prior to the ratification ratifica-tion of a formal treaty of peace. I feel it due to perfect frankness to say that it would, in my opinion, put a stain upon our national honor which we never could efface, if, after sending our men to the battlefield to fight the common cause, we should abandon our associates in the war in the settlement of the terms of peace and dissociate ourselves from all responsibility respon-sibility with regard to those terms. I respectfully suggest that, having said this, I have in effect answered also your second, third and fourth questions so far as I myself am concerned. Says League Is Not Yet Actual Body. Permit me to answer your fifth question by saying that the provisions of the treaty to which you refer operate merely to establish peace between the powers ratifying, rati-fying, and that it is questionable whether it can be said that the league of nations is in any true sense created by the association asso-ciation of only three of the allied and associated as-sociated governments. In reply to your sixth question, I can only express the confident opinion that the immediate adoption of the treaty along with the articles of the covenant of the league as written, would certainly within the near future reduce the cost of living in this country, as elsewhere, by restoring production and commerce to their normal strength and freedom. For your convenience, I will number the remaining paragraphs of this letter as the questions to which they are intended to reply are numbered. Seven I have had no official information informa-tion as to whether Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Den-mark, Holland or Switzerland will join the league. Eight I answered your eighth question in reply to a question asked me at our conference the other day. (This question referred to licensing of exports to Germany.) Ger-many.) "Nine In February, 1917, Spain was requested re-quested to take charge of American interests in-terests in Germany through her diplomatic and consular representatives, and no other arrangement has since been made. Declares Committee Has Not Reported. Ten The committee to prepare plans for the organization of the league, for the establishment of the seat of the league, and for the proceedings of the first meeting of the assembly has been appointed, but has not reported. Kleven Article 1 IS of the peace treaty, part IV, under which Germany renounces all her rights to territory formerly be- j longing to herself or to her allies was un- derstood, so far as special provision was i not made in the treaty itself for fts dis- ' position, as constituting the principal allied al-lied and associated powers the authority by which such disposition should ultimately ulti-mately be determined. It conveys no title to those powers, but merely intrusts tlie disposition of the territory in question to their decision. Twelve Germany's renunciation In favor fa-vor of the principal allied and associated powers of her rights and titles to her overseas possessions is meant similarly to operate as vesting in those powers a trusteeship with respect to their final disposition and government. Thirteen There has been a provisional agreement as to the disposition of these overseas possessions, whose confirmation and execution is dependent upon the ap- j proval of the league of nations, and the United States is a party to that provisional provision-al agreement. Agreement as to African Territory. Fourteen The only agreement between France and Great Britain with regard to African territory of which I am cognizant concerns the redisposition of rights already al-ready possessed by those countries on that ! continent. The provisional agreement referred re-ferred to in the preceding paragraph covers cov-ers all the German overseas possessions in Africa as well as elsewhere. Fifteen No mention was made in connection con-nection with the settlement of the Saar basin of the service of an American member mem-ber of the commission of five to be set up there. Sixteen It was deemed wise that the United States should be represented by j one member of the commission for set- I tling the new frontier lines of Belgium I and Germany, because of the universal I opinion that America's representative 1 would add to the commission a useful element of entirely disinterested judgment. judg-ment. Seventeen The choice of the commission commis-sion for the Saar basin was left to the council of the league of nations, because the Saar basin is for fifteen years to be directly under the care and direction of the league of nations. Final Interrogations Answered by Wilson. Eighteen Article S3 does in effect provide pro-vide that five of the members of the commission com-mission of seven to fix the boundaries between be-tween Poland and Czecho-Slovakia should be nominated by certain countries he-cause he-cause there are five principal allied and associated powers, and the nomination of five representatives by those powers necessarily means the nomination of ntie representative by each of those powers. Nineteen -No such commission has yet heen appointed. (The commission referred to is that for the fixing of the Polish boundaries.) Twenty It was deemed wise that the United States should have a representative representa-tive on the commission set up to exercise authority over the plebiscite of upper Silesia, for the same reason that I have given with regard to the commission for settling the frontier line of Belgium and Germany. Sincerely. (Signed) WOODROW WILSON. |
