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Show TEUTONS PRESENT PEACEPROPOSAL TELL RUSSIANS THAT ENTENTE ALLIES MUST COME IN ON THE AGREEMENT. Central Powers Ready to Make an Immediate Im-mediate General Peace Without Annexations and Indemnities, Says Count Czernin. Petrograd. The central powers are ready to make an immediate general peace without compulsory annexations and without indemnities. This is their answer through Count f'zernin, the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, made on Christmas day at Brest-Litovsk to the Russian proposals, which they are ready to accept in most particulars as the basis of negotiations. They insist, however, that the central cen-tral powers cannot bind themselves one-sidedly to such conditions without a guarantee that the allies of Russia will recognize and fulfill these conditions. con-ditions. Russia to Consult Allies. The Austro-IIungarian foreign minister min-ister declared that the central powers did not intend forcibly to annex territories terri-tories seized during the war, nor to deprive nations of political independence independ-ence lost in the war. The question of the subjection of nationalities na-tionalities who have not political independence in-dependence to another country cannot be solved internationally and must be met by each government and its people. peo-ple. The right of minorities is an essential part of the right of peoples to self-definition. In the event of mutual denunciation of indemnification for war costs and war damages, Count Czernin continued, each belligerent would have to bear only the expense incurred for its subjects sub-jects made prisoners and to pay for damage caused in its own territory to property of civilian subjects of an enemy country by violations of international inter-national law. Hun Terms Impossible. Washington. Count Czernin, Austrian Aus-trian premier, has spoken the first authoritative au-thoritative Teuton peace terms at Brest-Litovsk. His renunciation of annexations an-nexations marks the first evidence of Teuton weakening; the first official repudiation of the grandiose declarations declara-tions of the pan-Germans and imperialists. imperi-alists. ' But his terms with regard to indemnities, indem-nities, subject nations and the German colonies, make his offer such that the allies cannot consider it. It does not meet the prime requisite of President Wilson, Lloyd George and Clemenceau, that the German military autocracy must be so punished before this war is over that it will never again dare to plunge the world into woe through the violation of treaties and pledged word. This is the view of official and diplomatic diplo-matic Washington today on the speech of the Austrian premier to the Russian peace envoys. |