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Show ASQUITH MAKES A STRONG REPLY Sharply Criticises Von Beth- mann-Hollweg and Points to Germany's Rule of Poland. London, April 10, 10:35 p. m. On the occasion of a government reception recep-tion to visiting French senators and deputies at Lancaster house tonight, Premier Asquith took the opportunity to reply to the speech recently delivered deliv-ered In the relchstag by the imperial German chancellor, Dr. Von Beth-manu-Hollweg. Those present included Earl Kitoh-ener, Kitoh-ener, the Marquis of Lausdowne, Sir Edward Grey, J. Austen Chamberlain, Sir Walter Runclman, Lewis Har-court, Har-court, VJscount Bryce, A. J. Balfour and Lord Robert vCecil. The premier, in proposing the toast, "Our GuestB," referred to Von Bethmann-Hollweg's claim to readiness on the part of Germany Ger-many to negotiate peace and said: "The German chancellor wants us to assume the attitude of a defeated to a victorious adversary. But we are not defeated; we are not going to be defeated." No Change Since 1914. Reiterating that the entente allies were prepared only for peace on the terms of his declaration of November, Novem-ber, 1914. Mr. Asquith proceeded: "The chancellor first misquotes my language, then proceeds to distort Its obvious meaning. Great Britain and France entered the war not to strangle stran-gle Germany or wipe her off the map of Europe; not to destroy or mutilate her national life; certainly not to interfere in-terfere with, to use the chancellor's language, the free exercise of her paceful endeavors. "As a result of the war, we Intend to establish the principle that international inter-national problems must bo handled by free negotiations on equal terms between free peoples, and this settlement set-tlement fchull no longer be ham-pored ham-pored or swajed by the overmastering overmaster-ing dictation of a government controlled control-led by a military caste. That is what I mean by the destruction ot the military domination of Prussia nothing more, but nothing less." As to Belgium. Referring to the fate of Serbia and Montenegro, following a similar fate suffered by Belgium, the premier said: "We are In this struggle the champions cham-pions not only of treaty rights, but of the Independent status and free development of weaker countries. In the circumstances, cynicism could hardly go further than in the chancellor's chancel-lor's "daim that k is for Germany of all powers to insist, when peace conies, upon 'giing various races a chance for free evolution along the lines of their mother tongue and national na-tional individualitj.' Apparently this principle is to he applied, I suppose, on approved Prussian lines both, in Poland and Belgium " Contending that the Pdles have had an Illuminating experience of tho German ideas of z. free evolution of this kind, Mr. Atquith continued: "The itlempl to Germanize Poland has been for the last twenty years at once the strenuous purpose and colossal co-lossal failure of cue Prussian domestic domes-tic policy. Nobody knows this better than the chancellor, for he has been one of Its principal instruments. Black Chapter. "The wholesale strikes of Polish children against the attempts to force the employment of the German Ian-, guage, the barbarous floggings inflict- j ed upon lhrjm, the arrest and impris-, onment of their allies desire and are j determined to see once again the old j Brlgiui. She must not be allowed to i suffer permanently from the wanton, I wicked invasion of her freedom, and that hich has been broken down must lio repaired and restored." Declaring that he would uot waste v ords upon the chancellor's "lame and hali-heartcd attempt to justifj the wholesale use of the submarine for the destruction of lives and prop-crtv," prop-crtv," the premier said: I "The a-hes are prepared to justify the legality of all the measures they hive taken as covered by the principles prin-ciples and spirit of international law, applied to the developments of modern mod-ern war. These have been carried out with the strictest regard to humanity, hu-manity, and we are not aware of a single instance of a neutral life having hav-ing been lott by reason of the allies' blockade. " Remarking that the German blockade block-ade of Great Brltaiu had developed long before the British order in council coun-cil of March, 1915, as shown by the sinking of the Dutch steamer Maria and the American sailing vessel W. P. Fiyo, and Germany's declaration of a submarine blockade of the United Kingdom on February 4, 1915, Mr. Asquith declared: "It was not until March 11 that we announced those measures against Gorman trade which the chancellor suggests were the causes of the German Ger-man submarine policy. I need not dwell upon the flagrant violation which has attended its execution of the elementary rules and practices of international law and of the qom-mon qom-mon dictates and obligations of humanity. hu-manity. Up to this moment it is bo-lug bo-lug ruthlessly carried out, as well against neutrals as belligorentB." on |