OCR Text |
Show PEACE TALKTO German and Austrian Ministers to Treat With the Russians, WANT PEACE Allies Asked to State Whether They Want War to End. PETROGRAD, Monday, Dec. 17. The German and Austrian foreign ministers. min-isters. Dr. von Kuehlmann and Count Czernin, have notified Leon Trotzky, itho Bolsheviki foreign minister, that they will arrive at Brest-Litovsk Tuesday Tues-day to begin negotiations for a general European peace. The evening- newspapers announce that Trotzky has notified the Allied embassies that the armistice has reached definite results und that peace ! negotiations wilL -beinv an,d asking ; them o participate'or to slate whether ! tliey wish peaco or not I " Up to this evening the embassies Had not received tho communication bind an informal conference of the Allied Al-lied diplomats is said to have reached no definite decisoin. Peace With British Impossible. LONDON, Monday, Dec. 17. Germany's Ger-many's way in tho west' is clear inasmuch inas-much as a peace by negotiation with Great Britain is out of the question at present, Chancellor von Hertling asserted as-serted in an interview given to the Wolff bureau, the semi-official news agency of Germany, as quoted in speeches reaching London today. The interview was given in response to a request for a reply to the recent speech of Premier Lloyd George, who said he would regard peace overtures with Prussia at tho moment the Prussian Prus-sian military spirit was drunk with boastfulness as a botrayel of the great trust with which ho and his colleagues had been charged. Criminals and Bandits. "Lloyd Georgo calls us criminals and bandits," said the chancellor. "Modern wars arc not won by invective, invec-tive, but' perhaps rather prolonged thereby, because it is clearly out T)f the question to negotiate with men of such temper. For some time it has been impossible for an attentive observer ob-server to doubt that the British government gov-ernment under Lloyd George's leadership leader-ship completely inaccessible to tho idea of a just peaco by understanding. His speech affords convincing proof of this. Germany's Conscience Clear. The chancellor then discussed the origin of the war, saying Germany's conscience was clear, and added: "More than a year has passed since we and our allies offered the enemy the hand of peace. It was rejected. In the meantime our reply to the papal note has again sent forth our standpoint" stand-point" After referring to the conclusion of the armistice with Russia," the chancellor chan-cellor went on: "Lloyd George's speech Is the British Brit-ish answer td the papal note. Our way in tho west accordingly is clear. It is not Lloyd-George who is judge of the world, but history. As on August 2, 1914, so also today wo may look forward to its verdict with equanimity." on |