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Show (DURABLE PEACE IT I SIGHT I British Ambassador Explains Statement Made to Russian Commissioners. KAISER NOT FOR PEACE Great Britain Will Stand by Russia and Do All Possible Pos-sible to Aid. LONDON, Dec. 11. Further details of the statement made to Russian journals jour-nals by Sir George Buchanan, British ambassador at Petrograd, aa forwarded forward-ed by a Renter despatch, show that the ambassador declared the Russian commissioners were mistaken in thinking think-ing that a durable peace could be obtained ob-tained by asking the Germans for an armistice to be followed by an agreement. agree-ment. The allics, ho said, wished first to arrive at a general agreement in harmony with their declared war alms and then to arrange an armistice. Hitherto, not one word has been said by any German statesman to show that the ideals of the Russian democracy were shared by Emperor Wilhclm and his government, tho ambassador said. It was with the German autocracy, not with the Ger- man people, that the armlstjce negotiations negoti-ations were being conducted. Ho asked whether it was likely that the emperor, em-peror, when once he knew the Russian army had ceased to exist as a fighting i force, would be disnosed to subacribe !to a democratic and durable peace. On the contrary, the peace contemplated by the emperor was a German impe-j impe-j rialistic peace. Allies to Negotiate With Russ. Although the allies could not send representatives to take pari, in the armistice negotiations, they were ready, said Sir George, as soon as a stable government, recognized by the Russian people, had been constituted I to examine with that government the jaims of the war and the possible conditions con-ditions of a just and durable peace. In I the meantime, the allies Avere giving ' Russia the most effective assistance 'by holding the bulk of the German armies on their respective fronts. The I ambassador reiterated Great Britain's desire to stand by Russia In this critl-. critl-. cal hour and asked whether the same could 4 be said of Russian feelings toward Great Britain. He remarked that hardly a day passed that did not witness a bitter attack on Great Britain in the official newspapers giving the Impression that Britain, not Germany, was Russia's enemy and the provoker of tho war. Great Britain Realizes Situation. Great Britain bore the Russians no grudge, realizing they were worn out by the sacrifices of war and the general gen-eral disorganization inseparable from a great political revolution, the ambassador ambas-sador said. Denying reports of contemplated con-templated coercive or punitive action in the event that Russia should make a separate peace, Sir George, nevertheless, never-theless, asserted the allies were entitled enti-tled to complain that the council of people's" cohimlssaries had been negotiating nego-tiating with the enemy without previously pre-viously consulting the allies, which was a breach of the London agreement agree-ment of 191-1. It could not be admitted for a moment that a treaty concluded by the autocratic government did not bind the democracy whereby the autocracy au-tocracy was replaced. Not to Coerce Ally. Nevertheless. Great Britain did not wish to induce an unwilling ally to continue to share in the common effort ef-fort by appealing to treaty rights, but there were higher principles to which appeal might be made. There, he said, were principles recognized by the commissaries, namely, those of a democratic dem-ocratic peace, a peace which accorded with the wishes of the smaller nationalities, nation-alities, which repudiated the idea of exacting plunder from a conquered enemy en-emy under the name of indemnity or of Incorporating reluctant populations in great empires. Such broadly speaking, speak-ing, was the peace Great Britain, equally with the Russian democracy, desired to see obtained. nn |