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Show VON HERTLING SAYS HE AGREES WITH THE WILSON PEACE NOTE Complains Before Reichstag Main Committee of Lack of Attention At-tention to His Acquiescence in the Fourteen Points Laid Down by President of UnitedStates. AMSTERDAM, SepL 25 Count von Hertling, the imperial chancellor, In addressing the reichstag main committee, com-mittee, complained of lack of attention in his acquiescence in the fourteen points laid down by President Wilson as peace essentials he had received from the American executive. Chancellor Hertling asserted that on February 22 of this year he declared in the reichstag he agreed in princlplo with the" possibility of discussing a general peaco on the basis of the fourteen four-teen points of President Wilson's mes-sago mes-sago of February 2, but that President Wilson, neither at that time, nor since, had taken notice of the chancellor's declaration. Count von Hertling continued by declaring de-claring that he favored the formation of a league of nations, the promotion of universal, successive disarmament in equal proportions, the establishment , of obligatory courts of arbitration, the freedom of the seas and the protection of small1 nations. Conquest Far From Gorman Mind. "We have never concealed the fact," said Chancellor von Hortllng in tho course of his address, "that, all thoughts of conquests were far from our minds. But how do things stand on the opposite side? If ono credited the utterances of the enemy, official and unofllcial, thoy.only desire to repel a ! Germany which, in criminal arrogance, lis striving for world hegemony; to light for freedom and Justice against German imperialism and Prussian militarism. mil-itarism. j King Edward Prepared for War. "We. know better. Tho world war was prepared years ago by the well known enclrcllpg policy of King Edward. Ed-ward. In France thero arose extensive war literature which referred to "impending "im-pending war with Germany. Austria-Hungary's Austria-Hungary's .Influence in the P.alkans was to be eliminated. The Russian ex. pausion movement and the Pan -Slavic idea demanded iL "The match was not put to the powder pow-der by the Prussian military party but w.hile the German emperor, up to the last moment, was endeavoring to preserve pre-serve peace, the Russian military party par-ty put through the mqbillzation order against the will of the weak czar arid thereby made war unavoidable. Can Face Future Judgment. "Tho official report of the Sukhom-linoff Sukhom-linoff trial made this clear to every one who desired to see. Wo can look calmly forward to the judgment of posterity. For the present it is true those who are in power in tho enemy countries have succeeded by an unparalleled un-paralleled campaign of lies and calumny cal-umny in obscuring the truth. When a result was not obtained by the spoken or written word it was achieved by pictorial representations productions of absolutely devilish fantasy, from which one turns with horror and disgust. dis-gust. Hatred Against Central Powers. "But th'i object has been attained. A hatred has been raised among the enemy populations against the Central powers and particularly against Germany Ger-many a hatred which eschews all moderation and heads off all just judgments judg-ments -"You have all. read Premier Clem-enceau's Clem-enceau's last speech, a speech which seemed in its fanatical hatred and the coarseness of mind displayed to surpass sur-pass anything hitherto achieved. But in America it found a many -voiced echo as is proved by the pronouncements pronounce-ments that are reaching our ears from across the ocean. . War Fury In United States. "The wildest war fury is at present raging in the United States. Tho 'people 'peo-ple arc intoxicated with the idga that i Continued on Pace i Voa Herding-Says He Agrees With the Wilsoe Peace Note (Continued from Page 1) America must bring the blessings of modern liberal kullur (?) to the on-slaved on-slaved peoples of Central Europe while at the same time they are rejoicing at tho many millions of dollars which the war armaments arc causing to flow into the pockets of their business men. "Theory and practice are two different differ-ent things. The old proverb of the mote in another's eye and the beam in one's own finds constant illustration in the machinations of the Entente. They aro never tired of condemning our march into Belgium, but they pass over tho oppression of Greece, tho interference in-terference with thiit country's internal affairs and enforced abducation of its king, as if thoy were matters of course. They assert that thoy are fighting to protect oppressed nations but the century-old sorrows and the justifiable grievances of Ireland nowhere find a hearing, not even in America where i the people are acquainted with them through the numerous Irish immigrants. immi-grants. The British government which is especially fond of talking of right and justice recently found it compatible com-patible with these principles to recognize recog-nize the conglomerate rabblo of C:;echo-Slovaks as a belligerent power. pow-er. Germany Will Not Cringe. "What will the German people havo 1 to meet? Will it, forsooth beg for mercy In fear and trembling? No, gentlemen, gen-tlemen, remembering its great past and its still greater mission In tho future, fu-ture, It will stand erect and not oringo or grovel. i "Tho situation is serious but it givos us no ground for deep depression. Tho 1 Iron wall of tho western front is not : broken and the U-boat is slowly but Hurely fulfilling its task of diminish- : ing tonnage, thusabove all Increasing- ; ly menacing and restricting relnforco-ments relnforco-ments of men and material from tho i United States. Hour of Victory Will Come. i "Tho hour will come because it must : come when our enemies will sec rea- i son and be ready to make an end of tho war before half the world is con- ; oortod Into a heap of ruins and the flowor of its manly strength lies dead on tho battlefield." Count von Hertling said it was the business of tho Germans to stand together, to-gether, cool, confident, united and resolute res-olute with their one aim the protection of the fathorlnnd, its independence and its freedom of movement. There was no antagonism, he declared, between thq government and the people. The former only desired to work with and for the nation. Alluding to the differences differ-ences of opinion on political matters, the chancellor said: ""Tho "pcrSoa aXter Cbe -war -will also oonSnont Tas vnih ne'er domestic problems, prob-lems, I -will not. speat of these now bat as I "kno-w that tis prevailing discontent dis-content is not inQuDDce a! one by the suffering and worries of wartime but also hy quite definite cares and griev-tauxs griev-tauxs of ji pracfixial oxatm'e I wHl make some brtef remradkB in eabjecj- "Since taking on my shoulders Ore heavy burden of the chanceHca-Bhrp I have always endeavored ertHrgotiralb' tgeaxry out -.what woe still .farfkinj; n 4 W SBg,1 ggjg HELP! HELP! HELP HEU fS W W w w ms r m sis Y V Y V . T V V i- this respect. I am of course alluding to that great reform bill which, it is true, does not fall within the jurisdiction jurisdic-tion of the reichstag but nevertheless engages political circles in Germany far beyond tho Prussian frontier." Count von Hertling asserted that the Prussian government was firmly resolved to have the bill accepted and lo that end it would not hesitate to use any means constitutionally available. avail-able. He begged his hearers to remember re-member that this question was' one of a far-reaching alteration in tho historical histori-cal structure of jthe Prussian state and that it would be unfair if the representatives repre-sentatives of the old order wore not given tho opportunity of defending their standpoint in parliament. There must be no question of procrastination," pro-crastination," the chancellor said. "Should we, however," he continued, "not succeed in attaining our contemplated contem-plated aim by parliamentary debate then another way indicated by the constitution con-stitution will be pursued." Humanity Shudders at War. Referring to the question of peace, the chancellor then said that humanity human-ity shudders at the thought that this war may bring others and the question is engaging the attention of more people peo-ple as to the possibility of creating an organization amongst peace needing nations "which would set right in the place of might and a peaceful solution solu-tion instead of sanguinary battles." The chancellor proceeded: "As is known the president of the United States laid down in fourteen points the guiding lines for a conclusion conclu-sion ot peace. On January 2-1 of this year I discussed in your committee all these points, and regarding the last, remarked that the idea of a league of nations as suggested had my-entire my-entire sympathy on the condition tha' an honest will lo peace and the recognition recog-nition of the equal rights of all states of tho league were guaranteed. President Wilson's Attitude. "How necessary was this reserva-licn reserva-licn was shown by the statements of our enemies who in a league ofna-tlons ofna-tlons thought of an nlliance directed against Germany and President Wilson Wil-son in a message on February 12, (February 11?) took a step in the Bame direction and laid down four points or principles which in his opinion opin-ion should be applied in an exchange of views. In my reichstag speech of February 22 I decided myself In principle prin-ciple in agreement with the possibility possibil-ity of discussing a general peace on such a basis. "President Wilson, however, has neither then nor since taken any notice no-tice of it. "Meanwhile, tho former idealist and zealous friend of peace seems to have developed into tho herd of the American Ameri-can imperialists. But the plan of a league of nations yet to be established Is not to be discredited by such an action. ac-tion. It has found eloquent advocates In the Svlss president and the Norwegian Norwe-gian premier Knudsen,- both of whom dwell especially on the interest of neutral neu-tral states in such an institution. Advocates Universal Peace. "I also do not hesitate to express I my opinion again today on this ques- tion and indicate publicly the aim and J basis of such an association. It is a question of promoting universal, equal and successive disarmament, the establishment es-tablishment of obligatory courts of arbitration, ar-bitration, freedom of the seas and the protection of small nations. "Regarding the first point on February Feb-ruary 2-1 I described the idea of restoration resto-ration of armaments as thoroughly discussable, adding that the financial position of all the European states after aft-er the war would give the most effective effec-tive support to a solution of this question. ques-tion. "Regarding the question of arbitration arbitra-tion my standpoint has long been history. his-tory. I will not go into details but interesting in-teresting material which I have before be-fore me shows that Germany in the past repeatedly suggested arbitration of disputed questions, the carrying out of which in several cases, however, was prevented by opposition rising in Great Britain and America. If an understanding un-derstanding could be reached that dis puled points of law between various states must always be submitted to arbitration ar-bitration courts and if this were made obligatory for members of a le.ague of pations, it would undoubtedly be an important step toward the attainment of the general aim." nn |