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Show AMERICA Czernin Paints Luden- j dorff as Man Vho j Prevented Peace. WANTED WAR TO END j Reviews Signing of j Treaty at Brest-Litovsk j Under Force. j VIENNA. Monday. Dec. 9. (By The I Associated Press) Faith in President c Wilson was expressed by Count Czer- ( nln, former Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, today in discussing the prob- : lems that must be settled before peace i is made secure. Count Czernin paint- ed General Ludendorff as the man c who stood between the Central em- j pires and peace on numerous occa- slons. Recounting the desperate ef- j forts on the part of Austria to reach I some sort of peace bofore the final j and absolute collapse of both (he : Austrian and German empires, Count j Czernin said: "The German people wanted peace : long ago and even Emperor William I wanted to see the end of the war, but t the attitude of England prevented : steps being taken. Emperor William I sam 10 me on one occasion: now can i we get peace with England declaring ! that we must be destroyed?' j "We understood that the only way I to arrange matters was to get England ' and Germany to agree. I "I sent Count Mensdorff to Switz- I erland to see General J. C. Smuts (who j was In Switzerland last March in the Interests of the British government). ' He succeeded but I was unable to tell ' Just what terms Germany would make. I do not recall that Mr. Lloyd George ' mentioned any conditions last Feb- ' ruary. Germany assured me that no definite offers were received from 1 England arid I believe this was true. "England nppeared to intend to crush Germany, and France showed a similar attitude. President Wilson was the only head of an Allied power who did not appear to have this In mind. Emperor William could not bring hlm self to yield Alsace and Lorraine. "Regarding Emperor William, I feel thai he did not want, the war but he did not know how to get out of It. I was minister to Rumania when the war began and I honestly believe thta no one wanted hostilities to begin. I have the impression that neither Emperor Em-peror Francis Joseph, Emperor William Wil-liam nor their ministers wanted war. I might explain the fact that war started start-ed by saying that there was too much diplomatic bluffing, with everyone looking for the other fellow to recede from his position. , "Every way to get out of the war j was tried by us excepting war with , Germany. When one considers how j much weaker than Germany we were, ho can see how impossible It was for , me to dictate terms. Now, if Presi- j dent Wilson finds it difficult to im- press his views on the Entente, how , was It possible for a man like me to i do anything with Germany? 1 llUJe L11UL .III itblCClUIUl IU UIO- . arm will be reached; President Wil-ji son is the man who Is able to bring i this about. I believo his plan for a, league of nations 'Is feasible and would ' i solve tho whole problem. j "I signed tho peaco treaty of Brest-! ; Litovsk but we got nothing from It. J i This fact Is worthy of mention. It was Ludendorff who forced Dr. Rlch-'i ard von Kuehlmann, the German for j i eign secretary, to make that peace. Wo occupied the southern end of the i line, whereas Germany had her troops i against the Hue in the north. General Hoffmann thn declared he would move on Petrograd If Leon Trotzky. ' the Bolshevik foreign minister, aiu not sign the treaty. "Dr. von Kuehlmann and I had hoped to make peace with Russia on the basis of President Wilson.s principles prin-ciples but Ludendorff always telegraphed tele-graphed 'no' to our proposals. I worked work-ed day and night to bring Dr. von Kuehlmann and Trotzky togethor. At the last moment the latter sent his famous telegram to the world, demanding de-manding that the German people revolt re-volt and destroy their government. This telegram Inflamed Berlin, which denounced Trotzky as a man with whom It would not treat. Then Trotzky Trot-zky was Informed that the. German troops would occupy Courland and Lithuania and would advance on Petrograd." Pet-rograd." ZURICH, Switzerland, Dec. 11. Tho Hungarian government of Count Michael Mich-ael Karolyi will send a mission lo Paris to explain to the allies tho situation in Hungary, according to a Budapest dispatch dis-patch to the Neuo Frele Presso of Vienna. Vi-enna. Tbo mission is expected to arrive ar-rive in Switzerland this week. For Arts of Peace AMSTERDAM, Dec. 11 The directors direc-tors of the Krupp munition works have announced their Intention to transform trans-form the plant Into a factory devoted to the arts of peace, according to the Cologne Gazette. nn |