FROM NOVEMBER 18 TO DECEMBER 18
NATIONS AT WAR
[Revised from U. S. Official Bulletin, December 11, 1917]
DECLARATIONS OF WAR
Austria against Belgium, August 28, 1914.
Austria against Japan, August 27, 1914.
Austria against Montenegro, August 9, 1914.
Austria against Russia, August 6, 1914.
Austria against Serbia, July 28, 1914.
Brazil against Germany, October 26, 1917.
Bulgaria against Serbia, October 14, 1915.
China against Austria, August 14, 1917.
China against Germany, August 14, 1917.
Cuba against Austria, December 12, 1917.
Cuba against Germany, April 7, 1917.
France against Austria, August 13, 1914.
France against Bulgaria, October 16, 1915.
France against Germany, August 3, 1914.
France against Turkey, November 5, 1914.
Germany against Belgium, August 4, 1914.
Germany against France, August 3, 1914.
Germany against Portugal, March 9, 1916.
Germany against Roumania, September 14, 1916.
Germany against Russia, August 1, 1914.
Great Britain against Austria, August 13, 1914.
Great Britain against Bulgaria, October 15, 1915.
Great Britain against Germany, August 4, 1914.
Great Britain against Turkey, November 5, 1914.
Greece against Bulgaria, November 28, 1916 (provisional government).
Greece against Bulgaria, July 2, 1917 (government of Alexander).
Greece against Germany, November 28, 1916 (provisional government).
Greece against Germany, July 2, 1917 (government of Alexander).
Italy against Austria, May 24, 1915.
Italy against Bulgaria, October 19, 1915.
Italy against Germany, August 28, 1916.
Italy against Turkey, August 21, 1915.
Japan against Germany, August 23, 1914.
Liberia against Germany, August 4, 1917.
Montenegro against Austria, August 8, 1914.
Montenegro against Germany, August 9, 1914.
Panama against Germany, April 7, 1917.
Portugal against Germany, November 23, 1914 (resolution passed authorizing military intervention as ally of England).
Portugal against Germany, May 19, 1915 (military aid granted).
Roumania against Austria, August 27, 1916 (allies of Austria also consider it a declaration).
Russia against Bulgaria, October 19, 1915.
Russia against Turkey, November 3, 1914.
San Marino against Austria, May 24, 1915.
Serbia against Bulgaria, October 16, 1915.
Serbia against Germany, August 9, 1914.
Serbia against Turkey, December 2, 1914.
Siam against Austria, July 22, 1917.
Siam against Germany, July 22, 1917.
Turkey against Allies, November 23, 1914.
Turkey against Roumania, August 29, 1916.
United States against Germany, April 6, 1917.
United States against Austria, December 7, 1917.
SEVERANCE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
Austria against Japan, August 26, 1914.
Austria against Portugal, March 16, 1916.
Austria against Serbia, July 26, 1914.
Austria against United States, April 8, 1917.
Bolivia against Germany, April 14, 1917.
Brazil against Germany, April 11, 1917.
China against Germany, March 14, 1917.
Costa Rica against Germany, September 21, 1917.
Egypt against Germany, August 13, 1914.
Ecuador against Germany, December 8, 1917.
France against Austria, August 10, 1914.
Greece against Turkey, July 2, 1917 (government of Alexander).
Greece against Austria, July 2, 1917 (government of Alexander).
Guatemala against Germany, April 27, 1917.
Haiti against Germany, June 17, 1917.
Honduras against Germany, May 17, 1917.
Nicaragua against Germany, May 18, 1917.
Peru against Germany, October 6, 1917.
Turkey against United States, April 20, 1917.
United States against Germany, February 3, 1917.
Uruguay against Germany, October 7, 1917.
UNITED STATES
THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.—The significant features of President Wilson's message to Congress at its opening session on December 4 were his frank statement of our liberal attitude toward Germany and her Allies, combined with strong insistence on our fixed purpose to throw every energy into winning the war. The President recommended a declaration of war against Austria as "the vassal of the German Government." The message follows:
Gentlemen of the Congress.—Eight months have elapsed since I last had the honor of addressing you. They have been months crowded with events of immense and grave significance for us. I shall not undertake to retail or even to summarize those events. The practical particulars of the part we have played in them will be laid before you in the reports of the executive departments. I shall discuss only our present outlook upon these vast affairs, our present duties and the immediate means of accomplishing the objects we shall hold always in view.
I shall not go back to debate the causes of the war. The intolerable wrongs done and planned against us by the sinister masters of Germany have long since become too grossly obvious and odious to every true American to need to be rehearsed. But I shall ask you to consider again and with very grave scrutiny or objectives and the measures by which we mean to attain them; for the purpose of discussion here in this place is action and our action must move straight toward definite ends. Our object is, of course, to win the war, and we shall not slacken or suffer ourselves to be diverted until it is won. But it is worth while asking and answering the question, When shall we consider the war won?
From one point of view it is not necessary to broach this fundamental matter. I do not doubt that the American people know what the war is about and what sort of an outcome they will regard as a realization of their purpose in it. As a nation we are united in spirit and intention.
Voices of Dissent.—I pay little heed to those who tell me otherwise. I hear the voices of dissent—who does not? I hear the criticism and the clamor of the noisily thoughtless and troublesome. I also see men here and there fling themselves in impotent disloyalty against the calm, indomitable power of the nation. I hear men debate peace who understand neither its nature nor the way in which we may attain it, with uplifted eyes and unbroken spirits. But I know that none of these speak for the nation. They do not touch the heart of anything. They may safely be left to strut their uneasy hour and be forgotten.
Spokesmen of American People.—But from another point of view I believe that it is necessary to say plainly what we here at the seat of action consider the war to be for and what part we mean to play in the settlement of its searching issues. We are the spokesmen of the American people and they have a right to know whether their purpose is ours. They desire peace by the overcoming of evil, but the defeat once and for all of the sinister forces that interrupt peace and render it impossible, and they wish to know how closely our thought runs with theirs and what action we propose. They are impatient with those who desire peace by any sort of compromise—deeply and indignantly impatient—but they will be equally impatient with us if we do not make it plain to them what our objectives are and what we are planning for in seeking to make conquest of peace by arms.
Justice to Supplant Force.—I believe that I speak for them when I say two things: First, that this intolerable Thing of which the masters of Germany have shown us the ugly face, this menace of combined intrigue and force, which we now see so clearly as the German power, a Thing without conscience, honor or capacity for covenanted peace, must be crushed, and if it be not utterly brought to an end, at least shut out from the friendly intercourse of the nations; and, second, that when this Thing and its power are indeed defeated and the time comes that we can discuss peace—when the German people have spokesmen whose word we can believe, and when those spokesmen are ready in the name of their people to accept the common judgment of the nations as to what shall henceforth be the bases of law and of covenant or the life of the world—we shall be willing and glad to pay the full price for peace and pay it ungrudgingly. We know what that price will be. It will be full, impartial justice—justice done at every point and to every nation that the final settlement must affect, our enemies as well as our friends.
You catch, with me, the voices of humanity that are in the air. They grow daily more audible, more articulate, more persuasive, and they come from the hearts of men everywhere. They insist that the war shall not end in vindictive action of any kind; that no nation or people shall be robbed or punished because the irresponsible rulers of a single country have themselves done deep and abominable wrong. It is this thought that has been expressed in the formula, "No annexations, no contributions, no punitive indemnities."
Frankness Toward Russia.—Just because this crude formula expresses the instinctive judgment as to the right of plain men everywhere it has been made diligent use of by the masters of German intrigue to lead the people of Russia astray, and the people of every other country their agents could reach, in order that a premature peace might be brought about before autocracy has been taught its final and convincing lesson and the people of the world put in control of their own destinies.
But the fact that a wrong use has been made of a just idea is no reason why a right use should not be made of it. It ought to be brought under the patronage of its real friends. Let it be said again that autocracy must first be shown the utter futility of its claims to power or leadership in the modern world. It is impossible to apply any standard of justice so long as such forces are unchecked and undefeated as the present masters of Germany command. Not until that has been done can right be set up as arbiter and peacemaker among the nations. But when that has been done—as, God willing, it assuredly will be—we shall at last be free to do an unprecedented thing, and this is the time to avow our purpose to do it. We shall be free to base peace on generosity and justice, to the exclusion of all selfish claims to advantage even on the part of the victors.
Let there be no misunderstanding. Our present and immediate task is to win the war, and nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is accomplished. Every power and resource we possess, whether of men, of money, or of materials, is being devoted and will continue to be devoted to that purpose until it is achieved. Those who desire to bring peace about before that purpose is achieved, I counsel to carry their advice elsewhere. We will not entertain it.
Safety from German Aggression.—We shall regard the war only as won when the German people say to us, through properly accredited representatives, that they are ready to agree to a settlement based upon justice and the reparation of the wrongs their rulers have done. They have done a wrong to Belgium, which must be repaired. They have established a power over other lands and peoples than their own—over the great empire of Austria-Hungary, over hitherto free Balkan states, over Turkey, and within Asia—which must be relinquished.
Germany's success by skill, by industry, by knowledge, by enterprise we did not grudge or oppose, but admired rather. She had built up for herself a real empire of trade and influence, secured by the peace of the world. We were content to abide the rivalries of manufacture, science, and commerce that were involved for us in her success and stand or fall as we had or did not have the brains and the initiative to surpass her. But at the moment when she had conspicuously won her triumphs of peace she threw them away to establish in their stead what the world will no longer permit to be established, military and political domination by arms, by which to oust where she could not excel the rivals she most feared and hated.
The peace we make must remedy that wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands and happy peoples of Belgium and northern France from the Prussian conquest and the Prussian menace, but it must also deliver the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of the Balkans, and the peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia, from the impudent and alien domination of the Prussian military and commercial autocracy.
We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do not wish in any way to impair or to rearrange the Austro-Hungarian empire. It is no affair of ours what they do with their own life, either industrially or politically. We do not purpose nor desire to dictate to them in any way. We only desire to se that their affairs are left in their own hands, in all matters, great or small. We shall hope to secure for the peoples of the Balkan peninsula and for the people of the Turkish empire the right and opportunity to make their own lives safe, their own fortunes secure against oppression or injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts or parties, and our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are of a like kind.
Our Attitude Toward Germany.—We intend no wrong against the German Empire, no interference with her internal affairs. We should deem either the one or the other absolutely unjustifiable, absolutely contrary to the principles we have professed to live by and to hold most sacred throughout our life as a nation.
The people of Germany are being told by the men whom they now permit to deceive them and to act as their masters that they are fighting for very life and existence of their empire, a war of desperate self-defence against deliberate aggression. Nothing could be more grossly or wantonly false, and we must seek by the utmost openness and candor as to our real aims to convince them of its falseness. We are in fact fighting for their emancipation from fear, along with our own, from the fear as well as from the fact of unjust attack by neighbors or rivals or schemers after world empire. No one is threatening the existence or the independence or the peaceful enterprise of the German empire.
The worst that can happen to the detriment of the German people is this, that if they should still, after the war is over, continue to be obliged to live under ambitious and intriguing masters interested to disturb the peace of the world, men or classes of men whom the other peoples of the world could not trust, it might be impossible to admit them to the partnership of nations which must henceforth guarantee the world's peace. That partnership must be a partnership of peoples, not a mere partnership of governments.
It might be impossible, also, in such untoward circumstances, to admit Germany to the free economic intercourse which must inevitably spring out of the other partnerships of a real peace. But there would be no aggression in that; and such a situation, inevitable because of distrust, would in the very nature of things sooner or later cure itself, by processes which would assuredly set in.
Old Errors to be Avoided.—The wrongs, the very deep wrongs, committed in this war will have to be righted. That of course. But they cannot and must not be righted by the commission of similar wrongs against Germany and her allies. The world will not permit the commission of similar wrongs as a means of reparation and settlement. Statesmen must by this time have learned that the opinion of the world is everywhere wide awake and fully comprehends the issues involved. No representative of any self-governed nation will dare disregard it by attempting any such covenants of selfishness and compromise as were entered into at the congress of Vienna.
The thought of the plain people here and everywhere throughout the world, the people who enjoy no privilege and have very simple and unsophisticated standards of right and wrong, is the air all governments must henceforth breathe if they would live. It is in the full disclosing light of that thought that all politics must be conceived and executed in this midday hour of the world's life.
German rulers have been able to upset the peace of the world only because the German people were not suffered under their tutelage to share the comradeship of the other peoples of the world either in thought or in purpose. They were allowed to have no opinion of their own which might be set up as a rule of conduct for those who exercised authority over them. But the congress that concludes this war will feel the full strength of the tides that run now in the hearts and consciences of free men everywhere. Its conclusions will run with those tides.
Truth as the Antidote.—All these things have been true from the very beginning of this stupendous war; and I cannot help thinking that if they had been made plain at the very outset the sympathy and enthusiasm of the Russian people might have been once for all enlisted on the side of the Allies, suspicion and distrust swept away, and a real and lasting union of purpose effected. Had they believed these things at the very moment of their revolution and had they been confirmed in that belief since, the sad reverses which have recently marked the progress of their affairs toward an ordered and stable government of free men might have been avoided.
The Russian people have been poisoned by the very same falsehoods that have kept the German people in the dark, and the poison has been administered by the very same hands. The only possible antidote is the truth. It cannot be uttered too plainly or too often.
Free Pathways on the Sea.—From every point of view, therefore, it has seemed to be my duty to speak these declarations of purpose, to add these specific interpretations to what I took the liberty of saying to the Senate in January. Our entrance into the war has not altered our attitude toward the settlement that must come when it is over. When I said in January that the nations of the world were entitled not only to free pathways upon the sea but also to assured and unmolested access to those pathways I was thinking, and I am thinking now, not of the smaller and weaker nations alone, which need our countenance and support, but also of the great and powerful nations, and of our present enemies as well as our present associates in the war. I was thinking, and am thinking now, of Austria herself, among the rest, as well as of Serbia and of Poland. Justice and equality of rights can be had only at a great price. We are seeking permanent, not temporary, foundations for the peace of the world, and must seek them candidly and fearlessly. As always, the right will prove to be the expedient.
What shall we do, then, to push this great war of freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion? We must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success, and we must make every adjustment of law that will facilitate the full and free use of our whole capacity and force as a fighting unit.
War Against Austria.—One very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are at war with Germany, but not with her allies. I therefore very earnestly recommend that the Congress immediately declare the United States in a state of war with Austria-Hungary. Does it seem strange to you that this should be the conclusion of the argument I have just addressed to you? It is not. It is in fact the inevitable logic of what I have said. Austria-Hungary is for the time being not her own mistress, but simply the vassal of the German Government. We must face the facts as they are and act upon them without sentiment in this stern business.
The government of Austria-Hungary is not acting upon its own initiative or in response to the wishes and feeling of its own peoples, but as the instrument of another nation. We must meet its force with our own and regard the Central Powers as but one. The war can be successfully conducted in no other way. The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria. They, also, are the tools of Germany. But they are mere tools and do not yet stand in the direct path of our necessary action. We shall go wherever the necessities of this war carry us, but it seems to me that we should go only where immediate and practical considerations lead us and not heed any others.
The financial and military measures which must be adopted will suggest themselves as the war and its undertakings develop, but I will take the liberty of proposing to you certain other acts of legislation which seem to me to be needed for the support of the war and for the release of our whole force and energy.
It will be necessary to extend in certain particulars the legislation of the last session with regard to alien enemies; and also necessary, I believe, to create a very definite and particular control over the entrance and departure of all persons into and from the United States.
Legislation should be enacted defining as a criminal offence every willful violation of the Presidential proclamations relating to enemy aliens promulgated under Section 4067 of the Revised Statutes and providing appropriate punishment; and women as well as men should be included under the terms of the acts placing restraints upon alien enemies. It is likely that as time goes on many alien enemies will be willing to be fed and housed at the expense of the government in the detention camps, and it would be the purpose of the legislation I have suggested to confine offenders among them in penitentiaries and other similar institutions where they could be made to work as other criminals do.
Necessary War Legislation.—Recent experience has convinced me that the Congress must go further in authorizing the government to set limits to prices. The law of supply and demand, I am sorry to say, has been replaced by the law of unrestrained selfishness. While we have eliminated profiteering in several branches of industry it still runs impudently rampant in others. The farmers, for example, complain with a great deal of justice that, while the regulation of food prices restricts their incomes, no restraints are placed upon the prices of most of the things they must themselves purchase; and similar inequities obtain on all sides.
It is imperatively necessary that the consideration of the full use of the water power of the country and also the consideration of the systematic and yet economical development of such of the natural resources of the country as are still under the control of the federal government should be resumed and affirmatively and constructively dealt with at the earliest possible moment. The pressing need of such legislation is daily becoming more obvious.
The legislation proposed at the last session with regard to regulated combinations among our exporters, in order to provide for our foreign trade a more effective organization and method of cooperation, ought by all means to be completed at this session.
And I beg that the members of the House of Representatives will permit me to express the opinion that it will be impossible to deal in any way but a very wasteful and extravagant fashion with the enormous appropriations of the public moneys which must continue to be made, if the war is to be properly sustained, unless the House will consent to return to its former practice of initiating and preparing all appropriation bills through a single committee, in order that responsibility may be centered, expenditures standardized and made uniform, and waste and duplication as much as possible avoided.
Additional legislation may also become necessary before the present Congress adjourns in order to effect the most efficient coordination and operation of the railway and other transportation systems of the country; but to that I shall, if circumstances should demand, call the attention of Congress upon another occasion.
Task of Winning Foremost.—If I have overlooked anything that ought to be done for the more effective conduct of the war, your own counsels will supply the omission. What I am perfectly clear about is that in the present session of the Congress our whole attention and energy should be concentrated on the vigorous and rapid and successful prosecution of the great task of winning the war.
We can do this with all the greater zeal and enthusiasm because we know that for us this is a war of high principle, debased by no selfish ambition of conquest or spoliation; because we know, and all the world knows, that we have been forced into it to save the very institutions we live under from corruption and destruction. The purposes of the Central Powers strike straight at the very heart of everything we believe in; their methods of warfare outrage every principle of humanity and of knightly honor; their intrigue has corrupted the very thought and spirit of many of our people; their sinister and secret diplomacy has sought to take our very territory away from us and disrupt the union of the states. Our safety would be at an end, our honor forever sullied and brought into contempt were we to permit their triumph. They are striking at the very existence of democracy and liberty.
It is because it is for us a war of high, disinterested purpose, in which all the free people of the world are banded together for the vindication of right, a war for the preservation of our nation and of all that it has held dear of principle and of purpose, that we feel ourselves doubly constrained to propose for its outcome only that which is righteous and of irreproachable intention, for our foes as well as for our friends.
The cause being just and holy, the settlement must be of like motive and quality. For this we can fight, but for nothing less noble or less worthy of our traditions. For this cause we entered the war and for this cause will we battle until the last gun is fired.
I have spoken plainly because this seems to me the time when it is most necessary to speak plainly, in order that all the world may know that even in the heat and ardor of the struggle and when our whole thought is of carrying the war through to its end we have not forgotten any ideal or principle for which the name of America has been held in honor among the nations and for which it has been our glory to contend in the great generations that went before us.
A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy.
UNITED STATES AT WAR WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.—The President's Proclamation of a state of war between the United States and Austria-Hungary was issued December 12, in accordance with the Joint Resolution passed by Congress December 7. The proclamation differs from the previous proclamation relating to German aliens, in that while it authorizes the arrest and internment of Austrian subjects whose conduct may menace our national safety, the only restrictions made are against unauthorized entering or leaving this country. Austrians will for the present be permitted to travel freely and reside and labor in prohibited areas; only those who are dangerous or disloyal are subject to arrest.
By the President of Me United States of America, a Proclamation.—Whereas, The Congress of the United States, in the exercise of the Constitutional authority vested in them, have resolved, by joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives bearing date of December 7, 1917, as follows:
"Whereas, The Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government has committed repeated acts of war against the government and the people of the United States of America; therefore, be it
"Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that a state of war is hereby declared to exist between the United States of America and the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the government to carry on war against the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States."
Whereas, By Sections 4067, 4068, 4069, and 4070 of the Revised Statutes, provision is made relative to natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of a hostile nation or government, being males of the age of 14 years and upward who shall be in the United States and not actually naturalized;
Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim to all whom it may concern that a state of war exists between the United States and the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and I do specially direct all officers, civil or military, of the United States that they exercise vigilance and zeal in the discharge of the duties incident to such a state of war, and I do, moreover, earnestly appeal to all American citizens, that they, in loyal devotion to their country, dedicated from its foundation to the principles of liberty and justice, uphold the laws of the land, and give undivided and willing support to those measures which may be adopted by the constitutional authorities in prosecution of the war to a successful issue and in obtaining a secure and just peace;
And, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution of the United States and the aforesaid sections of the Revised Statutes, I do hereby further proclaim and direct that the conduct to be observed on the part of the United States toward all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of Austria-Hungary, being males .of the age of 14 years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be as follows:
All natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of Austria-Hungary being males of 14 years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not naturalized, are enjoined to preserve the peace toward the United States and to refrain from crime against the public safety, and from violating the laws of United States and of the states and territories thereof, and to refrain from actual hostility or giving information, aid, or comfort to the enemies of the United States, and to comply strictly with the regulations which are hereby or which may be from time to time promulgated by the President; and so long as they shall conduct themselves in accordance with law they shall be undisturbed in the peaceful pursuit of their lives and occupations and be accorded the consideration due to all peaceful and law-abiding persons, except so far as restrictions may be necessary for their own protection and for the safety of the United States; and toward such of said persons as conduct themselves in accordance with law all citizens of the United States are enjoined to preserve the peace and to treat them with all such friendliness as may be compatible with loyalty and allegiance to the United States.
And all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of Austria-Hungary, being males of the ages of 14 years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, who fail to conduct themselves as so enjoined, in addition to all other penalties prescribed by law, shall be liable to restraint, or to give security, or to remove and depart from the United States in the manner prescribed by Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised Statutes, and as prescribed in regulations duly promulgated by the President;
And pursuant to the authority vested in me I hereby declare and establish the following regulations, which I find necessary in the premises and for the public safety:
(1) No native, citizen, denizen, or subject of Austria-Hungary, being a male of the age of 14 years and upward, and not actually naturalized, shall depart from the United States until he shall have received such permit as the President shall prescribe, or except under order of a court, judge or justice, under Sections 4069 and 4070 of the Revised Statutes;
(2) No such person shall land in or enter the United States, except under such restrictions and at such places as the President may prescribe;
(3) Every such person of whom there may be reasonable cause to believe that he is aiding or about to aid the enemy, or who may be at large to the danger of the public peace or safety, or who violates or attempts to violate or of whom there is reasonable ground to believe that he is about to violate any regulation duly promulgated by the President, or any criminal law of the United States or of the states or territories thereof, will be subject to summary arrest by the United States Marshal, or his deputy, or such other officers as the President shall designate, and to confinement in such penitentiary, prison, jail, military camp, or other place of detention as may be directed by the President.
This proclamation and the regulations herein contained shall extend and apply to all land and water, continental or insular, in any way within the jurisdiction of the United States.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done in the District of Columbia, this eleventh day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventeen, and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-second.
WOODROW WILSON.
By the President:
ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State.
BLACK LIST OF GERMAN FIRMS IN SOUTH AMERICA.—On November 28 the President issued two proclamations dealing with exports and imports. The exports proclamation simply supplemented the proclamation of August 27 by adding certain articles to the list of goods subject to the control of the War Trade Board. The imports proclamation forbade the importation of certain specified classes of goods from any foreign country except by license.
In accordance with these proclamations, the War Trade Board made public on December 4, its first "black list" of more than 1500 German-controlled banks and industries in South America, Mexico, and Cuba. All shipments to these concerns, it is understood, will be stopped entirely, and imports will be allowed to enter this country only to liquidate debts.
In the "black list" are included the great banks, manufacturies and public utilities of Argentina, representing the most powerful and dangerous combination of German capital in Latin America.
Steps have been taken already to tear away the grip that combination of interests has in the republic to the South, and all shipments to the public utilities of Buenos Aires have been held up. The great German-controlled corporations which have been entirely dependent upon American coal have been forced to the extreme of burning oil and wood to keep power stations for electric railways and electric lighting systems in operation. A rough estimate made to-night of the capital involved in the industries and banks on the American black list place it at not less than $3,000,000,000.—N. Y. Times, 5/12.
LORD BRYCE ON THE MONROE DOCTRINE.—Presiding at a lecture by Professor Pollard on the Monroe Doctrine at King's College, London, November 7, Lord Bryce defined the Doctrine concisely and outlined its broader application to world-wide international relations. The following version of his remarks was prepared by Lord Bryce for the N. Y. Nation and appeared in the issue of December 13:
The declaration of United States policy associated with the name of President Monroe, but really due to John Quincy Adams, and in some measure also to the suggestions of George Canning (then British Foreign Secretary), was originally delivered as announcing a restriction or limitation which America proposed to place on her own action. She would not interfere in the wars and alliances of the Old World and she expected that in return the states of the Old World would not interfere With the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. If they tried to introduce their political system into the New World they must expect her opposition. This declaration was aimed at the so-called Holy Alliance of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, which, having pledged itself to maintain autocratic government in the European continent, was contemplating interference in South America against the insurgent colonies of Spain. Another part of Monroe's declaration which referred to territorial aggression by European powers was apparently meant as a warning to Russia, which had advanced large territorial claims in the far Northwest.
The danger that any European power would try to found a new dominion in the Western Hemisphere has latterly seemed too remote to be worth regarding, but what we have recently learned of the far-reaching plans and hopes of the German Government makes it pretty clear that if they had come victorious out of this war, with a navy able to command the Atlantic, they would have endeavored to set up a dependent German state, or perhaps a province of the German Empire, in southern Brazil. This is a region of superb natural resources containing a very large population sprung from Germany, and still speaking German, though there is not the slightest reason to suppose that they desired to exchange their present freedom for the rule of the Prussian officer and the Prussian bureaucrat.
The United States, which would then have had to come to the rescue of Brazil, has fortunately already thrown herself into the conflict for justice, liberty, and the rights of the smaller peoples. Monroe's policy, which was also Washington's, of holding aloof from European complications was long maintained, and wisely maintained, by America, but the current of events has been too strong to make it possible to stand apart any longer. The whole world has now become one, and must remain one for the purposes of politics. No great nation can stand out.
Thus the Monroe Doctrine in its old form may seem to have disappeared; for the counterpart to the exclusion of the European Powers from interfering with the freedom of American states was the abstention of America from interference in European affairs. Yet, what has really happened may turn out to be not a supersession of the Doctrine, but rather an extension of what was soundest in its principle. The action of the German Government in proclaiming a general submarine warfare was a threat no self-respecting nation could have submitted. It was addressed to the western nations as well as to those of Europe. It showed that there were dangers which involved all maritime powers alike and which western nations must join the European allies in combating. The unbridled ambition and the aggressive spirit of the German Government are compelling all the nations which love peace and law and freedom to come together to secure for themselves that which America, in proclaiming the Monroe Doctrine against the Holy Alliance, desired to secure for the Western Continent.
There is need to-day for a League of Nations which will endeavor to extend its protection to all the world and not to one continent only. In any such combination to secure justice and tranquillity based upon right, the presence of the United States would be invaluable and would indeed be necessary if the combination were to secure those blessings for the world.—N. Y. Nation, 13/12.
GREAT BRITAIN
TRIUMPH OF LLOYD GEORGE'S WAR COUNCIL POLICY.—On November 19 Premier Lloyd George met criticism by former Premier Asquith and others by an effective speech in Parliament defending his utterances in Paris and advocating the plan for a Supreme War Council.
Mr. Asquith, in criticizing the measure, questioned why there was no mention of unity of control for navies; he raised the query whether, in case of disagreement, the War Council or the general staff of a particular nation would be supreme; he doubted whether the mistakes and failures mentioned by Lloyd George in his Paris speech were due to lack of central control.
In reply Premier Lloyd George pointed out that Mr. Asquith admitted in principle the need of greater cooperation and coordination. He showed that this need had first been emphasized by Lord Kitchener, and later, in July, 1917, at a meeting of the chiefs of staff of Great Britain, France and Italy.
As regards the particular plan of central control adopted, he stated that two other proposals had been considered: (1) A generalissimo for all allied forces; (2) a plan, which found favor both in France and America, for an even stronger central control. The present plan, while not giving to the War Council supreme authority over the general staff of each nation, at least established a permanent body, whose duty it would be to survey the whole field and not merely a part, and whose recommendations would carry greater weight than would those of one general staff addressed to another.
Mr. Lloyd George approved the idea of a similar naval council. He stated also that the new council would have no independent intelligence department.
Defending his Paris speech, the Premier said it was necessary in order "to arouse public sentiment, not here merely, but in France, in Italy, in America, to get public sentiment behind us, to see that this document became an act." . . . . "The result is that America is in, Italy is in, France is in, Britain is in, and public opinion is in, and that is vital."
Concluding, the Premier said: "There were two fears, two things that could defeat us. There was the submarine menace. If that had wrenched from us the freedom of the seas, then, indeed, our hopes would be shattered. But of the submarine I have no longer any fear. We are on its track, and I am glad to tell the House that on Saturday we destroyed five of these pests of the seas. The only other thing is lack of unity. Unity is the only sure way to victory—a victory that will bring peace and healing to a world which is bleeding to death."
UNITY URGED BY PRESIDENT WILSON.—On November 18, the day preceding Lloyd George's speech in Parliament, Colonel E. M. House, head of the American delegation to the Paris Conference, announced that he had received a cablegram from President Wilson emphatically stating that unity of plan and control between all the Allies and the United States was essential in order to achieve a just and permanent peace. President Wilson emphasized the assertion that the unity must be accomplished if the great resources of the United States were to be used to best advantage.
The timely publication of this message favored Premier Lloyd George's subsequent victory over opponents of the plan for a permanent War Council.
LORD LANSDOWNE'S PLEA FOR PEACE TERMS.—The Marquis of Lansdowne, former minister in the Salisbury, Balfour, and Asquith Cabinets, Viceroy of India, and Governor-General of Canada, aroused a storm of criticism in England and abroad by publishing, in the London Daily Telegraph of November 29, a long letter deploring the evils of war and proposing a restatement of aims on the part of the Allies in the hope of paving the way for peace. At the close of the letter he suggested the following points to be covered in such a statement:
1. That we do not desire the annihilation of Germany as a great power.
2. That we do not seek to impose upon her people any form of government other than that of their own choice.
3. That, except as a legitimate war measure, we have no desire to deny to Germany her place among the great commercial communities of the world.
4. That we are prepared, when war is over, to examine in concert with other powers a group of international problems, some of them of recent origin which are connected with the question of the freedom of the seas.
5. That we are prepared to enter into an international pact under which ample opportunities would be afforded for the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means.
In England judgment of the Lansdowne proposal was largely guided by party feeling. On November 30, Lord Robert Cecil, Blockade Minister, gave this statement to the press:
“The most important thing to say in regard to Lansdowne's letter is that he spoke only for himself. Before writing it, he did not consult or have any communication with any member of the government, and the members of the government read the letter in the newspapers with as much surprise as anybody else.
"It does not represent our views, nor has there been any change or modification in the slightest degree in the war policy of this country. Our policy is still what it always has been and as described by the authorized spokesmen of the country, namely, Premier Lloyd George, Asquith, Bonar Law, and Balfour.
"It has been put in different words by them, but perhaps is best summed up in the recent utterance of Premier Clemenceau—that the war aim for which we are fighting is victory."—N. Y. Times, 1/12.
The Unionist and Northcliffe press assumed that Lord Lansdowne "was actuated by a desire to drive Lloyd George from power and permitted his Toryism to overcome considerations of the broader aspects of the war situation." The Washington correspondent of the London Times wrote that Lansdowne is looked upon as a typical representative of the old Tory party, who seeks not so much to secure peace before the prolongation of the war leads to the ruin of the civilized world, but before the triumph of democracy seals the doom of institutions whose utility is outworn."
MORE FAVORABLE JUDGMENT.—The Manchester Guardian yesterday drew up a comparison in parallel columns between President Wilson's address and Lord Lansdowne's letter, showing five clear points of agreement. Lord Robert Cecil acknowledged the accuracy of the comparison, but suggested that "the President's address was that of a man who was certain of achieving victory which would consecrate his aims, while Lord Lansdowne's letter read like that of a man who was not quite sure of victory."
It was suggested that Lord Lansdowne’s chief object was understood in many quarters to have been to obtain a clear statement of the Allies' war aims. "That was one of his objects, certainly," said Lord Robert Cecil, who further suggested that the construction placed abroad upon the Lansdowne letter that he sought an inconclusive peace was possibly due in part to "unnecessarily violent denunciation coupled with its publication."—N. Y. Times, 10/12.
CANADA VOTES FOR CONSCRIPTION.—Ottawa, Ontario, December 17.—The Union Government has been returned and conscription confirmed by the Canadian domestic vote.
Early returns received from all over Canada indicate that the government of Sir Robert Borden has been elected to administer Canadian affairs for another five years and that Sir Wilfrid Laurier is as definitely defeated as in the reciprocity election of 1911.
Returns indicate that the French part of Canada has gone heavily for Sir Wilfrid Laurier and English constituencies have returned men who will support the Union Government measures, including conscription, and maintain Premier Borden in office.
Official returns announced a little before midnight showed that, with 16 districts to be heard from, the Unionists had won 128 seats and the opposition 87, with four seats deferred.—N. Y. Times, 18/12.
SIXTEEN NATIONS IN PARIS CONFERENCE, NOVEMBER 28-30
Delegates or resident ambassadors from 16 nations at war with the Central Powers assembled in Paris on November 28 for an inter-allied conference. The conference, which was presided over by Premier Clemenceau, at once sub-divided into committees for consideration of the various problems, economic, financial, and military, for the settlement of which the conference was assembled. Among the British delegates were Lloyd George, Balfour, Geddes, Robertson, and Jellicoe. Italy was represented by Premier Orlando, Foreign Minister Sonnino, and four other cabinet heads. The Japanese delegation was headed by Viscount Chinda, Ambassador to Great Britain. The chief delegates from the United States were as follows: Colonel E. M. House, Chairman; William Graves Sharp, Ambassador; Admiral William S. Benson, Chief of Naval Operations; General Tasker H. Bliss, Chief of Staff; Oscar T. Crosby, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; Vance McCormick, Chairman of the War Trade Board; Thomas Nelson Perkins, of the Priority Board.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE CONFERENCE.—Among the achievements of the Paris Conference was the decision to establish a supreme inter-allied naval committee, the scope of which was apparently confined chiefly to problems of transport and supplies. A satisfactory separate agreement was reached between Vance McCormick, Chairman of the U. S. War Trade Board, and representatives of Switzerland, covering our trade relations with that country. The following statement was issued by the conference:
"The various committees constituted by the inter-allied conference dealt as a whole with the technical question of the conduct of the war, the details of which cannot be published. However, at the conclusion of their deliberations, the committees decided to publish the following resolutions:
"The financial section, meeting under the presidency of Louis Klotz, French Minister of Finance, held numerous sittings, in the course of which the various financial questions interesting to the Allies were successively examined. At the end of its labors this section unanimously adopted the following resolutions:
"'The delegates of the allied powers in the financial section consider it desirable, with a view to coordinating their efforts, to meet regularly in order to draw plans for the payment of liabilities and the settlement of loans and rates of exchange, and thus assure concerted action.'
"Other resolutions were adopted to the effect that, although the dispositions manifested by all the delegates evidenced sentiments of the financial solidarity of the Allies, this solidarity ought to be affirmed in practice by the methodical coordination of efforts, which alone should determine the judicious utilization of the resources of the Allies and the best distribution of their strength.
“Armament and Aviation Section.—The representatives of the allied nations examined the condition of their various war manufactures and considered practical means of avoiding all duplication and directing the effort of each nation to the production of the things for which it was best fitted. In matters of first importance, an inter-allied committee was formed for carrying out the common programs, and decisions were arrived at.
"Sections of Imports, Maritime Transports and Supplies.—The Allies, considering that the means of maritime transport at their disposal, as well as the supplies at their command, ought to be utilized in common for the conduct of the war, decided to create an inter-allied organization with a view to coordinating action in this direction to establishing the common program, constantly kept in mind, and enabling them, while utilizing their resources to the full, to restrict their imports in order to release as much tonnage as possible for the transport of American troops.
"Blockade Section.—The blockade section examined, in the first place, the convention of the Allies with Switzerland regarding the question of blockade. The draft of an arrangement between the United States and Switzerland was approved, and the United States will nominate delegates to participate in the deliberations of the inter-allied commission at Berne.
"The section decided to make the dispositions necessary to enable the commission in regard to the food supply in Belgium and Northern France to accomplish its program as to provisions and transports. The section submitted to the conference a declaration to the effect that the prolongation of the war having led to the consumption of products of all sorts out of proportion to production, it was evident that the available resources, whether in allied or neutral countries, were unequal to actual needs, and that it would be necessary to extend the general principles laid down by the American Government."
Approves American-Swiss Deal.—Paris, December 5.—The official summary of the decisions of the inter-allied war conference, issued by the French Government, includes the following under the blockade section:
"First: The proposed arrangement between the United States and Switzerland submitted to the conference was unanimously approved.
"Second: The United States will appoint a delegate to take part in the deliberations of the Permanent International Continent Committee and in those of the inter-allied committee at Berne."—N. Y. Times, 6/12.
MEETING OF SUPREME WAR COUNCIL.—The Supreme War Council, recently established as a permanent body distinct from the inter-allied conference, met at Versailles on December 1. No further sessions were held and no statements made as to work accomplished.
Paris, December 1.—The Supreme War Council of the Allies opened at Versailles to-day. Colonel House and General Bliss arrived at the Hotel Trianon there at about 10.20 a. m. A few minutes later they were joined by the three Premiers—Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Orlando. They retired to an upstairs room for preliminary consultation.
While the Big Four were closeted, the military chiefs, who had arrived before 10.30, the hour for the conference, killed time in the glass-enclosed veranda upon which the conference room opens. General Robertson lit a pipe and walked up and down as if thinking hard. General Bliss chatted with Gordon Auchincloss, Secretary to the American Mission, while General Cadorna withdrew to a corner and chatted with an aide.
Versailles, December 1.—The Premiers of Great Britain France and Italy, and Colonel E. M. House, representing the United States, met here to-day as the Supreme War Council, and, after taking the military situation under consideration, were joined by Generals Wilson, Bliss, Foch and Cadorna.
The council was in session three hours. The American members said at the conclusion of the session that much more had been accomplished than was expected. The deliberations, it was added, had been most harmonious and satisfactory.
The Supreme War Council met in a hotel here. It was attended by Premier Lloyd George and General Wilson for Great Britain, Colonel House and General Bliss for the United States, Premier Clemenceau and General Foch for France, and Premier Orlando and General Cadorna for Italy. Members of the council sat in seclusion, the hotel being guarded carefully by police to keep out intruders.—N. Y. Times, 2/12.
Paris, December 2.—Nobody outside of the Supreme War Council quite knows what happened at Versailles yesterday, but the impression was widespread to-day that something of the highest importance was accomplished. Colonel House wears an expansive smile and a general air of satisfaction prevailed after the adjournment.
Colonel House has been working like a beaver to avoid friction, shut off oratory and keep the proceedings on a strictly business basis. The numbers of the American team contributed handsomely to this program by sticking close to their "opposites" and keeping the committees busy. The conference therefore rested on a solid foundation of detailed accomplishment.
Colonel House has been the guiding spirit all the way through. In a sense he has used his American power and prestige modestly and impersonally, going from one to another with smiling insistence on steering straight for the mark. If to-day's impression of success prove correct it will be a striking vindication of President Wilson's confidence in his personal friend.
The members of the American War Mission began winding up their affairs to-day preparatory to leaving for America.
It is officially announced that no plenary meeting of the conference will be held, and that the Americans will take no further part in the meetings of the Supreme War Council until the mission has returned home and made its report. Colonel House and General Bliss represented the United States at the meeting of the War Council yesterday, but the permanent representation is still undetermined.—N. Y. Times, 3/12
INTER-ALLIED NAVAL WAR BOARD.—The Inter-allied Naval War Board convened from November 29th to the 30th in Paris under the presidency of M. Leygues, the French Minister of Marine. Representatives from France, Great Britain, the United States, Italy, and Japan were present. It is decided that these representatives are to be permanently at hand, during the progress of the war, to attend the frequent meetings of the board in the future. A definite plan for the intimate coordination of all economic and scientific resources has been outlined, each Admiralty undertaking to keep its Paris representative well informed of all changes and devices that are introduced from time to time, so that they may be available for the other nations represented at the board. It is important to note, however, that the individual responsibility of the allied commanders at sea is in no way controlled.—N. Y. Nation, 20/12.
RUSSIA
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS WITH GERMANY.—During the last week in November the Bolsheviki Government in Russia sent proposals for an immediate armistice to all belligerents on both sides. Upon receipt of favorable replies from the Central Powers, a preliminary armistice was agreed upon with Germany on December 1, extending from the Pripet to the Lipa rivers. Hostilities ceased, and on the night of December 2 Russian representatives crossed the German lines and concluded negotiations for a preliminary armistice along the entire Russian front. Roumanian forces necessarily acquiesced in this agreement. On December 11 Russian representatives crossed to Brest-Litovsk to resume negotiations, and on December 15 it was officially announced from Berlin that an armistice treaty had been signed on December 15 to continue in force until January 14, and that peace negotiations would at once begin.
Text of the Agreement.—"Between the representatives of the higher command of Russia on the one hand and of Bulgaria, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey on the other hand for the purpose of achieving a lasting and honorable peace between both parties the following armistice is concluded:
"The armistice shall begin on December 4 (December 17) at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and continue until January 1 (January 14). The contracting parties have the right to break the armistice by giving seven days' notice. Unless notice is given the armistice automatically continues.
"'The armistice embraces the land and aerial forces on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and also the Russo-Turkish front in Asia Minor. During the armistice the parties concerned obligate themselves not to increase the number of troops on the above fronts or on the islands in Moon Sound, or to make a regrouping of forces.
"'Neither side is to make operative any transfer of units from the Baltic-Black Sea front until January 1 (January 14), excepting those begun before the agreement is signed. They obligate themselves not to concentrate troops on parts of the Black Sea or Baltic Sea east of 15 degrees of longitude east of Greenwich.
"'The line of demarcation on the European front is the first line of defence. The space between will be neutral. The navigable rivers will be neutral, their navigation being forbidden except for necessary purposes of commercial transport or on sections where the positions are at a great distance. On the Russo-Turkish front the line of demarcation will be arranged at the mutual consent of the chief commanders.
"'Intercourse will be allowed from sunrise to sunset, no more than 25 persons participating at a time. The participants may exchange papers, magazines, unsealed mail, and also may carry on trade in the exchange of articles of prime necessity.
"'The question of release of troops freed from service who are beyond the line of demarcation will be solved during the peace negotiations. This applies also to Polish troops.
"'On the naval fronts the armistice embraces all the Black Sea and Baltic Sea east of the meridian, 15 degrees east of Greenwich, applying to all naval and aerial forces. In regard to extension of the armistice to the White Sea and the North Antarctic Russian coast, a special agreement will be made. Attacks upon war and commercial vessels must cease in the above regions, and attacks in other seas must be avoided.'
"After fixing the lines of demarcation in the Black and Baltic seas and limiting the movement of warships, the agreement stipulates that commercial navigation of these seas will be permitted under rules to be formulated by a commission.
"Immediately after the signing of the armistice, peace negotiations are to be begun. It is provided that measures shall be taken for the exchange of civil prisoners, invalids, women, and children under 14 years, and for the amelioration of the condition of war prisoners. The treaty concludes with these words:
"'With the purpose of facilitating the conduct of peace negotiations and the speedy healing of the wounds caused by the war, the contracting parties take measures for re-establishment of cultural and economic relations among the signatories. Within such limits as the armistice permits, postal commercial relations, the mailing of books and papers, will be permitted, the details to be worked out by a mixed commission, representing all the interested parties at Petrograd.'"
INTERNAL CHAOS IN RUSSIA.—On December 4, Ensign Krylenko, the Bolshevist commander-in-chief, announced the capture of the headquarters of General Dukhonin, former commander, at Mohilev, and the murder of the general, who was thrown from a moving train.
On December 9 the .Bolsheviki Government issued a proclamation against the opposition organized under Kaledines and Korniloff as follows:
"Kaledines and Korniloff, assisted by the Imperialists and Constitutional Democrats, have raised a revolt and declared war in the Don region against the people and the revolution."
The proclamation adds that the Constitutional Democrats and bourgeoisie are supplying the revolting generals with scores of millions.
"The Workmen's and Soldiers' delegates have ordered the necessary movements of troops against the counter-revolution and issued decrees authorizing the local revolutionary garrisons to attack the enemies of the people without awaiting orders from the supreme authorities and forbidding any attempts at mediation."
General Kaledines, the Cossack chieftain who leads the new revolt against the Bolshevist Government, had originally at his immediate command an army of from 30,000 to 40,000 Don Cossacks. Aside from these professional warriors, however, General Kaledines has been systematically winning to himself in the last two months the support of those factions of the bourgeoisie and Constitutional Democrats who saw nothing but disaster for Russia if the Bolsheviki were permitted to control the government."
A Petrograd dispatch of December 13 announced the arrest of General Kaledines and the occupation of the cities of Rostov, Nakhitchevan and Taganrog in the Don Cossack territory.
MEETING OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY.—According to a dispatch from Lennie, December 10, the second meeting of the Russian Constituent Assembly was held on that day. Election returns were coming in early in December and indicated, according to a correspondent's report of December 8, that the three chief parties, Bolsheviki, Socialist Revolutionaries, and Constitutional Democrats (Cadets), had polled very nearly equal votes. In Moscow the voting was: Bolsheviki, 328,000; Cadets, 243,000; Socialist Revolutionaries, 48,000; and all other parties considerably less. A dispatch to the Jewish Daily Forward (New York, December 14), described the Assembly as a "fizzle," Cadet members fearing to apply for election certificates and refusing to recognize the Bolshevik election commissioner, and the Bolsheviki themselves opposing a session at this time.
"While no news of the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly in Petrograd has reached London, a Russian Government wireless message December 9, said:
"'The second sitting of the Constituent Assembly was opened by a person authorized by the Council of the People's Commissaries. There were present' no fewer than 400 members.—LENINE.’
"The full membership of the Assembly is approximately 600. The formal opening was scheduled for December 11, and a Petrograd cable dispatch dated Saturday says that the National Commissaries had declared the day a national holiday in honor of the accomplishment of the gathering for the first time of representatives of 160,000,000 people to decide their own future.
"'All the forces of Russia,' the dispatch continues, 'are centering on the Assembly, the maelstrom whence will emerge stability or anarchy, and probably peace or war.'
"Notwithstanding the undercurrent of opposition from the Bolsheviki, as a result of which political strife is certain, the general opinion in Petrograd is that the actions of the Assembly must be regarded as definite by the foreign embassies, which for more than a month have been in a difficult position as regards the Lenine-Trotzky Government. The allied embassies are frankly awaiting the decisions of the Assembly. This is the attitude expressed by one of the diplomats to-day.
"'We have no desire to force any government upon Russia,' he said. If the Constitutent Assembly decides that the present Bolshevist Government shall continue, then there will be nothing left to us but to put this situation frankly before our governments and ask for an immediate decision.'
"Germany, also, is believed to be waiting for the Assembly before taking definite action in regard to the armistice offer of the Bolsheviki.
"Present indications, based on scattering reports from towns and villages from the Siberian steppes to the Caucasus, from Petrograd to Odessa, are that the Assembly's makeup will show the Bolshevist delegates nearly equal in number to all the other parties. The members of the Assembly run the gauntlet of political faiths', from Kerensky to Lenine.
"Since the first part of the nineteenth century a Constituent Assembly—a literal translation of whose title is Master of the Russian Land'—has been the dream of Russia. When Nicholas was overthrown the Provisional Government determined to call the Assembly to meet September 6. The date later was postponed until November 28, old style calendar (December 11i, new style), when the country was plunged into the disturbances of the July Bolshevist uprising. The Provisional Government for months had committees at work arranging drafts of a new constitution."—N. Y. Times, 12/12.
RUSSIANS REVEAL ALLIED AGREEMENTS.—The Bolsheviki Government have at various times published secret negotiations between Russia and her allies. A document appearing in the press, December 2, purported to be an allied agreement with Italy on her entering the war.
"According to the Bolshevist revelations, Italy was to have the assistance of the French and British naval forces until the Austrian Navy was destroyed. After peace Italy was to receive the Trentino, Southern Tyrol to the Brenner Pass, Trieste Istria, and Dalmatia, with additional geographical boundaries outlined in great detail.
"Italy was to govern the foreign relationships of Albania in the event of that country obtaining an autonomous government; but Italy was not to oppose objections if it were decided to apportion parts of Albania to Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece.
“The agreement, it is alleged, supported Italy's contention in the principle of the balance of naval power in the Mediterranean, subject to future definition. Italy was to have rights in Lybia enjoyed by the Sultan on the basis of the Lausanne treaty. Italy agreed to the proposed independent standing of Mussulman sacred places in Arabia.
"In the event of France and Great Britain increasing their holdings in Africa at the expense of Germany, Italy was to have the right to increase hers. Great Britain was to facilitate Italy's borrowing £50,000,000 in the British money market.
"France, Great Britain and Russia, according to the report, were to support Italy in preventing Papal influence from ending the war and in regulating questions concerning it. Italy's co-operation was to begin one month after the ratification of the agreement."—N. Y. Times, 2/12.
JAPANESE REPORTED AT VLADIVOSTOK.—Authentic information reaches Washington that troops of the Japanese Army have occupied the great railroad works at Vladivostok, the Pacific terminal of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The importance of this action at this juncture cannot be overestimated. It means that the vast quantities of supplies assembled at Vladivostok for use by the Russian Provisional Government will not fall into the hands of the Bolsheviki.
The action of the Japanese Government, which undoubtedly has the knowledge and consent of the Entente Allies of Japan, constitutes a serious blow at the Bolshevikist Government, which according to information from Russia last week, had dispatched a force along the Siberian Railway toward Vladivostok to take charge of the terminal.
Aside from the necessity of preventing the supplies from being used against the Cossack and other elements that are endeavoring to overthrow the Bolsheviki, their protection is necessary to preclude the possibility of their falling into the hands of the Germans through the Petrograd extremists.
Neither at the State Department nor the Japanese Embassy has there been any willingness to confirm the thorough authentic information regarding the action of the Japanese in taking over the control of the railway yards at Vladivostok.
It would not be necessary for the Japanese to send troops by sea to Vladivostok. By reason of their control over the Dalny Peninsula and Korea, it would be possible for them to move troops from Chan Chun, in Manchuria, to Harbin, by rail, and thence eastward by rail to Vladivostok, and thus avoid the frozen condition of the port.—N. Y. Times, 12/12.
A dispatch reached the State Department December 13 from John K. Caldwell, American Consul at Vladivostok, stating that there were no Japanese troops at Vladivostok. The Consul suggested that it might be well to have some troops there, on account of factional troubles among the Russians.—N. Y. Times, 14/12.
FINLAND PROCLAIM S INDEPENDENCE.—The Finnish Government has proclaimed the independence of Finland.
On introducing the Autonomy Bill in the Diet, Mr. Swinhurd, the Premier, declared that the government based the bill on the full independence of Finland.
The government is taking measures to have Finnish independence internationally recognized.—N. Y. Times, 8/12.
GERMANY
GERMAN PREMIER ADDRESSES REICHSTAG.—Count George F. von Hertling, the new Imperial German Chancellor, told the Reichstag when it reassembled November 29 that he was ready to enter into peace negotiations as soon as the Russian Government sent representatives having full powers to Berlin.
"I hope and wish," he said, "that these efforts will soon take definite shape and bring us peace."
Respecting Poland, Lithuania, and Courland, Count von Hertling said:
"We respect the right of self-determination of their peoples. We expect they will give themselves a constitutional form of government corresponding to their conditions."
The Chancellor delivered a long speech to the Reichstag, in which he dwelt upon all the current problems of the internal and external situations. After some personal observations on the war, he referred to the home politics of the Empire, alluding to the introduction of the Prussian franchise proposal and the government's new measures, which extend social and political legislation in Germany. In regard to the maintenance of a censorship, he professed himself in contradistinction, he said, to the stand of the Entente Powers, in favor of a liberal conception of the right of free opinion.—N. Y. Times, 30/11.
GERMAN GENERAL ON EFFECTIVENESS OF BLOCKADE.—A résumé of "Deductions from the World War," by General von Freytag-Loringhoven, former Quartermaster General in the German Army, and one of Germany's soberer military authorities, recently appeared in the London Times. The general argues that in the future still greater sums will have to he spent on the German Army and fleet, and that the army will have to be expanded by training a still larger proportion of the men available for military service.
"World power is inconceivable without striving for expression of power in the world, and consequently for sea power. But that involves the constant existence of a large number of points of friction. Hence arises the necessity for adequate armaments on land and sea."
And again:
"The world war affords incontrovertible proof that Germany must for all time to come maintain her claim to sea power. We need not at present discuss by what means this aim is to be achieved."
Referring to America, the German writer says:
"The fact that precisely the President of the United States of North America has advocated the brotherhood of the peoples surely ought to frighten us. America's behavior in the war has shown that pacificism, as represented in America, is only business pacificism, and so at the bottom nothing else than crass materialism. This truth is not altered by the fact that it is wrapped in a hazy garment of idealism and so seeks to hide its real meaning from the innocent. Nor is the truth altered by the appeal to democratic tendencies, for precisely this war is showing that those who at present hold power in the great democracies have risked in irresponsible fashion the future of the peoples intrusted to their leadership."
Of particular interest are the general's remarks on economic influences in the war and the effectiveness of blockade, which, he says, Germans should have learned from the American Civil War.
"The consequences of the blockade to which the Central Powers were subjected showed themselves at once. Although we succeeded in developing our war economies by our own strength, yet the unfavorable state of the world economic situation has throughout the whole war been felt by us. That alone explains why our enemies found ever-fresh possibilities of resistance, because the sea stood open to them, and why victories which would once have been absolutely decisive, and the conquest of whole kingdoms, did not bring us nearer to peace."
In another passage he says:
"It is the sword which still decides in war; it is victory on the battlefield that gives the decision, but the effect is far more dependent than it used to be upon world economic factors. These factors run through the whole war of to-day."
The author remarks that the enemy were slow to employ economic pressure to its full extent.
"Our enemies only gradually perceived the true situation. The operations which they had begun extracted only little by little the full advantage of the world economic situation, which was favorable to them and unfavorable to us; they did so only when they met with unexpected powers of resistance in the Central Powers."
VON TIRPITZ LESS CERTAIN ABOUT U-BOATS.—The German papers contain lengthy accounts of the speech of Grand Admiral von Tirpitz before the Hamburg Branch of the Fatherland Party, in which the Admiral said:
"Up to the present in this war Great Britain has won, rather than lost. Peace based on the status quo ante or on renunciation, therefore, is out of the question for Germany.”
With reference to the rumor that Germany would give up Zeebrugge and Ostend if the British evacuated Calais, von Tirpitz said:
"The evacuation of Calais would never be equivalent to the loss of such first-class security. Moreover, the Channel Tunnel will become a fact after the war. For real security, we should have, besides Flanders and Antwerp, Calais and Boulogne. The rumor in question is a screen behind which the question of Flanders might be permitted to disappear.
"The pretext that we cannot coerce Great Britain and America falls to the ground when we consider the growing scarcity of the cargo space of our ruthless arch-enemy. The time for final decision will come when real distress begins to take the place of merely threatening distress. That time will come. It is only a question of keeping cool."—N. Y. Times, 17/12.
HOW TO DESTROY THE PAN-GERMAN THREAT.—In an article in the December Atlantic Monthly the well-known French writer, M. André Chéradame, author of the Pan-German Plot Exposed, points out that the reorganization of Poland, as undertaken by the Central Powers, is in perfect accord with the Pan-Germanist scheme. Furthermore it would be absurd to assume that the Austrian Government is not subservient to Germany, or that the German powers-that-be are not resolutely bent on clinging to their acquisitions in Belgium and the Balkans that promise the realization of the Pan-German plan.
To thwart this menace, the writer suggests the following possibility:
"Of about 176,000,000 inhabitants of Pan-Germany early in 1917, about 73,000,000 Germans, with the backing of only 21,000,000 vassals—Magyars, Bulgars and Turks—have to-day reduced to slavery the immense number of 82,000,000 allied subjects—Slavs, Latins, or Semites, belonging to 13 different nationalities, all of whom desire the victory of the Entente, since that alone will assure their liberation.
"There are, in Central Europe alone, 55,000,000 people determinedly hostile to Germanism, forming an enormous, favorably grouped mass, occupying a vast territory, commanding a part of the German lines of communication.
At the present crisis these 55,000,000 human beings are coming to understand better and better that the only means of escape from slavery is to contribute at the earliest possible moment to the victory of the Entente. The insurrectionary commotions that have already taken place in Poland, Bohemia and Transylvania prove what a limitless development these outbreaks might take on if the Allies should do what they ought to do to meet this psychological condition.
"Of 10,000,000 Magyars, there are 9,000,000 poor agricultural laborers cynically exploited by a million nobles, priests and officials. These 9,000,000 Magyar proletarians are exceedingly desirous of peace. They would be quite capable of revolting at the last moment against their feudal exploiters, if the Allies were able to assure them that the victory of the Entente would put an end to the agrarian and feudal system under which they suffer.
"Is not this a state of affairs eminently favorable to the interests of the Allies? Would not the Germans in our place have turned it to their utmost advantage long ago?. . . .
"Let us inquire how this assistance of the 88,000,000 persons confined in Pan-Germany in their own despite can be obtained and made really effective.
"Let us start with an indisputable fact. The immense results which the German propaganda has achieved in barely five months in boundless Russia, with her 182,000,000 inhabitants, constitute, beyond dispute, a striking demonstration of what the Allies might do if they should exert themselves to act upon races held captive against their will in Pan-Germany. Assuredly, in the matter of propaganda, the Allies are very far from being as well equipped as the Germans and from knowing how to go about it as they do. But the Germans and their vassals are so profoundly detested by the people whom they are oppressing in Pan-Germany; these people understand so fully that the remnant of their liberty is threatened in the most uncompromising way; they are so clearly aware that they can free themselves from the German-Turkish-Magyar yoke only as a result of this war and of the decisive victory of the Entente, that they realize more clearly every day that their motto must be: 'Now or never.' . . . .
"To sum up. In Central Europe, through the liberation, preceded by the legitimate and necessary revolution, of its Martyred peoples, are found in conjunction, (a) the means of making good the default of Russia; (b) the basis of a new and decisive conclusion of the war; (c) the possibility of destroying Central Pan-Germany; (d) the consequent wiping out of the immense advantages from the war which the mere existence of Pan-Germany assures to Germany; and (e) the elements of a lasting peace upon terms indisputably righteous and strictly in accordance with the principles of justice invoked by the Entente."
CONFERENCE OF SCANDINAVIAN KINGS.—A conference of the Kings and Prime Ministers of Sweden, Denmark and Norway was held at Christiania during the last week in November. The conference seems to have been suggested by King Gustave of Sweden at a meeting with King Christian in Copenhagen. It is further surmised that Germany was desirous of bringing pressure to bear on Norway to conteract the leanings of that nation towards the Allies. There had been some vague talk of Norway's granting a naval base to England and the United States, in which case Germany would demand similar concessions from Denmark.
"The Kings of Norway, Denmark and Sweden, at their conference in Christiania, says an official statement, reached an agreement on the following points:
"First.—By reason of the harmony existing between the three countries, however long the war may last and whatever form it may take, the cordial relations and mutual confidence of the three kingdoms shall be maintained.
"Second.—In conformity with the previous declarations and policies of the three countries, it is the full intention of their governments each for itself to observe the utmost degree of neutrality toward all belligerent powers.
"Third.—The desire is expressed reciprocally to aid one another with merchandise during the present difficulties, and special representatives are to meet immediately to facilitate the exchange of merchandise.
"At the meeting there was a discussion in reference to legislation dealing with the relations of foreigners and Scandinavian subjects. An agreement also was reached regarding the continuation of preparatory measures toward safeguarding the common interests of neutrals during and after the war. The desirability of co-operation between the three countries was expressed as at previous conferences."—N. Y. Times, 2/12.
ECUADOR BREAKS WITH GERMANY.—Ecuador has severed diplomatic relations with Germany, according to an official announcement made by the government to-day.
Ecuador has been on the verge of breaking diplomatic relations with Germany since early in October last, when Peru-Ecuador's neighbor on the south, dismissed the German Minister at Lima, Dr. Perl. After receiving his passports from the Peruvian' Government, Dr. Perl, who also was the accredited Minister to Ecuador, intimated that he would take up his residence at Quito, the Ecuadorian capital.
The Ecuadorian Secretary of Foreign Affairs, however, announced that the Minister would not be received officially by the government of Ecuador. Dispatches from Quito said the action of the Foreign Secretary was taken in order to demonstrate the close affiliation of Ecuador with the union of the American republics. This step was construed in diplomatic circles as equivalent to a rupture of relations between Ecuador and Germany.—N. Y. Times, 9/12.
CUBA AT WAR WITH AUSTRIA.—The House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring a state of war existed between Austria-Hungary and the Republic of Cuba. The action was taken following the reading of a message from President Menocal recommending such a declaration.—N. Y. Herald, 13/12.