Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/516

LEFT WORLD WAR 446 WORLD WAR in April declared that force would con- tinue to be employed against Germany. Nevertheless expressions of opinion con- tinued to be made on one side and an- other, and the charge of Count Czernin that the question of Alsace-Lorraine had alone prevented a settlement, Pre- mier Clemenceau retorted by publishing the noted "Sixtus Letter" in which ex- pression was given to the willingness of the Austrian Emperor to the restoration of Belgium and Serbia and the recogni- tion of the rights of France in respect to Alsace-Lorraine. A period of "dis- closures" and recriminations followed in which letters by Prince Lichnowsky were followed by diaries by Dr. Miihlon, a former director of Krupps, who had settled in Switzerland. In the mean- time the Ukraine, having declared a re- public, made a peace agreement vdth Germany, and agreed to exchange food products with the Central Powers, who were to pay in manufactured goods. On March 3 the revolutionary government of Russia signed the treaty of Brest- Litovsk, another treaty being signed with Finland, the independence of which was recognized by Germany. In March a treaty was also signed between the Central Powers and the occupied king- dom of Rumania. A meeting on May 16 between the German and Austrian emperors at the German headquarters was succeeded by the announcement of a renewal of the alliance between their respective countries for twenty or twenty-five years. Discussions were, however, not left en- tirely to governments and the heads of governments. The Socialist and Labor parties in all the belligerent countries carried on pourparlers indirectly, the up- shot generally being that these parties, while holding in common certain princi- ples, identified themselves with the v/ar aspirations of their respective countries. Efforts were occasionally made to bring about a conference, and Huysmans, sec- retary of the Brussels International Socialist Bureau, invited an expression of opinion from the German Socialists on the memorandum of war aims adopt- ed at the Inter-Allied Labor and Social- ist Conference at London late in Febru- ary. The declaration of war aims con- tained in the memorandum was declared to be annexationist in character by Herr Scheidemann, leader of the German ma- jority Socialists, who further announced that German Socialists held to the rev- olution of July, 1917. A more concili- atory attitude was taken by the German minority Socialists, who submitted a dec- laration similar to the statement of the Socialist parties in the countries of the Allies. The attitude of the Socialist parties in the other countries allied with Germany was not made clear at the time, but there was a general feeling that the principles set forth received their adhesion in varying degrees. So matters in the field of discussion and diplomacy drifted on toward the middle of the year, when in the latter part of June Von Hertling, the German Chancellor, made the statement that he had given his adhesion to the four prin- ciples adumbrated by President Wilson, but was averse to the setting up of a League of Nations such as the Allies had suggested. About the same time Von Kiihlmann, the German Foreign Minister, gave it out as his settled opinion that peace could not be achieved on the field of battle and could only be brought about by negotiation. Nowhere did this expression of opinion arouse sharper protest than in Germany, where a remarkable series of victories stretch- ing from the beginning of the war had cultivated an optimism that the darken- ing clouds of 1918 had not succeeded in overshadowing. Von Kiihlmann was accordingly forced to resign on July 9, his place being taken by Admiral von Hintze. The discussions in the Reichs- tag during this period revealed the underlying pessimism which had begun to lay hold of officials in the German Government and the German military leaders. The recurrence of Independ- ence Day in the United States mean- while gave President Wilson an oppor- tunity to restate the war aims of the United States and of the Powers associ- ated with it. He declared that those war aims sought, first, the destruction or reduction to powerlessness of every arbitrary power; secondly, a settlement on the basis of free acceptance of con- ditions by the people concerned; thirdly, consent of all nations to be governed in their relations with each other by the principles of honor and respect for the common law of civilized society; fourth- ly, the establishment of an organization of peace. Neither the substance nor the manner of President Wilson's address found an answering echo in Germany. The Chancellor, Von Hertling, in reply charged the Allies with being inspired with the spirit of aggressors, and made the declaration that it was not the de- cision of the German Government to re- main in permanent occupation of Bel- gium, and that she was retaining her hold on that country for the service such hold would be to her in Germany's subsequent dealings with the Allied Powers. Meanwhile the part Alsace- Lorraine was to play in those negotia-