Appreciating the importance of the declaration of his Holiness, the Imperial Government has not failed to submit the suggestions contained in it to earnest and scrupulous examination. The special measures which the government has taken, in the closest contact with the representatives of the German people, to discuss and answer the questions raised prove how earnestly it desires, in accordance with the desire of his Holiness and with the peace resolution adopted by the Reichstag on July 19, to find a practical basis for a just and lasting peace. The Imperial Government welcomes with special sympathy the leading idea of the peace appeal, in which his Holiness clearly expresses his conviction that in the future the material power of arms must be superseded by the moral power of right. We also are convinced that the sick body of human society can only be healed by the fortifying moral strength of right. From this would follow, according to the view of his Holiness, the simultaneous diminution of the armed forces of all states and the institution of obligatory [binding] arbitration in international disputes. We share the view of his Holiness that definite rules and certain safeguards for the simultaneous and reciprocal limitation of armaments on land and sea and in the air, as well as for the true freedom and community of the high seas [constitute the subjects for discussion between the states] are the things in treating which the new spirit that in future should prevail in international relations, should find its first hopeful expression. The task would then of itself arise of deciding international differences of opinion, not by the use of armed forces but by peaceful methods, especially by arbitration, the great peace-producing effect of which we, together with his Holiness, fully recognize. The Imperial Government will, in this respect, support every proposal which is compatible with the vital interests of the German Empire and people. Germany, owing to her geographical situation and her economic requirements, has to rely on peaceful intercourse with her neighbors and distant countries. No people, therefore, has more reason than the German people to wish that, instead of universal hatred and battle, a conciliatory and fraternal spirit should prevail between the nations. If the nations are guided by this spirit it will be recognized to their advantage that the important thing is to lay more stress upon what unites them than upon what separates them in their relations. They will also succeed in settling individual points of conflict which are still undecided, in such a way that conditions of existence will be created which will be satisfactory to every nation, and thereby a repetition of the great world catastrophe would appear to be impossible. Only on this condition can a lasting peace be founded which will promote an intellectual rapprochement and a return to the economic prosperity of human society. This serious and sincere conviction encourages our confidence that our enemies also may see a suitable basis in the ideas submitted by his Holiness for approaching nearer to the preparation of the future peace under conditions corresponding to the spirit of reasonableness, and to the situation in Europe. [The document is signed by the Imperial Chancellor, and is addressed to Cardinal Gasparri.] REPLY OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY TO THE POPE'S PEACE APPEAL 1 HOLY FATHER, With due veneration and deep emotion we take cognizance of the new representations which your Holiness, in fulfillment of the holy office entrusted to you by God, makes to us and the heads of the other belligerent states with the noble intention of leading the heavily-tried nations to a unity that will restore peace to them. With a thankful heart we receive this fresh gift of fatherly care which you, holy father, always bestow on all peoples without distinction, and from the depth of our heart we greet the moving exhortation which your Holiness has addressed to the governments of the belligerent peoples. During this cruel war we have always looked up to your Holiness as to the highest personage, who, in virtue of his mission which reaches beyond earthly things, and thanks to the high conception of his duties laid upon him, stands high above the belligerent peoples and who, inaccessible to all influence, was able to find a way which may lead to the realization of our own desire for peace, lasting and honorable for all parties. Since ascending the throne of our ancestors and fully conscious of the responsibility which we bear before God and men for the fate of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, we have never lost sight of the high aim of restoring to our peoples as speedily as possible the blessings of peace. Soon after our accession to the throne it was vouchsafed to us, in common with our allies, to undertake a step which had been considered and prepared by our exalted predecessor, Francis Joseph, to pave the way for a lasting and honorable peace. 1 New York Times, September 22, 1917. We gave expression to this desire in a speech from the throne delivered at the opening of the Austrian Reichstag, thereby showing that we are striving after a peace that shall free the future life of the nation from rancor and a thirst for revenge and that shall secure them for generations to come from the employment of armed forces. Our joint government has in the meantime not failed in repeated and emphatic declarations, which could be heard by all the world, to give expression to our own will and that of the Austro-Hungarian peoples to prepare an end to bloodshed by a peace such as your Holiness has in mind. Happy in the thought that our desires from the first were directed toward the same object which your Holiness to-day characterizes as one we should strive for, we have taken into close consideration the concrete and practical suggestions of your Holiness and have come to the following conclusions: With deep-rooted conviction we agree to the leading idea of your Holiness that the future arrangement of the world must be based on the elimination of armed forces and on the moral force of right and on the rule of international justice and legality. We, too, are imbued with the hope that a strengthening of the sense of right would morally regenerate humanity. We support, therefore, your Holiness' view that the negotiations between the belligerents should and could lead to an understanding by which, with the creation of appropriate guarantees, armaments on land and sea and in the air might be reduced simultaneously, reciprocally and gradually to a fixed limit, and whereby the high seas, which rightly belong to all the nations of the earth, may be freed from domination or paramountcy, and be opened equally for the use of all. Fully conscious of the importance of the promotion of peace on the method proposed by your Holiness, namely, to submit international disputes to compulsory arbitration, we are also prepared to enter into negotiations regarding this proposal. If, as we most heartily desire, agreements should be arrived at between the belligerents which would realize this sublime idea and thereby give security to the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy for its unhampered future development, it can then not be difficult to find a satisfactory solution of the other questions which still remain to be settled between the belligerents in a spirit of justice and of a reasonable consideration of the conditions for existence of both parties. If the nations of the earth were to enter, with a desire for peace, into negotiations with one another in the sense of your Holiness' proposals, then peace could blossom forth from them. The nations could attain complete freedom of movement on the high seas, heavy material burdens could be taken from them and new sources of prosperity opened to them. Guided by a spirit of moderation and conciliation, we see in the proposals of your Holiness a suitable basis for initiating negotiations with a view to preparing a peace, just to all and lasting, and we earnestly hope our present enemies may be animated by the same ideas. In this spirit we beg that the Almighty may bless the work of peace begun by your Holiness. EXECUTIVE ORDER OF THE URUGUAYAN GOVERNMENT REGARDING THE TREATMENT OF AMERICAN NATIONS AT WAR1 Considering that, in various communications, the Government of Uruguay has proclaimed the principle of American solidarity as the criterion of its international policy, understanding that the grievance against the rights of one country of the continent would be considered as a grievance by all and provoke them to uniform and common reaction; second, that, in the hope of seeing an agreement in this respect realized between the nations of America which may make the practical and efficient application of such ideals possible, the Government has adopted a watchful attitude with reference to its action, although it has signified in each case its sympathy with the continental nations which have seen themselves obliged to abandon their neutrality. Considering that as long as such an agreement is not made, Uruguay, without acting contrary to its sentiments and convictions, could not treat the American nations, which in defense of their own rights find themselves compromised in an intercontinental war, as belligerents; and considering that this criterion is shared by the honorable Senate, the President of the Republic, at a general Cabinet meeting, decrees: First, to order that no American country, which in defense of its own rights should find itself in a state of war with nations of other continents, will be treated as belligerents; second, that it is ordered that existing decrees which may be in opposition to this resolution are to remain without fulfillment; third, let it be communicated, published, and so forth. (Signed) VIERA, President. 1 Official Bulletin, Washington, June 20, 1917. |