Ambassador Sharp to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN EMBASSY, Mr. Sharp reports receipt from French Foreign Office of reply of Allied Governments to proposal of Central Powers transmitted in Department's telegram of December 16, 1916. Translation of reply of Allied Governments is as follows: The Allied Governments of Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, and Servia, unitedly in the defense of the liberty of nations and faithful to the engagement they have taken not to lay down arms separately, have resolved to answer collectively the so-called proposals of peace which have been addressed them on behalf of the enemy Governments, through the intermediary of the United States, of Spain, of Switzerland, and of the Netherlands. The Allied Powers are constrained to preface their answer by protesting strongly against the two essential assertions in the note of the enemy powers, which attempts to throw upon the Allies the responsibility of the war and which proclaims the victory of the Central Powers. The Allies can not admit an assertion which is doubly inexact and which is sufficient to render barren any attempt at negotiation. For thirty months the Allied Powers have suffered a war which they had tried by every means to avoid. They have demonstrated their attachment to peace by their acts. This attachment is as strong to-day as it was in 1914; after the violation of her engagements, it is not upon the word of Germany that peace, broken by her, can be based. A suggestion without any conditions for initiating negotations is not an offer of peace. The so-called proposal, devoid of substance and of precision, circulated abroad by the Imperial Government, appears less as an offer of peace than as a maneuver of war. It is based upon a systematic disregard of the nature of the struggle of the past, present, and future. As to the past, the German note ignoring all the facts, dates, and figures which prove that the war was desired, incited, and declared by Germany and Austria-Hungary. At The Hague it was the German delegate who rejected all suggestion of disarmament. In July, 1914, it was Austria-Hungary who, after having addressed to Servia an ultimatum, of which there exists no precedent, declared war on her despite the satisfaction immediately obtained. The Central Empires thereafter repulsed every attempt made by the Entente to bring about a pacific solution to what was a local conflict. England's offer of a conference, the French proposal of an international commission, the request for arbitration addressed by the Emperor of Russia to the Emperor of Germany, the understanding reached between Russia and Austria-Hungary on the eve of hostilities; all these endeavors were left by Germany without answer and without issue. Belgium was invaded by an empire which had guaranteed her neutrality and which itself unhesitatingly proclaimed that treaties are "mere scraps of paper" and that "necessity knows no law." As regards the present, the so-styled offers of Germany are based upon a "war map" which covers Europe alone; which expresses only the exterior and transitory aspect of the situation, but not the real strength of the adversaries. To conclude a peace based on the above would be to the sole advantage of the aggressors, who, having believed they could attain their object in two months perceive after two years that it will never be attained. For the future, the ruins caused by the German's declaration of war, the innumerable aggressions committed by Germany and her allies against the belligerents and against neutrals demand penalties, reparations, and guarantees; Germany eludes one and all. In reality, the overture made by the Central Powers is but an attempt calculated to work upon the evolution of the war and of finally imposing a German peace. It has for its object the troubling of opinion in the Allied countries; this opinion, in spite of all the sacrifices endured, has already replied with an admirable firmness and has denounced the hollowness of the enemy declaration. It desires to strengthen public opinion in Germany and amongst her allies already so gravely shaken by their losses, fatigued by the economic encirclement, and crushed by the supreme effort which is exacted from their peoples. It seeks to deceive, to intimidate public opinion of neutral countries long ago satisfied as to the original responsibilities, enlightened as to the present responsibilities, and too farseeing to favor the designs of Germany by abandoning the defense of human liberties. It strives finally to justify new crimes in advance before the eyes of the world: Submarine warfare, deportations, forced labor, and enlistment of nationals against their own country, violation of neutrality. It is with a full realization of the gravity, but also of the necessities of this hour that the Allied Governments closely united and in perfect communion with their peoples refuse to entertain a proposal without sincerity and without import. They affirm, once again, that no peace is possible as long as the reparation of violated rights and liberties, the acknowledgment of the principle of nationalities and of the free existence of small states shall not be assured; as long as there is no assurance of a settlement to suppress definitely the causes which for so long a time have menaced nations and to give the only efficacious guarantees for the security of the world. The Allied Powers, in termination, are constrained to expose the following considerations which bring into relief the particular situation in which Belgium finds herself after two and a half years of war. By virtue of international treaties signed by five of the great powers of Europe, amongst which figured Germany, Belgium profited by a special statute which rendered her territory inviolate, and placed the country itself under the guarantee of these powers, sheltered from European conflicts. Nevertheless Belgium, despite these treaties, was the first to suffer the aggression of Germany. It is why the Belgian Government deems it necessary to specify the purpose which Belgium has never ceased to pursue in fighting, beside the Powers of the Entente for the cause of right and justice. Belgium has always scrupulously observed the duties imposed upon her by neutrality. She took arms to defend her independence and her neutrality violated by Germany and to remain faithful to her international obligations. On the fourth of August at the Reichstag the Chancellor acknowledged that this aggression constituted an injustice contrary to the right of nations and agreed in the name of Germany to repair it. After two and a half years this injustice has been cruelly aggravated by the practice of war and occupation which have exhausted the resources of the country, ruined its industries, devastated its cities and villages, multiplied the massacres, the executions, and imprisonments. And at the moment that Germany speaks to the world of peace and humanity she deports and reduces to servitude. Belgium before the war had no other wish than to live in concord with all her neighbors. Her King and her Government have only one purpose: The reestablishment of peace and of right. But they will only consider a peace which Belgian citizens by the thousand (demand?) assures to their country legitimate reparation, guarantees, and security for the future. SHARP. The Secretary of State to Ambassador Gerard.1 [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 2, 1917. This Government has received the following translation of the note of the Entente Powers replying to the overtures of the Central Same to American Embassies at Vienna and Constantinople and American Legation at Sofia. Powers. Please deliver this note to the Government to which you are accredited, with the statement that the French text is being forwarded directly to you by the American Embassy, Paris, and that it will be delivered upon receipt. (For text, see supra, p. 280, telegram from Ambassador Sharp.) LANSING. Ambassador Gerard to the Secretary of State. [Telegram-Paraphrase.] AMERICAN EMBASSY, Berlin, January 12, 1917. Mr. Gerard reports receipt of note from German Foreign Office as follows: Through the medium of the Government of the United States, the Royal Government of Spain, and the Swiss Federal Government, the Imperial and Royal Government has received its adversaries' reply to the note of December 12 in which Germany, in accord with its allies, proposed an early opening of peace negotiations. The adversaries reject the proposal under pretense that it is insincere and meaningless. The form in which they put their refusal excludes any idea of a reply. The Imperial Government nevertheless wishes to make known to the Governments of the neutral powers its view of the situation. The Central Powers have no occasion to revert to the discussions as to the origin of the world war. It is for history to pass judgment on the monstrous responsibility for the conflict. Its verdict will not any more leave out of consideration the encircling policy of Great Britain, the revengeful policy of France, the yearning of Russia for Constantinople than the provocation from Servia, the Serajevo assassination, and the general Russian mobilization which meant war with Germany. Germany and its allies having been compelled to take up arms in defense of their freedom and existence consider they have accomplished that end of their efforts. On the other hand, the enemy powers have drifted farther and farther away from the achievement of their plans, which, according to the statements of their responsible statesmen, aimed, among other things, at the conquest of Alsace Lorraine and of several Prussian provinces, the humiliation and curtailment of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the partition of Turkey, and the mutilation of Bulgaria. Such demands give at least a strange sound to the pretension of sanction, repatriation, and guaranty in the mouths of our adversaries. Our adversaries call the peace proposal of the four allied powers a war maneuver. Germany and its allies must enter the most emphatic protest against so false an interpretation of the motives for their step which they have openly disclosed. They were convinced that a just peace, acceptable to all the belligerents, is feasible; that it can be attained through an immediate oral exchange of views and that therefore further bloodshed is indefensible. The fact that they have unreservedly shown their readiness to make known their peace proposals as soon as the negotiations were opened disposes of any doubt as to their sincerity. The adversaries who were given the opportunity to examine the value of that offer neither attempted to do so nor offered counter proposals. Instead, they declare any peace to be impossible as long as they are not assured reparation for invaded rights and freedoms, acknowledgment of the principle of nationalities and the free existence of small States. The sincerity which our adversaries will not acknowledge in the four allied powers' proposal can hardly be conceded to those demands by the world when it recalls the fate of the Irish people, the obliteration of the freedom and independence of the South African Republics, the conquest of North Africa by Great Britain, France and Italy, the oppression of foreign nationalities by Russia, and lastly, the act unprecedented in history which is constituted by the violence brought to bear on Greece. Likewise it ill becomes those powers to complain of alleged violations of international law by the four allied powers, as they themselves have since the beginning of the war trampled the law under foot and torn the treaties upon which the law rests. In the early weeks following the opening of hostilities Great Britain disowned its adhesion to the Declaration of London and yet the text had been acknowledged by its own delegates to be conformable to the law of nations, and, as such, valid. In the course of the war it also violated in the most grave manner the Declaration of Paris, so that its arbitrary measures have created in the conduct of maritime warfare the state of illegality that now exists. The attempt to overcome Germany by starvation and the pressure exercised on the neutrals in the interest of Great Britian are at equally flagrant variance with the rules of international laws and the laws of humanity. Another infringement of the law of nations that can not be reconciled with the principles of civilization is the use of colored troops as also is the transfer of war in violation of existing treaties the effect of which can not but destroy the prestige of the white race in those countries. The inhuman treatment of prisoners, especially in Africa and Russia, the deportation of the civilian population of East Prussia, of Alsace Lorraine, Galicia, and Bukowina are as many further proofs of the manner in which our adversaries understand the respect of law and civilization. Our adversaries close their note of December 30 with a statement laying stress on the peculiar situation in Belgium. The Impe |