10. Servia offers serious difficulties, having no outlet on the sea, and no possibility of using the little railway of Montenegro, from Virpazar on the lake to Antivari on the sea. To reach the sea, Servia must include unwilling populations, either Herzegovina with Ragusa, Gravosa and Cáttaro, or else the bulk of Albania, with Durazzo. The Serbian army officers have been very brutal towards Bulgarian and Albanian subjects.

11. Constantinople is one of the great problems. To have it in control of Germany or of Russia will meet great objection. To make of the region east of the Enos-Midia Line and across in Asia a similar district, a separate neutralized, unfortified state, would have advantages, likewise serious embarrassments. On the whole it may be best to leave it in Turkey, under some sort of guarantees. In any case the Dardanelles and Bosphorus should be open and unfortified. The Berlin-Bagdad scheme is no war matter, any more than the British "Cape to Cairo " railway, and should not be opposed by Russia. 12. Palestine (Zion), should have autonomy or independence. Syria (Damascus), should be given auton

omy.

13. Arabia is apparently already independent of Turkey. 14. Armenia must have autonomy and such guarantees as may be possible. Russian rule may be acceptable, for in the words of an Armenian leader, there are degrees even in Hell!"

15. The problems of Russia must be settled by the Russian people. The demands for autonomy of Finland, Ukrainia, Caucasus, Armenia, Siberia, seem to point towards Federation.

16. The only hope of Austria seems to be Federation; a matter which the incoherent nationalities must settle somehow for themselves.

17. The problem of Poland and Lithuania must be worked out by the people. Russian and Austrian Poland

might be united, under a form of government to be chosen. But indications point toward stormy times, whatever the solution. The German Baltic provinces need to be considered.

18. The matter of indemnities is yet to be settled. It is not likely to be possible for any nation to enforce their payment. There is but one way to collect indemnities, unless granted.

19. The matter of disarmament is of prime importance. The poverty of Europe will guarantee its permanence, unless the United States becomes a militant nation.

20. Outside of the west of Europe no nation pays much regard to rights of minorities or of smaller nationalities within their limits. Otherwise, geographical matters would have less importance.

21. None of these matters can be settled by war. The safety from war demands that no nation gain any good thing from it.

PEACE PROGRAM OF THE UNION FOR

DEMOCRATIC CONTROL

[The Union of Democratic Control was formed in England shortly after the outbreak of the war with the object of securing a new course of diplomatic policy. Its Secretary has been Mr. Morel, author of various works on Africa and the Congo abuses and "Ten Years of Secret Diplomacy" dealing especially with Morocco. Among its spokesmen in Parliament are Messrs. Ponsonby, Trevelyan, MacDonald and Snowden.]

"A stage in the war has been reached when the democracies of all the belligerent countries are beginning to work towards a peace based on the same general principles. The frankest statement of those ideas is contained in the declaration of the Russian democratic government in favor of:

"Peace without annexations and without indemnities on the basis of the right of nations to decide their own destiny." The Russian Government further declared:

'The government deems it to be its duty to declare now that free Russia does not aim at the domination of other nations, at depriving them of their national patrimony or at occupying by force foreign territories, but that its object is to establish a durable peace on the basis of the rights of nations to decide their own destiny. The Russian nation does not lust after the strengthening of its power abroad at the expense of other nations."

On behalf of Great Britain on May 23, Lord Robert Cecil, replying in the House of Commons, declared that: "Our aims and aspirations were dictated solely by our determination to secure a peace founded on national liberty

and international amity, and that all imperialistic aims based on force and conquest were completely absent from our program."

President Wilson, in his recent message to Russia, declared:

"No people must be forced under a sovereignty under which it does not wish to live. No territory must change hands except for the purpose of securing those who inhabit it a fair chance of life and liberty. No indemnities must be insisted on except those that constitute payment for manifest wrong done. No readjustments of power must be made except such as will tend to secure the future peace of the world and the future welfare and happiness of the peoples." The German Chancellor declared in the Reichstag on May 17:

'We did not go to war, and we are not fighting now against almost the whole world, in order to make conquests but only to secure our existence, and firmly to establish the future of the nation."

We have here the common principles by which all the governments now profess to be guided.

The frame of mind of the various nations is now such that no government can afford to lay itself open to the charge of prolonging the war for the purpose of annexing new territory, either in Europe or outside Europe.

In consequence of this unanimity of profession the Executive Committee of the Union for Democratic Control has considered what these declarations mean in terms of practical politics, and makes the following suggestions which are not final nor incapable of modification, but as a suitable basis for further examination and discussion.

The settlement arrived at when the war concludes will necessarily be imperfect. The stability of peace will depend quite as much on the methods adopted for dealing with new international difficulties as they arise and the existence of international machinery for meeting racial, economic and other rivalries in the future, as upon the immediate wisdom of the settlement. Machinery for making international

changes without war is one of the indispensable conditions of permanent peace.

No Forcible Annexations

As a preliminary to any rearrangement of territorial boundaries, it ought to be made perfectly clear that all claims based on conquest, imperialistic ambition or strategic considerations such as a German demand for a revision of strategic frontiers in Belgium and elsewhere, an Italian demand for an Italian Dalmatia or a Russian demand for Constantinople, are ruled out on principle. There must be a complete acceptance of a policy of "no annexations."

Our suggestions are as follows:

(a) Belgium.

The complete reëstablishment of the sovereign independence and integrity and the economic restoration of Belgium must be absolutely secured.

(b) France.

The invaded districts of France must be evacuated.

(c) Servia, Montenegro and Roumania must be evacuated and their independence restored.

(d) Alsace and Lorraine.

The disposition of Alsace and Lorraine should be decided on the principles of the right of the population to control its own destiny. The decision would not necessarily imply the allocation of the whole of both provinces to either France or Germany. Neither should the policy of autonomy be excluded.

In this, as in other cases where the views of a population are subject to dispute, the question ought to be decided, by a plébiscite or otherwise, under the supervision of an impartial international commission and free from the interference of accompanying armies.

(e) Trentino.

The claims of Italy to Trentino or other " unredeemed districts ought to be decided by the same process.

(f) Poland.

Poland should be free and independent. The population