The Allies next proceed to meet the desire expressed by
Mr. Wilson that the belligerent Powers should define in the full light of day their aims in prosecuting the war. The Allies of course find no difficulty in answering this request. Their aims can only be set forth in detail, " with all the compensations and equitable indemnities for harm suffered," when the negotiations are in progress :— " But the civilized world lmows that they imply, necessarily and first of all, the restoration of Belgium, Serbia, and Montenegro, with the compensations duo to them ; the evacuation of the invaded territories in France, in Russia, in Rumania, with just reparation ; the reorganization of Europe, guaranteed by a stable regime and based at once on respect for nationalities and on the right to full security and liberty of economic development possessed by all peoples, small and great, and at the same time upon territorial conventions and international settlements such as to guarantee land and sea frontiers against unjustified attack ; the resti- tution of provinces formerly torn from the Allies by force or against the wish of their inhabitants ; the liberation of the Italians, as also of the Slays, Rumanes, and Czecho-Slovaks from foreign domination ; the setting free of the populations subject to the bloody tyranny of the Turks ; and the turning out of Europe of the Ottoman Empire as decidedly foreign to Western civilization."
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