President Wilson has of course a perfect right to make
any suggestions, or ask any questions, that he may think proper. But the sting of his Note for the Allies, and especially for Great Britain and France, lay in the reasons which he assigned for his proposal :-
" He takes the liberty of calling attention to the fact that the objects which the statesmen of the belligerents on both sides have in mind in this war are virtually the same, as stated in general terms to their own people and to the world. Each side desires to make the rights and privi- leges of weak peoples and small States as secure against aggression or denial in the future as the rights and privileges of the great and powerful States now at war."
The first sentence is half qualified by the phrase " as stated in general terms." The second sentence states definitely, as the President's
view, that Germany and Austria are fighting just as much as we are for the protection of Belgium and Serbia against aggression.
