The United States, we are expressly told, does not mean
to have any voice in determining what the terms of peace shall be, but only in determining whether they shall be made lasting or not by a universal covenant. In the first place, says the President, the terms must prove that the present struggle was for a just and secure peace and not only for a new balance of power. If it was only for a new balance of power, who can guarantee the stability of the arrangement ? " Only a tranquil Europe can be a stable Europe. There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power ; not organized rival- ries, but an organized common peace." The President goes on to say that " fortunately we have received very explicit assurances on this point." As he understands the replies of the belligerents they are agreed that peace must be " peace without victory "- i.e., not a peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. The kind of peace which the President looks to, because it is the only peace which can last, is a peace between equals.
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