NEWS OF THE WEEK.
German counter-proposals to the Peace Treaty have
been summarized in a telegram from Berlin. These minder. proposals are very long, and are introduced by a lengthy tirade in which the Treaty is denounced as " a dying philosophy of Imperialist and capitalist tendencies celebrating its brat ter- rible triumph." Germany agrees to reduce the Army to one hundred thousand men, and offers to disarm all battleships on condition that part of her merchant fleet is left to her. The Allies could of course have disarmed all the battleships when the Armistice was arranged—there is no need to bargain now. The cession of Upper Silesia is " emphatically rejected," as also is the claim to East Prussia, West Prussia, and Memel. The neutralization of the Vistula is accepted. Germany demands a mandate to administer her former colonies, and a neutral Tribunal instead of an Allied Tribunal to try all violations of the Taws of war. Finally, Germany offers to pay one thousand million pounds by 19211, and afterwards to make further annual payments; but proposes that the total shall not exceed the five thousand millions mentioned provisionally in the Peace Treaty. We have commented on the German reply elsewhere.
