The peace we make must remedy that
wrong. It must deliver the once fair lands and happy peoples of Belgium
and northern France from the Prussian conquest and the Prussian menace,
but it must also deliver the peoples of Austria-Hungary, the peoples of
the Balkans, and the peoples of Turkey, alike in Europe and in Asia,
from the impudent and alien dominion of the Prussian military and
commercial autocracy.
We owe it, however, to ourselves to say that we do not wish in any way
to impair or to rearrange the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is no affair
of ours what they do with their own life, either industrially or
politically. We do not purpose or desire to dictate to them in any way.
We only desire to see that their affairs are left in their own hands, in
all matters, great or small. We shall hope to secure for the peoples of
the Balkan peninsula and for the people of the Turkish Empire the right
and opportunity to make their own lives safe, their own fortunes secure
against oppression or injustice and from the dictation of foreign courts
or parties.
And our attitude and purpose with regard to Germany herself are of a
like kind.
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