Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/227

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

The Political Situation

tution of land, as in Belgium, which has been the object of an unjustifiable act of aggression, nor the liberation, the disannexation, of territories which have been annexed against the will and the imprescriptible right of their inhabitants. What you say, moreover, in that which concerns Alsace-Lorraine and the indemnities due to Belgium, Poland, etc., seems to indicate, and we are very glad to know this, that our points of view in this respect are the same.

On the other hand, we are forced now to make the most definite reservation on the other points of view which serve as the basis of your convocation.

Certainly we agree with the first Inter-Allied Conference of London that all Imperialistic Powers have their share of responsibility in the present conflict. Imperialistic International Capitalism has brought about the antagonism that made war possible, but it is the semi-feudal Imperialism of the Central Powers which let loose the catastrophe. They alone have not found among their democracy the resistance which would have made such aggression impossible. Moreover, we can

221