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The essentially peace-loving people of the German Republic must not be left to cherish feelings of unendurable wrong, for these would remain as corrosive poisons in the heart of Europe, fomenting hatred and wrath and embittering and undermining all European and international relations for generations to come.
An Appeal to the World’s Conscience.
Germany does not come as a petitioner for the return of what is indisputably her own, but as one who has placed her faith in the pledged word which the United States, their President and their Allies gave to the world. She comes to demand her right to live, and also to lift her voice in warning lest the unreasoning hatred or the blind arrogance of the victors should seduce them into committing an irreparable wrong.
The German Republic appeals to the conscience of the world and to all thinking men and women who embody that conscience. It appeals to the wisdom of its enemies, to the sane minds that lift themselves beyond blindness and passion into the serene altitudes in which alone a just and permanent peace can be established.
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