tween the Mediterranean and the Black Sea must be
"internationalized and neutralized." The positive statement of aims
included the complete restoration of Belgium, the return of
Alsace-Lorraine to France, rectification of the Italian boundary, the
independence of Poland, the restoration of Serbia, Montenegro, and the
occupied parts of France, Italy, and Rumania, and a disposition of the
German colonies with "primary regard to the wishes and interests of the
native inhabitants of such colonies." He insisted on reparation for
injuries done in violation of international law, but disclaimed a
demand for war indemnity. In conclusion he declared the following
conditions to be essential to a lasting peace: "First, the sanctity of
treaties must be reestablished; secondly, a territorial settlement must
be secured, based on the right of self-determination or the consent of
the governed; and lastly, we must seek, by the creation of some
international organization, to limit the burden of armaments and
diminish the probability of war."

On January 8, 1918, three days after Lloyd George's speech, President
Wilson appeared before both Houses of Congress and delivered the most
important of all his addresses on war aims. It contained the famous
Fourteen Points:

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall
be no private international understandings of any kind, but diplomacy
shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial
waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in
whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of
international covenants.

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the
establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations
consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be
reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.

V. A free, open-minded and absolutely impartial adjustment of all
colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that
in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the
populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims
of the Government whose title is to be determined.

VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of
all question