The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Præevalebit. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1916. GERMAN "FRIGHTFULNESS."

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3563, 25 September 1916, Page 4

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Præevalebit. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1916. GERMAN "FRIGHTFULNESS."

Even if Germany proved successful in the war—and nothing 1 is more certain, than that she will be decisively beriten—it. would have been in spite of the most amazing blunders and miscalculations. It is yery doubtful if she would have ■ achieved--anything 'more than the defeat of France if she had not committed' the irretrievable blunder of invading Belgium, because Britain and Russia would have been able to suppress

any further martial aspirations

she may have had; but it is certain that if the German War Council's plans' had been made with even ordinary cleverness the nation's position to-day would not have been so desperately critical. It was supposed to be a peculiarly German aptitude, notpossible of imitation by other nations, to prepare for the mirrutest 'particulars of a great war. German patience, German industry, and German thoroughness were all thought to be maturing results that would astound the world. But the result of this combination of qualities and -virtues has been to astonish the world only by its disastrous failure. Historically, the war can be .narrated by a series of axioms, laid down by German genius, and all of them have proved" erroneous. They j were, in their order, the crushing of Belgium, Without pause; the capture of Paris in one smashing blow, which would necessarily involve the surrender of the entire French atmy; the non-interven-tion of Britain; a hurried .return across Germany to meet the Russians, who would be caught between greats Austrian forces from the* south and the German army from the north. Every one of these essential suppositions was wrong; and the subsequent history of Germany's campaigns shows that, instead of profiting by^her initial blunders, she has endeavoured to correct miscalculations by even more serious mistakes. The policy of " frightful^ ness" comes under this category, and the New York "Tribune's" merciless" criticism (cabled on. Saturday) reflects the opinion of the rest of the world on this, the most unexplainable of Germany's tragic blunders. The world has never 'known, since Attila's day, anything so shockingly brutal as the behaviour of the German troops in Belgium and France. Many a German prisoner has said that brutality was enjoined upon him as a duty, for the!lucid reason that it would strike terror into the heart of the enemy. The soldier had it from his officer;

the officer from his.superiors; and they, no doubt, were schooled by the omniscient professors. It requires, a lunatic state of mind to accept 'such fatuous teaching. Only to Germans and barbarians would the thought; occur that wlieft the British and French soldiers heard of the awful brutality of the German soldiers, and daily saw evidence of it in the corpses of murdered women and children, they would be psychologically actuated ; to 1 such fear of German power that they Avould cry ior peace, or would run in terror from their trenches. But it w.as all a mistake, and if the Germans had been constituted as other human beings are they would have been aware of it.

Horrid cruelty does not temfv—

it infuriates, it numbs the sense of fear, . it makes the onlooker "see red," and incites a wild dosire for retaliation and. vengeance. Germany has had plenty of evidence'of this feeling- on f;he part of the British. The sinking of the' Lusitania, the Falaba, and other passenger ships, the early Zeppelin raids upon England, and the bombardment of English seaside towns, brought thousands of recruits flocking to the colours. Similarly, the murder of Nurse Cavell roused in the British and French, populations a • desire for retribution, and this feeling was reflected in enormous additions to Britain's armies. The Germans have out-Heroded Herod in crime, j

ami whether their wnr lords decide upon the resumption of the campaign of murder on the high seas, or whether at last they recognise the futility of such , a course, the Allies are determined that, as far as is humanly possible, retrihution will be exacted —that "the sins (the Germans) have done two by two, they shall pay for one by one."