MORE DAMAGING THAN THE LUSITANIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3056, 18 April 1917, Page 8

MORE DAMAGING THAN THE LUSITANIA

THE GERMAN PLOT IN MEXICO

"FANTASTIC VILLAINY"

More-damaging to Germany's repute than the Lusitania case —that is the assessment iu Washington of the probahlo effect of contemporaneous opinion as well' as on that of future generations of the revelation by the United States Government of a plot officially engineered by the Imperial German Government to involve Mexico and Japan in war with the United States (wrote Mr. David Lawrence in a special dispatch from Washington to Ahe New York "Evening Post" 'on March 2). While the destruction of the Lusitania and the principles involved in submarine warfare may present to the minds of manv persons a problem of international morality not entirely -unjustified by pleas of military necessity, the note signed the authenticity of which is attested by President Wilson and Mr. Lansing, affords no such basis for legal argument, 'but is a plain case of perfidy—a Government- convicted of duplicity in its relations with another, an offence beside which the"-! charges in jjie "White" papers and "Orange" papers and other documents relating to the outbreak of the' European war, are' considered to be hardly as convincing—at least to American. minds. Evidenoe Absoluts. |

"The evidence is absolute—it is con- | vincing. need have not i the slightest doubt,-" is the way : ,one ,of "the highest officials of the' United States Government expressed it.' So confident were the officials of the United States Government of. the completeness of tlieii" case against Germany that they refused in any way to be moved, either by the curiosity of Congress or the Press, as to the means by which the Note was obtained. Mr. Lansing was asked dozens of questions at Iris conference with the correspondents. His attention was called to Seifator Stone's speech, declaring that British or some other foreign source" had supplied the- State Department with its information.. He /was asked if he would state positively . that tho American Government obtained the information -through its own agents. He was interrogated as to the reasons for the riijid secrecy, arid admitted that one of those was to safeguard the lives of certain people—but only one of the reasons. He declined to spv what the other reasons were. To all questions, in fact, he returned a negative answer and concluded with this' smiliinr observation: , ' "Do you think I would tell fc!«\ Press what I haven't, told Congress?" A Well-kept Secret. Few secrets have.been as well kept in recent years as the means by which the Government obtained the Zimmerman Note and oh the whole, there is little disposition to criticise. "We must protect our sources of information for the.future," said a State Department official,.and in an indulgent spirit of patriotism, further questions were not submitted by the correspondents. The presumption most 'genera! outside the Government, circle is that the United States not only has a copy of -'the communication, by wireless, cable, or telegraph, or' letter, \ which was sent to Count Bernstorff, the German Ambassador by Mr. Zimmerman, but that this document was checked up by seizure ,of the message which was actually sent to the German Minister in Mexico City.

It is nn ill-wind that Mows no'(rood, and a feeling-prevails in official circles that, somehow Japan and the United States have been drawn closer together, as lias this country and its neighbour to_ the South. Mr. Lansing's promptness in ' announcing that the Ilnitpd States was jonfident that neither Mexico nor Japan would he a party to German schemes was appreciated in Mexican and Japanese oiiarters.lre-. Rpectively. It was sincerely expressed and as sincerely received.

Evil of Secret Diplomacy. "The wickedness of secret diplomacy, is the moral the "Manchester Guardian' drew from! the account ,of German intrigues in Mexico.', "President Wilson would seem to have drawn it, said the "Guardian," "and we are inclined to think the publication of the .story the most significant thing that has happened between neutrals and Germany sine©, the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany." While the "Guardian" contends that German methods are worse than those of the diplomacy' of other nations, it believes the vices "which are nauseous in tho Mexican story are inherent in every system of secret diplomacy/' and it advocates the cleansing of diplomatic' stables after the war, and a return to candour, integrity, and straightforwardness in international affairs. "One cannot read a story like this," the newspaper adds, "without falling in love with the virtues of candour, simplicity, and loyalty in public "affairs, and not only loving them as fair virtues, but honouring them for their extraordinary efficiency as instruments of human relationship." ■ - The "Westminster Gazette," .which branded the . plot as "fantastic villainy," said: ■

"It has all the clumsiness, all the malice and shallow cunning of the other machinations of the same kind that we disclosed in Egypt, India, and Ireland. It is thoroughly characteristic of the apostles of kultur and of the Kaiser, who is tho protector of Islam and inciter of. holy wars by Eastern races against Europeans. It is also characteristic that /they are not oven able to keep their plots to themselves, but are discovered before they have begun, with the incriminating v documents upon them." The' German document, the! "Gazette" says, will show Americans that "Germany's machinations and ambitions are not confined to Europe, Asia, and Africa. It shows them what is her real estimate of the Monroe Doctrine and how far she would respect it if victory- should give her the opportunity of floutine it. . . (Clumsy and stupid as this document is, there could hardly, bo more explosive matter packed into the short space, .or so much warning offered in a' few words, to Americans of what is at stake' for them in the European war." >

Senator T. 0. Davis has died at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He was elected to the House of' Commons for Saskatchewan in 1896, in place of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who vacated the seat to accept Quebec East. ' Mr. Davis became Whip for the West in 1901, artd was appointed to the Senate in 1904.

Mr. Sharp, the Ambassador of the United States in Paris, was th.e principal guest at a banquet' which was given b ythe Franco-American Committee in token of French recognition and appreciation of the charitable spirit of which the American people has given such .signal example during the war. The Belgian Minister, iVI Carton de' Wiart, and M. Vcsnich, the Serbian Minister, were also present.

Persons repatriated from the northern districts of France who 'have arrived at Fvian give serious accounts of the havoc wrought by the Germans. Houses have been burnt and forests cut down, but the worst evil is the labour for the enemy which jvhole populations, ' without distinction of age or sex, a*o forced to perform.