AFTER THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3192, 17 September 1917, Page 6

AFTER THE WAR

A GERMAN FORECAST OF THE NEW PEACE CURIOUS FLIGHT OF FANCY There is a curious flight of fancy in one of the recent numbers of Hanlen's "Zukunft" on what the world will look like three months aftor the ending ot the war. It pictures a world at peace, in friendly international relationship, making use of the technical discoveries which havo been made dunig tho war for the development of commercial enterprise. It also explains the methods taken by the world to make further wars impossible, so that Maximilian Harden apparently looks forward to a reign o. eternal peace as the result of the present, conflict. The article, which is written bv Ho'rr Moritz Ernst Lesser, a professor oi' engineering, is, however, very German in spirit. The following quotations will give some idea of it: — ' ".At the end of October, three months after the ending of the world war the diiodors of the leading banks and industrial firms of Germany held a meeting to tho number of three thousand in the building of the Reichstag, under the chairmanship of the Secretary or the Home Department, and founded the company for the development of and use ot the 'inventions which had been discovered in the war. The object of the company was to employ in peace the technical progress which had evolved under Urn sinks of war, and the capital subscribed was forty times as great as the balauccBheet required. , ~ "Two weeks later the company lor tho building of private submarines -'as founded." The Super-Submarine. Tho object of this company was to build submarines for pleasure trips ana to search for the treasure which nail been sunk in the war: . ... "Soon the great shipping Unos built deep-going submarines, which were no longer dependent on the wavps, and m which one could sail without ««»*»*& As these ships travelled on a cable law under the sea, and were worked by an electrical current from the and, they iournoved at incredible speed, and au express imt made the Journey from Hamburg to New York in forty-eight hours. . It was found possible to invent a submarine which could sink to fee depth o .000 metres, and from this sprang the inter national company for raising the ships which had been sunk during the warTho work was an immense success, and as there were accurate lists of the places where the ships had been sunk immense sums of money were made. Also laige profits were earned by taking paßßMgew fn these boats for exploring thi! tort lom of the sea. Ships were found which had gone down centuries ago, and one expedition in particular vjis fitted out to recover tho treasure of a whole continent •vhieh had been sunk in a Spanish arnwln. Moreover, rich veins of coal and metal were discovered in the sea. . . . "Meanwhile wireless telegraphy was perfected, until it was possible to send a current round the entire earth _ It was also possible to supply all airships at a certain height from the earth with this current. -In this year was founded the companv for a passenger and parcel air service 'without petrol, which served all the important points of the world. Ihe parcel traffic no longer needed human pilots, because the airships which were built for the purpose were guided trom the land, an invention which was known ■before the war. Complete Disarmament. "At the same time the Peace Congress at The Hague, which represented all civilised nations, decided on the complete disarmament of the world without any restrictions. It had been learnt that every great Power had a number of largo unmanned aeroplanes loaded with thousands of bombs which were to be let loose by wireless current at the first mobilisation over all the important towns of tho enemy to' explodo their cargoes by tho same means. In this way every hostile town and place would be reduced to ruin in a few hours. This meant that there could no longer beany more war." The writer then describes tho immense .growth of the big cities and the extraordinary traffic problems that arose. These, however, were solved by setting pavements and oven streets in motion. One discovery followed another, and in America the spectral film vitascope company brought the pictures of distant events as they .happened to the theatre and private house. And among these discoveries was one for preserving the beat of the sun which did away with the necessity for coal: "And finally, as inventions reduced the trouble of living more anil more, and peoplo began to lose the use of their limbs, since everything was done for tl.em, a world conference was assembled which forbade anyone to invent anything more." This is, of course, mainly fooling in Wells's lightest vein. But it is not without its interest in giving one a clue to the German mind which in speaking of the future and a world from which war has been banished still measures everything in terms of material possession and advancement and gives no place at all to ,any change of spirit or any ideal conception of the world. According to this, the peace conference of tie future will only agree to disarmament because the methods of war have been developed to such a pitch that it will be to no one's advantage to continue war. Even Germany would consent to general disarmament before the unmanned i.eroplane, with its load of bombs scientifically guided to an exact «pot. U is hardly an encouraging sign of the growth of moral opinion in Germany that such an article should appear in a levicw which has a world-wide reputation.