The Dominion. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1918. AMERICA AND GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 91, 10 January 1918, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1918. AMERICA AND GERMANY

The programme of world peace outlined by President Wilson_ is to be welcomed first of all as going definitely beyond anything that has yet been said with authority on behalf of America in the direction of promoting Allied unity. Dr. 'Wilson, on this occasion, not only repeats that America will fight till a just and stable peace is ensured, but in effect assures each Allied country individually that America will support it in gaining the legitimate objects it has set itself to achieve, and recognises that the attainnient of these objects is an essential preliminary to the establishment of such a peace. It is true that the President's statement, as it has been' transmitted at time of writing, leaves some important questions of detail untouched, notably those concerning the fate of Mesopotamia, Palestine, and Arabia. Nevertheless, it is more explicit than any of his previous uttorances in. identifying America with the aims of individual Allied countries. President Wilson not only reiterates the conditions of world peace he had laid down on former occasions and insists upon the evacuation and restoration of the territories the enemy has occupied and ravaged, but asserts in specific terms that the Italian frontier must be readjusted on the basis of nationality and that "the wrong of Alsace-Lorraine must be righted." In what he has to say about the autonomous development of Austria-Hungary and the larger question of the creation of a League or Association of Nations, President Wilson.breaks'no new ground, but in its total effect his statement affords final and convincing proof that the Allies are harmoniously agreed not only upon the general principles which must underlie and govern peace, but in regard to the practical measures which each one of them regards as essential to a just and stable peace. The frank endorsation by the United Stales of specific Allied aims undoubtedly assists in a most important degree to cement and consolidate the forces arrayed against Germany. In Italy, for example, mistrust and uneasiness at the general reticence or silence of other Allied countries in regard to Italian aims were freely expressed until a comcarativcLv re-

cent date. Such misunderstandings and uncertainties are weakening and seriously impede common and co-ordinated effort.' Their removal, by perfecting unity, makes for a common effort of maximum efficiency, and President Wilson's statement is obviously calculated in a very important degree to promote development on these lines. While the statement is entitled on these grounds to a warm welcome from the Allies, it cannot be overlooked that it is at the same time a message to the German people. Indeed, the fact that the. United States and Britain have selected the present time to make a detailed statement of war aims, and to set the objects fcf the Allies in the clearest possible contrast to those of Germany, affords at least suggestive evidence that more serious internal dissensions are rife in Germany than the world at large has been permitted to know. The German censorship has allowed little more to escape than that a contest is in progress between the extreme Pan-Germans and a faction which, though more moderate in-some of its detail views, still-supports a policy of predatory conquest. It would oe credulous to suppose that this covers all the ground, and it may appear before long that the true keynote of the situation was struck in _ a report published yesterday which stated that German democrats are agitating for the removal of Hinbenbueo and Ludendorff in order to end military influence over Germany's political policy. Accounts of tho sparring of German political parties deserve little atIn Germany political organisations, like most other organisations, are part of tho machinery of autocracy. Any tendency towards democratio assertion in Germany is to be looked for, if at all, outsido tho regular walks of politics, and as the result of a reaiisa- ■ tion by the masses of the people that they have been betrayed by the autocrats who deluded them with promises of illimitable victory. The Allied Governments are no doubt reasonably well informed in regard to internal conditions in Germany, and it seems possible that one main object of. the speech delivered a few days ago by Mr. Lloyd Geoeoe, and of the statement now made by PreSI2ISNT. Wilson, was to set the Allied aims clearly before the German people in the hope of stimulating a, revolt against the Pan-Germans. Liberty has always been a feeblegrowth in Germany, but even the German people, in part at least disillusioned and subjected to an almost unendurable strain, may prefor a democratic upheaval to the last grim contest on the battlefield "ffhich is 'the only alternative. Events in Russia, no doubt have had an important influence on tho masses of the German people, and the ease with which the Russian autocracy was overthrown cannot fail to stimulate democratic opinion in Germany. The war in any case ia a contest of endurance, and it is a fact to bear in mind that the German people have- nothing but fading hopes of conquest and booty to set against the- consciousness of a just cause and the deep sense of wrong which sustain and inspire tho Allies. Moreover, they have never rendered absolutely unquestioning obedience to the Pan-Ger-mans. In Berlin alone, it is stated, more than a score of mass meetings! were held in the closing days of July, 19M, to protest against the proposed war, and at one of these meetings there were said to be 70,000 men present. Even after the decision had been made, Yorwacrls asserted that tho policy of the German Government • throughout had been "utterly without conscience." During the war period many riots_ and other disturbances have borne witness to public discontent, a notable event under this head being the naval mutiny in the latter part of last year. Some evidence has been afforded also of popular disapproval of the projects uncovered at Brest Litovsk. Only a few weeks ago, Ynrwacrts, presumably in an interval of immunity from censorship, expressed uncompromising hostility to the Pan-Germans. If il; now comes to neuotinlioiiH with tho Russians (it observed), the German Government will soon recognise that it could not strive for"any other peace than that which the German people desire. The German people will not wage war five minutes longer in order that Poland may becamo Austrian and Courland and Lithuania Prussian.

This hardly seems to come within the category of criticism permitted by the German Government with a view to the deception of tho outside world. At all events, the German people, with barren conquests 'in hand, but a dark future in prospect, are faced to-day with a plain issue which President Wilson and Mr. Lloyd George have stated with masterly skill. They can, if they choose, follow a little longer the Piin-Gcnnan. autocrats who still dream (like General von Liebert, who is quoted in the news to-day) of proving that might is right- and that sentiment, humanity and com. passion arc wrong, of bleeding France white and of bringing the world under Germany's heel They have, on tho other hand, the alternative of at once setting their own house in order" and paving the way for peace, and it is not impossible that counsels of sanity may prevail in Germany before the colossal tragedy of the war is developed to its ultimate limits.