The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 11,1918. WORDS AND DEEDS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 147, 11 March 1918, Page 4

The Dominion MONDAY, MARCH 11,1918. WORDS AND DEEDS

"If tho question of continuing the war could bo submitted to a referendum of Britain the result would astonish the world and ourselves." This view, expressed by Mr. Bonar Law in the course of his speech in moving tho war credit vote in the House of Commons, may be said to fairly represent the opinion and the spirit of the leading men in Great Britain to-day. It is fittingly accompanied in. this morning's cablegrams by a summary of an admirable speech by _ Mr. Asquith, who opportunely dircefs attention to the contrast between Germany's professions and her actions. Nothing, we should imagine, could better serve to dispel the self-decep-tion of the pacifists and pcace-at-any-priccrs than tho attitude of the military masters of Germany towards the nations which have succumbed in this struggle and fallen under tho tyranny of German-mas-tery. The atrocious treatment of Belgium and Serbia should have been sufficient warning to any but the dullest or most callous, but what of the nations with whom Germany makes peace'! How do Germany's hypocritical professions to the 'Pope and to President Wn.soNnt in with her conduct towards Russia and Rumania? "While Count von Hertling," to quote Mr. Asquith's words, "was professing acceptance of.President Wilson's four principles, welcoming a Court of International Arbitration and approving of the League of Nations, to which the bulk of us here and in America look for the only' effective safeguard, his subordinates were wanting terms not of trortty but of capitulation as harsh and humiliating as any in history, ruthlessly and recklessly mutilating a great national unity." Every concession extorted from Russia has been wrung from the Revolutionaries with a merciless disregard for tho unhappy Russian people and with an eye only to the future aggrandisement of Germany. And no pledge that Germany has given in return can bo trusted to be fulfilled, unless it falls in with Germany's interests. On one pretext or another Germany has already violated many of her promises to the Bolshevik leaders, and their protests are brushed aside as of no consequence. Russia is to be depleted of food supplies, and the Russian people may starve so that Germany and Austria may replenish their stores of food. Rumania, helpless owing to the defection of Russia, is to bo ground in the dust in the same way under the sham of a treaty of peace. A delayed message is made the pretext for imposing fresh and still more harsh exactions, and Rumania has no guarantee and probably no belief that excuse will not be found for new acts of oppression.

Every step that Germany is taking in forcing Russia and Rumania to submit to tho merciless terms imposed points plainly and convincingly to the [act that the military autocracy of the Central Powers is 'planning for the future as wcD as for the immediate needs of the present. Their policy in Russia is to divide and weaken the' nation and at the same time to secure points of strategical value and openings for the extension of their influence against the day when they may once again unsheath tho sword and strike at tho liberties and freedom of the world. The Central Powers would make peace gladly enough to-morrow on the basis of the existing terms of peace in the. East being recognised and accepted bv Britain and her Allies. She could afford to evacuate Eebuiun_aadJ?Mn£fi..and Italy, .and

; Serbia on such terms, for she would I have gained practically all she set out to"gain at the beginning of the war, and more than she hoped to hold until the dramatic collapse of Russia gave her a_ respite from the certainty of crushing defeat. It is not the German armies in the field to-day that the Allies have most to fear; they can be held and in time defeated. What has to be feared, and what the statesmen of Britain and France have shown themselves to be fully alive to, is the danger of German intrigue and German professions of good-will undermining the unity and strength of purpose of the Allied peoples. It is most necessary, therefore, that, unlike Lord Lansdowne, we should turn a sceptical ear to German professions and keep clearly and constantly before us what Germany has done, what she is doing, and what she is planning to do in the future. At any time now we may expect a fresh outburst of peace talk from the inspired Press of the Central Powers or from the Chancelleries at Berlin and Vienna. It will be well to treat it as our soldiers treat the poison gas which an infamous German kvltur has called to its aid to make more hideous the horrors of war.