SELF-CONFESSED PRUSSIANISM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 295, 2 September 1918, Page 6

SELF-CONFESSED PRUSSIANISM

THE HUN IN THE BALTIC PROVINCES (By Captain 11. P. P. Howe.) Those in authority in Germany made no attempt to disguise their principles before tno war, and at the present time these are being carried out as openly as they were proclaimed. The basic principle was the right of force to whatever inheritance it could grasp, and .the western and southern territories of Russia now provide- the promised land of German ambition. Here wo see tho theory of domination put into practice. Esthonia, Livonia, and Finland havo been all but annexed, and the Ukraine provides an interesting example of tho same process at an earlier stage. In the dreams dF tho German expansionist this is only a beginning. He makes no pretence that the spirit of acquisition and domination will rest content with its present gains, or indeed with any gains. Even such a comparatively restrained writer as Dr. R. Jannaseh, in his many articles dealing with the extension of German power and trade, is at no pains to concoal that limitless ambition. It is worth while to quote a few words from his writings, not because they are exceptional, but because they are typical of views very widely held amongst representative Germans. "Germany," 'says Dr. Jannaseh, "has never had such an opportunity presented to her of expanding towards tho East. . . : The linking up of Germany with Siberia and tho Caucasian districts is essential. The 'Far East' for Germany is Russia." Again: "Tho attitude of Germany towards the Baltic (provinces must bo resolute. . . . All German political interests are opposed to the erection of a Central Great Russian Power. Livonia and Esthonia nnder the sovereignty of Great Russia lfrouH prove a source of disaffection." Here wo have Prussianism self-confess-ed. Russia must be kept weak and disorganised in a number of separate States which can be eaten by Germany leaf by leaf just as one eats an artichoke. That German trade may prosper is the admitted purposo, but it is equally admitted that such prosperity can only bo secured by political domination. Of tlie methods of procedure we have an interesting object-lesson_ both in the iwest and south of Russia. It was originally professed that Esthonia and Livonia were to be held temporarily, and that subsequently the peoples of those vast districts should determine their own fate. Actually, the peoples, and such free-will as they possess, are being rapidly crushed out of existence. Their country is being organised—that is to say, ruled by relentless force and exploited for Ger-. man advantage. There is no longer any serious talk cither of tho return of Esthonia and Livonia to Russia or to their inhabitants. A large part of Finland has already been effectively conquered by German troons and forces organised by Germany. That the Baltic is now a German lake is an open boast in Berlin, and the threat to Sweden and Norway is thinly veiled iinder the familiar formula of "trade expansion." "The attitude of Germany towards the Baltic provinces must be resolute." It- is an unnecessary exhortation; or, rather, it is a defence of a policy of aggrandisement which has already been resolutely adopted. The Ukraine provides yet another exhibition of this policy. Here, because the Rada hampered Germany's efforts to rob Ukrainian peasants of their much-needed coin tl.at Germans might be fed with jt, tho steps taken were as practical as they were elementary. The Prussian militarists, being in effective occupation of tho country, put in a new Government, and had" the effrontery to announce to tho world tliat the peasants had lifcen to restore an autocratic rule which should despoil them of lands they did not wish to keep and of corn which they were anxious to surrender. No wonder that the independent Russian newspaper "Pravda" comments .thus violently on the outbreak which this action has aroused:—

"The masses of the peasants arc rising. They will not yield tho land of liberty to the landowners without tremendous resistance, and if the German spoliators ■ succeed after a bard .struggle in -seizing rye from the peasants they can only transport it as far as the neighbouring railway station. ( To rid tho peasants the railwaymen arc beginiiinig to strike, and Marshall Eichorn is forced to replace them with German workmen. . . . It appears evident that it is not such an easy matter to get a revolutionary people, which has just broken the; yoke of Tsardom aii'd the feudnlsystem of exploitation, back to the pathwny of imperial restoration, as was imagined by the German officers, those hangmen of the world/' It is the same story everywhere. German, methods are no longer coneealc\ either in principle or in practice. Tho moral is obvious. Whatever rise may happen while Prussian militarism stalks the world, peace can never happen. "Peace," President Wilson has declared, "can _ only come by trust. So long' as there is suspicion there, is going to be misunderstanding; so long a*_ there is misunderstanding there is gcing to be trouble. If you can once geta situation of trust, then you bavo a situation of permanent peace." They are words as wise, surely, as they are mild.' In one respect only can Germany be trusted. While she has the power, she will assuredly break any poacn that rests on promises at the call of advantage. That, too, the American President recognises, and behind him, sharing his purposo to the full, is rne of the mightiest nations in the world.