The Dominion SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1919. GERMAN INSOLENCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 115, 8 February 1919, Page 6

The Dominion SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1919. GERMAN INSOLENCE

The stiffening of the armistice tevpis which, according to The Matin,been rendered necessary by the increasing insolence of Germany, will occasion little surprise. The German mind has been so trained -as to regard any act of consideration on the part of an enemy as an. evidence of weakness; and the failure of the Allies to ruthlessly enforce the whole of tho armistice conditions has had n bad effect. Now wo are told the Supreme Council is to meet to "impose upon Germany the full will of the Allies." .Germany has yet to be made to realise tho full measure of her colossal cnmes._ Under the lead of the Prussian military autocracy she made this war •U'itli calm, cold-blooded determination, and her ' motives for doing so are fully set forth by Grumuaok in Germany's Annexationist Jims. ■ These motives were simply unbounded lust for territory, property and power, and the same motives governed Germany's fellowcriminals. No plea of impulsive insanity can he set up for Germany . with regard to tho world crime of our age, and when we recall -her past blood-stained record wo sec that her present wrongdoing is but a repetition of her forme'i' crimes. Sho calmly and deliberately in the past made war for plunder and profit, and she brought herself to believe the devilish doctrine that progress by brutal conquest was a providential order of the world. Tlio light of the past is needed to understand tho Germany of to-day, and the German crime of 1870 and the mercilesspeace terms then exacted from beat; en, bleeding Francu may rightly be recalled by the judges in the Peace Congress. It may be good for us also to reopen the pages of the history of that period and be reminded of the Shylock peace terms Germany then _ forced on helpless France. An impenitent Shylock is "not a worthy subject for our mcrcy, and an impehitcnt Germany is not worthy of our sympathy, for Germany as a whole endorsed and reendorsed tho war crimcs and tho war aims of the Potsdam gang. V/hcn France in 1870 declared war on Prussia she simply fell into tho trap set by the wily Bismarck, who had forged "the . "blood-and-iron" weapon of Empire expansion and was ready to smite Franco with it. Bisimrok, with consummate cunning and hypocrisy, planncd'that France should appear before Europe as the aggressor in the war, and Prussia would play the part of the innocent nation assaulted without cause. The cunning of Bisjiakck triumphed. He "edited" _ tho "Ems" telegram with tho deliberate purpose of inciting France to declare war, and Franco declared war. -The cam- • _paign became an execution rather than a, war. France, defeated, humiliated," and helpless as the result of a BisiiAKCK-niade war, might have been let off with easy peace terms. But this 1 was not the Prussian way. France must be-Wed white financially by a heavy indemnity and her body rent in twain by the annexation of her richest provinces by Germany. When Bisjiakck told the venerable French patriot M. Thiers, , at Versailles, in February, 1871, that tho price Germany demanded for peace was an indemnity of 6,000,000,000 francs, the- cession of Alsaco and part of Lorraine, and that Germany would occupy France till the money was paid, the old man was stunned, and declared that the terms were monstrous, and asked Bisjiakck to administer France, and the existing Government woulcl retire. Thiers sought the Emperor William and pleaded for gentler terms, but William sheltered himself behind his Ministers and would say nothing. He. next saw the Crown ' Prince (Frederick, the father of the ex-Kaiser), and found him sympathetic, but powerless. Bismarck threatened a rupture of the negotiations if his terms wer(j not .accepted at once, and Thiers, knowing the i utter inability if France to fight further, signed with a broken heart , the preliminaries of peace. The in- ■ demnity exacted, according to ~Mii.'' ( Ellis Barker, would pay Germany's | war bill four times over. A niil- , a half of people, French in , sentiment and feoling to the very j core of their being,- though''a num- , bcr spoke in the German tongue, were by brute force brought' under a flag they hated aiid severed' from the , France they loved. The Germany of ( 3871 is the Germany of to-day in tho j utter ruthless'ness of Ker methods, j Generosity is wasted on her, as ap- ■ peals to her generosity would have j been wasted had she emerged vietori- ' ous in the struggle. j