NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 199, 17 May 1919, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Some time ago it -wag suggesteel as one means of modifying , the acutc shortage of fuel now being experienced that organised measures might be taken to transport" large additional supplies of firewood to centres like Wellington. With available supplies of eoal as far as they are and are likely to be from meeting the winter demand in the city and' suburbs an increased reliance on wood as fuel obviously would be wise. To be made available in ample -quantities, firewood no doubt would have to be transported from a considerable..distanee, by rail or sea, preferably the latter. Small sailing vessels of the ketch variety, which are able to work rivers, offer the most economical means of transporting firewood in considerable cmantiLios.' It is in the power of the city authorities, however, to do something on their own account towards relieving (he fuel shortage. The corporation has under its control in different parts of the mun£ cipal area.a considerable amount of native bush an ft various groves of pines and other imported trees, nearly all of which would be th n better for jiK ,: rions and thinning. There is no onestion of sacrificing bush or pbintat'otK- in order to secure supplies of firewood. In all forest cultivation, whether o» a large or small seale. neriudK-a' e.uttinrr has a place and i s ( .<-.»<nfi:i! in order I bat the b°st vaults may lie aUniwd. It must, of rimp'i. carried out under proper it-lb "'-I-;, ff the lot'iil bush reserves and v.lan. ta.tions were worked on the:r lines they would benefit, considerably in Vrowth and ornamental character. Real improvements would 1 be effected, and at the same time a fair

amount of firewood would he made available to augment existing-sup-plies, and some temporary"employment would-offer during the Winter, when it may he in demand.

'Nothing in the' Peace Treaty is to lie more heartily commended as just- than the action of the Allies in' .regard to the- ex-Kaiser. The doubts which have been expressed recently-in some quarters as to whether he will really he put on trial seem, unwarranted in view of the explicit provisions ot th: Treaty on the subject. In that document lie is arraigned "for a supreme offence against international law and the sanctity of treaties." and it is in-; tiniated that he will he tried by a tribunal consisting of one Judge from each of the five great Allied Powers. The Allies could not'have allowed themselves to be diverted from, this course by any plea of lack of precedent without establishing the principle that crime need only be committed on a sufficient scale and in a sufficient degree of abomination to earn immunity.'' If the demand for the arraignment of the ex-Kaiser has of late fallen away -to some extent, it is for no other reason than that his ignominious flight and the poor figure he cuts in his Dutch' retreat have caused him to be regarded with a considerable amount of contempt. Nothing, however, should be allowed to cloud the fact that it was in his power as German Emperor to prevent the war, and;that lie must, therefore, be indicted at least with the crimes in which it opened, whatever may be triic. in 'regard to the long list of atrocities that followed.

A statement by Euekt, the Geriiiau President, which appears todfiy, strengthens an impression that the Gorman Government, after its shrieking protests against the' Allied terms, is preparing to submit. Observing that the German Government will not 'come to a definite decision until it is convinced that the Allies are determined' to enforce "an impossible peace of violence," he adds that Germany's consent to such a peace would be merely a lie born of despair. But, the root of the matter is touched in his final statement that in any ease Germans must be prepared for a painful decision. This is characteristically German in its implication that but for Allied • harshness the peace sett-lenient might have been a pleasant tail-piece to Germany's crimes, but it is significant as being palpably intended to prepare the population to whom it is addressed to make the best of the terms imposed. Germans in the mass may be less unwilling to reach such a decision than" Ebf.rt and the members of his Administration have., endeavoured to suggest. Even in Germany, at all events, some public admissions have been. made that the severest the Allies can impose will not be more severe than she deserves. For instance. Takodor Wolff asserted in the Berliner Tiii/eblatt of February 20_ that no peace imposed by the Allies on Germany 'could be half as microns and as the pcace which German Rig Business, in-al-liance with German militarists, was openly proposing to dictate to the Kntcnle. Even, he added,, if the Entente were aiming at an imperialistic peace it would be "quite according to the pattern set by the Pan-German' Industrialists."" The Allies, of .cour.sc, ore proposing, no such peace, but the shrill clamour, .against their just proposals appears very obviously in its -true .value \when it is considered that those who raise it either actively br tacitly supported the policy, under which Germany enslaved the regions into which her armies were able to penetrate and planned' to enslave the world.