The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1919. THE ALLIES' LAST WORD

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 226, 18 June 1919, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1919. THE ALLIES' LAST WORD

The Allied reply to the German counter-proposals has been made promptly, and is worthy of the occasion. It strikes emphatically the firm note of decision that was "ailed for, and affords' substantial grounds for believing that the delays of peace are nearly at an end. The enemy counter-proposals obviously are to be summed up as blatant bluff. They are chiefly important as demonstrating how completely the present German Government is in sympathy with the militarist regime it professes to have overthrown and replaced. Conclusive evidence on this point appears in the refusal "to accept the trial of the ex-Kaiser, or sanction his extradition," or to make any other admission of Germany's guilt for the war and in its conduct than is implied in the offer of an utterly inadequate sum as reparation. The sum which Germany declares herself willing to pay duriDg the next ten ycaro amounts to less than onetwentieth of the initial payment of £1,000,000,000 which the Allies require her to complete within twn years.' The total amount of indemnity, "not to be exceeded," under the German proposals is less than one-sixth of the jvar debts of tho Allied nations, irrespective of the frightful sacrifice of life in the war and the destruction or theft of an enormous body of wealth in the territories devastated > by tho Huns. The . clauses in the conntfr-proposals demanding the restoration of colonies and other things are on a par viith the ,rest. The demand' for "most-favoured-nation" treatment stands out as a new development even in German effrontery. Obvious.ly such proposals wero not and could not have been put forward as a straightforward 1 demand for concessions and for amendments of the Treaty. They can be regarded only as a last impudent assertion that the Allies are incapable of enforcing the conditions of a just peace. It is for the Allies to snow how baseless suph an assertion is, and they, have made a good heginning. The covering letter which accompanies the reply to the counterproposals embodies a temperato statement of the leading facts of tho \v£T. These facts being what they are, the statement, temperato as it is, -is at the samo timo a crushing indictment of Germany in regard not only to her guilt in forcing the war and the inhuman barbarities .she committed as it progressed, but to her late political transformation. Germany's protests against what she is pleased to call a "peace of violence" are answered by a direct appeal to facts which cannot be repeated or emphasised too often. The Allies, it is stated in the_ official summary, emphasise the point

that the war was the greatest crime against humanity ever consciously committed by a nation calling itself civilised. The Allies also emphasise Germany's responsibility for planning and starting n war in which 7,000,000 men died and over twenty million were wounded and suffered. . . . The Allies express the belief that thoy would be false to thoso ■who have given thdir all to save the freodom of the world if thoy consented to treat the war as anything but a criran against humanity. . . . This is why the Allies insisted as a cardinal feature of the Treaty that Germany must undertake to make reparation to the very uttermost of her power, that individuals responsible for German aggression and outrages during the war must be handed over to justice, and that Germany must submit for a. few years to certain special disabilities and arrangements. If these things are n hardship for Germany slio has brought them on herself. Somobody must suli'er the consequences of the war. Ts it to lv> Germany or the peoples 6ho has wronged? The central issue now raised could "hardly be better or more pointedly staled than in the' words last cjuoted. As a whole the Allied reply will rank unquestionably as one of the greatest documents of the war. It is nowhere more effective than in pointing ofit that tho German people supported the war as long as the faintest hope of profiting by conquest remained, and only Changed their rulers when the war was plainly lost. As to details, tho Allies have modified some financial and econo-

mic provisions in order to make it clear that while they arc determined to exact reparation from Germany to the vcrv uttermost of her power to pay they have no desire to strangle her development. In regard to reparation, there is to be no other change than one of method. In regard to' Poland the Allies agree that the fate of Upper Silesia (to be ceded to Poland tinder the draft Treaty) shall be determined by a plebiscite, and reconsideration is promised in .regard to some of the West Prussian territory to which Poland lays claim. Apparently there is to be no departure from the arrangement under which a-Polish corridor will extend to the Baltic and Danzig will becomc a free city. Unconditional acceptance of the original naval terms is demanded, but the military terms are so far modified as to permit a gradual reduction of the German Army from 200,000 men to 100,000, reduction to the latter total in any case to_ be enforced by next year. Otherwise the Allies stand to' the draft Treaty—unaltered in its fundamental outlines—as the essential basis of a settlement consistent with justice and with future European peace. No_ fault-can be found with the explicit declaration.that unless the German delegates within five days intimate their readiness to sign_ the Treaty the Allies will immediately cei'minate the armistice and take such steps as they think needful to enforce their terms.

This is the attitude which is demanded on all grounds. The firm stand taken by the Allies will instantly and searching]}' test the agitation against the Treaty in Gerihany which even Erzbergeh has denounced as "theatrical and useless." The time has certainly come to make an end of delays. The necessity of pushing forward the Treaty to completion appears on every hand. In the greatest Allied nations unexampled internal problems imperatively 'demand such''attention as only peace will permit. At the same time small nations redeemed from bondage which are capable under the right conditions of playing a potent part in the peaceful reconstruction of Europe are in parlous plight. Within the last day or two, for instance, there has been disturbing nows from Czecho-Slovakia, a country which has an' assured future once it is enabled to concentrate upon peaceful development. Unable in existing conditions to attain an efficient organisation,, it is being assailed by the forces of the Bolshevik Goverment in Hungary which in all likelihood' is deliberately playing tho game of the old regime. Reaching a definite settlement with Germany, tho Allies will be able in short order to render effectual aid to Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, and other nations which are struggling to lift theii' heads above water, In existing conditions there is almost indefinite scope for German conspiracy and intriguq. On the other hand evidence has been afforded of lato that Germany is so riven by internal divisions ' as to preclude any thought of a stand against such an ul'timatjim as. the Allies have presented.