BRITAIN THE ENEMY OF PEACE

Horowhenua Chronicle, 18 May 1916, Page 3

BRITAIN THE ENEMY OF PEACE

» GERMAN CHAMOEi/JLOiro CONFIDENCES (from a Loudon Times correspondent) New York, January 31. Hair von Bethmaion Hollweg, the German Imperial Chancellor, recent!} called into conference leaders of tne various party groups in the Reichstag. He sketched for thoir odiifioation a "frank outline of the situation'' as it appeared to him and presumably to "the German military authorities. fciis observations are now reproduced for the benefit of American readers by tho managing editor of the Deutsches Journal, a gentleman of the name of Gustmy Schweppendiick, who has been .acting as tho Berlin correspondent ot the New York American.. The T)eutfcchis Journal is a daily newspaper published in New Yo~k >'>y Mr Hearst. Hr Schweppendick states that the views of the Chancellor were communicated to by one of the party lenders present at the conference. Hie Chancellor devoted tho burden of his remarks to Britain. Great Britain, he eaidi, is the oißtffaole to peace. She hopes to starve Germany into submission. We will meet her on tho economic battlefield THE ROAD TO THE ORIENT. The Chancellor is reported to have proceeded as follows:— There have been no official peace overtures nor negotiations so far. There however have been unofficial conversations by persons without official Btaudiinj£. The conie.etß were us a rule financiers of high international position. Conversations took place in Switzerland and Sweden principally. It was tho general opinion of participants thait all the warring nations would be willing; to enter into peace nejjotiitions except England. England is compelling her Allies to refrain from entering upon any peace movemenlt. Having failed to crußh Germany by armed force, she hopes to succeed in the economic war. For this reason the •. ar will prcibably last for some time. I am telling you this, since we may as well be prepared) for it. We must safeguard our food and other supplies; we must be independent of -ail oversea trade controlled by Great Britain , '

Fortunately the road has"been opened to the Orient by our victorious army. This will make the economic war much easier. The military situation oouldl not be better. While we haven't any too much tood, we have enough. The only thing we need is rubber, and we shall not give up for the lack of p, few rubber bands. It is my impression that there will lot be any extensive field operations ior the present. Even if we occupied more of the enemy's territorv it won id not alter the situation so far as England ia concerned. We may straighten out our lines, take a port in Russia, andi improve our position in the Wert, but generally speaking no more great field battles are probable. A VITAL BLOW AT ENGLAND. Here the Chancellor paused and added:— '* Unless a campaign be embarked upo ■ that will strike a vital blow at Euyjrand." Mr Scluvoppendick shows that, whatever the object of his disclosures, which are doubtless-intended to assist the German plan of representing Great Britain as the enemy of peace, the Emperor's military advisers fully appreciate that British sea power is destined to be the determining factor of the war. He quates a "High Military Official" as saying to nim :•— Germany could take faris. Tt would only be a question of how mamy men we are willing to sacrifice. But that wouldi not bring England to terras, and therefore would not emd the war. We could take Petrograd. But suppose w® drove the Tsar out of nTs capital Britain would not ©are. We could drive Italian Army into the sea —it would' make no difference to England. The more territory we occupy the thinner our lines; the greater our j difflculty in supplying thorn. Going j ahead on such lines would hcip Eng-! land more than us. Mr. SehweppendicS, who returned to New York a few days ago, declares that the foregoing statements of the Chancellor andl the high military official accurately reflect German sentiment. He proceeds:— The people want peace. Ido jot mean they are willing to surrender. Far from that. But they are in a reasonable spirit. The Germans seem to beiieve that a disposition to approach the question from a fair-minded standpoint is the great thing. There is an undercurrent not to demand any large cessions of territory.