HOW TO STOP WAR.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 April 1918, Page 1

HOW TO STOP WAR.

CUT THE CLAWS OF THE PRUSSIAN EAGLE.

(By Lovat Fraser.)

The Allies are fighting, as Mr Lloyd George has said, “ for a just and lasting peace.” We want a peace which, if possible, will prevent a recurrence of war. The object of this article ifCto suggest a practical way of Stopping wars.

When peace returns, what nation is likely to break it at the first promising opportunity ? Certainly not Great Britain. In a.hundred years we only fought one real,war of the first magnitude, and that was the Crimean War.

Not Russia, unless provinces are wrested from her by conquest, which would leave another unstanched wound in Europe. Not the United States, the greatest factor in the world for peace. Not France or Italy, if their wrongs are righted. Not the “ little fellows,” wlio have either been martyred or have looked on with shuddering horror at the carnage which has drenched Europe with blood. No, the only nation likely to thirst for a renewal of war is Prussia, unless she is soundly beaten in the field. \ With Prussia we must count her subordinates. All through Central Europe, from the Ems to the Bosphorus, runs a belt of peoples dreaming of profit by the sword and liable to take up arms at the first screech of the Prussian war eagle. But what if the rest of the world cut the claws of the eagle ? That is the thought I wish to suggest.

The thing is possible, and it has been rendered possible by the extraordinary transformation which .warfare has undergone in the last tour vears. No one, not even the calculating blotters of the'German Great General Staff, foresaw the amazing number of guns and the incredible quantities of ammunition which would be required to wage war on the new basis. It is now admitted that one of the reasons why the Germans failed at the Marne and reverted to the defensive was that they had exhausted their reserves of ammunition. The French were equallv at fault, and our own lack of shells was piteous. But while the necessity for immense stores of ammunition is now a commonplace, we have not yet thought'out the great further com elusion which this truth implies. Guns and shells can only be accumulated by Powers wicli have access to unlimited stores of iron and steel. If we can debar Germany from direct control of the ironfields by means of which she wages war, we shall strike the sword from her hand for ever.

Remember that this is a theory which would have been deemed untenable in 1914. Its development is only rendered possible as a result of the experience gained in the war. Have your League of Nations, by all means, though personally I regard it as cumbrous idealism. I want to see a more practical; safeguard. The police ■ man is not enough. I prefer to take away the culprit’s dagger and pistol. The iron deposits of Germany are estimated to represent a total of 2,500 million tons, anti ot this total 2,100 millions tons are in Lorraine. That is the whole point It is a point Veil understood and often explained in France. If Germany is compelled to hand back Lorraine to France, she can never again wage war on the grand scale. She is fighting with the resources of the filched provinces. It has been said that four out of every five shells fired from German guns are made from the French metal of Lorraine. The Lorraine iron ore is known as

“ minette.” and being rich m phosphorus, it is specially suitable for conversion into steel. German 'munition-makers, in a secret document drafted in 1915,, declared that «• only this kind of iron orb can be extracted in our country in quickly increasing quantities.” They further stated that ” if the output of the minette were to be disturbed, the war would be as good as lost. President Wilson has said that “ the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine,” must be righted “ in order that peace may once more be secure.” Mr Lloyd George has said that “ this sore has poisoned the peace of Europe for half a cen turv, and until it is cured Wealthy conditions will not have been secured.” I would go farther and say (1) that had it not been for the wrong of 1871 the war would have been over long ago, because Germany could not have maintained her output of munitions; and (2) that if the ironfields of German Lorraine are restored to France, their rightful owner, the maintenance of peace will become automatic and permanent. When Bismarck and Moltke took Alsace-Lorraine from France in IS7I, neither of them can have realised that Germany’s capacity for waging war would ultimately depend upon the possecsion of the northern province. The fact was not grasped even in 1914, but to-day it is clear, and it reinforces a thousand fold the demand, for restitution which the Allies base upon the ordinary principles of right and wrong.

What, it may be asked, will be the economic future of Germany if she is deprived of her principal supply of iron ore. The. first answer is that she has stolen it and that she must give it back. But even Frenchmen, who are chiefly concerned, do not suggest that Germany should be deprived of a share of the Lorraine She would import it, just as she imports ore from Sweden. Her iron and steel works are chiefly in Westphalia, and not in Lorraine. Lancashire does not grow cotton, but imports it. No one has ever refused to sell ores to Germany. When war. began German capitalists held iS miningconcessions in Eastern France and seven in Normandy. The great Thyssen held three concessions in the Meurtheet-Moselle area alone It was not enough. They wanted to seize all the French irotifields, and to-day they are swearing that they will never restore the valuable Briej' basin in French Lorraine. Yet this is not the whole problem. When France gets back the Lorraine iron fields she will not have the coal to work them on the present scale of output. She imported one-fourth of her coal supply before,the war, and I believe the published calculations of the present position are unduly optimistic, for I hear bad accounts of future prospects in the Lens coalfield. If France recovers her iron deposits, but has to import twenty million tons of coal annually from Germany, she may still be economically dependent upon the Huns.

It is therefore argued that the restitution should include the small strip of land in the valley of the Sarre, between Saarlouis and Saarbruck, on the borders of Lorraine. The Sarre valley/ was torn from France in 1815, as a sort of extra punishment for rallying behind Napoleon when he returned from Elba. It was taken because it contained important defensive points, but to-day theSarre coalfield would go far to rectify France’s deficiency in coal.

This question of the Sarre is a. debatable matter, and I shall not no.v discuss it, nor shad I enter upon the still larger proposal for the revival of the scheme for throwing open the Rhine to free navigation, which was decided on by the-Gpngress of Vienna but never carried out. My point is much more simple. If I ranee receives hack the iron fields which are hers by right, Germany can never again go to war upon the modern sca ,le. Let us stick to that point. Get the iron first, and decide what to do with it afterwards.

But it is perfectly certain that Germany will not yield up a. foot of the occupied territories, still less Alsace-Lorraine, until she has been finally beaten in battle. ' The way to a lasting peace lies through victory in the field. Hearken to the words of M. Pichon on Friday: “ The essential thing for ns is to begin by achieving victory.”