THE BRITISH BULL DOGS

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 28 August 1914, Page 4

THE BRITISH BULL DOGS

IS CIVILISATION A FAILURE?

Mr H. Dobbie, in a contemporary discusses German aggression as follows :— Is is not time to drop pretence, to ignore the mealy-mouthed platitudes of diplomatists and call things by their right names? ' A cablegram dated Berlin, August 1, from the Kaiser, reads : " This is a dark day for Germany. The sword is being thrust into our hands. A war requires enormous sacrifices. If at the last hour my efforts fail to bring our adversaries to see things in their proper light, and to maintain peace, we will, with God's help, wield the sword in such a way that we can sheath it with honour, We must show our adversaries what it is to attack Germany." There is a smug hypocrisy about this impious boast that raises one's gore. Who forced the sword into Germany's hands?— Their own wicked lust of power. Who has threatened Germany with attack ?—No one. The truth of the matter is that the Kaiser, following Bismark's lead, has transformed Germany into an armed camp ; encouraged his people in I the belief that, like the Romans, they are destined to be the lords of Europe, to wrest from Britain's hands the rule of the sea and to annex her colonies There are national bullies as well as school bullies. Napoleon filled that roll a hundred years ago, and dragged an enslaved Europe at his chariot wheels — Prussians among the rest. By our forefathers he was called " The Corsican Ogre." William the Third, though less manly—he only goes so far as to offer -to shed every drop of his brother's bloodis just as dangerous a bully. He will go down to infamy as the man who set the civilised nations at each other's throats, the man who doomed tens of thousands of his fellow creatures to butchery, brought sorrow and suffering to millions of women and children, and who will assuredly bring his own country to disgrace and ruin. His act in declaring an unprovoked war on his peaceful neighbours will go down to posterity as one of the most wicked crimes in the history of the world.