“PREVENTING PEACE.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1592, 27 July 1916, Page 4

“PREVENTING PEACE.”

In n remarkable article in the latest number of his plain-speaking weekly review, Zukunft (The Future), Herr Maximilian Harden, the inveterate foe of the Kaiser, practically takes the German Government to task for not suing for peace. Harden always writes in allegory. On this occasion he reverts to ancient Greece for help in driving home his point. He declares that “our Cleons” (Cleon was the Athenian politician whose misguided opposition so long prevented a truce between Athens and Sparta) are obstructing the conclusion of peace in the present war at the most favourable moment Germany is likely to be vouchsafed. By Germany “Cleons” Harden means the Crown Princes, Tirpitzes, Hindenburgs, Maekensens, Falkenhayns, Reventlows, Krupps and other War Party zealots who want war to Germany’s bitter end. The significance of Harden’s attack on the military-rid-den German Government lies in the fact that he is the mouthpiece of an influential coterie of civilian politicians and business men. The commercial interests which periodically use Harden and the Zukunft for assailing the ultra militaristic regime consist of eminent industrial, financial, and shipping leaders. Harden’s article was written on the eve of Germany’s reply to the American demand for amendment of submarine warfare, and proved to be a remarkably accurate forecast of its actual tenor, including Germany’s vain “demand” for “retaliatory” American action against the British blockade. It is evident that Germany’s “Cleons” were worsted on the submarine issue, and Harden evidently now wants to break their opposition to the best terms Germany can get. Zukimft’s views are manifestly the long-headed views of men like Shipper Ballin and Banker Gwinner. Addressing the Kaiser and the Chancellor in the first person, Harden declares that the muzzling of public' opinion “cannot be usefully tolerated much longer.” At another point, Harden asserts that the fate of 70,000,000 Germans must not be placed in the keeping of a daring submarine commander, “or in the hands of one such masquerading as a statesman.” The latter reference, of course, is to one Tirpitz. In a scathing passage, Harden pillories the war fanatics, “who, far from the front, howl twice daily for woi’ld conquest. They know nothing whatever of statescraft or of the soul, history and resources of the nations with whom we are at war, but find their highest mission in stirring the people into frenzy of mad so-called patriotism,”