MENACE IN RUSSIA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1867, 22 August 1918, Page 1

MENACE IN RUSSIA.

ALLIES MUST ACT NOW.

A VAST AND MALEVOLENT MOVEMENT.

How long are the Allies lo sit by and Avatch Germany win the Avar? For Avin the war she Avill if she establishes her domination of Russia, and the Allies are sitting by and Avatching her do if. Hoav long are the Allies to go on delivering the next generation, the future of the Avorld, hound hand and foot, into Germany’s prison-house? For if Germany controls Russia, then the future is hers. Hoav long arc the Allies to Avatch Germany making ( herself irresistible in that next Avar ; Avhich she is already arranging? For ' irresistible she av i 11 he if the German Empire extends from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. These questions Avert* asked in an article in the Noav York Times of May 26th, The Avritcr went on to say:—

“The Avar Avill be Avon in the Wes tv ’ But if it is won only in the West it Avill he lost. If it is Avon in the Wes, we shall have done nothing except to check temporarily, at a terrible price, Germany’s movement against France and Belgium, and avc shall have handed over to her, with incredible generosity, (he means (o make certainly successful her next movement against France and Belgium —and England, and Canada, and Brazil, and the United States.

Tavo years and a-half ago, Mr Lloyd George made that memorable complaint that in everything the Allies had done they had always been “too late.” Are (hey lo be too late again, and hoav fatally too late?

Are they to be too late Avhere tardiness is crucial and pivotal? Are they to wait Avhile Germany swiftly moulds the pliable mass of Russia into the neAv German Empire? Why, if they let her do (hat, Germany could actually afford lo admit defeat on the Western front, to let tho Allies have nearly everything they Avanted, Alsace-Lorraine included —even the Trentino; for in the next, Avar she could take Alsace-Lorraine and the Trentino back again Avith hardly an effort. Next War? There Avould not he a next Avar; it would not he a Avar, hut a promenade of the one great Avorld empire over the bodies of the democratic nations.

What does the rapidly progressing annexation of Russia mean to us? Is it merely one more country sAvalloAved in the German maAV, merely a larger Roumania or Belgium? No, it is something of vastly greater meaning. Russia within the. German Empire, Russia even dominated from the outside by the German Empire, means the mightiest military empire the world has ever seen, an empire beside Avhich tho present German Empire Avill seem small and not very powerful by comparison. To Avhat ends will thf| strength of that master empire he directed? To the same ends as those for Avhich the .strength of the present and lesser German Empire has been directed, and avc haA’e learned Avhat they are in a terrible school. From Hamburg to Vladivostoek the Hohonzollern mind Avill direct energies and poAvers fifty-fold what it has been able lo direct in this war, direct (hem loAvard the conquest of the Avhole Avorld from Hudson’s Buy to Cape Horn, from NorAvay to the Cape of Good Hope, from Manchuria to Australia.

The poAver of such an empire Avould be —will be, if avc do not prevent it —beyond anything which has ever been conceived in human history. We shall no longer be able then to talk of any nation being invincible, unconquerable. We shall see the nations of the world disappear, one after another, Japan is as much threatened ns is the United Stales, perhaps more directly threatened, since the sAvift rush of tho increasing German Empire is hoav being aimed straight; across the territory of Japan’s neighbour, and since the interests of the hoav German Empire might bring her into collision Avith Japan first and before she had occasion to turn and strike at the American continent. And Avhat are Ave doing while this terrific prodigy is being created under our eyes ? Why, avc are debating. Avhether Japan might; or might not get some profit out of it if sho stopped the thing before it avus too late. We are telling each other that Ave must not hurt the Bolshevik feelings. We are concentrating our eyes on Flanders and Picardy and saying that the ‘“war Avill soon he Avon in the West.” And what should

we he doing ? We should he realising with all our might that we are looking upon one of the vastest and most malevolent hirths in history, the birth of an empire beyond anything which the mind of man has ever conceived, and whose whole existence will he devoted lo our destruction and the destruction of everything that is like us. And we should force our politicians to ho statesmen and to think of what this means. We can still help Russia, and we should; now the Bolsheviks,, who have delivered themselves to Germany, and are furthering with all their might the progress of the German aim, hut Russia; and wo should not hesitate and palter over the quest ion whether the Bolsheviks, who are our most malignant enemies, will misinterpret our help or not. When have they over done anything else, and what could we do that they would misinterpret? We must help Russia —not the Bolsheviki —because if wo do not help Russia, we, or at any rate our children, will he lost. And to help her we must cease to suspect each other, cease to get in each other's way, cease lo say that we are the only one of the Allies whose motives- are pure, when in fact we know nothing of the kind. This great, emergency of (he world, on which the future of every tiling we hold dear depends, is one to he dealt with by the tools at hand, whether American, British, French, Chinese, or Japanese, or all together.