GERMAN MILITARISM MUST BE DESTROYED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1891, 17 October 1918, Page 3

GERMAN MILITARISM MUST BE DESTROYED.

NO ARMISTICE,

PREMIER MASSEY’S VIEWS

“I am glad to be able to say, and I speak officially, that Germany will not be granted an armistice,” said Mr Massey at (he civic reception in Wellington on Monday. “If would be a foolish thing to grant an armistice. We know that we are up against an enemy who cannot be trusted, and we have to go on until the enemy is utterly beaten. 1 know what sacrifices going on means. I know what the continuance of the war means to every Stale of the Empire. But it would he criminal folly to stoj) at the present stage. We must go on until Germany is smashed, or submits herself to (he Allies in unconditional surrender. When that is done the enemy can have peace, hut 1 do not think it possible after whaf has happened for Germany to he allowed to remain a strong European Power. German military strength must he destroyed. The German Fleet must he taken away. The German army must be demobilised. We must have reparation for the crimes the enemy has committed, as far as Germany can make reparation. We must have guarantees for future behaviour. “When a man commits murder in a civilised community he is punished in such a way that he cannot repeat the offence. Germany has been guilty of wholesale murder. Site is a criminal among nations, and she should never have the opportunity of repeating the offences she has committed during (lie last four years. We have been on Iho other side of the world, and we have had ocular demonstration of the character of (he Hun. You remember (he sinking of the Canadian hospital ship —a ship engaged in the transport of sick and wounded men, and hearing the distinguishing marks that are respected by the civilised nations of the world. A German submarine torpedoed that ship at night, and when the crew, the doctors and the nurse,> took to the boats, for happily (he wounded had been disembarked, the submarine sank (ho boats in order that fhe crime might he concealed. One boat got away in the darkness to tel! the tale of horror to the civilised world. 1 have seen the Canadian hospital that was bombarded by (he Germans. The Gorman aeroplanes, Hying low, whore they could not fail to see the red cross, dropped their bombs among the wounded men, the doctors, and the nurses. Many were killed. Germany has committed these crimes, committed them deliberately, and by doing so has descended to the depths of infamy. Within the lust few days we have read of the sinking of passenger ships and the drowning of helpless men, women, and children, whose crime in the eyes of Germany was that they were British people. “These crimes cannot go unpunished. I hope that Germany will not 1)0 allowed to sit among the civilised nations for the next hundred years. The hands of the Hun are dripping with blood. Here, in New Zealand, wo had the sinking of the Wwnmera, it passenger ship engaged in no war duty. I do not believe that the people of the Empire aro going to forget these acts of barbarism, Germany must be punished tts the criminal she has chosen to be.”