The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1919. GERMAN RESISTANCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10290, 27 May 1919, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, MAY 27, 1919. GERMAN RESISTANCE

-One fact cannot be lost sight of for a single moment by those who watch the situation for signs of the trend of events. It is that the people who applauded the treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest have no right to complain of the treaty which is offered to their country at Paris. This has been said by Herr Haase, one of the leading politicians • of Germany, and by Maximilian Harden, quite the leading publicist on the German side ot the Rhine. They are saying it every day to stop the flood of lamentation flowing through Germany with a decided suicidal colouring, which recalls' something of the bent of mind which has been for some years so • marked that Germany has been lifted to the head of the suicide column in the statistics of the world. But, in spite of theso philosophers and friends, the German ruck goes tearing on wildly towards a decision to throw down the reins of government and throw open the: doors‘Of Germany on one side ,to the Allied armies, on the other to the armies of Russian Bolshevism, which always, of course, have arrived at the pitch of efficiency whenever Germany is in the throes of a suicidal attack. Posing between the remorseless Allies and the magnificently equipped, well-disciplined veteran troops ot Trotsky, the German nation abandons itself to despair, turns a deaf ear to its counsellors, and prepares ostentatiously for death. As usual, -this well-staged death-bed carries no sign of repentance. The need for repentance is, however, paramount, as the distinguished publicist above-mentioned keeps dinning into the ears of his countrymen. His appeal is all the stronger for its preface from his powerful pen denouncing the “camouflage” theory which refuses to believe in the possibility of either anarchy or famine —the two props of the suicide policy. He opened his last article on the subject with very strong acknowledgment of those dangers, declaring that anarchy, after the hreak-up of the niaiser and dynasties, had come very near, and that the crowding of corpses in the streets through famine was within measurable distance. After this introduction he proceeded to denounce the official lies of the war-time. Everything, he declared, that had been officially told to the German people was a lie. “A fine little fellow,” he said, “had yelled on the very first day of the war, ‘We must lie until the hour of victory, lio until the rafters split.’ This solution was followed; no true but inconvenient word was permitted to reach the popular ear.” This indictment —made in Germany, remember —reviewed the whole course of the war, punctuating the lies about the origin of the war; the lies about tho German methods; the lies to the American President; the lies about all tho facts from the first Marne through to tho Armistice; the lies about tho “unbeaten army”; tho lies about the Russian and Roumanian Treaties; the lies about tho various crimes of tho calculated “frightfulncss.” Nothing over said outside of Germany was ever so complete, or so outspoken, or so biting. As an indictment it is horrifying; as tho introduction to sound advice to the German people nothing could bo better. “Is tho Republic,” he asked, “to carry on the evils of Kaisorism?” The same species qf lies is emanating from tho new Government, and that proves, says this Jeremiah, that nothing is changed but tho titled head. Tho administration is in tho hands of tho same bureaucrats, and as of old no one can dispute their will. But their wiles and their lies are doomed to failure. The Allies, he tells them, are on the right - track; they can prove, are, in fact, proving every count in their indictment, from the outset of the German-Austrian plot which forced tho war on the world to tho crimes charged against the various commanders. It will be better, he warns them, to make no opposition to tho inquiry, to facilitate, to admit everything, as well as the fact of defeat, utter and irrcdeemble. That will bo some sign of repentance, and some guarantee of future stability in good

democratic behaviour. But as things nro, Germany cannot complain of the suspicions of the Allies, which compel them to seek tho strongest guarantees against a repetition of the hideous doings of tho past. The Allies have hacked up this reasoning by two reports—tho report of the Committee of Inquiry into the origin of the war, and tho report of the committee on the criminals who have broken tho laws of civilised war. They have tho evidence of the crimes, and they have no evidence of regret for them, far less of any determination not to offend again. Moreover, tho Allied representatives have replied to the complaints of oppressiveness in the terms, that the damages demanded have boon regulated by the ability—after careful expert examination —of Germany to pay ; not by tho extent of the evil done by Germany. Events arc marching fast to a decision. Apparently the last word has been said on either side. Tho enemy is behaving us if he is_ about to go into passive resistance with tho Bolshevik alternative, and the Allies on their side have announced that their troops are quite ready to occupy Germany, taking the protesting nation at its word. If that happens it will, of course, ho deplorable. But quite possibly it may prove the best solution of all the difficulties. Before the final act, of Germany’s refusal or acceptance, conjecture is useless.