WHAT DEFEAT WOULD MEAN TO BRITAIN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 144, 11 February 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHAT DEFEAT WOULD MEAN TO BRITAIN.

PERILS OF AN INCONCLUSIVE PEACE "To put conscience above system and success" was one or Lord Acton's axioms of liberty. To subordinate conscience to system and success is the admitted principle of Prussian policy. It is tlii; secret of its malign strength. Sooner or later this central dogma of Prussian satesmanship will bring its votaries to ruin. The supreme purpose or the Allies in tins war (writes Dr. Michael "Sadler Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, in the "Evening Times"), is to piove that in the last resort this evil doctrine breaks down and exacts a terr.lfle penalty from the mail or the nation that has surrendered to it. But already it has turned Europe into a chain!iles, blown away the savings of half a century, made the latest page of history smell of blood and has brought unforgettable sorrow into a million homes. Britain now asks her eons, whose strength has been given to the pursuits of peace, and in whose hearts no thought of soldiering has had a place, to change the tenour of their lives and to help in stopp:ng this Juggernaut car of denberate military ambition. Pit USSIA'S INDEMNITY. What v.-ould actually happen to Br.tain if the Germans won the war':' They would levy upon the United Kingdom a stupendous line—not less than 4000 million pounds. To secure the payment of this line or indemnity they would occupy the country with an armed force, take control of the Imperial Treasury and of its financial system, including the banks, and proceed to realise Their claim. The:r first step would be to get as much of the indemnity as possible by a levy on our possessions. They would seize the Fleet and our merchant shipping, and transfer the whole to the German flag. All coal mines and other valuable deposits of minerals would be confiscated to the German State. A register would be made at once of all valuable possessions in tiie Kingdom, whether in public or pricate ownership, and all would lie forfeited to the enemy. The British Museum would be stripped of its treasures. The National Gallery would be emptied of its pictures. The Victoria and Albert Museums, the galleries at Hertford House, the Rylands Library at Manchester, the private collections of pictures, valuable books, historic furniture, china, tapestry, bronzes and jewels would all be seized by the German Government. Every private bank ba'ance would be commandeered. All securities, whether in publfe or private hands, would be taken over without any compensation. INSURANCE POLICIES AS WASTE PAPER. Every insurance company would no bankrupt. The insurance policies for which we have put aside our savings quarter by quarter, or month by mouth would lie waste paper. The railways and all other means of communication would be forfeit to the German Power, which would also control the Oustoms and the postal service. What, after a valuation of this plunder, remained unpaid of the indemnity of 4000 million pounds, would have to be raised by taxation imposed under German direction and enforced by German arms. In the meantime, in order that the taxable resources of the United Kingdom, should be kept alive, emigration would be forcbily stopped and the population would be compellel to work under German direction and with a brutality of control which events in Belgium help us to imag ne. All representative Government, whether in Parliament, in the County Councils or in the municipalities, would be suspended. The United Kingdom, so long as any part of the debt was unpa : d, would be under German martial law, supported by the scientific administration of the German officials. The German plan would be to strip the United Kingdom of its accumulated wealth, both public and private, and then to set its inhabitants to forced labour until the indemnity, including interest on arrears, was wiped out. The population would be forbidden any weapons of defence. Its sea power would have been reft from it, and any attempt at a revival of the Navy would be ruthlessly prevented, and all new ships built in Br.tsih yards would beiong to the German navv or mercantile marine. THE GERMAN POLICE AT Ol'ii DOORS. All freedom of political discussion would bo stamped out. Every man end woman would be watched by German police. Any organisation capable of becoming the nucleus of national resistance would be vetoed. The United Kingdom, under vigilant and pitlcss administration would be made a mere reservoir for German revenue, and the western outpost of German foreign trade, which would pour out of the port of Antwerp down the Channel, under cover of German guns at Dover and Beach y Head. In the meantime, by the occupation of Egypt and the Suez Canal, the backbone of our Eastern Empire would have ben broken. AN INDECISIVE PEACE. Or, to examine another alternative, what would aetualy h.apen if the war •>nded in an indecisive peace? Tim Cnited Kingdom, borne down by unprecedented taxation in order to meet ♦•he la-Nes of the war. and not able to claim (or look forward to) any indemnity from those who have broken the peace, would find itself pitted aga list the German Empire, which, though ior the time not less i u nously enbarras•v'd by war debt and the ravages of the struggle, would make the waiting •■f a great and final conflict with the Brit'sh Kmpire the cardinal purpose of iN po 1 cy and statecraft. The inhabitants of tlie I'nitcd Kingdom would live under the menace of a murderous attack, d stunt, perhaps, but inevitable. Every net ot national policy, every part of public expenditure would be governed by the need for anxious preparation and for military and naval alt rtne-s and strength. Th s state of mind, this well-founded fear of impending danger, would colour the whole 'if our national lift'. The temper of Mir p.'l teal institutions would be ' hanged. Tito British would be oblig•d, in M'll-deieilce, tn adept some of the strict regularons which concentrate wealth and energy on measures planned lo prote; t the national life. BRITANNIA IN A GERMAN 11 EI. MET. For a lime, until the menace was a*, in end. .John Bull would have to put I:imsc'f under something like German d [time, and Britannia ivouid wear a G rrnan helmet. The imperative ne •■! for col-vsal preparaton by land and a would pre-oeeupy the n.ind of the nation, and compel it. for economii- reasons as well as for military, to <■ isrt til the fre< dojn of i.ndividua! <it ze:i> to a degree not known in Britain f-,r many gene: at ens. And there would have to be for many years a diversion of national resources into the Military and Naval Budget, wbi'-h would -inevitably change present method.?, o: e::-

penditure on education and other instruments of public welfare. v?ur urgent duty at this moment is to concentrate our w.U, energy, personal courage and forethought on winning the war and on averting the calamity of an indecisive peace, not to speak of the catastrophe of defeat.