PEACE WITHOUT PARDON.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 158, 24 March 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

PEACE WITHOUT PARDON.

THE ONLY TERMS WE CAN GRANT •TO THE GERMANS. , Mr. Horatio Bottoinley, the versatile Editor of "John Bull" and foremost publicist of the day —"Tribune of the Tienches" and idol of the Man in the Street—pleads in the "Sunday Pictorial," lor firmness, with neither mercy nor forgiveness, in Britain's Terms of Peace.

This week Christmas will be here. 1 have already sent my Compliments of the Season to tho Kaiser and his people, and 1 now want a word with my own countryman. 1 think I know my own countryman—and, with victory in sight (still the same old "fatuous optimist,'' you see!) I am just a little bit uneasy about him . He is such an easygoing, stolid, happy-go-lucky, forgiving sort of chap that once on top, and especially with the spirit of Christmas in his soul, he is apt to become "soft"' and generous towards his beaten foo. But there must be nothing of that kind this Christmas —if you please. Next Christmas, perhaps, wo may get down our copybooks and texts —but this year, whilst we hail the birth of the Prince of Peace, we must worship at the shrine of the God of Battles. And lie is a grim God. * * * It is from the eharacteritics of the British people that, in the months ahead, difficulty and even danger is to bo anticipated. In the final settlement with the Huns, we shall l>e hampered by our virtues. For our national character is a compact of queer contrarieties. In the teeth of an armed menace, out-numbered and out-man-oeuvred, the physical and moral valour of tho British race is seen to supreme advantage; but with our foot upon the neck of a prostrate foe, our determination is apt to ooze out at the knee-joints. Chivalry to tho fallen is a national tradition, enshrined in a score of homely proverbs. We are no hands at "frightfulness," and ho matter what wrongs we have suffered, wc aro uncommonly bad haters. lam doubtful whether in any real n-nse wo can yet be said to hate the Germans. Certainly we do not love the Kaiser, but should His Satanic Majesty suddenly appear in Whitehall, I am not at all sure that he would be lynched. I can more readily imagine a British citizen being fined ten shillings at Bow-

street for inciting the onlookers to riot, For we are fin amazing people. # * * i'lo.ll ii p.hi. oil August i, i: 1 :.!, Weill* »o uccii ,a nai nii.i utrm iny. lmi i nave gauieiou iram me but apart lroni uieir int.mat.out, ami a lew minor evidences, i a.u not sure mat l siioukt navo iviionu it. j. iJiou.il liiivo known w«j were ut Mar, but iui some months at any rate, 1 eouid scarcely Jiavo told v.ill] vnom. i to;Kcvo mat one oj our lust 'acts ot war was to make a gilt oi naturalisation papers iua Gorman baron, ami to present mm with the compliments of the C'uy oi London. This was at one end oi the scale, and at tne other there were equally puzzling phenom ena. For months alter the outbreak of war, in every street German barbers ottered to shave us, and German butcher., to sell us pork, .But for the newspapers these facts would have put mo olf the scent. Indeed, 1 might have imagined that we wore at war with the Russians, or the Chinese, or, since the ileet had disappeared, with the Japs. Even now 1 am often sorely puzzled. 1 am told, for instance, upon tile authority of the Ford C.iei Justice and a majority of the Cou t of Appeal, that a commercial company composed entirely of Germans is a British company, provided it is registered at Somerset House —in mucii the same way, I suppose, as a Gtvac.'i is an Englishman if lie is registered at the Home Office. This, it seems, is the law of England. We are a r'uiiliv crowd. * * * I hope I shall not he "em Ihe enemy'' if 1 proceed at a leap to the statement that this war is a good d«al more than hall over and that when •.he tu.i" comes to talk peace, the sciec'cog (i'Tiiian eagle v.'ll coo as gently as any sucking-dove. When the tables of the Peace Conference a;e set I ■•in assuming, of course, that the light is to be to a finish—the Kaiser wili not attend in "shining armour,'' to hang the hoards with his ''mailed list.'' "Not - - likely," as the pi'.. fane Mr. Shaw might say. On the lontrar.v, his garb will be as modes; as i Lutheran parson's, and his mien :." lemure as a nun's. 1 can fa ivy "i. will even turn down the ends of Ins •Moustache. He will have sense enough !,, know that the game is up, and cunning enough to guess that further .mince won't pay . T venture to preliet that the official pose of beaten Geriiany, blustering holly as *hc is, will

f be one of fawning humility and mock repentance. It may not be easy to trace this attitude in her public demeanour or undiplomatic notes, but it will I>o- patent to the peace envoys. Afraid of his skin, the enemy will plead for one more chance. And the mischief to be feared is that there will be a section of tko British public ready to give Germany quarter, not through any failure of patriotism, but in misguided chivalry, and from an innate disposition to mercy. I am speaking now, not of pro-German cranks, but of sober, decent British citizens. Once peace is in sight, we shall need a Lincoln or a Pitt to declaim in accents of thunder, "Never again.'' For, although we may make peace with the Germans, we can never make friends with them. It is a fearful thing to contemplate the utter downfall of a proud and mighty people, but when the day of retribution dawns, we must allow no weap compunction to unnerve our arm. In the hour of reckoning, >-tark. unmitigated justice must lie the port : on of the foe. * * * As tho stewards of civilisation, and the trustees of posterity, we have no prerogative of mercy. Our solemn duty it will be to drive a hard bargain with the Huns. For this purpose, wo shall need to summon to our aid qualities alie.i to our normal deposition. Deliberately, we must check the disposition to forgive and forget. For once, we must be harsh and unbending —stern, ruthless. With both hands we must put away from us the temptation to sporting generosity. We are not dealing with sportsmen or with men of honour, but with knaves and cut-throats, whom no treaty can bind. The only peace that can be made with Germany is a peace which will rob her of tho power to make war. Only the knightly warrior is permitted, in defeat, to keep his sword. To extend such courtesies to the ravishers of women and the butchers of babes would be to bring contempt upon the laws of chivalry. The settlement we make with Germany must be of the kind that hurts. We can never be friends with the Huns. I voice no extravagant sentiment when I say that for myself I can never as long as I live be on terms of civility with any German. Inevitably. I shall see in his eyes the image of Ktlith Cavell. I shall never be at ease in his company. To my embittered fancy he will smell of blood. By their own unspeakable infamies, the German race are outlawed from the comity of nations—banned from the altars of humanity. Only poltroons can prate of pardon while the blood of saints • id heroes goes unavenged. * -* * Peace is in the air—but nobody likes to begin. The German Chancellor says the overtures mush come from the Allies; the Allies say they must come from the Germans and their comrades in crime. And Mr. Asquith says that Britain's terms are contained in his Guildhall speech. But, as I have already pointed out, Asquithian phraseology—stately in its purity of rythm and diction —is not always quite ao explicit as the ordinary man would wish. And, therefore, 1 venture, with most humble respect, to suggest that an intimation be conveyed to the Kaiser that —subject to his arriving at agreement with each of our Allies, and on that express stipulation—we mi<iht be disposed to consider some such Treaty of Peace as this:—

Belgium to be evacuated; all her buildings restored; and compensation made for both moral and material damage. _ (We must insist upon seeing Belgium righted, by virtue of our guarantee to protect her integrity.) The German Empire to be divided up into the group of Independent States of which it consisted prior to l s 71—each with a limited urmy for Home Defence only. The German Fleet to l»e handed over to the Al'ies, to be dealt with as they may determine. The return of Heligoland to Britain. The denationalisation of the Kiel Canal with an International Board of Dues and Control. The Bagdad Railway to become an all-British concern. Austria and Hungary to become separate States. Turkey to be cleared out of Europe -the future of Constantinople, Bulgaria and any other en«;my Balkan State to be determined by the All'es. All German possession-; in Africa. and the Pacific to be banded over to Britain. Payment of a.i Indemnity representing the cost to Britain of the war, les, allowance for territorial, naval and other surrenders-such Indemnity, together with those demanded by our Allies, to be secured upon the revenue* of the Gorman States. The Kaiser to be deposed, the House of Hohenzoliorn to be banish 'd and the King of the Belgians to I)'' apopintel Stuwra'n of the German States. The-.' you are, .Mr. Kaiser, that * ~ v ni.v.age to vou. Doesn't look i-thon-ih wo were beaten, doe. ii ? But vo„ must decide quickly or 1 shal' think of something more.