A DEFILER-GENERAL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 215, 6 October 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

A DEFILER-GENERAL.

By "AN ENGLISHMAN" in the "Daily Mail."

Day by day the Germans are adding to the knowledge which the war has given us of their infamy. With an unbridled savagery they heap crime upon crime, outrage upon outrage. They are at once stupid and violent. They seem to th> : nk that ; f only they look like bogeys and act like ogres they will drive honest men and patriots into a mr,ek sbmission.

Never was a greater fallacy sketched by a fool. Every blundering experiment which they make in cruelty and 'bestiality hardens the hearts and strengthens the hands of the Allies. Never again shall we be urged, even by the fanatic, as we were urged at the outset, of the war, not to impose humiliating terms upon a beaten foe. When once Germany is beaten it will test the ingenuity of her enemies to find a penalty severe enough to match the vile atrocities which the Huns have committed under the cloak of an honourable war.

The Kaiser, as we know, has flattered himself that he is Napoleon reincarnated. This Emperor rn pinchbeck, this amateur of dull brutality, has consciously taken as his model the military tyrant of France. He has mimicked his hero's foll.'es and wickednesses, hoping all the while that he was catching a breath of his genius The genius, of course, has eluded him, and h.e has not had the wit to avoid the stupidities which ultimately cost Napoleon his throne.

There were two crimes of Napoleon which were follies as well as crimes. The kil'lng of the Due d'Enghien and the judicial murder of a German publisher made certain the defeat of Wate: Vjo. And had William IT. studied the story of Napoleon with a better understanding he would not have sent Captain Frvatt to his death. To condemn the purposeless outrage is superfluous. The universal conscience of mankind has revolted against it. The Kaiser's rindiefciveness is condemned by belligerents and neutrals alike. INFAMY OF LILLE. That due punishment shall be inflicted upon those who wen? responsible for the murder there can be no doubt '< lie Huns, misjudging the temper of their adversaries, belcved that by spilling the blood of an innocent man tliey would win "the freedom of the seas" for their piratical submarines They have ensured their own defeat end a peace, pitiless and just, which shall .exclude them for generations fiom the converse of honest men. That even the foul murder of Captain Frvatt pales before the infamy of Lille. There the Kaiser, tired of as;ass!nating this man or that, has mori.'ly slaughtered a city. With a refuement of cruelty,n ot devised hitherto by savages, he has dragged young girls and old men from their homes and h. lit them into slavery. He has divided families and brought a wanton misfry upon peaceful folk. We, who know the outrages committed in Belgium, c;.n easily picture to ourselves the fate vhich awaits the young girls of Lille, tern from the protection of their parents, and set to work under the cruel cyo of their Hunnish f-aptors. Such atrocities as there have no link with warfare, and when our victory is assured we must take, care to treat the Germans not as honest-oombatants but r.s bandits. For th.em theiV is but one adequate punishment, and the Allies must look to it that it is applied without mercy or respect of persons.

And then in this welter of cruelty and blood we come upon a threat so vile that it surely bears upon it the sign manual of the Kaiser himself None but this master of blasphemy and false rhetoric could have invented the insult which was thrown at the head u a Spanish gentleman. "You dare to express an opinion hostile to my interests/' said he. in effect, "and I will send the roughest soldiers in the Gerii :in Army to defile your castle." That is the depth of pollution to which the chivalry of war lias been debased by German hands! Never in all the records of history lias a monarch made infamous a threat. We know the Kaiser to be a breaker of oaths, a murderer, a poisoner. He now reveals li'msV'lf as the spoiler (if houses and furniture. He has done something far verse than threaten to spoil houses. He lias besmirched for ever his imperial honour. STRENGTHENING OUR AIM Ma ny names have been invented ior him. There was a time when William Hie Poisoner seemed appropriate to his exploits. He now, with a splendid ]_ride, proclaims himself the DefilerGe.neral of his age. He leaves his ugly t.iai wherever he goes. Of him it may Ik-, said that he touches nothing that he does not stain with his polluting fingers. When "the roughest soldier in the German Army" has slept under another's roof the house will no longer be lit for human habitation. The mark of Germany will be there, and its walls must be scoured and dis'nfocted before an honest gentleman may hok upon them. 'Noblesvo oblige' 's an old and courtly saymg. I pon the Kaiser there iies no obligation of nobiiitv. And the passage of centuries will not repair the dimage which lie 1 as inilicted upon his thronr. Thus : t is that a man, who wears an imperial crown, has dared to threaten a nobleman of Spain. Spam, no doubt, v ill take note, of his prettv manners end exquisite refinement. The Allies, too will not be unmindful of the io" villi whom they have to deal. 'I hough we cannot absolve the German people oi' the Kaiser's crime*, we can yet i lake it plain that, with h:m at lesnt, \, e wl! never make tirin-. Kingship

ji<l Kmpiro no longer dwelt in the viti- ;■ ii d lilihnl oi the !lo'n-nzol!ern>. V.\en ,i tlio divine right of Kings were >t;!! Ink! as nn' article of tnitli. AVillinm 11. \< .mid long 115:0 liav.' torn it to pieces. He is hedged about by no divinity. The ma.sk is stripped from h'.m and we row know linn for what lie fAnd at the very moment oi committing and condoning these outrages, the (ienuans pretend that tiny are fles:roi;s oi' p.ace. Divide, thev cry. and ride. Vet happily 110 division is poss lile. There is 110 crime committed l>y tlx- (Germans winch does not hind tip Allies more closely m the honds of uni. t>. . Professor Delbruck must he simple indevd if he hope- that, alter the murder of Captain Fry.itt and the IIMI I risenors, any member of tlio hntente will he ready to conclude a separate peace with Germany. Kacli new experiment ill terror does hut '.(infirm ein' resolution and strengthen our arm. "\Vitli one mmd and one arm we sha.l figiit until Germany is huinhled in vhe dust. Meanwhile we can only wonder ■- v. hat crime our eneni'es wdl next lie gniit.v. (If cannibalism perhaps. which, I 14-lieve, was practised in the fore.sts of Prussia far later than anywlicrc else 'll th.o ovdised world. AN KNCUSHM.W.