DISADVANTAGES OF RUTHLESSNESS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 284, 15 June 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

DISADVANTAGES OF RUTHLESSNESS.

Thi ; desire to destroy what he cannot hold appears to be as strong in the German as ever it was. There is no doubt that it has its advantages from his point of view, and the ruin and devastation which he left in his trail when he withdrew from the Noyon salient recently were certainly intended to delay and hamper the allied pursuit. Tho wanton destruction of buildings and of munumonts, however, is intended to have a political rather than a military effect; but, as Mr Hilaire Helloc pointed out in a recent issue of "Land and Water," this political effect is not t-o advantageous when the nation rer-.pon-sible for the destruction has admitted "that victory has failed her." "One of the subsidiary points which the enemy is always making," says Mr Beiloc, "is that the zone of destruction, being entirely upon alien soil, is entirely to his advantage. He is perpetually hammering in this point, especially with regard to the French front, and repeating it over ?nd over again to h's domestic"Press and that of neutrals. Rheims is half destroyed, Arras has gone, the beauty of Soissons is wasted ; innumerable villages from the Y.ser to the Jura. Mountains are nothing now but ruins, and none of these villages are German, lust nearly all are I'rench. . St. Vaast, one of the most beautiful things in Europe, has disappeared; the glass of Rheims has gone, and its roof and even the fabric is in peril. On the other hand, the stained glass of the new German railway stat'on at Met:? is still there in r.ll its beauty, and so is that of the new German railway station r.t Aix. The new west front ->f Motz Cathedral, '."hir-h it would be i charity to destroy, and whkh contains ,1 --rirtlmgly life I'ke statue of ti'C German Emperor, is intact. So is tlic nn'" big Beer Hall ner<r the Cathedral at Strasslmrg. Whether this is a political asset or no only the future can dete - m'w. It is obvious that if the war wee to end in a peace which still left Germany unoccupied and Prussia in the saddle, it would be a very great political asset. Futur" generations would see clearly that Prussia had been *>h!r> -to inflict a terrible wound upon the physical nature of nr. opponent find hail suffered no retribution. . • But it >s with this, as with the question of invasion—the effect of such things upon your opponent is that of a spur. He may not win, but his determination to win is vastly increased, and if 7 on are, up >:i the whole, on the losing side, it 's a disadvantage for you to have applied tint spur, for it will make him the more ruihlcss when he can act in his turn."