Who Needs Fear Hindenburg?

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

Who Needs Fear Hindenburg?

SOME I'LAIX TALK OX THE GEKMAN IDOL AXI) HIS REITTMTOX ROBERT BI.ATCHFORD ON THE ALLIES' PROSPECTS IN THIS YEAR'S FIGHTIXG: FACING THE FUTURE WITH HOPE AND COI'RACE. Who stopped the Germans at Verdun? The French. Who stopped •them at the Marne? The French and British. Who stopped them at Ypres, when they had odds of five to one, and overwhelming preponderance of artillery? The French and British. Why did they not get to Petrograd, and .Moscow and Rome, and Cairo? Because the Allies would not let them. Let them threaten. Who fears their threats? 1 Do not let us magnify Hindenburg into a Napoleon; do not let us forget the brilliant achievements of our own and our Allies' armies in France. 'Hindenburg is old, and fat, and German. His predecessors Moltke, Von Kluck, and the Crown Prince failed in France, and it will be time enough to believe that Hindenburg cannot fail, when he has begun to shew signs of succeeding. So far he is running away.

; colour" and facing the future with • | hope and courage. ■ ! OUR ESCAPE FROM DISASTER. i | Certainly the situation is Leiter t than at any time duriug the war. ■ ! But while we reckon up our blessing*: > we cannot ehelp feeling that the t greatest cause for rejoicing is our I almost miraculous escape from a • tragic and cataclysmic disaster. All s through this war, while we have been i relying on the might and valour of r | Russia, the enemy has been plotting s and striving to ensnare our Russian s Allies in civil war, and so to drive | their rulers to a shameful separate ! peace. Talk about a "threat to Petiograd"; what is anything the bully ! Hindenburg car. do in comparison I with the diraster £lOlll which the revolution in Russia Las save:! us? j Let us look steadily at the appalling facts. The Emperor of Russia is obviously a weakling; a feeble, superstitious "decadent; a weed. The Empress, a German Princess (like the Queen of Greece), was a German agent and a German spy; a traitor base and unscrupulous. Her tool was the debauched adventurer, Rasputin: and his tool was the Tear! Around the two arch-conspirators and their tool was a'horde of German agents, spies, and hirelings, and a mcb of reactionary aristocrats who valued their power and titles above the • honour of their country and the blood of the people. PATRIOTS OF RUSSIA. 1 I Thes? pimps and panderers. , tho I barrators and traitors, tried every

While it behoves one to be modest in assertion and cautious in deduction it does seem as though we should be justified in treating ourselves and our readers to a more robust optimism on the present position and future prospects of the Allies in this terrible war than many of our graver counsellors seem willing to indulge. Wo have not wen the war, and there may be hard times and bitter fighting before us; but surely the news is better to-day than it has been during the past two years; surely our position is stronger and more hopeful than r.t any time since the fall of Liege. And although it ir bad form and bad pcliev to shc-ut before we are out of the wood there is neither health nor dignity in belittling our own successes or oppressing our souls with imaginary clangers to come. HINDENBURG AND A REPUTAT. for one! am not going to shake in my shoe:- for fear of the deep, strategical significance of Hindenburg's voluntary retreat. If Hindenburg has some sinister purpos-e in abandoning positions which he declared a few months ago to be impregnable, then we may at least hope that General Nivelle and Sir Douglas ITaig and the magnificent soldiers of France and Britain will be capable of beating the Huns as they have beaten them so often. Hindenburg has a gicat reputation. Perhaps he deserves it. But he has certainly done nothing finer than Generals Xivelle and Joflre and Haig have done.

Hindenburg's reputation, indeed, rests upon his Russian victories. And we have iust learned that those victories were gained o\er troops without rifles, cr shells, cr artillery; that thev were gained over troops whose plans had been betrayed to the enemy; that they were gained .as the result of treason and treachery and corruption. Hindenburg will not have the advantage of such devilish help in his campaign on the Western frcnt, not will he ever aeain be so fortunate in his moves gainst the Russians.

means their wicked brain? could devise to drive their country into civil war. and to bring about a dishonourable separate peace. They deceive.'! tlie Emperor; they deceived the Allies. They deprived the Russian armies of artillery, and shells, and rifles. They betrayed the military plans of their generals to the enemy. | They superceded their ablest general. They purposely disorganised the railways and concealed supplies so that the people might be starved into rebellion. They were suspected i cf surrendering fortresses by treachI ery and of betraying Rouraania and | Greece. They sacrificed the lives of ; hundreds of thousands of the bravest and most loval soldiers, i They sought by the aid of secret agents to foment strikes and riots, which were to be crushed by ruthless slaughter. They starved the troops in their trenches, muzzled the Press, and sought to disband the Duma. , 1 say that, while we ought to bo ! thankful for our undoubted successes, we have a greater reason to rejoice over our escape from the disaster which has been impending above our , unsuspecting heads from the very beginning of the war. The brave and resolute patriots of Russia who overthrew that horrible plot deserve (ho gratitude of every one of the Allied nations. They have saved the liberties of Europe. Rut think what might have been had the plot succeeded!

BOGEYS OF THE DAY. Ilindenburg's "trap" on the Western front is not the only newspaper bogey of the day. There are the "threat to Petrograd," and "threat to Italy." ever whicli some of us are shaking our heads dubiously. What of those threats? Have we not heard German threats before? Have we not seen German thrusts before? let us rem ember the threat to Paris, the throat to Calais, the threat to Egypt, the threat of the Zeppelins, ?/n:l tiie threat of the first submarine blockade. A\e know what cam" cf those threats, and of the e'tVits to fulfil them.

Have we not seen the Austrians advancing triumphantly into Italy? But they failed. Have we not seen (he Germ am and Austrians inarching in irresistable power upon Petrograd and Moscow, and not getting there? JUSTICE TO OUR MEW Do not lot us l-e unfair to our own men, nor to our Allies. The Germans had every advantage in the attack on Pnriii. and in the attacks on Ypres, and tliev were beaten by the French and British. They ought to have walked over the. disarmed, lialfntarved, and betrayed armies of Russia, and they were stopped. Why should we go out of our way and pretend against all of the known facts that we or the French or the Russians have any reason to fear the llunr in attack or in defence? The Briti-h front at Ypres was only a series of imperfect trenches. The Germans had more gars and shells a. hundred times than we had. The Germans had six men to our one. they failed to drive us back. The German front 011 the Sommc wa-i a. labyrnth of formidable fortresses. The Germans believed them impregnable. Hindenburg s.aid they wore impregnable, and ci:r men have taken them.

"POISON* IN' JEST." As T said before, who could have postulated a Rasputin? Who could have imagined that the gre.it causa of the Allies was in deadly peril from the machinations of an ignorant and filthy libertine? So difficult is it for the mind of toady or a flunkey to recognise the most glaring crime committed by a Royal hand, that more than one flriiish writer has spoken in extenuation of the murderous trenchpry of the German woman who was Empress of Russia. One of them paid: "The Empress quite honourably, favoured the ca''se of her native country." Quite honourably! "Poison in jest." THE BETTER COI'RSE. Had this woman said, when war was declared, "1 am a Germnn Princess, and my heart is with my country's cause. [ cannot serve Russia faithfully. and I must give tin niv crown <md go back to my cwu people." that would have been honourable.

Let u? recognise sheer facts. Let us talk of the German threats to Petrograd and Italy, and rather moie of the French and British threats to Cambrai and St. Quentin. If the great Hindenburg means to try another thrust at Russia, well. ~,0 much tlm better for ourselves and nui Allies in France.

Hut to lie to the Tsar and to delude liim; to betray the Army and the people who trusted her; to ee.miive at the paeriliee of hundreds of ,'hou-ands of brave lives: t<i soil her hands with tlie filthy toe ! Rasputin; to betray her Allies, and break her vows; was thai honourable? If »1:0 false wife of the Russian Empeior. the false Empress of Russia, the false Ally cf France and Britain the ruthless phameles spy am! traitress he an honourable woman what is the meaning of th<> word infainy? Why. .Mr Flunkey, sir. an! Air Toady, ".ir. a criminal s.> vile deserves to he clothed in :i convict's (1 rers and to ho drmimed barefoot across the Herman frontier to the tune of the rooms' ma;<h. How many widow;; did she make in Ku.-s'n. i" France, in Roumania. in Tt;ily, tliihononralde Prince;:;? An ounce of ciiel. rood apothecarv, an ] l:e ii'iici-: for th" love of mercy. WHAT HI'XS CAN*NOT RFAi.tf'E. The Cermau; are t'uadauo that tlx so whom tlie fods mean to dertro' ttiev first make mad. I!} their ret iilessnr;.? and t rearhery, bv their in.'ilence and malice, by their murder and sa< rileue and arson and torture- they have earned II " execration of all human beinsrs in all lands. They have 1 ecu the mean;' ;.f cinanc'patiufc Russia: they have blind!.; iliiwn Ari"rica. to the verp;e of war: they have rendered it iaipcasii le fo"

PESSWIPTS COXPOrXDED. Fuicc tlr? first, attack on the Somnio last .li'ly, the French and British armier have .'uhieved many brilliant and wonderful victories. They are still advancing, still winning; the enemy is still retreating, still losin«. Twelve months' ago our pes.-inrisis were groaning over the r.tate of "rtalemato."' and bol'eved, .as llin(lenbi'i's profep-os still to believe. I tipt the (iernian lines could net be forced in thirty years. A\'e must not forget, either. <!e:ieral Ma:'de'-- splendid vi'tcries at TCr.t. and Bagdad: nor the defeat of the Turks in S\ii.v. nor the fail'ire of •lie (lernian conspiracies in Africa. India Fersia, Afghanistan. Mexico, f'hina. Russia, and America. We inusi not forget Ihat we defeated the lirsi subm.' , rine campn'vrn, and that we ""em to have discouraged th.e Zeppelins.

If we add In all vhe'-e eniif"'. ft: (engratulation the Chinese rebuff to 'lo-many. Die change in American feeling, and Ihe ~!orion-; Bupvan revolution, we s-linll certainly lie in.*;• I ifj <" ' in "casting off cur nighted