The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1914. NO GENEROSITY WANTED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 25, 16 September 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1914. NO GENEROSITY WANTED.

\y4w^.'«<-:np>'°fi^. v .five eharacteristic iji individual or nation, it certainly may be earned too far; The generosity of England' towards a beaten foe is traditional, and in the days when all other civilised nations. were equally chivalrous, that was perfectly right. But times have changed, and we have of later years beheld fcho the spectacle or' a mean and huckstering Germany, levying the' heaviest monetary tolls on beaten foes and exacting iho.severest penalty from those upon whom she has trampled by sudden attack and sheer l weight of numbers. There will, therefore, not be, we venture to think, very full agreement or sympathy with Mr Winston Churchill, who a day or so ago publicly urged "the necessity of a generous arid lib:r 1 stttleoient hr.t wou'd avoid inflicting on the conquered foe the humiliation she has dealt out to others." Humiliation of the deep ist has come to Germany, but it must be deeper yet. Fine argument will be brought forward in plenty to show that the German common people are not responsible for the war, and therefore it would bo cruel to make them pay a penalty. This is quite true, but at the same time it must be remembered that Germany's rotten rulers are the whole- and solo causs of this dreadful world's .war, and while it is hideously cruel that German people should suffer for their mad Monarch's crime, it would surely be infinitely more cruel and unjust that the paople of France and Belgium and Britain and Russia should suffer on their account-. There is the. further point that with a nation that prides itsel f on its masterly deceit, any generosity instead'of being accepted with that gratitude and high-mindedness which one might expect from a civilised nation, would only bring down derision for Britain's folly —at least in high quarters. Yet another aspect of the matter is that for many years the German people, as a whole, have heen so worked up-m by the Bismarckian policy that they have shown the greatest hatred towards the British people, and. while pretending friendship, have lost no opportunity of injuring in every possible way Great Britain or her colonies. Even at so late a date as this present' month, when thn falso news the Kaiser Handed to his precious people depicting British 'defeats" and French "losses," was joyously read and believed, silly merchants showed their spleen and all sorts of suggestions wero made for the humiliation and penalising the Allies and particularly Britain.. From every point of view the present is no case for leniency or generosity. If one should possibly feel tenderly towards Germany, let him but think of fcho violation of Belgian integrity, and the shocking outrages inflicted on Ignoble and innocent people. There must be no softening towards the conquered Prussian, and Germany's ut-

tor disregard of international treaty and international good faith must be punished to the fullest. The world !at large will yet have cause for deep {regret, if under *:iy mistaken feeling 'of generosity itSs ieL at all possible for Germany ever cgain to have even •the remotest chancev of precipitating such a calamity as the world a month ago had to face. Our latest cable 'news to-day announcing a further great surrender of German troops—a whole German Army, in fact—dispels the last remaining doubt (if ever such existed in our minds) that anyone could possibly have of the result. 'no matter un what side his sympathies may be. Such news as that* we are publishing to-day cannot be 'much longer'kept from the German people themselves, aiiu when their; dull wits at last absorb even a little portion of the truth, they themselves linay rise and end the conflict in a way the world hardly anticipated. But Germany must pay, and pay in full. The first levy ought to be on the Kaiser's personal fortune and. 'on the great estates of the bloodthirsty marauders who lielped to make his policy and plans.