A PATCHWORK PEACE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 5, 6 May 1915, Page 4

A PATCHWORK PEACE.

“The dread grows in mo that unless we exereise vigilance we may be cursed with a patchwork peace.” These words says a writer in the Otago Daily Times, may be cited as the teyt ol' the series of articles by Air A. J. WiDon, the well-known publicist andproprietor and editor of the Investors’l Review, which have just been reprinted in booklet form. Thei writer continues: Mr Wilson wields a most ef-j fective pen, and even those who object to his conclusions must admit that his

reasoning Is expressed in very strong and vivid terms. A more trenchant re-j ply than he offers to the pusillanimous cry of “Don’t humiliate Germany” need .not be sought for. Mr Wilson as a writer on the war is de-j cidedly bracing. The virility ot his exposition of the doctrine that thej Allies, having put their hands to plough, must not think of looking' back till their task is thoroughly com-, pleted, may be judged by a few examples of his outspoken arguments. The “patched-np” peace against which he reiterates his warnings might hoj the outcome of sentimentality, it is suggested, or pity, or weariness, or a vaguely benevolent and therefore cine! hmnanitarianism, and would leave the world still crushed beneath the unbearable war •of armaments, still living iu nightmare dread of another Armageddon. ‘‘Try to think, Mr Wilson urges. “How can the Allies make a sure peace by treaty with Prussia? To Prussian would-be worldmasters treaties are but ‘scraps of paper.’ We gibed at the German Chancellor for using the phrase in hi-; first dismay over our Government s action in taking its stand by Die side of France in defence of her liberties and of Belgium, but it exactly fitted in with all Prussian history. The Hohenzollerns have never kept, never made a pretence of keeping, a treaty for a day longer than it suited them, and they must not again get the chance to break one. Therefore the All ies have to go on killing the befooled German multitudes until their rulers are reduced to such a state of impotence as will compel them to submit to whatever terms the victors decide in unison to impose. This beating down task of ours may involve, before our end is attained, the death of from seven to ten millions of German manhood through slaughter, and disease, because obviously the vanity which permeates their minds will be hard to eliminate, hut, whatever it costs, in the end a world’s peace can only thus be attained. We can in no wise help it. In our own interests, in the interests of free or freeable mankind, even in those of the deluded German peoples themselves, we have to persevere until ‘die ! ut.hoiy lias effected a clearance of weeds whence renovation mav spring.”