Incendiarism in Canada

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 51, 5 February 1916, Page 5

Incendiarism in Canada

Parliament Buildings • Destroyed

Plot Hatched in Hun Embassy

HEAVY CASUALTIES REPORTED

Lord Rosebery Advocates Reprisal

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

tionthe last official despatch published from the Dardanelles carried the story only to the end of dune. In the new number of The Times History of the. War, just out, an attempt is made to fill the and the issue is called “The Spirit of Anzac.” The compilers think it interprets very clearly the Australian point of view, and think it will remove many vague misconceptions. In particular, “it lays stress upon th« unfairness of the accusation of ‘recklessness’ so often brought against the Anzacs. ‘They did nothing,’ we are told, ‘without a purpose.’ ... It ns«jd to he said.

The destruction of the Canadian Parliament buildings in Ottawa as the result of pro German incendiarism is a shocking example of the depths , to which the Huns, have descended on the moral ladder. But no one is surprised. Have we not had innumerable instances of murder on the High Seas, the slaughter of innocents by air raids, the shooting in cold blood of Martyr Cavel! and thousands besides, massacres under the name of war and uow we have an act which is described as “an unpardonable crime against civilisation.” > An American Senator rightly terms this latest pro-Germanism, and is righteously indignant at the occurrence thereof. The fact that an extensive plot to destroy other important buildings was hatched in the German Embassy at Washington will ever redound to the ignominy of the Prussian sense of honor, which was first discovered (or lost) in the famous (01 infamous) term “scrap of paper,” The verdict, “wilful murder,” which was the .jury’s finding at the inquest on the victims of the Midlands air raids is the only one to be applied to the holocaust in Ottawa. Many will earnestly desire in their best spirit of revenge that the crow of the Zeppelin Ll 9, which came to grief m the North Sea after its attack on the East Anglican coast, will have promptly meted out to them by the Home authorities the one and only fate whici all criminals found guilty of murder ought to face. Yet hanging is too good for such subjects of Atilla Wilhelm 11.

in quarters where Australians were not understood, that they were perhaps not so ready ,as others to suffer in the cause of Empire, because they bad not been compelled to win their own great land in blood and suffering. The taunt was always unjust, ami now it is utterly meaningless. On the heights of Auzac the bravest blood of Australia has been gladly shed in the Imperial cause, and Australians and New Zealanders alike have won a reputation for heroic self-sacrifice which will give them a foremost place for ever in the Empire’s annals.”

To advocate reprisals for the adoption of inhuman and unnatural methods in the war has for long been the case in France, and the policy has been adopted by the French Futhorities. In Britain, however, we are paid the doubtful compliment of being too soft-hearted, because the great majority of people recognise that two wrongs do not make a right. But admitting the ethics o the case, is it not carelessness almost amounting to a crime in itself to sit down and allow, the callous devils-ot war to come over and murder with mpunity? There is a growing feeling throughout the Empire that the time has come when wo must pocket many of onr cherished opinions of pre-war times and follow more nearly the po - icy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. To some such a policy ■will be repugnant to a degree almost unthinkable, striking, a s it does, at the very root of their religions views, and appealing to the baser side of human nature. Yet it will come to be observed by the Allies as a whole as sure a s it is that the Huns will not be able to run straight in this niternational struggle. They have already jettisoned evervt-bing worth anything to the German or any other nation m the gamut of morals. The latest advocate of reprisals for their raids in England by the Zeppelins is Lord Rosebery, who seeks th e columns or The Times for the purpose, “100 long have wo displayed passive and excessive resistance, and we must bring pressure to hear upon the hearths and homes of Germany for the deeds which they acclaim.” Lord Rosebery will have many supporters in the cause espoused on behalf of the sufferers.

* The death of Prince Yussuf, the heir-apparent to the Turkish throne, is now being hinted at as the work ol his enemies ’ among the Young 'links party.- The fact that he was favorable to peace and held sympathetic views towards the Entente might supply tlie reason for his forced removal from the scene. The method of suicide, the opening of veins, hts m ’well with the statement that he was weak as the result of illness, but, then, it has been pointed out, more than’ one Sultan ha s died from f* l ® same cause, hut it was not. the work of their own hands. The real facts of the case will no doubt dribble through in time, and until then t c 1 theory of suicide will have to stand. It must be remembered that the deceased man. was 59 years of age.

the Times reminds ns (states the London correspondent of the Associated Press) that the people ol tins country have never yet been told the thrilling story of Anzac. and ehaige.the Home Government with “unwarrantable reticence” in this connoc-