The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1914. A WAR OF THE PEOPLE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 66, 17 November 1914, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1914. A WAR OF THE PEOPLE.

(With which is incorporated The Tab hapo Pest 'joa Waimarino News.)

Careless of censure, not too fond of fame Still Jree to praise, yet not afraid to blame: Averse alike to flatter or offend, Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.

The spirit of heroic self-sacrifice that has driven the German soldiers to certain death before the Britisn trenches has served to arouse once more the much discussed Question " Is the mass of the people of Germany opposed to this war?" It is generally held that the Kaiser and his War Lords are directly responsible for the present struggle, but this conclusion, however, is open to very grave suspicion. That, at any rate, is the opinion of Ilerr E, Wetterle, until recently an Alsatian Deputy of the German Reichstag, who, on the declaration of war escaped into France to avoid arrest owing to hi s pronounced anti-Prussian sentiments, and wrote an interesting article in the Echo de Paris on the situation and what led up to it. He said that, so far as Germany is concerned, the present war is essentially a people's war. and that it is a great mistake to lay the blame for it on the shoulders cf the Kaiser or of his Government. Very few people outside Germany know anything of the immeusq organisations of a hyperpatriotic character existing in the Empire. The Pan-Germanic League, the Naval League, the Army League, the League for the Development of Germanism Abroad, and others, each numbering between 200,000 and 300,000 members, recruited either from the army, the universities, the great German colleges, the leading manufacturers and tradespeople, are all organisations of this class, having saibst" tial funds of their own with v.':; they subvention the leading f; t-:.:an newspapers and magazines to pro~> gate their particular ideas, in ru.di•tion to their home activities they assist all Germans,'resident in foreign

cities, and if be subsidise German traders, professors, and clerics living in foreign countries. The object of these associations is to give even the humblest German absolute and blind eo'ih'domre in (lie power of the German army and navy, :o seek to convert every German to the belief thai the Gmnnaa race U superior to all ethers, am] that sooner or later, it will dominate the earth. This theory has, the writer continues, prefcundiy penetrated the minis of the German masses. One hears the PanGermanic deciriue expounded with absolute but disconcerting conviction, not only by the schoolmaster, but bv the highly graduated university student. The German mere-ham and manufacturer encourages and financially supports such propaganda because it is »o their interest; it all helps to open up new markets and to destroy foreign -•cmpotUion. The Gorman manufacturer argues that as ev-ry foreign country is beginning ■::: take defensive measures against German competition, it is useless to continue the fight by purely pacific methods, and "hat Germany must impose her products by military force in order to destroy all customs barriers. Therefore, every sacrifice must be cheerfully made for the German army and navy with the object of imposing German rule j throughout Western Europe. The Ger- ! man people are impregnated with ideas j of this sort, and not only wish for the j great war that is to subjugate other nations, but look upon is as an abso lute necessity for the development of German commerce. " Therefore, this is no war of meek and docile masses led to butchery by an aristocratic dynasty; it is a war deliberately desired by all classes c r the nation, and it would have been impossible for the Emperor to resist it." THE DEATH OF LORD ROBERTS. The hand of Death has deprived the British Empire of the greatest of its soldiers The news of the demise of Feild-Marshal Lord Roberts at a time when the value of his services to the nation had proved incalculable will cause a wave of sympathy to sweep from the Homeland to wherever the English language is spoken. No other British general-statesman has reigned so long and so well, and lias continued to. grew so steadily in the love and affect ion of English people to the very end. Tire century that has passed has in truth, very little greater to show than the figure of Roberts of Kandahar, " Modelled out of simple human clay, treading our common earth with average mortal feet," and yet discharging the common round, the daily task with fidelity and capacity, passing through ordeal after ordeal unvanqnished, meeting great risises with undaunted heart —who has stamped indelibly upon the mind of the race the conception of the highest duty noblest done. The Empire can never forget the. steady astute, ana entirely untheatrical leadership of Field-Marshal Roberts during the Boer War. lie issued no high sounding manifestoes, and he had the greatest qualities that a military leader could possess. He avoided anything like limelight, or exaggeration or dis-tortion-of the truth. He was a scientific soldier. His business was to defeat the Boers, and he went about that business with a calm steadfastness that was l^ e finest assurance of success. His was a trimph of personalty. Since his return to England, Lord Roberts had devoted his time in trying to arouse an apathetic or overconfident nation to r&alise the peril U stood in from invasion by a foreign power. His failure to accomplish this was within the ken of everyone, but the famous general has lived to see the wisdom of his words proved -by trie ife and death struggle in which Britain ig now engaged. Well might Englishmen for generations to come emulate the spirit of Roberts of Kandahar! And well might his epitaph be " Well dene! Thou good and faithful servant."