WHY GERMANY MUST LOSE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 131, 5 February 1915, Page 2

WHY GERMANY MUST LOSE.

PERFECT MACHINE WILL FAIL, BE FT.MX MUST ENDUE K. By SIDNEY .DARK in London Daily Express.) The one quite certain thin;; about life is its mystery. All life is my store ous ; the life of a caterpillar and a geiauiun:, the life' of a chru woman ami a king. Consequently only very silly {»»'«• pie (they are generally professors -.'.ml write unreadable book l2 } ever at,temp, to explain life. It las no ox 7la nut lost. Indeed, nothing has an (xplnnalion •which is worth explaining. If we allow ourselves *V r one moment to believe that life proceeds along logical lines, that the expected will happen, and that everything can be foreseen, wo shall make a series of colossal blunders, and shall eventually land ourselves into a bog of disaster. If, on • the other hand, we never forgot that ‘‘God moves in a mysterious way,” and in no other way, wo shall save ourselves from all manner of mistakes. ' - ' POPULAR HERESIES. There is no greater delusion than the belief that two and two always make four. They very rarely make four, Sometimes they make live, sometimes they make a million, sometimes they . make nothing at all. The reason why Germany must eventually be beaten in this war is that the Germans have entirely accepted the two-and-two-makc-four heresy. Things are. rarely what they seem and things even mote rarely are what thej are called, and I am inclined to think that it is a great misfortune when any-thing-ifi what it is called. It is splendid fun to entertain an angel unawares. It yvould bo rather overpowering to •enter-' K'i v;v i-...... 1.:

selves Tom Smith, and seldom wear their wings iu public. The British Empire is a thrilling creation, because it is not an empire, and because in the strict sense of the word it does not exist at all. The Elizabethian sailors, bored with the quiet life of Devonshire villages, sailed across the Atlantic in search of thrills, and founded our first colony. They wore followed by serious-minded men and women, whose peculiar form of religious wor-

ship was not encouraged by the home authorities. We owe India to merchant adventurers, who, I am quite certain, cared more for adventure than for merchandise. Pilgrim fathers, merchant adventurers, tiic bad boys of the family, the restless, the unconventional, the seekers of thrills, wandered over the face of the earth, occasionally writing home, and retaining in the new lands many of the institutions of the old; and one day Great Britain opened her eyes and murmured in astonishment ,in the manner of Mr. Wernmiek, "Hullo, here’s a British Empire!” As 1 say, it was not a British Empire, but because it was a very real thing, created, as some sage person has remarked "in a fit of absiuAiaindednesK,it must endure for over. CONTRADICTIONS.' If we look outside our own borders at the other peoples of the earth and try to understand their real characteristics, we shall find the same splendid contradictions wherever we find cause for admiration. Russia is described as an autocracy, just as the United. States is described as a republic. Of course, both descriptions are entirely wrong, The United States is a plutocracy, and Russia is the most democratic country in the world, if democracy lias any meaning. Certainly, Russia has a Czar, but the Russians, with affectionate familiarity.

Mr. Snagsby vailed bis wife “my little woman,’ ’although she was quite a large lady. If the Russians called the Czar ‘ * Great Father “ wo .should know that Russia really was an autocracy but i no real autocrat was ever called “Lit- ; tie Father.’ ’ 1 tremble to think what . would happen to any unfortunate Gori raana who called the Kaiser “Little I Father, “ and what the professors would say ab6ut it. The weakness of Germany is, indeed, that it is exactly what it is called. Germany is an empire, and a real empire is a very horrid thing. The theory on which the German Empire is built is that it is the business of a Hohenzollofn prince to comand, and the business of every one else to obey. It has been, asserted that if the obedience is unhosi- : fating and general the country will wax fat and prosperous, and to a large ex.- : tent this has proved to be true. The 1-German has been ready with Ins obeni- • once, and his bank balance has grown. THE POTSDAM MACHINE. j It is therefore natural for him to asj. sumo that if the Kaiser were permitted ! to issue orders to the whole human race j instead of to a small part of it, Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Russians would become as prosperous as the Germans Unfortunately these misguided people have the str mgvsx possible objection j to obey anybody unless they are convinced of his real ability to give orders, and Germany is lighting in this war'for no other reason than to compel them to accept orders from Potsdam.

The German is a very intelligent person, and he has accord ingly prepared a perfect scientific machine for subjugating the nations, a machine compounded of ingenious mechanical dc vices and blind unreasoning couragrand obedience.

For throe months now the machine has bet'n in action, and it has failed just because it is a perfect machine, and just because in this world of mystery, two and two do not make four. It has been beaten by valour, by enthusiasm, and by faith. It will ultimately be smashed, because God is not on the side of big battalions, and because God docs defend the right. Germany is astounded. Great Britain is relieved, because Great Britan in these days is a land of little faith. France, the lovable sceptic, rejoice; humorously. Only Russia is not in the least surprised, for Russia is the Lane of the Mvstics.