The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1916. AMERICAN FROTH.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 34, 10 February 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1916. AMERICAN FROTH.

(With, which is incorporated The Tai bape Post and Waimarino News.)

President Wilsop, of the United States, by his strong and rather unexpected plea for extreme military preparedness, created a sensation in European diplomatic circles, but in again falling - an easy victim to Germany’s cajolery he will have earned the disgust of the whole world. If it is true that he has accepted the latest Teutonic juggling with terms to close the most heinous breach of international law ever recorded, the Lusitania murders, then he becomes just about as reliable as the wily sons of Attila. One day he speaks as the head of a great nation, the next he is the tool of cunningly conceived humbug. It i s no longer possible to estimate American intentions from the President’s utterances; the country remains an enigma, and should this last act of puerility ’’eceive official acceptation America’s position in history will not be one of which her people can feel very proud. American citizens were as basely murdered as ever man or woman was, and it has appeared that full satisfaction would be demanded of the murderers. In fact Germany promised to give satisfaction and reparation, but when pressed, always avoided the issue. America finally demanded that Germany should admit the illegality of its submarine commander’s work and Germany replied by saying she will never admit illegality, but she goes so far as to say it was a reprisal. By a stretch of diplomatic application reprisal and illegal may be interchangeable terms, and although America may be content to seek peace behind such a contention, Germany will assuredly disavow any thought of acting similarly. If it is understood in Germany that the submarining of passenger ships is an act of reprisal and that such an act can only be taken against belligerents, then it amounts almost to an abandonment of her submarine operations, as there Avould be few ships indeed that carried none but the people of belligerent nations. Should this extreme view be what Germany really means then President Wilson has scored as big a victory as though the word illegality had been accepted. The whole question is, at present, an enigma that is not likelj. to be unravelled, or solved until many more lives of neutrals have been sacrificed and more ships sent to the bottom of the sea.