GERMAN GUILT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 74, 27 March 1916, Page 6

GERMAN GUILT.

Gf A CRUSHING INDICTMENT

The Exchange special conrespontknt at Amsterdam says the Committee of the German Humanity League has issued the following reply to Dr. Hclffcrieh - s proposed budget increases.

Dear Comrades: —In view of the increasing pressure being persistently exerted by powerful forces at Vienna,. ‘Budapesth and Sofia demanding an immediate cessation of useless slaughter and widespread grief and misery it is a dangerous path which Helfferick has chosen to walk blindfolded. The records of history prove that most skilfully trained acrobats, and jugglers cannot, by a. touch of the magician -’s wand, turn paper credit obligations into bullion, or by a trick of legerdemain arrest the downward falls ox exchange, or conjure, by flattery of American investors, dollars into our national exchequer. We ask you to remember that to place now upon the necks of the overladen toilers and wage-earners additional yokes of taxation of four milliards of marks is to crush the workers. It is an arrogant and outrageous burden. The present economic crisis must lead the way to peace offers, as demanded by Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria., not less than bj r ourselves. Not content with sacrificing the lives of thousands of our bravest men, with ruining the family life of the Fatherland, with dishonouring the name of Germany throughout the old world and the new, the Prussian camarilla, which surrounds and hypnotises the Kaiser, is blind to the handwriting on the walls in letters of blood, and deaf to the cries of an injured and befooled people, longing for deliverance from this nightmare of hell.

Comrades! We strive for the dawn of the day of reconstruction. Over the. graves of the fallen we ask you to renew your oo.th of allegianeq to civ*!isation and humanity. For 18 months you have been the innocent victims of a devilish group of lying conspirators. We have,* with a fair mind, examined with scrupulous care the volumes of diplomatic publications of all countries. With shame we declare the baselessness and falseness of “Germany in danger” to be the invention of our Berlin overlords. Documents prove an absolute negation of the oftrepeated declarations in the Reichstag that this is a war in defence of German territory. No German State has been menaced. No German liberties have been threatened from without. On the false pretence of saving you, miscreants are bleeding to death an outraged nation.

The manifesto concludes: “There Tire two courageous and noble men enjoying the respect of the world. Trust Herr Maximilian Harden and Dr. Liebknecht. Commit to their hands negotiations for peace. Resist to the uttermost the shackles of taxation which the Secretary of Finance seeks to fasten upon the limbs of the nation. ” It is signed by Karl Bernstein (president), Emil Gott, Franz Ganssen, and Albrecht Zettel (secretary).