GERMAN COLLAPSE IMMINENT.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 4 December 1916, Page 2

GERMAN COLLAPSE IMMINENT.

“Prance is fighting for the liberty of the world,” said General Joffre, “and will not stop until the liberty of the world has been unequivocally assured.” It is strange that Germany, after two years of war, does not yet know what she is fighting for. This, at any rate, is the idea that one derives from the acrimonious controversy that is being threshed out in German political circles and* 1 in the German Press. One section, the ruling clique, demands the annexation to Ger many of a considerable portion of Europe. Another group pretends to be shocked by the word “annexation,” and insists only upon the necessity of “guarantees.” A third group, the most numerous, but less influential, merely the common herd, is indifferent as regards either annexations or guarantees. It wants peace, an early peace. The Germans, in fact, are hopelessly divided over the purpose of the war, and in this respect form a striking contrast to the Allies, who are welded into a solid block by a single passion, love of liberty, ana a single determination. the determination to destroy Prussian militarism. It must be plain even to the most hardened “neutral,” says M. Briand, “that the crash and utter collapse of the German arms is coming.”