The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1917. PEACE AND WAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 20 January 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1917. PEACE AND WAR.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

T’ae growing evidences of Germany’s exhaustion and the influence that exhaustion must have on the question of peace are matters that are now being forced into the forefront of war considerations. It was apparent when riots and food demonstrations would not be suppressed that disaffection was fast ripening for revolution, and now cables inform The world that German Military dominance is being resented in the very heart centre of German government. In Berlin the multitudes are clamouring for peace, refusing to listen to the appeals of the Military caste to go on bearing their starvation. They have realised that the mission to Roumania was merely to. get food and to let off fireworks to impress the Allies so as To secure a peace with whole necks. On the other hand the Allies by their efforts have discovered the real intentions of the Hun, and made it clear that German strength is insufficient to bear the strain of concerted attacks. The official reports to-day show that at no point are they able to stand before the forces that oppose them. Greek duplicity is beaten because Falkenhayn cannot send any help; Bulgaria refuses to send more men to save the Kaiser; Turkey wants all her men and more to attend to the insistent attentions from our men in Asia; in Moldavia the Germans are running before the Russo-Roumanians, and they are being thrust back in the Dobrudja; in Courland the Russians have gained one of the proudest victories since war commenced, and that victory is not yet complete, for it is being extended right into the Huns’ eastern centre, involving the casting out of the invader on over a two hundred mile front. On the West front punishment is severe, and raids in force are almost daily snatching mere and more of the underground Hun homes and defences. While being pushed back everywhere the exponents of Divine right are circulating stories about their intention to invade I France through Switzerland, and of a march through Holland to secure more seaboard. Both the Swiss and the Dutch know that the Kaiser’s military brigands can do nothing more than attempt robber raids for food to stem their starvation, it seems imminent that some grand denouement is near at hand, as a most illustrious gathering of the pirate and brigand chiefs of Random has been called by the claimant of Divine right. A Grand Crown Council, it is termed, is going to make

| grave decisions. Who are these grave decisions to be made by Kaisers, Kings, Grand Dukes, Princes, and all the pettifogging grand dukes so dear to the Teutonic system, going to affect? If it is more sacriligious exercise of the Divine right the people of Germany will have something to say and do. Berlin is already reported to be unsafe for the Reichstag to meet in; the adored town of Hundom is •having the vengeance of an enslaved people brought down upon it by the lust for blood and power of the enslavers. The Emperor of Austria has some consideration for his subjects, and he is openly offering the cold shoulder to his questionable friend, and it is even in the realms of probability that this illustrious meeting of war makers is to discuss, among other things, the Austro-Hungarian defection. There is now no doubt whatever about Germany having exhausted her strength; whatever else is done in keeping the war going is nothing but sheer murder of the German people by the Military Caste. The bitter pill being forced upon them is filling them with mad desperation, and they are seeking revenge in a system of ruthless submarining and destruction of innocent life that will for ever bringdown the anathemas of the world on Germans heads of the future. Peace is being brought very near by the magnitude of the Allied preparations. No risks are being taken; our millions of men and millions of money are being mobilised as though the Avar was going to last for another five years. When the huge neAv forces of the Allies meet the dying embers cf the German military system the result' must be appallingly disastrous to those bullies of small States. The peace terms flaunted with such Hun magnanimity have been answered by the Allies, conveying but the coldest comfort to the Kaiser’s mind. He understands the peace terms he has to accept, and that they are not of his making, and he has called his kings, grand dukes, and princes together, to discuss how they will take the unpalatable gruel. A feAv more fireAvorks may be indulged in, but the eyes of the people of Germany are now open to the hollowness and rottenness of the victories their loaders are winning; they realise that they are losing Germany itself at a greater pace than they are conquering the countries of their enemies, that continuance of resistance must result in multiplying their sorrows, and accentuating the famine that is carrying away their infant life, and they are already moving to stop the blight, and have rendered Berlin, even, untenable as the seat of government. Everyone Avill aAvait the result of the deliberations of the German CroAvn Council Avith utmost interest.