WAR NOTES

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 22 September 1917, Page 2

WAR NOTES

A BAIT TO CATCH THE ALLIES. THE “NO ANNEXATIONS AND NO INDEMNITIES CRY. We hear a good deal about the hot debates in the Reichstag on the subject of “No annexations and No Indemnities. ” This phrase, declares the New York “Sun,” is simply the bait on the trap to catch the Allies and to sow discord. The vital question is how the cry will be responded to in Russia. About the feelings of the rest of the Allies on the subject there is little doubt. An emphatic reply to the “noannexation” formula was made by Premier Ribot, of France. He warned against a literal acceptation of the term, but accepted it as meaning simply “no conquests and no covetousness. ” He explained that the restoration of Alsace and Lorraine was not a question of annexation and reparation for devastated provinces nor a matter of indemnities. Indemnity for Belgium or Servia, said the Premier, “is a contribution which is inflicted as a fine for wrong done. It is a requirement which both law and equity demand. As for Alsace and Lorraine, we ask simply for restitution of what belongs to us, and not for annexation.’ ’

To restore the map of Europe to what it was before the war -would be a process which the New York “Globe” condemns as “highly imperialistic and unjust.” And the “Globe” appeals for a moment to the imaginations of liberty-loving Americans; “Imagine saying to the remnants of the Armenian people, or to the poor refugees of Palestine, or to the 'Arabians, who have long abominated Turkish rule, that they must re-submit themselves to the tyranny of the Sultan. “Imagine telling the people of Lorraine, inhabitants of the province that gave Joan of Arc to Prance, and telling the Alsacians, who, after two generations of German rule, have seen 22,000 boys during the ten years preceding the present war enlist in the Foreign Legion of the French Army, that they are to be divided between Prussia and Bavaria.

“Imagine telling the Poles of Posen that they are to hope no more, and that even if Poland is to rise free and glorious they are to continue to feel the tyranny of Berlin! “Imagine telling the Italians of the Trcntino and of Istria that the Hapsburgs are to remain their masters! “Imagine telling the Czechs, and the Slovaks, and the Servians, and the Roumanians, and the Danes who. are under hated German dominion, that the Russian peasant is to be free, but they are to remain slaves! ’

To call the war a draw /with Germany ’s grip on Austria and Turkey unshaken, would, in the New York “ World ’s” phrase, “leave German democracy helpless, German absolutism victorious, a world endangermeht. ” Germany, after such a peace, would be in a position to begin at once preparation for the next war, the New York “Times” points out. She would have made a start towards world empire. In consequence, the other Powers would try to keep her from realising her aims. To do so they would have to arm more heavily than ever before, and arm permanently. “For generations to come men would live under the shadow of war and under the pressure of intolerable taxation.” Thus in calling for a compromise or stalemSTe peace, in accordance with their “humbug programme,” “no annexations, no indemnity,” the pacifists and Socialists would be. working, not as they think, for peace, but “for a world in arms, feverishly preparing for Armageddon, for a war compared with which this one would sink into second place.”