GERMAN POLITICS.

Taihape Daily Times, 24 October 1917, Page 6

GERMAN POLITICS.

LONDON, October 10. The Imperial Chancellor, Dr. Michaelis, speaking in the Eeichstag, declared that Germany was striving to bring about a peace that would permit her the widest economic and cultured development. So long as her enemies demanded that Germany should yield up a tingle piece of German soil, or attempt to drive a wedge between the Kaiser and his people, Germany would refuse to make peace. Baron von Kuhlmann, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and declared that there was only one answer to the question whether Germany could make concessions regarding Alsace and Lorraine. The answer was: No, never, so long as a single German could hold a gun. The war, the Minister proceeded was being continued merely for Alsace and Lorraine, Britain having given a pledge to France that she would fight for their conquest as long as France desired. He referred to the French claim that there must be “disannexation” and that the latter word was bashfully used to cover up what in reality would be forceful conquest. If there were to be disannexations, which year of the world’s history was to be taken as the basis for the status quo? He reminded France that she had not always possessed Toul and Verdun. Baron von Kuhlmann concluded by asserting that as far as he read the world situation the only impediment to peace was the matter of Alsace and Lorraine. Other questions could be settled by negotiations and without further bloodshed. He was strongly of opinion that public speeches did not help for peace, because they had to be simple, and could not contain all the aspects of the intricate questions involved. The New York Tribune publishes a cablegram which declares that the spirit of democracy is rapidly growing in Germany. The Junkers are enraged at the submarine and army failures. and a new peace offer will be made in a month.