The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1917. THE RUSSO-GERMAN CONFERENCE.

Taihape Daily Times, 27 December 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1917. THE RUSSO-GERMAN CONFERENCE.

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

The anxiety for peace is so extreme amongst the people ot the Central x-'owers Wat they have caned a peace

conference ana have comAY-uceu peace deliberations without consulting the Allies. Perhaps it is thought chat a way may be found to declare peace as easy, arid effective to put in operation, as that they found to demure war. Of course, the foxy Hun doesn’t think anything of the kind, ae rs just practising the propaganda methods—a combination of the lowx.own spy and diplomat—he depended upon to win the war. The idea was /mat all Allied peoples should be se. quarrelling amongst themselves, just as Russia is quarrelling now. The nan didn’t work, however, and' tne nun and his pack having secured one victim are going to declare peace and compel the Allies to accept its couditions_ This gathering of the exponents of cultur now seem bent~npon reversing the a priori form of argument and action, and are commencing with the effect to reach the cause. If this new method does not work out in accordance with cultur then they will have to continue lighting to compel Allied compliance with their peace terms and conditions. Germany’s part in the whole proceeding is, obviously, insincere. If victory was possible on the battlefield for her Germany would be the last of the belligerents to ledve it. The real aim is to free as many troops, as many guns and as much equipment as possible from the eastern front to be used on the West front and in Italy, before the American millions can be got into the Allied fighting line. At the conference Turkey has four delegates, Germany five, Bulgaria five, Austria eight and Russia thirteen; these thirty-five disciples of cultur are going to bring about revolution in Allied countries so that fighting against them must cease. Of course, similar efforts have been worked fo an extreme of absurdity ever since long before the war started, but it has no\V~’Succeeded in Russia. Russia has been converted and with Russian help, perhaps, the Allies may be subduM by cultur who are incorrigible on the battlefield. Russia, it may be to some extent unwittingly, is becoming the tool of Germany, and a peace ' formula is being insinuated that is intended to involve Russia in taking up arms against the Allies in an endeavour to enforce it. Germany is chronically short of soldiers and workers and this is an application of cultur to recruit them in Russia No doubt the enemy will be enabled to withdraw a considerable number of men from Russia, hut cabled reports are true, they are being too much sub-divided over the various fronts to be of very much service anywhere. The Franco-British are to be wiped out in Macedonia, Italy is to be completely subdued, and victory is to be achieved on the W T est front before American help is available. The programme is over-reach-ing, and neither item is likely to be a success from the Hun point of view. Strangely, there is nothing proposed to help the Turk to save his empire, which is rapidly passing into British hands, but whatever Germany may decide to clo with the assistance of such help as the one-sided peace conference may bring her. it is net regarded very seriously by the Allies. From

the British Prime Minister to the men in the trenches there is a confidence in final victory that should shame many in New Zealand who quake with -ear while living in luxury.

PROGRESS IN PALESTINE.

The success of British arms in Palestine is having an effect among the nations not altogether explainable. It is supposed in high places that this campaign is going to have a much greater influence on early peace than Germany’s bogus peace conference. The Pope expressed hope that the conquest of Palestine would conduce to an early peace, and now the best informed authorities in Japan are suggesting that peace is visible through the gaps in Turkish ranks -made by the British in Palestine. Without doubt the Central Powers will have to send considerable forces to help Turkey if the victorious march of the Allies in Palestine and also in Mesopotamia is to be stopped. General Allenby is pressing on from Jerusalem to Damascus and is already just about half-way there. Jaffa has been conquered, giving a port at which munitions and supplies can be landed in the vicinity of the fighting. The Allied navy is taking part, and we may soon hear that Beirut is the next port to fall into British hands. What will happen after Damascus is passed and Aleppo comes into the menaced zone is not easy to define, as there is reported to be a large concentration of the enemy in that quarter. Its object was, however, to deal with the enemy converging from north and south on the Berlin-Bag-dad railway at Mosul. It should be , remembered that Armenia is largely in Russian hands; that Russia holds all Asiatic Turkey on the Black Sea coast to westward of Trebizond, not more than three hundred miles from Constantinople. That Russians are loyally fighting their old-time bitter enemy regardless altogether of what Russians are doing in Europe. They hold the country right across to Erzingau, while another force is marching on Mosul, and at last advice was only fifty miles distant, driving a beaten and demoralised enemy. The British are now about one hundred miles south of Mosul, we may therefore reasonably hope to soon hear of the fall of the only real large centre in Turkey’s possession in Asia, into Allied hands. The Arabs, under the King of Hedjaz, have joined up with the British north of Jerusalem, having reinforced them for a rapid move northward. The British have means of acquiring ample supplies for themselves and the Arabs. Russia has'immense supplies of food and war material at Erzeroum, Trebizond and Bitlis, and operations are so promising for the Allies that a very high military authority has said that “many interesting things are certain to unfold themselves in the next few months in Asiatic Turkey.” The Kaiser may see the possibility of a peace via Asiatic Turkey not quite in accordance with Prussian military interests and his feverish efforts with the Lenins and Trotskys may be the only set off Germany is now able to make. Among the possibilities is, that Turkey may desire to get out of the war before losing what she has in Europe as well as that in Asia, and no doubt the Kaiser hopes that Russia may yet step into the place vacated by Turkey.