The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1918. GERMAN ANXIETY FOR PEACE.

Taihape Daily Times, 2 January 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1918. GERMAN ANXIETY FOR PEACE.

With which is incorporated The Taii.apo Post and Waimarino News).

The commencement of the New i r ear .discovers Germany using all the arts of sunning and deceit in the endeavour to .secure a peace with the world that her armies are not able to attain on the battlefield. If this rfeal war has done.nothing else it has definitely and absolutely proved thai no compact made with Germany can have' the slightest dependence placeu upon it. , Germany.. offers to accept peace on the status quo at the commencement of the war; she is willing even to concede some reinstatment, compensation and reparation, but the whole accursed military machinery is ;o remain intact. The product 01 :'orty years work that has failed to conquer the world this time is to be left unimpaired and in readiness with additions and improvements for the next time. The Allies, however, say very emphatically there is to be no next time; we, are fighting to destroy that menace to the peace of the world, Prussian militarism, and we shall fight on until we have achieved our aim. The cancer that would insinuate its venom, corruption, and death into every people must be cut clear away, and there must be no mistake about it, not even the smallest taint must be left. The Allies have made it clear time after time that they are not waging war against the people gf Germany, that they have ho intention or desire to interfere with any course of peaceful development its people may follow. The menace to a lasting peace is Prussian militarism, which is no more essential to Germany's commercial development than any similar military organisation is to any other country, but, on the other hand, it is a deterrent to progress and to the freedom of all other nations. It is that which the Allies have pledged themselves to destroy, not Germany, and they will listen to no peace proposals emanating from any of its disciplles. The most phenomenal commercial development has been shown by the United States, made during a time when its army and navy could have little or no influence upon it. American militarism was not large enough to even act as a barnacle on the ship of progress. The efforts of a ll the first nations except Germany, made at the memorable Hague Convention, t 0 reduce armaments, are quite sufficient indication that militarism was a millstone around necks of nations, a ; nd all were ready to rid themselves of the incubus, excepting Germany. The sinister motive had spread and the resultant growth become so powerful in 1914 that Prussian militarism thought it had only to unsheath its sword, to "reach out its mailed hand' and seize the" whole world, and it "plunged the peoples into a carnage, and broadcasted a desolation that man had hitherto no conception of. The mfttary machine was indeed a "mighty it, but it was not infallible. Its first blunder at the Marne disclosed its vincibility; that it was neither all-powerful nor all-con-quering. It has taken three years and a-half of blunders and defeats to convince Germany that the Allies consider Prussian militarism is quite incompatible with the peace of the world, and that they are determined to completely destroy it; that they

will make no compacts for the institution and the establishment of peace with a Germany in which Prussian militarism has any voice. President vVilson has said that if America alone is left to oppose Germany, there shall be no treaties, no arrangements with Prussian militarism. America is righting for honour and freedom; Britain entered the war to uphold her honour in the maintenance of obligations that treaties had laid upon her. Prussian militarism did not hesitate to disregard the sacredness of treaties entered into with other great nations, and whatever was athwart its lust for power was instantly "scrapped." Nothing that the nations had evolved and agreed upon for humane conduct of a struggle, international law wtih respect to women, children and non-combatants, nothing has been honoured by Prussian militarism; it even ordered the ruthless destruction of hospital ships with their freight of wounded and nurses. People of the world must either be the slaves of this militarism or they must give it the final blow and for ever destroy it. Freedom and honour cannot exist beside it in the same world; it is incapable of entering into agreements because its word and its signatures can have no dependence placed upon them. It is truly amazing that there are still some credulous enough to believe that Prussian militarism might observe and keep a compact, despite evidence being crushingly to the contrary. The Allies have no such misgivings; President Wilson has confirmed his determination to make no terms with Germany that do not involve the death of militarism. The Prime Ministers of Britain, France, Italy and Japan have similarly expressed themselves. Whatever Russia, or any other country may do, the present desperate attempt of Prussian militarism to save its neck by a separate peace with Russia and with helpless Roumania cannot prolong its life but by a very few months. Germany will stand at nothing to make this latest peace move provide a thread on which to hang its militarism, but the peoples of the whole world know the Hohenzollern brand of militarism too well; they know it is a pestilential cancer that seeks to carry mortification and death over all the earth, and they have decreed, that it must,go; must be completely rooted out of German life .before:they will even discuss peace. It;does not matter how much rant is putJnto the B'ol-sheviki-Prussian;.; peace trickery, it will not affect the continuance of hostilities very much. Germany knows its militarism y has been tried and found wanting. The words of President Wilson are ringing in its ears and it realises , the day.; of its execution cannot long be delayed. Buf for the defection of Russia this awful struggle could not have been carrieoT into the year just begun # That the end will come to Prussian militarism this year is regarded as certain. The worst has happened, and should any other misfortune arise there is the assurance of President Wilson that if America alone is left, to finish with Germanj', militarism will not be permitted to live. The. accursed shade of the Hohenzollerns over Germany must and will be lifted.