The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1918. PROSPECTS OF AN EARLY PEACE.

Taihape Daily Times, 5 November 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1918. PROSPECTS OF AN EARLY PEACE.

(With which is Incorporated The Xai* iiapo Post and Walnmil'iO Newfl)..

Austria has surrendered, virtually an unconditional surrender, and an armistice has been arranged. Fighting has ceased against Austria on all fronts; Italy and Servia, Roumama, Bulgaria and Turkey can now tarn their attention seriously to rehimlimcnt of good government and of their social and industrial affairs. Three of the four Powers arrayed against Bri-’ tain and her allies have been definitely and very decisively conquered; Germany, with her proud, boastful, bloodlustfui military machine, only remains in the fight, a struggle so hopeless that even the divinerlght super- 1 man Hohenzollern may find it necessary to the saving of his life to cast away the crown at the demand of the proletariat he so much despised, at any minute. It has been reported that Germany may make one more desperate effort to secure some voice on the terms under which hostilities cease; that a stand will be made on the Rhine and that the navy will try conclusions with the combined navies of Britain, France and America in the North Sea. It must be realised that such a fight could only have one ending, and what would be Germany’s ! condition thereafter? The indications in the temper of the German people are all against, either populace, soldiers or sailors permitting such wholesale massacre and sacrifice as a sea fight would entail, and before the German army has time to reach a line on the Rhine it will have suffered such loss that what is left of it will be little else than a dispirited, demoralised mob. No person knows better than the Kaiser that his army is utterly deI feated and that it only exists by flight. I The German people are beginning to understand what the Kaiser knows, and they are taking no uritrertain measures to bring the massacre of German people to an end. Doubtless, if the military leaders can retain control of the army they may not hesitate to sacrifice the last man to secure their own .safety, but the chances are so desperately against them that it is questionable whether even they will continue the war a day after they are convinced that nothing more than unconditional surrender is forthcoming from the Allied Council, now sitting at Versailles, awaiting Germany’s decision. According to all understanding of modern warfare the world’s arch-criminal is defeated beyond the faintest hope of recovery, and surrender should follow at the earliest moment to prevent useless and senseless sacrifice of lives. Against this it is urged that the Germans are lacking in sanity, and still believe, like the lunatic who insists that he is some great personage, that super-culture will save them. Such nonsense can scarcely be taken seriously in sifting the evidence available for and against war continuing for any appreciable length of time. Everything military, political and social in Germany to-day strongly indicates that all Germany, perhaps excepting a few military junkers, is quite determined that peace shall replace war at the earliest moment. When it is definitely understood that no terms other than unconditional surrender are possible, those terms will be accepted. As a German journal puts it, Austria’s capitulation ends Germany’s powers of resistance, all that can be saved must come from after j negotiations. If German leaders think that any gains are pcsible at the final j settlement they will not risk such 1 chances for a last desperate, bloody 1 massacre which would completely

spoil them. Cables to hand yesterday consist largely of opinions expressed by men in high places, and excerpts from leading German newspapers. The

Vossiche Zeitung believes the Kaiser is to abdicate. “Vorwaerts” says, “We shall read the terms of surrender with burning hearts and express our indignation, but we shall accept and swallow them because there is nothing else to Ado.” ‘Almost completely surrounded wi.th enemies what can Germany be ek&egted to 'do? Through Poland, Ukrania, the new line of enemies commences along the Silesian frontier and extends along the eastern and southern frontiers of Bavaria. The new and huge Czecho-Slovak kingdom Is on the other side'of these frontiers, and an immense army can invade Bavaria from the south in a few days from cessation of war with Austria, A new road to Berlin, a veritable shortcut, unprepared because the un-

expected has happened, has been opened up. and it is pasy to imagine with what enthusiasm the Bohemians would take the new road. In a political speech Mr. Asquith, has verified our estimate of the situation by saying,. "The remarkable fact is the collapse, which.is complete- /r and irreversible, of autocracy, which the thrones of Germany, Russia and Austria cannot rebuild. The war has buried beyond hope- of resurrection autocracy and its satellite, militarism. Terms of peace should be summed up in reparation aricl security.” If this Paris report of the Kaiser having signed his crown away last Wednesday is correct, the people of Germany have their destiny in ( their own keeping, and the war may cease, definitely and finally in the course of a few days or weeks. The evidences of protracted hostilities are meagre; they are backed by statements about a much contracted front, about the strength of Rhine fortifications, and by reports about the fortification of the Bavarian frontier. It will be seen that the latter report contradicts and nullifies the statement about a shortened front, for Germany’s front to defend has immensely lengthened and an army equal to that in France and Belgium would he required in Bavaria and Silesia. Then there only remains the strength of the Rhine line, but this line is no protection from the menace in Bavaria. It is believed in American diplomatic circles that the German peoples will not tolerate a refusal of the armistice conditions however severe, and there is talk of punishing those who are responsible for failing to hasten peace. Everywhere the conviction that the end of the war is approaching is growing. The soldiers that Germany can spare to dig trenches on some hundreds of miles of new front cannot hope to stem the tide of invasion from Bohemia when it commences to flow. The Allied Council seems to be extending Its sit■l ting in expectation of the all-absorb-ing event, and taken altogether we think the evidence strongly favours the belief that ah early peace must come.