The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1919. TEUTONIC INSTABILITY.

Taihape Daily Times, 2 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1919. TEUTONIC INSTABILITY.

(With which is incorporated The /"aihape Po»t cad WalEMUl'io News).

Fox’ some clearly defined reason It is apparent that sections or German leaders are still practicing their proclivities for lying and deception. For some not very clear purpose a late Chancellor, Eraeberger, has stated that the question of indemnities was settled between Germany, the United States, and the Allies, and that German delegates signed the armistice on condition that there should be restrictions on amounts for war damages; he then pretends to indicate roughly the restrictions by saying that Germany will bo obliged to indemnify the districts she occupied in France and Belgium, and pay all losses she inflicted on the civilian population. There is not much in Erzebergor’s statement worthy of notice except, perhaps, his suggestion that German Delegates would not have signed the armistice but for the rcsti'ictions he alludes to. It is too well known now that had those delegates refused to delay for another forty-eight hours ;-the whole German military structure would have commenced to pass into the possession of the Allied Generalissimo; the German army would hij-ve collapsed and would by conquest in the field have been nothing mdrV than a huge mob of Allied prisoner- It is difficult to realise"uxe state of parlousness into which Germany is drifting: a” authority has vanished and there has already'a pitiable drift set in towards revolution. It may be that Erzeherger has sought to turn the attention from a revolutionary scramble for power by endeavouring to make the disrupted armies and people believe that the Allies were showing signs of breaking armistice conditions, which provided for restricted indemnities, by insisting upon damages and costs of all kinds resulting from Germany’s criminal acts, transferring the temper of a people who seem to be incapable of understanding

that they have been so completely and thoroughly conquered that they can only offer the resistance of a rabble to whatever the Allies may determine j as basis of peace. Had the indemni- ! ties Germany would be called upon to pay been agreed upon by Germany and : the Allies there would be little need i for the Peace Conference. Neither ! Erzebcrger or anyone else will know the limitations of the Allies’ claim for damages until the Peace Conference has adjudicated upon so supremely important a subject. Then we may be assured that Erzebeger had some ulterior motive; had he uttered the truth his words would have lacked interest, as he certainly -would not have been allowed to proclaim to The world the precise nature of the armistice In that overwhelmingly momentous particular. The craft and cunning of the German ruling class is limitless in volume, application and comprehensiveness; the universal practice of deception and of might over right, the subjection of law and courts of justice to the dictation of military commanders, all help to establish the idea that Germany sought to conquer the world by a complete reversal of the well-under-stood moral code, and now they cannot lay aside their old obsessions while awaiting the terms of peace that arc to be detailed by Foch. Our expressed fears that the Allies w ould find no stable government in Germany to make peace with seem likely to be verified in fact. The Ebert Government, German journals report, has collapsed, and a new Government is in course of formation by the extreme Socialists, Licbknccht, Ledobour and Eichorn. Looting and robbery is rampant in some large centres of population and there is no authority that can stop it. Then, the Peace Conference may be faced with absence of any responsible German government to whom its demands may be handed, consequently, it may have to determine that Berlin be occupied and government by the victors established and maintained until Germans

can .agree sufficiently among themselves to render government by their conquerors no longer a matter of necessity. There is no question at all about the hugeness of the burden Gorman militarism has heaped upon the shoulders of the German people, a load that will only be restricted after every just claim has been provided for. From statements made and opinions expressed by leaders, and in most authoritative quarters the total bill of costs to be presented to Germany, if there should be authority to hand it to, will be bewilderingly huge; and the absence of a German government will not delay its acceptance, or delay arrangements being made* for its payment. That there is a considerable section of the German people who strongly favour Allied occupation of Berlin can no longer be doubted, and the Allied semi-official Press Correspondent in Berlin has> 'reported that .American and British correspondents in that city nif.y bo arrested in order to force the Allie’s to occupy the German capital and to restore order. What Erzcberger states about restrictions of indemnities before German Delegates would sign the armistice terms laid down by Foch is' mere smoke. The taciturnity of Foch on that momentous occasion w 7 as the irreducible minimum in words; he said, “Who arc you,” and after hearing the reply, he said, laying down on the table before Erzcberger and his fellow delegates, “These are our terms.” We now know that whatever, subtlety Erzeberger may be practicing, Germany will have to pay whatever bill of costs the Peace Conference may determine upon, and that payment will bo enforced even to the extent of the complete oeupation of Germany.