The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1919. PEACE CONFERENCE DIFFICULTIES.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 January 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1919. PEACE CONFERENCE DIFFICULTIES.

(With wiiien is incorporated The Taihape Pout tfld WalßStttl-ao News).

The Peace Conference has not yet been able to settle down to the unbroken consideration of main questions, a very small cause, but one which looms 1 ridiculously large in the volume of cabled messages, is whether New Zealand shall have one or two delegates officially appointed. The greatest difficulties are, however, the condition in Russia, and the tendency of small nations to continue fighting for new territory to annex. It seems that the' Russia devil has turned saint, is confessing his sins, and is promising to amend his ways; he has signified his willingness, to revoke his decision about his national debts to Britain and America, to cease his wars of frightfulness, in fact, from his own showing he promises to be quite a decent soajt of devil for the future. This 1 all depends upon whether the Allies will recognise Bolshevism as representing Russia, and will enter into preliminiary parlors with Bolshevik delegates. The Peace; Conference has very much evidence to j sift on this question, but it seems sat : isfied that the Bolsheviks are much more moderate in their methods than hitherto; that, therefore, the party is : growing stronger,, drawing in large numbers of men of more' moderate i views, and there is an increasing" probability of the evolution of something like a stable Government for the Allies .to deal wffh sometime in the far or near future. Cables reaching New Zealand have give* no indication of the growing tameness of Bolshevik frightfulness; they have given information of a serious Bolshevik defeat; that Petrograd is being freed of Boi* shevism by people of saner views, and it looks from this distance as though similar arguments to those that def catj ed Prussian militarism are having th 3 ; desired effect on Russian Bolshevism. The Conference is under the impression that they are getting to be respectable and it has decided to meet them in conference on an island, in the Sea of Marmora, which is approachable from the Aegean Sea by the Hellespont and -from the Black Sea by the Bosphorus. At this preliminary gathering Poland is to be represented, which makes it clear that the order of reference is to inclu.de a full statement of Bolshevik intentions regarding the movements of their armies westwards, over Poland and Germany. I Lord Robert Cecil and Sir Robert Bori;den arc td be the two British delegates ,to meet the Bolsheviki, and beyond saying that these two men are not at I all likely to prove easy victims to whatever learning and logic .Bolshevism can marshall against them, there is at present nothing further to discuss. It is certain that the Allies can have no co-operation with the campaigners of Russian frightfulness, a campaign which has grown from the planting amongst an ignorant people, by the Kaiser, the seeds of Prussian horrors. If Russian delegates r-how that they are invested with power to perform, and they unequivocally undertake to form a national government, representative of the whole Russian people, terrible orgies of bloodshed that might possibly extend over all Europe may be averted. If this Russian difficulty is overcome there is a • probability that a world peac*e may eventuate in May, but all previous experience has been that Bolshevism is fls tricky as Prussianism, an ism that i understands nothing but the principle and practice of might is right, and if peaceful advances are sincere we are iaclined to think it i& because force iis showing signs of failure. Many disI tinguished Russians assert that no- ! thing but disaster to Russia can come from recognition of Bolshevism; that j the Omsk and Archangel Governments j will never have anything to do with the Bolsheviks, and beyond these statements there is nothing on which to base an opinion, but the very fact that Lloyd George and President Wilson strongly urged the course decided upon, and that men like Robert Cecil and Robert Borden have accepted the posi-

tion as British delegates to the Bolshevik meeting, gives considerable hope that what might prove an endless campaign of widespread ruthlessness, a falling back into a condition compared with which the Dark Ages would be an ideal civilisation, may be turned into a campaign for the regeneration of an erstwhile great nation. Mr. Lloyd George has successfully launched his

munity from German aggression and revenge. French statesmen have urged that a League of Nations constituted in accordance with British proposals may undo all that the Allies have fought and suffered for during the last four years. They are of opinion that the Allied league for war should continue to be the league in timejif peace; that the safety of civilisation and the peace of the world depends upon close, continuous friendship of those who have fought together; that to commence now to take into their embrace all and sundry is to initiate a stg.te of weakness lacking essential defensive I and offensive qualities; in short, that it is a complete reversion to that un- ' preparedness which enabled and encouraged Germany to break the world's peace, and we are yet to learn whether the French attitude is not the correct one; whether the Bolshevism of Russia and the militarism of Prussia can really understand the peaceful, the I conciliatory methods of England and | America./ Foch is not omitting to take I advantage of every available means to I see fof : himself, and'he is now in Poland spyfcig out bo'lclly in what direction Bolshevik intentions lean. The great French Generalissimo has proved himself a most practical observer and j organiser, and it is scarcely believable that Franco will agree to any League of Nations that he reports adversely upon, which, so to say, has yet only passed its first readftjf4it the Conference table. When" delegates return from meeting Russian apostles of destruction at Prince's Island, in the Sea of Marmora; when Foch and General Botha return after learning the situation in Poland; when the German elections have finally resulted in the establishment of a stronger Government in Berlin; and when smaller nations who aspire to membership of the League cease their wars of territory grabbing, we may expect to learn/-hat the real work of evolving a League of Nations, a parliament of man, .a fadera,tion of the world, is in actual process.