The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1919 PROGRESS OF PEACE.

Taihape Daily Times, 18 February 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1919 PROGRESS OF PEACE.

(With which i» incorporated The f&ihape Poet tnd WalEJ*mo News).

France, is visibly chagrined and disit.isficd with the length of time taken by the Peace Conference in endeavouring to evolve a basis for peace with Germany, and a scheme for, the future guidance and control of the peoples of the world with a view to rendering wta-r an obsolete method for settling disputes and preventing it being resorted to as a means of conquest and territorial robbery. Whether France is justifiably com plaining' about waste of time or not the d/angers of delay arc many and obviously extreme. While the wordy conflict of idealism with realism is being waged in Paris there is perfervid propaganda proceeding all over Europe that is not unlikely to lead to la. reshuffling of nations to the disadvantage of the cause for which the Conference is contending. President Wilson is showing rather much of the professorial and too little of the practical in the attitude he has hitherto tlaken up, and while there must be abstract , principles associated with modes, of the theoretical with the practical, in the discussion and determination of such momentous questions, it cannot be denied that 'a real danger lurks behind a relinquishing of the substance for the shadow', a sacrifice of the real for the abstract, of the practical for the theoretical. But French delegates are not so much concerned about the nature of President Wilson’s attitude as about the valuable time he is wasting; while ho is discoursing on his ideals they see very real and disadviantagcously important changes taking place in the policies and temper of their conquered enemy; they hear around them a growing clamour of smlaller nations for what it is impossible to concede without creaking that strife they have met to make impracticable in the future; they see these lessor peoples clustering and conferring and it is not unreasonable for them to assume that combinations may result that are fraught with danger to all that France land her Allies have been fighting for, that the huge sacrifices of France’s life and treasure may all be rendered nugatory by the idealism of the American President, and they have become impatient. A coalition of Germany with Russia, with Japan standing by as a friendly neutral, would raise up an enemy of appalling magnitude, land might lead to the destruction of civilisation and the decimation of all advanced peoples. There can be little doubt about Japan being a very real danger; jfs militarism is akin to that of Germany; it is exhibiting no uncertain desire for extending its possessions, and German propagandists will be missing no effort to impress upon Japanese militarists that the present is their one opportunity to secure conditions that Germany desires more than Japan coos, conditions that will lay wide open the road to future wars of cc7H i est and Franc.; sees and retlises all these possibilities which her people regard as probabilities, and they arc opposed to the time of the 1 eace" Conference being taken up with discussions of impracticable proposals advanced by the American President. Just what the sum total of French grounds for dismay are we, at this distance, arc not allowed to know', but w r c have y(*fy roj£il cause to doubt whether the world is fully informed. with respect to the actual and decisive defeat of Germany, w'hether American idealism was not permitted 'to fluonce terms for an armistice that are proving a huge failure from a practical viewpoint, which may delay peace settlement indefinitely, and possibly lead to a recrudescence of war. Germans may be ia conquered

people but they are using language inside and outside their halls of legislature that is diametrically opposed to the notion Kibout defeat. Their delegates to the Peace Conference are promising a lively time. Eb(Crf has ‘assumed the 'role lately relinquished by William Hoheuzollern, and it seems that the socialist and autocrat are equally imbued with the Hun quality of blatancy and brag. Ebert states that if peace terms are not what Germany wiants, Gormans will not sign them; he says that because the French provinces Alsace and Lorraine lare to be handed back to France Germany has a right to annex German speaking Austria, and in other rtepects the conquered are claiming equal right and voice with the conouerors. If there is nothing to justify this attitude by Germany why is it permitted to grow and inflame the whole German nation, and if there is any appreciable potent force in Germany ocliind this bellicose attitude we surely are entitled to know what that force apprcyiieately amounts to, and also to knew why such a people were left with an> means of waging war at all. The Allies constitute something new in the shape of conquerors; whatever they may be individually there is not visible anything very heroic in finally laying the common enemy. An armstice was granted to the defeated under certain conditions which tno Gilmans have only complied with consonantly with the reserve of an effective military Power. The Allies have twice extended the armistice period, and now it has no definite time limit. The remarkable and disturbing result is that the Germans arc becoming so threateningly bellicose as to cause the French people to view the situation as growingly grave. Germans seem to be bent upon precipitating trouble by refusing to comply with the terms of the armistice, and a determination to resent any violence used to compel observance, which, of course, means that any peace decided upon ./which -conflits with this decision may. involve conflict of another character, Japan refuses to assent to the mandatory plan over the Pacific Islands until she knows the precise nature and extent! Germany has threatened to block peace if the minimum of her demands are not conceded; Russia is a very great danger to peace of an unappraised quantity and quality, and revolution mongering is rife lamong smaller nations, and with delay at the Peace Conference France seems to have good cause for the deeprooted fear her newspapers are giving expression to.. It is, however, unthinkable that the Allies, after having fully decided upon a basis for peace and future world / government, will promulgate their plans without having ample force and means ready at hand to compel Germans to respect and abide by them. It is not improbable that President Wilson’s visit to America and Mr. Lloyd George’s visit to England are, whatever other cause may be assigned, purely for the purpose of laying the Conference’s perfected plans before their respective Governments for endorsi nient, and to arange for that military force that may be required to enforce their acceptance by the enemy.