The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1919 THE URGENCY OF PEACE.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 March 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1919 THE URGENCY OF PEACE.

(With which is Incorporated Tbs Taihape Post ted Walrsamo Nawai.

It is apparent that both Britain and America realise the urgency for completing Peace Cofercnce work to the point enabling the signing of the preliminary historic document. President Wilson and Mr. Lloyd George have returned to Prance, and the German delegates are holding themselves in readiness to attend the auspicious occasion. 'Whatever cruelties' Germans under their erstwhile military lords may have practised and found pleasure in, it is the humane duty of the Allies to end the regime of starvation that is doing its deadly, work throughout Germany, by lifting the blockade at the earliest possible moment. The country is being driven into desperation, and thousands who have no natural affinity for Bolshevism arid Anarchy are daily being lured into Bolshevik company. The economic condition of Germany, despite the reports of some who desire to render Germany’s recovery impossible by a demand for indemnity the people could never pay, is the real source of nearly all the Hun revolution. The obviously political opposition President Wilson is meeting with from Republican opponents will not delay the completion of preliminary peace one moment, as in war so in peace, the political element is proving a deterrent to finality, and it may yet eventuate that some semblance of unification may have to be adopted to prevent the waste of supremely valuable time in reaching the stage wdien

the processes of starvation now practised :by the Allies may he terminated noverhto return. The delegates of most small ‘nations are bickering with each otherhbvcr territory, in fact this conditionjfias developed to that stage of jealousy that under other circumstances would result in war. Thoset small nations have been rescued by;-the large Powers from the very maw pf Prussian militarism, and their gratitude is being shown by giving, without caring about the consequences, the utmost trouble their squabbling for territory can result in. Republican obstruction In America submitted President Wilson to alternate processes of drawing and pressing; his Republican political enemies went to extremes to make him give them material with which they might foment political trouble, land they might-have succeeded with any other American citizen, but not with Woodrow Wilson. The tide of political battle he turned against, the obstructionists by telling Congress that its failure to pass legislation showed that a group of men had deliberately chosen to embarrass the Administration and imperil the financial interests of the country’s entire railway system. Republican newspapers are disappointed that President Wilson did not disclose the material on which some effective opposition to the League of Nations might bebased; they complained that they had been regaled! with generalities, idealistic expressions.

appeals for support, and warnings to opponents; but nothing had been said towards elucidating the 'actual plan for working the proposed League of Nations Constitution. It is, indeed, fortunate that America had a man with the highest ideals and with abnormal gifts -of common-sense 'and good 'judgment, and above all, a man with the character of courage that, was essential to giving weight and expression to those extremely necessary qualities in the first great Council of the World at the right moment. President Wilson’s politi-

cal enemies, who care nothing for

starving humanity in Europe, have been completely routed, with the result that the signing of preliminary peace is not interfered with, and may eventuate in the course of the coming week. While politicians and small nations would cumber the peace road it must be understood that no real lorganxsation of the industries of the world! can be successfully accomplished; chaos in Europe means chaos throughout the world; the defection lof 'any nation from any cause whatsoever, let alone that of starvation and Bolshevism, is a cog missing from the machinery by which all the peoples of the world live. Until the missing cog, or cogs, are replaced neither the consuming or producing peoples of the earth can reestablish their normial life and- industry. As long as the government of the world is disorganised' So long will all trade and industry remain chaotic and uncertain. The first step that must be taken towards the rehabilitation of everything essential to life and progress is the evolution of a basis of peace with Germany; that basis of peace must necessarily be a basis of peace for all the belligerent nations, large 'and small, new as well as old. Directly peace is signed all warring proclivities will have to be stifled, leaving erstwhile •warriors to enter upon campaigns for reinstituting in their various countries the arts and blessings of peace. So far as New Zealand is removed from the scene of war and strife it is under extreme disability till peace is signed. , Domestic legislation there is none; the national life is fast becoming chaotic; owing to impoverished legislative power the people are becoming divided .and fratricidal dangers are already commencing to ominously loom over the industrial horizon, but nothing can be done to keep dur political house in order because the two leaders are still engaged in evolving a basis of peace with the -world in Europe. A very large proportion of the peoples of Central Europe' have run amok and are madly seeking to destroy each other, and absolutely nothing can bo done to induce those insane people to resume the production of that which is necessary for very life until terms of universal' peace have been, finally agreed to. The' world is languishing no loss for peace at this moment than It was for the defeat of militarism in the first days of last November. There are indications that the great Powers led by "Wilson and Lloyd George realise the situation, and that the peace that is so earnestly awaited and longed for must now only be a matter of days.