The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, APRIL 17. THE EVE OF PEACE.

Taihape Daily Times, 17 April 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, APRIL 17. THE EVE OF PEACE.

(With frbieh i& tncorporated The Tai« h&po Post tod Walrsarlao News).

The day of universal peace is drawing near; almost all messages from Europe, received during the last two days, directly or indirectly, indicate that the Ejaster season has been chosan as the period for Germany to know the Allied peace terms, to consider thorn, and either accept or reject them. Or course, any rejection will -only add to Germany's already almost unb?ar.ible troubles, and as it is a question with Germany of peace or Bolshevism, there is not likely to be much time wasted in dfliberation, or endeavour to set aside the B'ig Four's determimt-on. Th.? i peace proposals-arc new show'Kg defm- I ite shape, and the fact that Mr Lloyd George and Wilson have their drates for leaving France decided upon, discloses that they anticipate very little delay from German hesitation in placing the necessary signatures to the all-important document. Lloyd George says that everything has gone ! well; President Wilson has stated ! pfiace terms are ready; M. Clemenccau is thoroughly grateful; all arc satisf/ed with the results, and the Council of Four has decided to meet Ge/raon Peace Delegates on April 25. The indemnity that Germans are to pay is set down at six thousand millions, with an additional three thousand millions to meet the Allies' pension liabilities. The financial experts are of opinion that Germany can pay two hundred milliors annually, the whole debt to be liquidated within 30 years, but tas the door of nin c thousand millions would be nearly doubled in thirty years by interest and other charges, it is nosv.hio the Allies may decide to reduce the principal within the first three years. France has been allotted upward:- tf three thousand millions of the indemnity, moro than half, the allocation being based on the number of dead and the material destruction and devastation. Belgium and Serbia will follow with their claims, and when all claims having priority to those of New Zealand are settled the indemnity fund will be very near its dregs. Whatever hopes the Dominion leaders may have had of getting this country's war expenditure re-couped by the defeated, those hopes must have sunk below zero long ere this. There is Turkey, Bulgaria and Austro-Hungary yet to finally settle with, but no mention i s made of any possibility of making either of those countries to foot their war bill. Austro-Hungary being largely in possession of Czechs and Slavs no monetary penalty is likely to be claimed by the Allies; it is different in Bulgaria's case, and as a separate"'treaty of peace is yet to be made with that country, provision may be made for a rather considerable indemnity, but whether this will be allotted to the rehabilitation of invaded Roumania there is yet nothing to indicate. All that seems depend-

able at present is 'that peace terms have mulcted Germany in an iade-m----nity of six thousand mfiTTonS. half of which is to go to France. With regard to the revised map of Europe some wonderful transformations are evident. In the seventies of last century a strong effort was made in. Britain to have the bloody Turk banished from Europe, but international considerations, balance of power, which really meant international jesflousy, saved the filthy butcher from being a European outcast, but his time has now come; he has been once more weighed in the humane balance and has been found unfit for legitimate Europeans to associate with, and he is to be sent out into Some small, semi-remote part of Asia MinorTTho capture of Constantinople in 1453 is to be reserved and the unspeakable luster for blood is to be sent back to Broussa. his former capital, and the empire allotted him is to be Small indeed. The European territory he leaves is to be placed under mandatories under the League of Nations. The banishment of the Turk, with all his vileness, from Europe is one of the gains of the war; it will limit his evil influence in Asia as well ,aS in Africa and Europe, and he will be rendered so powerless that all small nations may henceforth live in peace and work out their own destinies free from his murdering, marauding and devastating propensities. It is an issue of the war the whole civilised world has cause to be 'truly thankful for. But the map of Europe is to present other wonderful transformations; the Jugo-Slavs, or southern Slavs, have claimed a kingdom which includes Serbia, Montenegro, and several other small states, including all the territory peopled by Serbs, Croates and Slovenes reaching from Austrian Alps to the Adriatic Sea right to the Albanian border. Greece is being immensely enlarged at the expense of Bulgaria, having been given all Bulgarian territory abutting on the Aegean Sea, excepting a small outlet, probably at Kavalla. Austria will be drastically dismembered if boundaries now outlined become fixtures, but it is doubtful whether full information about new States and their boundaries is available until the signatories to the League of Nations are made known. The projected Czecho-Slovak republic takes away much the larger portion of late Austro-Hungarian territory; the states of the republic being Bohemia. Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia, extending from Dresden, in Germany to north of Buda Pesth in Hungary. Polish,; Russian, Roumanian. Belgian, French, Danish frontiers are all in the recasting and some rather sensational dispositions arc expected. With all such drastic territorial changes, the political situation in Europe can bear no resemblance to that of pre-war days. At this side of the world we are not particularly interested in how much the wings of i the Central Powers are being clipped as a result of their hideous folly. There are undoubted indications that the changes will result in advantages, trading and otherwise, to all Allied peoples, as well as to those who remained neutral, but there is cause to doubt whether the Conference of Allies will lop off large slices of Germany and give them over to neutrals without receiving a satisfactory quid pro quo either in kind or cash. Denmark is likely to have a large portion of Schleswig restored; Holstein is German speaking and, of course, will remain German, although the Kiel caual, which ib <-ui through Holstein, may be rendered free from anjy menace for war purposes. Finally fixing of frontiers will undoubtedly be left for the League of Nations to determine, but the Treaty of Peace is to be presented during Easter week, probably en Friday, the 25th April. The Treaty is to embody the League's covenant and some provision is made for a Labour convention, the unification and uniformity of labour throughout the League. The greatest orgy of strife, of destruction of human life and property j s ncaring its end and yet there are minds so small, even in Taihapc, who have not the education and intelligence to join in national rejoicing that the greatest menace to the world's civilisation has been checked and finally strangled. They do not realise what has happened, or what they have been saved from. The man who cannot find cause for rejoicing at such a consummation is a churl, a pitiable object, .or a covert enemy to bis country.