The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, MAY 13. THE RAVINGS OF RANTZAU.

Taihape Daily Times, 13 May 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, MAY 13. THE RAVINGS OF RANTZAU.

(With whieh ift tncorporatad The Taih&pe Poirt tfld Wa.lKa.n-3'> News).

The ravings of Rantzau after being I pqt; in possession of the provisions of the Peace Treaty were such that should not. be allowed to pass anywhere in New Zealand as being either .truthful or justifiable. The psychological development of the German people appears to have been on different lines to that, of the rest of the nations of the earth ,for while they | profess, and apparently have, deep j religious instincts, they are controlled by traits that are most opposed to religious teachings. There is abundant testimony in the past half century of German history to convince Germany's most sincere friends that German training has been an inculcation! of the belief that anything deemed to be of advantage to Germany is | above all else in the world, and must : be regarded as perfectly in accordance j with' highest morals although it may require the most audacious lies being .freely uttered to uphold it. Germans -do not speak what is true only when .it suits their purpose; they will have that Avhich they desire and fanatically strive, talk anything and everything, fact or fable, to gratify it. Whether the willing be for the most detestable object or purpose on earth, in German ! psychology it is the most sacred, and desirable, and nothing must be left undone or unsaid to accomplish it. Before the war this aspect of German development concerned people outside Germany very little, and nobobdy took j any great notice of it, but uow that ; the cumulative will of the whole Teutonic people has been exerted in an endeavour to put the remainder of the world under German domination, it has become rather an important subject, more so as the power behind that will was not equal to that waged by the Allies. Germany willed to win the Avar, and now, judging by the Rantzau performance she is willing the Allies to believe that with them she was equally victorious, but there is a notable difference, in willing the war the German War Lords based their willing on the finest and most powerful military machinery the people of the world had any conception of; they first established a power which by their methods of calculation and reasoning was infallible and then willed to win, and it is the break down of that supposed infallibility that has placed Rantzau in the ridiculous situation we now find him. With a studied, a$ well as a natural uncouthness he strived that German will might be .supreme, but, unlike willing the war, his efforts were minus all force, military and otherwise. He made the blunder of assuming that the Imperialism that had poisoned the atmosphere of Germany for the last fifty years, liad also contaminated the atmosphere of other countries. He stated one fiction and supported it. with another that was just as pitiably preposterous. Rantzau affirmed that "Germany's former rulers were responsible for the German share of the war, but that all Europe shared the responsibility. Wc are asked," he said, "to confess that, we alone are guilty of the Avar, but such a confession in my mouth would be a lie. For 50 years European Im-

perialism lias poisoned the international atmosphere." All history of military and naval development has written Rantzau down a wilful prevaricator. It is a fact that the Kaiser carried autocracy and imperialism to such lengths that he was struck with mortal fear with the results in his own country. The Kaiser has done more than his share in aggravating national discontent and sharpening the long-brewing conflict between masses and classes. This conflict was still further aggravated by the Kaiser's prouounciamento of the "divine right," and many German newpapers interpreted socialist successes at the 1910 elections a? the unmistakably ominous handwriting on the political wall. There is still room for doubt that Wilhelm decreed the awful war as a means of rescuing his imperialism from destruction by that bitter socialism hi s autocratic behaviour was porvoking in hi s own realm. Ten years back Germany was seething with dissatisfaction, the people had lost faith in a regime which would give Germany no enlightened, popular government. One only need to consult newspapers of civilised countries, published a decade ago, including those of Germany, to give Rantzau the lie about imperialism poisoning the international atmosphere; it was poisoning the atmosphere of Germany as evidenced in socialist successes at the elections, and it is not improbable that had the war not intervened the Kaiser would ere long have been deposed by his own people. By the dismissal of Bismarck, Wilhelm commenced upon that policy of absolute personal government which has wrought his ruin. So far back as 1907 he left no doubt | about his imperialistic intentions; he made it clear that he . intended to make Germany the master of the whole earth. He startled the world in September. 1907, bv siating, "The German nation is the block of granite upon which the Lord our God can bui'd and complete His work of civilising the world.V He brought about a storm of unprecedented criticism from German newspapers a year later, when in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, ht revealed a series of startling secrets in connection with the Boer war. Another great German uewspaper .storm burst over the Kaiser's head when in 1910 Ire repeated bis claim to autocracy in Prussia; but right on up to the eve of Britain's declaration of war, i iin 1914, (he evidence of imperialism poisoning the atmosphere can only be found in Germany. Knowing the :n----(rovertible facte about impivriaiisra and war, (be ravings of Ranraau become the mad statements of a defeated bully . Germans have been trained to worship the god of tuig'.lt; '.heir god has failed tbem. has left them with a cult which renders them ridiculous. Well might President Wilson exclaim, a? Rantzau finished his harangue. "What a silly speech."