The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1919. WILL GERMANY SIGN?

Taihape Daily Times, 21 June 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1919. WILL GERMANY SIGN?

VVV}itl}r___vVv';ich is incorporated ‘ ‘The Tafliape Post and Waimarino . News.”

la. little later in the -year of 1914 -me l‘Gerln;an Kaiser took the plunge which ‘steeped the world in a war of untold, ‘unparalleled frightfulness; nothing in the way of war was ever recorded which was so far-reaching and involved so many people in its awful vortex. Germany failed, and instead of the Kaiser gaining absolute dominion of the worl-d, temporarily and spiritually, he is a miserable, defeated, debased prisoner, an exile in a foreign land. His generals, war-lords, and Government beseeched their enemies to grant an armistice to save their armies from the final defeat that would have resulted in little less than destruction of the erstwhile glorious Teuton military forces, and the Allies through Marshal Foch granted that cessation of hostilities which gave them respite. Now, with all previous experience of a lengthy disastrous holocaust, Germany is once more at the threshold of war; the German Government has once more the choice of deciding whether it shall be peace or War; but how changed are the circumstances and possibilities for the German people. It is the changed circumstances ‘ and possibilities that will assuredly cause any German Gzfovérnment to hesitate before again‘ stepping over the threshold of ‘war linto an unfathomable" sea of human destruction. ‘Everything that contributed 'to make German. armies glorious

has been torn away by the still more glorious armies of the Allies. German soldiers are now as nervous as whipped dogs, ready to run at the first Sign of Allied reginients and guns. The German Government knows tha.t‘only one step into the war arena will bring a ring of starvation about their people so intense that all other bl6cßadcs could not commence to compare with it. Germany could neither look for food ‘to the Balkans, to Turkey, to Sweden, -Finland or to any port on the other side of the Baltic Sea; every avenue to Asia is virtually closed. and so complete and perfect could the Allies make this ring of starvation about Gzcrmany, ‘that ithe German people could be forced into submission by this means alone, without firing another gun, or lifting another sa'bl'e. The nature, variety and (‘inality of reports, as to the German mind and German iuterrtions, coming from Europe constitute "a blot on the century in which we live. One would be

justified in thinking that the Cornpanieg owning lines‘ of cables which branch out to all corners of the world had every rcoorter and corres. pendent in Europe under their inflmence. and tha.t they had been instructed to keep cables abundantly supplied with any sorteof verbiage so long‘ as it. brought huge profits to the Cable Company’s Coifers. Statements made one day have been consistently denied or varied the next and millions of hopeful, trusting, waiting people have been callously trifled with, kept waiting for that peace which never came; a phantom peace cruelly invented and dangled before them ‘by lying, by utterly undepcndable reports transmitted by equally undependable cable companies for the purpose of profit-luaking_ After seven months of alternating cable stories, one day states that Germany would sign peace terms, the next day that Germany would not sign for peace, we have again arrived at the brink of the Precipicc, and the whole of the peoples of the world are almost lbreathlessly Wondering whether Geramny will take the plunge. The public mind is confused rather than helped to form an opinion by. the disgusting cable vap—onrings that have daily been paid for; their reasoning, discriminatory faculties have'.been churned up by cable canards Aiintil nothing appears clear to them. __Cablegrarns may have confused ‘and led astray, but they Couid not take away the very foundations upo_n,which their wordy worthlessness was laid. To take cabled opm. ions as something on which to base our ideas of the peace problem is to take the wrong turning. We-can-not go astray, however, in taking our views from the relative positions (yg the two couchant contending sides; one is backed by complete” ‘victory, confidence, and ample power to sweep over the land of their opponents; by right, justice, liberty, and everything that is humane, while the other is

defeatcdgv disorganised, disrupted, hun-

gry, without munitions or armies to pit against their conquerors; they stand alone, without a friend among the nations, backed only by an unrighteous cause, by a cultur that rs repulsive, ruthlessly cruel, destructive of human liberty, unjust and unholy. German‘ statesmen have‘ expressed the truth about their country’s isolation; they have admitted guilt for the war, and they have said that Germany is now helpless, at-the» mercy -of their. conquerors. They know that a return’ to active warfare will perfect. and tigthen the ring of starvation about their people, and’ they are fully conscious that whether they sign the peace terms now, or whether they wait to have them signed in Berlinfi those terms have to be signed_ The penalty imposed has to be borne; bluff, bluster, bounce ill-fit Germany at this stage 6:‘ her helblessness and dependence’ upon Allied mercy for means of national reconstruction. It is not thinkable that the great nations comprising the Allies will ever forego their claims for reparation that Germany can make. During the last half century Germany confidently threw hundreds of millions every few years into building up a war machine wherewith. to dominate the world, Germany can just as easily devote hundreds of mililons to establish a peace that will be entirely free from any military niglitamre. Relieved of this military incubus Glol‘many has all the elements for enarbling her in a few years to again be in the van of the nations of the earth politically, industrially and financially. Let no one make the mistake of thinking that Germany had not considered what the penalty for failure to win the war would be. Germany is suffering absolute defeat, and is virtually without a solitary weapon. to hurl at her conquerors; then, what possible ground, or tangible reason has her leaders for refraining from signing the terms of peace the Allies have so carefully and justly evolved When the minute comes for German leaders to jnxtapose the physical consequences against the astral advantages of refusal to sign; when they mentally see the complete ring of starvation pl'essingl'incre“a'singly' inwards; and the French armie‘s'“‘under l\=.larshal Foch taking possession of their beloved Berlin, thel'"y"will bag their bluff and bounce nonsense, and meekly sign the judgment, than which, a more justifiable and righteous was never promulgated. Germany must sign. ‘

This article was in “type before the official allnouncem'ent that Germany had accepted the Peace Terms came to ham]. What we have written fullydiscloseg our opinions and views regarding the real situati()n_ 1};