The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6th, 1919. SIR JOSEPH WARD’S MESSAGE.

Taihape Daily Times, 6 August 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 6th, 1919. SIR JOSEPH WARD’S MESSAGE.

'With which iis incorp‘ora_te(‘ “The Taihape Post. and Waimarino NeWs~”

His iirst words .to New Zealand on his debarkation from the Niagara, at Auckland Syesterday, iindieasted ?with ‘what Sir Joseph Ward’s mind is full to overflowing. He has returned from that unprecedented historic world-rfunetiion-—-‘th-*0 «Peace Cohference——its work done beyond eavil of all but visionaries of one type or another. Those greatpolemical questions that follow next in importance to the work ‘of -the.. Peace Conference are those -of a latent growth of Peace, and League of Nations’ deliberations, and Sir Joseph ‘Ward "took:the first opportunity given for setting .a lead to our thought on ‘.thoS.o ;problems and probabilities on which :l'.ho peace of the ‘World now rests. He ._believes that the military spirit of Germany has received its death-blow. The Peace Treaty limitations set to German armed force forniany years to come will permit the militaryspirit to die of inanition, Germa_ny virtually signifies belief in the League of Nations as the centre of llltOl‘llal2lo%llEll or world power by expressed insistent de—_ sire to become a party to it. German military conscription, Sir Jlosephl thinks, will become a dead menace to world peace, and with it will go the need for conscripting the manhood of any other country. The complete abolition of c.onsel'ipt‘ioll in Germany, he says, is the forerunner of

abolishing conscription -everywhere, and the disappearance of other elements that for forty years or more enabled Germany to. scientifically build up a great war machine. ‘The situation in Russia seems largely to ~share with the situation in Germany ’thc place of prior importance" in Sir ‘Joseph Ward’s thought. Speaking of I Russia, he said he believed that when the tide of Bolshevism had subsided, 1 and Russia was divided into :a. number I of States a Republic was the more than probable outcome, and that New I Russia would come into the League of Nations. It is universally understood i that upon those issues Sir Joseph 'Ward } first expresed opinions upon hangs the [future peace and development of all peoples of the world, and nothing can be of such Vital import from the Very nature of them. We have heard the re.‘ [turned ).[inister’s deductions from the situation; do they commend themselves to us, or are they subjects that are I without the range of feasibility‘? There. ‘are undeniable reasons -4: l)oliC‘\'lH_<__{‘ lthat Gerinan inilitarism l1a:~:. reeeivs«_l i its death-blow, and that all the fret}:- ' ings of the Hollwegs and Rantzaus [are merely the vapourings of stiéled land dying patrons of German domination and blood-lust. Let it be under--7 stood that Germany could only disrupt the world by jyears of industry in which she,’ by protection, very nearly manaI god to oust Britain from all available lxnarkets, and had actually eaten into Ii the Very core of 'Brita.in’s home-market, Germany, before the war, out of her ldomestic produce of £350,000,000 sent} [to competitive markets no less than‘ |£300,000,000. or some 85 pea centpofl I all she produced. "What a power G’er- I 1 many must have ezxzercised as compared I with what. was possible to Britain, who I! out of her domestic exports of somei £450,000,000, sent -only about £200,000,. 000 to Europe and the United States,} the balance going chiefly to the tropics ‘ in the shape of cottons and other re-i quirements oil tropical people. The | magnitude and importance of German] trade development few people, prior to : the war, troubled about, or cared to: understand. In stating that militarjsml has received its death-blow Sir Joseph 5 Ward means, the bewildering magnitude of German trade, that alone made militarisni possible has completely been e:-:- 1 tinguished, and he tacitly tells us that} the huge war debt Germany has to pay i clinches Germanyrg military helplessgplss beyond all possible Sane doubt e Mlnlster’s next point is that Gerniany now recognises the League Ofi Nations as the centre of power. as indicated by her'nofa.blo anxiety to be admitted a member of it. We cannot underrate German ability, experi. ence, and education in gl'e.a.t world

questions, and, therefore;"we must appreciate Germany ’s decision that until She 15 admitted into "the (League—the centre of world powcr—she has no voice, and can exercise no will, in determining world problems, being limited OVER in Shaping the architecture of her own future destiny. Such is in-, tolerable to Germans, and the only Visible ‘outlet firom this position is flirough the 12938110 of Nations. Were it otherwise, German contempt. for the League would be stmngly in mi. dollC<—’- The death of German militarism, Sir Joseph Ward says, will inVOIVC the demise of conscription, not 0111)’ 111 Gol‘lllany, but in all other nati-ens. "He is fully alive to the dangerous militarily-mad agitators for conscription in Japan and America, and even in _-our own wee, corner of the earth, but he has faith in :an influence being exerted by the League. of N 5. tions that will wither in the bud all conscription growth from the body that would set up a military dictalmrshipy Iloth‘ing less dangerous to peace and human life than that which has impoverished the world to destroy‘. Then we" may all confidently hope with Sir Joseph that German militarism and conscription are shortly to be back numbers in issues that disturb. human peace, development, and progress in a higher plane -of life. The German war machine and other elements contributing to a condition of war are destroyed, therefore it falls within the realm of the Leza.gue of Nations to make doubly sure. that no other war machine, «or the other elements, does not loom up in some other quarter. The tide of B-olshevism in Russia, Sir Joseph Ward seems to infer, is subsiding. He has evidence or consciousness, or both, that Russia will in the near future blossom forth as a republic somewhat similar to the United States——a confederation of several States. It is. impossible to imagine that Russia will long remain in her present terrible condition. In the past Russian power has been a mere bogey; impotent to secure peace and rest in the Balkan cauldron; impotent against the [armies of the youngest nation amongst great _ powers. The Czar, stated a great writer, is strong in Cossacks and cannons; there is something great, in Russia, but it is a dumbgreatness.‘ ‘ Russia is a great dumb monster, with no‘gen'ills, and her cafnrioris and" Cossackswill have rust‘ed ‘into 11o1ientity“wl1'ile' other-3 lesser na-tionnsl"becoilie'”more 'a'ud'ibl:e.? ';S‘ri'r Joseph -‘Ward has caught th) iCarly.le idea and belief. Russian Cossacks and cannons are gone, or going, and, with help from her neighbours, the great dumb monster is separating into work. able sized parts, having their respective comnmnity of fntorcstsg and it is believed. a mighty nation may yet be evolved, lacking the 'dumbness, and the want of genius, of the old Russia, that will yet fill a no_inglor'ious_part in the League of N.a.tions’ eiforts to cast the world’s destiny in peaceful lines. Sir Joseph W_al'_d,_,ha‘s seized upon the very, ._fi4r‘st..oppo_rtu_n’i,ty to eases ‘the national mind upfvutlie questions most fraught ,with_ public. concern, and he will dolrbtlessly give at the earliest convenient moment that lead in afterwar and industrial problems that the wllole community is earnestly and anxiously waiting for.