The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1914. PRUSSIAN MILITARISM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 86, 7 September 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1914. PRUSSIAN MILITARISM.

Mr Churchill's statement to tho American press is a plain intimation to the people of the United States that, while the British Empire at present asks them for nothing save an Honest neutralitv, she is fighting their battle, as well as lier own, against Prussian militarism (writes the Wellington Post).. They are witnessing as spectators a world-shaking struggle between the Bismarckian blood-and-iron system founded on the ideal of a nation-in-arms controlled liy an autocracy, and on the other side a combination (Britain and France) whose military efficiency is admittedly less, because they are democracies. In this supreme hour of peril, Britain and France combined cannot put into the Held the nurabci of trained soldiers that the Kaiser can, for the simple reason that in Britain and France, as in the United States, the people own the Government (not the Government the people), anil the;,- refuse to be enslaved to militarism as th» Germans have been by the Prussian autocracy. This freedom, generally our glory, is sometimes, as now, our peril. Democracy in Britain, as in the United States, forbids the enaction of-military conscription. Only with reluctance has democracy conceded the, maintenance of a supreme navy, and the result is that to-day, despito our naval supremacy, France would inevitably have been crushed had not her diplomats porfor-'.-allied themselves with the Uussian auto-

craey. 'Americans may have no concern with the issue of a quarrel between the autocratic iPowcrs of middle and eastern Europe, but surely they are interest,'! in the effort of the Western democracies to resist the threatening yoke of the most militaristic nation on the globe. Surely they have some sympathy with their sister republic founded by the descendants of those Frenchmen who helped them in their own war of Independence; and when they contemplate the smoking allies of bouvain anil read the allegations of barbarity vouched for by the responsible authorities of a stricken country, thpy will not turn a deaf ear to gallant little Belgium. But if these considerations move them not, the Americans will at least do well to ponder over Mr Churchill's warning ''if we go, it will be America's turn next." Such a victory for Germany would In; for the blood-aud-iron military school "a supreme and terrible vindication." Democratic government would then liave to put up its shutters, not only in Western Europe, but in Germany itself, where in the last twenty years, to the honor of the Junkers, a sane social democracy has made steady progress. The" Pnis- ; eia.u, blow is intended to slay both within and without, and to establish a militaristic despotism which is as un-Ameri-can as it is un-British; and which will 1 by no means conlinc itself to the Old World. Britain, intent on peace, has never challenged the Monroe Doctrine. Docs America expect the complaisance from a triumphant Warlord, who h.vs already proclaimed himself as "admiral of the Atlantic," and whose avowed World politik deviates neither forfriend j nor foe? No doubt the traditional , policy of Washington is to keep clear ! of European entanglements, but if diplomacy were swept aside and the popular verdict were taken, can there be. the slightest doubt as to what the verdict would be? Iu a wonderfully prophetic article published in the Fortnightly Review of 1008—reprinted in the Post recently— "Calchas" said: 'The greatest of all dangers to peace is the military weakness of Great Britain." He added that France would be amply secure if Britain has a "military force bearing I the same relation to the German army that the German Xavy bears to the British Fleet." To-day, this truth stands amply proved. Germany last yei'.r agreed iu principle to a (iO per cent, superiority of the British Xavy; and if the peace strength of the German Army is taken as SOO.WO (which is really under the mark) Britain on the CO per cent, basis would have had half a million. Had the British Government possessed an army of that size ready to be thrown into France this German-con-trolled war would never have happened. Instead of being the fortunate possessor of such a striking force, the Government is in the very different position of calling for half a million volunteers, who make take months to train; and it rests in the bands of Providence whether the small but brave and ellicient army scut to Franco will succeed in turning the scale in the present sanguinary stagebut the first stage only—of the greatest struggle in history. Why has Britain taken this great risk and deprived herself of the war insurance represented by half a million armed men? Simply because she preferred to give her people old-age pen-ions, insurance against anemploymcnt and against sickness, and other social advantages that cost money. In a word, simply because shu is a democracy, with a yearning for humanitarian reform and a dislike for conscription. This very fact will excite the contempt and derisnin of tile Prussian militarist-he who drives the peasant wi'th blows into the mouth of the guns, and who shoots iu the water his own drowning sailors. But the American

people, who are of our own democratic pattern, v. ill surely understand and syraputhisc. It tiny do not, they must bo singularly lacking in critical insight, a sense of justice, and a true understanding of their own position as a self-ruloJ, non-militarist and peace-loving nation.