FROTH AND FURY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 260, 13 April 1915, Page 6

FROTH AND FURY.

WHY GERMANS HATE BRITAIN. DRUNK WITH WAR SPIRIT. In a letter to the New York Tribune Mr. John Burroughs, the well-known naturalist and writer on nature subjects, returns to the case against Germany, and defends himself from c.V.icism by Professor Wien and "a. distinguished Jena Professor," who charged him "with naive ignorance of the Kiu vipean situation." The events upon which- we judge Germany, writes Mr Burroughs, stand out so that he who runs may read. Tiny are written large in fire and blood across the face of a kingdom. They are written in the burned cities, in demolished cathedrals, in consumed libraries, in piratical indemnities, in aerial bombardment of defenceless women and childn n, Mid in the insolent and overweening spirit of domination that attends it '.JI.

AN INDELIBLE STAIN. Belgium's wrongs and Germany's TrimM are present day facts, and the lapse of time can never make them ieis. Time will soften or blur the harshness nnd the terrible reality of these events, but the murder and spoliation of this admirable and peaceful little State, j.'.-t because she was little, will ever reme.in one of the blackest pages of mod.'in history. No plea of dire necessity, no conjuring with right and wrong, can palliate the crime. When the impartial history of the war comes to be written the blood and famine of this neutral and peaceful people will strike through and through its pages like some indelible and infernal stain. No matter what excuse Germany had for making war upon France, she had not the shadow of an excuse for destroying or seeking to destroy Belgium. . . . Belgium's offciicc was the offence of a man who resits Ihe passage of an assassin through his house Boeking a short cut to the house of his neighbor.

GERMANY CATCHING AT STRAWS. The cause of the allies wins us because it is the cause of civilisation; it is the cause of international morality; It is the,cause of neutral States; it ib the cause of the weak and the innocent against the ruthless and the powerful; it is the cause of our heritage of peace and goodwill to men against the rampant, and overbearing, the hellish war spirit, drunk with the greed of conquest. The necessity of the highwayman to act quickly, aiming a knife or a bullet at your heart, is quite a different th'urg In the eyes of the world from the necessity of his victim to act quickly. We could excuse the latter if his blow or li'V bullet injured some one else, but coaid we excuse the former?

Gern:"-iy was bent on assassinating her neighbor and plundering her treasury, and we know why she wanted to rlo it quickly, but her fear of Russia, whom she had defied, and the tramp of whose gathering hosts were in her oar, does not make her crime, any the l-!)s.

The sophistries with Which the learned Germans seek, to dope their consciences—such as the assertion that if Germany had not violated the neutrality of Belgium the French or the English would, and that French officers in au!omobiles had been seen weeks before in Belgian territory—show how in her desperation Germany catches at straws.

FROTHING AND CONVULSIVE I FURY. Wo have seen mild outbursts of Anglophobia in this country, but never before has the world witnessed the distemper plunging its victim into such frothing and convulsive fury as Germany shows to-day. That dash of the German Navy upon the coast of England was like an outburst of uncontrollable hatred and thirst for destruction. Tt was not the Germany we know in the peaceful walks of life; it was the Germany drunk with the spirit of war in its worst form. It indicates a reversal to the spirit of priraativc savagery which the whole world may well stand In dread of. The destruction of a battleship is legitimate warfare, but the murder -of women and children in unfortified towns is the, debauchery of war. The total destruction of London with all its population by the Zeppelin aiiBhips would be in accord with the present temper of the*"Kaiser's army and navy. They are out to win, to dominate Europe by military might, and no considerations of humanity or of t,hc tights of non-belligerents will for a moment stand in the way. Let mc add that in the present crisis America should be very forbearing with the course of Great Britain on the high Beas. England has everything at stake, and she is fighting our battles for us.' Wo have nothing at stake but the big profits of some of our monopolies—our oil kings and copper kings—and we know that, by hook or crook, they will manage to survive.