The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1915. A GERMAN'S INDICTMENT OF GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1915, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1915. A GERMAN'S INDICTMENT OF GERMANY.

There lias been recently published at Lausanne, Switzerland, a book that is likely to make a gteat stir in countries outside of Germany, for it is hardly likely that it will be allowed to appear hi Kaiserland. It is written by a German whose name is obviously not revealed, for the same reason tint the book is not published in Germany. The tit!" i ; taken from the grave words "J'accitv!" (I accuse), with which Emile Zola open ed His eloquent appeal to the conscience of the French people during the height of the Dreyfus controversy. The workis not only thoroughly and closely reasoned, 'but it constitutes the most powerful indictment of Germany and lv subordinate ally, Being written by a German and its genuineness vouched for by Dr. Aubon Sitter, a well-known Swiss citizen of considerable wealth and advanced Socialistic views, the contents should be read with (he greatest interest, for it brodUr reviews the policy rf the Great 'Powers during the last decade, and the. spirit with • "Inch it was in each case animated. The aut'tor draws a striking contract between ilerniany's material progress and development, especially in relation to count".■* which she ultimately challenged t.i war, the diplomatic successes s-he achieve!. and the growing worship of force, the fierce cult of the will to war stimulated by such hollow fictions a,s her "encirclement" by aggressive rivals, and the denial to her of "he- place in the sun." On the question of: Who wanted the war? the writer says that nowhere does he find a slued of evidence that either England, France or Russia was set upon war. Time after time Britain sottgls; at the Hague Conference and by direct negotiation with Germany to prontoL 1 a general reduction of naval armaments, but every overture was rejected by Germany with more or less open scorn, mid represented to her people as the piulr of mere British hypocrisy or fear. l! was in Germany alone that armament' were regarded as the breath of a mitirn's life. A succession of Xuvy and Armi Bills culminated in 1013 by raising the German peace effectives from "'JO.OOO Ic SGO.OCO men. necessitating a spee'al war tax of £.50,0(10,000. This was a waning as well as a challenge to the wirM. Closely following the German demand on Britain for a pledge of abso'ute :uutralify, whatever might happen on the Continent, the eyes of Britain should have been opened as to Germany's evil intentions. Britain was ready to ?ice Germany a pledge that she would not bo a party to aggression upon Germany, but what the kilter wanted was "to secure for herself the road to the hegemony of the continent by isolating Britain in order to climb to world domination at Britain's expense." As to the diplomatic, correspondence, the author

tears lo shreiU the pretence that Cerinanv's inlluence was ever exerted in lavor of peace preservation, and lie points out that the Austrian Red Book affords very strong evidence that Germany refrained not only from supporting, but even from conveying to lier ally some of (he suggestions mnde in Berlin by the Entente Powers with u view to tinding some solution which Austria might accept. From start lo finish Germany was tiic evil genius of Vienna. Germany was privy to the Austrian ultimatum to Servln and the consequent rupture, fully knowing that those measures would involve the danger of war with liussia. Ormany rejected Sir E. drey's 'proposal of a conference between the four diMnt'erested Powers, including herself, and left unanswered all the suggestions of the other Powers as to some alternative form of mediation between Russia and Austria, and declined to state what Austria really wanted, only detailing what that country did not want. She also interrupted the "conversations" between Russia and Austria by her ultimatum to Russia and France, and thus rendered war inevitable. Thus was actually what Germany was aiming at. and after demanding Pmssian demobilisation on the Austrian frontier, instead of counter-mobilising, declared war against Russia and then against France, subsequently trying to justify that highhanded act by alleging that Russia and France had begun hostilities, whereas the first warlike acts were .committed ■by Germany. The author pertinently •asks hy what right Germany took it upon herself to demand the demobilisation of the Russian army when Austria herself never ventured to make such a edmand, but was still negotiating. He thus Simla up his judgment on Germany's action: "Sever in the history of the world has a greater crime been com milted. Sever has the crime, once committed, been denied with great effrontery and hypocrisy." And this will be the verdict of history.