PEACE WITHOUT PARDON.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 March 1916, Page 7

PEACE WITHOUT PARDON.

THE ONLY TERMS WE CAN GRANT TO THE GERMANS.

Mr. Horatio Bottomley, the versatile Editor of John Bull and foremost publicist of the day—"Tribune of the Trenches" and idol of the Man in 'the Street—pleads in the Sunday Pictorial, for firmness with neither mercy nor forgiveness, in Britain's terms of peace. This week Christmas will be hert. I have already sent my compliments of Hie season to the Kaiser and his people, and I now want a word witli my own countryman. I think I know my own countrymen—and, with victory in sight (still the same old "fatuous optimist," you see!) I am just a little bit uneasy about him. He is Mich an easygoing stolid, happy-go-lucky, forgiving sort of chap that once on top, and especially with the spirit of Christmas in his sou! he is apt to become "soft" and generous towards his beaten foe. But there must be nothing of that kind this Christmas—if you please. Next Christmas, perhaps, wo may get down our copybooks' and texts—but this year, whilst we hail the birth of the Prince of Peace, we must worship at the shrine of the God of Battles. And he is a grim God. It is from the characteristics of the. British people that, in the months ahead, difficulty and even danger is to be anticipated. In the final settlement with the Huns, we shall be, hampered by our, virtues. For our national character is a compact of queer contrarieties. In the teeth of an armed menace, out-numbered and out-manoeuvred, the physical and moral valor of the Britisli race is seen to supreme advantage; hut with our foot upon the neck of a. prostrate foe, our determination is apt to ooze out at the knee-joints. Chivalry to the fallen is a national tradition, enshrined in a score of homely proverbs. We are no hands at "frightfulness," and no matter what Wrongs we have suffered, we are uncommonly bad haters. I am doubtful whether in any real.sense we can yet be said to hate the Germans. Certainly we do not love the Kaiser, but should His Satanic Majesty suddenly appear in Whitehall, I am not at all sure that lie, would be lynched. I can more readily imagine a British citizen being fined ten shillings at Bow street for inciting the onlookea to riot. For we are an aiuaz-. ing people. From 11 p.m. on August 4, 19H, we have been at war with Germany. This I have gathered from the newspapers, but apart from their intimations and a few minor evidences, I am not sure that I should have known it. I should have known we were at war, but for some months at any rate, I could scarcely have told with whom. I believe that one of our first "acts of war" was to make a gift of naturalisation papers to a German baron, and to present hiin with the compliments of the City of London. This was at one end of the scale, and at the other there were equally puzzling phenomena. For months after the outbreak of war, in every street German barbers offered to shave us, and German butchers to sell us pork. But for the newspapers these facts would have put me off tlie scent. Indeed, I might have imagined that we were at war with the Russians, or the Chinese, or, since the fleet had disappeared, witli the Japs. Even now. T am often sorely puzzled. I am told, for instance, upon the authority of.the Lord Chief Justice and a majority of the Court of Appeal, that a commercial company composed entirely of Germans is a British, company, provided' it is registered at Somerset House—in much the same way, I suppose, as a German is' an Englishman if he is registered at the Home Office. This, it seems, is the law of England. We are a funny crowd. I hope I shall not be "encouraging the enemy" if I proceed at a leap to the statement that this war is a good deal more that half over and that when the time comes to talk peace, the screeching German eagle will coo as gently as any sucking-dove. When the tables of the Peace Conference are set—l am assuming, of course, that the fight is to oe to a finish—the Kaiser will not attend in "shining armor," to bang the boards with his "mailed fist." "Not likely," as the profane Mr. Shaw, might say. On the contrary, his garb will be as mode3t as a Lutheran parson's, and his mein as demure as a nun's. I tan fancy he will even turn down the ends of his moustache. Ho will have sense enough to now that the game is up, and, cunning enough to guess that further bounce won't pay. I venture to predict that the social pose of beaten Germany, blustering bully as she is, will : be. one of fawning humility and mock repentance. It may not be easy to t'.ice this al'Jtu'V in her public demeanour pi undinlimatic notes, but it will be patent to. the-.peace envoys. Afraid of his skin the enemy will plead for one more, chance. And tlie mischief to be feared is that there will; be a section of the Britisli people ready to give Germany quarter, not through any failure of patriotism, but in misguided chivalry, and from an innate disposition to. mercy. I am. speaking now, not of pro-German cranks, but of sober, decent British citizens. Once,peace is in sight, we shall need a Lincoln or a Pitt to declaim in accents, of thunder, "Never again." For; although we -may make peace with the Germans, we can never make friends, with thorn. It is a fearful thing to contemplate the. utter downfall of a proud and mighty people, but when the day of retribution dawns, we must allow no weak compunction to unnerve our arm. In the hour of reckoning, stark, unmitigated justice must be the portion of the foe. As the stewards of civilisation, and the trustees of prosperity, we have no prerogative of mercy. Our solemn duty it will be to drive a hard bargain with the Huns. For this purpose, we shall need to summon to our aid qualities alien to bur moral disposition. Deliberately, we must check the disposition to forgive and forget. For once, we must be harsh and unbending—stern, ruthless. With both hands we must put away from us the temptation to sporting generosity. We are not dealing with sportsmen or with men of honor, but with knaves and cut-throats, whom no treaty ' can bind. Tlie only peace that can be made with Germany is a peace which 1 will rob her of the power to make war. Only the knightly warrior is permitted, in defeat, to keep his sword. - To extend ■lich courtesies' to the ravishers of women and the butchers of babes would i')o to bring contempt upon the laws of j .'hivalry. The settlement we make with , Germany must be of the kind that hurts. 1 We can never be friends with the Huns. ; f voice no extravagant sentiment when I I say that for myself I can never as long f is I live be on terms of civility with any Gem •). Inevitably,'l .shall see infill? ! ayes'the image of Edith CavelU I shall ! never be at ease in his company. To my iembittered fancy he will smell of blor 'By their own unspeakable infamies, ('• German race are outlawed from the comity of nations—banned from the alters of humanity. Only poltroons can prate of pardon while the blood of «aints and heroes goes unavenged.

Peace is in the air—but nobody likes , •'gin. The German Chancellor says