WAR TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 June 1916, Page 5

WAR TOPICS.

GERMANY AND PEACE.' , :-.'■ In the'course of bis address ftp t&t ' Reichstag on the second reading of-thel,- - German Budget, Herr von BetosMumHoHweg referred to the question of - peace farms. "When, on September ', 9/' he said, "I declared our willingness '■ to discuss peace, I said I did not .fee,. any similar, readiness on the part of '' enemies. That I was jjght baa Vt/UL* proved by everything which has qo- I curred mean'whjle, and by what we bar* .':> heard from enemy statesmen. ■. Their '.> speeches in London, Paris and, i&liro- , v grad are so clear that I need sot go ip* ;< tu details. Just one word may be H*> V dressed to Mr.-Asquith. I do not ttply i to Ms personal attacks, because eves in t war-time I believe that personal calumny is an unworthy weapon. As far ' > as Mr. Asquith is concerned, Hub #»t -V condition of any peace negotiation* to /'' the complete and final destruction of '. the military power of Prussia. } At the tame time he promises German peace > proposals in my speech. Everyone it willing to discuss peace proposals pit" forward by the other party. Suppose I, suggested to Mr. Asquith that be ribould exacine peace proposals with me, and ■ he were to start with his condition of ' the final and complete destruction ofthe military power of Prussia, then our, conversation would end before ft bad '.' even begun. To audi a condition of ;, peace there only remains one answer lot,'' us. The answer will be given by our '■ sword. Wo will stand firm, and our '.' arm will deal. still strongei 1 Wow*. ■• When war broke out J Tecalled Moltke's » words that we should once more h»v*y*, to defend in bloody war what we won. -• in 1870. We went, to war to. dieted', J our union and freedom. This mated ~'; free Germany, is what our enemies wWh "; to destroy, so that Germany may again • become helpless as in centuries gone))/,, ' exposed to all the lust for power of our , r neighbors, the scapegoat of Europe, for '■ ever tied down as regards the develop- ,". ment of our economic strength after tot '. war." •DECISIVE YEAR OF THE WAR. ' Nearly everybody in authority agree* . that 1010 will be the crucial and decisive year of the great war. If Oer- ■ many can weather 1916 without' suffering any merse, if the Central Empires ' still hold by the end of this summer the military lines their troops are hold- ' - ing now, the prospects of an inconolu- > - give peace will 'be more serious than - they are at present (writes the London < correspondent of the Lyttelton Times). Put even Germany dare scarcely hope,''., and none of the Allies; really fear, that .. this will be'the case. Behind the grtflt . trench 'barriers of Russia in the e*»t and France in the west, as well as at • Salonika in She south, tho tide of war is now full pent. The various campaigns of the past twenty months have passed •; through many phases, and many and ■ strange have been the modern develop-,' • ments of war. But there is one phase-' that has not yet been seen, one problem / of great potentiality that has never .' been put to the test, one strategy that still remains to be tried. Tho great •, hope of 1916 is that before the year is out the world may have seen the effect, and the Central Empires have felt it, of n; concerted and simultaneous offensive by the Allies on; every front. Germany ■ and Austria have ample forces still , available to hold, up an assault at any. , given point on either fighting front., But have they still remaining sufficient > strength to resist final pressure by vig>. " orous onslaughts, not at one point, but at every point, not on one front only, but on all the fronts? That'is the grand problem which we may reason* . ably expect to see solved during'the great campaign of the historiq 'year,.'"' 1916, r _ The financial position of GernfUfi ' towns is causing grave concern; (The 6X« tremely high contributions which the , communities have made for the support of soldiers' families and invalids sines '•'-. the beginning of the war have resulted .','. in extreme financial pressure. The Pros- '/: sian towns alone, not reckoning those of * the other Federal States, have paid tor,-,'"' these objects no less a sum than £4o,<* ~-> 600,000. The immediate result is an in- .'». crease of rates to what is regarded At a,'v. "dizzy height" (says a London paper)*'' In 1914 rates wore raised from an avw« », age of 105 per cent, of the income taX< j ■tt> 180 per cent.; in 1915 the rate, W », '199, and in the current year the average , c will be 216 per cent. In Germany coiftv :. munal rates are not calculated on rentj . : as in this country, but on income tax,, ' In the case of a man who paid, for tS\ ':■ ample, £SO income tax, he paid is tfcf .- pre-war days £52 10s, He now pay»-''\ £IOB. Considering tho fact that W,'-f, State will have an enormously Increased , S expenditure after the war, the pcoMrar.f' of devising new sources of incqjße for ■"*, the towns and comWnes is one" of •*»' „\. treme difficulty, all the more as tit /* State has prohibited municipal and ML - "\ ir»] loans for, the duration pi :■,