The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1916. CHAMPIONING THE RIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1916. CHAMPIONING THE RIGHT.

It is inevitable that in every country there should bo, even in representative circles, such poor specimens of humanity as the French Socialist deputy, M. Buzon, who recently roused the Chamber's anger by asking ''whether France had not already suffered enough, and couldn't she now negotiate for peace." It was, perhaps, as well that such a question should be put, for it gave the French Prtmier the opportunity of delivering an eloquent and impassioned reply, the text of ■which is to be placarded throughout France. 11. Biiand described the question as an outrage on the dead, adding: "Ten of our provinces are invaded; oU men, women and children have been carried off and await deliverance; yet you ask for a peace which is both humiliating and dishonoring." In one way the asking of such a question must do good, for it will serve to remind the civilised world of the scores of acts of wanton and calculated savagery that have been committed by the Germans, and the more the people of Allied nations think of these outrages the firmer will it make them-in undergoing any and every sacrifice to put an end, once and for ail time, to German's evil power. The world knows two Germans—one with the veneer of civilisation, and the other stripped of that veneer —a callous, brutal nation, committing unspeakable abominations or cruelty, lust and tyranny; whining when its skin is threatened, lying with brazen effrontery when its crimes are sheeted home, and ruthlessly corrupt in its dealings with other nations It is one of the fine instincts of the British to regard their adversaries as sportsmen and gentlemen, and to this fact is due the tendency to be overlenient to the Germans, but that tendency has 'been effectively crushed out of existence by the coarse brutality and ferocious intensity of hate that have' revealed the true Hun beneath the Teutonic cloak. "Has not France already suffered enough?" M. Buzon enquired, She has suffered many time? more than enough, and she well knows that unless Germany is crushed there will be far greater sufferings in the future. Even a patched-l'.p peace would entail further oppression and suffering. There is but one means of securing the deliverance which is so eagerly loo'ked for, and that in only to be obtained by complete and final victory. How the Socialist deputy could ask for peace negotiations, in the face of the Freneli Yellow Book dealing with the conduct of the German authorities towards the "inhabitants of the French departments in enemy occupation, is beyond the conception of ordinary mortals. Has not Belgium suffered enough? Aye, far more than it was thought human nature could bear, but no cry arises from the Belgians for peace negotiations. We have all suffered more than enough, and that is why there can be no talk of peace until the danger of suffering in the future is eliminated. The time for sentiment ha 3 long since passed, killed by the calculated and coldblooded horrors perpetrated 'by the enemy and furnishing a lasting monument of their shame. The damning evidence of German ferocity and frightfulness contained in Blue Books of Britain, the Yellow Books of France, and the records of Belgium is a complete estoppal of all peace talk until the foul crimes havo been justly vindicated. The numerous acts of ty.unny and inhumanity perpetrated on the people of the occupied provinces, in deliberate contravention of al! international conventions, cry aloud for the punishment of those responsible, and even the atrocities committed on the people of the Camcroons, who were under German protection, cannot be passed over A'ithout a due reckoning. A recent cartoon in Punch depicts Britannia with a sword in her left hand and her right hand raised aloft while she exclaims, "There shall be no peace till the penalty has been paid in person." We arc fighting might and main for the true principles of humanity as well as for the restoration of justice and liberty. It is a war of the champions of right against the brutal tyranny of might. Let 110 one forget this when the craven-hearted talk of peace. We must be under no misapprehension as to the character of the German, for it stands forth in deeds of blood, infamy, savage cruelty and lust. What the Germans have done to the MManMiildiiMUiillMttt

—to our own kinsfolk i£ they could.. We n»i-t light on, 110 matter what sacrifice* may lie entailed, until tlie goal is reached, and then only ean wc look forward to a neiv era. in which sanity and not devilry prevails and we have become a single nation of 'brothers, inseparable in adversity or danger.