CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1916, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

"*" HAD GERMANY WON. ' "Politicus," in the Fortnightly Review, says that upon Germany lies the principal guilt of the present war. Yet, by the irony of fate, it seems likely that her allies, or, rather, her dupes, will be more severely punished than the principal culprit. Had the Central Powers been victorious, Germany would have dominated the North Sea and the Baltic, and Aus-tria-Hungary the Aegean and the Black Sea. Russia would have become a poor inland State, almost cut off from communication with Europe. Petrograd and Moscow would have been within easy reach, and at the mercy, of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The two Central Empires, possessing together 200,000,000 inhabitants and the principal coal and iron deposits and industrial district and the richest agricultural plains on the Continent, would have militarily dominated Eurose; and the acquisition of the best

Jiarbors in the east, .vest, and soutli would have enormously increased their mercantile and naval importance, especially if they could rely on the support of a vastly-enlarged Turkey, possessing also about 100.000,000. inhabitants. Events have shattered that dream of unlimited wealth, and irresistible world-power which led to the outbreak of the present war.