The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1916. WHY GERMANY WANTS PEACE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 December 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1916. WHY GERMANY WANTS PEACE.

It is more than likely that every person interested in- the war can easily assign one or more reasons why (Germany should at this particular time be anxious for a cessation of hostilities, but it would puzzle most people to satisfactorily explain why the Huns want peace. As a matter of fact, they do not want peace, and, under present conditions, will never want peace, and that is why the Allies are so thoroughly determined to carry the war to a victorious conclusion. Present conditions must be swept away, for they are based on Prussian militarism, which, while .it exists, will always be a menace to the nations, and there can be no peace tintil it is crushed and utterly destroyed. There are many factors which, 'have operated in Che promulgation of the extraordinary proposals emanating from the German Chancellor, acting as the mouthpiece of the Kaiser, but I Terr Hollweg and the German press have studiously endeavored to hide the real reasons for the desire to cease hostilities, and have presented to the world the spectacle of a magnanimous and ten-der-hearted ration putting forward for acceptance the dove of peace, held in the left hand, while in the right is the sword of ruthless slaughter and the insignia of greater frightfulness than ever ly Germany. The enemies of the I<utons must bend to their will or be broken—so say the Germans; and yet they can taik and wiito unctuously i,-n the claims of humanity, the terrible sin of continuing to shed blood, and the awful crime the Entente Powers will commit if they turn a deaf ear to the dulcet tones of the German messenger of peace. It is not difficult to see that from a German point of view the continuance of the war would make such

inroads upon her man-power that there would be only derelicts left. The German Chancellor did not touch on this aspect of the question for a very ob-

uiii reason, but his pious horror at the carnage and destruction touches chords of memory that will make all sane people stand aghast at his effrontery. These chords of memory recall to us the ever-increasing list of horrible atrocities perpetrated by the Germans during the war—atrocities that surpass in fiendish cruelty the worst examples of their barbaric ancestors. Does Gcrnif.ny expect that all her monstrous crimes are to go unpunished merely because it suits her book to wave the olive branch? Does she not rather fear the arrival of the day of reckoning? Perhaps not. We are told that the terms are not so much what Germany expects but what she wishes to obtain, and there is an artfully worded hint thrown out in the direction of getting the Allies to agree to a conference. The suggestion made in America that the Allies should issue a joint statement as to what they are fighting for, so as to convince neutrals of the justice of and necessity for prosecuting the war to a victorious conclusion, comes a little late in the day, for the reasons were clearly placed on record by the British iPremier when he said; "We shall never sheath the sword, which we have not lightly drawn, until Belgium—and I will add Serbia—recovers in full measure all and more than all which she has sacrificed; until France is adequately secured against the menace of aggression; until the rights of the smaller nationalities of Europe are placed upon an unassailable foundation, and until the military domination of Prussia, is wholly and finally destroyed." There is the

-Allied we in a nutshell. The more this latest development of German cunning is studied, the clearer becomes the pirpose whbh it was intended to serve. It is nothing but a clumsy trap. There are several factors contributing to the ingenious, but by no means ingenuous, action taken by the German Chancellor. Amongst these may be mentioned the serious crisis relative to food supplies, starvation coming nearer every month, and with it the undermining of patriotism and the demand for the cessation of hostilities. The German authorities are extremely anxious to shoulder the blame on the Allies, and by suggesting such terms of peace as they know will be rejected, hope to arouse tin German people to frenzied v g,;r against the foes of the Fatherland. Then we must take into account the colossal losses suffered by the Germans, and the total failure of their efforts to carry out the plans of conquest for v.'hich they waged this terrible war. So desperate has the position become that Germany found it necessary to institute the compulsory service of- civilians to swell the depleted remnants of Iter former warrior hosts. Britain took up this challenge in a way that Germany never thought could be possible. A new Government was formed with unparalleled celerity for the one great purpose of organising the resources of the nation in order to more vigorously prosecute the war to a victorious issue, and incidentally to reject all peace overtures, for there could be no peace till Germany's power for evil was broken. The patient, long-suffering and slow to anger Britain was well known to the German authorities, but a new Britain has arisen in majesty and power that Germany did not know, and now she is realising the significance of this putting rn of strength Germany launches a sudden desire for a cessation of hostilities as a fitting climax to the defeat of the little Roumanian nation by the big bully of Europe. Well may we wonder that (he neutral nations are so blind to their own interests as to place any reliance on.Geimany, .who would use them gladly to attain her own selfish end* and then leave them to their fate. The world has never experienced so great a mockery as these sham peace proposals, which are pre-eminently typical of the tyrannical and barbarous Huns. It is for the Entente Powers, and not the Central, to dictate terms of peace when tie proper time .arrives, and what tii .-e terms must be leave no room for doubt,