The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1916. FORSAKING THE SUBSTANCE FOR THE SHADOW.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1916. FORSAKING THE SUBSTANCE FOR THE SHADOW.

If Germany's peace proposal does nothing else it lias certainly created a sensation among the chief nation? of the earth, and has drawn emphatic attention to the intern*! economic condition of the Centr.il Powers. In forcing notice of lier empty garner. l ., comparatively speaking, Germany has committed a woeful blun|der, one of miny that ha; recoiled with teliing effect on her own licit!. I; is the j old story of !h<j dog and the bone. Germany waxed fat and strong on her commercial and industrial expansion, but, unlike America, had not the sense to I recognise tint ;t was b> fostering the arts of peace and not by force majeure, | that ultimate domination could be reached. In her greed for power Ger- | many has let fall the substance of prosperity for th'j tone of famine, and now that the grim spectre is stalking through the Fatherland it has forced Germany to cry aloud for peace, but the arrogant, autocratic pride of the Jlolk-hzo Herns stands in the wi.y of any possible terms that, they can propose. Thus we see the German masscr. becoming desperate and sick of their oppressors, though the iron band of tyranny has them in a grip which it will be difficult, though not impossible, to break. Austria has for so long leant upo>.. the strong supporting arm of Germany that she has become a vassal in every sense, and only in name is a separate entity. The fall of Germany would certainly mean that Austria could not stand alone, and there are not wanting signs indicative of Austria's realisation of ner preeariop existence. Germany's downfall, when it arrives, as it assuredly will in the not distant future, can only be attributable to her blind faith in an invincibility that lias become a fetish, coupled w'th that obtuseness and lack of imagination which were inevitable owing to the absence of a far-seeing mrster-mind to direct her policy. The present Kaiser began his leijm of terror by throwing over the pilot who had steered the Teutonic ship of State into a haven of prosperity and power. The same ambition to be the great man of the universe lias led the Kaiser, step step, to the verge of the great thasm of perished hopes over which he is now tottering. Ambition to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known has been the Kaiser's ••urse, and lias produced the, most awful war 'n history. If the conduct of the war is even superficially examined it will be seen that Gorman plans, which were worked out with exactness and thoroughness, were based on methods of treachery and scientific crueity that had been calculated and pre-an Singed. The Avar was deliberately provoked and entered upon by Germany for the sole purpose of aggrandisement, and incidentally for a revenge .hilt savored sweetly in the nostrils o: the Hans. They h supreme confidence in . rapid end complete success, so much so that they omitted to calculate the chances of failure, and their initial success closed the door to all thoughts of any other termination o L their nefarious enterprise than that of crushing their enemies. How O.lk-rent is th; position today. In spit: oi their armed hosts am their illimitable engines oi destruction, their barbari • cruelties ;.nd hideous trightfulness, they have .c;t the substance for the. shadow. The. success on which, they lud determined—the conquest of Frame. Russia, Britain, and Italy—has proved a mirage, ever receding into the dim distance and giving place to the penalty of failure, which now looms menacingly before their military and political leader;; ".ud threatens the very existence of the Hohenzollema and the Prussian Junkers. They were we't prepared fo.- a short and victorious campaign, but the stars in their course have fought for the Entente '< i, and the tin.t lias come when (.i...uiij is suffering from the titanic strain, .differing in depleted man power, in th • lack of material, and in food for her ixople. The one supreme blunder that Germany mad..- was in overlooking fie fact that the key of the position was iea supremacy, not the possession of vast land fdret-s. and now that she reat'sea her htuieWJMg fate she

is putting forth a hypocritical ami blustering appeal on behalf of Humanity, the j existence of which she lias hitherto comjpletely ignored. All her eneigy, all her | intriguing, plotting and planning, all her i ferocity on mid. in the air, and in the depths of \\w oceans has availed her not one iota. The arch-plotter, ihe self- . willed, ambitious and nitli'kss Kaiser, stands to-day .rraignod heiun the bar of those whom he regards as enemies, as a suppliant for a cessation of hostilities. Tie ha-. :io longer a u inning card to play, nor can he hope to aide from the < formal' r-.v/.on the hideous I.nith.of his failure. This mendacious braggart, has donned l':e raiment of tic Messenger of Peace, imi.-h the snne as the wolf took unto himself the skin ■■■.( Uie lamb. Beaten on the Mavne, a' (fimibiniien, on the Ysei, in '.iabcin, at. (u.rizia, on the Souimo, at f,jos, and, above ali, at. Verdun—the grave of Ills hopes—he is further away than ever from .ietory today. He insisted on war, ami now he is crying, 'Hold, enough!" But the ears of his intended victims ar<> (leaf to his entreaties or his threats, and. for answer he has been toh! that his vonl js neither trusted nor f :arcd, and that the days of his oppressive tyranny must be drawn to a close. Outraged and enraged civilisation, in the jrn'te of the Allies, has decreed his doom, and all that his one last hope, von Hir.denburg, can do will be 1 powerless -ro alter the determination of the Allies tp once and for all put an end to the menace which is the product of the Kaiser's mad dream of world domination.