The Daily News. MANDAY, JANUARY 22, 1917. THERE MUST BE NO MORAL VICTORY FOR GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 January 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. MANDAY, JANUARY 22, 1917. THERE MUST BE NO MORAL VICTORY FOR GERMANY.

It is extremely important in these days that we should not play into the hands of the enemy by conceding to him the moral elTeet. which is a large part of the gain that he hopes to reap from his Roumanian enterprise (says the Westminster Gazette). Our sympathy goes out to the Roumanians, and we owe them every kind of help that it is in empower to give, but we damage our own cause, and incidentally injure theirs, if we accept the German assumption that the great campaign is going to he vitally affected by what happens on the Danube. What, undoubtedly, the German most hopes is to make an impression on the Allies which will cause them to doubt and waver, to disperse their forces, and to disarrange the plans which they had laid down for concerted action during the next few months. If he does this, he will have had a great success, which will well justify his effort; if he fails to do it, the end of it all may well be that in a few months from now he will have to meet the Allies in the great theatres of war with a force which has been materially weakened by the campaign against Roumania. Mr, Archibald Hurd, discussing in the Daily Telegraph the ridiculous '•tip and run" visit of six German destroyers into English waters which has completely thrown the German press into hysterics, says in his calm way: "Such raids as the enemy makes are fireworks discharged in the hope of producing psychological effects, in this country and elsewhere. We shall best serve our own ends if we trea.t them viith contempt confiding in the officers at sea to do all that in them lies to punish the enemy. We have other and bigger things to think about than a few minutes' visit to some part of the ' Kentish coast, and, in the meantime, , can confidently leave the matter to j those who umlca'stand it. realising when j not to strike and when to strike with the best effect." Everyone, of course, regrets the rapid advance of the Germans in Roumania, and the consequent suffering of the brave Roumanian people at the hands of a vindictive and cruel enemy. The thrust in Roumania is not going to win the Germans the war, even should it fulfil their fondest hopes of military success. The German soldiers know that very well, and they make the move with another object. They make it, as their colleagues the German emissaries and journalists are making the huge press campaign in America of which we have fresh evidence to-day, in order to bad; the schemes of the Wilheimstrasso for r oremature peace, for j ■ they know that without such a peace j j the height of "'■liilitavisiu"' is doomed. j They will fail in that object, and in the 1 effort to attain it they ivil' bring about I results which they by no means desire. j Anions JC.jy-'i\'i motives which have.

led Germany to endeavor to crush Rouinania at all hazards, economic, considerations probably take first place (says Hie Times correspondent in Bucharest). Apart from the desire for revenge the main object undoubtedly was the aci|iiisiiicii of the great Koumanian wealth in cereals, which, it was calculated, ivould provide Germany annually with food for at least n third of the year, nsd the inexhaustible .supply of petrolouni, which is so greatly needed, especially for military purposes. The possession of these would enable Germany to prolong the war for a considerable period. Mr. .1. M. Beck, who has been so fine an advocate of the Allies' ideals in the L'nitcil Stales, in pointing out the unwisdom of idle latest German ponce kites in the States, says: "The [rouble with this well-meant spirit of pacifism, which has in the past enFeebled and is still weakening the moral Hbre of the American people, is that it i.iils to take account of the great moral tililli that the maintenance of justice is of infinitely more importance than the maintenance of peace, and that this world would not ue worth living in it, through the meddlesome interference of the United States or other cause, the war were to end in an inconclusive peace which would leave the sacred cause of justice without vindication and the principles of humanity at the mercy then of the school of political philosophy which asserts the supremacy of might over right." The New York Times says: 'Peace now would leave the German political ideal still vital and controlling in the Empire. Peace now with the chief issue of the war undetermined would be but a breathing spell to remarshal forces for the next year. Let these petitioners address the German people with messages of enlightenment and exhortation. The war will end when the Hohenzolle.lll surrenders to the Allies or his own people" It is for a moral effect that Germany is now playing in every direction She seeks to inspire dread everywhere, and to malce the world believe that she is omnipotent—which she is not.