The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1917. INTERNAL TROUBLE IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 April 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1917. INTERNAL TROUBLE IN GERMANY.

The general strikes in Berlin and other German cities have been so orderly and carefully arranged as to lend credence to the story of the Swiss newspaper that Germany is preparing a colossal trick for the Entente, arranging a pseudo revolution in order to excite the Entente's pity, and pretending to introduce liberalism in the hope of creating a delusive peace. The paper added that the Kaiser had been induced to pro-, mise radical reforms likely to impress the Entente. The Independent Socialist Party organised the "strikes," in which, we are told, all the factories, munition factories as well, took part. Twelve converging processions, the majority being women, old men and boys, marched to the Unter den Linden, where they were met by dense crowds of strikers, singing labor and revolutionary songs, and shouting "Give us food!" The recent reduction in the already scanty food allowance may have been at- the bottom of the strike, or those responsible for the demonstration may, if we accept the Swiss account, have made use of tho very natural feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment of the people in carrying out the behest of. the highplaced officials to excite the pity of a hard world. The- Germans are a very disciplined and obedient people. They have been taught to be so from childhood. The inculcation of these qualities has formed part, and no small part, of the berman scheme of world subjugation. Service- and sacrifice in the interests of the nation have been almost deified. Because of this blind submission to the behests of the State, and the utter confidence in.the-. Army's invincibility, one hesitates to believe tliat the Germans, suffering from hunger as they undoubtedly are, would of their own volition rise against authority. Writing in February, a neutral observer stated in the London Times that one of the greatest surprises he experienaed in Gnrnmnv was the resignation,,

of the people to deprivation. Tlio Uermau was always a gross feeder, and his acceptation of the starvation diet was all the more surprising, But the »reaior the deprivation the greater the docility- Conditions no doubt have become steadily worse since then, and, mav be. the people have had their faith in the invincibility of their war machine shaken by the Allies' successful offensive and the consequent retirement of the Hun Western 'armies. They may also have their confidence in ultimate victory upset by the entry of America. But it is difficult to change tnc character of a people drilled-and disciplined all their lives. There is no analogy between tne Germans and the Russians. The Russian masses are very ignorant and their training lias been limited to the military. As a people they have never been disciplined or organised like the Teutons, and therefore they are more susceptible to change. It has been a common conviction that the wav win end by internal trouble in Germany, hut the blind obedience and canine docility of the people have not been, taken sufficiently into consideration. When, however, the German armies are crnshingly defeated and are sent reeling back to the Fatherland there may bo a revulsion of feeling. But that iB the only effective way of winning the war. We may well dismiss any other idea. If the authorities arc- behind the disorders in the German towns, then they have made quito as big a mistake psychologically as they have done since their fundamental mistake of thinking Britain was too mercenary or 100 airaid to take a hand in the war, for the outside -world of enemies have no sympathy whatever with the Germans in the hardships they are undergoing at home, believing that it is just and only partial punishment for the crimes their leaders have committed against' the world. Some maysay, "Why blame the German people for the crimes of their leaders?" The answer is that the German people allowed themselves to be directed and governed by the leaders, that they accepted the policy of world domination and dedicated their service to that end. They believed in the policy and became infected with the pernicious virus of their leaders, and they rmißt share the responsibility for the crimes of the nation and accept blame for the consequences. As indicating the moral obliquity of tlje people, we have only to remember with what joy they hailed the destruction of the Lusitania with the loss of so many innocent -women and children, striking medals indeed in commemoration of what was considered a wonderful national achievement; witb what satisfaction they followed the Zeppelin raids on defenceless British towns and the bombardment of the English seaside towns by their marauding war vessels; with what- pleasure they tead. of the murder of Nurse Cavil!; and their acceptation of the unspeakably , brutal extermination of the Armenian people, by their Turkish allies. The Entente has not- forgotten all this, and will in good time exact retribution. To expect them to be influenced by the condition of the German people at this stage- in the direction of modifying their terms of peace is very German, The Allies are not vindictive but they are bound to administer punishment commensurate with the awful crimes committed bv the German nation.