NO PEACE WITH A HOHENZOLLERN.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 June 1917, Page 9

NO PEACE WITH A HOHENZOLLERN.

BRAND THE MEN AT THE TOP.

(By Lovat Frascr)

Under the 1 German Constitution the Kaicer lias sole power to enter into most classes of treaties with other nations and to make peace. Theoretically our own King lias considerably lesser powers of a somewhat similar kind, but in practice he does not exercise tlicm.

In Hunland ihese powers are real. Tf we began peace negotiations to-morrow we should have to negotiate not with the, German peoples but with William Hohenzollern.

The time has come for the Allies to declare that they will make no peace with the Hohcnzollerns. That murderous brood of megalomaniacs who have deluged Europe with, blood must be thrust for ever outside the pale.

On -August 7 last year I ventured to urge in The Daily Mail, that the Allies should unite in solemnly declaring the German Emperor and his heir-apparent tp be outlaws of civilisation I said we could not pronounce decrees of isolation upon tens of millions of Germans, however guilty, but we could at least brand, the men at the top with a shame which wtould never be forgotten while hiaJory endures.

At once there were letters of protest and people began to say "Hush!" It was urged that it would never do to discuss the sacred and inviolate principle of dynastic Tule. France might agree, I was told, but what would the Romanoffs say? *Why, it was well known that the P.ussian Imperial House strongly objected even to bringing any impious pressure upon the anointed Constantine of' Greece Besides, the Allies could not intervene between a people and its chos-J en ruler.

The Russian revolution lias suddenly swept these objections into oblivion. I am not of those who fondly think that the movement which produced the swift destruction of. Czardom will henceforth necessarily go>moothly. Mediaeval Russia can hardly be transformed in a night. and. the heady wine of liberty'has its dangers; but even if Russia only finds full regeneration through blood and tear* the miracle has been already wrought. No man whose soul is alive can fail to see in whab has happened in Russia fresh hope for the "future of Urn world Wo thought civilisation was being overthrown, but even amid the ruins new fiWera are blooming.

The message of Russia to Germany is now, "liown with Wilhelm!" It is a message which the whole world should echo with ardour. new argument against the anti-Hohenzollem movement is advanced, strangely enough, by English Radicals. They say Tikai it'will prolong the war and that the Germans will rally in support of their Kaiser. The answer is simple.

'Unless we overthrow the Hohenzol'lerns, unless we strike at the dynastic roots of Prussian militarism, unless 'we make every German understand that the Allies will no longer toleretc the abominable and tyrannical system which Prussian Junkerdom, "working through the Hobenzollerns, has imposed upon the rest of tjie German States, and has sought to impose on all Europe, it would be better to prolong the uar for ever. * * * * * Who is responsible for the appalling devastation ci Northern France, for the organised bestiality of which we daily receive fresh evidence, for the foul enslavement of the woman and girls of SToyon, for all the acts of treachery and cruelty and horror which have been perpetrated by the Germans since the war began? Ultimately the Kaiser, thegrepository of power, France deeply'the i personal responsibility of the Kaiser and of the House of Hohenzollern and all that it represents. ;

France would have spoken out) clearly in this matter long ago, but, like us, she thought the Romanoffs would he af : fronted, and, still more, she thought that denunciation of the Hohenzollerns would he misunderstood in this country. There need be no mere hesitation. No hand will be raised here against an Allied movement to declare the Hohenzollerns ■pariahs and outcosts, the Ishmaelites of king3hip, excommunicated for ever by the bulk of the world in arms.

By his own words the Kaiser stands condemned. Again and again he has claimed direct responsibility for the countless crimes of Germany, and now he must bear his hideous burden. Here are a few examples:

Only one is Master in the Empire, and I am that one; I will tolerate no other.

I represent Monarchy by the grace of God.

You must all have one will, and that is My will; there is only one law, and that is My law.

If I order you to shoot down your relatives, brothers—yes, even your parents—you must obey Me without murmuring.—(Speech to Potsdam recruits).

The spirit of God has descended upon Me because I am German Emperor I am the instrument of the Most High. I am His sword, His representative on earth Woe and Death to the infidel who denies My mission! all the enemies of the German nation perish! God demands their destruction—God, who by My mouth summons you to carry out His decrees.—'(Proclamation to Army, September 13, 1914).

We must put an end to this silly nonsense. We must do it if we fight for years. The blood of innumerable brave men will have been shed in vain if this ridiculous and archaic lunatic is permitted to retain one vestige of power. He tried to impose his will upon the world. By the world he must be judged and not by his besotted subjects alone. When William Hohenzollern sought world-do-minion he ceased to possess the right to have his fate decided solely by bis own people. He must be dealt with by the nations he sought to ruin and cn- [ slave, by the peoples! he is enslaving toi day; and there must be no paltering ! with any foolish cpurticrs in this counI try who fear to sec the Kaiser treated as lie deserves.

Much more dangerous than our courtly sycophants are our Radical pacifists who protend to think that if left to themselves the Germans will overcome the Imperial will and democratise their own institutions. Politically the Germans arc "sheep, and even in their excesses they are. merely artificially maddened sheep. There is not the smallest prospect of an internal movement in Germany against Kaisorism until the German armies have been finally routed , in the field. When that days dawns , anything may happen; but those who ■ t know German domestic politics best as- • sure mo that last week's Socialist out- , bursts in the Reichstag were humbug. . The only sincere opponents of the existing order of things in Germany are the handful of Minority Socialists, who prei tended to attack the "Government the ,• other day, hold the funds of the party i and arc subservient tools of the authorii ies. They were permitted to talk freely in order to deceive the Russian extremists.

Thro is no breath of liberty stirring over tire stagnant and miasmic waters of Prussian absolutism. There never has been liberty in Germany,' and it is not at all clear that the, Germans want liberty or would know what to do with it if they had it. Politically they like to be kicked and driven in herds. "

Germany may in the end be regenerated from within, but never spontaneously. The pressure must come from without. Refusal to treat with the Hohenzollerns will be no empty threat. It Will represent the, considered verdict of the Allies, and it will sink into the German mind. The sheep will realise its meaning when the German armies are overthrown and when they see the ruin to which their leaders have brought them.