The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1917. PAN GERMANISM AND ITS ANTIDOTE.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 June 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1917. PAN GERMANISM AND ITS ANTIDOTE.

In all matters concerning Germany it is extremely difficult to distinguish the false from the true. : It is equally hazardous to attempt to fathom the reasons which operate the German authorities in relation to censorship. The only safe line to follow is that Which assumes the general policy is directed to deception, however skilfully veiled, in order that real intentions may not be apparent. If German policy and German aims are analysed there will be found many conflicting theorieg, but the analyst will discover that through all the tangled web and mass of inferences which are put forward with apparent ingenuousness, there is the one dominant purpose —subservience to the decrees of the autocratic AH Highest. If any of the deluded people of Germany ever dream of a democratic Government with an Hohenzollem at the head, their awakening will be only a matter of time. Any such idea which might have arisen from the attempt to delude the Russians is l,ut i'. wstle in the air. 'For what is the Kaiser fighting? Certainly not for the privilege of democratising Germany —quite the opposite. He and his clique are fighting for Kaiserdom and autocracy in its most hideous form—military despotism. How these upholders of despotism must revel in the tactics of the Russian extremists who are ready to give up anything and everything to end the war—no annexations and no indemnities. That is precisely the policy that Germany wants to encourage—in tho other nations—while she herself stretches forth her hands to grip whatever territory she fancies. Pan-German-ism Really means a Germany possessed of all the points of vantage on the globe, and the Kaiser heads the agitation, closely supported by the great Hindenburg. What rights have the German people, or any other people for that matter, from the Kaiser's point of view? Only the right to the recognition of the Kaiser's power and subservience to his will. If Germany were victorious in the present struggle then is no part of the world which would escape her tyranny; her Colonial Empire would embrace all the territory worth troubling about. Her policy is one of wholesale annexations—that is pan-Germanism, pure and simple. Bearing this in mind, the magnificent oration made by President Wilson in connection with the Flag Day ceremonies comes to us as an inspiring and stimulating force that provides an antidote to pan-Germanism. It shows how. thoroughly his eycS have been opened to the real character and aims of the German Government and leaves no doubt' as to the intentions of the United States to destroy the "sinister power that has stretched its ugly talons and drawn blood from us." President Wilson sees the Kaiser not only as the All Highest of Germany but as holding the so-called Central Powers in the hollow of his hnnd. In the fight against this arrogant dpspot the powers of democracy will pronouncements of the German Government and its gagged and fettered press never stay their hand. All the delusive concerning the rights of nations and the fight for the defence of the German Empire are to deceive. Writing about peace terms, Professor Delbruck asserted that t|ie first and most important of all the national demands must be for a very large Colonial Empire—so big as to be able to conduct its own" defence in ease of war. 'He and others of his kind have—on paper—parcelled out the 'World for Germany's benefit, I

aad it is to prevent this felonious raid on other nations' territory tliat hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Americans will join the Allies in their efforts to crush Germany's military masters, to trample 011 ,pan-Germanism and eradicate the evils it engenders. The antidote for pan-Germanism is democracy, and the president of the greatest democratic country in the world is using all the resources at his disposal wherewith to ensure the triumph of democracy.