The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1917.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1917.

GERMAN INTRIGUE. Great as ia Germany as a military nation, her capacity for intrigue is even more colossal than the strength of her armed forces. The Teutons have Btudied well every fibre of the insidious weapon of intrigue. They have mastered the art of misrepresentation and have abolished truth .'rom their vocabulary—and have found this degradation pay handsomely. From time to time the result of their machinations appears in the cable newß, the general tenor of which is occasionally intensified by flashes of sensationalism. Just now, exceptional attention is directed to this campaign of intrigue, inasmuch as it baa played an important part in the disaster which has overtaken, the Italians, for, as Colonel Bep'mgton points out, unless the success of the German offensive in the Trentino is due to this cause, it is difficult to account for the ease with which, what he describes as a mere handful of Teutons, put the Italians to ignominious flight and robbed them of the fruits of their previous brilliant victories. We are told that there was nothing new about the means used' by the German agents; it was stock lie as to England using her Allies for her own ends, to pander to her love of luxury, while those who hied and suffered for her had to freeze, to'starve and to die. It was the same in the cases of Russia in the main, though there was scope for variation in the fact that the Czar's reign was over, but that gave added strength to these ingenious perverters of the truth, inasmuch as they were able to play upon the national aspirations of the Russians under their newly horn freedom, while it enabled the horde of German emissaries to work on the sympathies of the royalists. Their aim is always the same—the fomentation of disloyalty and disorder, the subversion of discipline and distrust of the Allies. Emboldened by the success achieved iu Russia through this despicable campaign which played effectively on the ignorance and simplicity of the people there, it was only natural that a similar coup should be attempted in Italy. The insidious nature of these tactics resembles the operation of those pestilential forces which work in the night season with such deadly effect and the unscrupulousness on which the campaign is founded incases with every move that is taken. All Germany's dupes have experienced her loathsome cunning, but have been hypnotised into obeying her will. It took the president of the United States nearly three years of the war period before he was stirred to action by Ger■any's duplicity and intrigues, hut when his eyes were opened to the real knavery and cunning of the Kaiser and his confederates there was no more hesitation. In one of his later statements President Wilson said: "We cannot take the word of the present ruler of Germany as a

;mrantee of anything that is to c«i'.re," unless it is freely endorsed by i' Herman people themselves. Without oU'j'i endorsement "nu man, no nation, could now depend" on any agreement or proinis" entered into by the German CoYi'i-nmi'iit. When the head of a nation hat; to be regarded as absolutely untrustworthy ii can reasonably be argued that the nation itself has sunk to the deep levels of iniquity—the outcome of autocracy. Kussia has suffered and is suffering terribly by reason of autocracy and its hideous devilries. It is hoped that the canker germs so subtly planted by the Huns among the Italians have not taken such hold as to become a permanent evil. The warm impulsive nature of the Italians is not likely to be so easily affected as that of the long suffering stolid Russians, who were beguiled from their war activity by being told that the war was the Czar's war and as the Czar had been put out of action there was no need for them to fight other people's battles, especially when there was spoil to be got at home—was awaiting to bo gathered in and would be annexed by those on the spot. There is nothing—belong to other peoplethat Germany is not willing to offer as a bribe for aiding her schemes, or even being passive while :she carries out her programme of spoliation, devastation and murder. It might well be supposed that long ere this the nations would have fathomed Teutonic guile and cunning, and it is distinctly disappointing to find that the well-known confidence trick is just as successful when worked on a nation as on an individual. Certainly GerrrAny has been well served by her emissaries of intrigue and they are still actively pursuing their nefarious work. At most a prolongation of the war can be expected, for the great democratic nations—Britain, France and Americahave determined to break the power of Prussian militarism and will go forward without swerving until this task is accomplished*