The Daily News. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1917. THE ALLIES' WAR AIMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1917. THE ALLIES' WAR AIMS.

Lord Lansdowne says it would be a great achievement to end the war honorably, but a greater one to prevent a, curse falling on our children. A commercial war, ho maintains, .would only be less ghastly in its immediate effects than a war of armed forces, but it would be deplorable if the Powers embarked on commercial hostilities, which certainly would retard the economic recovery of all the nations involved. In other words, Lord Lansdowne advises us to let it be knov. a that after the war we will treat our present enemies as brothers and unite in healing the sores caused by the war. This sentiment may do credit to Lord Lansdowne's heart but it says little for his understanding of the issues for which we are so sanguinarily contending. To agree to such a form of peace at this stage would represent a German victory, and nothing else. We do not want 1 temporary peace, as Lord Lansdowne's proposal would mean, but a permanent peace. Otherwise the blood of millions .of the finest manhood of the democratic nations will have been spilled in vain. The fact is democracy is at war with despotism,, and there can ,be. no compromise. Either one or the other will have to go down, and the Allies have the will and'the power to cruMi despotism and all the evil it stands for. It would be a crime to prolong the war for one day more than is necessary, but, as M. Painlevo not long ago said, to stop the war a day too soon would be to deliver civilisation into the most degrading servitude. It is hard to understand that a man of Lord Lansdowne's gifts and experience should even think of shaking hands with a convicted lot of cutthroats and murderers, Vith a nation that has explored and is still exploring the depths of villainy, perfidy, intrigue, and hypocrisy, and with a nation still as arrogant as ever and still unrepentant. "Never again" is the motto of the Allies, who are out to slay the hideous war monster now once and for all, and who are rightly heedless of the Huns' promises to behave themselves as honest men in future. iPerhaps the best answer to Lord Lansdowne is given by ■President Wilson in replying to the last Papal peace Note. The case for the Allies, for civilisation, has perhaps never been more effectively put. He said:—Our responses must be based upon the stern facts and upon nothing else; it is not a mere cessation of arms he desires; it is a stable and enduring peace. This agony must not be gone through with again, and it must be a matter of very sober judgment what will ensure us against it. His Holiness in substance proposes that we return to the stains quo ante bellum, and that 'hen there can be a general conciliation disarmament, and a concert of Nations based upon an acceptance of the principle of arbitration; that by a similar concert ireedom of the seas be established; anl to at the territorial claims of France and Italy. the perplexing problems of Ihe Balkan States, and the restitution of Poland be left to such conciliatory adjustmeat* m may be petiibla in the ntw

temper of such a peace, due regard being paid to the aspirations of the ponples whose- political fortunes and affiliations will be involved. It is manifest that no pwt of this programme can be successfully carried out unless the restitution of the status quo ante furnishes a firm and satisfactory basis for it. The object of this;,war is to deliver the free peoples of jthe world from the menace and the actual power of a vast military establishment, controlled by an irresponsible Government which, having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established practices and long-cherished principles of international action and honor; which chose its own time for the war; delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly; stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy; swept a whole continent within the tide of blood, not the blood of soldiefs only, but the blood of innocent women and children, also, and of the helpless poor; and now Btands baulked, but not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world. This power is not, the' German people;' It is the Tuthless master of the German people. It is no business of ours how that great people cfwne Under its control or' submitted to its temporary zest, to the domination of its purpose; but it is our business to see to it that tile history of the rest of. the,world is no longer left to its handling. To deal with such a power by way of peace upon the plan proposed by his Holiness the Pope would, so far as we can see, involve a recuperation of the strength v and renewal of the policy; would make it necessary to create a permanent hostile combination of the nations against the German people, who are its instruments; would result in abandoning the new-born Russia to the intrigue, the manifold subtle interference, ,and the certain cpunter-revolution which would be attempted by all the malign influences to, which the German' Gov'.inment has of late acoustomed the world. Can peace be based upon a restitution of its power or upon any word of honpr it could pledge in a treaty of settlement and accommodation? Responsible states-* men must now everywhere see, if they rover saw before, that no peace can rest ; securely upon political or economic restrictions meant to benefit some nations and cripple or embarass others, upon vii c'ictive action of any sort, or any kind of revenge or deliberate injury. The American people have suffered intolerable wrongs at the hands of the imperial German Government, but they de3irt no reprisal upon the German peopl.*'.nb j have themselves suffered all things' iu ■Jiis war which they did not clioos-. Tlicy bi-liove that peace should rest upon the rights of peoples,,not the rights of Governments, the rights of peoples great or smell, weak or powerful, their equal right to freedom and security and selfgovernment, and to a participation upon fair terms in the economic opportunities of the; world, the German ncoples, of course, included, if they will accept equality, and not seek domination. 'Hie test, therefore, of every plan of peace is this: Is it based upon the faith of all tne peoples involved, or merely upon the V' rd of an ambitious and intriguing Government on the- one hand, and of a group of free peoples on the other? This is a test, which goes to the root of the matter, and it is the test which must ht> atiplied. The purposes of th; United States in this war tire known to the wLdo world—to every people to whom the truth has been permitted to come. They do not need to be stats'! seek no material advantage of any kind. We believe that the intolerable wrongs done in this war by th>. furious and brutal power of the Imperial German Government ought to be repaired, but not at the expense of the so rereignity of any people—rather in vindication of the sovereignity both of those that are weak and of those that, a.e strong. Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, the establialiment cf seLkh and exclusive economic leagues w.* deem inexpedient, and in th? end worse t!mn futile, no proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of all for an enduring perce. That must be based upon justice and fairness and the common rights of mankind. We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee of anything,that is to endure, unless explicitly supported by such conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the Gerinan people themselves as the other peoples, of the world would be justified in accepting. Without such guarantees, treaties of settlement, agreements for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration' in the place of force, territorial adjustments, of small nations, if made with the German Government, no man, no nation, could now depend on. We must await some new evidence of the purposes of the great peoples of the Central Empires. God grant it may be given soon, and in a way to restore the confidence of all peoples ev&rywWe in the faith of the nations and the possibility of a covenanted peace.