The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER, 7, 1917. CRUSHING THE MENACE OF INTRIGUE AND FORCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER, 7, 1917. CRUSHING THE MENACE OF INTRIGUE AND FORCE.

There has been no pronouncement made since the war commenced which has struck more directly at the root of the matter than the recent address of President Wilson to Congress, ftvery word iu that inspiring statement glows with potency and determination. It is not only a complete justification of the Allies' war aims, but it also justifies America's entry into the war, side by side with those who at the outset were forced to draw the sword against the Central Towers for the projection of the weaker nations, in the interests of freedom, justice and humanity, in order U jut an end to the intolerable menace of intrigue and force. President Wilson makes it perfectly clear that there can be no hope for the Germans—no hope for the world at large—until autocracy has been overthrown. That "intolerable thing whose ugly face Germany has shown them; this menace of combined intrigue and force, which we now see clearly as the German power, without conscience, or honor, or capacity for a covenanted peace, must : be crushed, or, if not utterly brought to an end at least shut out from friendly intercourse with other nations. When this has been accomplished, justice can be done everywhere, to every nation." These sentiments voice the opinion of the civilised vo;'.'. and emphasise that the only possible means of reaching the desired goal is by winning the war, and dethroning autocracy with all that it Btandß for. .Germany must be stripped of her dominance, even over her allies; she must repair the wrongs inflicted on the nations; must give up all seized territory, and, above all, must be governed by rulers the world can trust, before peace can be made. There must be an end to base, nefarious intrigues, for, as President Wilson rightly points out, the Russian people have been poisoned by the same dark falsehoods as those that have kept the German people in the dark. It is an obvious truism that the supreme moment of the history of nations has arrived. "The eyes of the people have been opened and they Bee the hand of God laid upon them) and He will show them favor if they Vise to the clear heights' of His justice and; mercy." Nothing, asserts the President, can turn Arae-. r:ca atide from the task of defeating the enemy. Would that these words so pregnant with force and determin-tlon had been uttered two or even thrt»c years earlier, for then the end of the terrible struggle would long since have bean reached and the full force of Kusih's power would have been available It is the thought of what might have lien had President Wilson only arrived at his present convictions when the Ml measure of Germany's iniquity was first made manifest, that makes us regret the opportunity was allowed to pass. "The eyes of the world," except in America, were then fully opened, but the time of conviction tarried. Now the Germans, goaded into desperation by their fast waning man power, which is being sacrificed prodigiously, are even more j savage than their Hun ancestors, and the terrible human slaughter is proceeding apace—and will continue so long as they have men to become food for high explosives. The righteousness of the Allies' cause is to-day not one particle less or greater than when, the first'shot was fired in the war. In the light of President Wilson's ardent determination to win the war there would seem to be a most urgent reason why the Americans should put forward superhuman efforts to make up for all the time that has been lost in throwing the whole of their resources into the scale with the least possible delay so as to counterbalance the ('cfpotion of Russia. The sooner the war is won the sooner will the nations "rise lo those clear heights" which President Wilson indicates, mid the sooner will be

accomplished the crushing of the menace of force and intrigue.