PEACE TALK.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1918, Page 5

PEACE TALK.

VATICAN MOVES. AUSTRIAN EMPEROR AND WILSON'S STATEMENT Received Jan> 14 ,5.5 p.m. London, Jan. 13. The United Press Home correspondent says it is believed the attention of the Austrian IJnperor lias been called to President Wilson's speech by the Vatican Mtgfiesting that he endeavor to induce the Kaiser to consider the terms.

NO PEACE IN SIGHT. PLAIN TALK BY SIR ERIC GEDDES. PRUSSIAN MILITARY CASTE MUST BE BROKEN.

The First Lord of the Admiralty (Sir Eric Geddes), in a letter to ? leading ■Sydney worker in connection with the Citizens' War Chest, refers to the futility of any hopes for an early peace which would bt lasting. He says: "We want everybody's shoulder to the wheel at the present time. Amid all the rumors of peace—which to me is at the moment a very pernicious thing to talk about—one is struck .with the determination of the Empire and our Allies to go on until we ycl a peace worth hating. Germany is not beaten, but she knows she cannot win, and mv own view is that it will be the end of 'l9lß or well into 1919 before we can get anywhere near a peace that will prevent the Central Empires from planning another aggressive move. The lYussiar military caste only hold their position i.y their military ascendancy over the minas o! the people, and that militar* powei has got to b\) broken before any peace »orth iiaying can be attained. The only way to bring home to the Germaii people—and they, of course, are the backbone of the Central Empire alliance —tlint they are beaten is to get the outward and tangible sign which the world, and especially the Central Empires, cannot be deceived into thinking to be anything but a clear manifestation of the defeat of the Centra! Powers. I se# no hope of absolutely starving the Central Powers into submission by a blockade and wert it possible I am not sure that a peace brought about by starvation would be such a peace as could make us feel that the sacrifices by the Empire and our Allies had been justified if the Germans could say, 'You could not beat us in a military sense, but yon starved oit women and children.' They would add, without the least doubt, in my opinion ; 'we miscalculated the length of t!'e war, and that mistake we will see shall not be made ne:;t time.' It. is our business to see that there is no 'next tim°.' and no peace which does not ma,ke that clear is worth having. Such a peace is not in sight yet. The Navy and Arniv feel that they are throughout masters of equal force of the Germans. The worst dangers of the submarine campaign appear to bo gradually receding, and the probabilities of a considerable increase in aerial attack to be increasing, and England i« realising that the fact that ehe is an island does not prevent her now from being in the war zone."