The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1918. GERMAN OVERLORDSHIP IN RUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 March 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1918. GERMAN OVERLORDSHIP IN RUSSIA.

German success would seal the fate of all free peoples. Slie recognises but one law—might is right. In the eyes of her rulers the people count only as the means for carrying out the will of autocracy, and wherever Germany holds sway the iron hand is in evidence. Liberty is the enemy of aggressive militarism, therefore, however large the German Empire may become the people will ba under the yoke of unscrupulous taskmasters until they turn and trample the oppressors under foot. Teutonic rule .-.tands for serfdom and enslavement, just as British rule makes for liberty and independence- There are many important factor? bearing upon the chain of circumstances which have made Russia a prey to German designs and brought about the overlordship by force, which Germany j 3 now creating. Russia has liad a long and painful experience of the harshness and terrors of despotism, _n unless the Allies can extricate the 'iissians from the claws of tie German vulture the experiences of the past )e dwarfed into insignificance Iby « n , | Ol , ">on, the lack of education and 'SV? th • absenoe of oo,,eslon militated against the Russian masses ac-

quiring any conception of liberty in its true sense; they can only construe it as license for the development of unbridled passions. They have served so long under the whip that they are entirely at sea in handling the reins. The revolution started well, hut the primitive instincts of the Tartar soon engulfed the sane elements of the community in a seething maelstrom of anarchial chaos, and the hands that drew the people, onward into this—the brains which ingeniously devised the people's ruin—both were German. It was an easy and congenial task, hacked up by German-gold, the result being that the people have lieen sold into bondage whilst they were on the high road to i freedom. The reason which induced S Germany to play a leading iiami in TtusI sia is apparent to all who study these j matters. Russia had thrown off the } yoke of autocracy and as a democratic I nation would have been inimical to German designs, so she made it her business to fix even more lirmly on the shoulders of the Russians the yoke they got rid of by deposing the Czar, and she is avowedly aiming at the restoration of an autocracy that will not only rule with a rod of iron, but will be subject to German dictates. This step emphasises the menace of military despotism and shows to the world what it may expect if the Allies fail in their present task—which God forbid. Just as the Russian Umpire was the outcome of military eon'quest so is it Germany's aim to make Russia a means for German .world dominance- Germany on the whole has been singularly successful in shaping Russian policy—by fair means and otherwise. It has been Russia's misfortune as a country that there has never hce n any clear cut' national ideal which made for unity, attributable to the fact that from the earliest period of its history the Empire has consisted of diverse nationalities—the Great Russians, the Ukrainians' and the White Russians, it being only i n the matter of religion that there was any approach' to a common interest or connecting link in the life of the nation. The Poles and most of the Lithuanians are Roman Catholics, while the Esths and other western Finns, together with the Germans and Swedes are Protestants. It is no wonder, considering the heterogen- . ous collection of people which make up Russia, that Germany is now exploiting but the Allied nations have declared by their Premiers, that they will continue to light until a reign of organised justice is established. T.he hnmiliatino experience the -country is now undergoing should suffice to convince the majonty of the people that their salvation depends upon their good faith m he Alii,.,. Rusßia cani)ot be m left to her fate, f or her future as a democratic nation is essential to the world B peace, fio it is imperative that German overlordship shall never be pernutted." '