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The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1918. A PEACE DRIVE.

The Central Powers are adopting new tactics in their latest peace machinations. At a time when they are exerting their . maximum military effort in the Weßt they put up Count Czernin, the Au»« trian Prime Minister, to reply to a speech made weeks ago by the President of the United States. The offensive is meant to impress the Allies with their armies' omnipotence, and to discourage those among them of little faith—and little heart—thus bringing about a feeling of resignation to peace, which the AustroGermans want so badly. Czernin, of course, is only a marionette. His part is to drive in the wedge between the English-speaking Allies and France that < he. Hun armies have signally failed to dp in the field of battle. He commences by stating that he, like the German Chancellor, accepts Mr. Wilson's principles as a basis of peace negotiation, and asks if America's allies are also willing. He goes on to say that prior to the offensive in the West Austria and Germany stated their willingness to negotiate peace, "but the French demand for the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine proved a stumbling block." The idea is to prove to a credulous world that it is the Allies, and not the Central Powers, who are responsible for protracting the war, and to show that the war is being waged for the possession of the comparatively small area of land comprised in the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. But the clumsy method will deceive no one alive to the true facts of the situation The French Prime Minister was not to be caught in Count Czernin's snare when it was first laid some weeks ago. He instructed his agent in Switzerland, where the pourparlers were being conducted, to listen to all that was said and say nothing himself. The French Government, it is explained in the cables, realised that Austria and Germany could not be separated except by a military defeat, and that even unofficial negotiation- would only disturb Italy and Serv.; ' ...d therefore France avoided the snare. This proposal is character-

istically Germiui. France is to renounce her lost provinces for ever, rich provinces still essentially French, though under the merciless Prussian heel since 1871, that were torn from her by the ruthless villain, Bismarck, but not n word is said about Belgium, Russia or Se'rvia. The giving must be done by the Allies; the taking by the Central Powers. It is a form of obliquity quite in harmony with their conduct of the war, and their treatment of other peoples, neutral as well as enemy. After all, it is actions, not professions, that tell. President Wilson, in his recent powerful speech, laid bare the enemy's hypocrisy by recalling Aus-tro-German actions in Russia, .Finland mid elsewhere, and compared them with the ''peace'' speeches by their leaders, but, like the French, he realises that there is only one way of bringing the enemy to reason, and that is by the ap; plication of force. ''But one response is possible from us—force, force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world, and cast every selfish dominion down in the dust." This is the answer to Count Czernin, one that loaves no room for misunderstanding. The war will go on until the Central Powers are defeated. The United States lias proclaimed its intention of carrying it on by itself, if need be, until its ends arc attained. But there is no sign of the weakening of the resolution of Britain, France or Italy; on the contrary, there is 'evidence of a stronger determination than ever to see the war through' to a victorious conelusion. The peoples in Germany and Austria have been led to believe that the present big offensive will crush the Allies, and bring about the peace they are longing for. What will they say when the fact becomes known that the offensive lias failed, and that it has only resulted in piling up the dead and wounded by hundreds of thousands ? They have been told by their own ambassador that the cause of the war was not Britain, France or Russia, but Germany herself, and that, in fact, no nation worked so hard to maintain peace as did Great Britain. So it is possible they may begin to ask awkwai'B questions of their rulers and governors. In any case, the consciousness that their own countries are in the wrong will not increase their morale, or induce them to suffer the further privations that prolongation of the war will entail. The military heads know what is in store. They realise that the spirit of the nation will not sustain it much longer; they know that the submarine policy of frightfulness will not starve Britain, or seriously handicap America's war efforts; and they see President Wilson's millions ready to fill the gaps in the Allies' ranks. So they are striking now with all their might, in order to bring about a speedy decision favorable to themselves. Their greatest blows may not yet have fallen. They will shrink from no cost in life however terrible. And no doubt the Allies will be sorely tried, as they have been sorely tried during the past few weeks, but we may be sure of this, that a people possessed of a sense of righteousness in their cause, like the Allies are to a man, are unconquerable, and will in their own good time turn the tables on the enemy, and will make him accept such terms as will render it in,, possible for him to again plunge the world into wholesale bloodshed and misery and Buffering.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19180410.2.11

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1918, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
956

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1918. A PEACE DRIVE. Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1918. A PEACE DRIVE. Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1918, Page 4

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