The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1918. HUN TERRORISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1918. HUN TERRORISM.

The latest example of Germany's barbaric terrorism is to be found in the presence of U boats off the coast of America. No act of the Huns is more calculated to reveal their desperate condition than the attempt to create a panic in the United States by the sinking of coastal and other unarmed vessels in American waters. The project clearly shows how little the German authorities know of the temper and determination of the American people, from the President downwards. It also demonstrates the real fear which has entered into German minds as to the United States being the decisive factor in the war. The present intense offensive is patently designed to force a decision before America's full strength can be thrown into the scale, for even the most blatant pan-German cannot fail to recognise that the resources of America are so colossal that the Central Powers must inevitably be defeated as soon as those mighty forces are arrayed against them. The spirit of the people of the United States in 1918 is vastly different from what it was in 1914. They can no longer be bluffed or terrorised, (and the piratical methods of the German TJ-boats operating near the American coast will most assuredly convince the people that the United States was thoroughly justified in entering the war to rid the world of the most ruthless I fiends of any age. It will also stimulate their enthusiasm, expedite the output of ships, swell the ranks of America's armies and harden their hearts when the da3{ of reckoning comes. The United States Navy Department was warned in the middle of May as to the probable arrival of Hun U boats, and, now that these piratical craft have started operations, it is certain that every effort will be made to deal effectively with them. The Navy Department has a sufficiency of destroyers, chasers, aeroplanes and hydroplanes wherewith to accomplish the task, and the work is already proceeding not only with the object of destroying the pests, but for locating the base and supply j boats. Not for a single moment will tliese submarines deter or delay the transport of troops to the; "West front, the effective convoy system m vogue being quite capable of protecting the transports. Apparently the submarines are keeping out of the way of the transports and devoting their nefarious energies to sinking ships of commerce. The methods of the assassin seem to have a special attraction for the authors of some J of the foullest outrages on record. Ruthless terrorism has been raised to the pedestal of a high cult in Germany, and every week that passes furnishes its quota to the measure of Hun lust for murder, torture and destruction. Among recent instances are the bombing of hospitals and the slaying of wounded men, doctors and nurses; the bombardment of Paris by super-guns, not f military object, but to terroi. and agonise the people. There is no weapon —civilised or barbaric—that the Germans are not using to further their infamous projects. That being so, as one writer puts it, "it is not surprising that they should discover a new task for their submarines, which, after a very carnival of horrors, remain her most merciless, most barbarous and most Prussian weapon." The (noticeable feature in the methods of the Huns is their propensity for adopting the tactics of the bully. This is evidenced by their brutality and inhumanity to defenceless prisoners, to women and children, to unarmed peasants and to unarmed vessels. Anything, or any person, not possessing the power to retaliate, is a mark for German ruthlessness and cowardly brutality, hence the attacks on small craft, also the action of the German Navy in clinging to or dashing for" the protection of its own harbors when faced by British' warships. It was German submarines that caused America to enter the war, so that it may be taken for granted that the present operations of the U-boats will spur America to increased efforts, for the Germans stand revealed as fiends incarnate who would, if they could, grind the nations into powder and trample them under foot. They may destroy a number of American trading ships, but in so doing will only add to the number of their crimes without in anyway affecting the Allies' militarv movements or delaying America's help to putting an end to a terrorism that justifies the Allies' sacrifices in the cause of freedom, justice and humanity.