The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1918. GERMANY MUST PAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1918. GERMANY MUST PAY.

Much lias happened in the war zone since the Germans startled the civilised world by the sinking of the Lusitania, but the same feeling which was manifested then towards our ruthless enemy exists to-day with added force—Germany must be made to pay. Although no monetary exaction can compensate for the loss of the valuable lives on that occasion, there are damages that can, and must, be assessed in respect of the victims of the outrage. The United States Supreme Court has decided that the Cunard Company is not liable, but that Germany must be i compelled to pay, and when the Idajr of.rooboaiug tic-biU-

with Avliieli the Germans will be faced will inevitably be of huge] proportions. The principle laid down by the American Supreme Court in this matter will apply to all other outrages and crimes committed by the Germans, and not a single item should be omitted. In Germany's case the doctrine of no reparation and no restitution would be as unpardonable as the crimes which she has committed. The insistence on justice being done to the victims and their dependents would not be a punitive measure, but 'one that naturally follows wrongdoing. She must be forced to realise that wilfully taking the lives of innocent people and inflicting damage on property cannot be carried out with impunity. No compensation that could be made would suffice to meet the cases of murder, torture, maiming and violating that have been perpetrated by these barbarous Huns, and in every proved' case full payment should be exacted. The Germans have gloried in their savagery, frightfulness and fiendish cruelty to individuals, to inhabitants of towns and villages, to prisoners, to defenceless women and children and to the sick and wounded in hospitals and on hospital ships. It would be almost, if not quite, impossible to eompile a complete list of German crimes and their victims, but the American Court has, in the Lusitania case, decided that Germany must pay, and that decision applies with equal force to all other acts not sanctioned by the code of international warfare. We may, therefore, look to the United States, when the proper time arrives, to insist on making Germany pay. It has been clearly shown that the whole nation glories in these barbaric acts; I hence it is only right that the' whole nation should be made to suffer directly, while after the war the memory of Hun fiendishness will justify all civilised communities in regarding the as unfit to exist in such communities, and every fresh outrage must ineviEably intensify this feeling. After all that the world has experienced of German methods of thought and action, and remembering especially what they have done in Northern France, in Servia, in Boumania, in Belgium, and on the world's ocean highways,; it would seem impossible ever again to treat these pariahs as being within the pale of toleration. In one direction it is satisfactory to note that a move has been made to penalise the Germans! after the war, especially as it originates in the United States. An effort is to be made to prevent Germany from exporting manufactured and other articles, after peace is declared, without such goods bearing the mark "Made in Germany," so as to frustrate German plans to flood the world with articles, without designating their origin. Doubtless the wily Teutons will endeavor to make use of neutral countries through which to place their goods on the markets of the Allies, but this can easily be countered by a similar distinguishing mark, so as to leave no doubt as to the source of origin, or by making the import duty so heavy in cases where an evasion is deemed probable, that it will not pay the Germans to resort to further trickery. Until our present enemies have met the full demands that will serve the ends of justice, there should be no thought of intercourse in any direction. They have made. a rod for their own backs and must take the consequences. It is not a question of vengeance, but one of just retribution, and it would be a fatal weakness not to make Germany pay for every crime committed during the war.