GERMANY NEAR JUDGMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 October 1918, Page 6

GERMANY NEAR JUDGMENT.

THE WAR'S COLOSSAL SACRIFICE OF BLOOD AND TREASURE. WHAT.-INDEJINITY CAN SHE PAY (By the Rev. Robert Wood in Dimedin Star.) The Kaiser lias developed a religious mania and spends hours on his Itnees praying for 'iris dynasty and the crown. —Cable, October 8. For 50 long, weary, agonising months the Kaiser and his War Lords have carried on a career of criminality that has deluged the earth with blood; but that career is drawing to a close, and the bar of judgment is looming before them. They are clearly in the grip of the furies of justice and vengeance. Lowell, in litis "Villa Franca," sings: Spin, spin, Clitlio, spin; Lachesis, twist; and Atropos sever;

In the shadow, year out, year in, The silent headsman waits for ever. The Kaiser said: "By blood and iron I'll win world dominion." To-day he is reaping what he sowed, and ho should reap more than he sowed. The weapons Ihe forged and gloried in will be his destruction; but that destruction will be an act of righteous retribution, The grim, silent headsman has made his nearness felt, and the Kaiser, according to the cable, grovels in terror on his knees in prayer, and while he prays his defeated armies are burning the-towns of northern France Charles V., .t'he sixteenth century Kaiser, and one of the Kaiser's heroes, in his closing days in the cloister, would grovel in pTayer, ana then rise to his knees and incite his son to burn heretics. The corruption of the best thing is the worst, and one of the most ugly traits -in the character of the PotsdMa Kaiser in his foul religion, divorced from every Christian, or human grace or virtue. He is the same selfish egoist to-day as he has been m the past. Ho is concerned about his dynasty and his throne, but he is silent about his crimes. The cartoonist very fitly represented it'he Devil saying to hin'i, after an outburst of prayer uuti shaking of his mailed fist: j f Why will you persist m calling me God?"

THE BLOOD AND TREASURE SACRIFICED IN THE AVAR. This Kaiser-made war of the last 50 months has been the most costly and the most criminal war in history. The sacrifice of blood and treasure has been on such a colossal scale as to stagger the imagination. Writers are now trying to count the cost of the war, and that 1 balance-sheet should be on the table at the Council that makes peace terms. The cost of the war occupies a good many pages of a scholarly book written by a distinguished French teacher, Professor Augustin Hamon, in his 'Lessons of the World-War' has drawn up a bill of costs, and writers'in the New York Times have attempted the same difficult task. Some of the facts and fismres of these writers may be reproduced here. Professor Hamon points out that this war is remarkable for the number of men and the number of nations engaged in it. Bfe shows that if the reserves and territorials be added to the regular armies of the warring nations the total number of soldiers would be about 60,000,000.

THE COST OF THE WAR IN HUMAN BLOOD. The New York Times makes out tliat nearly 8,000,000 lives have been sacrificed 'in this war, and that over 12,000,000 have been wounded or captured or missing, and Professor Hamon reaches the same estimate. Here is the temole bill of human butchery and injury:— Dead. Wounded, - •;■ ••; Captured, or MissingBritish Empire., 434,774 079154 France ■.., -.. Russia ";/,. 2,762,004 2,400,5,2 Italy w r..., 100.350 329,644 Serbia -,.; a ••! 7(i,454 201,170 Rumania'" C , ;,- 100,000 200,000

4976,484 0,070,40!) Germany .■->' 1.812,500 4.509,820 Aastria-Hungary 964,368 1,779317 i Turkey .« ■•■ 182 . 644 370 ' 452 'BulSa „ ',; 11,34-2 19,128

2,970,830 0,738,717 Grand Totals 7,947,320 12,815,180

But terrible as these figures are, they do not tell the whole story. Tins war his led to massacres in places like Armenia and Serbia; civilians have been shot and hanged in thousands, and they have died of starvation; and Professor Hamon puts their loss of life down at 5 000,000- The war has affected the ■birth' rate, and the loss in potential lives cannot be estimated. In this war the mental, moral, and physical flower of the world's manhood has been sacrificed, and the male progenitors after the war will be made up to a large extent of the infirm and the enfeebled. These writers make out thus a «irect sacrifice of human life of 13,000,000, but the indirect loss would add considerably to this figure. What should be done to the Potsdam criminals who slew these?

COST OF THE WAR IN MATEIRAL TREASURE. The cost of the war in pounds sterling will he calculated exactly in future, but there are figures available that enable us to get at part of the cost, and the partial cost is so great that the mind is bewildered. We get at part of the cost of the -war by finding out the increase in the Public Debt of the nations, and here are figures on that aspect, of the case:— $

| Increase of Public Debt During 47 Months. Allied Powers. British Empire .., ..£5,618,000,000 France .., .., •■ 3,7*0,000,000 Russia ..■ ~ .. 4,060,000.000 ■jhlv •, ■■■>■ 377,000,000 United States !, ... ;, r ' £17,141,000,000 I Central Powers. Germany ~ .. ...£5,707,000,000 Austria-F. angary .. .-3,006,000 £8,773,000,000 This increase of public debt of £26,000,000,000 is only, as said, part of the cost of the ->ar- An enormous sum is raised for war purposes by direct taxation. The dead and the wounded stand also for an economic loss to the world. Professor Hamon makes out an adult male life has an economic value of from £4OO to' £IOOO, and the 8,000,000 dead fepjam>H 3 <Vn «f SI&QQfiOQfIN, and tb»

12,000,000 wounded or .prisoners a loss of £4,800,000,000. But the economic loss docs not stop here. . Germany has made war a trade in robbery. • By requisition and pillage whole regions have been emptied of food, machinery, furniture, etc.. and these have been transported to Germany and publicly sold as "war booty." In (iii.'i war she has also been an artist in destruction. While the Kaiser prays, his soldiers lay towns in ashes, destroy railways and bridges, break up roads, and cast books and works of art ! nto the flames, and his sea pirates sec -.hipping worth millions to the bottom ;' the ocean. The cost of the war, acco: ; inj; to the Fortnightly Review, is such that Germany has incurred an indemnify of £00,000,000.000.

CAN CRIMXAL GERMANY PAY COMPENSATION? The question of punishment for the persona! criminality of the Kaiser and his War Lords may be passed over just now. An English jury, at an inquest, found the Kaiser guilty of murder, and Mr. Ellis Barker, the well-known writer on Germany, affirms that the Kaiser violated the Constitution of the Empire in declaring tin'-, war, and his own people may find him a criminal worthy of death as well as an English jury. ' But the economic question may be raised here: Cau Germany pay an indemnity for the material loss she has caused'? Mr Lloyd George stated on April 23 that at the end of the war Germany would And herself on the verge of bankruptcy. That may be true, but Germany has other assets than the money in her Treasury. She has immense resources of mineral wealth, and these might be seized and exploited as she has seized and exploited the wealth of the regions she has invaded. In recent issues of the Fortnightly Review the unique wealth of Germany in coal, iron, and potash has been set forth with the view of showing the paying power of Germany after the war. In coal alone within her ]fll4 frontier she had more than half that of Europe. Here are the facts:;

Coal Resources of Europe'. Tons. Germany ~. ..„, ~, 423,366,000,000 Britain and Ireland lr ., 188,335,000,000 Russia .-., .. „., <50,106,000,000 Austria-Hungary ; .„ : ,.„, 59,269,000,000 France L ...' a iC . 17,583,000,000 Belgium nn tr., m t . n 11,000,000,000 Spam ,„ 8,708,000,000 Spitzbergen k .j «a 8,750,000,000 Holland -.-, „.„ a ,, 4,402,000,000 Balkan States «, K<: 990,000,000 Italy ~, .„ ..., .;.,• , 243,000/000 Sweden, Denmark., and Portugal" an, „-, t L 184,000,000

Total ,-, nr, ,-.. 784,192,000,000

In iron, Germany had tthreo times the resources of Britain and 20 per cent, of the whole of Europe. Bit since the war bfgan she added nc-arlv all the iron resource.; oi France. Here are the figures .-bowing the lrpii wealth of Germany:—:

Iron Resources of Europe. Actual Reserves .w •.':. in Tons. Germany ? .. rri : .,, ; ~ 1,270,000,000 France „., a w: „ 1,110.000,000 ■Sweden ... ~._, a rn 740,000,000 United Kingdom .-_., VM 455,000,00;) Russia .„,..;., ' £, m 387,2,00,000 Spain ...; .i k,, □ a,-, 349,000,000 Norway M OT icj m 124,000,000 Austria ... : .-, 00,400,000

Luxemburg LJ cr] m 90,000,000 Greece .-.., »., ; ..- ri , : ' 43.000,000 Belgium L»« as* Hungary ..- ; , .-.., c-j 13,600,000 Finland L _..: ».j £j uj ■ Italy .-n -i. a* !■:•: K3 Dornia and Herzegovina —■ —

Bulgaria : , t; ., ■.;.] fi-i . • Switzerland :<i uu 800.,000 Portugal m n-i. oii ••■■■• • Total n, pr.i ■■-, 4,732,800,000 In potash, a mineral of great value as a fertiliser, and which is also used ill endless industries. Germany has almost a monopoly of wealth. The whole of Northern Germany rest on deposits ot ■salt, and its extract can only be roughly estimated. Her production of this mineral has gone up by leaps and bounds, as the following figures will show, and it was said before the war that Germany could supply the world with potash for 5000 vears:—

Germany's Production of Potash. Tons. 1801 -j r -j y-., -2;2fi3 1871 ...j ,_, 300,747 ISSI •(.-, k, nt ' 943,003 1891 : . a ,-„ p.; 1,370,013 WOl lm aa *« 3,481,563 1911 ot v .. 9,000,000

The Fortnightly Review says that it would take an indemnity of .-£50,000,000000 cover the cost of the war. Germany exacted an indemnity from France in IS7O of £200,000,000; "but it would need an indemnity 250 times greater to pay the cost of the war. But Germany's mineral wealth in the above production is five times the indemnity of £50.000,000,000. Tiie reviewer gives the following:— '.'

Summary of Germany's Mineral Wealth. Coal, at 10s per ton ..£211,678.000,000 Iron, at 5s per ton 1,000,0130,000 Potash, at 10s per ton ..• 25,000,(100,000 £237,678,000,000 There is thus in this mineral wealth alone a region from which an indemnity might come-

SUGGESTED CONFISCATION OF THE PROPERTY OF THE WAR LORDS. Professor Hamon points out another legion from which an indemnity might come. He agrees with President Wilson that this war was made by a military autocracy, and he writes: : "Justice would require that the authors of the world catastrophe should use their wealth to repair the devastation heaped up by them. This is possible, but it is doubtful if it could be enforced, as it would he an attack on a capitalist class, which always displays a certain degree of solidarity, independently of frontiers. If the kings, princes, and landowners of Germany and Aus-tria-Hungary were to be forced partly to repair the ruin of which they are the authors, it would be necessary on the conclusion of peace to seize their land, their personal and real estate. The property thus seized would be handed over to the German nation and the nations on whose territory it lay, but it would he burdened with a heavy mortgage, so that the entire rental, instead of belonging to kings, princes, and landowners, would for a term of years tie employed to 'indemnify' the ruined Belgians, French, Poles, Roumanians, and Serbs. Aftor the lapse of these years

thfi revenue would once more belong 1 to the German, Hungarian, and other nations. This system would make it possible to indemnify to some extent those who' have been ruined by the war, without impoverishing the Gierman, Hungarian, Czech, and other peoples, the victims of the rapacious folly of their rulers. Only the landowners, princes, and 'kings would stiller the natural and logical consequences of their actions/Impoverished, condemned to work for their iiving, their mentality would gradually undergo modification, under the influents of changed social conditions. They would cease to be harmful parasites, and would be transformed into useful producers." THE ATTITUDE OV PRESIDENT WILSON. President Wilson, in his famous declaration when the United States entered the war, said:"We seek no indemnity, no material sacrifice for the sacrifices'to which we shall freely consent." America is thus willing to pay her own war bill, but it does not follow that she will not see to it that Germany shall make restitution and reparation to the utmost of her resources. Ono of New Zealand's press delegates the other week expressed to Mr. A. J. Balfour the hope that Germany would bo made to pay the heaviest indemnity, and the demand is just in every way. It is quite possible that Britain, like America, may have to pay her own war Mil, but some compensation may be found in the colonies formerly German now under the British flag. When the day of peace dawns every nation will he crushed with debt, and there must be retrenchment everywhere; and the first region into which retrenchment will enter will be that of army and navy expenditure. The cornpulaion of financial necessity, as well as the' compulsion of principle or the bond of a League of Nations, will lead to this reform. Professor Hamon says that this war will end costly war expenditure*. He says: "The suppression of ariued peace, means disarmamentWar will have killed war by the very excesses which it has committed; and this benefit, resulting from thousands of crimes, may be laid to the credit of those who unloosed it upon the world. We must credit them with the result of their actions, hut at the same time we must observe that it is contrary to their intention. They intended to fortify militarism and autocracy, hut by the force of events militarism and autocracy will be largely destroyed and diminished by the war. The result will prove onco again that tho complete development of the consequences of our acts escapes us, and that these consequences are often the contrary of tho aim pursued."