The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1918. BOLSHEVISM IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1918. BOLSHEVISM IN GERMANY.

The black clouds ' of rebellion which have for some time past been gathering over Germany have at last burst with startling force, and that country is reaping the whirlwind which was sown so industriously in Russia. Germany is now realising what Bolshevism is like, and it is quite in accord with the eternal fitness of all tilings that those who sow shall also reap, be the harvest for good or evil. Kaiserism, which the Germans were accustomed to idolise, has given way to the mighty forces of rebellion. The torch was lighted at Kiel, and the conflagration of revolt is sweeping through the country like a forest fire. If ever tbere was a country that needed to pass through the furnace of political reconstruction that country is Germany. What a tremendous contrast is presented to-day with what took place in Berlin shortly before America's entry into the war, when at a meeting of the Loyal and Patriotic Women's League, Pastor Beyer, the chief speaker, said: "For us a monarchy is God's will. Prom the point of view of the citizen of this world, we re-cognise in our Kaiser the representative of God on earth. We rally round him. We will not leave him in the lurch. In spite of all political false doctrine and demagogic agitation, we stand fast by the Kaiser." To-day the same Kaiser is not only deserted, but dethroned. He stands at the end of a long career of infamy, arrogance, cruelty and duplicity, as the embodiment of a vile monster, whom his people will no longer tolerate, and in his stead appears the unrestrained forces of the proletariat clamoring for a republic, and turning Germany into a seething mass of rebels, whose hands may bring desolatioa and destruction throughout the Fatherland. The old regime has gone fcr ever, and if Germany is to be newly fashioned it will be by the forces of democracy—forces with which that country has had no ex perience, but which bid "fair to rend it to pieces. The German mil itarists doubtless considered that it was a stroke of genius to employ Lenin, Trotsky and their subordinates to make Russia an easy prey and a lever for their scheme of an eastern empire. They succeeded only too well for a time, but the evil has come home to most, and it seems likely that the recoil of the boomerang will do far more harm than its original mission of chaos production. There is no question as to the widespread nature of the upheaval, nor of the temper of the revolutionaries. They have seized warships, hoisted red flags thereon, arrested officers, demanded from the Reichstag that all military measures against the soldiers 5 movement must immediately cease, and 'insisted on the release of prisoners. Most of the ports are in the hands of the Reds, who are also controlling the food distribution, the tramways and the railways, and they forced the Reichstag to agree to their demand. l ?. Twenty thousand soldiers joined the Beds at Kiel, apart from the civilian strikers who support the revolt. At Hamburg thousands of soldiers and 3ailors led the rioters, the police being disarmed. Flensburg is iti their hands. Soldiers and sailors at Wilhelmshaven, Cuxhaven and Bremenhaven formed Bolshevik Councils, which ordered the authorities to hand over the warships. The railway between Kiel and Flensburg has been destroyed, while at the naval base of Soudderburg all the ships hoisted the red flag. At Cologne the people are said to be completely out of hand, and are displaying intense hatred for the military commanders. Soldiers refused to attack the crowd, and threw down their rifles, while the police are sympathetic. Revolutionary demonstrations are becoming common in Berlin suburbs, where enormous excitement prevails. Panic and revolution are spreading throughout the country, and it is quite possible that when the armistice is signed the soldiers generally may take part in the movement, for their morale, after a succession of severe defeats, must be at a low ebb. The success which has marked the early stages of the rebellion cannot help having an influence on the people. There is no longer a rallying point such as the Kaiser formed at the height of his power. The people were grossly deceived as to the cause of the war, but. they were quite ready to support the military party when tliey dangled in their faces the alluring prospect of enormous: i i demnities that would make them prosperous for all time, while the proclaimed expansion of their Empire oyer the greater part of the Globe appealed to their native pride. Now that total disillusionment has come, and the naked truth is staring them in the face, their faith has perished, and they ean only see ruin ahead. One by one Germany's allies have fallen away, and she stands alone to face ilhe_day of awful reckoning. The and ithat the jiream Qp

a world empire lias been a nightmare from Avhich they have awakened in terror. In their agony they cried: Down with the Kaiser! Long live the Republic! Bin they have clone more. They have set fire to the revolutionary torch, and it is impossible to conjecture what will happen to Germany before the flames are quenched. The civilised world can only look on the work with calmness, but without pity. An empire that has been built up by the doctrine of might has now to experience the woes of retribution. Possibly in the end Germany may emerge purified and penitent, but its cup 1 of humiliation and suffering must be drained to the dregs.