The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1919. GERMANY SQUIRMING.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 March 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1919. GERMANY SQUIRMING.

A cable message received recently from Copenhagen gives some indication of Germany's feelings now that she has to pay the penalty for her crimes. According to Herr Schiedemann (the mouthpiece of the Government), the Allies' crushing demands threaten the dissolution of Germany, and are causing widespread despair. He further wliimes that the armistice conditions are worse than the war. From a German point of view the latter statement may be perfectly correct, for the Allies carried on the war with all possible humanitarianism and according to the principles of civilisation, while the Germans acted as barbaric fiends. "Der Tag" has come for the Germans, not the day they so jubilantly anticipated, but the day of punishment and humiliation. It is a well-known axiom of justice that punishment should fit the crime, but if 'his principle were strictly applied to the Germans they would be made to suffer the tortures of the damned, so they should at least be thankful they have a chivalrous and merciful foe jn the seat of judgment, Neither the laws of man nor of Nature can be outraged with impunity. Herr Schiedemann refers to the peace terms as "crushing demands," and tie armistice conditions as "worse than the war," but we should like him to realice what Germany's terms would have teen had she been victorious in the most infamous war that man ever waged, The savage dog has become a yelping cur, and so was it all through the war. It would be an indelible stain on the Allies if ihey failed to inflict a just yet severe punishment on a nation which entered into this war heart and soul in the most sordid spirit possible, and conducted hostilities in a way that aroused the horror and indignation of the world. The blood of the numerous victims of German atrocities cries aloud for justice and the Peace Conference would fail in its duty to civilisation did they not inflict adequate punishment on the criminals. Thi Germans are now realising that the losers F>y> an d until they show repentance they vill find the markets closed to their goods.