The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1919. THE ATTITUDE OF THE GERMANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 May 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1919. THE ATTITUDE OF THE GERMANS.

Those good people who thought adversity and defeat would bring about a change in the heart of the German people will be disillusioned by Count von Rantzau's speech at the peace table, and the general attitude of the nation since the peace terms were published. There is no evidence of such a change. The ingrained teachings, and habits formed from such teachings, are not eradicated in a few weeks, or a few months It is plain that the Germans feel they are being made to suffer unduly, and that they are the innocent victims of the rapacity of the Allies. Rantzau, in his speech, did not adopt a conciliatory or reasonable tone. He spoke not even as an equal of the other delegates. He addressed them as a superior, and with studied bad manners and insolence. "To confess that we are entirely responsible for the war would be a lie," he said. Germany was not the only criminal, he continued. But Germany has; been before the world's bar of justice, and no one who has read the evidence has the slightest doubt of her guilt. The day is past, one would have thought, when the question of her guilt would ever be mentioned again. It is an established fact, and accepted everywhere. Rantzau, of course, realises it, but he is one of the old school—a typical junker, who believes, not in justice or right, but in the power of the sword. He is unable to rattle it now, because it is broken. Germany, as he exclaimed, "has now no power, and German arms are broken." What would have been his attitude had Germany prevailed we can surmise from what took place at Brest .Litovsk, when General Hoffmann said to the Russian delegates: "You talk to us as if you stood victorious in our countries, and could dictate conditions to us. I would like to point out that the conditions are just the reverse; that the victorious German Army stands in your territory." M. Clemeneeau had it in his power to speak similarly to the German delegates, but quite properly he contented himself with simply remarking that the representatives of the small and great Powers, "united to fight together in a war cruelly forced upon them," were present to give the Germans peace they asked for, and to lay down the terms, which were designed to provide lasting guarantees. The Germans have a curious mentality. They imagine that by deposing the Kaiser and altering ;;he franchise they can wash their handa of the war, escape the re-,

spaasiJbility for all they have done, amb'fee eligible to sit with the Allies 011 an equality in devising ineaas for healing the wounds of war, anil laying the foundation of a durable peace. The peace terms 4ave shown them that they cannot ; escape in this manner, and that they must, to the furthest limits of j their power, make reparation. And [this knowledge hurts. Hence the I "a-ails of despair and the cries for abetter treatment. It is acknow-

ledged that the terms are harsh, anil will keep the Gorman nation in industrial shackles for the next

thirty or fifty years, all its resttuvces being mortgaged, and its people having to work hard with no thing to spare during all this time. But who will say the situation does not demand the imposition of these terms ? No punishment that man can devise could possibly be too heavy for a nation that deliberately provoked and carried on the cruellest and most devastating war the world has ever seen. It must be remembered that Germany's .mdintrifis, etc., have not been injured by the war, and that because of her central position the war has not cost her as much as it has Britain, not to speak of France and the other Allies. Also that Germany set out deliberately to ravage and desolate Belgium and Northern France, so as to kill the economic life of these countries for the benefit of German industries. Even when the enemy forces were being thrown back they deliberately ruined factories and plants, bridges and culverts, all the railway lines, everything, indeed, that would help France and Belgium to reconstitute their economic life. . Germany cannot make good the beautiful : buildings and works of art so wantonly destroyed, not to speak of the thousands of men, women and children she has deliberately murdered. But she can provide the wherewithal to re-establish the industries, and the Allies have made provision in the terms of peace that this shall be done. It is well to remember these matters when reading of the German protests and exclamations of despair.