The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 10. BRINGING WILHELM TO JUSTICE.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JULY 10. BRINGING WILHELM TO JUSTICE.

Early in April last, Mr Valentine Williams, writing from Paris, stated that the main interest in the Peace Conference centred in the question of what the Conference proposed to do with the ex-Kaiser. He added there were indications that the decision of the Conference would be to secure the extradition of Wilhelm from Holland with a view to his future detention under the restraint of the Allies. This forecast appears likely to prove correct. The question of bringing the ex-Kaiser to trial was very thoroughly discussed by the Conference, the great impediment to a more speedy decision being the absence of international law as a basis for the trial, and it was only at a secret plenary session held on May 6 that the four responsibility clauses of the treaty, stipulating for the trial of "William of Hohenzollern, were agreed to for inclusion in the final terms. It may be said that the Peace Treaty resolves itself into four main objects—safeguarding the world's peace, reparation and compensation, establishing new, nationalities and punishing the guilty. In all these the Conference was animated by the dictates of justice, and in pursuance of that lofty attitude the exKaiser is to stand his trial, after being extradited from Holland. Apparently, with a view to bowing to President Wilson's ideas the charges against the ex-German Emperor are to be whittled down to his responsibility for the war so as to avoid the death penalty—a course that indicates emphatically that the Allies are not seeking vengeance. In the face of the revelations disclosed in the "willynillx." correspondence that took place' between Wilhelm and the Emwernr of Austria, and the cunlitng displayed by the former in his "design to cover up his tracks -♦hen action was taken that Tivr.n?ht.on the war; also the dis-1 etoan re* made by Count Lichnowsky/%jid Dr. Muebjon, it will be

I difficult to see how the ex-Kaiser | can convince the judges of his inI nocence, always assuming that he has the courage to face his accusers. Europe is not as safe tpday with the ex-Kaiser at large as it was in the days of the great Napoleon. There is already a movement on foot for restoring the Hoheazollern dynasty, and it would seem that it is imperative for the future peace of the world to place the ex-Kaiser and his relatives under safe detention. That is the very least that should he accomplished. It is interesting to note that the veteran German Socialist, Karl Kautsky, who was entrusted with the task of examining the records of the German Foreign Office, has authorised the following declaration:

"My investigations of the archives of the German Foreign Office have convinced me that a few Germans were guilty of beginning the war. The marginal notes made by the Kaiser on a number of the most important papers bearing on the subject prove that the ex-Kaiser was one of the guiltiest. The responsibility which rests on him is terrible. These indications suffice to make it necessary to bring him before a tribunal, because we desire that the culpable originators of the war should be punished."

On that statement alone the Allies would be justified in the course they are taking, but the mass of evidence in the same direction that will be brought before the court will probably surprise the outer world. William Hohenzollern has repeatedly boasted that his was the sovereign will and that he alone was responsible for what he did as Emperor. He cannot now descend from the high and mighty pedestal on which he based his claim to be divinely inspired and at liberty to exercise his will without question. The sacredness of his majesty departed when he fled to Holland, and human judges are to deal with his crimes. All his attempts to dim wrong doing, and the efforts of his satelites to shoulder responsibilities, will be of no avail, for he has fallen into the pit which he dug arid must submit to the consequences. No one supposes that he directly gave instructions for the sinking of the Lusitania, but he had a medal struck as a memorial of the outrage. It was in his power to forbid all the German crimes which have outraged civilisation during the war; instead he went out of his way to decorate with iron crosses many of the perpetrators of frightful horrors. Many of his bombastic pronouncements as to what Germany's sword would do are fresh in our memory. The ex-Kaiser has proved himself to be a worthy rival of the father of lies, and a past master in the art of intrigue and hypocrisy, besides possessing a vanity and ruthlessness that stamp him as being too dangerous to be at large. Whatever punishment is inflicted on such a being cannot be n degradation, for he has already plumbed the depths of duplicity and dishonor. Are rational citizens of the world to be asked to believe that he and his emissaries accepted the hospitality of Britain and did not grossly abuse it ? Or that the vast system of espionage used for the purpose of crushing Britain was not sanctioned and encouraged by him ? He may have ieen clever and cunning, but there is the.inevitable vein of German silliness and self-infatuation running through his constitution, coupled with that unscrupulousness which has led to his undoing. These traits of evil are glaringly conspicuous in the German ruling and official classes, from the Kaiser downwards, and have become a sort of moral leprosy. "The Kaiser must be prosecuted," said Mr Lloyd George. "The war was a crime.". If anyone is in doubt of the Kaiser's guilt, let them ponder seriously over the following words in the Kaiser's letter to the Emperor of Austria in 1914: "My soul is torn, but everything must be put to fire and sword; men, women, children, and old men must be slaughtered, and not a tree or house be left standing, With these methods of terrorism, which are alone capable of affecting a people so degenerate as the French, the war will be over in two months." No more conclusive justification for the prosecution of the Kaiser need be produced.