PEACE MOVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 October 1943, Page 4

PEACE MOVES

FEELERS BY GERMANY GULLING THE PEOPLE. CAREFULLY CAMOUFLAGED SNARES. The forces of our Allies are preparing to enter the struggle on the Continent and.to strike at the very heart of Fascist Germany and her vassals, writes Nikolai Pavlov in “Soviet War News.” What is happening, meanwhile, in the enemy camp? Hitler’s total mobilisation is a desperate attempt to stave off his doom at all costs. The world knows he is regrouping his forces. The world follows with a keen eye the manoeuvres not only of his army, but of his diplomacy and propaganda. Germany and her vassals have been putting out-peace feelers. These have been categorically rejected by the United Nations.. 'When the Germans begin to talk of peace, their adversaries are well advised to keep a watchful eye open. Remember the last world war. The German Army was conquering more and more territory, yet German diplomacy was putting out peace feelers in all quarters. There was no real desire for peace behind them. Germany had not the least intention of abandoning her policy of conquest. German diplomacy was nothing but the servant of the Kaiser’s General Staff. Ludendorff himself, Germany’s military dictator in those days, called for greater efforts for peace even when his military star was at its zenith. What, then, is the explanation of the periodical German peace offensive? In the last world war the peace feelers were partly a manoeuvre to gull the German people and throw a sop to the opposition parties in the Reichstag. They had more comprehensive aims. When in mid-December, 1916. Dr. Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, the German Chancellor, published his declaration of Germany’s readiness to negotiate peace, Mr Lloyd George, then Britain's Prime Minister, at once exposed its true meaning. He pointed out that the German imperialists were, in the first place, trying to offer some kind of verbal consolation to the German people, who were weary to death of unending war. Secondly, they were trying to win the sympathy of the neutrals, who were becoming increasingly hostile. ’Thirdly, it was their purpose, under cover of these peace feelers, to perpetuate their hold on the vast territories they had occupied. But their main purpose was to split their adversaries’ camp by holding out to each the promise of compensation at the other’s expense. These peace moves were nothing but a trap. The Germans laid still more carefully camouflaged snares, testing the possibilities of peace negotiations with each of their adversaries separately. Time and .again they made advances to Russia, employing every imaginable channel. True, in those days the Germans had not yet resorted to parachute diplomacy a la Hess, but they did try to knock at England's door through Switzerland and in other ways, only to find themselves cold-shouldered there, as elsewhere.

From almost the beginning of the first world war to its end the Germans put out feelers in various directions, trying to compensate by diplomatic means for their inability to push through the decisions they wanted on the battlefield. And as their political position deteriorated, and their sources of men and material dwindled, this kind of peace activity became more and more pronounced. Twenty-three years after the military defeat and final capitulation of the German Army in the 1914-18 war, Schmidt, a spokesman of the German Foreign Ministry, said that in the present war Germany was not making any moves for peace, nor had she any intention of doing so. “When the history of this war is written,” he said, “people will look in vain for the words, ‘German peace feelers,’ for history will speak only of Germany’s determination to win.” But the history of this war will, in

actuality show that Hitler's diplomacy time and again tried out various peace manoeuvres,, in perfect accord with the Fuehrer’s marauding aims.