The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1913. PEACE OR WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 58, 8 March 1913, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1913. PEACE OR WAR.

• For the cause that Jacks assistant*, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that ice can do.

• The demand of the German Imperial Government for increased expenditure on the army has not unnaturally aroused a storm of protest among moderate men throughout the Empire. For, while the German people are extremely patriotic, and always ready to make sacrifices for the Fatherland, the naval and military estimates in recent years have outrun all reasonable limits. Of course, the funds •necessary to support the Kaiser's magnificent but expensive policy on land and sea have hitherto 'been derived from the masses of the .people by indirect taxation. It is from the workers and the lower classes, therefore, that protests against militarism have chiefly been raised in Germany hitherto. But the latest fiscal invention of the Imperial Chancellor is entirely novel in its character and its effects; and the threat to levy a tax on all fortunes above a certain minimum level, and thus to throw the burden of military and naval expenditure chiefly on the shoulders of the rich, has evoked an outburst of indignation which bodes ill for the comfort and safety of Ministers when the Reichstag meets. The opposition of the South German 'Roman Catholics is not so serious a matter, because, in any case, the anti-Jesuit laws passed last year had completely alienated them from the Kaiser, and had helped to break up the "bloc" on which the Chancellor' had hitherto depended to force his foreign policy measures through Parliament. But the Tjiberals—the representatives of the substantial middle classes and the wealthy capitalists who will be most severely hit, by the new taxation—arc now in revolt, and, without the aid of either the Clericals of the Centre or the Liberals, it is not easy to see how the Kaiser's Ministers can pass the estimates or even carry on the administration of the country. But it would be easily possible to exaggerate the importance of all this. It is true that there is a strong anti-militarist feeling abroad in Germany, and that the Social Democrats, who believe in the "solidarity" of the masses the world over, are opposed to anything like an aggressive foreign policy; and it might at first sight appear that the Social Democrats, whose strength is rapidly increasing, could easily, with the aid of the malcontent Liberals, compel the Kaiser and his Ministers to adopt a leas bellicose attitude, and even inaugurate a new era of peaceful and amicable relations between Germany and her neighbours. But such a view of the situation entirely ignores certain important factors —the intensity of German patriotism and the strong national faith in the intrinsic value of war. As regards their love for their country and their determination to maintain its honour and defend its interests the Germans will bear comparison with the most patriotic nations of any age; and even the Social Democrats have made it clear repeatedly that they will not hesitate to fling their antimilitarist scruples to the winds if the Fatherland needs their aid. But beyond this, many of the most eminent leaders of thought and the most typical representatives of the German character believe firmly that war, so far from being in itself intrinsically evil, is often a national duty, and may be always, whether it is successful or not, a potent force in the.uplifting and the moral and spiritual regeneration ol the peoples engaged in it. Anyone who wishes to comprehend this point of view may study with advantage the two impressive chapters on "The Right to Make War," and "The Duty to Make War" in General yon Bernhardi's recent work on Germany's share in the next European conflict. Even a superficial acquaintance with foreign literature is enough to convince any intelligent man that yon Bernhardi's opinions. are not peculiar to himself, but are shared by many patriotic and public-spirited statesmen and literary men throughout Europe, and that the belief in war as a legitimate form of national activity is not confined to soldiers alone. It is a grave mistake to assume that because the English nation repudiates the duty of military service, other nations are equtflly lacking in a sense of responsibility to their country; and it is an even more serious error in judgment to suppose that because a large number of well-intentioned people sincerely abhor the horrors of war therefore no arguments in favour of war remaan. and that the dny is rapidly approaching when Peace will spread her wings over the whale civilised world.