THE COLONIST. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1917. PEACE FUNDAMENTALS.

Colonist, Volume LX, Issue 14592, 21 December 1917, Page 4

THE COLONIST. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1917. PEACE FUNDAMENTALS.

Whew the pacifists are unremitting in their endeavours to prevail upon the leaders of the Empire to lend themselves to the conclusion of a mockery of peace, an article by Lord Bryce, as staunch a, pacifist of the riglt sort as there is in the King's dominions, comes opportunely. Lord Bryce sets out to answer the question why those who think as he does believe that the time for laying-peace has not yet arrived, aud he accomplishes the task very completely. He points out, in the first place, that the war will not and cannot be a draw- the balance of strength is with the Allies, and the greater resources must win. Then, further, it is in the last degree unlikely that the German Governmeat are now prepared to make peace upon any terms we can possibly accept. The German Government themselves may know that they are going to bo beaten, but their people do not yet know it. They have fed their people with falsehoods, keeping tlem in total ignorance of the true state of affairs. They have endeavoured to beguile and cheer their people by prospects of annexations, aud they are. now afraid to acknowledge the truth, and to disappoint the German people by consenting to peace Upon auch terms as we and ou,r Allies can accept. Another tiring is that Britain feels that any peace made upon the present position of affairs will not be a real peace. It would be a mere truce. It would b© a true© full of disquiet, of constant anxieties and recurring alarms. Preparations for war would continue, and the nations would again be pressed down by the frightful weight of armaments. There is one other reason, Lord Bryce goes on to say, why peace cannot be made at this moment. It" is not for ourselves merely that we are fig King—it is for great principles, to which we owe a duty. "We are fighting for those principles of right and humanity which the German Government has outraged and whicli must, at all costs, bo maintained. We do not hate the German people. We have no desire to break tip Germany, nor to inflict a permanent injury upon the German people. Our quarrel iB with1 the German Government. What we desire is to exorcise that evil spirit which a long regime of Prussianism las been implanting in the Germans. We. want to discredit a military caste and a military system which, threatens every country in the world, threatens the 'American countries, too, as well as ours. Germany has not been content since 1871 to be a great and prosperous nation living in peace with other nations beside it. Under the influence of this military caste and in this military and aggressive spirit there has. grown up a desire to dominate the world, and now the only safety for the world is lo discredit that spirit and that caste.; That spirit has been implanted, and that caste has obtained control of Germany and Imposed its yoke upon tte German people, owing to a series of successes in three wars—those of 1864, 1866, and 1870. It is the prestige of thoße three wars in which Germany was successful that Has enabled this caßte to rivet its domination upon the Geiman people, and has filled the German people with this spirit of aggression, and to-day nothing but the destruction of that prestige and nothing but the discrediting of that cause will enable the German people to recover their liberty. We did not enter this war to win anything for ourselves, and all that we want now as the result of the war is security for ourselves and our great overseas Dominions, that Bel- ■ gium and Nbrthern France should be delivered from the invader, that compensation be made to Belgium for what she has suffered, and that there shall be effected auch changes in the East as will prevent the Turkish allies of Germany from ever again massacring their Christian subjects and will prevent those Turkish allies from being used as the vassals and tools of Germany in that eastward march which she has planned. This battle which we are waging is a battle for those principles of right which ware violated when innocent non-combatants were slaughtered in Belgium, and when innocent non-combatants were drowned in the Lusitania. The Allies must press on to victory. They must press on till victory has been won for those principles, aiid there has been established a permanent peace resting on the sure foundations of justice and freedom.