ERZBERGER'S "HUMANITY."

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 198, 21 August 1919, Page 5

ERZBERGER'S "HUMANITY."

AN INTERESTING SIDELIGHT. 9.35 a.m.) LONDON", August 20. A letter has been published in Germany from Herr Krzbergcr to General yon FalkiTha.vn In tne earlier stages of the war, in which the writer urged the adoption of llame-throwcrs, adding that all considerations of international law and of humanity must be disregarded in order to gain vivtory over England.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) The significance attaching to this message is that Er/.eberger, German Finance Minister, has sought to prove that he was determinedly opposed to all transgressions of international law, and has posed as a restraining influence upon the militarist spirit. He claimed to have been a pacifist from the start, yet he was as ardent a Junker as any in Germany. The terms of peace which he proposed and circulated early in the war, and which he lias now apparently conveniently forgotten, form a striking contrast to the wild conditions finally laid down by the Allies. Under his scheme Germany's military authority was to ex- j tend over Belgium, the whole Channel] coast of France and the Channel Islands. French Lorraine was to be annexed, to-, gether with sufficient Russian territory j to shut Russia off from the Baltic and the Black Sea. The whole of Central Africa was to be Germanised. The I I Entente must pay the whole of GerI many's direct war expenditure (then estimated, after one month of war. at £500.000.000) -. complete compensation for all war damages, as in East Prussia; the whole of Germanys national debt; €250,000.000 for military pensions; further funds to erect wireless and cable stations and provide honorary grants to military commanders and statesmen; and still further funds for the permanent amelioration of the condition of the German working class.