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Press, Volume LII, Issue 15489, 17 January 1916, Page 6

One of the gang of British pacifists' who in various -ways aro setting themselves against the loyal spirit of, the nation is Mr C. P. Trevelyan, M.P., who resigned a Ministerial post at the beginning of tho war. His constituents, like the constituents of other Radicals' of tho samo sort, are naturally indignant that they cannot change their representative until an election is held. The other day their •feelings carried them to an unusual length. At a meeting of the Elland District Council it was proposed that Mr Trevelyan should be "taken o"t and shot." This motion was put and carried. Several members .of the Council were surprised at this, and asked tho Press representatives not to report tho incident. Thero arc some people who will say that the motion shows a brutal and oppressive spirit in those who supported it, and an unBritish intolerance of Mr Trevelyan's liberty to think as, he chooses. Still, tho incident shows the estimation in which such people as Mr Trevelyan arc held, and it ought to disillusionise tho c.isloyal doctrinaires who are proclaiming their unpleasant opinions against a loyal and united nation.

There is a tendency in many quarters to draw a distinction between the German people and tho German Government. Tho Germans in the mass, we often see it suggested, are quite kindly and decent people, and this although most of the evidence available points in the opposite direction. In

carrying out its policy of "frightfulness," the German Government has the nation at its back. Further evidence of tho gulf that now separates German thought from civilised ideas comes in tho. shape of tw 0 pamphlets, one issued by a member of tho Reichstag, l>r. Potthoff, and the other, on similar lines, by a leading journalist in Prague, Herr Keiler, who is a member of the Austrian Parliament. Herr Keller says there are '"a thousand reasons'' why Germany should resort to every means to oblige tho Allies to demand peace. "It is of the greatest ■urgency," he says, "that we should depriva of food the inhabitants of the regions invaded by the Austro-Gcr-mans, and see that they do not reeeire any assistance in tho way of food from outside. It is certain/' he continues, "that the British and French Press •would cry out loudiv against German 'barbarism,' but what matter? Our German skins are thick enough to support the insults of our enemies." Tho Government, he urges, should energetically take in hand £ho starving of "several millions of French and Belgians." Tho German pamphlet went further, and actually demanded tho slaughter by "hundreds of thousands'' of prisoners of -war. These suggestions could not he made if they were really repugnant to the feelings of the kindly German people.

Since the Gorman Government has now announced its willingness to pay for tho American lives lost in the sinking of tho Lusitania, there has presumably been some further correspondence on the subject. Americans travelling abroad will not bo proud of their country when they reflect that it cannot protect thom, or do anything more, at tho very most, than send in a bill to any Government that chooses to murder them. In America many people—all those, excepting tho Ger-man-Americans, who trouble their heads about the matter —liavo already felt the incongruity of the President's highsounding platitudes and his neglect of tho principles of national honour. In its article on tho American Not© to Great Britain in November —an article headed "Dollars or Our Dead?" —the New York "Tribune" dealt severely with tho contrast between the President's vigour when championing American trado with his pusillanimity where it is a question of American lives.

"Can this country," tho "Tribune" asks, "afford to establish a reputation for weighing dollars abave lives? Shall it be truthfully said that we let murder go unexplained without disavowal, without reparation, because it was politically or pecuniarily advantageous to pursue the thief rather than the murderer?" The "Tribune" holds that America.has a case against Britain, but it is one that should wait nntjl Germany's crimes have been dealt with. It is pretty clear to everyone by now that the President is determined to submit to anything that Gcrnjimy may do—and this because he knows that the Democratic Party is powerless without the support of tho German-American and Irish-American votes, upon which Tammany Hall is founded. He has been under trial for over a year, and it is impossible to feel that, ho has not furnished enough material for a judgment of him. He would have us believe that his toleration of Germany's outrages is due to an overwhelming conviction that nothing is so important to America as keeping out of war. But he has too much intelligence to be convinced of any sucli tiling. He is governed simply by considerations of party advantage. It may bo said —itoften has been said —that he is carrying out the wishes of tho majority of the American people. Even if that is allowed, as a fact, and as a justification -of his policy, his position is not improved. If the people as a whole have not acquired right views, it was his business to help them", but he has made no attempt to open their eyes. On the contrary, ho has used the utmost care to avoid saying anything to arouse tho conscience of the nation.