The Press. Monday, May 12, 1919. Germany and the Peace Terms.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16520, 12 May 1919, Page 6

The Press. Monday, May 12, 1919. Germany and the Peace Terms.

The reception given to tho peace tends by tho German people and their leadors and representatives is not -unlike what most people must have anticipated. Tho Germansi are stunned, but what did they expect ? Their title to what thoy call a "just" peace, or a "peace of " right," was examined for them in February last by Herr "Wolff, the editor of the "Tageblatt," who reminded them that no peace that the Allies were likely to impose, or capable of imposing, on Germany, could he half so brutal and oppressive as the peace that tho pan-Germans proposed for a victorious Germany. An American newspaper has reduced to tho form of a series of questions and answers the substance of HenWolff's condemnation of those Germans Vfeo' were whining over the "unjust" peaces-jthroatened by the Allies. This effective "summary of & most impressive argument runs as follows: — Q. What does the French Press say when it attempts to justify its robber claims to the Saar district and the left bank of tho Rhine? A. It always reproduces the annexation programme of German Big Business as favoured by militarists. Q. What reply do we get when we demand that America. - after all her

promises, really supports a milder and juster troatment of Germany? A. Wo are reminded of the*cannibalistic outbursts of rejoicing with which Big Business feted the sinking of the Lusitania.

Q. Wltat do they say to us when we protest against being Tobbed of our merchant fleet?

A. We aro reminded that in the unrestricted L"-boat war we sank other people's merchant fleets.

0- What is the answer when we ask to havo our prisoners of war back?

A. Wo aro told that we separated the women and children of North French towns from their families to do forced labour, that we deported Belgian workers by thousands to labour in the Gorman munition factories.

Q. What do they tell us when they demand the surrender of tools and machinery on our part? A. They tell us that Gorman war industry. with the approval of its military friend®, removed every machine that could lx> used from the factories of Belgium and Northern France, and that machinery which could not be taken away was scientifically dostrovctl.

Q. And, lastly, what am we told when wp protest against tho League of Nations beinrj m.'tdo an instrument of oppression ?

A. The answer is: ,: Jirest-Litovsk." The Germans are claiming, of course, that the peace terms are not in accordanco with Mr Wilson's Fourteen Points, but they have no right to claim the application of any particular set of principles. The armistice was a set of terms imposed without any conditions: there was no undertaking givon, either express or implied, as to the sequel of tho armistice. How far Mr Wilson's Fourteen Points could be made to control the terms of peace t was a matter entirely for the Allies, and had nothing to do with Germany at nil. Wo need not be surprised if tho German people are unaware of this fact; they have beeh grievously misled at every stago sinco August, 1914. They have this excuse for their present cries of protest : that thoir Government has induced them to believe that the terms of peace could be made the subject of bargaining and compromise. What the alternative to signing tho peace terms placed before their representatives will bo they have probably not considered. When they realise that the Allies axe inflexible on all essential points, and that peace and food and a recommencement of normal lifo will not come until tho demands of the Allies are mot, they will no longer insist upon a blind refusal to accept the inevitable. It must bo remembered that the German Government, after definitely determining to refuse to sign the conditions of the renewal of the armistice at the end of March, were forced to' sign Vjr the pressure of Gorman opinion. The present appearances of a determination to resist are not to be taken very seriously. The central fact of the situation is that there is nobody to whom the Germans can appeal. It is the world that has framed the terms of the draft Treaty—tho world which, while it sees tho severity of the terms, has the strongest reason for feeling that this severity is necessary' to strict justice.