The Dominion. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1915. PILING INFAMY UPON INFAMY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2458, 11 May 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1915. PILING INFAMY UPON INFAMY

By the torpedoing of the' Lusitania Germany has once more emphasised the fact that she has resolved to stick at nothing in waging this war which she has forced upon Europe. The sinking of the great Ounard liner was not the unauthorised act of an individual officer, but was deliberately planned and premeditated by the German authoriwho make no attempt to repudiate their responsibility for the crime. In fact, they glory in their shamei Germany commenced the war by breaking her solemn promise t<j respect the neutrality of Belgium, and sinoe then she has piled infamy upon infamy. She has adopted the foulest methods of warfare. She has broken every law of God and man that she thought might possibly hamper her in the conflict which she has provoked. She has permitted her armies to slaughter women and children, to indulge in outrage and pillage, and to destroy and devastate in the most wanton manner. To murder and plunder she has now added piracy and poison. She has carried her doctrine of "frightfulness" to its extremest limit by the cold-blooded murder of over a thousand men, women, and children who were passengers by the ill-fated Lusitania. This colossal villainy has shocked the moral sense of the civilised world, and has given 'rise to an intense and widespread feeling of indignation in the United States, for a large number of American citizens were amongst those whose lives were sacrificed in defiance of the laws of war and of the most elementary principles of humanity. People are naturally asking: "What will America do!" Can the great Republic of the New World maintain her self-respect if -she has to confess that she is either unable or unwilling to take effective action to protect her own citizens from deliberate murder by a lawless Power which has thrown' all moral considerations to the winds and can only be restrained by sheer force from a policy of indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people? A leading New York papel describes the attack on the Lusitania as a "high-handed and bloody act, which reveals a callousness that makes one turn sickened as from the work of the wholesale human butchers of medieval days." If America can find no way of hitting back effee-. tively, her prestige will be seriously shaken. As Ma. Roosevelt remarks, it does seem inconceivable that the United States should refrain from action. Tho majority of his countrymen will probably agree with him when he contends that America owes it both to humanity and to her own self-respect to make a vigorous reply to this latest German atrocity. The New York Herald asserts that a way out may be found—with dignity and honour, and without bloodshed. The meaning of this statement is not quite clear, but there are ways in which the United States could punish Germany without, becoming an activo participant in tho struggle. _ The sinking of the Lusitania is giving other' neutral nations besides the United States a good deal to ponder over. What would the triumph of German}; mean for the world? Would the rights and liberties of any country be safe if a brutal Power which has not the slightest regard for the law of nations and refuses to admit the existence of suoh a thing as international morality should become the supreme dictator . of the destinies of the human race'! A victorious Germany would be a menace to the safety and t well-being of the whole world. A* Norwegian paper says the Germans mean to terrify, and they have succeeded. They have terrified their friends. German "frightfulness" has given to neutral nations a very realistic idea of what the revival of the worship of Odin and Thor would involve. They are beginning to understand that such a reversion to Paganism in its most bloodthirsty form would mean the wrecking of modern civilisation. This war is resolving itself into a Crusade—a Holy War—to save the world from being placed at the mercy of the Teutonic barbarians who admit that their ultimate aim is to seize the "sceptre of the universe." And yet there are people •who tell us that we must do nothing to humiliate _ Germany. That we must not punish her for her crimes or make her pay for the destruction she has wrought; because, forsooth, if she gets her deserts she may be angry _ and resentful and refuse to enter into friendly relations with her .conquerors It is quite certain, however, that if Britain and her allies do not succeed in humiliating Germany she will humiliate them to tho very dust, and the rest of the world also. A nation that includes murder and poison among its methods of warfare ought to be humbled and broken. Loud Derby expresses the feelings of Britishers throughout the world when he declares that Britain no longer calls for men to fight an honourable foe, but to join for the purpose of hunting down and crushing once for all a race of cold-blooded murderers. However much we may sympathise with Lord LivKßrooiAs hope that, even when dealing with snakes, we will "play the game we have always played, the straight game of ' our forefathers," we cannot help feeling that it is not right to treat murderers in the same way as we treat honourable foes. Society could not hold together if weniade no distinction between .criminals and honest- . mea, Wliy sJiouid we treat &aake& its

any tiling but snakes? Of course we cannot fight Germany with her own foul weapons. We cannot stain our hands with the blood of women and children, or striko terror into the hearts of our enemies by means of poison and assassination; but we would be fully justified in putting into practice the military doctrine of reprisals. Wo must retaliate as far and as vigorously as we can. A nation which deliberately outlaws itself and refuses to be restrained by the recognised usages of war. cannot reasonably claim the protection of the very law it has spurned. It would be folly to be hampered and hindered in our efforts to protect ourselves and others from mad dogs and snakes by a precise and slavish attention to all those niceties of behaviour which we should gladly observe with an honourable antagonist, however hard ho rnjght strike at us.