The Dominion TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1917. AN ANSWER TO GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2966, 2 January 1917, Page 4

The Dominion TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1917. AN ANSWER TO GERMANY

, To , say that the Entente reply to the German'-peace proposal is effective is to do it no more than baro j usfcice. Even from the summary of their Note which was published yesterday, it is plain, thai the Allies have made out an admirably statement of their case, and one that should go a long way to counter-act whatever impression may have.been produced in neutral countries and elsewhere by the hypocrisy of Germany's recent professions. The.Note is .much more than a, reply to the bogus peace overture , -which it rightly stigmatises;as "less peace offer; than a war manoeuvre." It lays the hypocrisy of the German proposal: completely bare, in a fashion which should appeal to even the dullest perception, but in addition to that it is a withering indictment of Germany and her vassals, which, exposes them to the world in their, true , )colours. As regards the larger issues at stake, the, facts upon which the.Allies rely—notably that Germany made long and considered preparation for this war, I that it was desired, pj-ovoked, and declared by Germany and Austria, and that they are wholly responsible for its continuance—have long been accessible to all who cared to look into them, but they have never been presented with better point and effect than in the reply made by the Allies to Germany s sham overture-.' ■ With the reply in hand it,is possible to , set:down Germany's so-called Peace Note as the last and not the least of her blunders. In issuing the Note the members of the Prussian Wat Party aimed at gaining sympathy in neutral countries, at unsettling and dividing the enemies of Germany, and at stiffening the courage of the nations which up to the present have yielded the,m slavish, though not .uncomplaining, \obedience. It may be assumed with perfect confidence that wherever a ;,regard~for justice and truth holds 'sway these aims will be absolutely defeated,, and the Allied reply will be accepted as what it is: an exposure of Germany's -hypocrisy, an indictment of her crimes, and a vindication of the determination of the Allies to' bring her to justice. To the extent that Germany and her vassal States are , peopled by unreflecting and obedient slaves, the Prussian war lords have still a reserve of power to draw upon. They may derivesome sitpport also in neutral countries where sympathy is determined by other considerations than thoso of justice. But wherever the German peace overture and the Allied repjy are considered and weighed on their merits, whether inside or outside the circle of the Teutonic league, the only verdict possible is that Germany and her vassals , are criminals, exposed and indicted, .and that, the Allies are the champions of human liberty, and; of moral law. Even In Ger-' many such a verdict has been pronounced iby a few clear-sighted men like Dr. Liebknecht, who is now undergoing penal servitude for having spoken the truth. . In rashly inviting attention to the fundamental issues of the war' the German .war lords have' set in motion additional forces tending- to their own discomfiture. That they 'have achieved other results more to their liking now seenis improbable. No cause for altering this estimate of the position appears in the fact that ■President Wilson has selected the pVesent time for a peace move which can'only be regarded as in the'interests of Germany, and that so'mo of the neutral countries of Europe have, unwisely followed; his It will now bo moro clearly recognised than ever that the President of the United States has taken up in this matter an attitudo unworthy of his country, and one which, there is every; reason to believe that his country in the last resort would resolutely decline to sustain. Now that the issues of tho war have been so clearly defined, and with the Allies as far advanced as they arc oil the road to victory, it would be' absurd to suppose that any widespread movement favourable to Germany .could bo promoted in neutral countries. . From any other standpoint President Wilson's ■ interposition has neither interest nor significance. If it were not pro-German it-would simply bo inopportune, and he is .likely himself to recognise That his first business is to retreat from the impossible position into which he has unwarily stepped. It is reasonable to beliove that tho general effect of the Allied reply, as the Paris' Figaro assumes, will be powerful and universal. Account must also bo taken, however, of its particular effect upon the Prussian' war lords. Seeking a way of escape they have, instead of finding it, brought down upon themselves au indictment which is also a defiance. The Allied reply contains no finer or more striking passage than that in which it is staled that the European war map, k> which the enemy lias pointed, represents only a superficial and passing phase of the situation, ancj not toe real strength' of tho belligerents). Met in these,

terms tho war lords will presumably struggle on, as long as they are permitted, in the spirit of cornered rats. We may expect whatever intensification in tho scope and "frightfulness" of tho submarine campaign they arc capable of achieving together... with any other deviltries within their power, and possibly some further extension of tho minor campaign in whicH they have lately won success which is very largely illusory so far as the broad trend of the wav is concerned. But tho dominating fact of the situation ia that Germany has passed the zenith of her power, and cannot, by the utmost efforts, muster any really effective reply to the Allied defiance. Wars are not won by inventing and practising ■ new horrors, but by assembling and using superior force, and from this standpoint, which' at bottom is the only standpoint worth considering, Germany, as her own Generalissimo is. said to have pointed out, has no future. Even tho Imperial Chancellor, in tho queer mingling of bombast and whining hypocrisy . which has marked his recent speeches, has hardly ventured to deny the truth, or, attempting to deny it, has only succeeded in making it plain. In 1914 and 1915, as a neutral observer lately pointed out, German policy demanded that its armies should take; in 1916 it demands that they should kee'p what they have taken until the original owners consent to let go. Therefore, we find the Imperial Chancellor declaring in September last: "Our strength remains firm and unbroken," : This, as all the world knows, is false. So far from being firm and unbroken the strength ol the Central Powers ha : s aTreadv been tested, a.nd found wanting in Turkey, on the Russian southern front, on the Somme, at Verdun, and on the Italian front. In tho defensive to which she is now reduced (the invasion of Rumania does not alter the broad fact) the power of Germany and that of her allies- has already begun, to crumble. A sound defensive.was their last resort and only remaining ■ hope, and their i defensivo has already materially given way. With that fact in mind we may confidently await tho strenuous effort which the Prussian War Party will no'doubt make to retort upon the indictment and defiance of the Allies. In tho natural order of events the effort will fail.