THE PERIL OF A DRAWN GAME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 6, 2 October 1917, Page 7

THE PERIL OF A DRAWN GAME

WORLD MUST BE SECURED BY! A , VICTORIOUS PEACE GERMAN SOCIALIST WILES EXPOSED (Bjr Professor M. Miliand, of the Univer- : sity of Paris, in "Lajtd-nnd Water.'') M. Painlevo, when Minister of War, in ;the course of a speech which was greatly, applauded in tlio Chamber of Deputies, made a remark which deserves :to be passed, from the -I'ronch Parliament throughout all the Allied 'peoplos: . If to-morrow our iwill'should seem ' to weaken, and there should appear to be a oraolc in our military edifice, you will see the grinning face _ of Pan-Gormani?m replace Sohoidemann's winning smile. . '. In short, the French • Minister thinks that if the Allies do not destroy German militarism once for all, the PanGerman conspiracy Svill wax more rigorous than ever, and only one course will remain open to-theworld.that has grown weary of the struggle: to submit sooner or later, frankly or under some specious dissembling. Then wo should be organised by the friends of the most sage ' Ostwald: organised! The darkness - of night would descend upon a . world whence the independence of the nations •had been banished.' Is it so very difliciilfc to realise that the day when SoheideJnann's winning' smile beguiled us into to 6ign peaoe on the terms.of 4i drawn game would bo the day before Germany won a decisive victory? It is the simple truth' that no -glittering: sophistry can disguise,' the manifest truth that a drawn war would bo a German victory. ■' . J'" ; | '.y' v . Scheidomann's Guile; ; Scheidemann is far too good a patriot 'to suggest a "drawn game", to us if it were not- to the ■ advantage of his country.: We are fairly entitled to ipdulge in speculation about the Germans, and often .it- seems, almost, ' impossible to think about them as one thinks about the rest of the human raoe. But,so far I as German patriotism-is, concerned there is no room for misconception. ..A man like-Scheidemann, who is, looked upon everywhere as a semi-Chancellor, «9 the inspirer. and also the mouthpiece of

' Betlimann-Hollweg, would never- pro- . pose to draw the game and oonclude a blank 'peace unless it were bound to be to tlie advantage of his country. , One .; must, instinctively,, suspect all German .proposals, but she must bo much more vsuspicious of those that seem to be .mod- ■ orato than ,of threats of frightfulness. The-brutal threats- of the JPan-German-

' ists'are good for our cause; tho. mealy- - mouthed advances of, the Socialists are i bad for it. Tho former make us angry, '•lire- warnings,; put: us on our. guard «#ainst danger.;; ; The latter.minister in- ■ sidioiisly'to our profound,.sincere' desire ■ to see peace and-concord restored to-the .world, and .they delude us.' Evgry time a Pan-Germanist. pamphlet is published we ought to make the welkin ring Avith our.gratitude for these salutary, if in- , salubrious productions. . The , Pan-Gerj 'manist is the, most honest German,. ue- ' ''cause he is ..the mo3t ; sincere. '. ;He; is : covetous, but he acknowledges it. ;Ho : lias premeditated. designs -upon bur domestication, but ho is quite candid about ■ it. :. The Pan-Germahist most' certainly . !s the German' who is serving the cause ; 6f : civilisation in .the world the most effectually at the present time, for his incessant advertising puts the . Allied Governments and peoples on their, guard. If all the Allies had taken, the menace or Pan-Germanism seriously .beforo:l9l4 we / should not still be in' arms-, after; three years of stern war. We all should have . been armed. . .. '; . .' - Dubious Pamphleteers. Whenever we read a pamphlet written X % Socialists or.' by Germans whom we regard as Liberals;, we must take care. These Socialists . are' either members of ' the majority,;, and-disloyal ;to. tho. G r ' ; ernment, or they belong to the minority, and; are of no 'repute. As' for the' German Liberals, they , represent the lowest class in their, country. Their utterances might give the jUlies an impression that in the enemy land there is a sane'public . that deserves consideration. As amatter of fact, there is only a handful of national "nonconformists," and tha!t quite incon- ;; siderablo crew is tolerated by the Kaiser in order to put us on a wrong scent. Arid so it is allowed to express itself v pretty freely at a time when the Press itself informs. us. that the censorship 'is doubly secretive; ; If German authority opens'the coop for the Liberal and. Socialist chickens, it does so: in compliance • with a system or organisation of ■ which - tho object is' to mystify, .the' Allies for . the fullest' advantage, to . tho House of ' HohehzolleriiJ; That is why'the.most objectionable Germans are much mo/e user i'ul to us to : day than the most • i'beral- . among them. The latter are designed by. modern Fatality to infect ua with the poison of'sleeping sickness. It is a danger . against which wo must be ever 011 our guard. Let' us merely ~ inquire what : would happen if wei were to cease l'os- . tilities in : the present circumstances, • under the delusion that both parties wero I going ; home . having to pay their .own costs; to use a. .legal, .pliraso. The Allied ' nations, who . were dragged into the war by compulsion,' peoples who for a' long time 'had been democratic, ' pacific, and peaceful—Belgians, British, ■ l'rench, Americans, etc.—would [spontaneously and automatically resume tftfir intellectual and moral occupations, viewing the world in the alluring tints of , the spirit of peace. Naturally the old • ' forces, now under restraint, and methods of' politics where considerations- of internal order are paramount, would come into use again, and with all the niore ' energy because of their long repression) ■■ their own natural elasticity would be given free play.

And Then?— All Over Again. , The old political parties would then •resume their campaign.'' The'least discerning of men can .foresee how all the parties would proceed to bring indictments against tliQ rest,'and also attempt to jnalio good their own defence. But on .the morrow of so much mourning and misfortune and misery, politics would not be confined to the clubs and to meetings held at. specified-hours; it would be in tho streets and 'throughout every rank and grade of human society that debate would rage between, tbow. who sai3: "I did so and so and so," and those who rotorted. "I t'old you ai;es ago that we ought to do something entirely. different." Tho coiifusion would be worse confounded, in face of the' impossibility and the practical inutility of fixing pre-war responsibility, by the very serious economic and financial discussion regarding the cruelly heavy consequences witlV which every citizen individually would bo menaccd and tinder the necessity of submitting. Political parties would argue over the equitable distribution of responsibility; citizens would object to tho distribution of tho war taxes as Having been unequal and unjust; and they would squabble among themselves when they had to assess 'tho churges—a most formidable burden—resulting from the war. In the midst of all the rcaelstrom of public affairs and of all these mutual recriminations wo, as " Allies, must manfully face the fact that iii all tho countries a number of fools and knaves will be found insisting that they have been the victim of Alliances, and Tnat ihev might have expected much better treatment elsewhere. No pood purpose will bo served by emphasising tho kinds of things to bo considered; The same considerations that In each country will induce a man to indict his opposite neighbour who has resumed his normal way of living—to indict the party to which he does not belong or the district where ho is not domiciled, will most certainly induce him to indict the Ally who is no longer with him, but has gone back to his- own country, and henceforth stands behind another frontier. ' When tho common frontiers of the Alliance are broken down tho separate frontiers of the peoples will bccome barriers. Scheidemann's Pcace. No one can fail to see-that Scheidemann's peace would 6urpriso us. in these unsavoury quarrels, and that Soheidejffljun's Government would, exploit them at leisure for its own greater advantage. Will the enemy l'ail, after tho .war, to

carry on from outside all that espionage, provocation, and propaganda on which, for years past he has spent hundreds of millions of money P Be very sure the ground would bo well prepared for sowing dissension between the citizens of one country and their Allies of yesterday. With tuis object in viow the German would strive everywhere to creato a movement of public opinion in favour of- rapprochement with Germany, tn overy country whoro in 1914 ho lmd any. friends, lie will'strive to encourage them to renew a policy of agreement and closer relations with Borlin. And would not this policy of reconciliation witn the Kaiser's Government be represented as fhe best means of securing individual and separate immunity from a new war? No doubt all theso negotiations would be difficult'to conduct, for tho Germanophilcs of 1914 have lost a good deal of their pre-war credit and sympathetic, favour; German "f rightfulness," the frenzy of Boche strategy and tactics, and the inhumanityof Teuton methods remain, and long will remain fresh in the people's memory. No doubt these negotiations will lie difficult to conduct—for a generation. Then wo may expect the Germans to praotiso thoir art of writing • history. in their own manner, and humanity will not have seen the greying locks of the warriors of 1917, who, by that , time may be greatly changed by reflection. That will be the. time, when Germany , will resume her forward march to Paris and to Calais. The Bolgian frontior will still be commanded by German en nips and by great: German railway designed for purposes of .invasion. And if the Alliances of 1914-16 failed to achieve victory, who will believe in Alliances in, say,. 1937? Germany will have spent her inter,-helium period in effecting tho overthrow of the Alliances. Perhaps she will "democratise" her Army, permitting men to enter its commissioned ranks who hitherto have been excluded therefrom. She will not forget that the ?an-Ger-roanists of to-day are for the most part Liberals obsessed with ideas 'of national .greatness and of political' progress of the middle classes. She'will announce the "new births," to use Gambetin's phrase, and all that need be 6aid will thus be said. Prussian militarism, which will not'have been destroyed,, will remain the object of a particular cuilt, for will .it not secure impunity for the iiggrassor Empire? . Impunity, moreover, is an inadequate expression. The aggressor Em- ' pire will have definitely achieved the conquest of " its own Allies. It will have I spread a net of domination over the whole of Austria-Hungary, over Bulgarians nnd over the Ottoman Empire, all of which she will have probed and tested to the bottom: Tha Drawn Game. „ Thanks to the . trick of the drawn game, Germany will be in a position to concentrate, on any day ehe chooses, not merely the Germany army divisions, but the army divisions of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey wherever she may please to do. 60., She is entitled to concentrate them on the left bank of the Rhine, her most formidable, military, camp, where 6he'will be a perpetual menace-to Holland, Belgium,'' Luxembourg, the.North and the East of France, and.'the whole Atlantic littoral. If some day she succeeds in paralysing, the. Russian people by her intrigues, will not Germano-Turanian militarism consider the plan of hurling the formidable mass of its four coalesced armies against the West? And will it not seek by; che Tapiditv of strategic successes to prevent the landing of the British Amy and the preparations of tho American Kopublic.'' Can anyone really suppose that if Germany got out of .the Var not merely indemnified, but supreme over the Allies, she would not attempt io bear down the .little States,;which would be reduced to a condition of hopelessness and moral vassalage by the powerlessness of the Alliance of 1914-17 to. conquer?, Can anyone fail .to realise the weight that would lie upon the soul of the neutral Powers if they.learned that Germany had been able to emerge from this war vith her arms unimpaired? Does, not one feel that ultimately the neutral Powers would''suc'cnmb to the dominion of the ■Germanoohilo party, and that the Tout of the pro-Allies would be general ? Thus, a 'blank peace, a. drawn game, would mean for the British that no returji was possible to lite status quo anto of .1914, and that henceforward they must maintain a per.manent • standing. Army to defend Pelgium' and their own teritory. lor the "French it would mean the final renunciation 'of Alsace-Loraine and' of all guarantees of security m the north and east. For the American's, as for the British,' it would mean the necessity of entering into the ways of eternal militarism. -Yes; the _ armed watch would have to be maintained, and to discontinue it would entail acceptance of Destiny, that is to say, submission to German autocracy, .more or less thinly disguised. " .

. Germany's Calculations., Germany-reckons upon completing in. peace her work in the if we do not exhaust her formidable militarism in tlio conflict now proceeding. She reckons, first of all, on penetrating into tlio eco-. jiomic and financial lifo of wost of tho European Powers.' .' She rcckons_ J upon imposing lier. own commercial and niiancial domination upon them, and on securing world-wide prevalence for her marks, i her firms, her agents, her cies, her' organisers. 6UDhme hypocrisy she will offer her assistance in the reTjuildin? of the ruins which s&e has made; She reckons on setting ijp everywhere parties and -roups who would take advantage of the general weanuoss to, secure for. her, re-entry into countries' whence her crimes ought, to have bftnished her for years, to come. Alreaxly, while the war is going on, she has taed to ''work" opinion among the Allies. What will it bo'after the war, especially if she is adroit enough to assume an outward mien of democracy, and succeeds in: putting rather more out of sight the real preponderance Headquarters Staff and the Imperial Dynasty? And, again,' is not a err of imiversaj broEiierhood ?oing tip already. Will not her camaraderio receive some sanction v £his call of the heart to a less savage condition of things? "We do not want the shamefiil neace which Germany offers us, said M. ltibot a fow days ago. . And r SO m Ranee, as in England, and in tho United. States, and in Italy, there is only ono policy and one will, in order to save the of civilisation and of democracy—to save the independence of all the nations. Uhe Governments lcnow that J;hoy must be willing to hold out and. to fight a little longe? yet-perhaps 'for a long time yet. The peoples must give their unanimous assistance to the • unanimous Governments.: -Lot us say it yet once more; an indecisive'- neace, the non-destruction Of German militarism, will mean the dennite triumph of tho Pan-Germanist conspiracy.. Only military, victory by tlio ATlies can maintain the policy of the. nations peaco, without and within each of tlio nations. The men wliose wills wealcened would l>e responsible for defeat. ■ . .