WHERE THEY STAND

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 143, 17 June 1916, Page 10

WHERE THEY STAND

VOICE OP THE MASSES

GERMAN SOCIAL ■ DEMOCRATS.

Mr. Frauds Cribble, the novelist, has been examining into the attitude of tho German tibciul Democrats on the war. Ho in v long and keen student of Gei'iiiiui ultaii'ii, and was actually in Luxembourg when tho war broke out, and w:w ancatc-d arid detained, and suffered in tin) Ituhlebun prison camp. In an article, in tlm "Daily Chronicle; Mr. dribble holds that the suggestion that tho EJociul Democrats v \vcro hypnotised by the Kaiser's theatrical eloquence may bo dismissed without discussion. A favourite theory in France is that they were the tools of a Government which was playing a deep game; that they had all along desired the war, but had pretended to oppose it in the hope of luring on the anti-militarists of France to some anarchical action which would paralyse French resistance. The subsequent action of some of them has becm chauvinistic enough to givo colour to tho hypothesis. R'err Sudekum has undertaken Government missions in Sweden, Italy, and "Bumaniaj-Herr Scheidermann has blustered as loudly as any Junker. Still, it is impossible to believo in a real plot -of the kind suggested. A handful of men might have lent themselves to such an intrigue, but not 111 men, constituting the party in the Reichstag. Their attitude must be explained more simply; and the operative factors were probably simple enough.

In the Bret place, we may credit them with the natural reluctance which' any man feels to leave his country in the lurch, even when he believes her to be iii the wrong; in the second place, we may suppose that reluctance to have been enhanced by the expectation that Germany would win a quick and easy vietoiy. Over and above these considerations there are three pertinent facts. In every German, or at all events in every Prussian, breast, there is always a lurking fear and dislike of Russia.

A revulsion of feeling has, however, been marked. It began to manifest itself towards the end of October, 1914. when, being unable to print what they liked in'their own press, the dissentients with the Scheiderjnann school inspired a review of the. situation in'the Swedish' Social-Demokraten. A very brief extract will show tlje lines on which they were developing : "In the official German exposition the 'complete picture1 of the immediate ' causes :of the w was in reality incomplete, and it was apparently a question: for Germany of a preventive war, and perhaps even a war of conquest—a capitalist w&r of ■ annexation. It is superfluous to develop here the view that any annexation whatsoever would be a danger for peace in the future and not a guarantee of peace." After that a minority—and a continually increasing minority—always voted against the War Credits. The largest hostile \*ote . (including abstentionists as hostile) numbered 44; arid the number of electors represented by the '44 is 1,280,590.

A NEW LABOUR PARTY.

About 20 of the 44 have joined the new Labour Party led by Herren Haase and Lebedour; the others may be classed as independent supporter's of that new party. ,They differ from it, not on any point of principle, but only in their reluctance to scrap their old associations and turn the Reichstag into a bear-gar-den. And Vorwats has sided with Herr Hsase's party; and Vorwarts- has a circulation of 200,000 copies a day. Their thesis covers many points^ of which the most essential are these' :■■—

>'THE CHANCELLOR'S LIES."

Tha Chancellor has lied as to the causes of the war. It was deliberately planned as a war of aggrandisement, in the interest of the Junkers and the capitalists, who are coining money out of contracts for the supply' of war material and. the increased prices of the necessaries of life.

The Allies have fought cleanly, and Germany has not fought xleanly.'

The invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg was an outrage on civilisation; so is the bombing of open towns and the sinking of passenger ships. It is the duty of the Government, as a preliminary to the arrangement of peace, to abandon all territorial gains and. repudiate all ambitious schemes.

The suffrage must be extend-, ed throughout the * Empire; imports must he free; and the burden of the cost war must fall-on the shoulders yr the classes responsible for it.

REVOLT OF THE-MASSES.

There is no sentence in that summary /for which chapter and yerse cannot, be quoted from a Vorwarts leading article, or from a Reichstag speech. The men .who urgt those views'are'not half-edu-cated workmen; they are mostly barris r ters and journalists-—the sort of men who, in France, might be sitting in "the Cabinet. Timorous at first, they are now, every day, getting bolder in their utterances; and every one "who has studied the German character knows that when a German. talks defiantly he believes himself to be shouting with the crowd. Haass and his friends clearly think that they are doing bo ; and they have some warrant for the belief. Martial law may still "the clamour as'long as the soldiers can pretend that the military situation is favourable. Later, ' wjieij the Chancellor wants peace, and the question' arises whether terms of peace can' advantageously be discussed with a man who talks of treaties as "scraps of paper"—then startling things may happen. The .German masses will then be very hungry and' very angry. For them, not less ,' than for ' the Allies, "Never again i will be the iriot de la situation ; apd the party which will then claim the right to' speak for them is rapidly gaining strength. That party hates the Junkers a good deal more bitterly than it hates the English. Bsventlow and other journalistic ■champions of the Junkers have taken to denouncing it for doing so; and the violence of Junker hysterics shows that the Junkers are getting frightened.