"GERMANY UNCONQUERABLE"

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 29, 2 February 1917, Page 2

"GERMANY UNCONQUERABLE"

BETHMANN-HOLLWEG ON PEACE

PROPOSALS

"It is good to hear Americans talking of peace, because Germany, though, unconquerable, also desires jieace." This (says the London Daily Telegraph's correspondent at New York on 30th November) was the keynote of an interview given on Tuesday by Herr yon Beth•mann Hollweg for publication in- the United States, and the medium chosen to voice the Chancellor's views was the Eev. William OBayard Hale, the same electric roving divine .to whom the Crown Prince on a recent occasion expressed his sorrow and shed tears "because this stupid war was maiming and .killing unnecessarily so many bright young lives." The Crown Prince was under the impression that the Americans ought td take a hand in bringing about peace, and so does the Imperial Chancellor. If Mr. Hale had been well informed he would have known that there is no chance whatever of this country talcing steps in such a direction, and that anything you read on that point is mere moonshine. It is true that there are a few people here who are trying to induce President Wilson to "do something" ; but they are repudiated by the rest of the country—even by the League of Peace, which repudiates the recent statement by Mr. Jacob Schift, spoken under "the auspices of the league, as likely to convey an erroneous impression abroad. "VENERABLE BUSYBODIES." ' Mr. Hale, being in Berlin, and not well informed, could not tell the Chancellor that talk of peace here is almost exclusively the talk of venerable busybodies, who represent themselves and not the Americans gnerally. . And so the Chancellor, stimulated by Mr. -Hale,,who works for peace and the New York American, prattled along the'first reading of the old speech of his regarding peace, already reported, in which he spoke words expressing the "readiness of Germany to put herself at the head of a, League of Peace." Herr yon Bethmann-Hollweg said indignantly that he had read comments in the British press anent those words, and it would almost seem as if the British press had received an intimation deliberately to misinterpret the -words regarding the readiness of Germany for peace, as though those* words concerned some reprehensible and wicked political aspiration. "'Whalt do you imagine is at the bottom,of this curiously unanimous chorus of English disparagement and misinterpretation against what was obviously nothing but a- sincere and enthusiastic declaration of Germany's readiness Ito co-operate in the preserving of world-peace?" . The reverend journalist made no reply, apparently; and then the Chancellor referred to the plans being made in Germany to incorporate into the I direct service of tho Empire all the strength of its manhood between the ages of seventeen and sixty. . " Never, I suppose (said the Chancellor), has there been a mobilisation of national energy on a scale Bo great: A DETERMINED PEOPLE. "The German people are absolutely determined, you see, to carry this war "through/ and in this resolve we are summoning Ithe whole power of a united people. And yet this resolution, 60 I gigantic in its scope, and so certain in its i-esult, should not be interpreted as in any sense a repudiation of my words regarding .peace. Again, and again we have declared : our willingness to enter info negotiations for peace. Our expressions have never been responded ito. In some quarters they have even been represented as dictated by weakness and fear. Surely the events of the- past year sufficiently demonstrate- that we did not a year ago speak out of weakness or fear, just as Ithe events of the twelve months to come will demonstrate that if we still adhere to our willingness to consider a ceSsation of the struggle, liow- . ever it may be prolonged or may have | /spread, but under the solemn conscious'nesis of the eandtity of the flame of life, lit from on high, and not lightly to be extinguished by human misunderstandings, which common counsel might avail to dissipate. "But, of course (continued the Chancellor, shrugging his great shoulders)! if our enemies are obdurate and choose to continue their hopeless endeavour, we caii only continue to make them pay the bittei- price of their folly. The German soul is resolute and undaunted. Against our finn, far-stretching lines the billows of the attack break in vain. In no .quarter is there anything to affright us. To-morrow we embark upon an enterprise of defence of staggering magnitude. Yet, while the will of the vGer- | man people grows ever more determined to cany the struggle on to a,uy length necessary to complelte the vindication of our national integrity and destiny, it j has ever been, and is now our desire to ! resume- amicable exertions for peace as j soon as we are allowed to do so."

This interview \took place in the historic Wilhelmstrasse, after which Mr, Hale was allowed the privilege of sending his report, duly censored, by wireless from Berlin to "America direct.