Evening Post. THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1918. GERMANY'S POLITICAL TROUBLES

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 15, 17 January 1918, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 1918. GERMANY'S POLITICAL TROUBLES

. Called in his seventy-fifth, year to one of the most difficult positions in the world, Count yon Hertling is said to be in need of a vest, and though it is less than three months since he assumed the. Chancellorship) there is nothing surprising in the news. Bethmann-Hollweg, who had held the. office for- five years when the war began, succeeded by the exercise of great patience, -ingenuity,elasticity, and dialectical skill in retaining it during nearly three years of war, and if Germany's Italian successes had happened six months earlier he might very well have been in office still. ."It would have given us a feeling of pride," said a'Munich-paper apropos of Beth-mann-Hollweg's fall;, " if the man who was called to proclaim the purity of our conscience on the first day of the war had also been able on the first day of negotiations as the spokesman of victorious right to hurl in the faces of our enemies their guilt.for the world-disas-ter." German pride and German- consistency would ,both have been signally vindicated ■if the man who on the first day of the war acknowledged the perfidy with which Belgium had been treated, and her right to redress, had remained to. argue at the ]?eace Conference that the blessings of annexation'to the German Empire, would provide more than sufficient compensation for, any ; trifling inconveniences that her own perversity had brought upon her. But German patriotism has been denied this solace, and the world has been robbed of a sublime display of poetical justice. Beth-mann-Hollweg has fallen a sacrifice to Pan-German intrigue, and the successor who owed his. elevation to the same power>.was discarded after a trial which, though it lasted only a, little more than three months, was long enough to intensify the marvel of his appointment. . Michaelis • retired to the obscurity from which he should never have emerged, " unwept, unhonoured, and unsung." The delightfully . sweeping comment of the Vorwaerts—" the remaining of this man in his office constitutes a paralysis of all political functions of the. Empire abroad and at home "—shows that, while losing the confidence of his Pan-German masters, Michaelis had done nothing to gain that of the other side. "The charges, against this unfortunate official," said .the late correspondent of The Times in Berlin with regard to Michaelis's retirement, " are somewhat obscure, and can only be described as a general accusation of- incompetence—incompetence to obtain peace and incompetence to satisfy anybody, much less any political majority, in Germany." Is Count .Hertling suffering from the disease which carried off rhis'predecessor? Of general incompetence, .in the ordinary sense, it would be flagrantly unjust to accuse'him.'" The skill with which for a generation he combined the functions of ii Professor of Philosophy with those of Germany's unofficial representative at the Vatican, and'bis continuous success in the Bavarian Pronliership during five difficult years, are,a conclusive answer to such ii charge. -Bufb'f the specific incompetence alleged against his predecessor—"incompetence to obtain peace" and incompetence to satisfy a political majority—it is .obvious that Count Hertling is equally guilty. In one way his task has been easier than that of Beth-mann-Hollweg towards the close of.his term, or that of Michaelis during his whole term. He has had the support of military success, which by alleviating • -populiv discontent tends to swee'R m*iiy

difficulties from "''the path of government. But in the present position of Germany this advantage is set off by new difficulties of a very embarrassing character. 'Germany's military success in the East has involved the necessity of defining peace terms, and, though to do so in a manner that will satisfy the present rulers of Russia is not a'task of superhuman difficulty, to satisfy the German people is by no means so simple a matter. Success has compelled Count Hertling to be definite where procrastination and equivocation." enabled his predecessors to postpone the day of decision, in /vhich they recognised their day of doom. '

Before Iris acceptance of the Chancellorship, Count Hertling showed no more anxiety to grapple with thorny questions than other politicians, either in the Fatherland or elsewhere. . Speaking in the Bavarian Chamber three or four weeks before.Wb appointment, he said that "it is not yet time for Germany to make any declaration regarding her pawn, Belgium." More than three'years after her occupation of Belgium had begun, and nearly a year after she had assumed • her peace-making pose, was too soon for.Germany to declare her intentions with regard to' what the Allies froni the first had proclaimed to be the most fundamental question of all. Within three months after this statement it has fallen to Count Hertling to define Germany's terms of peace in ( a matter of much les3 crucial importance, and to belligerents who, having broken with their former Allies, are now for all practical purposes conquered. Yet the task is proving to be of colossal difficulty, for though the. Russian negotiators are prepared to accept, the humiliation and disintegration wnich their party has made the country unable' to the controversy over the extent to which the process should be carried is arousing furious passions in Germany.

When the possibility of Count Herfcling's appointment 1 was first announced, the Pan-Germans answered the report with a, straight declaration of war. The armistice which <, was ' subsequently arranged seems now to beat an end. Hertling and Kuhlmann must go, or Hin-' denburg and Ludendorff must go—such is the formidable alternative, with which the country has been faced, and liudendorff's tendered resignation is believed to have assured the triumph of the Chan-' cellpr's enemies. The illness of the Chancellor, whether real or political, may smooth the way of his descent/ but it is difficult to see. that either he or the Foreign Minister can retain office after the complete reversal of their policy on a matter of the first importance.. The Kaiser is said to be taking the unusual step ■'of consulting, his diplomatic representatives in all the adjoining neutral countries. If he cannot get wisdom enough to pacify, the Pan-German hysteria from such a -multitude of counsellors, they may at least supply him with someone.willing to play the part of-rub-ber-stamp'' for the next three months. Nothing, said a Socialist deputy when Michaelis's' resignation was imminent, would please enemy countries so much as the appointment of a Pan-German to be Imperial Chancellor. This wish of the enemies of Germany may perhaps be gratified now.