Evening Post. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1919. THE GERMAN WAY

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 110, 12 May 1919, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, MAY 12, 1919. THE GERMAN WAY

A fortnight ago Tho Times correspondent at The Hague reported that, " with a- view to creating an. appropriate atmosphere," the inspired press of Germany was busy with comments for and against a referendum on tho Peaco Treaty. " A general aggressiveness," he said,, "and incurable audacity., mark the spirit, in which the peace discussion is approached. The Vorwaerts brazenly admits that Germany's alternative League of-'Nations is merely propaganda. The delegates sent to' Versailles may be expected to manoeuvre keenly with a view to sowing dissensions and inducing neutrals to sympathise with Germany." The accuracy of this forecast has been abundantly confirmed by what has taken place during the last few days at Versailles and Berlin. In one respect, however, German insolence has overshot the mark. The outburst of Count Rantzau, which had not the excuse of surprise and unconsidered impulse to extenuate it, but was carefnlly thought out and committed to paper in advance, was really tho worst possible way of sowing dissensions among the Allies'- and exciting .the sympathy of neutrals. A bettor method of uniting and hardening up the Allies, and alienating the sympathy of every neutral nation that values peace , and independence, could hardly have been devised. To parade before the-world a broken and a contrite spirit, to pose as the meek and repentant victim of a triumphant enemy, Would obviously have been the likeliest way of smoothing over difficulties, of conciliating opposition, of touching tho most penetrable hearts or. beguiling the. most gullible intellects at the Peace table. That would have been the best way, but it is not the German way.

Germany desires to deceive the Allies, and would be proud to do so, but withtho kind of deceit that the present occasion requires her diplomatists have not a sufficient acquaintance with the manners of gentlemen to make even a plausible beginning. Though conciliation and sweet! reasonableness were plainly his only cue, the tone of Count Rantzau at Versailles was that of Junker arrogance intoxicated with the exultation of victory. Though the military power of Germany is in ruins, and her soldiers are no longer formidable except for civil warfare^ Germany's Foreign Minister indulges in an insolence which recalls thatof her military representatives at Brest Litovsk, when the parts were reversed. And now, to complete the farce, Herr Scheidemann, with all the unctuous rectitude of a Chadband, calls upon his countrymen to " discuss this document of hatred and madness with political' sobriety," and the Government is said to have decided on a week of public mourning in order to do full justice to the event. The theatres will very properly be closed, so that the theatrical effect of. this impressive demonstration, may not be-impaired by any rival display. The contrast between tho national insolence which reached its climax at Versailles, and the national humiliation for which tho signal has now been sounded from Weimar, is surely oue of the most memorable triumphs of German humour. Referring to the indecent haste with which his father's funeral had been followed by his. mother's wedding, Hamlet said that "the. funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth, the marriago tables." By a sorb of con versa process the fury of. Count Raatzau's insolence may perhaps serve it»' turn by warming the German bs3it for the endurance of the diet of Affliction to which the nstbn U-.eosv-

deraned for a, week by' its own Government.

In an interview published by the Frankfurter Zeitung about the end of February,-the German Foreign Minister complained bitterly, but without indecsney, of the draft Constitution of the League of Nations. He declared that "distnisfc ran through the draft like a red thread, and he objected specially to the inclusion in the League only of the actual 'enemies of Germany." As tho democratic representative of a democratic nation, Count Rantzau also objected to the proposed Constitution of the League of Nations from the standpoint o£ democracy. "One direction," he said, "in which Germany must strive to have it altered is from its present oligarchical plan to a democratic plan befitting a true Parliament of the World." What Count Rantzau had particularly in view was that Germany should be admitted as an original member of the League. An he said in an address to the National Assembly at Weimar about the same time, "a nation such as the German nation ought not to be treated by our enemies as a ascond-class nation, nor should a term of quarantine be imposed upon us like avessel outside a port in which plague has broken out." The comparison is apt. The period of probation which tho Allies desire to impose on Germany is well likened to a period of quarantine. British opinion is said to have recently .weakened in the direction of reducing or even abolishing this period. We may thank Count Rantzau-for having checked; this dangerous tendency iiy supplying a conclusive proof that the plague which made the German ship of State a danger to the. health of the world under the old regime has not been expelled .by the new management. It would ba/madness to give her a clean bill of health- at present.. - ' /

Berlin, we are told, is stunned by the peace terms. It is quite possible that 'the report is correct, and that the effect is not all camouflage. An attitude of insolence and aggression had been deliberately encouraged by the Government and the leaders of public opinion. Though they have not suggested during tho past, six months that Germany has won.the war, they have assiduously fostered the belief that she has not lost it. The Ger-~ man people may therefore be supposed to have sustained a real shock from the truth which has at last been.conveyed to them by 'a perusal of the peaco terms. What form this awakening may take under official tutelage during the week of mourning is an interesting matter for speculation,- but is of no great practical importance. Germany's protests have been discounted in advance by the truculcnce c-f her chief delegate at Versailles, and the Allies are less disposed to a compromise or back down than ever they were. The nation'which sank the Lusitania on Bth May, 1915, has celebrated the fourth annivrir.i''Ty of that terrible crime by a display -vi diplomatic brutal-. ity which is equally .convincing in its way. The German, people has changedl its Government but not its heart, and. must be treated accordingly.' i