The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1917.

Evening Star, Issue 16515, 29 August 1917, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1917.

Toot reasons that should recommend the .liberty War Loan "Silww Bullets." to the people of this country are legionTie mere bald enumeration of them would tax the limits of our 6pace. But there is S; one reason furnished by German, financial 1 'writers which we cannot forbear to bring I under the notice of oar readers. The last ■ r>oliglu mail brought a collection of Qer- ''. nan opinions on war finance which are not hj? only - intensely" interesting in themselves K- - but supply grounds for urging with more h '-- zeal upon the public the provision of ade- %\ ornate material resources for the continued r.''. vigorous, prosecution of the war. Unless d tha last twelve months has wrought a S . change, German writers still delude the i"; credulous inhabhantd of the Fatherland It ', with belief in a victory that will win both |k : %usemnities from vanquished Britain and and wide expanses of territory and Belgium. Take the fol%M ,'ioTttßg cam Dr Prauge, culled from a composed and published after the lllPliHJisa. o| » kng period of this .terrible con-

flit*:—.*• The Russian people ore not competent to cultivate the enormous extent of land which they have occupied; we need this land, and if we' possessed it would soon put it to its best nse. iWe, as & nation, suffer from an hypertrophy of brain; -we have an excess of intelligence, of talents, which are suited for leading others, for conducting useful undertakings —an excess which, if not employed, runs into- moral and political extravagances. The Russians, on the other hand, need strong, intelligent, faithful leading. It is as much a necessity to them as their daily bread; in fact, it is only by such leading that they can be certain of obtaining their bread. There are no two people on the earth stand so mutually in need of each other. If ten million, Germans flowed into Russia both peoples would be benefited. What prevents us? Is it reverence for Teardom and its bureaucracy? Has any brave people ever let itself be kept back by reverence for any kind of majesty from getting for itself what is needed and to which it had a well-grounded claim ? Were our German ancestors deterred by the reverence which they really felt for the Roman Empire, which -was really deserved by the Empire, from sending their superabundant youth with mailed fist beyond their boundaries and demanding land. . . . Barbarians were not afraid to break up a highly civilised, highly cultured Empire; and should we, who bring civilisation, shrink from the necessary expansion?" It is going to take many more soldiers and many more sovereigns to thrash this malign sentiment out of the of our foe. Such a vile national ambition, such an appalling purpose of encroachment, calls surely.for the last shilling as well as the last man. But the cool audacity of the financiers is still- more remarkable. , In their public ntterances they not only refuse to admit the possibility of defeat, but all their schemes for financing the war are "based on the assumed certainty of the payment of huge indemnities to their own country. For a long time English critics have been asserting that there was no foundation for the German financial system but confidence in the success of'their arms. Professor Jastrow, without hesitation and with towering pride, acknowledges that this is so: "We wish no other foundation for our economic life than the sure confidence that we shall weather this struggle. Our national credit- in time of war is a main constituent of our faith in our country." He and the majority of the financial leaders in Prussia scorn to build war finance on any other foundation than that of the receipt of colossal indemnities. The expenditure on war is ultimately to be met by charges levied on the conquered. "It is really superfluous,"' says Professor Eulenberg, "to trouWe our heads beforehand about the matter (the imposition of taxes for the payment of interest on the war loan), since all most depend upon the indemnity." Financially, then, Germany has crossed the Rubicon and burned boats, bridges, and everything—so her experts say. What an opportunity presents itself of inflicting almost irreparable ruin upon her financially aa "well as militarily. There should be no holding back of pence or energy. Let everyone pour in all the resources he can command of body and of purse to humble this audacious and merciless tyranny which continues to gloat over the spoils it will win (!) and the aggrandisement v it -will compass (!).