GERMAN.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2732, 31 May 1915, Page 4

GERMAN.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE,

ABUSE—NOT ARGUMENT. London, May 29

Speaking in the Reichstag, tho Chancellor (Dr. yon Bethiiiaiin-Holl- j weg) said: The Cabinet at Rome manifested fluctuations as far back as December. It was always useful to have two irons in the fire. Italy had before shown a prediliction for extra dances, but this is no ballroom. It is a bloody battlefield, wherein Germany, Austria and Hungary are fighting for their lives against a world of pigmies. Italian statesmen played against Italy the same game as against the Triplice. The majority of the Parliament and the people in May did not desire war, but had coinmonseiiso. To-day, tho mob alone ruled, with the assistance of leading statesmen of the Cabinet, ! fed with the Triple Entente's gold. I Tho mob, under the guidance of un- ! scrupulous war agitators, had been loused to a frenzy of blood, and threatened their King with revolution and all mo'dcrato men' with murder unless they joined in the war delirium. Tho Italians were intentionally kept in tho dark regarding Austria's far-reaching concessions. In the frenzy for war, honest politicians grew dumb. After paying a tribute to Prince yon Billow's efforts and predicting the Central Powers' triumph, the Chancellor eulogised Turkeys-victorious resistance in the,. Dardanelles. He said: "Heretofore our enemies vainly summoned against us all the forces of tho world in a gigantic coalition. Brave soldiers, wo do not despise our enemies as our adversaries like to do." He ridiculed the British Government's publication of evidence of unnamed witnesses on the alleged cruelties iv Belgium as so monstrous that only niad brains could believe it. He accused Franco of concealing the Allies' severe losses in the east and west, and added: "We are relying with a good conscience on a just causo and. a victorious sword/ and we will not allow ourselves, to be forced a hair'sbreadth from the path we always recognised as right. Not in hatred, but in holy anger do we wage this war. The more wildly the stomn rages, the more firmly nnist we' build the house, for loyal co-operation throughout will bring your Kaiser's warm thanks." There was prolonged applause, and the abusive passages in the speech' were received with frantic.cheers.