The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1918.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 5002, 17 October 1918, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1918.

There is no longer any need for misgivings over the Huns’ cunning efforts to entangle the diplomats on the Entente side with bogus proposals for an armistice. It must be confessed that, at the outset of the recent negotiations, it was widely felt that it was possible that the Huns might succeed in entrapping President Wilson. He had, as is well known, laid down certain broad principles which he had declared the Central Powers would have to accept before there could be any peace con(ference. When they found themselves soundly thrashed on the battle- * held—hut not before—the Huns offered to accept his academic proposals. The difficulty about President Wilson’s original suggestions was, of course, that they were far too general in their terms and quite devoid of any indications as to how they would apply to the important matters which must he settled with the Central Powers. It would no doubt he a very simple matter for the Huns to profess acquiescence in a general way to any proposal and then when it came to discussing details raise all kinds of obstacles which it would he found would be

All’s Wei! That Ends Well.

fatal to a general peace. In the meantime—if the Huns had gained tlie diplomatic victory which they had so cunningly plotted—they would have resctied their armies and settled down on a shorter and more easily defended line and calmly awaited the resumption of hostilities. They would most certainly have used the fact that they still possessed a formidable navy and formidable armies as a lever with which to wrest from the .Entente concessions which they have no right to expect. President "Wilson lias, however, made liis position much clearer in his latest comments on the Huns’ offer, and we do not j think that liis attitude is now open to question. He has very properly •fallen into line - with the view held by the other Entente • Powers that there can be no cessation of hostilities unless the Central Powers agree to accept such military and naval terms as may he dictated.by Marshal Focli and the British Admiralty. Wo all know wliat such terms would mean for tlie Huns if they should decide to accept them; in short they would mean that t-lie Huns might just as well “throw up the sponge” straight away. It seems to this journal that it would be too much to expect that the Prussian element will allow Germany to knuckle down without a further round of hard fighting. What will happen—if this should be the correct viewpoint—is that tho Huns will now launch out on a more dreadful system of warfare. This idea is borne out- by two significant facts, firstly, that Germany has invited Austria and Turkey not to lay down their arms, and secondly, that she lias entered upon a more intensified form of submarining and of devastation of Allied property prior to compulsorily relinquishing its temporary possession. It may be a mistaken viewpoint, hut we believe that the Pan-Germans will now force

the naval authorities in Hunland to j attempt to make good the claims j that have been set forth in regard to j the sea-power of Germany. In supT ; port of this theory one has only to bear in mind that there is not a shadow of a chance of the Huns regaining their lost military prestige. Not unnaturally, therefore, the Hun j war-makers may set tb-ir all hi an endeavor—and it maybe another vain endeavor—to cut the Allies’ lines of sea communications. In this morning’s news there is already evidence of such a threat. Wo cannot help thinking that, after all, good has accrued as a result of the negotiations which have proceeded between the Central Powers and President Wilson, for it has' been shown how utterly insincere the Huns are and how necessary it" is, in the interests of the world’s future, that the lighting should continue until the Huns arc beaten to their.knees and forced to surrender unconditionally.