FRIDAY, May 31st., L9IS. GERMANY'S GUILT REVEALED.

Grey River Argus, 31 May 1918, Page 2

FRIDAY, May 31st., L9IS.

GERMANY'S GUILT REVEALED.

ONE of the most remarkable features of the war is tho extraordinary manner in which the irrefutable evidence that Germany willed the present world calamity, is steadily heaping up. Her 'develish cunning in intrigue and duplicity is being gradually revealed to a wotUI which is so satiated with the evidences of German atrocities that the human brain reels at the horror of it all. It was tho great Charles Darwin who referred to cunning as the lowest | attribute of mankind, and certainly flic depravity of the Gorman Beast as expressed in the brutal doctrine of force clearly . proves the accuracy of the great scientist's assertion. Never lias the world seen cunning so strongly developed in human beings as in the German race and never has the world seen such bestiality as that exhibited by the modern Huns. They stand condemned for all time as the race which did its best, to use scieuco for the purr pose of throttling civilisation, and throwing mankind back again to the laws of tho jungle. A terrible example of the evil powers of mind without morality. It is strange that we still find in this country many people who, for some reason best known to themselves, profess to believe that Germany is not to blame for starting tiic war. If these people arc asked to give some justification for this profession which they mako, they simply pour out a lot of windy nosense about capitalism and secret' diplomacy and refuse to face the solid facts which furnish such abundant evidence of tho guilt of Germany as the nation which has deliberately set the world on fire. It would be interesting to know what this class of person thinks of the latest unmasking of the German guilt by such an eminent German as Prince Lichnowsky, the Ambassador to Englanti at tne outbreak of the war. This man has received scandalous treatment, at the hands of the German Government because presumably he did his very best to prevent his country becoming involved in . a world war, which in his opinion would involve his country iii ruin. His exposure of the whole German to deliberately involve the world in this terrible war, is due to the fact that he wants to clear himself in the eyes of the. German people, and place the) blame on the right shoulders. He was made a scapegoat for the shortcomings of the German Government as he was publically blamed by them for bringing about the catastrophe of a war with England which was actually brought about by the German Government itself in acting towards England in a manner quite contrary to the advico and. warnings which he had so repeatedly urged oh his superiors in Berlin. He desired no was about Serbia; his superiors wanted this war but they wanted it localised. { They did not want England mixed up | in' it at all and told their Ambassador he was to work in London f otr ' ' the ;loc | alisation of the conflict." He warn-! Ed them that; if they persisted in theirattitude towards Serba, that it was impossible to localise the war,' as England would certainly come in if Russia and France were -attacked. His superiors in spite of all his warnings, as he says "insisted on war," and then when England became involved, the Ambassador.#was blame/I. -The revelations show bow tremendously hard Sir Edward Grey laboured to present the' great conbiet, but as Prince Lichnowsky states, "The impression grew; stronger and stronger that we wanted war under any circumstances. It was impossible to interpret our attitude on a question which did not directly coucerii us (the Serbian question) in any other way. Berlin persisted; "Serbia must be massacred. The more I pressed the less were they inclined to come round, were it only to deny ide the success of aveiting war - in conjunction with Sir Edward Grey. . My London

mission was wrecked not by the perfidy of the British, but by that of our own policy. " This is an extract from tho most damning indictment that has over been levelled at a country by one of its own Ambassadors^ ■ and apart from all the immense amount of additional evidence in support of Britain's clainv that she did not want war, it is more than amply sufficient to clear our nation before the bar of history. In his summing up of the whole situation Prince Iviehnowsky gives an admirable account of the Prussian system which dragged civilisation into this worldwar: "Is it not intelligible that our enemies should declare that they will not rest before a system is destroyed which is a constant menace toourneigh jbours? Must they; not otherwise fear that in a few years time they will again have to take up arms and again see their provinces overrun and their towns and villages destroyed? Have not they proved to be right who declared that the spirit of Trietschke and Bernhardic governed the German people that spirit whiih glorified war as such, and did not loathe it as an evil; that with us the feudal knight and junker, tho warrior caste still rule, and form ideals and values, not tho civilian gentleman; that the love of the duel, M-hich animates our academic youth, still persists in those who control the .'destinies of the people? Did not the Zabern incident and the Parliamentary discussions about it clearly demonjstratv. to foreign countries the value Iwe place on tho rights and liberties of •the citizens if these 'collide with questions of military power?" After tearing the mask completely from the face of the German War God, this. Geriuan Ambassador concludes b} r the awful indictment, "It is no wonder tuat the whole of the civilised- world outside Germany places the entire responsi bility for the world- war upon, our shoulders. ' *