THE CZAR'S DISARMAMENT PROPOSAL.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11122, 14 January 1899, Page 3

THE CZAR'S DISARMAMENT PROPOSAL.

GERMANY NOTHING TO FEAR. WAR PREPARATIONS EVERYWHERE. Deceived Janunry 14, 1 a.m. Berwn, January 13. General Von Gossler, Prussian Minister of War, in introducing the Army Bill, said that the Czar's disarmament scheme had convinced Germany that she had nothing to fear from Russia. Nowhere j however, had there been any evidence of the cessation of war preparations. What the Emperor of Russia's plan for universal peace is has not as yet been revealed. I will reveal mine (says an English writer). Each country should have a secret service corps, well instructed in all the methods of taking life by poison. So soon as a war is about to break out, each of the belligerents would endeavor to poison the sovereign, the Ministers, the representatives, and especially the journalists of the other country. After a very few deaths I am convinced that peace would not be broken. This may Beem, at first sight, a startling proposal, but between poisoning men and taking their lives by shells, bullets, and other such projectiles there really is no difference, and my plan would result in a great saving of life. Instead of mowing down thousands, burning villages, and other such barbarities, a few leading men would be taken off. By the present system the few promote a war and the many suffer by it. This, indeed, is the reason why there are wars. I would bring the consequences of hostilities directly home to those who are responsible for them.