AS GUILTY AS THE KAISER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume IV, Issue 429, 7 August 1915, Page 2

AS GUILTY AS THE KAISER

'I HF. GERMAN PEOPLE. The responsibility tor the war is a ma i li r upon which a deplorable amount of cam has lioen heard. Even amongst the most ardent patriots in thr* Empire thorn are many who say, and perhaps have brought ihomsohes to think, that it was only the Kaiser and the “military casto” who math* the war, ami that the German people are innocent. So it has In-on constantly urged that the German people, are as guilty as their Emperor and his advisory. We. are therefore glad to note that Archbishop Redwood in a sermon in lington on Sunday, dealt with thiM point. “1 believe,’ he said, “that war was the outcome of the populag sentiment of Germany. They thought that victory v. as certain and would be very speedy, and that they would be enriched by the spoils of the nations, that they would he able to form a grseat colonial Empire and bring about the destruction of .the British Empire. They looked upon thi> vast project with the-greatest certitude, and entered into it with the greatest enthusiasm. As they had in the past been victorious over the French and the Austrians, more particularly over the French, they were intoxicated with pride, ami they desired, to dominate the whole world.” Il is possible that when the war is over and they son their country defeated and their hopes ruined, the German people may regard the Emperor and his Government as their betrayers. But in the meantime it is folly to suppose that the German people did not desire the war and do not warmly approve the barbarous crimes committed by their lighting forces on land and sea.