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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 354, 14 February 1917, Page 4

The inconsistant Constantine seems to be? for 1 the time being at any rate, effectually hobbled, and, according to a despatch from Mr. Ward Price cabled yesterday, his august- brother-in-law of Potsdam has regretfully intimated that he can do nothing in the way of unshackling him—at least, until Britain has been starved into submission. It may be, therefore, that but little present popular interest attaches to this untrusty monarch. We cannot, however, resist the temptation of quoting—in support of what we have ourselves all along contended, and for the disabusing of minds that may _ have been taught to think otherwise —what so reliable a guide as the London “Spectator” has to say with regard to the responsibility of Great Britain for the diplomacy which afforded him so long rope. It cannot be thought that this ancient, Conservative journal would do violence- to its genuine convictions in order to find excuses for such old political opponents as Mr. Asquith and Viscount Grey, so that its testimony in their favour is all the more worthy of acceptance. After declaring that the unprovoked attack made by Greek Royalist troops upon the Allied contingent, landed at Athens under the King’s safe conduct, definitely proclaimed him an open enemy, it goes on to say: —■'•'Patent though the. rebuff to the policy of the Allies has been, and mistaken ’ though tfyat policy mav have been, it hfis been impossible to fin<U among the more violent critics of the Governent here any sign that- they have appreciated the intensely complicate! difficulties of the question. They have argued throughout as though Britain were in a position to act entirely on her own responsibility. They have written and spoken as though Mr. Asquith were free to act at a moment’s notice on his own motion, and as though a British Admiral were lying off Phalenim with a, powerful fleet- ready to blow the Athenian Government sky high at the right moment. But that- was not the situation at all. We are not in any diplomatic secrets, but it is obvious that the opinions of our Allies had to be consulted. It would be very natural, for example, for the Russians to remember that, in view of their promised inheritance of Constantinople? they will some dav be the neighbours of the Greeks. ’ They would therefore not wish to hurt or offend, at all events

till a strong blow was proved to be absolutely essential. Again, it may always seem to the Monarchs who are allied with us an irremediable act to incapacitate orjemove a brotherMonarch. We think the scruple, if it has ever existed, is mistaken, for nothing is worse for the principle of monarchy than existing examples of bad kingship. Italy, again, is so much concerned in everything that happens in the JEgean that she; must consider the meaning for her of any sudden stroke in that- part of the world. She cannot agree to it without a second’s thought. All i these international considerations are signalized by the facts that a French Admiral is in command of the Allied naval forces in the /Ego an and that a French General commands the Allied military forces at Salonika. M. Venizelos, too, with his characteristic moderation, has hitherto stood in the way of destroying the monarchy. If such difficulties as these have been borne in mind by those who have vilified Lord Grey of Falloden, we. have not been able to trace any results from the process. Lord Grey may not have caused the might of the Allies to be manifested in a manner that would have come naturally to. a man cunning in diplomatic publicity and quick to work upon human sensibilites in foreign lands. But to say that his policy has been in it«elf weak, or that he has been apathetic and negligent, is preposterously and cruelly untrue.”

Almost- every mail brings fresh evidence of the cruelties and degradations to which British civilians—men and women —were r-ub-jected by the Germans in East Africa during the earlier stages of the war, when the Huns regarded themselves as sure of ultimate, mctory. The latest to reach us comes from the pen of the Rev. E. F. Spanton. Principal of St. Andi pm \ College, Zanzibar, who at, rhe out break of war was on a tour nt’ school inspection in the German colonv and was, with other Allied civilians, interned at- Tabora, the central junction of ns railway svs tern. “The real point.” says -Mr. Stanton, ‘ is that the Germans from the first did their be -t in destroy British prestige. They were brutal and cruel in the prosecution of a deliberate policy to this end. They made both civilian and military prisoners do the lowest- kind of work m order that they might lose caste before the Africans. For great distances throughout Africa the news was passed that we were German, slaves. This was drummed into the people on every opportunity and by all/kinds of propaganda, and even the native German soldiers referred to us as slaves. British prisoners in the scantiest of clothing were set to pull a lorry through the streets —work usually done by oxen—-in full view of the jeering natives. And one .could see an English university graduate hoeing up” a native garden patch, or a wealthy rubber planter clearing out native latrines. All this has had a great effect on the native, mind, and the news of the degradation of British and other European men and women, flashed as it has been across Africa, is a source of wonder to tribes hundreds of miles distant.”

The commandant at Tabora, Mr. Spanton goes on to say, was a man wlio had been warned by the German Government on atcount of his brutality, of which he had been officially convicted. •He was once publicly horsewhipped by a German servant, yet he wak appoined officer in charge of the prisoners’ canto at Tabora. The same plan was followed in the case of the ladies’ camp at Kiboriani. The man placed* in charge here bore such a character that the local chiefs sent their wives and daughters out of the country. His own wife had committed suicide as a result of his vile conduct, and he was deliberately chosen. to take charge of ladies of gentle birth and education. The ladies were required to do their own housework, and also six hours’ work for the Government every day. They protested against, being set to tasks which would assist the enemy, and were threatened with confinement with bread and water. . . . While

being conveyed from one camp to another 30 English ladies, 9 Englishmen, and about 40 native prisoners were shut up in an iron railway shed (again without the slightest pretence of sanitation) for one whole night and most of the next day. The natives were not allowed to go out under any pretext, while for many hours the Englishmen and women w’ere refused facilities for the ordinary decencies of life. On another occasion a caravan of men and women were sent on a long march of 10 days under escort. It was pointed out that in the interests of decency tents must be provided for the ladies. Although these were obtainable, the. officer applied to refused permission, and replied "What have English women to do with decency ?” It is quite in keeping w’ith the character of the German bully to learn that as soon as he realised that the colony’ was going grievances were redressed. When the Belgian forces, working eastward from the Kongo, came within fifty miles of Tabora the German attitude completely changed.

Fresh news to hand, up to the moment of writing, with regard to actual war incidents may be dismissed with but brief notice. Again Sir Douglas Haig has to report a further advance on the left wing of his offensive line upon the Somme, and again the Germans appear to have evacuated their trenches withserious opposition, apparently overcome by the violence of the British artillery bombardment. At the same time, according to a late message yesterday, the French press suggests that in this new’ course of abandonment without resistance there may, in addition to the desire to save men, be concealed some fresh German trick in. contemplation, and warns the British to be wary. Possibly they may have . in thought the new deadly gases w’ith which, among sundry other frightfulnesses, the German newspapers threatened us as soon as our rejection of their proposal for peace negotiations was made known. The enemy has launched a second counter-attack on the position recently’ taken by the British near Scrre, at the extreme end of their left wing, on the Somme front, and have again been thrown back without difficulty, scarcely getting beyond our artillery barrage. The French send us word of nothing but an artillery duel going on in the Vosges. *fhe Italians claim to have now recovered the whole of the ground east of Gorizia recently snatched from them by the, Austrians, and also to have made a substantial advance away to the north in Austrian territory, having reached Tarvis, a town on the Aus-tro-Italian railway line that runs through the eastern end of the Carnic Alps. Of Russo-Rumanian do-

ings we hear nothing, excepting of some achievement by British armoured cars near the mouth of the Sereth, and of purely Russian operations nothing at alf. From Mesopotamia, however, cmnes news which indicates that the Turkish forces at Kut-el-Amaru are now much in the same position as was General Townshend’s unfortunate little army, but, possibly better provided to stand a siem'. While America still hesitates despite what appear to out skiers quite a number of ‘ overt acts,” China, according to a newspaper correspondent, has sent th® German Ambassador about his business.