PERIL OF THE CENTURY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 20 October 1914, Page 3

PERIL OF THE CENTURY

i WHAT GERMAN VICTORY -WOULD j MEaIN. In a leading article, entitled,- "The Yvar Against Popular Rights," the ]New York Outlook, with which exj President Roosevelt Js associated, says: "History will hold the German Emperor responsible for the war in Europe. Austria would never have made her mj defensible attack'on Servia if she had i nob been assured beforehand of the support of Germany. The German EmI peror's consent to co-opeiate with Jiiugland in mediation would have put | a stop to Austria's advance, 'io doubt I tha.t Germany and Austria have been in practical alliance in this act of ! brigandage—for it deserves no other •name —is to shut one's eyes to all the signs. "'The inevitable consequences of the ! Austro-German" alliance, if it is sue- ; tfessful, it requires no prophet to see. |It would reduce the Balkan States-to ! the state of provinces of Germany and [ Austria. It would make Belgium and I Holland Germanic provinces. It would create a Germanic Empire which would extend from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, "it would bring all Europe under the j domination of this Germanic Empire, ' and would reduce Italy. Spain, Portugal, France and England to subordinate positions, if it did not make them dependencies. It would banish from Eastern Europe the democratic movement in which France and England are the leaders. It would discourage the hopes of the democracy in Spain, Italy, and Russia, and would enthrone autocracy from, the Atlantic coast to Siberia, from the North' Sea to the Mediterranean. : "Because the German Emperor combines with remarkable ability for organisation this mediaeval ambition to dominate- all Europe, he is the greatest personal peril of the century to popular liberty and human development. On the other hand, if the Germanic scheme be defeated, no such control over Europe would be possible to the Allied Powers, no such control would be desired by them. England, France and Russia could never unite to exercise the mastery over Europe. The supremacy of the people would receive a new impulse, not in the victorious but in the defeated countries." The American press generally holds th^ German Emperor has proved himself the enemy of civilisation,- and it does not hesitr-io to say so in the strongest terms it can command. The Chicago Tribune decorates its article on the Kaiser's invocation of Divine assistance with the single word "Blasphemy." The New York Times gives its complete endorsement to the words of the Paris Temps that Russians, Frenchmen, and Englishmen must stand unite.d against "the powers of brigandage." In this war, says the New York World, Germany and Austria have no sympathisers even among the neutrals. It continues: "The enlightened opinion of the whole world has turned against the two Kaisers as it turned against Napoleon when he sought to make himself autocrat of Europe. German autocracy is isolated, but whatwas begun as a war of autocracy is not iinl'kelv to end as a war of revolution, with thrones crumbling and dynasties in exile. Civilisation cannot "rest at the mercy of despotism, and the welfare of mankind is not to be made the plaything of autocracy. In the ■vanguard of the twentieth century in ■most'respects."Germany lias straggled back to the seventeenth ■ century ; : Politically, , the curse of mediaeval government has hung over her noblest aclrevements. "Every impulse toward political freedom has been beaten back by tb^. Mailed Fist. Austria's quarrel with Servia was no affair of the German people. Yet" the v«ry fa.tft of. the Ger nan Empire is thrown into the balance in order +o Volt the march of political freedom in Eui-one. Germany desires to crush, not Russian despotism, but French Republicanism. Britain is compelled to nipke France'<* causa her cause."

The- New York Globe, taking note of _ the numerous German protests against the attitude of the American press towards the German Enmeror, R'+vs: "Sir E. Grey's speech will go down to history as ona of the gveatest in modern times. It.'s no wonder the House of Commons should have been moused to oheers by his masterful effort, and that it should have promoted +H declaration of loyal support from Mr. Redmond that Ireland would stand undivided behind the nation to the last. In.a.preat crisis the peoples of Great Britain nlways have sunk +heir differences and m-esented a solid front to th° enemy. The nation would .not have lived up to its tradition Had it done otherwise this time, and, whatever the final outcome, she may look back with profound gratification to the fact that sb<* sounded the call to battle only after she had done everything in her power to preserve an honourable oeace. .The brightest lustre f British statesmanship emerges from this momentous trial'untarnished."*