AFTER THE WAR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 17 March 1915, Page 5

AFTER THE WAR.

RECONSTRUCTING EUROPE.

Devil tad teen the determining factor in bringing about the present European conflict. Germany had not had the wS thiown Europe back again to the welter which existed m the sixteenth century before the concert of Europe came into ouTof tbngland cr Jd not have stood out of the present conflict consistently with her honor and her own safety The only point open to question was whether it might not have been advisable for Britain to declare war' a little earlier than she did. Our aim now must be farst to see. that no one State was predominant in Europe. Serbia must be preserved from Austria and Belgium rescued from Germany. Alsace and Lorraine must either be given back to fiance or- made a small buffer State. The Austrian Empire must go, and there must be some reconstruction of the Balkan States Turkey must go from Europe, and there must be a more perfect concert among the' European Powers thai? ever before. Even now we felt some of the benefits which were arising from the war in regard to the position m Ireland and in the labor - world.

Professor Adams (Yale University)" expressed the opinion that when Germany came to have a. national existence she recognised more clearly than any other Eucopean nation that politics had become international. Germany realised that if she would do something, and 6V> it early she wo-Id be shut out from, the politics of the world and would become something like Wales was in $te British Isles. Thirty years ago, when he was m Germany, he became conscious that that country, recognising the Wntish Empire as the greatest obstacle m the way of her plans, plotted to overthrow it.

The President said his own opinion was that the attitude of Russia after the war would be of great benefit, not only to herself, but to the other nations of Europe.