ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1918. GERMANY'S "APPEAL" OFFENSIVE.

Marlborough Express, Volume LII, Issue 286, 21 November 1918, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1918. GERMANY'S "APPEAL" OFFENSIVE.

continued to "bluff" and bluster and scheme and plot. A .significant warning was uttered only a row weeks v.go by well-informed Dutch observers, who told tho Allies to bo especially watchful, or the Huns would beat them yet. The little game, whatever'it was, did not conic oif, and Germany was compelled to sign tho. armistice terms presented to her through the medium of Marshal loch. She lias not been tardy, 1 owever, in attempting to secure a modification of those terms, for already she is at work in various directions, pleading and whining and tryir.g to psrsuade her conquerors to treat the document to which her representatives affixed their signatures as "a scrap of paper." So unlike that of a great' nation has her conduct been that it has called forth from a prominent New York paper the following scathing condemna-

tion :—"Germany now howls like a whipped pup. She cringes before her conquerors and weeps crocodile tears and whines. She is all yellow.'' These are strong terms, but they are not too strong; the occasion fully warrants them. Germany is endeavoring to sneak out of the bargain which the Allied armies have compelled her to make, and, os she did iii Belgium, France, and other theatres of war, she is using women as a screen. The.appeals of the German women to Mrs Woodrow Wilson and to Miss .Jane Addams, the American suflragist—the woman whom Ambassador Gerard describes in his book as "complaining that we should not have gone to war because we thereby, risk hurting somebody's feel-ings"'—-are nothing less than hypocritical and hysterical outbursts designed to elicit sympathy for people who richly deserve all the punishment which they are now undergoing. "The terms of the armistice relating to rolling-stock must be changed in order to permit of the transportation of food," is the of one of these precious "appeals." "Must" is hardly the word for a conquered nation to employ to its conquerors. "Foreseeinc, entire famine and mutiny in Germany we appeal to our American sisters to intercede for relief from the truce conditions"—so runs the message to Miss Addams. If these appeals were not composed at the Wilhelmstrasse by some astute Government official and then handed on to the women to sign we are very much mistaken.

Prince Liehnowskv, the man who exposed Germany's blood-guiltiness m few months ago, would of course bo .a convenient tool for the arpealmongers to u?e in order to elicit sympathy from Britain for the poor, oppressed Huns. His message, as published in tho Socialist organ, the Voiwaerfcs, is, however, an impudent perversion of facts, as ho himself must know very well. He declare!;; that the terms of the armistice aro "directed by revenge and threaten the future peace of the world." As a matter of fact they are intended to ensure the future peace of the world against the machinations of people of the stamp which, in his famous memoirs, he exposed so thoroughly. We are afraid that Prince Lichuowsky has over.Teach.cd himself. Let it bo stated at once that tho Allies have no intention of allowing Germany' to starve; that would bring them down to the level of the Huns, who, it will be remembered, niched from the inhabitants of the they had conquered the food they .had undertaken to let them hay.*, a.nd on. many occasions sank the' vessels that were conveying foodstuffs to starving civilians, after having promised them imir.unity from attack. But the Germans are not to be allowed to dictate to Britain, France, and the United States as to what procedure shall bo followed ; these -nations have the right and the power to say in what manner the distress which exists in Germany--distress brought about solely by Germany herself—shall be alleviated. Had tho boot been on the other foot and the Germans been in the position occupied by the Allies to-day, what sort of consideration would they havo shown for the civilian -.populations of Britain or France?, They would most likely have established a blockade of the coasts of both countries, seized and sent to Germany all the foodstuffs bound for British and French ports, and callously left the people to starve. It certainly, was not Germany's fault that she.did not succeed in starving Britain, as yon Tirpitz boasted she. would do.- Now, faced with tli3 spectre of lunger -herself, she whines and talks of "revenge" f The whole business is nauseating. The message to the Allies and America despatched by the German '•Government dealing with the armistice conditions as they affect the territory bordering on the Rhine is the most impudent of the whole "appeal" campaign. We have not space to ded with this bit of brazen effrontery in detail, but, summed up, it amounts to a request that the Allies should grant Germany permission to commence stocking up with a view to an early resumption of her industries and manufactures, in order to be able at the earliest possible moment to launch her wares again on the world's markets. While Britain and America are engaged in transporting their troops to their homes, while Fr me/; and Belgium aT-e rebuilding valuable plants to replace those destroyed or carried off by the Huns, Germany, forsooth, is to be allowed to steal a march on them and bo first in. tho field with her goods! How Fritz would liav-> chuckled and chortled if a defeated France or, better still, a vanquished "England" proffered such an amazing request! Truly, the German has no sense of the ridiculous, or i-uch a bare-faced document would never have been penned. The whole scheme is too transparent for serious consideration. Meanwhile, tho pacifists and pro-Germans in the T'nited States nv* busy with their insidious propaganda designed to "temper the wind" to the "shorn lamb" (of the Hun variety). "Eiv-:y terms to Cerm,any at the. pea?o table" is the burden of tlv.i.ir plea. 'That means, we suppose, "nj annexation? and no indemnities," return of the Gorman colonies, tV "op^n door" to German trade, and the rest. Germany will secure raster ten's thnn sh .> deserves, no'doubt; but whether those terms will be- "easy" in the sense that the Germans understand the word remains to lie seen.

It used to bo commonly supposed that a virtual monopoly of "the ways that arc dark and the tricks that arc vain" was held by the "heathen Chinee." But the Him has shown din-ing tho war that the wily Celestial was a mere novice at the game Every trick, every artifice that the fertile brain of the German could conceive has been brought into play, both on the field of battle and tl.it.ugh diplomatic channels; and it was only the "eternal vigilance" exCTcisod by the Allies that prevented mrny of' them from achieving the desired results. Even when faced with the certainty of defeat our enemies