Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, NOV. 10, 1925. ARMISTICE DAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 289, 10 November 1925, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, NOV. 10, 1925. ARMISTICE DAY.

Seven years ago —that is on the lltii .November, 1918, hostilities ceased in tiie Great War, the last shots being tired at 11 o'clock on the morning of that day. Throughout tne British Empire the event is to be celebrated on the morrow at united services, and by the two minutes of silence which have been observed at 11 o’clock on each recurring anniversary of Armistice Bay. The rejoicings which came with that harbinger of peace between . the warring nations were universal and widespread. They were, however, tinged with melancholy, as they must. be even now, by recollections of the grim tragedies enacted during the long, weary years of the war, the memory of the millions of A T ictims and the Getlisemane of suffering which descended upon the stricken peoples of Europe and the Allied countries, who sent the pick of their manhood into the Avar zone to battle for their liberties and the defence of democracy in general. The j r ears that have interA'ened since the Armistice Avas signed liaA’e been years of doubt, uncertainty and unrest. EA-en now there are those avlio question —and Avitli no small slioav of reason—AAdiether the Allies did well in staying their hand and depriving Eoch of his “victory.” “The Allies,” it Avas urged, “Avere deprived of their final and decisive victory, and the enemy was permitted to that tlieir armies were still and ever unbeaten. I have met no soldier and hardly any civilian,” Sir Sydney Loav said (writing in The Fortnightly for January, 1919) “aaJio does not regret that hostilities Avere allowed to cease on ISAvember 11th. If they had been prolonged for a few. Aveeks, or even a feiv days, the Avar Avould haA r e been carried to Berlin by an unprecedented aerial bombardment, and the German armies of the West, utterly disorganised and partially outflanked, Avould have either been destroyed or compelled to deliver up their arms in a surrender Avhicli would have dwarfed that of Sedan.” Germany, as Ave know, escaped invasion, although she had to submit to the occupation of portions of her territory, including the important cities of Mainz, Coblenz and Cologne, Avith the bridgeheads across the Rhine at. those N important strategic points, and the establishment of a

neutral zone on tlie right bank, and the evacuation by Germany of the whole of the left bank of the Rhine. The armistice conditions, as laid down by Marshal Foch and the Allies, were, however, sufficiently onerous, and such as would only be accepted by a defeated enemy. It is of interest to recall that, although the Kaiser, in a speech to the German troops in Alsace at the end of September, 1918, remained as boastful as ever, and declared that “the last drop of blood of every Austrian and Hungarian, the last drop of blood of every Turkish and Bulgarian soldier, will be shed before our enemies wrest from us land which belongs to Germany,” barely a tvdek later Prince Max of Baden, the German Chancellor, was probing for peace. He addressed an appeal to President Wilson of the United States, asking him to “take in hand the restoration of peace,” his appeal eliciting from the American press such comments as “The bit dog yelps.” Throughout October, the negotiations—if such they could be termed—continued. President Wilson, in his replies to the German appeal, laid it down that “the Holienzollerns must go,” and that “the only armistice he would feel justified in submitting for consideration would be one which should leave the United States, and the Powers associated with her, in a position to enforce any arrangements that may be entered into, and to make a renewal of hostilities on the part of Germany impossible.” The armistice terms were accordingly dictated on these lines.

IS THE DANGER OYER?

Germany, we know, was forced to her knees in 1918. Before she accepted the armistice conditions, Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria had capitulated; King Boris had abdicated ; the Dual Monarchy had collapsed, and everywhere the unfortunate Emperor Karl went lie was greeted with shouts of “Long live the republic.” Revolutionary symptoms were apparent in the German sea ports and in the front line trenches; Ludendorff had resigned and Hindenburg was urging the Kaiser’s abdication.The Germans saw that defeat was inevitable. Severe and even humiliating as were the conditions of the armistice they had to be accepted. There was no alternative. It was imperative that the spirit of arrogance with which Germany had entered the war should be destroyed, and that her military power should be shattered. The armistice conditions were framed with “the two great objects of smashing the great military machine and the prestige of the German Imperial Government. ” It has since been claimed that both objects were attained. But there are those in this country, who, takiug up the Labour Socialist demand raised in Britain for the abrogation of the Versailles Treaty, which' was concluded in July, 1919, have denounced the terms as iniquitous and who have asserted Unit the Allies were equally guilty with Germany in forcing war upon the world. The Labour journal which represents their views has taken a warped view of the whole business, and in common with certain Labour Socialist papers, published in Great Britain, has shown itself contemptuously indifferent to the fact that the war was one of aggression on the part of Germany, and of defence on that of the Allies. It is true they constitute an insignificant minority, but they share, in common with the German military caste, that gospel of hate which led tip to the \yar. The Locarno Conference or Pact, although its decisions were' accepted by the German delegates, has, in its results, failed to satisfy the German people, and. it would, perhaps, be too much to expect that they have abandoned their dreams of revenue. The observations and conclusions drawn by Mr William Le Quex during liis five months’ residence in Germany and Switzerland are anything but reassuring. In company with a member of the French Secret Service he claims to have collected “quantities of data concerning Germany in general and the Germans in particular,” and to have found “in every walk of life in Germany, more especially in Berlin, Frankfort and the Rhine provinces, a hatred of Great Britain amounting- to an obsession,” together with “a spirit of fierce revenge.” Writing in the Empire Netv3 of September 6th, he details conversations he has had with “all sorts and conditions of Germans politicians, military and naval men, bankers, important merchants, mahufacturers and suoh-like persons, who count in Germany’s national life,” and to have found the same spirit of hatred of Great Britain amongst them. And, by more than one leading financier, he has been warned that Germany is even now “preparing for the conquest of Britain under the very noses” of the British people. From the facts, he and his friend of the French Secret Service have gathered, he is “satisfied that a sudden aerial attack upon London undoubtedh is intended,” and that that attack will be made by means of “engines of warfare far more fright-'

ful than anything yet used,” including the “dissemination of the germs of fatal maladies ; the most deadly poison gases . . .

explosives twenty times more powerful than .any.hitherto known and giant, bombing aeroplanes.” The prospect is by no means pleasing; it suggests infinite cunning and diabolical ingenuity in the preparations for further war Germany is said to be making.