Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1916. DANGER OF PREMATURE PEACE.

Nelson Evening Mail, 27 May 1916, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, MAY 27, 1916. DANGER OF PREMATURE PEACE.

FIRST place in the March number of that excellent quarterly the Round Table, is given to a weighty article, in which the' true nature of the conflict with Prussianism is re-examined in the light of the experience of the past 18 months. One of the many useful purposes of this article is tlhat it provides an excellent answer to the speeches made by Messrs QPonsonby and Ramsay Maodonald andj recorded in the cable news yesterday. The writer shows how as soon as the die was cast the 'General Staff assumed entire direction of German policy l , and proceeded to apply the Prussian gospel of force in its entirety. Hence the terrific concentration of the first onslaught' on France and' the measures of f rightfulness that accompanied' it. This frightfulness was designed in.-part to deter neutrals from entering r -the war, and it succeeded as ■far as th 6 pro-Ally Balkan States were concerned. But the main plot failed. Germany was unable to smash France, seize 'Calais as the iumping-off ground for an attack on "Great Britain, or to round, up the Russian armies, nor did she contrive to isolate her enemies. The main object- of her policy, the establishment of an undisputed military mastery over Europe as a prelude to methods of the mailed fist in the outer world, passed out of her immediate grasp. She then fell back.; on a, second plaji, that of securing a peace in which sbe would" retain a good strategic position for another "suppressed" or open war. If they fail to annihilate one of the main Allies, or to brealc up the alliance this year, the rulers of Germany mean to retain control of as large an area, as large a population, and as many, strategic points as possible. When these are organised on Prussian lines it will be possible to ■begin again the old game to create in armaments and alliances a preponderance of force behind Germany, to isolate her neighbours and compel them to Tetreat before tlho mailed fist, and! if that again fails to win for her undisputed ascendancy to re-enact at a later stage the drama which lias miscarried to-day. In this policy- frightfulness has its iyla.cc. It is intended to impress subject peoples and other nations, and to make them chary' of resisting the Prussian will after the war.

As Mirabeau said, war is Prussia's national industry,, and a leading motive •beliind the conduct of the German General Staff is to increase the prestige and terror which military might atid ratlilessness inspire in the minds of men. "If," declares the Round Table's contributor, "the rulei-s of Germany- can succeed in this aim the world will b& as good as lost to .freedom." There will I be an aggregation of militarist poweis stretching from the North Sea to the [Persian Gulf, hound together iby political, economic, and military treaties, ani under the conta-ol of Berlin. It will •be a "combine" between the autocratic minority in Turkey, the monarch of Bulgaria, the 'Magyars, and the-Prussian! , ruling classes to maintain their own ab--1 solute power as against the progress of democracy or the revolt of oppressed nationalities within, and for the purpose of aggression abroad. The cement of the whole will be force, its weapon will be force, and its purpose will be to settle every dispute by dictation at the sward's point. It will make to the German people the same old pleas for armaments, and to. tihe Prussianised mind the appeal will not be made in vain. The main object of the Allies is to defeat ithe attempt of Germany to establish the predominance of her will in the councils of, Europe, and it should be the sine qua non of peace. Until it is attained anyi so-called peace would be no more than atrxke before a- renewed conflict. - The Allies do not want to break up Germany, 'but to induce or compel her people to accept an equal status with all other States in the comity of - nations. It is precisely this end that) the rulers of Germany will use every available device to They .went to war for dominion; they - have kept that 'aim steadily in view amid all the changing chances of the

war, and they will fight for it- with force and cunning to the end, for it is Uhe "life-blood of the Prussian State." Once it is proved that the Prussian will is not law, is not power, the terror which is its strength will be destroyed. The German people must be beaten into the conviction that Prussianism is impossible, 'because the great nations of the earth will not tolerate such conduct as the violation of Belgian neutrality and the invasion of public right for tihe aggrandisement of one particular State.