Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1918. GERMAN PROPAGANDA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 52, 1 March 1918, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1918. GERMAN PROPAGANDA.

(THE December number of-the quarterly 'Round Table opens with a san e and opportune .review of the facts and-needs ;of the present war situation. Two main sideas run through it. One is that the ipast year has brought many grave dis- . appointments to th e Allies, and created •;a military position that, demands from : the Allied peoples greater steadfastness ; than ever if they are to free the world from the ;Prussian military tyranny. The otheris that those peoples should not I>e misled by subtle enemy propaganda into thinking that victory cannot he achieved 1 , and that a give-and-take peace is the only means of stopping the slaughter' and suffering. Once again th e necessity for a complete and irrevocable defeat of the Prussian •war-machine is clearly stated. "The main business of (German) official propaganda has been to s ow dissension among all the races of the earth, to corrupt, the ignorant, to organise outrage and revolt. Treaties have been regarded as useful cover behind which.to prepay for sudden war. Every law and instinct of humanity has' 'been progressively violated. The initiative in every fresh horror added- to the conduct- of war has come, from Germany, until the modern battle-field is a hell which the imagination of. man could- riot have con-, oeived five years ago. . . . It is

not only against their enemies that the gospel "of militarism has been invoked. The poison gas, th e liquid fixe, the sinking of passenger" ships, the bombing of open towns, have had their -counterpart in the terribl%. demands which the Prussian machin e makes) upon its own subjects. Not only ar e they sent to I the slaughter 'bv -the million or driven ! to work as slaves in the mines and factories at home under threat of machinegun fir e from their own fellows, but the Kultur in, which they believe • Has begun to trench upon the most sacredprovinces of human life. The ruthless logic which -would convert human corpses into the materials with which to lubricate the vast engine of wax is justified with pride 'by the apostles of Prussian Kultur. ,Professors of this same Kultur are now endeavouring to substitute th e commands of State authority for the covenant of matrimonv as sanctioned 'by the world. And as a final iniqity they have succeeded in. challenging that foundation of human society,. the loving relationsof parents and' children, 'by- organising bovs, trained' in a fanatical loyalty to the Emperor, as Jugendwehr, and taught to shoot down their own parents and brothers and sisters when they begin to riot for bread or for peace." Last year's military results, owing mainly to the collapse of Russia, show that it is a border task than had been, expected to 'break the loathsome military machine.. To compromise with it would entail upon mankind more misery and pain in the future than the prolongation of this devastating war. "Berlin is the despot of all the inhabitants of Mittel-Exiropa organised from top to bottom for war. Under its direction they have challenged the world in arms. -Is it conceivable that if th© Allies, weakened, and gave them terms which, did not imply the complete triumph of right and ! -the .utter defeat of their tyrannous purpose," these people would throw off the yoke after th e war? The Prussian machine would claim, and claim with justice, that its promises had been fulfil l'ed, x and that under the inspiration of its militarism the German .people and their allies had proved . themselves masters of the world, for the world in arms had been unable to defeat them. It would appeal once mor e for, discipline, for armaments,'for trust in their matchless wisdom and strength, and they would 'begin again to prepare, as General von Freytag Loringhoven has just explained, to organise the vast empire of 150,000,000 souls in order to make a certainty of victory in the next war." The past year, despite its' disappointments,, has 'brought compensation to the Allies- in the moral effect of Allied victories on the Western front, in the intervention of the United States, in the advances in Mesopotamia and Palestine, and in the and economic gains from the accession to thf , Allied cause of many formerlv neutra" ! small nations. "The control of practicallv all the great overseas markets of foodstuffs and raw materials is now in the hands of thope who have declared against Prussian Kultur. The economic weapon is not a post-war weapon. Once a true peace has been signed, there musl be peace in the economic sphere, no less than in the military sphere, if we are not to perpare for a new war. It is--'rather a war weapon of tremendouf power. If the Allies and their associates stand firm they can compel the •Germans to come to terms."