THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1914. THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15721, 23 September 1914, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1914. THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION.

The only result of Mr. "Woodrow Wilson's puerile action in suggesting peace to nations which have thrown away the scabbard, and are engaged in deciding the fate of civilisation, has been a widespread expression of opinion upon the ultimate solution of the international problem. Germany, with its characteristic indifference to the truth, professes through its Washington Ambassador to be only anxious to be let alone, and to be quite willing to make peace practically on the lines of a return to the position existing at the outbreak of the warIn other words, Germany would evacuate France and Belgium in return for the evacuation by the Allies of occupied German and Austrian territories and possessions, and would suspend hostilities until a more favourable opportunity arose to stab civilisation in the back. This is the I gist of the German reply to Mr. ! Wilson's solicitations, for we may set aside the suggestion that the I Kaiser requires indemnity for his sacrifices " as a mere verbal offset to any Allied claims for compensation to outraged Belgium. American inI quiries were not necessary in order to inform the world that Germany would gladly make peace upon terms which would leave her power for evil unaffected and unbroken. As the Herald pointed out some weeks ago, Germany had everything to lose and nothing to gain by continuing the war from the very moment that her tremendous blow at Paris was foiled and turned. The German Government made one of the mistakes which can never be recalled when it assumed that Belgium would not resist, that Britain would not intervene, and that France could be crushed before Russia was ready to operate in the east. Before the battle of the Marne the final victory of Germany was clearly impossible, and her only hope lay in making such a fight that the Allies might be induced to allow her •to escape with her military system unbroken, her navy undiminished, and her alien provinces 1 unredeemed. To permit this escape of the most dangerous enemy civilii satioh has yet encountered would .be sheer madness. If the Allies I were so foolish as to consider such I a peace they would richly deserve the inevitable payment they would receive from Germany the moment she saw an opportunity to renew the struggle under conditions more favourable to her ferocious ambitions.

The German attack upon civilisation is sometimes being compared to that of Napoleon, but it is essentially different and incomparably more dangerous. The Napoleonic empire depended upon the extraordinary military genius and personal ambition of one man, who had attained supreme power in France by a series of happenings which had converted the French into an enthusiastically military nation. The moment the personality of Napoleon was eliminated France ceased to be a menace to Europe. Germany, on the other hand, is a menace because of ' a deliberatelydevised and. automatically-working military system which has been imposed upon Germany by the Prussians, and which continues to exist as a deadly evil and devastating influence whatever kings and emperors, chancellors and generals, come and go. The remedy for this intolerable state of affairs is not to capture the Kaiser and banish him to St. Helena or Antarctica, but to shatter the military ascendancy of Germany, and to teach the German nation that the Prussian system is not worth following. It is quite hopeless to expect to see civilised conceptions of international obligations accepted in Germany as long as the exponents and champions of the brute-force school are in, command of the German state, and can point to practical and territorial proofs of the superiority of their doctrines and methods. Germany must be taught that there are greater influences in civilisation than that exerted by the Hohenzollern bandits, and that the free i states have only to combine to render futile any attempt to make . Kaiserism the supreme power in j mundane affairs. One of the natuj ral issues of this great war against ] international brigandage will be the making of an alliance between all intelligent and civilised states for the mutual defence of their independence and integrity against any assailants. Such a compact, as the Herald has pointed out, already exists and is found quite workable within the British Empire, and the principle can obviously be extended to include any non-aggressive and civilised country which is prepared to submit to arbitration disputes not affecting its integrity, and to join in a mutual guarantee against aggression. That is in the future. For the present we are concerned in the urgent task of rendering it impossible for Prussianised Germany to renew her attack on the liberties of nations, and her attempt to loot and plunder the entire civilised world—including New Zealand.

Without touching upon details, the spokesmen of the British Government, including Mr. Asquith and

Mr. Lloyd George, and of the British Parliamentary parties, including Mr. Bonar Law. Sir Edward Carson, Mr. Redmond, and Mr. Crooks, have made it perfectly plain that Britain will fight, and that the Allies will fight, until the German menace is a menace no longer. This is common-sense as well as patriotism. Britain, aided by her loyal and united Empire, can fight for an indefinite period, and cannot possibly suffer as much by a prolonged war as she would by an unsatisfactory peace. The Imperial Government appeals with confidence to a national spirit which is always slow to kindle, but, being kindled, burns steadily and long, and which is constitutionally disposed to rely implicitly- upon the national leaders when these leaders are unanimous I and united. We obtain more suggestive indications of what is in the I mind of the Allied statesmen from the Continental press, particularly from that of Russia, a nation which is anticipating much assistance from the rallying to her call of kindred peoples in Germany and Austria Here we find a crusade being preached on national lines, Slavonic and Italian populations being thus raised against their Austro-German masters. The position of AlsaceLorraine is similar to that of the Polish provinces and the Serb, Roumanian, and Italian districts. No more effective blow at the Prussian military system could be devised than the redemption of the peoples j whom it has subjugated- A selfgoverning Poland, an enlarged Servia, a wider Roumania, a completely-reunited Italy, and a recovered France, would shake to its foundations the tyranny imposed by Prussia over the other German states, and the influence she has exerted over Austria. Some sucb logical dismemberment of a militant. j organisation, which has grown I powerful by conquest and aggression—with indemnity to Belgium, and an end to the naval conspiracy against Britain— be the only ultimate solution of the problems involved in the war. This means, of course, the extinction of Kaiserism, for the existing German military organisation will not accept this solution until it is utterly j broken and we can then safely leave the Kaiser to the judgment of a sobered and chastened German people.