NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16665, 9 October 1917, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

GERMAN SOCIALISTS' AIMS. A covmovEßSt has arisen in the Dutch Socialist Party as to the real intentions of the German Socialist majority. Dr. Troelstra, the leader of tho Dutch Socialists and one of the instigators of the Stockholm farce, in a recent letter from that city, published in the Socialist journal Het Volk, expressed tho opinion that tho German Socialist majority have abandoned Imperialist aims. M. " Van der Goes, a capable Socialist publicist and foreign editor of Het Yolk, adopts the opposite view, and argues that it docs not necessarily follow, from tho mere fact that the German Socialists are now anxious for peace, that they have given up Imperialist aims, inasmuch as thoroughgoing Imperialists may be in favour of peaoe at the present moment. 11. van der Goes proceeds to point out that Socialists of the Scheidemann, David, Ebert, and Legian type have been so long a war partv with a programme of annexations in tho east and "guarantees" in the west that decisive evidence will be required before they can bo regarded as bavin? become a real peace party. This writer further states that, in fhe ( case of the recent " peace resolution" in the Reichstag, tho Polish Party abstained from voting because , they refused to trust the Socialist majority. Finally, he states that tho German Minority Socialists regard their brethren of the majority as still upholding Imperialist aims. THE ONLY POSSIBLE PEACE. ' In an address delivered before leaving Britain on his return to Australia, the Premier of New South Wale£, Mr. W. A. Holman, dealt with the dangers of an inconclusive peace. He declared that the allies could in a few weeks' time make terms with Germany which would leavo tho Germans to assume that, tinder the guidance of their military monarch find their military caste, German power had successfully faced the united forces of the World in arms. The German Government "would have the right then to say, "We have guided you aright. Nations aro made by blood and iron. No power in the world is equal to German power. True, wo have not absolutely succeeded in our efforts this time, but we have lost nothing. We have shaken the world and held our own against the three corners of it In arms," and thay would be more firmly seated in their power to guide the destinies of the German I people during the next fifty years than j ever before. The allies would instantly I have to prepare for a. new struggle. The 'nation would become an armed camp, pud ' conscription would have to become a permanent and recognised part of our institutions. If wo were to have peace let ua have a genuine peace, and not one which would be utterly unworthy of respect.