REVOLTS IN GERMANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16670, 15 October 1917, Page 4

REVOLTS IN GERMANY.

Whatever success the German Government has had in suppressing mutiny in the navy, it is evident that the revelations have seriously disturbed German confidence. The Secretary to the Navy has resigned, and there is a demand for the dismissal of the Chancellor. Such changes may satisfy German anger, but they really have little bearing on the situation. A decided weakness in the German navy" has been revealed, and from its nature it is more likely to grow than to- be cured. Perhaps the most significant of all the news items cabled on the subject is the announcement that submaririo duty • is unpopularpand that German seamen have been shot for refusing to go on this service. Submarine losses must bo slowly sapping the strength of the German navy, .and as the conviction grows that the war cannot ,be won by piracy at sea distaste for the work will increase. The naval organisation is more susceptible to the spirit of mutiny than is the military. Each warship is a community in itself, in which new jdeas may spread with more rapidity and less notice than in the army. Yet even the German' military arm appears to be showing signs which displease the Government, for tha. Chancellor has within the past few days deplored the " antagonistic forms of propaganda" which have sprung up at the front, and the Minister''for the Interior has urged the need for a patriotic propaganda. Actual m»i».nies are also reported. At'the . same time it . would be easy to exaggerate the importance of such isolated incidents as have been reported. They indicate no more than the beginning of a process which * can be best hastened by vigorous military action on the part of the Allies.