GERMAN "DEMOCRACY."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16980, 14 October 1918, Page 4

GERMAN "DEMOCRACY."

One of the pointed questions which Mr. Wilson put to the German Chancellor was in the following form: "The President feels justified in asking whether the Imperial Chancellor is speaking merely for the constituted authorities of the Empire who have so far conducted the war.' 1 It is impossible to suppose that Mr. Wilson will find any satisfaction in the reply. Prince Maximilian attempts to identify the German I

Government with the people on the ground that he has the support of a majority in the Reichstag, but Mr. Wilson is not likely to bo deceived by this subterfuge or by tho pretence made in Germany that the junker leaders .hVe been dismissed.

It is common knowiodge that Prince Maximilian is hira,"«lf a junker, who

in more auspicious circumstances would Bupport the pan-German programme, that the Reichstag does not represent the people because it is elected on an unequal franchise, and that it has no real power. It iB recognised in every allied country that it would be totally unsafe to accept any profession Germany may now make of repentance or democracy, ' because the guilt of war and of its barbarous conduct is upon nil classes. Socialists applauded the invasion of Belgium and the sinking of the Lusitania. The pacificists of to-day were as warlike as tho Kaiser himself as long as the adventure appeared promising. By deeds and not by words will the world judge j Germany, and what is the verdict i

Submarine warfare is being intensified and murders as foul and un-

pardonable as any are being committed on the high seas. The towns of Northern Franco are being mined as they are evacuated and the vil-

lages given to the flame. Is this repentance? Is it tho end of militarism? Is Prince Maximilian's

government responsible for this new outburst of terrorism, and, if not, what becomes of the pretence that constitutional authority now holds sway in Germany ] The truth is that nothing has happened in Germany to alter the relations of the rulers and the governed, but both are under the shadow of defeat and the fear of invasion. This bloodless, ovef-night revolution is a farce intended to flatter Mr. Wilson's pathetic faith in the Gorman people. It is a revolution without origin and without results. It has changed nothing.!